I expect that this is going to be a much shorter post than usual as the past month has been a bit of a whirlwind with various commitments attended, catching a virus that knocked me down for a few days after one of those commitments, and the day job kicking up another couple of gears as a colleague leaves and a few of us need to step up and learn new systems while attending meetings about those systems, plus all the other work we have at the moment. But I am hoping there is still a little something of interest for everyone.
ThoughtAsylum
First off I managed to get one blog post out this past month and this time it was for an application I have not touched on in a while, but remains one of my firm favourites. It is a Windows app called XYplorer, a powerful file manager that offers a wide range of features, configuration, and automation options. I still wish there was an equivalent one-stop solution on macOS.
In the post, XYplorer Workspaces, I explain the basic setup I use within XYplorer for managing switching between and setting up basic workspaces using catalogs and tab sets. Nothing totally revolutionary, but the approach I have taken includes a lot of reusability and utilises some handy automation shortcuts to make everything that little bit easier.
Forums
The forums have been very quiet for me this past month. The Automators forum has simply been very quiet, but the Drafts forum has actually been quite busy on the beta front. However, I am still not upgraded on my Apple devices just yet, so there has simply not been anything much where I could contribute.
Drafts
One Drafts users asked about running an action on Quick Capture to send the capture to Drafts, which I had a few thoughts on.
The request to create a new draft from a specific template from a hyperlink was an interesting one. New draft is easy, tying it to a URL makes it a more interesting request.
Automators
I offered a suggestion on how to fix and improve a Shortcuts-based timer for stretching exercises that was inconsistent in its timing.
Other
Cub Scout Camp
My children are involved in the local scouting group, and this past month I spent a weekend on a Cub Camp in the North Yorkshire Moors as a volunteer helper. I was volunteered by my son and his friend, so it felt a little less like volunteering that one might first imagine.
It was a fun but tiring weekend, and while we were there it also coincided with the international Scouting Jamobree-On-The-Air, an amateur radio event. To push myself a little I decided to volunteer to try and run a little station at some point to see if we could listen in and maybe get some cub scouts on the air. I also managed to give myself about four dark evenings to prepare and learn the equipment I had … which was difficult given the changes at work as my evenings actually were much shorter than the short evenings I thought I had.
When it came to the main event, I got given about and hour and after attempting to set up a line antenna (an end fed half-wave) in a tree, which is a common practice, I discovered that not all clear looking branches are equal and not all tangle free arborist throw lines really are tangle free. Sufficed to say I spent the hour getting myself into and out of a mess with tangled and stuck lines and wires. Sufficed to say it was an abject failure. I would hope I will have better luck next year and I have ordered something this past week that will save me having to take on random tress.
Fortunately the cubs were off playing games in a field while I was setting up so my embarrassment was lessened fractionally, and it didn’t have any impact on the cub’s enjoyment of the weekend.
SAP Now AI Tour UK
I also had a brief trip to the capital, to the London Excel for a jam-packed day of sessions on artificial intelligence (AI) with SAP. Given the focus of my day job I was on the HR technology/SuccessFactors track, and it was certainly a popular one.
The sessions were perhaps generally pitched at more senior people with a less technical background than my own, and they varied greatly in quality. Some were cringingly poor, others barely referenced AI at all. Fortunately some were good and carried some useful AI-related content.
The day closed out with an on-stage talk with Stephen Frayne, a popular magician in the UK who used the stage name Dynamo. It was an entertaining and interesting session and while I may have figured at least some of the illusions, his skills and passion shone throughout, and it was a real privilege to have been there to hear some of his personal story.
BetterTouchTool Floating Menus
One thing I have also been experimenting with this past month are BetterTouchTool’s floating menus. I make use of an Elgato Stream Deck and of Keyboard Maestro palettes (most conflict palettes), but I was wondering if I might find an opportunity to use the BetterTouchTool on screen menus, which are more widget like than the name suggests.
I have not really looked at them since their early development when they were unstable on my Mac. As one would expect, they are certainly a lot more stable than they were, and while they were visually nice, I have not found any driver for me to use them just yet. But, importantly I am now a little more up to date on their capabilities for a future time when I might just need something exactly like that.
Links
This month I came across a few useful tools that I want to direct people to.
SVG to PNG Converter
First off is an online tool called SVG Viewer, which allows you to upload an SVG file or enter (and modify) the text-based elements of an SVG directly. The viewer lets you not only view the SVG, but also download it as a PNG (at different scale factors), and generate Data URIs for it.
This was very handy for a few graphical activities I needed to undertake this past month to help a colleague with some rather finicky imagery. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a solution, and this site made it all the easier .
RSGB EMF Calculator
The next one is for UK amateur radio operators. As operators, we need to carry out EMF (electromagnetic field) exposure checks to ensure we are operating safely when it comes to others. i.e. don’t let people get too close to your antennas.
To help with this there is an official RSGB EMF exposure checker. This is a web app that actually works quite well on a phone screen as well as a desktop or laptop. But, my tip here is that if you add it to your home screen and launch it from there, it will work even when your offline - like when you are in the middle of the North Yorkshire Moors with no reception.
Sidekick
While I have not managed to do any updates recently on the Automators Podcast Obsidian Vault, I did download and (after an overnight wait on my slow Internet) quickly hook up an app to the vault that lets me interact with an LLM that uses the vault as its source of information. The app is called Sidekick, and while I have only had chance to spend a few minutes using it for queries, it seems “fine”. I think I would like to try some alternative models with it and see how they compare to the default, but if you are interested in interrogating local files, like an Obsidian vault, via an LLM chat interface, Sidekick is worth a look.
Upcoming
Right now I have lots of things I would like to get on with in terms of personal projects, but my current work demands, and some personal challenges, are such that I’m having to clock a lot of extra hours on the work PC and tackle a lot of extra jobs locally. Even my new amateur radio hobby has taken a back seat and I have still not managed to get on the air over a month after getting my transceiver - I simply have not been able to spare the time.
I’ll make the time to get at least one blog post out and do a few bits and pieces, but I suspect November will be another relatively short blog post.
But, as usual, December will bring a good chunk of time off work. I have some end of year leave booked and a little remaining annual leave I need to book around the time off of my colleagues. I expect I’ll be able to make up some ground then as a result.
Whatever November brings, all that remains is to thank you for reading and to thank everyone who has bought me a coffee. I appreciate you all, and I hope you continue to find some benefit in what I share and do.