Defaults (2024)

It has been more than a year since Episode 097 of my podcast Hemispheric Views, where we held a Duel of the Defaults! competition.

Others have been updating their lists, one year on.

It seems appropriate that I should do the same.

If there is a change from my list last year, I’ve indicated it with a leading ✨.

Change? Category Default Comment on Change
Mail Client FMail2 & Apple Mail Back to FMail2 app & no more MailMate
Mail Server Fastmail & Apple Mail
Notes Obsidian for Work; Apple Notes for Home Different apps for different contexts
To-Do OmniFocus
iPhone Photo Shooting Camera.app
Photo Management Photos.app
Calendar BusyCal (plus Calendar.app)
Cloud file storage iCloud (plus OneDrive)
RSS Reeder with FreshRSS
Contacts Contacts.app
Browser Vivaldi (plus Safari) Vivaldi is great, and Arc has been deprecated by the developer
Chat Signal
Bookmarks GoodLinks
Read It Later GoodLinks I hardly read later anymore
Word Processing Pages
Spreadsheets Numbers (plus Excel)
Presentations Keynote
Shopping Lists AnyList
Meal Planning AnyList
Budgeting & Personal Finance Actual Budget on PikaPods YNAB became overpriced
News Apple News (plus ABC RSS feed)
Music Apple Music (plus Spotify) I have access to a Spotify account for variety, now
Podcasts PocketCasts I left Overcast after the disastrous rewrite

Six changes out of 23 categories. 26% of the apps have been changed. Yikes.


I’ve re-established the Pi-Hole on the home network. Ads be gone.


My crappy Dell monitor has died. Long live the crappy Lenovo monitor that shall replace it!


I’ve turned on cross-posting from my micro.blog account to my bluesky one. Not sure I’ll keep it, but may as well give it a try.


Notetaking app update: my experiment with Notebooks.app is over and I’m back to DevonThink, and for work, I’ve bought a month’s subscription to Obsidian Sync and will likely get it for a year.


Commiserations USA.


Inside Out 2, 2024 - ★★★½

A good rendering of anxiety, especially towards the end. Overall, though, this movie didn’t do it for me like the first.


Over 15,000 steps recorded by my Apple Watch before 2pm today. Well over my normal pace. That’s what gardening and packing a house ready to move will do for you.


Lonely Planet, 2024 - ★

I watched this 48 hours ago and have already forgotten it. Did not enjoy; it felt like a throwaway Hallmark movie.


🔗 Scripting News: Monday, October 7, 2024

interviews with star athletes saying the same predictable bullshit after being asked how it felt to do whatever heroic thing they just did. All of TV and news is like that, none of it is news, all of it is predictable bullshit.

News is no longer news, it’s just another form of disposable content.


It’s weird to think that globally there are millions of businesses using Teams. This is the best that the giant Microsoft can build? Is all of corporate society playing a game of “The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Teams is shit software and we all deserve better.


I borrowed a book using Libby from my local library. On comparing it with the Kindle sample of another book with the same name, it’s some kind of scammy AI-rewritten scam book. Fascinating. I think I will just buy the legitimate one.


At work I get barraged with email. I want to be able to compose an email without seeing my inbox. It’s an Outlook on PC situation. Let me guess, this is a whacky idea for normies and thus there is no way to achieve it. Am I correct?


As I recover from pneumonia, I cough, then hear my lungs crackle and pop as the airways pop open. It’s weird but kind of enticing. Like having a built-in bowl of rice bubbles.


Finished reading: The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape 📚As a long-term envelope (YNAB/Actual Budget) disciple, I found some of this too non-specific. Although it has some good thoughts on longer-term financial planning.



It’s a couch, wine and music night.


Finished reading: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 📚 A slow-moving story that kept me engaged, but I’m not sure what I come away with at the end.


I’ve spent this week watching all the Indiana Jones movies in sequence with my 8-year old kid. A nice way to spend evenings. 🍿


Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, 2023 - ★★★

Silly fun but way too long.


Benji solved a Rubik’s cube using an app and showed it to me.

I scrambled it.

“Well, that was a cool few seconds,” he said, as he looked at the messed up toy.


Hemispheric Views E119

Hemispheric Views E119: We kick things off at an odd time for everyone this time. How many Counter Chats™ are allowed in a single episode? Remember Pzizz? How many countries have you listened to the show in? I am Gratitudinal for all the basketballs in the run sheet this week.


At work I’m almost at the point where I couldn’t live without Obsidian. At home I don’t use it because now it’s embedded in my brain as “work software”.


I sold my Toyota Camry SL Hybrid 2021 today. It served me well for 40,000km. A lean manufacturing success story!


It would appear that I did not win the $100 million lottery. This week…