This is one of those options you don’t know exists till you need it (or sometimes you don’t know even when you need it because you were too afraid to ask lazy to search)

When I started using mac almost a decade ago, I used the built-in screen capture shortcut. It works very well.

Initially I only knew about capturing the entire screen. I would then crop it to the desired area.

Then I learnt that I can select the screen area at the time of capture itself.

Neat!

If I want to add some markup - I would do that separately, after the image is captured.

Then I came across Zappy.

Zappy is more user friendly than the built-in screenshot tool.

When I used Linux (on apple hardware) for several months, I switched to Flameshot (Cause DHH used it in Omakube 🤷‍♂️)

When I got my current macbook, I installed Flameshot (To make sure that the tools I use are platform agnostic, as far as possible)

But Flameshot on macOS seems less stable.

Sometimes it behaves in a manner that can not be explained away.

So back to my trusty Zappy.

Only downside of Zappy is that one can not use it without signing-in to Zapier.

That makes no sense.

Why does screen capture tool force login?

Then I came across macshot via mastodon.

I decided to give it a try, and I was blown away.

It is leaps and bounds better than other tools I have used so far.

Not only it has all those feature, but it has other feature and works quite well (Using for <24 hours, still…)

Only downside : it is macOS-specific app.

I’ll use it for sometime, but I have a feeling it is going to replace Zappy.

I already logged out, making Zappy useless, and uninstalled Flameshot

No more going back

I grew up reading this Indian comic book named after this character. The comic was originally in Hindi. Eventually, they also made an animated series based on this comic (Also available on YouTube)

Chacha Chaudhary is an intelligent old man. He solves everyday problems with his wit. He also has a sidekick called Sabu (muscular humanoid alien from Jupiter - Don’t ask!)

There was a line oft repeated in the comics :

It is always good to “reduce your bills”. So when I found out, that Codex CLI works with local models ¹ (via Ollama) I immediately tried it. ²

After installing Codex CLI, I was exploring its features, and noticed it has tons of plugins.

I was intrigued to know Google Calendar plugin works with Codex CLI It has things like daily brief which seemed interesting. ³

But my joy was short-lived.

As I followed the steps, it asked me to Install on ChatGPT first.

Yet another main characters from Star Trek Lower Decks

D’Vana Tendi Brad is another Junior officer aboard USS Ceritos. She is Orion - the race which was once considered space pirates. (In the cross over episode, Boimler and Mariner had to convince Capt, Pike that Orions can be scientists too)

This time I tried yet another drawing program called Infinite Painter.

This is closer to Tayasui Sketches (which I loved on macOS - on Android it was misbehaving, and severely restricted) It has all the tools required for sketching/drawing/painting.

As I promised (said?) last time, this time I drew one of the main characters from Star Trek Lower Decks.

Brad Boimler is a Junior officer aboard USS Cerritos. While each of the characters have their own story arc, the series is antithesis to the live action star trek.

This time wanted to try another drawing program called ibisPaint X It has a lot of functionality but seemed complex compared to HiPaint. On the plus side, it has a lot of brushes (which I have not explored yet, except the Sketch Pencil and Calligraphy Pen)

If you are Star Trek (Lower Decks) fan, then this is :

Rawda - an Areore male.

The Areore were an ornithoid humanoid species.

For others, this is bird like species with humanoid features.

Look at the muscular arms, six packs, and hands like wingtips.

I had watched this episode long ago, and liked it very much.

The episode does not feature any of the regular characters. Instead, the main character is Peanut Hamper - an exocomp stuck in a pre-warp civilization, where everyone can fly ¹

Every now and then, I use private (or temporary) chat mode when asking something to AI.

Not because I am asking something sensitive ¹ but because it is a one-off query, and I do not want to pollute my chat history.

It may sound stupid, but …

Sometimes - most times - the default search engine DDG uses its AI to find the answer rather than just searching.

It is helpful.

Most times, I look at the answer, and done.

When adding a new post, I was looking for appropriate tag for the post.

I wasn’t sure whether I have already used relevant tag earlier, so I checked /tags assuming that I’ll see the tags there, but there was no listing.

I thought I broke it when I did a major update recently. But that was not the case.

So I checked the original theme from which I forked mine.

Even their site does not have tags. (Their site uses categories not tags, but even categories listing doesn’t work)

Inspired by this sketch

Compared to the original, two humans and a dog are missing from my copy 😄

It has been exactly a month since I posted my last sketch.

I had been meaning to draw something smaller in between, but never got around to doing it.

The original drawing (link above) says this was built in late 19th century. But in reminds me of some old bungalow (not seen in person, just imagined) in Lonavala - a (former?) hill station between Pune and Mumbai.