mattgemmell

mattgemmell, 4 days ago to random

Apple Pencil Pro integration goodness.

1. The shadow of the pencil on the screen isn’t an optical phenomenon; it’s digitally generated!

2. You can expand the fan-shaped tool palette with a finger or the pencil.

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mattgemmell, 4 days ago to random

If your new Apple Pencil Pro is refusing to let you enable the Double Tap or Squeeze gestures (in Settings > Apple Pencil), it’s probably because you’ve disabled the Double-Tap Gesture in Settings > ACCESSIBILITY > Apple Pencil. The latter seems to act as a master cutoff for both gestures in the primary settings, weirdly. Anyway, panic averted.

mattgemmell, 4 days ago to random

Well I’m impressed.

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mattgemmell, 4 days ago to random

Considering putting some money on Federighi having rebranded as crAIg for the WWDC keynote.

mattgemmell, 9 days ago to random

The Escape key has returned!

mattgemmell, 12 days ago to random

That was an expensive ten minutes.

mattgemmell, 15 days ago to random

This week in Matt’s scrappy DIY projects: my wife wanted a potting bench, so I made one from stuff we had lying around!

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mattgemmell, 20 days ago to random

I’ve named it “A Farewell to Arms”.

mattgemmell, 22 days ago to random

Spent the afternoon putting up trellises for peas in my wife’s greenhouse, then reorganising my tool racks in the workshed. Spot all the lovely tools!

Tool rack, sharp and blunt hand tools, and safety equipment.
Tool rack. Marking, sanding, tapes, misc. Including prized Mitutoyo vernier callipers.
Tool rack. Mostly squares and rulers! Bahco combination squares in 300 and 400mm variants. A mini engineer square to check saw blades. Big speed square that’s probably my favourite. Also levels, pliers, scissors, and choice screwdrivers.

mattgemmell, 23 days ago to random

Pretty excited to receive this convenient, home-based hand and arm removal tool next week.

mattgemmell, 24 days ago to random

The photo, and the out-take.

A similar photo, but my wife is smiling a bit maniacally, my son is making a grumpy face, and the dog’s nose is in the air as he chews his ball.

mattgemmell, 25 days ago to random

Fellow neat freaks, this is your semi-regular reminder that if you cut a little tactile groove into the front underside of your desk at the halfway point, and use a cutting mat as a desk mat, you can easily keep everything aligned to your taste.

(It also makes it really easy to visualise the dimensions of things you’re buying online, for what it’s worth.)

Cutting mat with split keyboard and trackpad on top

mattgemmell, 25 days ago to random

Today, in Matt’s scrappy DIY projects! I have a sofa in my home office which can turn into a double bed. On the rare occasion it’s used as such, I always wish there was some kind of compact night table beside it. As a sofa, it has to be a little bit out from the wall because there’s a radiator on that wall, and I don’t want to have to shift the sofa every time I convert it to a bed. I’ve tried to find a really narrow table to fit in the gap, without success.

mattgemmell, 28 days ago to random

After redoing my desk setup the other day, I was reminded of how annoying it is to have my tools on my workbench in the shed, so I spent some time today addressing that.

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mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

New desk setup ahoy. This is what the previous one looked like. Maybe a little bit cramped, with the keys 🎹 not very comfortable to use — and only 25 of them! Also I had to sacrifice my own books to get some room around the input devices. The wifi thing (white cylinder with black top) took up far too much space.

mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

It’s such a damned gift that we have so much educational info available to us, and a societal focus on multiculturalism and learning. This wee man knows so much more about the world at age three than I did at twenty-three.

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mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

Kitchen renovation is finally done, and this weekend we got to unpack all the boxes of kitchen things we’d been storing elsewhere — so I got my workshed back! This is very much my happy place.

My workbench, with assorted small tools on top.

mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

It occurred to me that, maybe, my crazy keyboards are the key to doing all the things I love without getting a bigger desk. 🤔

mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

Lots to dislike about Apple these days, but I continue to admire their constant readiness to re-evaluate user interfaces and context. Logic on the iPad is an incredible thing, not just from a performance and features perspective, but in the dozens of ways they’ve rethought how a DAW could/should work on a touch-screen device.

mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

Any experienced Cubasis users switched to Logic? (These are the iPad versions, not Cubase and Logic on the Mac.)

mattgemmell, 1 month ago to random

The appliances and flooring and worktops and tiles and lighting and cabinetry are pretty and everything, but as a dad this is BY FAR my favourite part of the new kitchen.

mattgemmell, 2 months ago to random

I’m in the mood to read a novel about encountering alien life or such. Maybe like Contact. Mystery and confronting the unknown. Not sci-fi in terms of setting, and not horror either. Anyone got a recommendation?

mattgemmell, 2 months ago to random

I’m pretty sure that Apple forgot to adapt their automatic app updates heuristics to accommodate the new “only charge to 80%” option in iOS 17. My apps never seem to update themselves now, and when I do it manually, there are a dozen or more needing updated.

mattgemmell, 2 months ago to random

More e-ink tablet stuff! Cute third-party stylus.

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mattgemmell, 2 months ago to random

Hello everyone. The first three KESTREL books are available as an ebook trilogy set, including an autographed option! https://mattgemmell.scot/trilogy-sets-of-kestrel-books/