You’d have no way of knowing, but I swapped the entire infrastructure that HeyDingus runs on from Dropbox to iCloud today. It took all of two minutes and a few mouse clicks.

How? Through the magic of file syncing and my hosting service, Blot.

Since the beginning, Blot’s whole advantage was to turn a folder on your computer into a site on the World Wide Web. Originally, Dropbox was the only syncing service that Blot worked with, but over time, David (Blot’s developer) added Git and Google Drive as well. I tried Google Drive at one point but switched back to Dropbox after hitting some weird bugs (that I think are ironed out now). I’ve never tried Git syncing, but if you’re already comfortable with Git, I expect it’d be a really handy way to get syncing and version control for everything on your site.

All the while, the five-ish years that I’ve been writing HeyDingus, iCloud syncing has been on the roadmap but never seemed to be getting much attention from David. I wanted it badly, mostly for app compatibility but also because I have a distaste for Dropbox’s device limits and other restrictions. Well, he must have been working hard on it behind the scenes because a month or so ago David announced that iCloud syncing was ready to try!

Having learned my lesson when Google Drive syncing was fresh out of the oven, I convinced myself to hold off and wait for others to root out the bugs. I kept an eye on Blot’s question forum (handily available via RSS), and when I didn’t see any issues arise, I figured I could give it a shot. And then, when I set up my new M4 MacBook Air and didn’t want to install Dropbox and do the device authorization dance, I knew the time had come.

So today, I logged into my Blot dashboard (which I hardly ever have to visit since everything just syncs via my local computer) and headed to the folder sync section. I selected “iCloud”, followed the insanely easy directions¹ to set it up, and voilá my site was rebuilt from the files in iCloud.

It even managed to maintain the Created on and Modified on dates for all my files!

There’s narry a hiccup so far,² and although there’s still a chance iCloud will behave poorly, everyone’s experience in the forums seems to have been very smooth and positive so far. And while you, dear reader, probably won’t notice a thing, I’m anticipating a nice improvement in my workflows for writing and publishing here.

You see, not every writing app has direct integration with Dropbox. And while you’d think that Dropbox would be highly motivated to implement the right APIs so that they would work just like iCloud as a file provider in the file system, there seems to be some disconnect there, and apps such as iA Writer couldn’t use Dropbox as a reliable location to read and write files. As a result, I’ve had to use 1Writer (which does have direct Dropbox integration) on my iPhone and iPad to edit posts on the go. 1Writer is a fine app, but hasn’t seen much development in recent years and has never clicked as well with me as iA Writer.

The only adjustments I’ll need to make will be to rejigger a few of my Shortcuts and Drafts automations to write to iCloud rather than Dropbox. But I expect those workflows to be simpler and reliable as well, since I should be able to write directly to the file system, instead of round-tripping via an internet connection and the Dropbox API before syncing back to my device. Working with the first-party file syncing feature rather than the bolted-on third-party one should be a breath of fresh air.

I tip my hat to David for working through all the challenges of building on top of iCloud as a web service, and for making it so easy to swap syncing services. I’m looking forward to getting even more value from my iCloud subscription and uninstalling Dropbox from my devices.

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1. Here are the steps:

   1. Create a new folder in iCloud Drive.
   2. Share it collaboratively with link@blot.im.
   3. Paste the sharing link into your Blot dashboard.
   4. Wait a minute or two for all the existing files to be copied (by Blot) into the iCloud folder.
   5. Continue to write and publish by dropping files into that folder in iCloud Drive.
   ↩︎

2. Except I started writing this very post in the top-level folder instead of my Drafts folder by mistake — sorry if you saw the work-in-progress or 404 error when I took it down to finish writing.↩︎

Blogging

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ Ryan Christoffel’s got a good tip for wrangling AirPods’ noise canceling modes with Shortcuts. [🔗 9to5mac.com]

2️⃣ Matt Birchler made a quick little website to house his quick little tools. [🔗 quickstuff.app]

3️⃣ Jason Snell lists out his favorite titles from Apple TV+ if you’re looking for something else to get your money’s worth from your subscription. I wholeheartedly agree with his recommendations, but I have to add Trying as my underrated favorite. (Dickinson, part of the inaugural lineup, is quite good too, and also rarely gets mentioned.) [🔗 sixcolors.com]

4️⃣ Great news for climbing fans! Each climbing discipline at 2028 L.A. Olympics (bouldering, speed climbing, lead climbing) will get their own set of medals! We’ll see more intense competition for sure, seeing as climbers won’t need to be all-rounders and can play to their strength. [🔗 climbing.com]

5️⃣ While technically about climbing gear, this HowNOT2 video does a great job explaining how tariffs affect retailers (and ultimately consumers), how they will have to manage inventory and cash flow, and price products to manage. At 14 minutes, I think it’s well-worth your time. [▶️ youtube.com]

6️⃣ If you’re like me and “discovered” Benson Boone from his recent viral performance at the Grammys(?), I think you’ll enjoy this video of his debut auditioning for American Idol back in the day. [▶️ youtube.com]

7️⃣ Warren Buffet’s shareholder letter for Berkshire Hathaway reads like no other big business document. John Gruber pulled out some prescient passages that stuck with me. [🔗 daringfireball.net]

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🔗 Take a Chance

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Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ I did not know about these keyboard shortcuts in YouTube to step forward and backward by one frame. 🔗 support.google.com (Via John Gruber)

2️⃣ I very much appreciated this piece that Sarah Jeong wrote in response to criticism about the headline that she wrote as editor for The Verge’s piece on Trump’s illegal firing of Democratic FTC commissioners. She explained how and why she wrote the original headline, and conceded that she got it wrong. 🔗 theverge.com

3️⃣ Robb Knight created the crossover event the world needed. 🧡 🔗 wellness.rknight.me

4️⃣ Conan O’Brien nails it in his acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. ▶️ youtube.com

5️⃣ Apple TV+ did a blue balloon installation in London to celebrate the season 2 finale of Severance and I love it. They’ve really pulled out all of the marketing stops for this show. (Hopefully more shows will start to get this kind of treatment too!) ▶️ youtube.com

6️⃣ Jason Snell flips the ad-free vs. ad-supported Netflix tier question on its head. Instead of how much can I save by watching ads? he asks, how much would Netflix have to pay me to watch their ads?. 🔗 sixcolors.com

7️⃣ Some genuinely surprising and good news out of Wisconsin: Liberal-leaning Susan Crawford won their Supreme Court seat despite Elon Musk pouring money in to help her opponent, Brad Schimel. Schimel encouraged his supporters to accept the results. 👩‍⚖️ wpr.org

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🔗 Take a Chance

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Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

Matt Birchler in a (paywalled) post on Birchtree:

I’m of course publishing this the day after the Severance season 2 finale, but I’ve had this draft open for a few weeks as the entire second season (and Silo season 2 a few months earlier) has gotten this “I’m a season one guy” idea rolling around in my head. I think it’s cool to see more of the world and have new characters come into the mix, but I also think that Severance season 1 captured lightning in a bottle; it was a perfect, contained concept, masterfully executed.

I loved the Severance S2 finale — it’s an edge-of-the-seat, heart pounding, yell at the TV sort of episode — but felt the same way as Matt throughout the season.

My wife and I actually had this same discussion after the finale, how many Apple TV+ shows are this way. Ted Lasso, Trying, and Mythic Quest all immediately come to mind. Fantastic shows, each one, and I’ve enjoyed all subsequent seasons, but their first seasons all wrapped with satisfying endings despite there being cliffhangers.

Shrinking and For All Mankind buck the trend with returning seasons just as good as the first, and Silo I actually liked season 2 more, but overall I might be a season 1 sorta guy too.

TV Shows

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ I’ve long wondered how folks did bold and italic text on sites like Twitter that didn’t support formatting. This website does it for you using (unfortunately not very accessible) ✨Unicode✨. (Micro.blog, my social media of choice, does it using HTML, which is better, but isn’t supported everywhere — though most Mastodon servers seem to display it correctly.) [🔗 yaytext.com] (Via Dave Winer)

2️⃣ Such joy. Such power. Such precision. Such talent. Wow. [🔗 instagram.com]

3️⃣ Bluesky CEO Jay Graber subposts Mark Zuckerberg with her own Latin shirt reading “A world without Caesars”. [🔗 theverge.com]

4️⃣ Sindre Sorhus just can’t help but put out these awesome little apps. His newest is Googly Eyes which puts, well, googly eyes in your menu bar that follow your cursor around the screen. 👀😆 [🦣 mastodon.social]

5️⃣ For my fellow Shortcuts nerds, Joe Steel has a tip on setting the order of items passed into a shortcut. Photos always wants to do newest first, but using the ‘Filter Files’ action, you can make it do oldest first. But not without some shenanigans, as Joe found out. [🔗 duck.haus]

6️⃣ Want some unofficial Severance-inspired Lumon merch? Adam Selby’s got you covered! [🔗 adamselby.gumroad.com]

7️⃣ Nathan Longhurst is a guy to keep an eye on. He just summitted 100 peaks in New Zealand over a summer by using a paraglider to get down. Seems like these massive challenges are his deal. [🔗 climbing.com]

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🔗 Take a Chance

---

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ @tinyblocks_ on Threads put together a clever iPhone setup that uses Shortcuts in the Dock to swap focus modes tied to specific Home Screens. Rather than launching actions, they bring you to a dedicated dashboard of sorts. [🧵 threads.net]

2️⃣ @robexplosm imagines a truly evil use of the Severance technology. [🧵 threads.net]

3️⃣ Merlin Mann encourages us to notice the good stuff. [🔗 merlin.ghost.io]

4️⃣ Google’s insistence on a privacy policy for an app that collects no user data, unlike Google itself, led to this gem of a webpage. [🔗 jwz.org] (Via Matt Fantinel)

5️⃣ Gina Trapani’s ‘My Life in Weeks’ is so cool and very similar to a Timeline project I’ve had in mind. [🔗 weeks.ginatrapani.org] (Also via Matt Fantinel)

6️⃣ Birchtree, one of my favorite blogs, by Matt Birchler has a fresh redesign. It’s much more web-app-y, which I’m not sold on, but certainly provides more utility. I generally read everything via RSS anyway, and clicking through to the post on the site is still a good, clean reading experience. It’s a good site, check it out! [🔗 birchtree.me]

7️⃣ Vsauce on YouTube built a nifty machine that helps show off words that are palindromes (same word when spelled backwards and forwards) and emordnilaps (different words when spelled forwards and backwards). [▶️ youtube.com]

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🔗 Take a Chance

---

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

It’s a Studio Neat product, so it’s no wonder that this little auto-retract utility blade is so svelte, so handy, so handsome, and so unassuming. I tried cheap, similar solutions while waiting for my Kickstarter’ed Keen to ship and they’re clumsy and bad. Keen rocks and is very good!

I leave it magnetically attached to my fridge, ready for opening boxes, bags, and envelopes. Now I’m never digging around to find a box opener.

Do I love the price ($95)? No, of course not. But I do smile every time I use it, and I don’t regret making the purchase!

Reviews Gear

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ This retro M4 Mac Mini design from ColorWare looks hella good. [🔗 9to5mac.com]

2️⃣ Here’s a Steve Jobs interview that I hadn’t seen before in which he predicts modern streaming services, reiterates Apple’s commitment to building the best products and making a profit only to serve that key goal, and proposes a fascinating idea of everyone donating their extra WiFi bandwidth to create a faster/stronger nationwide wireless service. What a visionary and compelling communicator he was. [▶️ youtube.com] (Via Numeric Citizen)

3️⃣ Matt Birchler’s not the only one who gets satisfaction from seeing computers work through complex tasks. 🙋‍♂️ [🔗 birchtree.me]

4️⃣ This trailer for Friendship with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd looks like an SNL sketch, but no, it’ll be an A24 film! Wild! [▶️ youtube.com] (Via Matt Birchler)

5️⃣ Jason Kottke linked to an 8-hour remix of the Severance theme that I’m totally gonna save. There’s also a link to a Macrodata Refinement “game”. Scary numbers, indeed. [🔗 kottke.org]

6️⃣ Lou Plummer shared some thoughts on his cycling days of participating in races and exploring new places. [🔗 amerpie.lol]

7️⃣ This app will encourage you to use your phone less… by having you use your phone to verify an image of your hand literally touching grass. I love the whimsical idea, but it’s still a bit…hypocritical? Also, gonna be tricky to use for about a third of the year here in upstate New York. ❄️ [🔗 apps.apple.com] (Via Brendan Bigley)

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🔗 Take a Chance

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Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

One of my most-used shortcuts, and the one that gets mentioned the most online, is my Generate Alt Text with OpenAI Vision shortcut. Earlier today I received a request to build in support for generating alt text for multiple images at once. It was already on my feature roadmap, and I knew it wouldn’t be hard to do, so I set to work and made it happen. Now if you share multiple images into the shortcut, it’ll generate them all as a block of text, each one separated by a blank line. Check!

But then as I readied the new version to update in the Shortcuts Library, I remembered that there was something else I’d been meaning to try. See, I’ve written a custom prompt for the LLM to follow to generate the alt text. It asks the AI to follow an object-action-context framework, keep the word count reasonable, be judicious about punctuation, and more. But someone (Matt Birchler? Chris Lawley?) mentioned recently that LLMs already have a good understanding of quality Alt Text and do a pretty fine even if you simply ask it to “generate alt text.” So duplicated the shortcut, simplified the prompt in one of them, and ran some tests.

I was impressed!

Testing

Here are the two prompts I used.

Simple prompt: Please create alt text for this image.

Complex prompt:

Please provide a functional, objective description of the provided image in no more than around 30 words so that someone who could not see it would be able to imagine it. If possible, follow an “object-action-context” framework. The object is the main focus. The action describes what’s happening, usually what the object is doing. The context describes the surrounding environment.

If there is text found in the image, do your best to transcribe the important bits, even if it extends the word count beyond 30 words. It should not contain quotation marks, as those tend to cause issues when rendered on the web.

If there is no text found in the image, then there is no need to mention it.

You should not begin the description with any variation of “The image”.

Example A

Simple: Three people are standing in deep snow at night in front of the Adirondack Mountain Club Cascade Welcome Center sign. They are dressed in winter gear and appear to be engaging in a winter activity. Two people are standing with ski poles, and one is sitting with ski equipment. The scene is illuminated by artificial light, with snow falling around them.

Complex: Three people smile, posing with ski gear amidst deep snow. Behind them, a sign reads Adirondack Mountain Club, Cascade Welcome Center, Cross Country Ski Trails & Shop. It’s nighttime, with snow falling.

Example B

Simple: A golden retriever lying in deep snow on a wooden deck. The dog is playfully chewing on a piece of wood, and snowflakes are gently falling around it. The deck is partially covered in snow, and there is a wooden railing and post visible in the background.

Complex: Dog chewing a stick, lying on thick snow, surrounded by a wooden porch and snowflakes falling gently.

Example C

Simple: Smartphone screen showing a reply message being composed with the text: “@Annie @Miraz Smart replies are so great!” The interface includes buttons for formatting text and sending the message. The top bar shows a clock icon indicating 2:53 and a snowflake symbol.

Complex: Phone screen displays a messaging app interface, typing a reply mentioning Annie and Miraz. Message says Smart replies are so great. Keyboard and send button at the bottom.

Example D

Simple: The image shows a sign titled “Ski the Face: A Whiteface Lake Placid Snowsports School” mounted on a wooden wall. The sign helps skiers identify their ability level, ranging from “1. I have never skied” to “9. I ski all terrain with confidence,” categorized as Easy, Intermediate, and Advanced. It also includes “Park Smart” guidelines such as “Start Small,” “Make a Plan,” “Always Look,” “Respect,” and “Take it Easy.” The sign features various icons related to skiing.

Complex: Signboard displays ski levels, safety tips at a snowsports school on a wooden wall. Text reads: Ski the Face, Whiteface Lake Placid, What is your ski ability level, and Park Smart guidelines.

Example E

Simple: Cover image and review of the movie “The Wild Robot” directed by Chris Sanders, set to release in 2024. The cover features a large, round robot with glowing blue eyes peeking through the branches of a tree. Below the image is the title “The Wild Robot.” The review describes the movie as “cute” and “enjoyable,” mentioning that it explores the predator/prey dynamic of wild animals without sugarcoating. The reviewer notes some effective emotional moments, though finds them predictable, and gives a moderate thumbs-up rating.

Complex: Robot with glowing eyes sits surrounded by trees. Text: The Wild Robot, 2024, Chris Sanders. Review mentions the predator/prey dynamic, heartwarming moments, and mixed expectations. Rating options include thumbs up and down.

What do you think?

Personally, I’m pretty happy with the results of the simplified prompt. It’s certainly more wordy — probably because it includes no word limit — but not overly so. It also seems to do a better job of pulling text out of images with a good mix of relevant quotes and summaries.

One thing that gives me pause is that uses more quotation marks within the description. I’ve sometimes had issues with that, particularly when inserting the alt text into raw HTML (not Markdown syntax). But I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now, and can always add specific instructions around punctuation back in if needed.

While I was rather proud of the custom prompt that I wrote and how it referenced a framework that I read from Alex Chen about writing good alt text, the idea of not having to maintain it is certainly appealing. I’m also optimistic that by being more generic with the prompt but specifically telling it that it’s for alt text, the results will improve over time as it better understands what “good” alt text should look like. And as those trends and methods change over time, my shortcut will adapt alongside them.

The new version (1.3) with the simplified prompt and bulk image support is live in the Shortcuts Library. Please let me know what you think about the output of the new prompt, if you experience any issues with it, or have suggestions about how I could improve it.

Shortcuts

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ I might have found my next backpacking stove system in the MSR Switch! [▶️ youtube.com]

2️⃣ I really enjoyed this thread where prominent creators pass the “blame” of discovering and recommending a cool tech product which led to it getting back ordered. 🤣 [🦣 mastodon.social]

3️⃣ Sara Bareilles continues to impress with this powerful performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”. [▶️ youtube.com]

4️⃣ I can’t decide which is more impressive in this Wicked performance for NPR Tiny Desk: the absolute vocal control of the singers, or the effortlessly dancing fingers of the pianist. Both are astounding and captivating! [▶️ youtube.com]

5️⃣ @rafa showed off some really cool stuff he’s made with his 3D printer in this thread. I particularly like the custom magnetic weekly calendar for his kid. [🦣 mastodon.design]

6️⃣ Vidit Bhargava is doing some astounding work on ambient computers for his thesis. Check out these threads for jaw-dropping examples. [🦣 mastodon.social]

7️⃣ Tim Hardwick shared a handy tip about using Siri with ChatGPT to generate images with DALL•E. You can even refine them in the Siri interface. It’s like Image Playground with better results! [🔗 macrumors.com]

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🔗 Take a Chance

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Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things