One of the many reasons why I love Mac OS X is the possibility to define your own keystroke / key-combinations for menu items in whatever application you like.

To make working with tables in Evernote easier, I added the following keystrokes to Mac OS X System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts (^ = ctrl-key):

Today I uploaded a digitized version of the well-known book about the Sinclair ZX Spectrum : Understanding Your Spectrum by Dr. Ian Logan .



Since I could not find a digitized version of good quality, I scanned the book myself.

Have fun reading it. I hope it can be of use to you who still have and program on a ZX Spectrum.

In 1984, FORTH came to the first Macintosh as MacForth. I coded some apps with it in 1986/7 on a Macintosh and later on my Macintosh Plus.

From all the apps I wrote, I kept just one, as a paper source code listing : Backgammon , which I started coding in 1986 but never really finished.
So, for memory's sake, I publish it on my website so you and I can enjoy reading and looking at it, whilst thinking about the first days we had a fabulous MacPlus to work with. BTW, there's still some activity around FORTH on Github .

Slak neemt de snelweg / Snail takes highway

This snail is a smart one ... found the shortest route.

Wieder mal ein Hotel gefunden wo man sehr gut essen gehen kann: Rebhan's Business & Wellness Hotel in Neukenroth. Mein Favorit ist dieser Salat mit Hähnchenbruststreifen:


Und einen herrlichen Müller-Thurgau dazu, so in der Abendsonne … in das typische Puzzel- und Märklin-Katalog Dekor :-)

A new version of SetEXIFData , my GUI for exiftool by Phil Harvey , is now available:

v6.0
(08-april-2017)

Note:
- Serial numbers are version independent, and thus remain valid for v6.

New:
- Get the elevation (in meters) of the Geo-location into GPSAltitude.
- GPSAltitude is saved into XMP:GPSAltitude.
- Moved the 'Comment' field into the first panel. It is still being filled with the address data from the 'Keywords and Geotag' panel.
- If you click Allow or Cancel when MacOS X asks for permission to access your Contacts, your choice is saved as a preference. This new setting can be found under the menu-option 'Preferences...'
- Moved the camera info fields into their own panel, named 'Camera'. These settings are still saved when you create a preset via the Artist popup menu.
- Added CameraLabel. This tag is filled with 'CameraMake, CameraModel'.
- Added LensMake and LensModel.
- Added LensInfo as 4 individual fields: MinFocalLength, MaxApertureAtMinFocal, MaxFocalLength and MaxApertureAtMaxFocal. These settings are also saved as Camera info when you create a preset via the Artist popup menu.
- Added 'ObjectName', although read more …
- Added 'Author', although read more …

Fixed:
- GPSLongitude and GPSLatitude are now saved as is: positive or negative.
- GPSLongitude and GPSLatitude are now prefixed with the XMP: group, which was the only way to get the GPS-data into PNG images which Apple Preview will display in the Info-panel.
- GPS-data are written on a per-field basis, only if the individual fields contain data. For example, if you enter data in Latitude and leave the rest empty, only Latitude and LatitudeRef are written.

Installing PHPMailer on MacOS X 10.11.6 El Capitan or higher is not as straightforward as I thought because of the new MacOS X System Integrity Protection security where one is not allowed to install stuff in /usr anymore. I wrote down my steps on how I installed PHPMailer on my Macs on this page… .

Enige tijd geleden heb ik bij de ALDI een pot met 3 dezelfde cactussen gekocht. Na even Googlen bleek dit een Haworthia margaritifera, ook bekend onder de naam Aristata, te zijn. Dus geen cactus.
Op een bepaald moment stierf er eentje af en heb ik ze verpot, ieder in een eigen pot, bij mij voor het raam, op het zuiden. En toen ging begon het goed. Lees meer ...

Some time ago I bought a pot with three the same cacti at ALDI. After some Googling this proved to be a Haworthia margaritifera, also known as Aristata. So no cactus. At one time one died and I repotted them, each in its own pot in front of my window, facing south. And then it started going well. Read more ...

My three main apps are updated with new toolbar icons (if applicable) and now look great on HiDPI (Retina) displays.

SetEXIFData v5.9 -> https://marc.vos.net/downloads/setexifdata/
HandbrakePM v1.7 -> https://marc.vos.net/downloads/handbrakepm/
ICSViewer v2.8 -> https://marc.vos.net/downloads/icsviewer/

Also:
- The label 'Camera mode' in SetEXIFData has been corrected into 'Camera model' - the 'l' dropped off when I reset the size of the font back to the system default.
- Bug fixed in HandbrakePM with loading Handbrake presets.
 

A new version of SetEXIFData , my GUI for exiftool by Phil Harvey , is now available:

v5.8
(21-february-2017)

New:
- When retrieving the date from the file name, you can now specify the time to use, if it's missing from the file's name, in the Date/Time fields. Also, if you process multiple photos with the same date immediately one after the other, you can use the Time interval fields to add or subtract hours/minutes/seconds or increment just the sequence number.
- You can now select an address from your Mac Contacts, via a pop-up menu to the right of the 'Geotag'-button, and then click on the 'Geotag'-button to get its GPS coordinates. When you select an address from the pop-up, it has precedence over entered Lat/Lon coordinates. Also, the checkbox 'Put address in comment' will automatically be checked, but can be manually unchecked.

Fixed:
- GPSLatitudeRef and GPSLongitudeRef are now also written. These values are needed while importing in, for example, Google Photos. Some of these photo-apps do not interpret postive GPS-values as default N and E.
- Interval time fields are enabled again after choosing the menu-option 'EXIF Dates or ...'.