June 23, 2026

A Bunch of Random Updates

I've updated some things in the last few years. Now's as good a time as any to link to them.

bookfeed.io

bookfeed.io is an RSS feed for book releases.

I'm not sure why, but Google Books' search results have become increasingly unreliable over the last year. I've added openlibrary as a second source, and I combine the results from both.

Book releases shown in calendar

I've also added an .ics renderer, so you can now show book releases for authors you care about in your calendar.

flicross.com

Nonogram puzzles based on Flickr photos.

Added a daily puzzle and fixed support for Firefox mobile.

qrat.love

QR code generator.

Added more QR code types. Added STL and OBJ exporters so you can now 3D-print your QR codes.

QR Code STL in Prusa Slicer

Other Stuff

I've always written a lot of Mac programs for my personal use, but I rarely polished them for a public release.1 With LLMs, it's become easier to invest some additional time to get things to a state where they might be useful for others, so here are a few apps I made recently:

  • Zap.app is an alternative app switcher that allows you to exclude apps you never switch to.
  • I've missed DragThing ever since it stopped working, so I made MacDring to satisfy that need.
  • Lantenna is a LAN scanner meant to be used for one's own local network and supports renaming, hiding, and favoriting entries.
  • I understand that Alan was meant as a joke, but I find it genuinely helpful, so here is the version I'm running.
  • After Mozilla killed Pocket, I've grown increasingly uncomfortable with storing my stuff on other people's servers. Karakeep is a great bookmarking tool, but the Android app isn't made for reading. I've made my own Firefox extension and Android app focused on reading. There's also a Firefox extension that shows Karakeep search results on Kagi's search results page.
  • RSS Spy is a tiny Firefox extension that tells you if the site you're looking at has an RSS feed, and lets you copy it.
  • Gans, a more convenient client for Ente Auth.
  • Lucerne, an experimental Word processor.

I've built these mainly for my own convenience, but perhaps somebody else finds them helpful as well.

  1. Mainly because I find writing code for Macs less and less enjoyable. ↩︎

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designed for use cover

But wait, there's more!

Want to read more like this? Buy my book's second edition! Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web is now available DRM-free directly from The Pragmatic Programmers. Or you can get it on Amazon, where it's also available in Chinese and Japanese.