WhatCable is a simple, free Mac app to tell you wha the USB-C cable is that you have plugged in. Can it carry data? How much wattage is it capable of? WhatCable explains cable speed, charging limits, e-marker data, and…

Have been using Dropover this week, and it’s great. A Mac app that pops up a little shelf for you to drop whatever you are currently dragging onto, so you can then find the place you want to permanently drop…

As if by magic, the mighty Will has also posted on improving local government software today, and I heartily recommend you taking a few minutes out to read what he has to say. Rather than cover every possible market shaping…

Tinydot looks like a fun little service. A Mac app sits on your computer watching a folder. Anything you put into that folder appears on your Tinydot site, as if by magic! Markdown files, photos, etc all work. No idea…

Jason Snell on the proliferation of vibe-coded Mac apps, and his experience of making one himself: The process of building the app reinforced something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while: coding is a specific skill, but it’s only…

Am trialling Aeronaut – a nice, native desktop app for Bluesky on MacOS. So far, so good.

Yet another note-taking, knowledge organising type of app to play with: Logsec.

The Register reports on issues with planning and land searches, related to recent implementations of Arcus Global’s software. No doubt rivals of Arcus will be rubbing their hands with glee, but it’s really hard to know where the problem lies.…

A fun long-ish read from the makers of the iA writer app on Europe’s desire to move away from Microsoft Office and what it might take: Severance illustrates something so familiar that it’s hard both to recognize and hard to…

Am super impressed with the way Doug is using AI tools to help him build useful software. Commonplace is a way of saving online stuff into collections. It’s a bit like Delicious of old. What’s more, browsing through the collections…

Interesting perspective on Ai generated software from Quentin Stafford-Fraser: As we enter an era where software development is much cheaper and easier, the number of people able to create their own bespoke apps will increase rapidly. Either you’ll do it,…

Really nice in depth case study looking at how Milton Keynes City Council transformed their planning services, using Arcus Global’s tech: Legacy back-office systems are holding many planning departments back—slowing processes, frustrating staff, and limiting the ability to deliver efficient,…

An excellent blog to follow for nerds like me that love old software.

As an experiment, relating to some work I’m doing for a customer, I asked Google’s Gemini to do some deep research and write a report about the market for revenues and benefits systems for UK local government. You can read…

A new Mac desktop RSS aggregator for me to have a look at.

John Gruber reports on the new version of OmniOutliner (6) which includes a featured called Omni Links: OmniOutliner has always been document-based, and version 6 continues to be. There are advantages and disadvantages to both models, but one of the…

📅 Daily Note: September 23, 2025

Building understanding of software markets in local government from the Local Digital team: We’ve also identified through roundtable discussions and feedback from partners that managing effective procurements and successfully exiting technology contracts is a challenge, particularly where internal capacity or…

📅 Daily Note: July 25, 2025

I *thought* I had settled on Devonthink as my everything bucket, but now I am falling down an Obsidian shaped rabbit hole thanks to Steve Messer linking to this monster: Every few months I set aside time for a “random…