Why headroom is a performance tool This part is about gain staging, which sounds like the dullest part of audiobook recording until the exact moment it matters: a line that suddenly gets louder than the rest. In a chapter I recorded recently, there was a scene where a policeman shouts at a crowd. Not a […]
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Tiny Excel Tip — Find Dependencies
Early one evening, Allister Jenks sent me a fun Excel question. Unfortunately, that was 10 PM the day before for me, as he’s in New Zealand. I was so intrigued by the question that I told him I’d work on it tomorrow. And as no surprise to anyone, it was the first thing I thought […]
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Macstock 2026: How the Cool Kids Really Use Spreadsheets
At Macstock X in Crystal Lake, Illinois, Allison took the stage to teach a 90-minute workshop titled “How the Cool Kids Use Spreadsheets.” Since people have different preferences in spreadsheet tools, she taught the concepts in Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, and Google Sheets. She taught how to fill down and right not just functions, but […]
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Tiny Tip: Using an iMac as an External Display with AirPlay
A while back I bought an M1 iMac and I have loved it. I’ve always been cautious of buying an all-in-one machine because of legacy concerns, but it was just such a lovely package that I got it. Roll forward to 2025, and I bought a Mac Studio, effectively making my iMac obsolete. But its […]
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Learning VisiCalc with Ken Case
Steve and Ken With Rainbow Shirts In my look back on Macstock X, I ended by saying that it’s the people that make this conference so special. One of my favorite people I got to hang out with this year was Ken Case, the CEO of the Omni Group, maker of OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and more. […]
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KeyCastr & Presentify on ScreenCastsONLINE
Back in 2024, I taught you about a free, open source app called Keycastr that allows you to display your keystrokes on screen during demos. It’s a fantastic tool to help your audience understand exactly what you’re doing when you’re teaching new concepts. Around the same time, I taught you about an app called Presentify, […]
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A Look Back on Macstock X for 2026
Every year, I like to reflect on what I learned or experienced at Macstock. My goal is to make it interesting for everyone, not just a “look how much fun I had and you weren’t there” post. It might encourage you to go, but even if Macstock isn’t something you can attend, I still want […]
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Audiobook Audio (V3) Part 5: Remove the Safety Net
When the microphone starts hearing your habits The last few parts of this series have been about the capture side of V3: the recording chain, mic technique, consistency, and choosing a book voice on purpose. That work made the microphone more predictable. It started hearing the same voice, in the same way, every time. And […]
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Security Bits — 14 July 2026
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. 🇺🇸 Texas’s controversial age rules for all mobile app stores will not be stayed while the law is challenged, but will remain in place while the court cases continue — www.macobserver.com/… 🇪🇺 EU revives […]
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The Cookie App: A Convenient Solution to Online Privacy — by Steve Davidson
Background — origins of “The Problem to be Solved” When our forefathers invented the World Wide Web, their vision was that it would be stateless — that is, static pages would be available for viewing through your Web browser. It was a unidirectional thing — information was provided, period. Coming back to a page would […]
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