The blog post discusses a workaround for downloading full transcripts of Apple Podcasts episodes, which are limited to 200 words in the default macOS app. The author describes the process of using a website and a Python script to ...
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Vox Silva is the author of the website blog.alexbeals.com, which features websites, projects, snippets, and errata from Hanover to San Francisco.
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The author details a debugging process for VSCode plugins that fail due to an issue with the osascript command on macOS, which returns unexpected output causing JSON parsing errors. After identifying that the problem stems from th...
This post explains how to reverse-engineer the OpenTable API to refresh a Bearer token using mitmproxy and a custom Python script.
A comprehensive guide on resuming paused applications on macOS and managing memory issues through command-line techniques and system settings.
The blog post discusses the visual aesthetics of Stanley Kubrick's film 'The Killing' (1956) and contrasts it with the modern film 'Another Simple Favor' (2025). It highlights Kubrick's mastery of lighting and composition, emphasi...
Exploring the complexities of redeveloping 400 Divisadero Street, the author shares insights on data scraping and planning documents while contemplating the use of AI in their research.
The blog post discusses the author's experience with a push button combination lock, highlighting the confusion between the terms 'combination' and 'permutation' in lock design. It explains how the lock operates mechanically, the ...
The author discusses their transition from using Mint for budgeting to Monarch, highlighting Monarch's effective transaction categorization and customization features. They detail their experience with Uber APIs, including challen...
Apple's multi-skin tone handshake emojis utilize Unicode codepoints and ZWJ characters, allowing for diverse and customizable representations beyond default options.
An exploration of terminal interfaces and AI animations, reflecting on their design and the author's appreciation for the craft amidst technological upheaval.
A guide on how to inspect hover elements in Chrome's DevTools by freezing rendering to access the element for inspection.
This post explains how to efficiently reduce font file sizes using the pyftsubset tool, enhancing web performance by retaining only necessary glyphs.
A workaround for downloading high-resolution images from Flickr despite new restrictions on free accounts is provided, utilizing URL manipulation and a script for extraction.
Enabling Touch ID for sudo on Macbooks simplifies password entry, allowing users to authenticate with their fingerprint instead of typing a long password.
A practical guide on managing disk space on a Linux server, detailing commands for identifying and removing unnecessary files to prevent storage issues.
The author shares insights on managing Mailchimp's footer settings to maintain privacy while complying with email regulations.
The author reflects on their experience running a daily dog picture service called Dog-a-Day, which started as a Christmas gift for their father and grew to nearly 1,000 subscribers. After five years, the author decided to end the...
A guide on how to show keyboard presses in macOS screen recordings using the onscreen keyboard feature in Accessibility settings.
A new 'Snippets' section has been added to the blog for smaller posts, inspired by other blogs, to keep content organized and searchable.
The QR codes for Fitness SF started changing, causing issues with the Apple Wallet pass. The author attempts to reverse engineer the QR code generation process and discovers that it is not done on the client side, but rather throu...
The post provides a guide on how to set up a phone in grayscale using Shortcuts, with an optional manual override. It also explains how to create automations for specific apps to be in color. The author shares their experience and...
The author discusses the process of reverse engineering iOS Shortcuts deeplinks to programmatically create automations. They explore the use of strings and lldb to extract deeplink URL schemes and connect a debugger to the app to ...
The text discusses how to access the Letterboxd API using mitmproxy, a tool that allows for 'Man In The Middle' attacks. It provides a step-by-step guide on how to use mitmproxy to emulate the app for API calls, obtain a Letterbox...
Reddit has been increasing community notifications, which the author finds low value and wants to turn off. There is no way to turn off notifications everywhere, only individually per subreddit. The author provides a method using ...