Brent Simmons

One Mac tip that I’ve seen surprise people is that some (not all) popovers can actually be dragged off into a separate window. The downloads popover in Safari, for instance.

Matt Birchler asks, as a Mastodon advocate (as we are too), “what makes it so that almost everyone who joins Mastodon gives up on it?” "I bring all this up because when well known individuals make a choice to post on X again, or to leave ... https://ranchero.com/2026/10/15/mastodon-trends-down.html

Donating $25 million each to the Trump ballroom. Apple and Nvidia can go fuck themselves.

Laying off 1,000 people. Netflix can go fuck itself.

Feedhouse is a new-to-me browser-based RSS reader with sharing, newsletter subscribing, search, read-later, and, importantly, no algorithms.

I wish people would stop calling it Twitter. Twitter is gone forever. It’s X. How to remember: think of a sawed-off swastika.

Charging for links. Instagram can go fuck itself.

Reddit to Stop Providing RSS feeds: https://ranchero.com/2026/09/30/reddit-to-stop-providing-rss.html

That About Wraps It Up for Stock Mac UI: https://inessential.com/2026/09/22/that-about-wraps-it-up-for.html

Now that we’re a year (and two OSes) into Liquid Glass, I’m curious about how Mac apps have adapted to it. What are some of the current best-looking and best-designed apps on macOS 27?

The open source xsukax X RSS Generator is a “lightweight, self-hosted RSS 2.0 feed generator for public X (formerly Twitter) profiles, built entirely as a single PHP application with SQLite caching.”

Fread is an open source “decentralized microblogging client that seamlessly integrates Mastodon, Bluesky, and RSS” for Android.

Psychopaths have more empathy than corporations do.

Reminder: Apple is not your friend, even with a new CEO. Apple will continue to do some good things and some very bad things. Any feelings of love you have toward Apple is not reciprocated: Apple has no feelings. It’s a mult... https://micro.inessential.com/2026/09/02/reminder-apple-is-not-your.html

In Using Cloudflare on your website could be blocking RSS users, the Open RSS folks explain how CloudFlare’s bot blockers stop RSS readers from reading feeds. (This article is a couple years old, but I saw it again on Mastodon today and it’s still relevant.)

Sander van Dragt’s DailyFeed is an RSS reader that brings you the news once a day. Sander explains: "A reader that updates all day is never done with you. There is always one more item, so you check again, and again, and the rea... https://ranchero.com/2026/09/02/sander-van-dragts-dailyfeed-is.html

Matt Birchler’s new browser-based RSS reader Birchfeed works with NetNewsWire, Unread, Reader Classic, and other native apps. Matt writes: "The place I feel most RSS apps fall down is in the web reader experience. Sure, you can read... https://ranchero.com/2026/08/31/matt-birchlers-new-browser.html

Brett Terpstra’s new Marked Share is a "free online publishing service designed to give your Markdown a beautiful, permanent home on the web. And while it integrates seamlessly into Marked 3, it also works completely standalone in any browser.

Feedecho, inspired by EchoFeed (which is shutting down), is an open source self-hosted cross-poster — you can route items from feeds to “Mastodon, Bluesky, micro.blog, and email using configurable templates.” There’s a hosted version at feedecho.net.

Yesterday I thought it might be fun to get more into neovim — I’d downloaded and tried it a bit previously, and it seemed interesting. Anyway, I went to its home page to see if I could learn something useful there, and I saw a DHH quote. Nope. The DHH rule says nope. brew uninstall neovim

After Fixin’ the Bugs: https://inessential.com/2026/08/26/after-fixin-the-bugs.html

Very happy to have the combined docs site public and building with a pipeline of PR to publication. if you’re interested in the details and where it’s going, swing by the Swift Forums: forums.swift.org/t/swifts-new...

Mt. Rainier and cool cloud as seen from the air this past July.

On my blog — Tech Choices: inessential.com/2026/08/24/t...

Xcoders Social July 16: https://xcoders.org/2026/07/08/xcoders-social-july.html

Jeff Johnson writes, in If computers are the future, why are computer users expected to be permanently illiterate?: "The iPhone seems to have engendered a culture of anti-intellectualism and learned helplessness so pervasive that users ha... https://ranchero.com/2026/03/11/learned-helplessness.html

From open web champion Manton Reece comes a new RSS reader Inkwell: "Inkwell is built around three main tabs: Today, Recent, and Fading. Today is for the latest blog posts. Recent is for posts yesterday or the day before. And Fading is ... https://ranchero.com/2026/03/09/inkwell-new-rss-reader.html

Different corner radiuses: https://ranchero.com/2026/03/04/different-corner-radiuses.html

I Tried to Explain What I Do: https://inessential.com/2026/03/03/i-tried-to-explain-what-i-do.html

Gazette: newsletter to RSS: https://ranchero.com/2026/03/03/gazette-newsletter-to-rss.html

Seattle Xcoders Talks This Week Considered Unmissable: https://inessential.com/2026/03/02/seattle-xcoders-talks.html

Why Objective-C: https://inessential.com/2026/02/27/why-objective-c.html

Beagle Bros love: https://ranchero.com/2026/02/26/beagle-bros-love.html

Unread remains cool: https://ranchero.com/2026/02/20/unread-remains-cool.html

Stress-free RSS reader FeedCity debuted last year: https://ranchero.com/2026/02/19/stress-free-rss-reader-feedcity.html

New RSS reader Today: https://ranchero.com/2026/02/18/new-rss-reader-today.html

New RSS reader Current: https://ranchero.com/2026/02/17/new-rss-reader-current.html

Many hours of coding later: stuartbreckenridge.net/netnewswire-... #NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire 7 for Mac is shipping! netnewswire.blog/2026/01/27/n...

Special Fifth Thursday at Waterwheel Tonight: https://xcoders.org/2025/10/30/special-fifth-thursday-at-waterwheel.html

On my blog — Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App: inessential.com/2025/10/04/w... “I still bristle, after all these years (now more than ever), at having to publish NetNewsWire for iOS through the App Store.”

No Longer on Meetup: https://xcoders.org/2025/09/17/no-longer-on-meetup.html

Just posted: Last Summer Social Meeting: xcoders.org/2025/09/17/l...

Happy 79th birthday to musician and composer Ralf Hütter - best known as the lead singer, keyboardist and founding member of Kraftwerk.

Tonight on Twitch I’m hosting “The Best of 1991” shoegaze, dream pop, electronic, hip hop, trip hop, industrial, grunge, college rock, indie, etc ... the assortment was and will be vast. Live (and free of charge) starting at 8pm central here: twitch.tv/djjakerudh

New single-page site from Brent Simmons: No Learnings.

Retirement day! inessential.com/2025/06/06/r...

Tonight I’m presenting “The Best of 1985.” With releases by New Order, Kate Bush, INXS, Tears For Fears, REM, The Cure, The Smiths, The Cult, Replacements & The Jesus & Mary Chain alone, there will be no lack of stellar content! Live at 8pm central here: twitch.tv/djjakerudh

Starting at 8pm central tonight, I’m hosting ‘The Best of 1984’ in sound & vision via my Twitch channel at twitch.tv/djjakerudh. 5+ hours of Depeche Mode, The Cure, Bunnymen, REM, Replacements, Psychedelic Furs, Cocteau Twins, New Order, Talk Talk, Smiths, Siouxsie & more.

My Wildly Incorrect Bias About Corporate Engineers: inessential.com/2025/05/23/l...