Top all-time · #3273
MacSparky
Personal blog · macsparky.com/blogproductivityhardware
MacSparky is a personal blog at macsparky.com about productivity and hardware. Since 2011, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 27 times, most often “The RSS Apocalypse”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link MacSparky, David Sparks's Mac productivity blog, for Apple how-tos such as exporting Apple Notes, stopping spam calendar invites, app reviews and contextual computing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Get More Productive with Your Apple Gear
Most-linked posts?
- The RSS Apocalypse2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-03-15
What Hacker News says?
I know for example David Sparks (MacSparky https://www.macsparky.com ) uses it (or at leased used it). And he was an American lawyer and he says writing has been his passion his whole life so I assume his English is better than the average person.
Comment linking /
on “Harper – an open-source alternative to Grammarly”Submitted The Case for RSS as a story · 350 points
HN discussionI think it is anyone who wanna make sure they write correctly. I know for example David Sparks (MacSparky https://www.macsparky.com ) uses it (or at leased used it). And he was an American lawyer and he says writing has been his passion his whole life so I assume his English is better than the average person.
Comment linking /
on “Harper – an open-source alternative to Grammarly”Submitted The RSS Apocalypse as a story · 112 points
HN discussionIf you copy-paste from the notes app, it tends to do a reasonable job transforming it’s formatting into a plain-text representation.(Or rich-text, if you paste into an app that supports it, like Pages or Mail.) There are a few apps around that can do this in bulk. I have one called Notes Exporter. Apparently Note2Txt is also good: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2016/5/exporting-apple-notes-... I am a little worried…
Comment linking /blog/2016/5/exporting-apple-notes-to-text-with-note2txt
on “Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email”Submitted Knitting Your Parachute as a story · 96 points
HN discussionIts a list, but its much shorter. I think that may because alot of the unix underpinnings to Mac means the power users just use those kinds of tools. EDIT: Just found this http://www.macsparky.com/ but it seems like alot to dive in to.
Comment linking /
on “Scott Hanselman's 2011 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows”Submitted The Seven-Year Rule as a story · 92 points
HN discussionI suppose that would make follow if you interpreted my comment in the most uncharitable way. Microsoft used to be known for bending over backwards to maintain "backwards' compatibility. Or used to be... I am in the process of moving away from MS. They still don't kill products with millions of active users for political reasons ( http://macsparky.com/blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse ) as far as I know. But I was reall…
Comment linking /blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse
on “Google Keep”Submitted The Irrelevance of Hari Seldon as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIncase used to make a laptop sling bag which was very slim and durable: it was my favorite bag ever and I'm sad I don't have it anymore. They do not currently sell a laptop sling bag AFAICT. (If anyone knows of a bag like this one: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2007/7/1/review-incase-sling-... please let me know). Recently I've been using a Timuk2 Command backpack, which is pretty minimal, but can expand quite a lo…
Comment linking /blog/2007/7/1/review-incase-sling-pack.html
on “Ask HN: Best backpack for everyday use?”Submitted The iPad Pro: 10.5 vs. 12.9 as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHave you read "Paperless" by David Sparks? It addresses a lot of what you're asking for and has several suggestions for workflows that could achieve your goal. http://macsparky.com/paperless/
Comment linking /paperless/
on ““Doo – the document app” will be shutting down”Submitted Vesper as the Canary in a Coal Mine as a story · 3 points
HN discussionBTW, the Seth Godin article I referred to was [Mode switching | Seth's Blog Godin]( https://seths.blog/2021/01/mode-switching/ ). David Sparks has a similar concept, "contextual computing". [Linking and Contextual Computing — MacSparky]( https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2020/12/linking-and-contextua... ) The background for Hook's is cognitive science / education tech R&D I and my co-founders had been doing 2001 (2003,…
Comment linking /blog/2020/12/linking-and-contextual-computing
on “Show HN: Hook, supplying the missing links to macOS”Submitted → David Sparks Reviews the Waterfield Staad Backpack as a story · 3 points
HN discussionA great feature of bartender is the default "5 second rule" [1] [1] http://macsparky.com/blog/2014/7/bartenders-5-second-rule
Comment linking /blog/2014/7/bartenders-5-second-rule
on “A pro tip for reducing visual noise in OS X”Submitted The Shop Time Experiment as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf you are smitten by this, first of all do not decline the invite to get it out of your calendar. It will notify the sender, telling them there is indeed a live human on the other end. For those looking for at least a temporary fix: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2016/11/how-to-fight-calendar... I can't imagine that this isn't a hot issue for Apple right now. It breaks a lot of the trust in iCloud IMO.
Comment linking /blog/2016/11/how-to-fight-calendar-spam
on “Spammers target iPhone users with iCal invites”Submitted Convergence as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Case for an Ultralight Mac as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Apple News Election Day Live Activity as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The iPad's Sins as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Watchsmith: My New Favorite Apple Watch Complication as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted App Specific Passwords – MacSparky as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Email Field Guide as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The MacSparky Markdown Field Guide as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
