Andy Ihnatko

@ihnatko.bsky.social

8340 Followers 267 Following

Intermittently-beloved technology journalist and pundit. Tech contributor to WGBH Boston Public Radio. Podcaster (MacBreak Weekly on TWiT.tv and Material on Relay.fm). Former Chicago Sun-Times and Macworld columnist. Opera riff-raff. He/Him.

I came across a bash script that performs handy maintenance on my Linux notebook. I just wanted to capture it to a very simple Notes tool so I could grab it whenever I need it. No such app was part of my Pop!_OS install. I couldn't find anything like what I wanted in its App Store, either. We're at the point where (at least for very quick apps) it's quicker to just vibecode a new app than to find what you want. Like, vibecoding an app is nothing new. Some people are kind of insufferable about it, to the extreme of inviting actual software engineers to point at them and shout "STOLEN VALOR!" But today was the day that I rewired my processes. From now on -- at least on Linux -- if I can't find an app I need in just a couple of minutes, and it seems like something simple, I'm just going to close the app store window and open up Gemini or Claude. There's no longer a reason not to.
Screenshot of a YouTube player window. The video is entitled "Great ideas start on Mac" and was posted to the Apple official channel. The frame is paused on an image of a MacBook screen, with an empty document. Closed-Captioning is enabled and shows a quote attributed to Jane Goodall: "Every story you love, Every invention that moves you, Every idea you wished was yours, All began as nothing."
Photo of an Android phone in "Fastboot Mode." Screen is black except for a list of device data in white lettering, and a menu of options to the upper right.
Night shot of a raccoon lying atop a roof on its belly.
Front-on photo of a seagull floating in the water with a clam in its break, in bright sun.
High contrast selfie illuminated by golden sunset light. I am wearing Wayfarer sunglasses and staring into the distance with a slightly grim expression. Behind me is a brick wall with a child's chalk drawing of a smiling, waving person. The word "Happy" is chalked above the drawing.
Medium close-up of a healthy-looking raccoon splooting on the ridgeline of a shingled roof. The raccoon's head is turned to its left and it is looking at the camera. Its left front paw is outstretched.
Photo of a colorful armchair with distinctive asymmetric 1990s styling. It has been placed on a sunny grassy curb with a handlettered "FREE" sign placed on the backrest.
Photo of a library table. A MacBook, iPad, notepad, and water bottle are laid out as for a quiet session. A color print of a poster, printed on letter sized paper, is propped against the MacBook screen. The poster is in Italian, except for a title in English that reads: "No space for Bezos." The poster urges people of Venice, Italy to join a mass protest against the disruption Jeff Bezos' wedding is causing for the city
Woman marching in an outdoor parade. She is wearing a black dress, large, rainbow-colored cloth butterfly wings, and a tiara of translucent rainbow-colored plastic. Her right arm is extended to show off the wings.
Vintage cartoon sketch of a pirate, in profile.
Vintage pencil drawing of a smiling cartoon turtle.
Screen capture of a Ulysses editing window. Window is split 70/30 into two panes. The 70% pane is headed with the text "Viewing Notes." The 30% pane is headed with "Overall." Each pane contains an outline.
Partial screen capture of a Ulysses editing window. The user is writing an outline. Two separate lines in the outline are highlighted in yellow.
A store shelf with cans of WD-40. A shelf tag underneath the product gives the price as "$9.99".
A gray rock held in the palm of a hand. The rock is flat, and very roughly in the shape of a broad arrowhead. Forest vegetation is in the background.
Screen grab of text. The text describes new icons available for use in themes. The line "Please note that the popcorn icon depicts caramelized popcorn, not salted popcorn" is highlighted in yellow.
Photo of a raccoon curled up on a rooftop. It's sitting on the angled shingled roof with its shoulder leaning against a vertical adjoining external wall. The raccoon is looking different into the camera. Here and there raindrops are visible, blurred into short vertical lines by the length of the exposure.
AI-generated image of a raccoon playing a fiddle on a rooftop, in the style of a 1960s magazine illustration.
A raccoon sleeping on the roof of a building, at the point where the roofline terminates at the face of a perpendicular vertical exterior wall. It is straddling the roofline. Its tail is curled toward the camera. Its head is turned away from the camera. A hind foot is visible, flat against the roof. The weather is gray and overcast.
A partial screen grab of a webpage. A collection of links to recent Apple-related news stories is presented, organized by topic. Visible is a block consisting of a "Company" group header followed by four news headlines and links, enclosed in a thin-lined box.
Heath Ledger as the Joker in the movie "The Dark Knight."
Vertical landscape of wildflowers and rushes, with purple wisteria dominant. The background is a yellow Colonial house at the edge of a saltwater cove.
Close up of a bright yellow bicycle, highlighting a spot at the very top of the down tube, where it meets the head tube. There is a black vinyl sticker in the shape of the Rebel Alliance logo.
Screen grab from the mobile edition of the Wikipedia app. It's displaying the Wikipedia article for Barbra Streisand. The cover image of a 250-year-old portrait painting of a dour man.
A paperback copy of the graphic novel "Persepolis," by Marjane Satrapi, on a woodgrain table. The cover is red, styled with black and yellow borders and ornaments to create the impression of an old, leather-bound book. A cameo is in the center. It contains a monochrome black and white cartoon portrait of a young girl wearing a black head covering, against a rich blue background. A round pink price sticker in the upper left corner says "$1".
Two panoramas assembled from video frames from "It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown." The panoramas depict the interior of Woodstock's birdhouse. The interior is decorated in what in 1974 would be considered a hypermodern luxurious style. The walls are covered with art in the Geometric Abstraction style. The lamps are chrome. Woodstock is relaxing on a chaise lounge next to a conversation pit. He's wearing big headphones that are connected to a large, complicated red stereo with multiple speakers mounted on the ends of trumpet-like plastic bells.