Archive of posts with tag 'howto'

Dictating Notes with Siri

October 9, 2019 • #

I’ve been looking for a smooth way to dictate notes and thoughts while hands-free from my phone, particularly while running or driving.

When I run I typically wear one AirPod and have my phone inaccessible in a waistband pouch on my back. Since I’m usually listening to audiobooks while running, I don’t have an easy way to log thoughts or perform the audio equivalent of highlighting things.

I never use Siri at all but for a couple of easy, reliable Shortcuts for dictation. I thought this was a perfect candidate to explore the “Hey Siri” activation support with custom commands...

Using Jekyll Collections to Build a Library

February 25, 2019 • #

A couple months back I built a “Books” section of the site to house my library. This is something I’ve been keeping in a spreadsheet for a while now, and still maintaining on Goodreads. But I wanted a more data-driven way for me to be able to manage the info, like a CMS. Since I write book reviews with regularity, I also wanted it to function as reference data that could be included in book review posts, without having to replicate the data I want to have displayed.

Using Jekyll’s collections feature, the library section starts with...