Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • M1 MacBook Air 2026 check in

    I recently got a new work laptop, so I spent the weekend reinstalling apps in between matches of The International (congrats on the three-peat, Team Spirit).

    That got me thinking about my own laptop, which I’ve been using since 2021. As a daily macOS user for close to five years now, I’m still convinced the MacBook Air is the best laptop at its price point.

    Sure, with all the fuckery going on with computer part prices worldwide, it’s not as good a deal as before — but it’s still solid. The entry-level model now starts at 16GB RAM and 512GB storage for RM5,399, which is still cheaper than what I paid for my M1 Air back then (RM5,999).

    Either way, I thought it’d be nice to write an update to my original post about life on macOS.

    Battery life is still great — no longer stellar, but I can get through almost a full day of work on it. What I did replace was the official charger (a huge-ass brick) with a 60W Macdodo charger that fits much nicer in my bag and can charge 3 devices at once. Since it’s so small, it’s my go-to charger for traveling.

    Other than that, zero issues with the laptop — no hardware degradation to report. There’s some shine on the keyboard, but that’s just what happens to ABS keycaps after years of use.

    Performance-wise, I haven’t noticed any slowdown. Despite all the macOS upgrades over the years, it runs pretty much as well as it did on day one.

    I’m not doing any heavy gaming — just the occasional Slay the Spire and Balatro. Mostly work: Slack, Notion, Chrome, and VS Code cover the majority of my workflow, and I’ve had no issues there.

    Here’s what I currently have installed:

    Rift

    Ever since I discovered auto-tiling window managers, I haven’t been able to go back to using a computer without one. Rift isn’t perfect — it’s still in beta and occasionally bugs out — but the creator keeps updating it, so I have faith it’ll get there eventually. Aerospace is another one worth trying; it works fine 99% of the time, with occasional hiccups switching apps across workspaces. Remember to bind a key to reset the workspace and you’re fine.

    Raycast

    Still the best Spotlight replacement on macOS (and now Windows too) — it’s so useful. Quick calculations, translations, conversions, launching apps, searching files — this thing does it all. Even the free version is good enough for me. Makes using the computer so much better.

    Shottr

    One of the few apps I’ve paid for — the best screenshot tool I’ve used. Annotation, OCR, blurring, erasing, cropping, and more, and it’s faster than the default macOS screenshot tool.

    BetterCMDTab

    I used AltTab previously, but that app seems abandoned and isn’t updated for Apple Silicon. BetterCMDTab does the same thing plus a bunch of extras — it also replaces Snap for me.

    A good chunk of what’s left on this list is basically menu bar decluttering:

    AccessMenuBar Apps

    A handy tool when you’ve got too many icons getting blocked by the application menu of your apps.

    Hidden Bar

    Another tool for cleaning up a crowded menu bar.

    OnyX

    Mainly using it for a smaller menu bar font size.

    Rounding out the list:

    Scroll Reverser

    Reverses scroll direction on your mouse while keeping the normal (reversed) behavior on the trackpad.

    KeyboardCleanTool

    Temporarily disables your keyboard so you can clean it without triggering keystrokes.

    Bandwidth+

    Shows your internet speed in the menu bar, handy for keeping an eye on your data usage at a glance.

    OpenInTerminal

    Opens a terminal in your current Finder window. I just hit cmd + ctrl + T in Finder and it opens a terminal in that folder.

    TextCount

    Mostly for work, but it’s a quick way to check character/word count on any selected text. Simply select the text you want to check, hit cmd + c, and the count will update in your menu bar.

    Browsers

    If you use multiple browsers, this opens links in whichever one you want — it even supports multiple profiles, great for switching between work and personal.

    A couple of hidden macOS tricks I picked up along the way too:

    For a snappier dock — no lag on hide/show — run this in your terminal:

    defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0
killall Dock

    The first kills the pause before the dock starts sliding out, the second kills the slide animation itself, so it just snaps in and out instantly. Discovered the trick here.

    And for dragging windows from anywhere (not just the title bar), run:

    defaults write -g NSWindowShouldDragOnGesture -bool true

    You’ll need to restart your Mac after this, but once you’re back in, you can just hold ctrl + cmd and click-drag anywhere on a window to move it around.

    That’s it for my almost 5 year check in. I can see myself sticking with macOS for at least another decade, depending on how life goes. I’m still on Windows at home for gaming, music production, art, and video editing, and I occasionally boot into CachyOS when I feel like messing around with Linux.

    Hope some of the recommendations above help ease you into the macOS ecosystem if you’re moving over from Windows. For everything else, there’s always Reddit. Or AI.

  • Strategic Preservation of Oral Identifiers

    Update 9/6/26: had my dental appointment this evening, and when the dentist was done, he told me that I can reduce my visits to once a year instead of every six months. According to him, what I was doing is working and there was nothing much for him to do. I guess this guide is useful after all 😁

    As the month of June approaches, two things come to mind. Holy shit, we’re halfway through the year and it’s almost time to pay the dentist a visit.

    Ever since our company started providing dental coverage, I’ve been visiting the dentist regularly. And after each appointment, the dentist gives me some tips to follow. It’s like they’re actively making me take care of my teeth – don’t they want me to come back more often?

    But also, they seem to give me only one tip each time, as if it’s too difficult to follow if they gave me the whole book. Here are some tips (I remembered) to make life for your forensic odontologist easier the next time you die in the middle of nowhere, without your ID.

    Floss Your Teeth

    I believe this is the tip everyone gets from the dentist during their first visit, and probably the least followed one. I’ll be the first to admit – I don’t floss every day, but I’ve managed to consistently floss once a week, and after every meal where I get tons of food stuck in between my teeth (usually it’s chicken).

    It’s such a pain in the ass, and it’s time-consuming but it probably does the most work for your oral hygiene. Stuck food decays and breaks down, mixing with bacteria in your mouth, creating an environment that plaque thrives in. And we all know how bad plaque is for you.

    If you don’t want cavities, tooth decay, inflamed gums, and bad breath, floss your calcium crushers. It’s worth it. Dental floss is also so cheap and painless compared to the alternative.

    Brush Your Gums

    This was from a memorable exchange I had with the dentist. He asked me, “do you brush your gums?” I said “no, because they bleed if I do,” thinking it was the right answer. He told me, “your gums bleed because they are inflamed. Healthy gums are firm and do not bleed when you brush or floss.”

    Mind blown. He told me to start brushing my gums that day and I followed his advice. After a few days, they started bleeding less. It wasn’t long before they stopped bleeding at all. It was crazy. After all these years I always thought gums were just sensitive, and not meant to be brushed. I felt like I had unlocked a new ability.

    Brush Leisurely

    Don’t clench your smile stones when brushing. You’re not in a race. Take your time and go row by row. When cleaning the crown of your jaw jewels, go back and forth or use small gentle circles. Don’t go side to side. This helps maintain your protective tooth enamel.

    Since each tooth isn’t completely straight, scrubbing horizontally also makes the toothbrush glide over the gaps, missing the plaque hiding in the curved edges.

    Change Your Toothbrush Often

    Maybe this one is a tie-in with the neighborhood pharmacy, but the dentist told me to change my toothbrush every 6 months. I used to use my toothbrushes until they looked like I scrubbed the toilet floor with them. Apparently that wasn’t a good idea.

    They always gave me a new toothbrush after every visit but they recently stopped. I guess times are tough. Don’t wait too long to switch toothbrushes. Also, they aren’t that expensive for a bi-annual purchase.

    Now you know how to take care of your flavor fossils, you can get a smile of approval from your dentist the next time you pay them a visit. Just don’t tell them they’re not a real doctor.

  • Listening to podcasts is lonely

    Listening to podcasts is quite a lonely hobby, if you think about it. Especially if you’re like me, and listen to podcasts on drives.

    They’re probably the best way to pass time in traffic. 30-minute bumper-to-bumper drive to the city? No problem, that’s like an episode of a TV show, and we all know how fast time passes when you’re enjoying yourself.

    However, I’ve come to realize that this only works when you’re driving alone. For those of you who have friends that enjoy the same podcasts as you, this might not be an issue. This is for the rest of us.

    When you have passengers in the car, you have to account for the fact that they might want to talk. Not everyone is as interested in the origin of the A note as you are.

    Once in a while you might put on something that appeals to everybody, but that would mean getting everyone to keep quiet and interested in the episode.

    If people talk, it distracts you, and you’d have to relisten to catch everything (ugh, imagine relistening to a podcast episode with the limited amount of time you have).

    Or worse, you might be listening to something interesting to your passengers, and they ask you to rewind it from the start. Come on, they’re not going to listen to the whole thing anyway!

    Once they get out of your car, you’re stuck trying to find where you left off, good luck if there are no chapters on Spotify.

    Or they might just talk amongst each other, and you have to decide if you want to participate in the conversation or ignore them, which is anti-social, especially since your car is now a social environment.

    So if you’re like me, you save podcasts for when you’re driving solo. When you can actually focus. Listening to people talk to each other, while you sit alone in the car.

    Maybe that’s the point. Podcasts are kind of a private experience. They only really work when you’re alone.

    And so, to not be a weirdo; when you have passengers, put on some music and let them talk over it. Because it’s just the soundtrack for the drive.