Lots of goodies this week!

1. Pangram: cutting edge AI detector. In my testing it was 100% accurate, even with stuff I’d find very tricky. Poor students.
2. €500 OFF: Apple raised their prices this week, but you can still buy awesome MacBooks below the old price for now. Get it while you can. (I’m resisting the urge).
3. NEW BOOK: Life at the Speed of Play book will get released July 16th, 2026. I’m pre-ordering.
4. Shinkei Systems just raised $30m to robotize the traditional Japanese method of euthanizing fish (called ike jime). Sounds crazy, right? I’ll have a longer post on them soon.
5. After nearly a year, Jones Bikes LWB HD/e Complete Bikes are back in stock. Jones bikes are their own category, and Jeff Jones is a legend.

1. What'll happen if Europe misses the current AI opportunity. Long article.
2. A beautiful website explaining how the current AI era is not the first tech-driven moral panic. Socrates was afraid that writing (vs. speaking) will make people forgetful. Sounds familiar?
3. Investor and operator resources by Myles Marino. A good collection of links.
4. Awesome biography for Thomas Peterffy, a Hungarian-American businessman, who started IBKR.
5. New essay by Paul Graham: How to earn a billion dollars
6. Awesome looking art deco lighter from Craighill
7. Open source video editor for your LLM
8. BOOK: Maintenance of Everything by Stewart Brand. Mr. Brand was the co-founder and the editor of the tremendously impactful Whole Earth Catalog. You can find the digitized versions of the counterculture magazines here.

1. Ben James built a Claude Code Typewriter that I find super cool. You type your message on a vintage electric typewriter, and Claude writes back to you on the typewriter itself. Physical language AI! It just seems so joyful, I love it.
2. Awesome focus timer and physical reminders from Aleks. Could be interesting using the POS thermal printer to build something similar for to-dos, messaging or AI images. The printer itself is $50 on Aliexpress and a Raspberry Pi is about $40. So a cool and useful project.
3. HTML might be better for you and your agent than markdown. Just look at Claude Design, which is doing the same thing.
4. Use OpenFreeMap instead of Mapbox if you want to save money.
5. This site explains how mechanical watches work in a beautiful and approachable way. It's full of awesome illustrations and animations.

We had a wedding last summer and my wife’s sister was flipping the decorations on Vinted. You know how it goes. Flat lay on the bed, drag the lamp over, prop up the dress, retake six times, still looks like crap.

I’d been hacking on image-gen models anyway, so I built a thing that takes one bad phone shot and gives back 8 listing-grade photos. That was the first version of fotoai.hu.

While building it I kept needing free photo tools. Background removers, heic→jpg, upscalers, compressors. Every site is plastered in ads, makes you wait 30 seconds, and you have no clue if they’re storing your photos. So I added clean versions on fotoai.hu. No ads, nothing stored.

You can also upload a few selfies and generate portraits of yourself for LinkedIn, CV, or Instagram. You can also make product photos, and AI UGC stuff.

And it looks amazing! It keeps your face, your real face, including the asymmetry your phone camera flattens out.

Here’s how it works: upload 8–10 selfies. The AI uses them as reference. Then you generate professional photos of yourself in any setting. Rooftop bar, gym, café in Florence, studio backdrop. Looks like you, in the places you’ve never been.

I’d appreciate it if you tried it out at fotoai.hu/eszkozok and gave me some feedback. No subscriptions.

DockDoor: Makes the window-switching (cmd + tab) experience much better on Mac with previews, hovers and magic media controls (for Spotify, Calendar, etc.).

TypeWhisper: Amazing voice transcription that is completely local and private. Makes it easy to speak instead of typing.

Hyperkey: Have you tried setting up a new keyboard shortcut only to realize that it was already taken by something else? Or tried to remember what shortcut you ended up setting? Well Hyperkey solves that by letting you use the caps lock key as a modifier.

So you could set up caps lock to mean control + option + command + shift all at once. None of the existing keyboard shortcuts use all the modifier keys simultaneously, so all combinations are free.

And then you can just hit caps lock + a to open Anthropic’s Claude, and caps lock + o to open OpenAI’s ChatGPT, instead of both of them using option + space.

LinearMouse: Lets you set different pointer settings and behaviours for your mouse and your trackpad. Scroll directions, pointer acceleration (disable that!) and many others.

FluxMarkdown: With agentic AI we are using more and more markdown files. But opening them with QuickLook/Preview looks like butt. FluxMarkdown is a 3-second install, it’s free, and it lets you preview nicely formatted markdown.

These are a few things I do to any Mac to have a better experience.

Changes to the Dock

With current 16:9 and 16:10 screen ratios, we have much more horizontal space than we have vertical, but most documents, code, and websites use mainly the vertical space. That’s why I think it’s better to have the Dock on the side and not at the bottom.

To change this:

Settings > Desktop & Dock > Position on screen > Left

I also don’t like how long it takes for windows to minimize using the Genie Effect, so I like to change this to the Scale Effect.

Settings > Desktop & Dock > Minimize windows using > Scale Effect

Here is the main part: I set the Dock to hide automatically. Normally this is a pain as you have to wait for it to appear and disappear, but with a line of ‘code’ in the Terminal you can set this delay to zero. Just open the Terminal app on your Mac and paste this line of code there, then hit enter:

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

This will make the Dock appear instantly when you hover over it.

You can also put a spacer between icons in the Dock to divide them into groups. Just paste this code into your Terminal and a small spacer will appear. You can drag and drop the spacer wherever you like in the dock. To remove the spacer just drag it out of the Dock.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="small-spacer-tile";}' && killall Dock

I like to make hidden (command + h) app windows transparent in the dock with this line in the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool TRUE && killall Dock

Disable Font Smoothing

Font smoothing is something that Macs do to make fonts look slightly bolder. This has the side-effect of making text more blurry.

To remove font smoothing and make your text much sharper on your screen, paste this line into the Terminal:

defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

Alternatively, consider downloading this app that does the same thing.

Enabling “Optimized Battery Charging” under “System Preferences > Battery” allows macOS to manage charging based on your usage habits.

Make Your Own Keyboard Layout

I have a keyboard with a US layout, but I use Hungarian, English, and Swiss German input sources. Both the Hungarian and the German use the QWERTZ layout, but the English uses the QWERTY layout. I like to have the Y and the Z in the same place on all, so I change the English input and swap the two.

The easiest way to do this is an app named Ukulele. Just save the .keylayout file you make and paste it to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts. After you restart your Mac, you will be able to select your new layout in:

Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources > Edit > +

The Power Law of Health

There’s a curious pattern that shows up in all sorts of complex systems, known as the power law or the Pareto Principle.

You’ve probably heard it phrased as the 80/20 rule: 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It’s remarkable how often this pops up. In economics, 20% of the population holds 80% of the wealth. In business, 20% of the products generate 80% of the sales. It’s not just a statistical fluke; it’s a fundamental characteristic of complexity.

So if our bodies are complex systems — and they undeniably are — it stands to reason that a small number of factors have an outsized impact on our health. The question is, what are those vital few?

From what I’ve seen, sleep, diet, and exercise are the primary levers. They’re the 20% that drive 80% of your physical and mental well-being. And the order isn’t arbitrary. Sleep comes first. Without adequate sleep, trying to maintain a good diet or exercise routine becomes exponentially more difficult. It’s like trying to run a marathon on an empty tank.

Diet follows, as a poor diet can negate the benefits of exercise. Exercise is vital too, but without proper sleep and nutrition, it won’t have the impact you want.

If you want to get healthier, start with fixing these three — sleep, then diet, then exercise. It’s a simple plan but not always easy. The upside? Improving one makes the others easier.

Fishing map and regulations for Haut-Rhin region of France

You need a ‘Sana’ card to fish in Switzerland and Germany, but the French take it much less seriously. I’ve been looking for good fishing spots within biking distance, and it looks like there are some good spots on the French side.

Lake Kruth-Wildenstein and the surrounding streams, with Camping du Schlossberg nearby, seem like particularly nice spots. It’s a 10-minute train ride and 48 km of biking from home, so it should make for a nice one-evening, two-day trip.

Hungarian Bow Hunting Exam on 30 September

For those interested in bow hunting, there will be a Hungarian Bow Hunting Exam held on 30 September 2024. This exam is essential for anyone looking to obtain certification for bow hunting in Hungary.

I’m looking for ways to properly clean my bike at home. Due to Switzerland’s strict water protection policies, you can’t clean cars and bikes on the street. I also don’t want to take my bike to a self-service carwash every week, so I’m searching for alternatives.

The best solution I’ve found so far is to use Muc-Off’s Waterless Wash with a bike mat to catch any drippings. This method seems to be effective and compliant with local regulations. Will come back after testing.

First update here on this page.

In the coming weeks I’ll write and post reviews about cool stuff that I own. I also plan to use this page as a place to gather great articles, new products, things I find interesting and things I make.