Monthly Archives: November 2020

Why Rate Songs Using Automation?

Given my last two posts, you may be asking why the hell would someone even want to automate something as simple as rating songs. I have three reasons. First, I can’t judge a song on first listen. My enjoyment of a given song develops and changes over time. Second, I am not an active music […]

The Escape Hatch

My last post was about the limitations of Siri Shortcuts. I used rating songs as an example of a simple automation that isn’t supported on iOS, but that is easily accomplished on the Mac in various ways. One of those ways was using Automator. Automator is a lot like Shortcuts in that both have drag-and-drop […]

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

At its best, automation seems like magic. Look no further than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Disney’s Fantasia. Just like Mickey is able to direct various cleaning implements to do his tedious physical chores, automation lets us direct our computers to do our tedious digital ones. I love automation, but I’ve come away frustrated nearly every […]