MacSparky

macsparky.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2011

David Sparks, a lawyer turned Mac and iOS writer, covers Apple apps, productivity, RSS, and gear reviews.

What HN saysHN commenters link it for his reviews, including bags and the Bartender menu bar app's 5 second rule, and note that he cares about writing.
22HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
17stories submitted
677story points
8 months agolast shared
2011people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    The RSS Apocalypse
    2 people · 112 points · first shared 2013 · 78 comments on HN
  2. 2
    Homepage
    2 people · first shared 2011
  3. 3
    The Case for RSS
    1 people · 350 points · first shared 2017 · 200 comments on HN
  4. 4
    Knitting Your Parachute
    1 people · 96 points · first shared 2025 · 23 comments on HN
  5. 5
    The Seven-Year Rule
    1 people · 92 points · first shared 2025 · 82 comments on HN
  6. 6
    The Irrelevance of Hari Seldon
    1 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
  7. 7
    The iPad Pro: 10.5 vs. 12.9
    1 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
  8. 8
    Vesper as the Canary in a Coal Mine
    1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
  9. 9
    → David Sparks Reviews the Waterfield Staad Backpack
    1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
  10. 10
    The Shop Time Experiment
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
  11. 11
    Convergence
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
  12. 12
    The MacSparky Markdown Field Guide
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
  13. 13
    App Specific Passwords – MacSparky
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
  14. 14
    The Case for an Ultralight Mac
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
  15. 15
    Watchsmith: My New Favorite Apple Watch Complication
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN

What HN people wrote when they linked it

victorbjorklund · 2025-06-21
I think it is anyone who wanna make sure they write correctly. I know for example David Sparks (MacSparky https://www.macsparky.com ) uses it (or at leased used it). And he was an American lawyer and he says writing has been his passion his whole life so I assume his English is better than the average person.
memco · 2017-09-14
Incase used to make a laptop sling bag which was very slim and durable: it was my favorite bag ever and I'm sad I don't have it anymore. They do not currently sell a laptop sling bag AFAICT. (If anyone knows of a bag like this one: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2007/7/1/review-incase-sling-pack.html please let me know). Recently I've been using a Timuk2 Command backpack, which is pretty minimal, but can expand quite a lot and is also very durable. I've had mine for almost 2 years and have done a lot of traveling with it and it is in excellent shape. The only downside is the laptop pocket is not easy to access without moving the straps and the actual laptop compartment is side loading which requires unzipping the whole thing. Good news is my lapop fits in the tablet slot so that's where I keep mine day to day.
gorekee · 2014-08-26
A great feature of bartender is the default "5 second rule" [1] [1] http://macsparky.com/blog/2014/7/bartenders-5-second-rule
threepipeproblm · 2013-03-21
I suppose that would make follow if you interpreted my comment in the most uncharitable way. Microsoft used to be known for bending over backwards to maintain "backwards' compatibility. Or used to be... I am in the process of moving away from MS. They still don't kill products with millions of active users for political reasons (http://macsparky.com/blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse) as far as I know. But I was really referencing that I have no longer have any more desire to depend on a free product (i.e. where I "am the product"), and put myself at the mercy Google's increasing fickleness over what constitutes a viable following.
signalsignal · 2011-12-15
Its a list, but its much shorter. I think that may because alot of the unix underpinnings to Mac means the power users just use those kinds of tools. EDIT: Just found this http://www.macsparky.com/ but it seems like alot to dive in to.
LucCogZest · 2021-08-07
BTW, the Seth Godin article I referred to was [Mode switching | Seth's Blog Godin](https://seths.blog/2021/01/mode-switching/). David Sparks has a similar concept, "contextual computing". [Linking and Contextual Computing — MacSparky](https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2020/12/linking-and-contextual-computin… The background for Hook's is cognitive science / education tech R&D I and my co-founders had been doing 2001 (2003, 2006)- 2009 at SFU called gStudy and nStudy (www.sfu.ca/~lpb/tr/2009-Luc_P_Beaudoin-Phil_Winne-nStudy.pdf). We had been designing and implementing personal learning environment for Phil Winne's Learning Kit project at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The core concept I contributed from the beginning of my design was "linking anything to anything" within the system and web (cf. Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart). We were implementing / incorporating tools in the PLE (note-taking, mind maps, web browser, flashcards, etc.) My Tundra-related insight that led to Hook was that instead of re-inventing the wheel (note-taking, mind maps, etc.) in a big PLE, I could allow users to use best of breed apps and simply connect all their resources with a nimble piece of software. So with Hook, users can use whatever software they like (e.g., for Note taking Bear, Obsidian, BBEdit, Apple Notes, whatever). Hook would serve the links, connect the items, and allow users to navigate in a popup window they invoke within the context of their favorite apps. Last year I published a…
nickloewen · 2020-01-14
If you copy-paste from the notes app, it tends to do a reasonable job transforming it’s formatting into a plain-text representation.(Or rich-text, if you paste into an app that supports it, like Pages or Mail.) There are a few apps around that can do this in bulk. I have one called Notes Exporter. Apparently Note2Txt is also good: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2016/5/exporting-apple-notes-to-text-wi… I am a little worried that some day these tools will disappear, but iirc the notes are just kept in an sqlite database so it shouldn’t be too hard to hack your data out manually, either.
mikestew · 2016-11-29
If you are smitten by this, first of all do not decline the invite to get it out of your calendar. It will notify the sender, telling them there is indeed a live human on the other end. For those looking for at least a temporary fix: https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2016/11/how-to-fight-calendar-spam I can't imagine that this isn't a hot issue for Apple right now. It breaks a lot of the trust in iCloud IMO.
ciniglio · 2014-02-14
Have you read "Paperless" by David Sparks? It addresses a lot of what you're asking for and has several suggestions for workflows that could achieve your goal. http://macsparky.com/paperless/

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