Matthew Palmer
matthewpalmer.net · Personal blog · on HN since 2014
Matthew Palmer, a Mac and iOS developer, writes about Mac utilities, keyboard remapping, and Apple, and publishes small apps.
What HN saysHN commenters mention his free Mac apps Vanilla for hiding menu bar icons and Horo for timers, and his emoji picker post.
23HN people shared it
12linked it in comments
17stories submitted
31story points
2 years agolast shared
2014people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Rocket: Slack-style emoji everywhere on your Mac10 people · 15 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 2Vanilla–hide Mac menu bar icons for free8 people · 3 points · first shared 2017 · 1 comments on HN
- 3Horo free timer mac2 people · first shared 2023
- 4Remapping Keyboard Keys on Mac OS X Mavericks For Boosted Productivity1 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · 3 comments on HN
- 5Visual Cryptography is the Coolest Thing Ever1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 6Apple Needs to Quit iAd1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 7That’s Apple1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 8Making Sublime Text 2 Feel More at Home on the Mac1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 9A Pro’s Guide to the Best Secret Mac Features1 people · 1 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 10How to Deploy Node.js Apps on DigitalOcean with Dokku1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11The Downsides of Storyboards and Interface Builder [Short]1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 12Multi container pod design patterns1 people · first shared 2021
What HN people wrote when they linked it
joshstrange · 2022-06-10
Rocket ($10) [0] is my current favorite emoji picker though sometimes it does drive me crazy (css properties in chrome dev tools and the like, I understand it's impossible to avoid, it still drives me crazy). Also there are emojis with spaces in the name but the picker just closes if you type a space so you have to add aliases to make them searchable. But overall it's a great tool and you can also use it to insert gifs which is cool.
[0] https://matthewpalmer.net/rocket/
dacoja · 2019-07-09
That's actually the one I was thinking of as being awkward to activate :) I love the picker itself but the activation method is pretty clunky in my opinion.
I wish I could just hit one key instead of having to simultaneously press three. I've been using Rocket for awhile now (https://matthewpalmer.net/rocket/) which kind of takes the Slack style ":emoji_name" format to the whole computer, but it's still kind of awkward to activate and has a lot of false positive triggers. (It really makes you realize how often you type colons in everyday computer usage.)
benyafai · 2024-06-07
If anyone is looking for alternatives, I've been using Vanilla for a while and have ben happy with it. https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/
CedricTeyton · 2023-05-24
Horo - free timer app for Mac: https://matthewpalmer.net/horo-free-timer-mac/
turadg · 2021-09-18
Fwiw there are some apps to hide menu bar icons:
- Open source https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer
- Freemium https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/
- $15 https://www.macbartender.com/
coopreme · 2021-05-24
Well there are use cases where this is appropriate, the common multi-pod design patterns -> https://matthewpalmer.net/kubernetes-app-developer/articles/multi-cont…
Generally I don’t see them and where they might be useful, I end up using a K8S Cronjob instead.
But why? I want each pod to have its own liveness probe and be able to scale independently.
dangoor · 2020-09-22
This is cool and potentially useful. I can imagine turning caps lock into Compose.
I will note two alternatives, depending on what you're trying to do:
* System Preferences > Keyboard > Text lets you specify replacements. For example, if I type ! ? (without the space) I get ‽, because who doesn't want an interrobang?
* https://matthewpalmer.net/rocket/ Rocket lets you add emoji anywhere using a syntax like Slack's
smnscu · 2019-12-16
Another option is Vanilla: https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/
reimertz · 2019-12-15
This looks like a light version of the Vanilla app [1] but free and open source.
Also, a clever solution to hide the unused icons!
[1]https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/
designnomad · 2018-10-14
Vanilla -- ‘hide Mac menu bar icons’ (https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/)
Clocker -- ‘Menubar World Clock’
fullam · 2025-04-08
im a big fan of https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/
codeaddslife · 2023-05-17