
I have used macOS Monterey for about a month or two on my hackintosh, and 2 months on my M2 MacBook Air. During those times, I found some apps that help me achieve things faster.

# Alfred

When I was using Windows, I pressed the Windows key to launch apps/documents. Soon after, I switched to PowerToys Run, which gave more options on what it can do. However, for some reason it was lagging quite terribly on my machine. When I run it, it took about 1-2 seconds for the menu to popup.

When I switched to macOS, I used Spotlight search (which was miles ahead of PT run) until I found Alfred -- It's basically Spotlight on steroids.

It not only does the great things Spotlight provides, but with extra features like opening websites with a shortcut. I also like the themes they give, and it's much easier to navigate (in my opinion) than Spotlight.

# Espanso

This app saves snippets via shorthands. For example, I can type `:br` to have it write

```
Best regards,
CubingSoda
```

They also have a [hub](https://hub.espanso.org) for downloading user-made snippets.

# HotKey

Opening apps with Alfred is fast, but a faster method is using keyboard shortcuts. I use it mainly to launch the browser, music, and calendar.

# AltTab / Rectangle

Alt tab brings the useful feature from Windows to Mac. I have it configured so pressing `⌘`-`tab` shows the windows from the apps on the focused monitor, and `⌥`-`tab` shows the windows from the focused app (confusing I know).

Rectangle is a free and open-source window manager for Mac. I mainly use their keyboard shortcuts for full screening a window/moving apps from one screen to another.


Useful Mac Apps


Hello! It's been half a year since I posted, and the website has a new redesign (again). I removed the projects section in the home page, because I can just post them here, in the blog. I also made a system to search for posts by tag. Just type "tag:" followed by tags separated by a comma.

I got a new laptop! It's the M2 MacBook Air and I am planning on using it for the next 5 years. I've heard that macOS is really good at optimizing the use of RAM, so I thought 8GB was enough. You can view my dotfiles [here](https://github.com/CubingSoda/dotfiles).

I found a cool app called [Velja](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/velja/id1607635845). I allows you to open any link from an application using multiple browsers. I have it set so it asks me which browser I want to use. This is useful because I like to use different browsers/profiles for work and home.

![Velja](/img/posts-img/velja.png)

![Mac Terminal](/img/posts-img/mac-terminal.png)


New Setup


Sorry for not posting in awhile, I am back.

A few days after installing Manjaro, I found [this site](https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/). I didn't think too much of it, until I saw system glitches here and there. I had to restart my computer around 3 times in total (less stable than Windows 11). I was about to build an Arch system from scratch, but that looked too hard for me. I found [Garuda Linux](https://garudalinux.org/), and saw the cool UI. I installed it onto another partition, but ended up changing the shell, application, icon, and cursor themes. I have to say, it looks really good.

Here are some screenshots:

[![Garuda Desktop 1](/img/posts-img/garuda-desktop-1.jpg)](/img/posts-img/garuda-desktop-1.jpg)
[![Garuda Desktop 2](/img/posts-img/garuda-desktop-2.jpg)](/img/posts-img/garuda-desktop-2.jpg)

I also installed Microsoft Edge, because I liked the idea vertical tabs. However, I still like Chrome because of the integration with Google's services.

I got an email from GitHub about the copilot technical preview. The code suggestions sped up my workflow by a bit, but it uses `var` instead of `let` or `const` for some reason.


Garuda Linux and GitHub Copilot


The laptop I have right now (HP Pavilion x360) had Windows 10 preinstalled, and I used it up until the summer of 2021. That's when I installed Ubuntu using a flash drive. I thought it looked ugly (I didn't know how to customize it at that time), so I switched back to Windows a month later. In November, I got interested in macOS. It looked clean, had a UNIX shell, and had support for iMessage/SMS/FaceTime. I went through [Dortania's OpenCore Install Guide](https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/), and after a few attempts, I got it working. However, connecting it to an external monitor was unsettling, Bluetooth didn't work, the WiFi sometimes disconnected, and the webcam didn't work. Everything else felt fine. However, since OpenCore is relatively new, it lagged a lot, and crashed apps several times.

That's why I installed Manjaro, GNOME edition. It took me 2 hours to customize it and make it my own, so I hope I can stay on it as long as possible.

[![Manjaro Desktop](/img/posts-img/manjaro-desktop.png)](/img/posts-img/manjaro-desktop.png)


Switched to Manjaro

Hello again,

I started Python programming in summer 2020, with [AoPS's Introduction to Python Course](https://artofproblemsolving.com/school/course/python1). I learned basic things like variables, functions, data types, etc. A year later, I messed around with the Tkinter library and OOP. I made a [GUI PY to EXE convertor](https://github.com/cubingsoda/py-to-exe). A few months after that, I learned the core concepts of HTML, CSS, and JS. That's when I made the first version of my personal website. I also made a few userscripts and CSS for AoPS Blogs. In November 2021, I learned React.js and Next.js sometime. I saw how useful frameworks are, compared to vanilla JS. Finally, I looked at iOS/Android development a few weeks ago, but it costs money. I don't think paying 99$ a year to maintain an iOS app is worth it (where I am at right now). Even deploying a Chrome extension costs 5$.

So what should I do? Learn a new framework or a language? Email it to me at <cubingsoda@gmail.com>.

What's next?

Hello, this is my new website. I started web development in May 2021, when [Andrew Chen](https://github.com/actiniumn404) invited me to make a web-based AMC 8 Problem Generator. We also invited [SealsRock12](https://github.com/sealsrock12) and [Nhv24](https://github.com/nhv24). That's around the time I made my personal website, using plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, using bad practices such as using ` ` for margining, manipulating the DOM with `.innerHTML` (at least use `innerText`), etc. I learned React in October 2021, and had fun with it. I also looked at Svelte and loved the simplicity. However, I learned React because it was the most popular (just to start off). In December, I started working on a programming quiz with SealsRock12, which is released [here](/projects).

I am using Next.js for this site, with my own SCSS styles. The navbar is inspired by [Next.js's navbar](https://nextjs.org/), and the posts page is inspired by [Web Dev Simplified's Blog](https://blog.webdevsimplified.com/).

Suggestions are appreciated.

New Website

The laptop I have right now (HP Pavilion x360) had Windows 10 preinstalled, and I used it up until the summer of 2021. That's when I installed Ubuntu using a flash drive. I thought it looked ugly (I didn't know how to customize it at that time), so I switched back to Windows a month later. In November, I got interested in macOS. It looked clean, had a UNIX shell, and had support for iMessage/SMS/FaceTime. I went through <a href="https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/">Dortania's OpenCore Install Guide</a>, and after a few attempts, I got it working. However, connecting it to an external monitor was unsettling, Bluetooth didn't work, the WiFi sometimes disconnected, and the webcam didn't work. Everything else felt fine. However, since OpenCore is relatively new, it lagged a lot, and crashed apps several times.
That's why I installed Manjaro, GNOME edition. It took me 2 hours to customize it and make it my own, so I hope I can stay on it as long as possible.
<a href="/img/posts-img/manjaro-desktop.png"><img src="/img/posts-img/manjaro-desktop.png" alt="Manjaro Desktop"></a>