⚡️ 17AUG2025: Weiss Distribution Technique
Build your own Lego keyboard, make better espresso, start a pirate radio station, and more!
Happy Sunday Everyone!
This week, I've been tempted to grab a few TinyVinyl records to add to my collection thanks to Mako's intro to them, watching my personal fish do laps in DrawAFish, enjoying this fantastic Thread about how people managed to dress so much nicer and more elegantly in the heat than we do today, and thinking about installing this Game Boy emulator on my Playdate device.
Before we dive in, I'd like to take a moment to thank this week's awesome sponsor, Foofaraw Press!
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On to the good stuff!
⌨️ Sachiel - Lego Keyboard Kit - I'm kind of obsessed with these build-your-own keyboard kits I just stumbled across from KBD Craft that have you build your board from scratch with Lego components (but real, functioning switches and keys). The new-ish Sachiel is an 85% keyboard with fun-looking, programmable twisty knobs, but I've also got my eye on the Israfel which is a low-profile, 50% ortho/split keyboard. I suspect one of these will be my next pick-up, but for now, I'm still really enjoying my Nuphy Kick75. (*Note: Their website seems to have gone down, so I've updated these links to their Instagram Page in the meantime.)
📂 Mountain Duck for MacOS - This is a cool little app I'm trying out this week that lets you mount remote servers and cloud storage as a disk in Finder on your Mac, sort of like how DropBox used to work but with any service you want—Amazon S3, FTP, Google Drive, Azure, Backblaze, etc. (Dropbox may still work this way; I've not used it in years.) This lets you quickly access and open remote files like browsing any other files on your computer, or back up files to your remote server with a simple drag and drop.
📻 Macrowave for MacOS - Macrowave is a gorgeous Mac app that lets you create your own private radio station that can securely stream your system audio to anyone you give the link to. This lets you create real-time peer-to-peer "radio" broadcasts of whatever music or video you're watching, and also allows you to voice over just like a DJ. The app is a little pricey if you want to broadcast, but it's completely free for anyone with a Mac/iPad/iPhone to be able to tune in via your link. You can even get push notifications when your favorite stations go LIVE. I'm going to be experimenting with a few small broadcasts this week over on my private station in case you happen to like old school punk, electronica, and hip hop.
📼 Cassette: Home Video Player for iOS - Indie developer Devin Davies released this great fun app this week, with a really charming launch video. The app acts like old camcorder tapes that were filled with random family memories all jumbled together. Cassette pulls at random from your iPhone videos to resurface memories in a fun, nostalgic way, leveraging a really fun, skeuomorphic video tape-inspired style. Go watch the launch video—you'll immediately know if it's for you or not.
☕ MHW-3Bomber WDT Tool for Espresso - I've been on the record about really not loving this company's name or branding, but I have to say this mechanical WDT tool is so insanely satisfying to use on my coffee grinds each morning. For those not familiar, the Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) is a method of using small, very fine needles to break up the clumps in your coffee grinds to improve their consistency and distribution for a more even and better-balanced espresso shot. There are a lot of different tools out there, but this one uses a whole system of springs and gears to thoroughly mix your grinds and leaves them looking smooth and fluffy, ready for tamping. It gets bonus points for looking and feeling like a steampunk coffee accessory.
That's it for this week! May you experience a brief but impactful moment of oneness with the universe this week.
My sincere thanks, again, to Blair for sharing this awesome gift with the community.