from the desk of H. Bowie...

Just published an appreciation for Richard Thompson’s classic song, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”

Notenik 14.4.0 is out, and is available for free from the Mac App Store. This release includes the following improvements: improved YAML parsing, for greater interoperability with Obsidian; a new option to sort a collection of notes by folder + seq + title; a new field type of page style, that can include special CSS to be applied to the display of a specific note; a new bulk edit option that can be used to modify several notes at once; a couple of bug fixes.

In 1800, the total human population on our planet was only 1 billion people. It took 127 years for that number to double to 2 billion. But then it took only 33 years to add the next billion. Since then, we’ve been adding another billion every 11 - 14 years, and doubling our population about every fifty years. At this point, in 2024, we now have in excess of 8 billion people on our planet – and we’re adding another quarter million every day.

Notenik 14.3.0 is out today in the Mac App Store, including support for sub-folders. Happy for great support from the Notenik Discourse community in beta testing this latest release. More info at notenik.app.

Version 14.2.0 of my open-source app Notenik is now available for free in the Mac App Store, with improved ability to show random, daily quotes from a commonplace book, as well as other improvements.

Notenik 14.1.0 is out, and available for free from the Mac App Store. This release adds a duration field, and an export to iCal option, both of which are included in the rewrite of the guidance on Using Notenik as a Travel Planner. Notenik might be best described as a Personal Information Utility.

Version 14.0.0 of my Mac app Notenik is out today, and available from the Mac App Store. A Notenik user recently posted a really good description of how Notenik differs from other (generally better-known) tools, and I suggest you read that if you’re wondering what it is that makes Notenik special.

When I think of the overarching message of Christ, three central concepts stand out for me.

Another new version of Notenik out today: 13.5.0! Free and open-source, available through the Mac App Store.

Also, coincidentally, I received a lovely post this morning on the Notenik Discourse Forum from a user talking about how he was making use of the app, entitled “Thank you for producing great software.”

Version 13.4.0 of Notenik (free and open source) is now available in the Mac App Store. Added ‘Show in Finder’ for note files; added a script include command; improved the display of link fields.

Published a little appreciation for the Gershwin song, “They All Laughed.”

Available on HBowie.net and also at the Lexicon of Song.

Writing about a great song, written by Townes Van Zandt, and performed by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. It was my father-in-law’s favorite.

Version 13.3.0 of Notenik (free and open source) is now available in the Mac App Store. Improved the vCard import function, added a Person field type, and added an option to sort names last-name-first.

Published a new essay called “Managing Our Identity Stacks,” drawing upon some ideas gleaned from David R. Samson’s new book, Our Tribal Future.

The latest version of Notenik includes a number of cool new features, as well as a number of fixes.

All the details are available in the Knowledge Base.

https://notenik.app/knowledge-base/EPUB/html/version-12.9.0.html

I’ve done a major redesign of my personal site at HBowie.net. This has now become an ongoing central repository for my digital commonplace book and for all of my shorter pieces that I think are still worth reading. Feel free to look around.

Notenik 12.7.0 is out. The biggest change is the sorting out of various controls for navigating through a Collection. There are three different paths a user can traverse, going both backwards and forwards. The first path just travels sequentially through the list, using the currently selected sort sequence. The second path goes back and forth through navigation history within the app. The third path goes forwards and back through search results. These three are all now enabled in both directions, with separate controls for each, and with sensible keyboard shortcuts for all options. Thanks to valuable user input on the Notenik Discourse forum for these suggestions!

This song by Bob Dylan, first recorded by The Band, had been haunting me lately, so I decided to write a little something about it.

Notenik 10 received a nice review in the January issues of both MacLife and MacFormat, and was awared four out of five stars!

Notenik 11.7.0 was released on March 27th.

I keep adding new features to the app, either because I want/need them, or because another current or prospective user has requested them.

This is my newest site, and a spot where I can bring together all of the writings about songs I’ve done over the years. There’s some content from Reason to Rock here, as well as some stuff from The Practical Utopian, plus newer stuff. But since these are the most popular pieces I’ve written over the years (according to Google), I thought it was high time to have a single site dedicated to this material. The title of the site comes from a Bob Dylan quotation (see the “About” page for details).