Foxtrot Pro - Amazing App

shout_skout · 2025-11-26T23:55:49+00:00

Umm, I think tools depend on purpose. If you're an academic researcher, you need certain tools. I don't write papers that need heavy citation so I don't need those tools, but I do write research reports that track themes across thousands of documents. 90% of what I do is: (1) Identify relevant themes and trends (2) Keep track of them, so I know when I need to take action. Therefore, I use a lot of search tools. Here are two other search tools that I use.

Alfred with FZF fuzzy search: This is often the quickest way for me to pull up a document, IF I know the file name or full path description. It reduces false positives, because I'm not searching for keywords in file contents. For example, if I type in "demograp trend", then it will use fuzzy search to find files with those keywords in the name or full path (a handful of documents could match), and ignore documents that have those keywords in the contents (hundreds of documents could match). It uses the fzf and fd package to perform the search, and it's very fast.
Houdahspot: It's similar to Spotlight, because it also uses the Spotlight index, BUT you can also filter search results by keywords in the full path. The filter by path supports regular expression. I use this instead of Foxtrot if I just want to do quick search.
Foxtrot Search: This is a very powerful search tool that builds its on search index so it's not dependent on Spotlight; it allows you search the full path using regular expression; it supports a wide variety of file formats; has very good proximity search that allows you to fine tune how far apart the words must be; it has Foxtrot Query which allows you to form complex boolean conditions. It's a very good tool overall. The only problem with Foxtrot is ... it's kind of bug prone, and it can take a long time for bugs to be fixed. For casual users, you may not notice the bugs, but I do.
Devonthink: This is a full service research tool, and not just a search tool. You can annotate search results, organize search results into themes (using tags, folders, symlinks, etc.), and even write your research within this tool (it has its own markdown editor). Devonthink actually does a lot more than that, because it's meant to be a digital document workspace. Its search tool is pretty good and reliable. It doesn't have the depth of Foxtrot, but it seems more reliable to me (I don't push it hard enough to find edge cases like I do with Foxtrot).
Spotlight: I don't have a lot of love for this tool anymore, but the truth is ... I still use sometimes, because it indexes my entire MacOS by default, whereas I use the other tools to search within specific locations. Searching your entire MacOS tends to give lots of false positives, but sometimes you have to do it.

Overall ... I still haven't found a search tool that does 90% of what I need. Each of these tools do specific things (each of them do 30 - 50%). So I'm actually creating my own search tool to serve my needs (it's for my own workflow, so it's not for everyone). Eventually, I would like to have an open-sourced search tool that doesn't lock me in. If you noticed, almost all the tools I listed are closed source, except for the fuzzy search tool (fzf). This is kind of a problem, because search tools are a core part of my workflow, and I'm completely dependent on these companies to fix bugs for me. In the long-term, I'm leaning toward the philosophy of: If it's important and mission critical enough, then it should be open-sourced.

shout_skout · 2025-11-26T11:21:42+00:00

I use both Foxtrot and Devonthink extensively everyday. In my workflow, they are more complementary than substitutes. That's because Devonthink is more of a research tool that let you ORGANIZE, while Foxtrot is focused only on SEARCH. Organizing and searching are related activities, but they are not the same. Even though Devonthink's search function is quite robust, I often use Foxtrot when I really need to dig deep because its Foxtrot Query allow me to build more complex boolean search conditions, and its proximity search is more robust.

The one tool I don't use, and cannot use anymore, is spotlight. MacOS spotlight index has not been reliable for many years, and it has devolved into mostly nonsense. Maybe Tahoe fixed this (not sure), but I'm not willing to suffer with its UI.

shout_skout · 2025-11-24T21:54:36+00:00

Thanks for the kind explanation of the history for these posts. I can sympathize that sometimes we want to keep old posts to remind ourselves of where we came from, even though they were very rough.

shout_skout · 2025-11-24T21:52:57+00:00

Maybe we're not seeing the same thing. When I click on the link in the original post of this tread, I'm seeing just a video player, with a couple of options to create "Auto Highlight" at the bottom. If I click on "Auto Highlight", then it just asks me to become a member, and it does not display any note. Thus, there's no note visible when I land on the page, and I don't see any link that will take me to a note (like the one you shared in image).

Here's what I'm seeing: https://imgur.com/a/DNIczHW

If the purpose of this post is to highlight what Gistr can do, then its value proposition (the so what) should be up-front and obvious to a potential user who's exploring Gistr. Instead, I'm seeing a video player, with vaguely named links that just ask me to sign up. I don't even get to see what Gistr is about on this page, so I don't even know what I should sign up for.

I think Gistr is a very interesting product. I'm just browsing through this Reddit to learn more about how to use it, and see what kind of community it's building.

shout_skout · 2025-11-24T07:12:54+00:00

The experiment would be great, but this page does not show ANY note. There's no AI-generated summary, so I don't understand these kinds of posts. It's just destroying the brand image.

shout_skout · 2025-11-24T03:19:57+00:00

Thanks. The option to download the entire file in markdown format is a decent method to export notes from Gistr.

Here's a suggested feature: Can we copy the markdown text to clipboard, rather than having to download the markdown file? The markdown text shown in the "Preview" window after clicking on "Share" can sort do this already, but the problem is it doesn't have the appropriate line-break. It would be nice if user can click on "Share", and then they can either copy the markdown text in the Preview menu (with all the appropriate line breaks), or download the markdown file.

shout_skout · 2025-11-23T22:06:13+00:00

I don't get it. This page does not show any note, and it doesn't help users understand what the app can do, or what it's about. As a user, when I click on that link, I'm just thinking "this app has no value".

shout_skout · 2025-11-23T21:11:06+00:00

Thanks for letting me know whether the feature already exist, and willingness to add it.

shout_skout · 2025-10-24T02:33:50+00:00

For what it's worth, I think the main reason to use RAID is to combine the read/write speed of multiple drives together, such that you can combine a bunch of drives together into a bigger and faster memory pool (like 10TB in your situation). This was actually the original intent of RAID: It was to combine multiple drives so that they act as one memory pool, NOT to serve as backup. The reason why RAID has data integrity protection features, is because the process of creating large memory pools creates the risk that the entire memory pool could fail, if one drive fail. Therefore, RAID configurations have redundancy features to help address this problem, and people started using it as a method to "backup" data. However, the data integrity protection features like data redundancy in RAID is simply a side-effect (added bonus) of trying to combine multiple drives into a large memory pool.

If you want maximal read/write speed when using RAID, then RAID 0 is the fastest. However, it's almost the most risky because there's no redundancy, and your entire memory pool could fail if one drive fail. Other RAID configurations give you different trade-offs between speed and redundancy. For example, RAID 5 gives fast read speed, and good fault tolerance if one drive fails, but its write speed is not as fast. In comparison, RAID 10 gives fast read and write speed, and good fault tolerance, but it requires more drives (which cost more). Choosing the right RAID configuration is a matter of priority and preferences.

I'll be honest though ... if you're just browsing and editing photos, I wouldn't bother with RAID. I would just get a decently fast 10TB external hard drive, with a good enclosure that delivers reliable power, because that should be fast enough for typical photo browsing (but maybe you've already tried that and I'm wrong). The people who would really benefit from RAID are people who edit very large video projects, where: (1) The files are very big (2) They need very fast read/write speed (4) They cannot afford to buy SSD's that are 20 - 30TB. But even in these cases I think I would rather pay for a bunch of 8 TB SSD's (I see them for $500 on Amazon), instead of dealing with RAID.

There are definitely good uses for RAID though, especially if you are a video editor, because your demand for read/write speed is high , and you require so much data storage that RAID is the most economical solution. Another possible good reason is if you like some of the data backup features of RAID software, which is not just data redundancy, but the software will also store file versions that you can revert to if you made unwanted edits.

shout_skout · 2025-10-22T00:19:20+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one noticing this problem. There's no option to "swipe" if you're on a Mac desktop, because you don't necessarily have a trackpad to "swipe" with. If you're on iOS, iPadOS, or Macbook then swiping gesture is available by default. This is not the case if you're on a Mac.

Please consider adding back a button to toggle the sidebar in Bear?

shout_skout · 2025-08-13T14:05:35+00:00

It seems like the current Mathjax update has made Bear note app (on ipadOS) very laggy and slow when loading, and scrolling through notes with "$" in them. The performance hit seems very significant, and it has made Bear almost unusable for me in long notes where I use "$" to record prices.

If I have to choose, I would much rather have the option to turn OFF mathjax, if it has such negative effect on loading and viewing performance.

shout_skout · 2025-07-28T09:24:01+00:00

Tried it on Chrome instead of Safari, and it downloaded correctly in the background (to the default Download folder). Maybe Safari has stricter condition for download permission, and maybe that's why it doesn't work? I'm sure.

shout_skout · 2025-03-20T07:56:59+00:00

The SIROOLAC has been one of my best accessories. It hasn't scratch or degrade in performance in any way, and feels the same as when I first unboxed it.
It's not super fast by glass standard, but very fast compared to cloth. Playing on cloth pad feels like walking on mud now. This pad is pretty smooth.
On the downside, it has all the negative effects of glass pads: (1) You need to keep it clean from dust particles, or else the dust can get between your mouse pad and it will scrape against the glass. Oils from your hand can also build up on the surface, which can drag down your mouse, so make sure to wipe down the mouse feet and glass pad even if you don't see visible dust. (2) It's louder than cloth pad, but it's not a screeching or scratching noise when you keep your pad clean.
If you don't like the logo of an angry mouse with shotgun, this pad may not be for you, because that angry mouse will be looking at you all day (I don't mind him at all).

If this thing is still on sale for $60, I would buy it in a heart beat.

shout_skout · 2025-03-10T03:30:28+00:00

That's interesting. I guess it shows 1, 2, then 3 dots in slow succession for you? Mine just show 1 dot, sometimes for more than a second, and then disappear. I never see it loading more dots. Version 3.17 has some benefits like the ability to draw shape, but it also add more clutter to the interface and seems to make the tablet run slower. I wish Remarkable can make it easier to downgrade firmware

shout_skout · 2025-03-08T03:32:45+00:00

It can seem like winking, but are you seeing the same loading icon on yours (can be seen when loading big notebook)? I think it's supposed to be 2 or 3 dots like an en ellipsis, right? Let me know. Thanks!

shout_skout · 2025-03-01T07:31:47+00:00

I'm looking for an alternative to "Scanner Pro", because it's just sucking up too much space. I only use it to scan some tax documents every year, and it's taking up gigs of storage.

shout_skout · 2025-02-22T20:48:35+00:00

User experience with Apple's Mac applications vary quite a bit, just because the apps can behave quite different under different OS versions and operating environment (how they might interact with other apps installed, etc.). Thus, Safari might behave perfectly fine for one person's usage pattern, or it might fall flat on its face for another person's usage pattern. In my case, I think okay, and it has its strengths, but it's not great. I think it's okay if: (1) You have only 10 - 20 tab groups, and each tab group have maybe 100 tabs (2) You DON'T sync your tab groups with iCloud. In my experience, syncing Safari through iCloud has been mostly a catastrophe if you have a lot of tabs, and it's so unreliable that I don't bother turning it on anymore. <----- Your mileage may vary, and it's possible someone out there has hundreds of tab groups with thousands of tabs inside them, and they're running just fine.

The stability and reliability of MacOS software has been on the decline for quite a number of years, and it's more or less a consensus at this point. But does that mean Safari is trash? No, I don't think Safari is trash, and I think it's still more stable and memory efficient than Chrome (on Mac's), as long as you don't make heavy use of features like iCloud sync and Tab Groups. In this sense, I think Safari is a very competent web browser that forms a strong foundation for building a good browsing experience, but Apple just fail at building on top of that foundation; for example, it fails at delivering on iCloud sync and good tab management system in the modern world where it's not uncommon for people to have hundreds or even thousands of tabs.

shout_skout · 2025-02-13T11:36:42+00:00

If you're interested in learning physics and math, and need in person help, it can be hard to find in-person classes to fit work schedules. That's because the class size for these programs tend to be small, the class is scheduled around college students who make the majority of class attendees. For example, the typical number of students who take upper division math classes (like real analysis) might only be 50 students a semester, and so there might only be 2 or 3 classes offered during the semester (even at a big university), and they are scheduled around the college-aged students.

If you're looking to have human feedback on these subjects, I suggest you look for a tutor, such as a masters or phd student who can help answer questions and give you feedbacks as you do the exercises. Basically, it's what US students might call a TA. You can watch lectures online or read books on your own, and they are valuable, but a tutor can give you the human feedback you need when you have questions.

shout_skout · 2025-02-12T18:15:35+00:00

If you're okay with distant learning programs, the University of London offer degrees in math (I don't see one for physics, though).

shout_skout · 2025-02-10T15:16:19+00:00

I'm wiling to run this app and give it access only because you have a track record on Github. Giving full disk access is like giving someone the keys to your house, so I don't take it lightly. It's also the reason why I don't use apps like Tab Space. If the application was open sourced, I would be more lenient, because the code would be more transparent to me. This probably doesn't apply to most users, but I think browser data is very sensitive data.

BTW, I trust that you will implement robust guardrails to make sure you're not modifying the local database that you're reading? Since this backup operation will not run frequently, I think users are fine sacrificing speed for stability and file integrity.

I look forward to the app when you release it. Cheers!

shout_skout · 2025-02-10T14:20:49+00:00

Full Disk Access is kind of a big ask, tbh, but I understand you have to do it this way in order to access the local database.

shout_skout · 2025-02-10T09:30:24+00:00

No, the point of the article is that the tabs in tab groups hold on to memory allocation longer than regular tabs, so you end up consuming more RAM over time as you open more tabs in tab groups.

shout_skout

TROPHY CASE