Clop VS Lowtech

It’s done in a similar way on macOS: a dylib is added to the bundle and an LC_LOAD command is added to the app binary. The dylib is the first thing that runs because of using the constructor attribute, like this: https://notes.alinpanaitiu.com/Injecting%20a%20DYLIB%20into%...

The nice thing is that a signed app will refuse to load a dylib that does not have the same signature. So crackers will be forced to change the whole app signature which can be easily detected in app code.

I have that kind of protection in Lunar (https://lunar.fyi/) and Clop (https://lowtechguys.com/clop) and it seems to be good enough as they have no recent cracks.

I also use it to make optimal sized and padded screenshots for Twitter and other platforms.

To do that without Cleanshot, I would have to go through an image editing software like Pixelmator, which I use sometimes for more complex tasks, but it's many times slower than select region of screen to screenshot, annotate, Cmd-C, Cmd-V

It saves me way more time than what amounts to $30.

It definitely is relative, if you don't have this kind of need or workflow, $30 seems like too much for screenshots.

* One nitpick I had with it was that the resulting screenshots were not size optimized, so I created a free app that optimizes the app in the clipboard directly: https://lowtechguys.com/clop

Another tip: Run "Clop" at the same time to automatically save space: https://lowtechguys.com/clop/

https://github.com/FuzzyIdeas/Clop Clipboard optimizer for macOS similar to above, but works right after you take screenshot useful to paste screenshots in apps like mail, notes to save image size

For simple one-page presentation websites, try https://carrd.co

In my experience, knowing CSS is 90% of making a pretty and informative page. HTML is mostly just h1 for title, h2 for subtitle, div for groups and p for copy text.

I don’t like writing neither HTML nor CSS so my websites are written in Plim with Tailwind classes for styling.

Here’s a snippet that defines the icon on the https://lowtechguys.com/clop page

        section#hero.min-w-[100vw].flex-center.flex-col.relative.pb-20

This is how we do it for the brightness HUD in Lunar and for the app switcher in rcmd: OSDWindow.swift

For non-AppStore apps like Lunar, I use the macOS SDK from Paddle.com. It provides trials, license activation UI, payments and checkout UI, both in-app and on web. Here's how I use it: https://github.com/FuzzyIdeas/Lowtech/blob/main/Sources/Lowt...

For App Store apps I have my own custom solution which uses https://github.com/IdeasOnCanvas/AppReceiptValidator to see if the app has been bought, and if it isn't, I have a time and usage based expiry logic. When the timer expires, I block key functionalities of the app and show this screen: https://shots.panaitiu.com/o6qnP8

I started doing the same but with macOS apps: https://lowtechguys.com

Reading about the author's projects in the past is actually what inspired me to do it.

I used Windows for a long time before as a power user (living my life in FarManager and WinAPI), then switched to Ubuntu with i3.

After finally switching to the Mac, I loved its simplicity and how it freed my mind from micro-managing the system, but I also noticed its shortcomings and how some things were better on Windows/Linux.

Nowadays I'm making small apps to overcome those macOS shortcomings, and help others find their carefree macOS setup where the system doesn't get in the way of real work.

And it's going pretty well! I've also shared the source of the framework [1] I'm using for these apps, so that I don't have to constantly reimplement payments, licensing [2], SwiftUI styles/components and utility functions on each new project.

[1] https://github.com/FuzzyIdeas/Lowtech