Split double-page PDFs, reorder visually, optimize size, & add text layer

Split 2-up PDF into single pages

1. apt install mupdf-tools / brew install mupdf-tools

2. mutool poster -x 2 doublepage.pdf singlepage.pdf

Reorder pages via click-and-drag

• Preview: View → Contact Sheet → click and drag pages to reorder → File → Save

Optimize filesize

1. apt install ghostscript / brew install ghostscript

2. Convert to grayscale and downsample images to 150 dpi (via /ebook):

   gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
   -sColorConversionStrategy=Gray \
   -dProcessColorModel=/DeviceGray \
   -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook \
   -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH \
   -sOutputFile=grayscale.pdf singlepage.pdf

Perform OCR and embed text layer

• Apple's Vision framework via either Elucidate (set General, Conversion, and Language options first) or Preview (File→Export…→PDF→Embed Text) produced better results than Tesseract OCR in OCRmyPDF, but there is now a plugin for the latter to leverage Vision: OCRmyPDF AppleOCR. Compare output with pdftotext and Beyond Compare or DiffPDF.

❧ 2025-10-25

US-based remote support alternative to TeamViewer, AnyDesk, et al.

HelpWire feels like a breath of fresh air in remote support:

• One-off, quick support option does not require an account for either host or client

• "Currently, for Windows, macOS, and Linux with more platforms to come."

• Free during tech preview, with subscriptions expected in "Q1–2 2026". However, "if you’re using HelpWire to help out family and friends, you’ll continue to enjoy a robust, fully functional experience at no cost."

• Parent company: Electronic Team, Inc., based in Virginia with address and phone number prominently listed, was founded in 2001 and develops a number of other applications:

  • CloudMounter
  • Commander One
  • DoCast
  • Donglify
  • Elmedia Player
  • FlexiHub
  • Folx
  • JustStream
  • MacDroid
  • Serial Port Monitor
  • Serial to Ethernet Connector
  • USB Network Gate
  • Virtual Serial Port Driver

• Knowledge Base | Changelog | Roadmap

• Reviews:

  • Capterra (4.9/5 ★, 69 reviews)
  • G2 (4.8/5 ★, 30 reviews)
  • Trustpilot (4.6/5 ★, 47 reviews)
  • r/sysadmin

❧ 2025-10-24

Markdown editor that's just a textarea

OverType: "A lightweight markdown editor library with perfect WYSIWYG alignment using an invisible textarea overlay technique. Includes optional toolbar. ~85KB minified with all features." Github | H/T

❧ 2025-10-24

Sand might be a firmer foundation

for these castles on a cloud:

• AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright

• Nest thermostat bug leaves users cold

• Revolv devices bricked as Google's Nest shuts down smart home company

• Jeep Wrangler 4xe Over-the-Air Update Leaves Owners with Bricked 4x4s

• An outage leaves Tesla drivers unable to unlock or start their vehicles

• Amazon and PetCo both invested in a $150 internet-connected cat feeder — one day it just stopped working

• Furious customers blast Amazon as an outage knocks Ring doorbells, baby monitors, and Alexa products offline

• Stop buying cloud products: When your “smart home” suddenly turns into electronic waste

• All your IoT devices are doomed

❧ 2025-10-21

Google AI Overviews

2025

• Google AI overviews: Confident when wrong, yet more visible than ever

• Google's AI Overviews are often so confidently wrong that I’ve lost all trust in them

• I'm finding that the search AI is wrong a lot of the time

• Google's AI Overview Is Wrong About Life Insurance 57% of the Time, Says Study

• When Google’s AI gets it wrong, real people pay the price

• Google AI Overviews Says It’s Still 2024

• AI Overviews: Criticism and challenges

2024

• Google's 'AI Overview' Gets Facts Wrong, Is Worse Than a Regular Search

• Google’s “AI Overview” can give false, misleading, and dangerous answers

• 17 cringe-worthy Google AI answers demonstrate the problem with training on the entire web

• Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong

Related

• Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory

  "Gemini performed worst with significant issues in 76% of responses, more than double the other assistants, largely due to its poor sourcing performance."

❧ 2025-10-21

Apple serial number lookup no longer reports exact model information

For example, entering the serial number assigned to a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) now only returns "MacBook Pro" along with the purchase date:

For Macs up to and including the 2021 iMac, exact model information can be gleaned by other means.

❧ 2025-10-20

macOS: screen recorders, automated screenshots, pin windows to top

Screen recording

• QuickRecorder (FOSS): "A lightweight screen recorder based on ScreenCapture Kit for macOS"

• flowy ($19.99): "Automatically animated Mac screen recordings"

Automated screenshots

• Quilt ($24.99): "Capture anything. Export as a clean, searchable PDF. [F]rom books in apps like Apple Books, HTML slides or textbooks even into a PDF..."

• Shotomatic ($39): "Automate your sceenshots. ... Capture and archive your favorite e-books, mangas, and more." (Previously)

Pin windows to top

• Topit (FOSS): "Pin any window to the top of your workspace"

• macOS Picture in Picture (FOSS): "Always on top window preview with AirPlay receiver support"

❧ 2025-10-20

Local AI‑backed OCR that handles handwriting and degraded prints

dots.ocr "is a powerful, multilingual document parser that unifies layout detection and content recognition within a single vision-language model while maintaining good reading order. Despite its compact 1.7B-parameter LLM foundation, it achieves state-of-the-art(SOTA) performance."

• Hugging Face Spaces instance

• Dots.ocr : The best small-sized OCR ever

• macOS:

  • Converting dots.ocr to MLX: Part 1 | Part 2

  • Dots.OCR.Runner ($1.99) | Announcement | GitHub (README only, no source code)

❧ 2025-10-20

Keyboard & mouse not responding in Windows 11 Recovery Environment

• Windows 11 25H2 October Update Bug Renders Recovery Environment Unusable:

  "It seems like Microsoft has encountered a significant issue with the latest Windows 11 25H2 October update, KB5066835. The company confirmed that this update disrupts mouse and keyboard functionality within the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), making them unresponsive and unusable. As a result, the WinRE feature is completely inoperative. ... This is yet another incident related to the recent Windows 11 updates, which have previously caused localhost issues. The list of Windows 11 problems continues to grow as the latest updates are released. Microsoft maintains a Windows 11 version 25H2 known issues and notifications website that provides status updates on the latest problems, including this one."

• Windows 回復環境（WinRE）でマウス・キーボードが反応しない！？原因はKB5067039 (via author’s comment):

  "This article explains a bug where the mouse and keyboard do not work in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) after a Windows Update. We provide a fully automated batch file (.bat) to fix this issue by extracting and replacing the winre.wim file from a Windows 11 ISO. Please use your browser’s translation feature to read the full guide."

Update

• Windows 11 24H2-25H2: Out-of-Band-Update KB5070773 fixes USB keyboard and mouse issues in WinRE:

  "On October 20, 2025, Microsoft updated the Known Issues post USB mouse and keyboard not working in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) on the Windows 11 25H2 Release Health Status page. It now states that the USB issue described above will be fixed by the out-of-band update KB5070773. Later cumulative updates will also include the fix.

  "The update is available for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 and will be automatically downloaded and installed via Windows Update. Interestingly, the update in question is still listed as a 'preview' in the Microsoft Update Catalog for Windows 11 24H2. Incidentally, the out-of-band update KB5070773 is a 'slim' 3.933 GB in size because Microsoft is dragging its AI functions along with it."

❧ 2025-10-19

Microsoft demonstrates that renting Office is a bad idea

Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026:

"At Microsoft, we are dedicated to providing our customers with the tools they need to achieve what matters, in their work and life. In order to focus on new benefits, we occasionally remove features and products.

"In October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will reach its end of life. After that time, it will no longer be included in Microsoft 365 and existing on-premises suites will no longer be supported. Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer be able to open or edit Publisher files in Publisher (emphasis added). Until then, support for Publisher will continue and users can expect the same experience as today."

H/T

❧ 2025-10-18