← Clockwise
Clockwise
643: Podcast Stretching Routine
00:29:59
Our best automations on macOS or iOS, our expense tracking tools, online age verification, and the fitness devices we've used recently.
Loading summary
Transcript45 lines
- [00:03]
A
It's time for episode 643 of the Clockwise podcast from Relay, recorded Wednesday, February 11, 2026. Clockwise four people, four tech topics, 30 minutes. Welcome back to Clockwise, the tech podcast, where time is marching on and time is still marching on. My name is Dan Moran, and I'm joined across the Internet by my good friend, my pal, and probably somebody who's very confused right now is Micah Sergeant. How are you doing, Micah?
- [00:46]
B
All of the above, you are correct. Very confused.
- [00:49]
A
I had to get my little they Might be giants quote in there. I know somebody out there appreciated it. In fact, I know my friend Tony Sindelar is in the live stream, so he appreciated it if nobody else did.
- [00:59]
B
Well, I'm glad that Tony was there to hear it and take it in and help us all understand what was going on by saying, reference, acknowledge.
- [01:08]
A
And now that we've acknowledged that reference, let us acknowledge our fantastic guest this week. To my left, it is a producer and reporter at Texas Standard, host of the Lions, Towers and Shields podcast, and author of iOS Access for All. And I feel like she must be extremely tired because that's a lot. It's Shelley Brisbane. Welcome back, Shelley.
- [01:25]
C
Hello. Great to be here. And hi, Tony.
- [01:31]
B
To my left, writer at Mac Stories, host of the First Last Everything podcast. It's Jonathan Reed. Hello, Jonathan.
- [01:37]
D
Hello. Hi, Tony as well.
- [01:41]
A
Tony, the fifth member of Clockwise, the Pete Best of Clock. No? All right, let's jump right in. I am curious, as always, about automations. Do you have any good automations running on your Mac or your iOS device these days? If so, what is it doing for you? And if not, why not? What's wrong with you? Shelly, we'll start with you.
- [02:02]
C
Well, I was going to talk about lights in my office, but because of a busy morning that I've had, I'll talk about file automation instead. So I'm here in my podcast studio closet with my own personal Mac. But I do a lot of podcasting here. But in my office, I do a lot of work stuff for the radio show where I work. And often when I do audio in the closet, I have to direct it to one place or the other. So I use do that with macOS tags. So if. If I'm doing my own podcast, it's lts. If I'm doing work, it's work. If I'm a guest, like right here on Clockwise, the tag is guest. And then the wonderful app Hazel will deliver those files to the places I need them after giving them appropriate file names. Because in the radio show, one of Our conventions is that if we've made audio but we haven't edited yet, it's called RAW in all caps. All of my automations have a date on them so I won't forget which time I was on clockwise. This file is related to and in the case of my work files it's sent to another public server, a public folder place on a computer that I use when I'm doing the radio show. So those aren't particularly new automations but they're really great ways to make sure the audio goes where I need it to go.
- [03:15]
B
I too use Hazel for automations on my Mac so I got some notifications on my Mac saying hey, I'm trying to move these. Hey I'm trying to move these. Hey, hey I'm trying to move these files but I can't because I can't connect to the network anyway Got reconnected. What mine does is it takes files that are older than X amount of time from my downloads folder and puts them away. It also is a clockwise archive tool for audio related to the show that is older than a specific amount of time. I will take those files and put them onto my network attached storage to kind of clear up my local stuff. So that's the bulk of the automation work that I do. I know Dan, I'm loving the idea of him having to sort of. Is it my turn yet? Because I'm excited to talk about what you have but Jonathan, you're first. Tell us about the automations you have on your Mac or iOS devices.
- [04:15]
D
Oh, I'll be quick Dan, since you're so excited. I have several automations. My favorite one is actually one that I actually have totally forgotten that I have because I think it works so well. So I have a shortcut which turns off my used listening history when I am playing some music for my dog daughter. And you know, as much, as much as I love encanto, I don't really want it clogging up my end of year list on Apple music. So that turns off my listening history. And so at the end of the day I have a two part automation which around 9pm Sorry it's about 11pm it turns my listening history back on in case I've forgotten to turn it back on and it also restores all the home pods in our house to an appropriate level. So if we've spent the evening after dinner having a little, a little dance party with my, with my daughter and the volume's a bit high, it means that it's not going to blow My blow my eardrums out when I turn on the radio through the HomePod at 7am in the morning. So it's a nice little automation that just, just resets everything audio wise on my phone and on all our homepods.
- [05:30]
A
I had previously used Hazel to do some organizing of files very similar to some of what Micah described where older files are archived. I have a big folder of all the podcasts I record and you know, I don't want that clogging up my main drive. So after two weeks it archives stuff to my network attached storage device. However, I wanted to sort of experiment more with moving automation stuff over to shortcuts. So I did set up. I sort of, after a long time was able to duplicate what I'd done in Hazel now that there are automations on the Mac and I had that as something that I, you know, was like, oh, I wanted to, to see if I could do all the same things. And it works. Though I will give an asterisk on this, which is the past couple days I have it run overnight and I get up and I look at my notifications and today and yesterday I had a lovely one that said at 3am Daily encountered an error podcast archive took too long to run, so I don't know why it didn't run, but there you go. Thanks Apple for not making things very clear when it comes to debugging shortcuts. I've had a little more success with the one that I have right now that sorts all my podcast stuff into the appropriate folders on my hard drive. So as I'm recording this show, for example, it knows these are clockwise files and at the end not only will it move those into a folder for this particular date, but it will also upload my files to our editor automatically, which is great because I then I don't forget to do that. And then I've got a couple I've been working with on my phone, one of which is annoying me because again, similar problems where I can't debug it easily. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, I want to put my AirPods in and listen to some white noise. And I tried to create an automation that's just like, hey, if it's after this time when I put my, when I connect my AirPods, just open that app and start playing my chosen noise. It never works. I have no idea why. So be great Apple if you could add a little more useful debugging tools for that kind of thing. But I do love automations and I Love to hear all of yours, so thank you for that. And let's go to our second topic, which comes from Shelley.
- [07:30]
C
Well, apparently this is the day I talk about my work life because I'm about to go on a trip for work, so it's important that I track my expenses when I go on other trips. It's. They're not quite as long and they don't have as many expense complications. And so I'm looking for an app or a workflow that can help me do that. And I'm. I'm wondering if you find people have any particular apps or expense tracking workflows that you like. Micah, help me.
- [07:55]
B
It has been so long since I have done anything that involves that level of expense tracking. And so what ends up happening for me is that once in a blue moon, I will have some sort of, like, work trip or some other trip where I need to be able to do my expense tracking. And at that time I scramble for solutions. And what usually ends up happening for me, I'm so sorry to say, there are these beautiful little mesh zipper bags that you can buy, and they come in multiple sizes. And one of those sizes, they're sized based on their color. One of those sizes is a small, little yellow bag. And that little yellow bag fits perfectly in my larger bag. And into that yellow bag, I put all of my receipts anytime I am doing one of these travel trips. And then at the end of the trip, I will take photos with my phone to scan them into a document that I can then send to the. I can't remember what her title is at this point. Comptroller, I believe, to handle any reimbursements. So I'm not using any special fancy tools, unfortunately, especially, you know, the mileage and the transportation. I'm glad that that's not something that you need because I've never, never done that. But I'm curious to hear, Jonathan, if you have a better solution. Zipper bag and some photos.
- [09:26]
D
My God, I wish I was good with my expenses, but I'm really, really not. I don't use an expense tracker. I did look, did a bit of digging and I found an app called Collections which comes recommended from my colleague Devin Dundee at Mac Stories. He used it to track anything. He still does uses it to track his personal expenses. And so the caveat is I haven't used it. But Devon has sung its praises before and he's really hot on his personal finance. I do know that. So I consider that high praise. So I would recommend Collections. It's kind of A personal database app. You can store or log anything from like books and TV shows to contacts and notes and things like that. But they do have a section on expenses, so I'd recommend giving that a try.
- [10:20]
A
So I have been freelancing for more than a decade now. This is actually my second stint. The first time around I did not do any of this and I ended up having some challenges at the tax time. So when I became a freelancer again, I was like, this time I will be very good about it. And I have kept. I've created a numbers spreadsheet that I've been using for many years where I have a template for each year. And basically, you know, at the beginning of the year I start up a new fresh one and it tracks both my income and expenses. And so basically I log my expenses there. And I previously did this mostly manually and I still do parts of it manually because sometimes things I don't have like a convenient receipt or something for something. But I also created an automation where I can drop a PDF receipt into my folder. And using shortcuts automation and its new use model action that lets you access private cloud compute, it can look at a PDF and be like, hey, I can find how much this was and I can add a line for it into your spreadsheet with the relevant details. So I use that now for 90% of what I'm doing. And because it runs on my Mac, I can even do it from my iPhone. So I can make a PDF or drop a PDF thing into this folder on icloud drive and it sorts it and it adds that line to my, to my spreadsheet. So that has become my process and I try to be very diligent, you know, about that. I don't have to do mileage track or anything like that because I don't have to travel for my job very much. But you know, I do get a ton of receipts in email or whatever that if I have to scan stuff, I can even do like scans using just my iPhone and drop it into that same folder and it will automatically categorize it. And then I usually file away the, you know, like I have a folder for like 2025. Here's all the, you know, non digital receipts I have. So yeah, that's. My system is a complicated numbers template. I've. I've linked it on six colors a couple times in the past because I've made updates over the years.
- [12:13]
B
I don't.
- [12:13]
A
I think it's been a few years since my last post, so maybe, maybe it's time to update that at last. Why don't you wrap us up here?
- [12:19]
C
So, to riff on what you've said, Dan, and what Maika said, I've realized, first of all, that expense tracking is really about habits more than apps. As much as I would like to rely on an app to magically know how much that hamburger cost and that it's work expensable, it's basically about habits. And as Micah said, I have. There's a place in my laptop bag where receipts go, and I'm pretty good about putting them in there. The thing is to next scan them and then to apply them to the expense report that I have to fill out. I still have to show my receipts, but I've got a per diem limit. And so I need to count that up and say, well, you know that those potato chips you had, those aren't under your per diem because you've gone over your limit. And so it really is for me about habits. And I like the spreadsheet approach as opposed to the app approach, because I feel like it would be infinitely flexible, not only for automation, but just for I'm only going to track certain things. As I failed to mention in my intro, I don't need to track mileage. Although I'm going to talk in a second about an app that I've surprised, surprisingly found is great for tracking mileage. So most of what I'm trying to do is track meals and lodging and incidental expenses and, you know, random thumb drives I have to buy when I'm in Anaheim, California. So that stuff is fairly straightforward. But as far as this app, my husband and I have an electric vehicle and we got an app called abrp. It's now owned by Rivian, but it is designed to help you plot your routes when you're using an electric vehicle and find charging places and all that sort of thing. But also it has a side benefit of being able to track your mileage. So of course it'll tell you how many miles you've gone. But you can say plan a trip and you can say, I'm going from Austin to Chicago or wherever it is, and it will track your mileage and export it out to you in such a way that you can use it for mileage reporting. So were I driving? That's what I would recommend because it's an app I'm already using.
- [14:13]
A
All right, that's two topics down, two topics go. Which of course means it is halftime. Here, clockwise. And this week's episode is brought to you by Surfshark. Secure your privacy with Surfshark. Go to surfshark.com clockwise for four extra extra months of Surfshark. Internet security is more crucial than ever. So why not protect your online life with military grade encryption and enjoy a secure, unrestricted Internet experience? With Surfshark vpn, you can shield your data on public wi fi and avoid identity theft and fraud. Keeps you safe even in the most insecure online environments. As somebody who does work at home predominantly, I go out to a lot of coffee shops. I do some work there and you know, coffee shop, WI fi. I'm sure it's good in most places, but sometimes you need a little extra peace of mind. So having Surfshark set up where I can automatically secure my connections whenever I'm out of the house is great. It's very easy to set up. It's got apps for Mac OS and iOS as well as a bunch of other platforms. So if you use Linux or you use Android, you can get one there too. And it makes sure that you just have peace of mind like it's. Once it's running, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to think about it. It's great. In particular, one of the features I do really like is this ability to also shift your location as well. So if you've run into things where it wants to get you based on where you're located, Surfshark can help you with that too. Never worry about who's spying on your data again. Surfshark's got you covered. And geo restrictions are a thing of the past. With Surfshark, you can break through online barriers and access content from all over the world. And it can save you money on flights and hotel bookings by eliminating location based price differences. That's a secret travel hack that's always in your back pocket. It's time to take control of your online security. Try Surfshark today and enjoy their 30 day money back guarantee. Go to surfshark.com clockwise or use code clockwise at checkout to get four extra months of Surfshark VPN. Secure your digital world now and start surfing securely. Our thanks to Surfshark for their support of this show and all of relay. All right, halftime is over. Micah, over to you.
- [16:03]
B
Well, online age verification folks, we've been hearing a lot about it. The latest is discord and age gating content and it just kind of is, is sweeping the web as we know it. So I wanted to hear your thoughts on age verification. What's required as far as scanning and everything in between. How are we feeling, Jonathan, we'll start with you.
- [16:34]
D
I'm very mixed on it. I. I mean, we can all agree that, you know, age verification to protect children online is, you know, it's a good thing and it's hard to argue against that. But the thing that I, I'm not an expert, I will clarify. But things that do worry me is certain services and other things being restricted from certain people. We had something in the UK a few years ago where the government decided to instantly make ISPs block. All adult content, should we say, unless you had to verify yourselves. And instantly it failed because were blocking things like sexual education websites. And, you know, websites are talking about LGBTQ issues. And the thing that worries me is that I worry about how good these verifications can be and how closed off some areas of the Internet are going to be for vulnerable people. And yet, like I said, it's hard to argue against protecting children online. So I don't. I have a very mixed opinion on this and I think it's something I need to read up about more to understand. But, yeah, very mixed on the subject.
- [17:55]
A
Yeah, I mean, I agree with Jonathan this one. It is complex and it's a part of the issue here is that the age gating systems feel very, you know, they're like a sledgehammer, right? Like, it is a very all or nothing proposition where it's like, we got to gate all this stuff. And the problem is this is not like, you know, cigarettes, right, which is something where there are not really documented benefits to cigarettes. There are a lot of downsides. We can all agree that having kids not have access to cigarettes is a good thing. But when it comes to the Internet, part of the problem is that it is not so cut and dried. There are a lot of resources that some people might say are inappropriate for. For kids. And there are others who would disagree with that. And compounding that problem is that, you know, of course these decisions are made by legislators in most cases who themselves have not only complicated views on those issues, but also in many cases lack the technical expertise to not say, well, why don't you just not let the kids see the stuff they're not supposed to see. Like it's that easy. You know, I think discord, you know, got a lot of blowback for this. I think part of that was their messaging rather than the actual things they're doing, in part because they are complying with laws that have been passed. This is not them just arbitrarily deciding deciding to enforce this, but, you know, they are being essentially required to do it. And part of it was messaging around how that would actually work. People jumped to the worst case scenarios. People jumped to some, you know, really bad feeling parts of it that weren't necessarily 100% true. And there are other challenges relinked to that as well. An age verification firm linked to Discord last year had like 70,000 documents leak about age verification. So part of this is also that we don't have a good standard for dealing with that and making sure that information is secure and is not stored and is minimally privacy invasive. So, you know, there are a lot of aspects of this that make it a very complicated thing to do and it may be useful in some cases, it may be valuable in some cases, but the system is going to need to work a lot better before you can just start slapping these blanket bands on stuff. Shelley, I suspect you might have some, some interesting insight here.
- [20:00]
C
A few thoughts. So I am in Texas, where one of the early states age verification laws was passed and then it went through the court system and was on and off again. And then finally the Supreme Court said, yes, Texas could in fact create an age verification rule. It was colloquially known as the pornhub law, which is what's interesting about it because I think even a lot of people who have fairly progressive views about access to the Internet for young people might say, well, pornhub is not something that we want our kids to have access to. But. But now Discord is one of the major players in this because Discord is a general purpose environment that also has a lot of things on it based on the communities that are created by Discord members that minors shouldn't have access to. So the two issues are how do we make sure that age verification is both accurate and doesn't impinge on people's privacy if you're asking them to send their government identity documents? And also our. Are age verification rules going to make it easy enough for people who are adults and who have access to, who have rights to access to this kind of content, whatever that content might be to get to it? And are the restrictions going to be so broad that minors will not have access to things they have the right to have access to, whether it be of a sexual nature or whether it just be forums where potentially adult content might occur? And so I think what we're seeing with Discord and there's been a lot of backlash online is because people who either don't participate in sites like pornhub or who don't really think about age verification in terms of general purpose sites are now having to face it. And so is discord. And so are these third party vendors that have data breaches. And so I think it's, it's going to be a lot less simple now that we have general purpose sites that are coming under age verification restrictions that were theoretically intended for pornography and adult specific sites.
- [21:56]
B
The biggest issue that I see with all of the age verification stuff, stuff is the lack of any sort of standard or agreement on how things should be done. It's very frustrating to see all of these companies getting to just kind of swoop into this space and we don't know who they are. But because a company that is, you know, their main purpose is not age verification, needing to have age verification to protect themselves, then you have random companies swooping in and saying we can do that. And then those companies aren't tried, tested and true and then your information gets leaked. So it's just a mess. And as Jonathan said, you don't ever want to argue, nor would you argue against protecting kids online. And that's part of the thing here that makes this so difficult to find any nuance. So thank you all for your thoughts on online age verification. Let's go to our next topic, which comes from Jonathan.
- [22:57]
D
My topic is what's the one health or fitness app or device that's really made a difference for you recently?
- [23:08]
A
Last summer I finally got back into running while the weather was nice here. Now there's a foot and a half of snow on the ground and I don't, don't want to go running. So I use the Nike Run Club app to start a basic running program. They have a very good program for like here, let's get you into running and let's start like really basic and then kind of work your way up, up. And so I did that pretty regularly and I, I really was impressed with how good not only was the app, but like I loved that it had an Apple Watch app and that you could download the runs offline because the runs featured audio. So there's, they have like coaches who talk to you during the run and their prime coach, Coach Bennett, is great. I have to say I, I highly recommend that program if you're looking to get into running because he's just a very funny and chill guy and it was exactly kind of the vibe I wanted and it, it made a difference. Like I stuck with it. Like I, I ran all summer. I ran a 5K last fall and I felt like that made a huge difference for me. So I was. I was very big on that. More recently, I've also guess tried to get back a bit into Apple Fitness. Plus, they had a series of workouts for the beginning of the year that are kind of like, there to help you get back into the groove. And again, as I stopped running when it got too cold, I felt like that might be a good option for me. And so I've done the vast majority of those workouts too, which I think is really nice. So I appreciate having all these options available with good integration with the Apple Watch, which makes a big difference as well, because then, you know, it doesn't count unless I get my rings closed. Right? Like, I gotta. I need. I need to count. Otherwise, why. Why even get in shape if it doesn't close my rings anyway? Shelly, what about you?
- [24:46]
C
Well, I have slightly elevated blood pressure, and I have been using the Happle Health hypertension notifications primarily as a reminder to take my blood pressure regularly. I mean, I have a blood pressure machine device on my nightstand, which should remind me, but it doesn't remind me. As well as the Apple notification and those hypertension notifications, which I say to myself, don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out. It just means that you're being told. What you already know is that you have some elevated blood pressure and you should probably take readings for a week. And you can, of course, write those down in the health app. So that's data that you can provide to your doctor, you can have for yourself. So it's. It's a fairly small thing in terms of technology, but it's been pretty useful
- [25:27]
B
for my health, I'm gonna say. My OURA ring, I wasn't sold on it at first, but over time I've been using it and now it has done the thing that I had been waiting to see it do, which was to give me the ability to catch getting sick before it happened. And so I felt more prepared than I would have otherwise been because I got this little, you know, beep, not beep, but little notification that said, hey, your body is showing signs of stress that are, you know, not typical for you. You might want to keep an eye on that and you might want to rest more. Yeah, I really like this idea of, you know, we've been collecting data for so long. Let's actually look for some trends in it and use that to help inform what action to take. It's been pretty cool. Jonathan, why don't you round us out Here.
- [26:19]
D
Yeah. So lots of different apps. I'm really enjoying fitness at the minute since the new year to try and get back into shape. But my favorite app from probably the last year or so has been an app called Bend, which is a wonderful little app that has lots of different stretching routines, like ones to do in the, in the morning, ones to do before you go to bed, ones that focus on, on like your shoulders and so forth. And you can also create your own routines out of that. And one really smart feature that I really like is that it has a kind of AI integration where you can describe your issue or your situation. Like, oh, I've, you know, I've been sat at my desk all day. What's some good stretches to, you know, help me, you know, get ready for the rest of the day. And it will come up with a routine based on your prompt. And what I found is it's actually really good at coming up with good routines. And before I came on the podcast, I went with my desk routine, which I'd created with their Bend AI feature. And it works really well. So, yeah, I can highly recommend that if you're wanting to stretch and feel a bit more supple after sitting at
- [27:35]
A
your desk all day, like the podcast stretching routine, everybody should limber up up before we, before we do the show. Well, that is the last of our topics. We have just enough time for a bonus topic. I want to know quickly, what's a place or thing, a landmark, tourist attraction, etc that you want to go see?
- [27:54]
C
Shelley, if you are going to climb Mount Everest, which I will never do, but one of the things you have to do to get there after you get off the last plane is you have to take the Everest Base Camp track, which is 40 miles up into the foothills to get you to the bottom of Everest. And it's, it's quite a lot of elevation as. And people do this, it takes them almost a week and a half sometimes. But I've been watching a lot of YouTube and I think the Everest Base Camp trek sounds awesome.
- [28:20]
A
Wow.
- [28:20]
B
I've actually never seen the Grand Canyon, so I want to go see the Grand Canyon. Jonathan, what about you?
- [28:25]
D
For a long time, but ever since, especially watching Shogun, I've been become a bit obsessed with going to Japan. So one of the ones on my list is a place called the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is a series of, of thousands of red torii gates that kind of line this path up to Mountainari, which, you know, google that, it looks incredible. But anywhere in Japan really, for me,
- [28:53]
A
it's a natural phenomenon. But, you know, I've, I've wanted to see the aurora borealis many times. I was in Iceland, which I feel like was my best chance, but it was cloudy. Like every time I, every night I was there. It's gotten down as close as Boston, but it's really hard to see where I live live in the city. But yeah, that's, that's high on my list of things. You know, I have to go to Norway or Sweden or something and really, really try to get it there. But thank you all for that. Hey, if you would like to get ad free episodes with an extra unwound episode every week, you can become a member of clockwise, just go to Relay FM clockwise and sign up for just $7 per month or $70 a year and you'll help support the show. And with that, we've reached the end
- [29:29]
D
of this week's episode.
- [29:30]
A
All that remains is for us to thank our fantastic viewers guest Shelly Brisbane. Thank you so much for being here.
- [29:35]
C
Thanks for having me.
- [29:36]
B
And of course, Jonathan Reed. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [29:39]
D
Goodbye, Tony.
- [29:42]
A
Very good, very good. And Micah, we'll be back next week, but until then we remind everyone listening out there watch what you say and
- [29:50]
B
keep watching that, Tony.
- [29:53]
A
Bye, Tony.