Forem: Anton Mendelson

Setting Up new MacBook for Web Development and DX

Anton Mendelson — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:05:11 +0000

System Preferences

Appearance

Enable Dark Mode for reduced eye strain
Show scrollbars only when scrolling for a cleaner UI

Dock Configuration

Remove default apps (keep only essential ones like Launchpad, Mail, Calendar)
Enable automatic hide
Disable showing suggested and recent apps
Apply faster Dock hiding:

# Enable faster hiding
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0
killall Dock

# To undo faster hiding
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.5
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0.5
killall Dock

Trackpad & Accessibility

Enable tap to click
Set tracking speed to level 9
Disable unnecessary gestures
Set scroll speed to maximum for faster navigation

Keyboard Settings

Disable smart quotes
Turn off automatic capitalization
Disable spelling correction
Configure fn key for dictation
Set custom shortcuts:
- Input sources: cmd + space
- Disable Spotlight shortcuts
- New iTerm tab here: cmd + ;

Finder Optimization

# Set screenshots to JPG format
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

# Prevent Preview from opening previous files
defaults write com.apple.Preview ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES

# Show Library folder
chflags nohidden ~/Library

# Show hidden files
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

# Enable path bar
defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool true

# Show status bar
defaults write com.apple.finder ShowStatusBar -bool true

# Set list view as default
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle -string "Nlsv"

killall Finder

Essential Software Installation

Install Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Add Homebrew to PATH
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

# Update Homebrew
brew update

Install Applications

# Development Tools
brew install --cask visual-studio-code
brew install --cask iterm2
brew install --cask webstorm
brew install --cask docker
brew install --cask postman

# Browsers
brew install --cask google-chrome
brew install --cask firefox
brew install --cask arc
brew install --cask zen-browser

# Productivity
brew install --cask raycast
brew install --cask rectangle
brew install --cask notion
brew install --cask slack

# Communication
brew install --cask zoom
brew install --cask skype
brew install --cask telegram

# Cloud Storage
brew install --cask google-drive
brew install --cask idrive

# Security
brew install --cask 1password
brew install --cask protonvpn

# Utilities
brew install --cask vlc
brew install --cask calibre
brew install --cask folx
brew install --cask karabiner-elements

Terminal Setup

Install Oh My Zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Install Starship Theme

brew install starship
echo 'eval "$(starship init zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc

Install Nerd Font

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install --cask font-hack-nerd-font # currently I use Pragmasevka font for IDE's and terminals

Node.js Setup with NVM

brew install nvm

# Add NVM to shell
echo "source $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# Install LTS version
nvm install --lts

# Update npm
npm install -g npm@latest

Git Configuration

# Set global config
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@your-domain.com"

# Set better git log
git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"

# Set default branch to main
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

SSH Setup

ssh-keygen -t rsa
# Copy public key
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Application-Specific Configuration

Arc

Install chrome extension - Youtube Playback Speed Control

Raycast

Install essential extensions (color picker, kill process, ScreenOCR)
Set clipboard history shortcut to option + cmd + c
Configure hyperkey as caps lock
Set up application quick launch shortcuts

iTerm2

Set as default terminal
Configure transparency (5%)
Enable natural text editing
Install Oh My Zsh plugins:
- zsh-completions
- zsh-autosuggestions
- zsh-syntax-highlighting

WebStorm

# Add alias to .zshrc
echo 'alias ws="open -na \"WebStorm.app\""' >> ~/.zshrc

Disable reopening projects on startup
Enable preview tab
Enable single-click file opening
Enable compact mode
Install SuperMaven plugin for AI completions

Setup BlackHole audio driver to record app's sound via QuickTime

Open Audio MIDI Setup
Create new Multi-Output Device
Use BlackHole 2ch as Input

Final Touches

I’m using WisprFlow as a speech-to-text tool, and I find it extremely helpful in my development workflow.

Don't forget to:

Set up Apple Mail and Calendar with all accounts
Configure your IDE preferences
Set up workspace organization in Arc browser
Test all keyboard shortcuts and customize as needed

Voice Journal with iPhone Action Button, GPT API, and Google Docs

Anton Mendelson — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 08:48:38 +0000

tl;dr

The main goal of this article is to show how to set up a personal voice note service that works with a single tap on the iPhone’s Action Button. If you don’t have an action button, no problem—this solution leverages Apple Shortcuts, ensuring it works on any iPhone.
GitHub Repo

Why I built this

I believe people avoid taking notes because the process requires too many steps from thought to text. I created a tool that lets you start recording a voice note with one tap, which is then automatically saved to your chosen destination—Google Docs in my case, but it can also be Notion or any other platform.

Overview

Part 1 will cover deploying a backend service on railway.com (I consider Railway the easiest way to deploy such services at the moment). The main challenge in this section is correctly setting up environment variables for the Google Docs API and OpenAI API.

Part 2 will explain how to integrate the service with iPhone Shortcuts and the Action Button for a seamless user experience.

Part 1: Deploying backend service

First, you need to fork the repository: s4ff0x/speech-to-docs.

Then: Go to Railway and authenticate with your GitHub account.
Click Deploy and select the forked repository from your GitHub account.

It’s okay if the deployment process fails at first—that’s expected. We haven’t set up the environment variables or configured the necessary settings yet

After the deployment completes (even if it fails), click on the created project in Railway.
Go to Settings → Networking and press Generate Domain.
Enter port 3000 and press Generate Domain.

In the Build section, the Dockerfile should be automatically selected.

If it’s not, it probably means Railway has excluded this feature from the free plan. In that case, you can either subscribe to a paid plan, deploy the service manually, or use another platform. However, the next steps in this guide will continue using Railway for deployment.

Setup Env vars

OpenAI API Key

Create your OpenAI API key by visiting OpenAI API Keys.

Google Docs API Credentials

Follow Google’s guide to create API credentials for the Google Docs API.
Download the credentials as a JSON file.

Set Environment Variables on Railway:

Go to your project in Railway and open the Settings → Variables section.
Add the required environment variables:

OPENAI_SPEECH_API_KEY=
DOC_ID=The ID of the Google document where the text will be saved
TIMEZONE=your_timezone (example: Asia/Jerusalem)
PERSONAL_AUTH_TOKEN=Create your personal key to use when calling the API from an iPhone.

# Google Service Account Credentials
TYPE=
PROJECT_ID=
PRIVATE_KEY_ID=
PRIVATE_KEY=
CLIENT_EMAIL=
CLIENT_ID=
AUTH_URI=
TOKEN_URI=
AUTH_PROVIDER_X509_CERT_URL=
CLIENT_X509_CERT_URL=

You may experience problems setting the PRIVATE_KEY environment variable. Convert it to a single string using \n for new lines. For example:
PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nJNB3fAD..."

Please don’t forget to enable the Google Docs API in your google console.

Also, you need to share your Google document with the email of your service account and grant it edit permissions; otherwise, nothing will work.

Once all environment variables are set, click Deploy to restart the service with the correct configuration.

Let's test the api

Download a file in m4a format containing speech to your PC (m4a is the default format for Apple audio recordings).

Run the following curl command in your terminal.

curl -F "audio=@[path to file].m4a;type=audio/m4a" \
-H "Authorization:[your personal auth token]" \
-X POST https://[your api url]/transcribe

Now check your Google document. If everything was successful, you should see your text here.

Part 2: Using API with Apple Shortcut + Action Button

Apple Shortcuts allow us to call external APIs. This is exactly what we need.

Create a new Apple Shortcut.
Add the "Record Audio" block to capture audio.
Insert the "Get Contents of URL" block and specify your API URL.
In the "Get Contents of URL" block, configure the following:
Method: POST
Headers: Add an authorization header and set its value to your personal API token from your environment variables.
Request Body Type: Choose Form.
Add Form Field.
Field name: audio
Field value: Recorded Audio (the result of the "Record Audio" block).

Then set this shortcut to the action button.

That’s it! Test your setup—it should work just like the curl command but with your voice note.