Mac Power Users Episode 96, Web Automation Tools, is up. Katie an I put our propeller beanie caps on and talk about Yahoo Pipes and IFTTT. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes.

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There are two firehose-type websites that I like, The Verge and Ars Technica. While I don’t have time to read everything these sites publish, I do like to check them when time allows. The trouble is that they cover some subjects for which I have zero interest. Things like Windows, Android, and lawsuits get posts. I don’t want to read (or see) them.

So I made a Yahoo Pipe to filter them out. In Monday’s Mac Power Users episode on web automation, I’ll talk about my Verge, Ltd pipe. It isn’t very complicated. I fetch the RSS feed from The Verge and Ars Technica and combine them (with the Union tool). Then I run them through an ever-growing list of filters to spit out a much leaner feed out the other end. Here is the public link.

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Brett’s got some great TextExpander libraries for download. I’m not sure how I missed it before, but I really like the Characters library.

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Don’t you think it’s got to be driving Jony Ive and other Apple designers nuts that this stuff is out? It is like releasing the rough draft of a really good novel. I don’t get everyone’s fascination with it. While I can really enjoy a fine bratwurst, I don’t want to watch it made.

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Is it wrong that I’m more excited about John Siracusa’s Mountain Lion review than fiddling with Mountain Lion itself?

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Twas the night before Mountain Lion, when all through the Net,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The hard drives were backed up, stored offsite with care,
In hopes that a new OS soon would be there.

The geeks were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Siracusa words danced in their heads.

Enjoy the new operating system gang. Before getting started, here are a few tips:

• Backup. If you’ve got an extra hard drive, make a full clone of Lion and stick it in a drawer for a month or three.
• If you are in the middle of a project, don’t upgrade.
• Read every word Siracusa writes. Merlin is right. He is The Cleric.
• In the name of all that is holy, do not upgrade your significant other’s computer for at least two weeks. Your sex life is on the line here.
• Have fun.

One of my favorite Menu Bar apps just got retina display support and a temporary price drop to ten bucks. Boom.

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Early bird registration is about to end for MILOfest, the annual gathering of Mac-using attorneys lovingly organized by Victor Medina. I can’t make it but everyone that I know who attends says it is the most fun you can have with a room full of lawyers.

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I’m with Louie and Marco. After the way the mainstream media reacted to the “4S” moniker, I’d expect Apple to drop numbers altogether and just call the next one “iPhone”, like they just did with the iPad.

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Mac Power Users Episode 95, Engineering Workflows with Dr. Drang, is up. In it, one of my very favorite people in Internet-land joins us to talk about how he uses his Mac to figure out how things break and tell the story. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes. To learn even more Dr. Drang lore, make sure to download the AfterDark.

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