Notes from the workshop.
Product updates, behind-the-scenes, and the occasional deep dive on how we build at Balane.
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- August 16, 2026
- №02August 5, 20268 min read
August Update 2026: a chess game, an X-ray of your machine, and three Odoo modules
Four weeks after the summer update: Chessplosion 1.0 for the Mac, BalaneDisk in public preview, Balane Desk and usable.software in the works, three free Odoo modules — plus updates for WindowNote and FlowVisual.
Product UpdateLaunchmacOSOdoo - №03July 22, 20265 min read
WindowNote: four terminals open — and each one tells you what it is running
If you work across many windows, what you lose isn't the windows — it's what you knew about them. WindowNote pins the note to the window you were working in. It survives a restart and finds its window again. No account, no cloud, macOS and Windows.
ProductivitymacOSWindowsLaunch - №04June 13, 20263 min read
NetMute 2.1: a world map of where your Mac sends data
NetMute now draws a live world map of the countries your Mac talks to — tap a country to see which app is sending there. Readable service names, sent/received per app, data caps that hold. All on-device. It sees where and how much — never what's inside.
PrivacymacOSNetworkUpdate - №05May 10, 20264 min read
I built a journaling app for the work nobody assigns
A small mountain-tracker for solo founders who keep dropping the follow-up. Mac, iPhone, iPad. Apple Intelligence on-device. iCloud sync. No subscription, no Cloud account.
macOSiOSApple IntelligenceHabit Tracker+2 - №06May 9, 202612 min read
Stream Deck Software for Mac in 2026: Streaming vs. Productivity — Pick the Right Tool
Most people searching for Stream Deck software on Mac want one of two things: live streaming or a productivity launcher. They're different problems. Here's the honest guide to which tool fits which job — including where GridBar fits and where it doesn't.
macOSStream DeckProductivityLauncher - №07April 23, 202611 min read
Process Modeling Software for Mac: 9 Tools Worth Testing in 2026
Every honest comparison of process modeling software for Mac — Visio alternatives, Lucidchart alternatives, simulation tools, BPMN editors. What actually works on macOS in 2026.
Process ModelingComparisonmacOSConsulting - №08April 23, 20262 min read
Two Public Betas: FlowVisual & Screenrig
Two new Mac apps from the Balane workshop go into public beta — and why we built both against the cloud reflex.
Public BetamacOSProduct Update
Articles from the product sites.
WindowNote and BalaneDisk keep writing on their own sites — deep dives on windows, storage and macOS. These links open the respective product site.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
Antimalware Service Executable: why MsMpEng.exe eats your CPU
Task Manager shows 40 % CPU on a process nobody chose to run. What Microsoft Defender is actually doing, the three patterns behind a permanently loud MsMpEng.exe — and the exclusions that fix it without turning protection off.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
A CleanMyMac alternative that doesn't clean anything
Most alternatives to CleanMyMac are other cleaners. This is the other direction: a tool that measures the same machine, explains every finding, and leaves the deleting to you — on macOS and Windows, with everything it finds free.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
A DaisyDisk alternative that tells you what the folder is
DaisyDisk draws the best disk map on macOS. What it deliberately does not do is explain the folder it just found — or run on Windows. Where the two tools differ, and which question each one actually answers.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
A Little Snitch alternative that watches without blocking
Little Snitch is a firewall: it asks, and it blocks. If what you want is to see where your machine sends data — with the company and country resolved on your own machine, on macOS and Windows — that is a different tool with a different trade-off.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
What your Mac is really doing: the complete guide
Six questions answer almost every complaint about a Mac — where the space went, what is running, where the data goes, why the memory is full, what dead apps left behind, what starts on its own. The order to ask them in, and where each one leads.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
What your PC is really doing: the complete Windows guide
Six questions answer almost every complaint about a Windows machine — where the space went, what is running, where the data goes, why the memory is full, what uninstalled programs left behind, what starts on its own. The order to ask them in, and where each one leads.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
Where does my PC send data? How to find out on Windows
An idle Windows machine opens dozens of connections in ten minutes. How to find out which program is talking where — with netstat, Resource Monitor and PowerShell, and why looking the destinations up online defeats the point.
- BalaneDiskAugust 15, 2026
Windows storage full: where the space actually goes
Settings says 40 GB is "Other" and Explorer shows nothing that size. The fourteen places the space really sits on Windows 10 and 11, how large each one typically gets — and which of them you can get back without breaking anything.
- WindowNoteAugust 1, 2026
Why a window is so hard to recognise twice
A window has no lasting name. Its ID dies when it closes, its title moves while you work, and its app will happily open forty more that look identical. Here is how a note finds its way back to the right one.
- BalaneDiskJuly 31, 2026
Mac storage full: where the gigabytes actually hide
"Your disk is almost full" — and Finder shows you nothing. The twelve places the space really sits, how large each one typically gets, and how much of it comes back for free.
- WindowNoteJuly 29, 2026
The Accessibility permission on macOS: what an app can actually see
macOS asks you to hand over one of its broadest permissions with a single checkbox and no detail. Here is what that checkbox really grants, why some apps genuinely need it, and what to ask before you tick it.
- WindowNoteJuly 24, 2026
Sticky notes on a Mac: what Stickies does, and where it stops
macOS has shipped a sticky-note app since 1994, and most people try it once. Here is what Stickies is genuinely good at, the four things it cannot do, and how to pick a replacement that fixes the right one.
- BalaneDiskJuly 24, 2026
Docker is eating your Mac's disk: what prune really deletes
Docker.raw is 60 GB, docker system prune -a frees 40 of them — and takes things with it that nobody can get back. The four accounts behind the number, and which command empties which.
- WindowNoteJuly 18, 2026
How to remember what you were doing, when fourteen windows are open
The expensive part of an interruption is not the interruption. It is the twenty minutes afterwards spent working out where you were. A short, concrete system for making that cost close to zero.
- BalaneDiskJuly 18, 2026
Memory pressure, not free RAM: the only number that counts
A full memory bar is healthy — and a whole industry sells software that calls it a problem. What pressure measures, why "free up RAM" makes a machine slower, and how a real shortage actually looks.
- BalaneDiskJuly 17, 2026
Where does my Mac send data? How to find out
A computer nobody is sitting at opens dozens of connections in ten minutes. How to find out which program is talking where — with the built-in tools, and with one that resolves the destination offline.
- BalaneDiskJuly 10, 2026
WindowServer, mds_stores, kernel_task: what these processes actually do
The fan spins up, Activity Monitor shows a name nobody explains. What the twelve most common macOS processes do, when their CPU load is normal — and when it is not.
- BalaneDiskJuly 3, 2026
Why BalaneDisk never deletes anything
A cleaner that empties folders unasked is asking for trust with data it does not understand. We took the opposite route — measure, explain, and hand the lever over.