I want to say thank you to a bunch of writers, to people who do what they do because they love to do it, from an anonymous one that reads and appreciates what they do every day.

They may never see this, but, in no particular order, a huge thank you from me to you all.

Tech and Opinions

Matt Gemmell at Matt Gemmell is owed free drinks at my house forever. He may be well known for his tech, tweets and speech making, but the depth, emotion and soulfulness of his recent writing has touched us more deeply than he knows.

Brett Terpstra on his blog at BrettTerpstra.com shares some brilliant, mad-scientist scripts and automation ideas. I use his Slogger and Markdown products all the time, and am always surprised by the creativity, breadth and depth of his ideas.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball is the original and still the best. He has an opinion, but more importantly, he justifies his opinion with clearly written thought and argument. And he never claims to be right. May I write as well as him one day.

Federico Viticci and friends review products at MacStories and its clear that they love what they do. Instead of just reviewing products, they use them, push them hard and render clear opinions on them.

I came late to Shawn Blanc’s blog at Shawn Blanc. And boy is it good. Shawn walks a personal journey with tech, and helps us all connect with it.

Marco Arment writes at Marco.org and pulls no punches. He has an intelligent and opinionated style, but never lets his personality override the facts that he ensures are totally, nerdily correct. Aside: Is nerdily a word? It is now.

Stephen Hackett writes at 512 Pixels and seems to point out all the cool stuff others miss. And for his Josiah, #GOJGO.

The first indie Mac app I ever purchased was Brent Simmons’ NetNewsWire. He writes tech at inessential.com: weblog and I learn something new from each post.

In the same vein, Craig Hockenberry occasionally writes tech at furbo.org and when he drops a post, it hits with a resounding thud. Many a time his posts have saved me when I have gotten stuck on the same issues.

The mysterious Dr Drang writes at And now it’s all this. You never know what to expect next, a script, an analysis or an opinion piece. But they all make you think.

Ben Brooks hosts The Brooks Review and often has an alternative view of things. Which I like. Maybe too many of us follow the herd, Ben does not, and clearly presents his view.

News

The Beard, a.k.a. Jim Dalrymple presents The Loop with all the latest Apple news. It’s where I hear about most things first. And I just love it when Jim drops in with his own opinion pieces. I have a special supply of Heineken should he ever drop by.

Renee Richie heads the team at iMore and I seem to be reading them more and more. I suppose that’s because the are the anti-Verge.

Of all the big companies that write about tech, only one makes this list today, Ars Technica. Their in-depth articles are usually well balanced and they avoid the link-bait fluff pieces that seem to fill the tech press these days. Lets hope that does not change.

Maciej Ceglowski probably had no idea that the Pinboard: popular bookmarks page would be of any use, but it is. Whenever I am looking for something new that I know I will like, I check this page out. It’s like a good Hacker News because of the kind of people who use Pinboard.

Shopping

I hate shopping, but surprised myself this year by finding two recommendation sites that I actually like. The Sweet Setup is new, and recommends apps, sorting the wheat from the chaff; and The Wirecutter that goes through all the tech specs and mad model numbers to find the best devices so we do not have to.

Thank you all for inspiring, entertaining, informing and sharing. You may never hear from us, your audience, from me, your reader, so hear this now: thank you, we love and appreciate what you do.

Hiltmon, now

Note: I wanted to keep the list short, being part of a long list makes it less special. And I wanted to focus on individuals or small businesses (except for one), doing what they love, not what they are being paid to do.

Follow the author as @hiltmon on Twitter and @hiltmon on App.Net. Mute #xpost on one.