What's New at the Blog - Shortcuts, Automation & a Dash of Humor

Hey there,

I hope this finds you well and a little curious — I’ve got a fresh batch of blog posts to share! Whether you’re into smart home automations, shortcuts that save time, or just a little bit of silliness when dealing with spam, there’s something here for you.

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📰 What’s New

Here are the recent posts you might enjoy (plus one or two you may already have seen):

• Fighting Spam with Automation: A Shortcut for Writing Hilarious Replies

Ever want to send snarky replies to spam—but without typing them out yourself? This post walks through a Shortcut that drafts sarcastic, AI-powered responses to spam, just for the chuckle.

• Automating TP-Link / Kasa Devices with Shortcuts

Unlock more control over your smart plugs and bulbs by integrating them with Apple Shortcuts.

• Get This Week’s Events: A Smarter Calendar Shortcut

Automate the process of extracting your week’s events and display them in the Apple Shortcuts app.

• App Store Links Made Beautiful with Shortcuts

Turn ugly, long App Store links into clean, pretty ones (and even automate it).

• I Could Write This Blog in Notepad

A reflection on how simple the publishing stack really is—plain text, Markdown, GitHub Pages, and some automation.

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✨ Spotlight

Fighting Spam with Automation is the kind of fun-first Shortcut project I love doing: it’s not optimized for productivity, but it stretches the boundaries of what Shortcuts + local AI can do. Using AppleScript + a local LM Studio model, the setup fetches an email, crafts a witty (borderline absurd) reply, and drops it into a draft. I didn’t send it — mostly I just laughed. 

But beyond the jokes, there’s a deeper idea here: using Shortcuts to glue together different systems—in this case, email, scripting, and local AI. Everything is local, everything is private, and everything is yours to tinker with.

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🛠️ Why You Might Try These

If any of this resonates, here are some ways you could put these posts to use:

• Make your smart home more powerful it --> Automate TP-Link, SwitchBot devices via Shortcuts + API
• Simplify blog or web publishing it --> Use the “Post Buttons” or “iCloud Links it --> Share Buttons” tricks
• Tidy up link clutter it --> Beautify App Store links or automate Alfred app cards
• Laugh at spam instead of regretting it --> Build the “roast the spammer” Shortcut
• Understand the minimal stack behind your blog it --> Read the “I Could Write This Blog in Notepad” piece

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If you liked any of those, I’d appreciate it if you’d:

1. Reply it --> tell me which post you liked (or which one you’re going to try)
2. Share it --> forward this newsletter to a friend who loves automation
3. Bookmark it --> keep it somewhere you’ll revisit when you need inspiration

As always, thanks for reading. I’m already brainstorming what’s next (maybe something with HomeKit, or combining shortcuts + other tools you love). Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Aidan 👋

aidanmaurinjones.com