{"id":2180,"date":"2026-07-11T12:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:34:36","slug":"my-colleague-wanted-a-nerdy-niche-tool-for-his-macbook-codex-whipped-it-up-in-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=2180","title":{"rendered":"My colleague wanted a nerdy, niche tool for his MacBook. Codex whipped it up in minutes."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Every week in the AI Playground section of our Tech Memo newsletter, we feature folks trying an AI tool, or sometimes I test stuff out myself.<\/p>\n

Read more Blackstone accepted fewer than 1% of intern applicants. Here\u2019s the advice Jon Gray gave those who made it.<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, we hear from Business Insider’s star AI reporter Stephen Council. He’s been using OpenAI’s Codex tool to build software stuff without using code. OpenAI merged Codex with ChatGPT this week, so this is good timing.<\/p>\n

I adore the copy-paste tool. Every day, it saves me from misspelling names, misquoting sources, wasting time on rewriting\u2026 I could go on and on. It’s quick and easy and basically perfect.<\/em><\/p>\n

This week, <\/em>Codex<\/em> made it better. I’ve long wanted a version of copy-paste that lets me store multiple strings of text at once, so I can copy something new without losing what I’d copied before. There are clipboard managers for this online, but they often cost money, or add a pop-up and additional clicks \u2014 exactly the slowdowns I don’t want.<\/em><\/p>\n

I gave OpenAI’s tool a 190-word prompt, and voila! Five minutes and 26 seconds later, Codex handed me my app.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more I won $160,000 in a lottery and spent it all. Here\u2019s how I had fun and invested in my future.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, I have 9 different copy-paste slots on my work MacBook. Command-c and command-v work as normal, that’s slot one. But now I can keep additional names, quotes, and links at the tip of my tongue: cmd-c-2 copies text for cmd-v-2, cmd-c-3 ties to cmd-v-3, and on and on. The app hangs out on my menu bar, so if I want to see what each slot is storing, it’s all a click away.<\/em><\/p>\n

Very satisfying. It’s exactly the niche and nerdy case that <\/em>vibe coding<\/em> is good for.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter <\/em><\/strong>here. Reach out to me via email at <\/em><\/strong>abarr@businessinsider.com.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more The superyachts of tech\u2019s richest billionaires, from Jeff Bezos\u2019 Koru to Sergey Brin\u2019s Dragonfly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Business Insider’s Stephen Council used OpenAI Codex to build a custom Mac clipboard app in minutes\u2014no coding required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nMy colleague wanted a nerdy, niche tool for his MacBook. 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