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Saving your surfing on the Mac
Filed under: Features, Cool tools
I'd wager that most of you spend as much of your time on the web as I do, and that it's one of the first places you look for answers to just about any question. As a web designer, I look there for inspiration, solutions and am constantly learning how to improve my design and my code with the help of the internet community.It's become important, over time, for me to be able to re-locate the answers I've found, and to archive things that have made a difference for me. I don't just want a folder full of bookmarks, I want to be able to search my local repository in a more abstract way. The tools for doing this are abundant, and many of them free. I thought I'd share part of my current system for saving my tracks across the 'net.
First, I should note that, wherever possible, I use OpenMeta tags to classify the things I save. This isn't always an option, depending on my tool of choice, but it helps bring some coherence to the elements of my system and makes it easy to search across programs with Spotlight. You can search for tags in Spotlight using a "tag:" prefix, and applications like Evernote allow similar results using a "keyword:" prefix. You can merge Evernote and OpenMeta tag searches using an "OR" statement. A spotlight search for tag:inspiration OR keyword:inspiration will get you items tagged "inspiration" in either Evernote or an OpenMeta program. These can be saved as Smart Folders, too, for common searches.
Saving solutions and ideas
Evernote is a very good "surfing" repository for me. I clip the important sections of text using a custom clipper and create new notes from them. My custom clipper (an AppleScript/Javascript System Service) isn't terribly important, the default clippers will give much the same result (mine just handles code and images a little better). What you end up with is a taggable, full-text-searchable bookmark to the original web page. You can save entire PDF's, but I've found that keeping my Evernote notebooks trim and text-based works best in the long run.As a side note, the previously-mentioned HistoryHound can make it very easy to search in retrospect for pages you might not have realized you wanted to save at the time, and Instapaper is excellent for gathering pages you want to read but don't have time at the moment. The combination keeps my notebooks and local searches from being cluttered with things I haven't even read yet.
Collecting Inspiration
Bookmarking
If I need a full-page image of the site, I have a couple of options. If it's just an inspiring design I want to archive, I use LittleSnapper to snap, categorize, tag and annotate the page. If I want to be able to Spotlight search the full text of the page, though, I use the oft-forgotten Paparazzi! to capture a vector PDF, and then tag it as I save it using Default Folder X (or soon after, using Tags). The beta version of Paparazzi! has given me no trouble, despite a lack of updates, and has proven to be a valuable tool.
In cases where I just need a bookmark/description record of a page (and sometimes even if I've already archived it in another fashion), Delicious and Pinboard are excellent tools for the job. I especially enjoy using them with Delibar, a great app for both storing and searching my bookmarks on either service.The Tags application from Gravity can also directly tag web pages in Safari and Firefox, making it possible to include them in your Spotlight searches. There are several applications available which can make your Delicious bookmarks show up in your Spotlight index as well.
In Safari, in case you don't know, you can access the first nine non-folder bookmarks with Command-[1-9]. I keep all of my bookmarklets and commonly used links in folders, so the only shortcut-accessible bookmarks in my toolbar are my surfing tools. I also prepend the bookmark name with a number, reminding me what Command-number combination will launch it: 1. Quix, 2. Delibar, 3. Read Later (Instapaper), etc..
Capturing CodeWhen it comes to code snippets, I'm still looking for the perfect system. I really, really like Snippets, but I'm not completely sold on its integration with my workflow yet. I've found that Evernote -- with my little custom clipper -- works quite well. The basic trick is to strip out any line numbers in code blocks and maintain the pre/code formatting on import. Evernote will then respect indentation, and applies a monospaced font for readability. The other option I've found to work well is to save snippets as plain text files in a "Snippets" folder, add a description in the comments (based on the language of the snippet) and tag them with Tags or Default Folder X.
Taking notes
Tagging
For keeping notes that aren't directly related to a URL or general search, I keep VoodooPad open pretty much all of the time my computer is running. With some scripts borrowed from Ian Beck and slightly customized, I can grab notes and tag them on the fly. If, while I'm surfing and searching, I come up with an idea for a project or post, I just send it to my VoodooPad scratchpad. I use the tag "blogaboutit" to add it to my collection of post ideas, or "freetime" and "project" to add it to a list of project ideas I might get around to someday. I can include links, notes and attributions in VoodooPad, and can send it straight to my scratchpad from LaunchBar. Some other scripts in my arsenal also allow me to save complete batches of tabs as a markdown list to Evernote or VoodooPad to archive entire search/surfing sessions with a date, time and primary subject.
When it comes to the tagging part, I generally tag based on the type of archive it is (snippet, inspiration, reference, etc.), any tags that would help me find that specific archive again, and then some special tags. For example, I use the tag "problemsolved" in combination with a tag specific to the search I made to find this answer. That makes it easy, next time I run into the same problem, to locate the answer using the same query that led me to it originally. This trick can be used on Delicious, in Evernote, on plain text files, and even on PDF's with annotations and tags. By the way, I use Skim for PDF annotations and notes because it makes much easier-to-Spotlight notes than Preview or Acrobat (among a host of other great features).
Admittedly, this is too many tools to keep track of, which is why Spotlight and custom scripts (to automate everything) are so important to me. Spotlight allows me to use the best tool for each situation, and then bring them all together in a seamless search. That's the gist of my toolbox, though, and hopefully it will give you some ideas for expanding your own.
TUAWSaving your surfing on the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Review: 3M MPro120 pico projector
The 3M MPro120 pico projector delivers bright, high-quality images.
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FBI: Cyberfraud losses doubled in 2009
According to the FBI, cyberfraud victims reported total losses of $559.7 million in 2009, more than double the 2008 tally.
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Apple to replace iPad batteries with a new iPad
If you're concerned about the use of your iPad in 2013, fret not; for $99, Apple will replace the whole unit if the battery no longer holds a charge.
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GDC 2010: Hands on with Pocket Creatures
One of the best things about going to a convention like GDC is what we in the business call "doing research," which you might know as "playing games." We often get to check out the latest and greatest that developers are working on, and so when Tactile Entertainment offered us a chance to check out their upcoming Pocket Creatures title, we gladly took it. The company is founded by four friends from Denmark, one of whom used to be the Development Manager at Crytek (makers of the PC graphics engine and its flagship shooter Crysis), and Pocket Creatures, due out later this year, is their first title.
The game's backstory tells of an island somewhere with an egg in an ancient temple, and in an intro movie, the egg hatches to reveal the game's main creature character. But the game isn't merely a virtual pet simulator. While you can pet the little guy to make him happy or slap him to make him sad, the rest of the game actually embodies a pretty complex ecosystem, of which the creature and his emotions and abilities are only a part.
Early on in the game, the creature was hungry, so we shook a tree growing elsewhere on the touchscreen, and out dropped a banana. The creature wouldn't eat it at first, so instead we pulled a carrot out of the ground and fed that to him. As he interacted with the carrot, a meter showed up on the bottom of the screen, with the marker all the way to the green, positive side on the left -- the creature liked carrots. He didn't like bananas, however, but with a little petting and reward added to the banana offer, he eventually learned to like it and ate it up.
The peel was carried away by a few ants who appeared on the scene, and this was where things got interesting. Almost anything on the island can be interacted with in some way, and often even more than one way. We dragged an ant to a small nearby pond, where a set of eyes was peeking out, and dropping it in there brought out a platypus. Grabbing the platypus and scratching him across the ground created a small hole in the dirt, and placing the half-eaten carrot there created a sproutling. Sproutlings need water to grow, of course, and while we were told that there were a few ways to get water to the hole, one seemed pretty sadistic -- we smacked the little creature around until he began to cry, and a small raincloud appeared above his head to show that he was sad. Dragging the raincloud over to the sproutling watered it, and we were off to the races.
The game is full of relationships like that -- feeding the creature certain things can activate certain powers as well, and those can be used on critters and items in the rest of the world for all different kinds of interactions. He can eat a lightning fruit, and gain the power to zap all sorts of things, changing them in some way. Or he can eat a love fruit, and gain the power to convert enemies into friends. Tactile made it clear that if you wanted to turn the island into your own personal garden of peace, that was possible, but they want to make sure and "play in either direction" -- you can turn your creature and his surroundings into a mess, if that's what you'd rather do.
For each of your actions, you'll get rewarded with various achievements. Those achievements not only track everything you do in the game, but they also give you items that you can use to customize the creature's appearance -- earn the "Devil" achievement and you can get some horns to wear, or earn the "Angel" (whatever that is -- they haven't created all of the different criteria yet) achievement, and you can wear some wings. You can even earn both, and keep both items -- however you want to play it is fine.
Tactile says they're planning to keep the content coming as well -- "we like the way Pocket God is doing it," they told us during the demo. They haven't settled on a price yet, but they do realize that the game has a lot of potential on the iPad. Even before the game was announced, they said, "the concept was already there for a touch tablet," even if it wasn't done by Apple. But like all developers, they're unsure of making any plans before they actually see the product. "Our destiny is sealed by somebody behind a secret door somewhere."
If there's an issue with Pocket Creatures, it's that the game might be too open in this early stage -- there were so many things to do and so many relationships that not too many of them were clearly apparent in our short time with the game. But we did get to see a feature that allowed them to place some tips in the landscape, and they're continuing to tune and work on development, so hopefully by release, even the most complicated of relationships will be accessible. We'll keep an eye out for it when it shows up on the App Store in a few months.TUAWGDC 2010: Hands on with Pocket Creatures originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Talkcast Reminder: Tonight at 10pm EDT, now with added fun!
Filed under: Hardware, Retail, iPad
Yes, that's 10pm Eastern DAYLIGHT Time; hopefully by now you've worked out exactly what time it is where you are so you can show up on time instead of coming in at the end. (Thanks, cell phone with automatically updated clock!) Tonight's show will also include the debut of a TUAW challenge! What kind of challenge? Tune in to find out!
While you're there, I'm sure we can find some other Apple news to discuss this evening. I'm sure if we look really hard there is some interesting tidbit out there for all of us to chat about...
Unlike those customer service recordings that try to convince you, your call really IS important to us. Without the audience, we are just talking to ourselves, and what fun would that be? To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!TUAWTalkcast Reminder: Tonight at 10pm EDT, now with added fun! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Was the iPad Launch a Success?
Even though a single iPad hasn’t actually been shipped, that won’t stop the questions over the success of initial orders from being asked. Considering how Apple has positioned the iPad in the product lineup, on par with the Mac, iPod, and iPhone, Steve Jobs better have a press-release answer ready. On Friday, Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple [...]
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Apple vs. Google: World War III
Apple and Google once had what looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
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Ask TUAW: Clocks, screen guards, MacBook hard drive replacement, NFS automount, and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about replacing a MacBook hard drive, refreshing a NFS mount, getting a simple clock on screen, improving iCal's note handling, and more.
As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.Felix asks
I'm a iMac user in search for a USB hub and a FireWire hub with a Mac-like design. Sure there are several of them (especially USB hubs) that have a Macish look but then theres the thing about performance. Some years ago I bought a USB2.0 hub just to find that some of the ports feel much slower than others and that sometimes my iPod (now my iPhone) just don't get recharged at all when connected to the hub. So my question is, what do you think are the most Mac-like looking and well performing USB and FireWire hubs available?
Here are a couple of combo hubs you might be interested in from Belkin and IOGEAR. The Belkin hub does not feature its own power supply (apparently it draws more current from the FireWire port), whereas the IOGEAR does have an independent power supply, so if you're concerned about power you might want to go in that direction. In general if you want particularly "Macish" hubs, I'd recommend searching for ones made for the Mac mini (there are quite a few out there).
Derek asksI recently replaced the LCD in my aged Powerbook 15" 1.33 (A1095). When it arrived on my doorstep there was a plastic film applied on the face to protect it during shipping. I've always had a problem with the LCD on this Powerbook (and my old G3 Wallstreet, for that matter) touching the keyboard when the lid is shut, thusly leaving permanent marks on the face of the display. So, I left the film on the replacement LCD, and it has worked very well to protect the new screen. However, it's starting to peel and bubble on one edge and I'd like to replace it. Does anyone make screen protectors such as the variety of stick-on protectors for iPod Touch/iPhones in sizes for laptop screens? I have considered hitting the local megamart and just getting several to piece together, but I think the seams would be more annoying than the bubbling.
There are several different film screen protectors available, such as this Crystal Screen Guard at Amazon. The biggest problem is finding one that will exactly fit your PowerBook, since most everything sold today is made for the MacBook Pro line. I think that the PowerBook actually had a 15.2" screen, rather than the 15.4" screen on the MacBook Pro. So I'm guessing you'd have to trim down a MacBook Pro Screen Guard to fit your PowerBook.
SMartenup asksI would like to find a way to save all of my open programs / documents, and then restore to that same set of programs & documents. Is there any way to do this?
OS X does have a feature called Safe Sleep, which is much like the hibernation features on other operating systems. When invoked it saves the state of your Mac to the hard drive and then actually shuts the computer off. When you restart the machine, it will be restored to the state that was saved. There's a handy Preference Pane app called SmartSleep that will allow you to invoke Safe Sleep automatically.I get the sense, however, that what you want is something analogous to session saving a web browser's tabs, but for all your open documents. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of anything that does quite what you want.
ooglek asksI have a 250GB SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS. I've had it for about 3 years, and it works well enough. Now on Snow Leopard both my 2008 Mac Pro and my 2006 Macbook Pro can access the NAS via NFS Automount setup in the Disk Utility (new for Snow Leopard). My problem is that when I take my laptop out of my home office, when I come back, I have no way to "refresh" or reconnect to the NFS mount. I'm not sure if it is hung (used to have to kill nfsd in Leopard), awaiting some user action or just not set up right.
I don't have much experience with NFS mounts, but if I'm understanding the problem correctly you need to flush the cache with the sudo automount -vc command. That should cause it to essentially "refresh." Check out this thread over at Apple Discussions.
vulgo asksI am a long time Mac user and as far as I can think back I was using Microsofts Entourage as a calendar and before that Outlook for Mac. Since I got my iPhone 2 years ago I always wanted to migrate to iCal to use that as my main calendar application because of synching reasons. Unfortunately iCal is in my opinion a bad solution. It sure does allow notes in the notes field but there is no way to work properly with lots of text in the notes field like you can easily do in Entourage. You cannot just drag the corner of the window and make it bigger to get a good overview about what you write or copy/paste there. The column is and stays just too small. Do you have any idea for a good solution to make iCal fulfill the task of a proper note field without moving to another software?
I know you asked for a solution that involves iCal, but I don't really think there is one. I completely agree with you that the iCal notes interface is terrible, but I'm not aware of any way to make it work better. However, if you are willing to drop a little coin, you should check out BusyCal ($49), which offers iCal / MobileMe / iPhone compatibility and superior better features, including a much more robust notes field (especially in List View).
David asksI desperately need a bigger drive for my MacBook. Everyone says it's pretty easy to replace, I just need to buy a 2.5" SATA drive. But I'm so afraid of buying the wrong drive that I can't make a purchase. Here's why: Some folks have strongly recommend not using a drive that is larger than 250GB, and/or faster then SATA 150, 5400RPM. And most of the drives available out there are at least 320GB and often SATA 300 and 7200RPM. Am I being too conservative in my desire to stick to the recommended guidelines? Should I just stop worrying and buy a bigger/faster drive? If I understand the articles, I could/should be safe with a bigger drive as long as I don't use more than 250GB of the drive? I'm nervous enough about replacing my drive so any advice you have would be much appreciated.
Frankly, I don't really understand why anybody would tell you that you have to be limited to 250GB. I am aware of no reason whatsoever that you would need to limit yourself to a drive that small. You should be able to install any 2.5" SATA drive you like, including SATA 2 (SATA 300) / 7200 RPM drives. One thing to consider is that faster 7200 RPM drives will be more power hungry, thus reducing your battery life and increasing heat (your MacBook likely shipped with a 4200 RPM drive, so a 5400 RPM drive might be a good compromise). If you're particularly paranoid you could get a Mac-specific upgrade kit, like those from MCE Tech or OWC, but you don't really need to do that. One nice thing about some of these kits is that they include an external enclosure allowing you to continue to use the old drive as an external hard drive.No matter which drive you end up with, it's a good idea to get an external enclosure, or at least a USB to SATA adapter (like this one). That way, as soon as you get it you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! ($27.95) to clone your existing drive to the new drive. Then install the new drive into the computer and you should be able to start right back up where you left off without reinstalling anything. Good luck!
Brent asksI am running dual monitors with my macbook and I don't need a menu bar on both, but I would like a clock running on the second screen. What is the best thing I could use?
There are a gajillion little clock apps available for OS X. Check out this search at MacUpdate for a sense of what's out there. You'll probably have to churn through a few of them until you find one that fits your style. If you want a place to start, check out SimpleFloatingClock.
David asksFor the upcoming iPad my wife and I are planning on sharing one. Our question is about the email. Is there a way to switch users so to our email is not available to the other. I don't see any way of doing that on the iphone, but we don't share them.
Obviously we don't know for sure yet, but everything so far indicates that the iPad will function more or less like the iPhone. That being the case, just as the iPhone doesn't support multiple users, I consider it extremely unlikely that the iPad will either.
TUAWAsk TUAW: Clocks, screen guards, MacBook hard drive replacement, NFS automount, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPad Battery Replacement Program
Though some critics like to vilify Apple for its practice of building devices with inaccessible batteries, the benefits definitely outweigh the consequences for such a tradeoff. The MacBook Pros are rated for up to eight hours of battery life, the iPod nanos get up to 24 hours of audio playback and the new iPad is [...]
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Video How-To: Printer Sharing on a Mac
The following how-to video will walk you through the basics of printer sharing on the Mac. You’ll learn both how to set up and how to access printers on a network. We will cover the following points: Setting up Printer Sharing Printing to a Shared Printer Adding a Printer via System Preferences You can watch the embedded video below (lower [...]
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GDC: Mac gaming talk of town, among winners at award shows
On Saturday, the Game Developers Conference wraps up at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. By all accounts, it’s been a very exciting week for Mac gaming.
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Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction
Filed under: Multimedia, Internet Tools, iTunes, iPhone, Music
The problem is, we just don't know where they're going. In a Saturday blog post, the company announced it is "...taking a new direction" and won't be offering their current apps to new users.
SimplifyMedia has been offering free software for computer-to-computer and iPhone-to-computer music sharing over the internet. Using the iPhone app, you could connect to your computer at home and stream albums, playlists or songs without any complicated firewall setups. A newer version of the software also allowed remote access to your iPhoto library.
It also looks like the company is going to slowly sunset current customer accounts but will continue to keep them functioning for at least another 3 months.
The Simplify iPhone app has been removed from the App Store, and the company says new account creation will be disabled soon.
I don't have any idea where the company is headed, but the current product will be missed. SimplifyMedia was offered for Mac, PC and Ubuntu.
[Thanks to Robert for the tip]TUAWBoo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AT&T to deploy HSPA+ in certain locations on the way to LTE
When you look at LTE, our deployment is designed to fall back to HSPA. The beauty of our deployment is that it will come at the right time...
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GDC: Aspyr reveals new plans for The Secret of Monkey Island
LucasArts unveiled its plans for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.
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PC World’s Gruman: iPad pre-orders are for idiots only
Friday morning, the fool's parade started. Apple is taking online 'pre-orders' for its iPad tablet...
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120,000 iPads pre-ordered on first day?
Estimates of the number of iPads Apple will have manufactured by April range from...
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Steve Jobs wins approval to apply for permit to demolish his ‘dump’ of a house - again
A judge has approved computer magnate Steve Jobs' long-delayed plan to tear down his mansion in Woodside...
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New iPad Details Emerge as Pre-Ordering Commences
People may be able to buy their iPads today, but they won’t actually get their hands on the much-anticipated devices until early next month, and later if they opted for 3G connectivity. But Apple isn’t without a heart, so the company revealed some new specific details about the tablet on the iPad micro-site, according to [...]
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Which iPad I’m Ordering and Why
It’s a little after 6 a.m. Eastern on Friday, March 12 as I write this post. Some two hours from now, the Apple Store will officially take orders for all iPad models, apparently with the ability to specify pickup at a local store. The store is currently down, though it wasn’t the last time I [...]
