death before windows

2011-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

Will Apple's Subscription Plan Spark a Developer Exodus?

Courtesy NYT.

I'm betting the answer is "yes" ... but then again, I voted for Perot.

2011-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

I love my unibody MacBook Pro.

I recently powered up my "old" (pre-unibody) mid-2007 vintage MacBook Pro 17" for the first time in awhile. It's been gathering dust in the corner ever since I got my new MBP a few months ago. Wow - what a difference. It's amazing how quickly I've gotten acclimated / accustomed to the "feel" of the new laptop. Everything about the unibody MBP just *feels* solid, durable, way more substantial and stiffer than my old one. The overall difference is not subtle.

And don't get me started on the performance bump. Big honkin' Logic 9 sessions that literally would not run on the old MBP are barely cracking 30-40% on the proc meter with the new one. Incredible.

Great engineering, Apple - the new MBP is by far, *by far*, the best computer I've owned. Kudos.

2010-08-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

RescueTime

Following the recommendations and positive reviews from Lifehacker and others, I just set up my free RescueTime Lite account and so far I am lovin' it!

I had been looking for a "time tracker" app to record my overall time budgeting and make sure that the actual hours & minutes of my days were being spent on my actual big hairy P1's.

RescueTime gives you a fantastically useful overview of where all those minutes are going, broken down by day, category, application, and website or activity.

Getting set up is a no brainer - it took me less than two minutes to create a user account and download the tracker app to my MacBook Pro.

Once the app was installed, within a few hours my metrics started appearing at my "Dashboard" user page at RescueTime's website. The various charts and displays look great and are super intuitive to follow. This is exactly what I had hoped for - and all for free!

Honestly, the free version of the app is so good that I will probably pony up for the "Pro" version if only to reward the developers for building such a beautiful product. The "Pro" version apparently does give you some pretty juicy bells and whistles, such as: more granular tracking of time spent working on individual documents (as opposed to just apps and sites), setting of alerts for goals, and unlimited data storage (the free version tops out at two months' worth of data).

At any rate, I can already see this tool is going to be an incredibly useful nugget in my ongoing quest to turbocharge my own personal productivity. Thanks guys for a fantastic product. Highly recommended.

EDIT: I just got my first "Distraction Alert" - time to get back to work!

2010-08-06T02:59:00.000-07:00

How To Speed Up Your iPhone 3G / 3GS Running iOS 4

Been doing a bit of research on this topic; here is a synopsis of the tips I've collected from around the web, in no particular order...

1. Turn Off Spotlight Indexing

Navigate to Settings > General > Spotlight Search, and turn search indexing off for as many items as possible. "This reduces the overall workload of the system, so it appears to give an overall performance boost that is significant." (Source: RoughlyDrafted.com)

2. Cold Boot the iPhone

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button along with the Home button for ten seconds or longer, which will kill the phone and initiate a reboot. You'll know you have achieved a cold boot when the screen goes completely dark and the Apple logo appears. Note that some users apparently have to hold the buttons down for longer; your mileage seemingly may vary. (Source: RoughlyDrafted.com)

3. Restore your iPhone using DFU mode.

Put your iPhone into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode by following the instructions here or here. From there, restore your iPhone using iTunes. (Source: iSmashPhone / iPhoneHeat)

4. Reinstall your OS (and/or downgrade to 3.1.3) using iTunes.

Full instructions here, and here. (Credit: Findtut.com and Apple Insider)

EDIT: Lifehacker has an even more thorough article on this process.

5. Manually close your running apps.

Hit the Home button twice to bring up the list of running apps. Hold down one of the app icons in the system tray until all the icons start to wiggle, then hit the red minus signs to begin quitting the running apps one by one. (Source: poster Zaphon at Mac Rumors)

-----

Postscript: Here is an anecdotal report from at least one developer who seems to think that the current iOS 4.1 beta has improved the performance of his iPhone 3G. Hopefully, this bodes well...

2010-07-28T15:12:00.001-07:00

NYT: 'Blue Screen of Death' Caused Gulf Oil Disaster

This just in: Prolonged use of Microsoft Windows may cause explosions, death and massive environmental disaster.

Problems existed from the beginning of drilling the well, Mr. Williams said. For months, the computer system had been locking up, producing what the crew called the “blue screen of death.”

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24hearings.html

2010-07-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

iOS 4 Speed Tips

For those poor unfortunates who, like myself, are still stuck with last year's technology, here is a blog post offering tips on tweaking iOS 4 performance when running on older hardware (e.g. the iPhone 3GS, in my case):

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/07/07/how-to-speed-up-your-iphone-3g-running-ios4/

2010-07-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Antenn-aid for iPhone 4

This is awesome.

2010-07-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

iPhone 4 In Use - Comments From The Technorati

This just in: Engadget delivers an interesting redux of on-the-street reportage from their staff and other tech journalists, attempting to get to the bottom of the "iPhone Death Grip" issue:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

2010-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Consumer Reports iPhone 4 study flawed?

Quick hit here from the blog of former RF engineer Bob Egan, who somewhat debunks Consumer Reports' recent iPhone antenna testing:

http://mobileanalyst.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/iphone-4-report-consumer-reports-study-is-full-of-crap/

2010-07-12T13:10:00.001-07:00

Habit Forming Apps: Streaks & Routines

Quick note re: two iPhone apps I've found helpful in attempting to create new habits and rituals in my life.

Streaks is billed as a "motivational calendar" that simply allows you to track the number of consecutive days in which you achieve a specified objective. That's it. Sounds simple, but the single-minded focus of this app makes it (for me) exponentially easier to track my day-by-day progress in forming new habits. Compared to more feature-rich tools, its simplicity makes it something which I actually use... precisely *because* of its simplicity, in fact.

Routines is a dead simple checklists app that lets you check off recurring tasks of varying frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) and context (home, work, etc). Perfect for keeping oneself focused and tasked on sequential activities (e.g. working out, or my "morning ritual"). This is a "freemium" app that is quite useful in its free state, and only costs a buck or two to upgrade to the full version.

Together, these two little apps have greatly helped me in creating and tracking my daily "on-ramps" to productivity. Check em out!

2010-07-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

Evernote

Been meaning to post a quick shout out to Evernote, my favorite productivity app at the moment.

I am using a bastardized version of Bobby Travis's "one notebook" tagging system to incorporate a GTD-based structure into Evernote - basically using Evernote tags to create a Next Actions / Projects / Reference type of structure for incoming notes.

Evernote is in many ways a perfect solution for the "universal inbox" of GTD lore. Pictures, text, voice notes, emails, web clippings - all of these can be squirted right into Evernote from any app or device. PDF's and pictures get "munged" in the background and converted into searchable text.

Once in Evernote, incoming notes get tagged as either Next Actions (with context based tags e.g. @AGENDAS, @CALLS, @EMAILS etc), Projects, or Reference items. I got fairly anal with the Reference tagging structure and created single-letter tag headers from A through Z, with nested tags alphabetized hierarchically thereunder.

Working great so far...although I do miss having a single consolidated "top level" view of all open action items (a la Things or OmniFocus).

More to follow.

2010-04-12T09:32:00.001-07:00

New MacBook Pros finally imminent?!?

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/10/macbook-pro-updates-imminent-really-part-numbers-appear/

Film at eleven...

2010-04-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

MenuMeters

Nice little discovery for those who (as I am) are attempting to eke out every last drop of horsepower from an aging MacBook Pro:

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

The package comes with CPU, disk activity, memory and network usage meters. Setup is a breeze and the meters live unobtrusively in the menu bar (hence the clever name). It is released as open source freeware - please consider donating if you find it useful.

Very nice tool.

...

2010-04-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

MacBook Pro: The Wait Continues...

Poster ckelley at MacRumors.com reports building a 2.66GHz Quad Core i5-based Hackintosh that runs circles around a Core 2 Duo-based iMac:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=890167&page=19

Steve Jobs, are you listening? How about a 17" MBP with Quad Core i7 in time for May Day? Please? Bitte schön? Por favor?

...

2008-02-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

12" powerbook vs. macbook air

or, why i am not getting a new laptop ;-)

i realize this has been debated elsewhere, ad nauseum... but here are my personal criteria in making the decision to hang on to the 12" pb for another year.

1. optical drive. to be honest, i've re-thought this one a bit after becoming newly conscious of how little i really use the cd drive anymore... but the one thing i can't get away from is the travel-related use of dvd's. and what do i use the pbook for, if not for travelling? those hours when i am stuck on the plane, or at the hotel, or wherever i might happen to get stuck, are prime time for catching up on my dvd watching. not possible with the mba.

2. storage capacity. yeah, i know - i cheated by upgrading my pbook to a "new" 160gb internal. (and what a difference it has made, i might add.) but still, downgrading back to 80gb at this point would mean dumping a meaningful portion of my content. and for $1800, i just can't feel good about that.

3. removable battery. why, apple, why? when i think of all the times having a spare battery in my backpack has saved me from oblivion during a long cross country flight, the idea of getting stuck w/o a spare seems obdurately, unconscionably bass-ackwards. yeah, i'm not an engineer, but would it REALLY have been a problem to make the mba batt removable as well?

4. lack of ports. as with the opti drive, i have re-thought this somewhat after spending the last few days noticing how seldom i reach for my fw or usb devices... but the thing is, i still do reach for them. to shell out of $1800 for the privilege of having to carry a usb hub, and/or giving up fw compatibility, seems like sheer lunacy.

and the thing is, even as i type my little list... i can sense the still small voice of steve jobs whispering seductively in my ear, tickling my hypothalmus with visions of that damn envelope trick. yes, i know it is sexy. yes, i know it is thin. and yes, despite all my best intentions, i will probably succumb and buy one.

yeah.

but at least i will hold out until the rev 'b' :-D

(he said, sounding so confident....)

2008-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

mwsf a bust?

looks like i'm not the only one who is underwhelmed by the new macbook air:

linky link

you can have my 12" powerbook... when you pry it from my COLD DEAD FINGERS. sorry steve, but for functionality and form factor, the 12" PB is - still - the creme de la creme of the notebook universe. r.i.p., sweet g4.

2008-01-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

happy 2008!

best wishes to all for a prosperous and productive new year.

of course, the most exciting news of the next few weeks is the macworld expo, and god willing, i will be there, camcorder surreptitiously in hand to capture the magic.

a cool mw community site has been set up on ning.com:

http://macworldexpo.ning.com/

more to follow! (and hopefully, a brand new macbook ultra portable to ring in the new year in style....)

2007-10-29T01:53:00.000-07:00

leopard on the prowl

yeah, it's here at long last... i am finally clutching a long awaited retail copy of leopard in my hot little hands, and i will be installing on the ol' 12" powerbook as soon as humanly possible. full report to follow.

per published reports, the retail box does look pretty goddamn sexy what with the 3d holographic "x" logo and all.

god, i'm such a geek.

2007-08-08T00:23:00.000-07:00

iwork '08 first impressions

so iwork '08 came out today and being the uber geek that i am, i've already spent a couple hours digging into the free trial version.

numbers looks really, really good. let's face it, your typical ms excel user arguably uses spreadsheets for presentation and listmaking purposes just as often as to do actual calculations. and over the years, ms has added precious little listmaking functionality to excel. at first blush, apple has made this kind of 'day to day' stuff much more accessible in numbers than it currently is in excel. e.g., numbers lets you very quickly add multiple lists to a page and then select from several out-of-the-box templates when making calculations.

yeah, there's a handful of bells and whistles that are missing in numbers - but it is definitely good enough that i may seriously contemplate dumping excel.

pages '08 feels substantially more developed than the prior version. i have to admit, i spend a lot of time in word and may have to 'unlearn' my word habits a bit in order to be objective about pages. but my initial impression is definitely favorable and i look forward to exploring pages more fully later in the week.

keynote: where to begin. i've always found keynote to be generally bling-ier than powerpoint. in general ease of use (charts/tables etc) and visual pizazz (transitions, effects) there is no contest - keynote by a mile. apple's overall look and feel, graphical tools, and the usability of the included templates are miles ahead of powerpoint. the templates are a particular standout in my opinion - the apple flair for great design really comes through here and gives you a running start when it comes to creating your presentations.

for $79, iwork is an absolute no brainer and may in fact shortly obviate the need for any microsoft products on my mac whatsoever. nicely done guys. (what's the current pricing on office mac these days... $125? pound for pound, it's no contest.) i'll have to warm up to pages a bit more, but taken as a whole, this is a great package and i will definitely be buying.

life on a mac just got even sweeter. gracias, senor jobs.

2007-07-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

getting things done with omni outliner

first off, if you're not already hip to "personal productivity guru" david allen and his magnum opus, getting things done - i highly, highly suggest getting with the program and reading his book - or at the very least, skimming the free primer on his time management schema by visiting the very helpful 43 folders website.

if you are, wisely, already using the gtd system - then you're aware of the brilliance of contextualized "next action" lists to help simplify your life. omni group's omni outliner pro app is simply the best tool i have found for creating flexible, organic, easy-to-manage next action lists.

having tried a few permutations of regular text documents (textedit, word, etc) for this purpose - i am enamored of omni outliner because of the elegance of its "drop down" design. just like the nesting folder list views in the mac osx finder, omni outliner lets you drill down your projects, contexts and actions to the microscopic level - and then with just a few mouse clicks, collapse it all down to a couple lines of text to get the "bird's eye view" of the landscape. that feature alone is worth the price of admission (which is nominal - USD $40 for the standard license i think). the ability to collapse a massively detailed outline with a couple of clicks is truly life changing, and encourages "outcome based thinking" a la tony robbins. ("time of your life" and "getting things done" - now THERE'S a killer combo, btw.)

along with the collapsed/expanded views, omni outliner gives you some nifty features for tracking progress of a project - custom comment fields, inline notetaking, attachments/document storage, and of course the ubiquitous "checkbox". great app, and KILLS word (let alone textedit) as a project management/tasklist system.

to sum up: gtd = good. gtd + omni outliner = freakin' awesome. if you are already on the gtd track, you really owe it to yourself to give omni outliner a serious look.

2007-06-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

black steel

for those who are unaware of onyx - do yourself a favor and download it today.

having spent the last few years bouncing around between various osx maintenance applications and regimens - i can truly say that onyx represents by far the easiest way i've found to consolidate my maintenance chores. and at this price point (uhhh... FREE!), it is an unbeatable resource.

in no order - here are a few things that distinguish onyx from the rest of the osx maintenance utility pack:

1. compared to cocktail, applejack, etc., onyx's help files are a real standout - for such a "feature rich" app, the help system really makes it easier for a non-tech guy like myself to figure out what onyx is really doing to my system. the help files alone are a major reason to roll with onyx in my opinion.

2. i personally find the onyx user interface a bit easier to grok than the competition. the tabs make it really easy to figure out what you're doing - and while the "tweak head" settings are still in there for those who need them, the main functions are easy to wrap my brain around. cocktail has a better UI now than it used to - but i still find onyx more manageable.

3. onyx's developer - titanium software - seems to be a bit more forthcoming with their updates compared to the "other guys". i've seen updates and developer notes within a day or two of a mac osx update, which is pretty nice for a "freeware" developer.

together with carbon copy cloner, onyx has become one of my "must have" osx utility apps. next time - more on my backup strategy using ccc and a scripted backup system. ciao til then.

2007-06-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

golden chute

http://yellowmug.com/filechute/

if you haven't checked this one out yet, do it. it's the perfect file swapping add-on for your dot mac account. slicker ui than webdav, way faster upload times than finder drag-n-drop, and it's a breeze to use: simply drag your deliverables into the "chute" icon and email the resultant download link to all your pals. and it's windows friendly too!

the latest version has a nifty "progress bar" icon that gives you an instant status update on your uploads right from the dock or finder.

the only downside is the fact that this functionality really should have been built into dot mac in the first place. oh well - onward to leopard.....

2007-04-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

automatic lover

for anyone who's limped along (as i have) with third-party batchscript apps like "a better finder", mac osx tiger's automator facility is a revelation.

automator goes way beyond anything that was previously possible with the "better finder" series - and does it all with seamless osx integration and the appley elegance of the mac user interface that we've grown to know and love.

the first coolest thing about automator is that it's already built into your os. right-clicking (or control-clicking) on any item in the finder lets you select "automator" from the resultant pulldown menu, and from there you have instant access to a host of batch scripted functions that collectively can make life massively easier.

the second coolest thing about automator is the breadth and flexibility of the built-in scripts. "a better finder rename" is already suffering a massive inferiority complex right about now. here are just a few of the prelisted options: batch add for spotlight comments. combine text files. label finder items. sort finder items. combine pdf pages. crop images. rotate images. oh yeah, and... batch renaming. but of a scope and ease-of-use that "better finder" can only dream of.

the third coolest thing about automator is that you can save your scripts - and once saved, your scripts are always accessible system wide. no app launch needed, no "where did i save that file" brainfart moments, just pure unbridled zero-friction exhilarating slickness for your workflow.

automator in so many ways typifies what i love about osx: it's another one of those beautiful, invisible lifesavers lurking just below the surface of the os - which, once explored, invariably evokes the "how did i ever live without this thing?" slap-of-the-forehead moment of joyous wonderment. all hail cupertino!

2007-03-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

gtd and osx

...two great tastes that go great together.

part of my newfound zeal for all things mac is a direct result of my exposure to gtd and its benefits. (for those who aren't hip - run, don't walk, to 43folders.com and, if you're ready, prepare yourself for a revolution in your personal productivity.)

implementing your own gtd system on a mac is a thing of pure joy thanks to osx's inclusion of elegant and powerful apps that are eminently suited to gtd tasks. ical and address book are great on their own, but add dotmac functionality (multi-machine sync, web access from anywhere) and you are in another league. the beauty of it is that it takes ZERO additional effort for mac users to get set up with gtd - everything you need is already built in to the mac os, thoughtfully included by the beneficence of the almighty jobs. hail cupertino!

exactly how cool is this? more to follow...

2007-03-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

the wonders of dot mac

as part of the mac-centric reordering of my personal informational ecosystem, i recently transferred my calendar and contacts databases from my palm pilot over to osx's native pim apps, namely ical and address book.

i will get into the coolness of osx's syncing system in a future post - but suffice it to say that for accessibility, usability and sheer slickness, osx eats palm for lunch.

more to follow, imminently.

2007-03-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

you say quicksilver - i say pure gold.

how cool is quicksilver? let me count the ways.

1. open any app. open any document. all with a keystroke or two. need more be said?

2. NEVER, EVER USE THE DOCK AGAIN. i repeat: NEVER, EVER USE THE DOCK AGAIN. why waste time mousing thru a dockful of apps, scouring a myriad of icons for the correct one? hit ctrl-space and type the first few letters of the app. hit return. bingo!

3. search inside xml databases without even opening the app. looking for an address book entry? quicksilver has got you covered. need to track down a favorite bookmark in safari? quicksilver to the rescue. no open app needed!

4. amaze your friends by never using your mouse to open anything.

5. do you really need a 5?

2007-02-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

welcome to the blog.

yeah, i know. just what the world needs: another nerd-tastic, navel-gazing, self-important corner of the world wide web dedicated to the coolness of mac os x.

yeah, well..... GET USED TO IT.

with some amazement, i have watched myself evolve from disinterested bystander, to casual mac user, to unequivocal macintosh zealot. having been a computer geek since the 70's (!), and having evolved with the times from my very first trs-80 color computer, to vic-20, to commodore 64, to vax 11/780, to ms-dos, and eventually to win95 and nt and xp... and concurrently, as an audio professional, keeping a toe dipped in the mac side of the bathtub, from my very first mac se/30, thru the iicx and iici and quadra 650 and powerpc 970 and g4 and g5, into the modern day world of macintels and os x tiger... i can truly say that the current state of the mac, based on my experience, represents the pinnacle of the technological food chain, the crème de la crème of computer geekdom.

i don't know what is wrong with me, really. i mean, the computer is just another tool... like your stapler, or phone, or pencil sharpener.

right?

yeah... what ev. as any mac user knows, the the os x experience elevates the computer well beyond the status of mere tool... and into the realm of some kind of blissful nirvanic zendom, where seratonin flows freely and luxuriously in a warm rain of cogitative abundance; where great ideas grow on trees, springing effortlessly out from the void into joyous existence; where unbidden endorphins tickle your synapses as if by magic, and where a naked, cherubic, airbrushed steve jobs floats suspended in space while pressing frozen grapes into your speechless, adoring, gaping maw.

ok, that was kind of gross. in point of fact, though, i do not overstate the emotional impact that working on a mac has had on me, on a daily basis. every time i boot up my mac, i feel like i am getting away with something. the os is so beautiful to look at, and so elegantly laid out, and so effortless to navigate, that i truly feel as though the comforting blue cyber-scape of the mac desktop is an extension of my own neocortex... like my grey matter is intrinsically woven into the os.

it's kinda like a drug. it's kinda like a non-debilitating electronic mind expander, with none of the downsides of of an actual psychotropic. remember those brief, intoxicating moments during an lsd trip when the drug throttled up your neural carburetor to a full-throated roar, eagerly firing all those synapses that had been atrophying away in back of your cranial cavity.... gifting you with nearly godlike powers of intellect and perspicuity? at least, that's how i remember it - those ecstatic, tantalizingly brief minutes during the acid trip when you climbed mount olympus and took hold of the divine, before the piranhas appeared and began nibbling at the dark fringes of your brain, before the sweating and the tooth-grinding burnout kicked in. but i digress.

the point is: using mac os x gives me that same feeling of being on mental steroids. it's an incredible productivity tool, creative springboard and labor saving device. it's sexy, visually stimulating, and gorgeous to look at. chicks dig it. and, of course, logic only runs on mac, so they've kinda got you by the short 'n' curlies there. but, monopolistic jobsian thuggery notwithstanding, i wouldn't have it any other way.

so. the purpose of this blog is to document some of the individual 'omigawd' moments that make life on a macintosh such a transcendent joy. observations, soulful vignettes, day to day anecdotes, maybe some tips and tricks from time to time.... all in all, the collected impressions of one very happy mac user (me).

hope someone out there derives some benefit from this little enterprise... and if not, i'm sure i will enjoy putting it together. cheers!