The Bitch is Back
Oh, Quicksilver; I can’t stay mad at you.
(Thanks for the update on the worthiness of another look goes to Jay-Sir)
I have been using, and enjoying, Alfred, for months but I too miss Quicksilver. Hopefully my old friend will treat me well.
iMac Boot Problems
My parent’s new iMac won’t boot. I can’t get any of the dozen startup key strokes to work including “T” to get to target disk mode to pull off their data. My dad has booted it as late as Wednesday but it locks up after 10 minutes. Once it is shut down I meet a a gray screen without the Apple logo.
I believe it is a hardware issue but I’m holding out for someone out there to have a final suggestion. Help me!
I have a backup of their data so I don’t feel too bad. The worst feeling is pushing them to get a Mac for years and their first one failing them. My plan is to take it back to Nashville, get it fixed, and bring it back up in two weeks.
Beth’s Data
Beth has been working on her resume lately which gave me a peek into her home directory. It was a mess before I organized it tonight. I had dumped everything from her laptop into it before it left. She had a lot of data duplicated and sprawled across the desktop and laptop. I organized it for her tonight which satisfied the dark, OCD side of Tyler. That is the same side that had a strong urge to clean up customer’s desktops when I worked at PD Computers.
My only remaining task is getting photos into iPhoto. There are already a lot of duplicates and I expect more. So I will use Duplicate Annihilator, an OS X app that detects duplicates by MD5, dimensions, file size, EXIF, and more. I think it will be worth the $8.
What about task managers? Omnifocus feels like being on Tokyo subway during the morning commute. If I had tits, I’m sure one of Omnifocus’s menu bars would be squeezing them. I don’t want my task manager asking me what’s the start and end date for everything. I don’t want it to feel like it’s pressuring me into daily or weekly reviews.
Doing More With Less: Minimalist Software
I have been evaluation TaskPaper, simple to-do list software for Mac & iPhone, over the past week. I have looked into other software but got turned off by excess of features. TaskPaper handles everything I need in lists. I look forward to buying the iPhone app for to-do list domination.
By the way, this article is funny and worth a read about cluttered software and recommendations for WriteRoom, TaskPaper, and Adium.
OS X IP Widget - I finally searched for an IP widget today instead of trying to find my IP address from ifconfig’s output.
This morning I download a handful of DOS games that I played (and beat!) during my childhood. Some were enjoyed at home and others at school. This is a screenshot of the first Duke Nukem. Hilary & I would play this frequently, probably more by her. We called these little guys Herbies.
I downloaded
- Crystal Caves
- Pharaoh’s Tomb (1-4)
- Duke Nukem (1-3)
- Monument on Mars
And I had Huge 3: Jungle of Doom when I first downloaded Boxer, a DOS emulator for OS X.
OSX Tip
Here’s something that I’ve kept to myself for a while: To move a window in the background without bringing it to the front, ⌘-click its chrome and drag.
But wait, there’s more!
It’s not just the chrome that reacts this way. It’s any element of the background window. Select text, refresh a page, close the window, pause a movie (iTunes’ buttons are natively able to be used without bringing the application forward); anything.
Today I got GrowlMail & megazoomer working with Snow Leopard after both apps were updated. I’m happy to have these tools back.
CPAN
The least favorite part of starting a development project is preparation of the environment. Getting a database installed and connected is still not done but I believe I have fixed my CPAN problems. Settings weren’t being retained and I was having difficulties installing modules. Then I noticed that make wasn’t installed. So I decided to reinstall OS X Developer Tools from the Snow Leopard disc. Now it is all happy and I can continue on my journey to writing code.
I enjoy my 1-2 hours being alone on Saturday mornings while Beth sleeps.
