September 2011
28 posts
CEO Swapper App From HP →
Building on the expertise they’ve gained by firing two CEOs in less than a year, HP has launched CEO Swapper — a beautifully designed iPad app that makes it easier than ever to dispose of one CEO and pop in a new one.
CEO Swapper streamlines the CEO replacement process by putting all the basics at your fingertips. Using HP’s proprietary CEO Seeker™ technology, you can search the current...
Known Networks?
Quite possibly one of the most annoying things I ever felt my iPhone did was ask me every time it detects a WiFi network if I wanted to join it. Now, I could understand why it would do this and how, for some people, it would actually be rather nice. But for me, it was just plain annoying.
Luckily, there’s a super easy way to turn it off. Just hop on into the Settings app, go to Wi-Fi, and...
Anthropomorphizing The iPad
I’ve been meaning to make this point for a long while, but in light of this current post I figured now is a great time to finally get it out there.
So here is the deal. You know the iPad? Well that’s just the thing. It’s AN iPad. Not just iPad. Apple will not one day introduce iPad 3. No. They will introduce THE iPad 3. See what I’m getting at here? Apple, one of the...
Coldplay On Mylo Xyloto →
A great exclusive with the band about their new album.
Architectural Photography Timelapse →
[Via Ben Brooks]
Solarized Alfred Themes →
I always like a good Alfred theme. These are really great. And I agree with the creator - I like the light one far better.
To All Glasses Folk
Just something that I discovered.
If you wear glasses, as I do, when you do your daily lens clean with soap and water - you’re doing that, right? - use bar soap instead of the liquid/pump soap. I find that bar soap comes off far easier than liquid soap, thus expediting the washing process by a surprising amount. But more than that, I found that it cleans them so much better. I...
Integrating Byword and nvALT →
A great tip that removes the need my Keyboard Maestro macro. Now still to choose between ByWord and iA Writer…
The Future According To Films →
I always wondered if there was something like this.
FinalTouch →
The idea:
FinalTouch allows you to create a hot key to slow down the speed of your mouse when you need extra precision.
This is especially handy if you have large monitors and have your mouse speed set high.
Really clever, no? I can see this being a great tool for designers and the like. I do a tad bit of design work and would have considered getting this. Why didn’t I?
It’s...
Some People Get Search. Some Don’t. →
Not only is this so unfortunately true, it’s a seriously under appreciated genius feature of the Mac.
Mental Tagging
These days I have lots on my mind and tons of things to remember. Tools like Things, NvAlt, and others help me keep track of everything. But sometimes, for whatever reason, I can’t get to my iPhone or Mac to jot down some info into a note, or a task into Things. Maybe I’m stuck in class, or in a position where taking out my phone would be rude, am just away from it all, or just want to...
What Evernote Is For →
Eddie Smith of Practically Efficient at the end of an article detailing how he uses Evernote:
Don’t approach Evernote with an all or nothing attitude. Instead, 1) look for specific ways that Evernote can make your life easier, 2) use it for those things, and 3) STOP.
May I make two points:
The same can be said for Yojimbo my “everything bucket” of choice.
I am still left...
My Relationship With My ToDo List
I just had a thought.
You see, there’s something that I have to do today, and in fact every day this week. The details of which are unimportant, but the fact of that matter is that it’s not something that I really enjoy doing, and thus there is not much motivation for me to actually do it. And thus, knowing myself fairly well, I knew that it was not going to get done unless I put it...
Behind The Scenes of "Suits" →
Missing the best show this summer after that fantastic finale? Can’t wait an entire year until the next season starts?
Well, these behind the scenes shots from Gabriel Macht’s wife on set ought to hold you over until then.
Oh who am I kidding. There’s no way I can wait that long. But that’s not reason not to bask in the awesome glow of these pictures. My favorite, by...
Tales of The Magic Trackpad
On July 27, 2010 Apple released the Magic Trackpad, the first radical new pointing device in a long time. Instead of dragging a mouse around your desk, you simply have a slanted metal trackpad that you drag your finger around on. Push down to click and the feet beneath the trackpad create a true ‘clicky’ feeling. All the multitouch gestures found on the iPhone and iPad can also be...
Apple’s Worst Icons →
Don’t agree with them all, but they do have some seriously painful ones here. Apple makes some killer icons, and some that are disgusting. Very few are in between.
Don't Trust Your Hotel Room Safe →
Good to know for when I actually need to unlock it because the bimbo before me didn’t.
Then again, perhaps it is indeed best to avoid them entirely. Just don’t leave your things out in plain site. No one is ransacking your room, but making things overly tempting to take is never a good idea either.
A Magical Magic Wallet
If you’re a guy, you no doubt carry around a wallet with you. In fact, you probably have a large bulge in your back pocket from said wallet right now.
Yuck.
That bulge is not only a big no-no in the fashion world, but I just flat out hate it. It’s annoying and looks terrible. I’ve always been one for thin wallets. And I always thought my wallet was pretty thin until I heard...
Really Simple Really Simple Syndication
In short, I’m going to be explaining the simple system I use to manage my RSS feeds.
Before we get started though, a quick refresher. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication was created as a sort of email service for the web. In other words, instead of you going to all your favorite sites, you have them come to you. Any site tat so choose, which is close to all, can ‘burn’ their site...
Alphasmart →
EggFreckles:
An AlphaSmart is not a Newton. It is a portable word processor. A full-sized keyboard combined with a reflective LCD that can display six lines of text, save eight 25 page long files, and work off of three AA batteries for up to 700 hours. During hurricane Irene my AlphaSmart Neo was all I had to type on after the power went out. It allowed me to write two whole articles...
TextExpander Tools - Brett Terpstra →
Some nice additions to add to your snippet collection.
Safari Restores Buffered Video →
A nice new feature found in Lion:
When you accidentally close a tab in Safari and then hit Command-Z to restore it, not only does it restore the browsing history of the tab but it also retains the buffered state of any videos you may have hit Play on before you closed the tab.
I’d also recommend reading the entire post for a heads-up about some oddities with this feature, and how to...
Growl Notification Style →
A nice theme for Growl that I’m currently using.
Dial Better With Dialvetica: An Evaluation
My application launcher of choice on my Mac is Alfred (with the Powerpack). On my iPhone however, well, there really is no application launcher at all.
Dial Better
On an iPhone
On an iPhone when you want to dial someone’s number you have one of two options:
Use the dial pad in the phone and enter in the number manually. Madness.
Use the contacts search (whether in the standalone...
The Need to Code →
Frank Chimero answering the age-old question “Do I need to know how to code?”:
My short answer is “Learn code.” My long answer, I suppose, would be that one should learn to code (specifically HTML and CSS), because it’s the language of the web, and while these skills aren’t necessary for every position, team or project, the knowledge does nothing but benefit the designer. Design...
How Your Tie Should Fit →
PutThisOn:
The length has less wiggle room. For whatever reason, men always wear their ties too short… The tip of your tie, however, ought to be around the middle of your waistband. It doesn’t have to exact, but it should be close. Your ability to achieve this will depend on how tall you are, where your waistband hits, and whether you have the correctly sized tie.
That is how your tie...
August 2011
66 posts
You Have It Already: Digital Color Meter
And now for another Mac gem of an application that you already have. That’s right. It came with your computer buried in your utilities folder, waiting to be launched.
It’s called Digital Color Meter.
The What
So, what does this thing do?
Simple enough, really. It measures colors digitally. And if that wasn’t enough of an explanation for you, although I can’t imagine...
A Gorgeous Widget for Analytics →
Gorgeous widgets are a rarity to begin with. But in conjunction with Analytics? Why, I thought I would never see those words in the same sentence.
Get More Free Dropbox Space →
Super! I have over 3GB now.
An Incredibles 2
Pixar is great. And they’ve had a damn near perfect track record for making fantastic movies up until the recent release of Cars 2. Now I have not seem the movie - and from the ads it honestly didn’t look to bad at all - but from what I hear it wasn’t very good at all. Especially not in comparison to the original Cars nor any other Pixar movies. It was just not up to par.
I...
A Lion Tweaks App →
I’m not generally a fan of apps like this - and in truth this app is no different - but for some people an app like this is just easier.
A Simple and Cheap Hack to Secure Drawer... →
I actually do not have this problem with the drawer organizers in my new desk, but that doesn’t make this any less of a devilishly clever trick.d
The Overdressed-Ometer →
Thought you should see this.
Steve Jobs and The Sound of Silence →
The best article on the subject I have read thus far. Truly moving.
What a Bunch of Idiots
Story time!
A few weeks ago I decided that it was high time to see Inception with my mother. It is now one of my favorite films of all time, and although I had already seen the movie a good two or three times, my mother had never seen it.
I had to correct that.
Now, my mother isn’t generally a fan of these types of movies but something inside of me knew that she would like Inception....
Things 1.5.1 →
I don’t see OTA sync in that (short) list…
An iOS Menubar →
Indeed, if what apple has done thus far is not enough for you.
It was enough for me.
Non-Disruptive Footnotes →
I do use footnotes on occasion on this site when needed1. However, if you choose not to ever read a footnote though, you won’t have missed anything. If it was that important I would have included it within the article. And I do this because, to be honest, footnotes are rather annoying. Better to use them than to leave the information out entirely, but like I said, I try to avoid them when I...
Lion Ui Kit Preview by Jonatan Castro →
For anyone who has the need to make mockups.
Or to toy around.
[via Khoi Vinh]
15 CSS Tricks That Must be Learned →
ThemeForest:
As web designers and developers, we have all come to learn many css tricks and techniques that help us achieve our layout goals. The list of these techniques is an ever expanding one, however, there are certain tricks that are essential to achieve your goal. Today, we will review 20 excellent css techniques to keep in mind when developing your theme.
Perfect for the beginner...
Vacation 2011
Nope.
No big article for you this time. This is more of just an update, really. An update to let you know that I will be on vacation from this coming Sunday the… hang on. Let me just open up iCal (which I actually do not think is hideous at all) real quick and confirm the dates. And… there. Yes. From Sunday the 21st until Sunday the 4th I will be on vacation.
For the curious folk,...
Really Good →
As their business card says “You Need This Stuff”. And indeed, you do.
An iHome in My Home: A Commentary
For the longest time, I have wanted an iHome. It was always just something that made sense to me as I not only listen to my iPhone on a nightly basis (podcasts, mostly), but I even hooked up a charger cable there on my nightstand as well. An iHome would take care of the charging and also give me a far better speaker than the ones built into the iPhone1.
There was another reason that I wanted an...
The Logic Begind Alfred's Release Numbers →
Ever wondered how the seemingly strange Alfred release numbers are come up with? Turns out, there’s a lot of thought put into them, as explained in this blog post pondering the version number for the upcoming minor maintenance release.
CommandQ →
OneThingWell:
I honestly can’t think of any apps I use that let me quit with unsaved work, while downloads are in progress, etc., but if you use one that does this could come in handy.
Yup, that’s just about what I was thinking.
That Squiggle of the Design Process →
Very clever. I like this a lot.
[Via Shawn Blanc]
6 tags
Take 5: A Commentary
Let me set the scene:
You’re sitting at your unique and beautiful desk listening to some great Hans Zimmer while you’re hard at work doing whatever it is that your doing. Say, writing for example. Then, for one reason or another, you give in to the urge to check Twitter and within mere seconds find yourself on YouTube about to watch the latest and greatest…something. Obviously you...
