Archive for March, 2008

SugarSync Initial Impressions

Published at March 29, 2008 in sugarsync and sync. 1 Comment
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So this morning I got a real simple email from reader Seth which basically said, “Check out SugarSync”. This is really an interesting service. At first glance it looks like another offsite backup plan but it really isn’t. It is much more aimed at syncing files between computers. Any types of computers: Macs, windows, iPhones, and Blackberries. SugarSync doesn’t care. I played with it for about an hour today and installed it on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. The cross platform sync is faster that doing it through iDisk for certain. I can access my documents from either computer, my iPhone and presumably my office PC. I haven’t used it enough yet to figure out where the kinks are (one is definitely security) and I’m not sure I want to pay another monthly fee but this is interesting.

Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

OmniGraffle 5 Review

Published at March 29, 2008 in OmniGraffle and Reviews. 2 Comments
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I think all reviews I do of Omni products should come with a disclaimer. I don’t hold stock in the company or anything like that. Omni does, however, manage to make tools that I find extremely useful in my day job and I’ve come to rely on their releases to make my life easier.

I reviewed OmniGraffle almost a year ago. Since then I’ve used it to make countless charts and diagrams. I was quite pleased with version 4 so the question becomes, should I upgrade to the version 5. After having participated in the Beta and used the final release for a month, the answer is “yes.”

For those of you who missed the original review, OmniGraffle gives you a set of tools to quickly and easily make diagrams, charts, and other things visual. If you talk Microspeak, it is similar to Visio. Using the application’s built in stencil library, it becomes stupid-easy to quickly assemble very attractive charts and diagrams that can be used on their own or exported into documents and presentations.

The new version 5 has a new interface that feels better to me. It is more consistent with the general interface guidelines you see in Leopard applications and gets rid of the drawer that was in Version 4.

Version 5 uses the new “Graphviz layout engine”. Once you set aside the marketing techno-jargon, that means several things as a user. It is faster, more powerful, and easier. Bezier curves are a snap and connecting objects is easier than ever. This is really helpful when you start moving things around.

The toolbars also got some love and now it is much easier to access the most commonly used tasks. An excellent OmniGraffle website that still sits on my RSS list is Graffletopia.com which acts as a clearinghouse for user created stencils. Apparently the folks at Omni are impressed too because you can now pull stencils down from Grafeltopiea from right inside OmniGraffle. One little improvement that I use often is support for Leopard’s “quick look.” I’ve collected quite a few diagrams and this makes searching through them very easy. Exporting is still a breeze and it is quite easy to incorporate the diagrams into your workflow.

OmniGraffle still comes in two flavors. The standard edition and the Professional edition which features better Visio support and other bells and whistles like subgraphs (which allow you to collapse portions of complex diagrams) and shared layers. One of the “Professional” features I’m very interested in is the notes inspector which should, if I understand correctly, allow me to applescript data or spotlight search right out of my file. I’m still working my way through applescript so I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

A lot of the new graphical bells and whistles rely on underlying Leopard technology so if you are still on Tiger, you are going to have to stick with version 4. In addition to a feature bump, OmniGraffle got a price bump. The basic version is $100 and the Professional version is $200. Upgrades from version 4 are $40. You can download a 30 day trial directly from The Omni Group. A lot of time went into making OmniGraffle intuitive and it shows. The only other applications that I think could get results like this are Visio (which does not exist in OS X) and Adobe Illustrator. Both more expensive and, in my opinion, more difficult to use.

The thing that sets OmniGraffle apart in my opinion is the shallow learning curve to quick, professional looking diagrams. The new version with a better graphics engine and a streamlined interface simply puts and exclamation point to an already useful application.

Bento Syncing with Applescript

Published at March 28, 2008 in applescript, bento, idisk and sync. 1 Comment
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As I continue my attempts to synchronize using two Macs I have run into a wrinkle. My database application, Bento, does not sync. Since I’m only using one machine at a time, and the address and iCal data is already synced, it works fine if I just copy the database file between computers when switching. The trouble is that Bento insists the database be located in my Application Preferences/Bento folder so it is a pain to drill to it and copy it over to my iDisk. This seemed the perfect excuse to try my Applescript chops. So here is the script:

set SendOrReceive to button returned of (display dialog “Hey Sparky, Sending or Receiving?” buttons {”Sending”, “Recieving”} default button 2 with icon caution)

set LocalBentoFile to POSIX file “Users/david/Library/Application Support/Bento/bento.bentodb”

set iDiskBentoFile to POSIX file “/Volumes/iDisk/Documents/Bento Data/bento.bentodb”

set LocalBentoFolder to POSIX file “Users/david/Library/Application Support/Bento/”

set iDiskBentoFolder to POSIX file “/Volumes/iDisk/Documents/Bento Data/”

tell application “Finder”
if SendOrReceive = “Sending” then
duplicate LocalBentoFile to the folder iDiskBentoFolder with replacing
else
duplicate iDiskBentoFile to the folder LocalBentoFolder with replacing
end if
end tell

This script asks if I’m sending (to iDisk) or receiving (from iDisk) and then copies the file in the right direction. I thought about making it more automatic by comparing dates and duplicating the newest version in both places, but decided I want to have control over what direction the sync is going.

If anyone out there has any ideas for improving it, let me know or leave a comment.

Aperture 2.1 Gets Burn and Dodge

Published at March 28, 2008 in aperture. 0 Comments
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Today Apple released Aperture 2.1 with enhanced plug-in architecture including a new burn and dodge tool. Those happen to be two of my most often used tools in photoshop. With the version 2.0 features and now the addition of plug-ins, Aperture is quickly becoming the only tool I need to process photographs except for those instances where I either want to do something exotic, or completely screwed up the image capture.

This is, apparently, just the beginning. Apple’s site lists several developers that are already working on Aperture plug-ins including:

* Nik Software’s Viveza plug-in, powered by U Point technology, which provides a powerful, precise and easy way for photographers to selectively control and adjust color and light in their digital images;

* PictureCode’s Noise Ninja plug-in that delivers advanced high ISO noise analysis and reduction;

* Digital Film Tools’ Power Stroke plug-in that features a simple, stroke-based interface to quickly mask and intuitively perform targeted adjustments;

* The Tiffen Company’s Dfx plug-in that provides an expansive suite of creative filters and effects;
dvGarage’s dpMatte plug-in, which is a high performance chroma key tool for creating seamless composites, and the HDRtoner plug-in that enables the selection of multiple photos to create a single high dynamic range (HDR) image; and

* Image Trends’ plug-ins that include Fisheye-Hemi to quickly and effortlessly correct fisheye lens distortion, ShineOff which automatically removes shine from faces and PearlyWhites that automatically whitens and brightens teeth.

They all sound good to me but I’m particularly interested in noise reduction since I’m not a fan of the flash often recklessly crank up the ISO.

You can get all the details at the Aperture Website.

The Google Reader Experiment and RSS Diet

Published at March 27, 2008 in google reader and rss. 5 Comments
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It has now been several months since I switched all of my RSS feeds over to Google Reader. In that time, several of the popular Mac RSS applications have become free. Nevertheless, I’m sticking with Google. Keeping it all through Google makes it very easy to move back and forth between my Mac, my iPhone, and even the windows box in my office. I don’t see myself using anything other than a web based solution for the feeds.

The next thing I need to do is scale back on the number of feeds I subscribe too. It seems I go through this about every six months where I cut everything back and then spend the next six months slowly bloating it. The trouble is I just have way too many interests! What is on your short list of must read feeds? You can get a good idea of mine from the links listed here at MacSparky. Sound off in the comments or drop me a note.

Re-Installing Quicksilver

Published at March 23, 2008 in Quicksilver and launchbar. 7 Comments
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For the last few months I’ve been running an informal test of LaunchBar. It is an excellent application but after living with it for awhile I’m happily returning to Quicksilver. I found LaunchBar more stable than Quicksilver but not as customizable and I really missed some of my favorite Quicksilver tweaks like timers, text append, the shelf, and (of course) that so cool cube interface. I wouldn’t entirely write off the possibility that I’ll give Launchbar another try someday but for now I need to go back and get re-aquainted with the Cube.

Screencast 12 - The OS X Dock

Published at March 22, 2008 in Screencast, Screencasts and os x dock. 0 Comments
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This screencast goes back to basics and explains usage and customization of the OS X dock along with a very nice little terminal command to give you a recent applications/recent documents icon in your dock.

I want to give special thanks to my friend Don McAllister, the godfather of Macintosh screencasting. Don showed pity on me and gave me some excellent screen resolution advice that helped make this new format look even better.


You can download it in iTunes or at the Libsyn Feed Right Here.

About the Downtime … I Know

Published at March 22, 2008 in trainwreck. 0 Comments
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I’ve been getting emails from several readers about the site being down or really slow the last few days. I know. I’ve been communicating with my host and they are aware of it. Apparently the server that contains MacSparky is much in need of love and getting it. They promise. Hang in there with me and things should be much faster soon.

Audioengine A5 Review

Published at March 22, 2008 in Reviews, audioengine and audioengine a5. 3 Comments

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For the past few weeks I’ve been upsetting the Neighbors with a pair of Audioengine A5 speakers. Audioengine is quickly becoming the manufacturer of choice for high end self-powered computer and shelf speakers.

When you open the A5 box, you have have a near-Apple experience. Each speaker is in its own cloth sack with a third sack holding a variety of connectors and wires insuring you will get it connected to something soon. The next thing you will notice after you open the box is that these speakers are heavy. The left speaker (with the built in amp) is 14 lbs and the right is 9. The materials in the speakers is 1″ thick medium density fiberboard and they have a high gloss piano finish that is very attractive. For guts, the A5’s have Kevlar woofers and the silk dome tweeters. Because they are magnetically shielded, you can use them next to your monitor but an iPhone will cause interference unless you put it into “Airplane Mode”.

On the left A5 there are a variety of inputs including AC power, perfect for your airport express, two stereo inputs, and a USB port. The result of all of this is you can charge your iPod while putting audio into the A5’s or you can use Audioengine’s wireless transmitter, the AW1 to beam music into the A5’s from any source. One of the inputs and the USB port is actually on top of the speaker making it very easy to access with your iPod.

In order put them to the test, I plugged in my iPod and listened to a track from Chick Corea’s latest album, New Crystal Silence. It sounded fantastic but as I started to ramp up the volume, I began to hear some compression distortion. The speakers were so good that I could hear some of the compression mushiness. I bought that album from the Amazon service so I hooked up my computer and ran the 256 kb version and it sounded spectacular. Playing music that loud through a MacBook Air felt like delicious overkill. Of course this means I’m going to have to rethink my encoding presets but I can think of worse problems.

There are some very detailed specifications on the A5s at Audioengine’s website. I didn’t have the ability or knowledge to confirm those specifications but I can say that it did a remarkable job of reproducing the music at louder levels than I could ever get away with at the same time my wife is in the house. The highs were clear. the mids were full, and the bass was tight without a lot of that mushy thumping I’ve heard on virtually every other speaker in this price range. I played a variety of music styles through it and they all sounded very good. These speakers are good enough to get a visit from the police at any hour. I can think of no better compliment.

With onboard USB and AC power there are a lot of possibilities. In addition to using them from my computer and iPod, I also put them in the backyard one afternoon while we were barbecuing and streamed wirelessly with the AW1. I also took them with me when I gave a presentation that included some audio and music. They did an excellent job filling the room.

My favorite use for these speakers however is for my music studio. Well, I call it a music studio. Actually, it is a keyboard in my living room with a small table next to it for my Mac. But in my mind it is a music studio. Anyway, up until the A5s, the speaker system in the “studio” was a pair of $50 computer speakers with a small plastic subwoofer. All I can say is not .. any … more. These A5s are such a huge upgrade. It makes playing the piano so much more enjoyable. Also, when I play back with 15 tracks, the A5’s handle everything from the rolling kettle drum to the tinkling triangle.

I wouldn’t call the A5s an impulse buy at $349 but at that price they still are an excellent value. If you are looking for top quality self powered speakers, I wouldn’t think twice about it. They include a three year warranty. Audioengine knows how good their product is because they give a 30-day audition. That means if you don’t like them, you can send them back for a full refund. Once you try them out, however, I can’t really imagine sending them back. You can order them directly and get more information at audioengineusa.com.

Keyboard Shortcut for “Save as PDF…” in OS X

Published at March 18, 2008 in Tips. 9 Comments
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Here is one thing that has been driving me crazy for some time. I constantly find myself saving from Safari to PDF. Whether it is a utility bill or legal research, I have a fetish for saving PDF copies. The problem is that in order to do so you must click print, then the PDF button, then the “Save as PDF” button. Each step requires me to get the mouse in the right place and read the menu. Granted this is probably less than 10 seconds but I do it a lot and it makes me just a little bit nuts.

So I’ve been thinking about this and wondering if there is an Automator action or perhaps an Applescript that can simplify this. Well tonight I stumbled upon an excellent hint at MacOSXHints that address this very problem very easily through with a keyboard shorcut.

Here is the walkthrough.

Open your Keyboard Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard & Mouse system preference pane.

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Click the “+” sign to add a new shortcut for all applications.

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Then a box pops up asking for the command.

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Type in the Command exactly as it appears: “Save as PDF…” For the ellipses, use the combination: option + semicolon. Don’t ask me why because I have no clue. Just do it.

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For the keyboard shortcut use: command + P (I know this sounds like a conflict with the print shortcut, but trust me)

Now you are done.

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Now go to your favorite webpage and hold down the command key and press “P” twice.

Bingo. “Save as PDF…” lickity split.

Memory Optimization and iFreeMem

Published at March 18, 2008 in ifreemem and macbook air. 0 Comments
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One challenge to using the MacBook Air is memory management. When working I typically run OmniOutliner, OmniFocus, iCal, Mail, Bento, and quite often some concoction of Parallels, Safari, Scriviner, Pages and Microsoft Word. I then spend my time bouncing back and forth between them as required. That is a lot of applications to keep in just 2 gigs.

I recently bought a $19 license to iFreeMem which seems to help. iFreeMem puts a nice little meter in my MenuBar.

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When I notice the green area vanishing and the yellow and red areas getting too big, I simply click the MenuBar icon and the friendly one button fix drops down.

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I then give it a clicky and it takes less than a minute to reshuffle the memory usually ending up with gobs of recovered memory. While it is running, the computer is frozen so that is a good time to go make tea. Things definitely run more snappy afterward. On my MacBook Air I do this two or three times a day. You probably get a better ‘flush’ with a restart but this is much easier and it is so gratifying watching the green pie grow.

I noticed that there are some Applescript hooks in iFreeMem too. I’m toying with the idea of designing a script or automator action around it but I’m not sure if that would be a good idea since I want to be in complete control of when my computer freezes for a minute.

Anybody else using iFreeMem or have suggestions for memory management?

Airport Express Bumps up to “N”

Published at March 18, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments
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The Airport Express has received a radio upgrade. It is now an “N” device and will not be responsible for slowing down you “N” network. I’m sure there is probably a good reason, but I really wish they had done this at the same time they released the “N” speed airport extreme.

The Airport Express is a device that should not be overlooked. For $100 you can stream music to your stereo, put a printer in the closet, get the internet to a computer with no wireless, hook your xbox into the network, or increase your network signal. Obviously you can’t do all these things at once but having it around sure is handy. Since Apple TV also does AirTunes, I was able to liberate mine from my stereo and now I’ve got it managing a printer that just does not like to play nicely off a USB hub.

Data Recovered!

Published at March 17, 2008 in aperture. 0 Comments
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I woke up this morning with an inbox full of ideas for recovering my photos that I posted I had lost yesterday. Thank you all for the advice. I actually downloaded a data recovery program this morning and when I went to access the card found the photos were still there. I told Aperture to delete them yesterday and I had just assumed it did. I guess Aperture was acting funny on several levels.

Either way, everything is back and being backed up as I write this. The best part of these hijinx however was the excellent emails and offers of help in my inbox this morning. Thank you all!

Even Geeky Mac Guys Can Screw Up Backups

Published at March 16, 2008 in Backup and aperture. 1 Comment
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So today was Palm Sunday and my daughter sang in the church choir. It was a sunny day here in Orange County and I got some great photos not only of my daughter but also some of the gardens. So I was merrily cropping, tweaking, and rating while doing about seven other things on my MacBook Pro and managed to grind Aperture to a grinding halt.

I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know if it was Aperture or me, but the whole process cratered. I restarted and my Aperture library was completely torched. I could see pictures but not move them or use them. Moreover, the newest ones were garbled beyond all recognition. To add insult to injury, I had already wiped the memory card. After monkeying with it for an hour I finally surrendered and reloaded the last night’s version of the Aperture library (Thank you TimeCapsule) and everything is right but this morning’s pictures are gone. Don’t you just hate that feeling when you realize you’ve lost irreplaceable data? You’ll just have to trust me that they were fantastic pictures. In fact, now that they are gone I am already remembering them as much better than they actually were.

Anyway, I have to admit this is the first time in years that I lost something I hadn’t backed up. Just goes to show you can never be too careful on these things. For now on, the memory card does not get erased until the RAW photos are in two places. Live and learn.

Screencast #11 - iTunes Smartplaylist

Published at March 15, 2008 in Screencast, Screencasts and iTunes. 0 Comments
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After a bit of a hiatus, I’ve got the screencast train rolling again. I rebuilt the opening graphics, moved the hosting to libsyn, and I’m now publishing in Apple TV format. Finally, I’ve been able to ramp up the production values a bit with ScreenFlow.

This short screencast walks you through the process of setting up a smart playlist in iTunes that will allow you to sync 50 of your favorite songs to your iPod that you haven’t listened to in the last month. The smart playlist automatically updates itself so every time you plug in, you get new music.

You can get it through iTunes or right here.

Review - MacBook Air

Published at March 15, 2008 in Reviews and macbook air. 4 Comments
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The MacBook Air has now been in the wild for a few months and reviewed by just about every major technology journalist and pundit.  So as I sit down to write this review I wonder what I could possibly add to the discussion.  Maybe the answer is some perspective by someone who actually paid for it and has been using it, not for review purposes, but as a tool to get through my day.

Lets start with a few well-trodden points. I doubt there is any computer on the market that gives you less bang for the buck than the MacBook Air.  For $1,800 you get 1.6 Ghz, 80 MB drive, and a single USB port.  This is the least powerful laptop in the entire Apple lineup.  In other words, if you choose your computer from a spreadsheet of features, move along, this is not computer you’re looking for.  So is it overpriced and underpowered?  I think that is a much more relative question than it initially appears.

So what is the point then of the MacBook Air? My answer to that question starts with my penmanship. Very few people have seen my handwriting for a reason.  It’s terrible.  I type everything.  I’ve typed everything since the first time I sat down at a Radio Shack Color computer in 1981.  Add to this the fact that I write a lot.  Finally, throw into this melting pot of consumerism the fact that I am frequently not at my desk.  I have a knack for getting stuck in places like offices, courthouses, airplanes, and hotels just to name a few.  As much as I love my 17″ MacBook Pro, it is not the easiest device to bring into these locations.  It requires a separate bag and it is heavy. Likewise, I use a computer in most meetings I attend.  Again while the 17″ MacBook Pro truly is a desktop replacement, it also creates something akin to the Berlin Wall between me and the person at the other side of the table.  I’ve always been aware of these shortcomings at a certain level but never really prepared to do much about them.  I’ve never owned more than one computer at a time.

This is what Apple does.  They figure out things like this and fill a need. My initial reaction to the MacBook Air was “sexy … but too expensive” That initial impression was based on looking at the feature list and not the utility. Then I started reading the reviews (Curse you John Gruber!) and thinking about the Berlin Wall and my inability easily carry my MacBook Pro on my travels. Well we all know how the story ends. I spent more money than I probably should have and now find myself for the first time ever having two computers I can call my own.

So how am I using this device? For me it is the perfect writer’s machine. A comfortable keyboard, a fantastic screen, and plenty of horsepower to drive things like Scrivener, Word, and the Omni Applications. For that purpose the MacBook Air is ideal. It goes just about anywhere and gives me access to my favorite applications in no time at all.

Knowing its limitations and its advantages, I’m finding it very useful. It fits in my briefcase along with the other detritus I tend to carry around and presents me with near instant access to my files with just a flip of the lid. Add to that other common computer applications like email, browsing, and Keynote and I have everything I need to perform about 70% of what I do at a computer on me at all times.

As a lawyer, I often find myself at the mercy of guys who wear black robes and don’t necessarily care about my inconvenience. As a case in point, I was attending a hearing this week where the Judge suddenly stopped me and explained he had a luncheon and would be back in “around two hours”. With the benefit of this tiny waffle computer in my bag those two hours were not lost. I got myself OmniFocused, returned email, and wrote a contract. So that is fine and dandy you say but couldn’t I have done that on a MacBook and saved myself a lot of money? Well to be honest, yes. But while I’m on the subject of honesty I don’t know if I would be carrying a MacBook at all times in my bag. You can not understate how thin this computer is. If you haven’t got your hands on one, you should. Or perhaps you shouldn’t.

It is engineered like no computer I have ever seen. The profile looks a lot more like something you should attach to to the wing of an airplane rather than use while sitting inside it. Beauty has its costs though. The sole usb port drops down on a self enclosed flap. It kind of reminds me of the door to the Bat Cave. My concern though is that you have to wriggle the usb cord to pull it out and over time that little flap is going to take a beating. Likewise, my friend Allison Sherridan points out that the MagSafe adapter is different from all other Apple laptops. Instead of plugging straight in, it runs up the side of the computer. This is because of that slick airfoil-like profile. The problem is, that from some angles, it doesn’t pop out as easily as the standard MagSafe adapter. In that case, the MacBook Air could actually end up taking flight.

So I told you about how 70 percent of my computing is handled with the MacBook Air. Unfortunately for the other 30 percent, it is completely inadequate. This is not a machine to produce video or music production. It is really not fair comparing the performance issues to my MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air has a slower processor, a slower hard drive, and less RAM. Regardless, I generally find the biggest interruption to my writing process is not missing clock cycles but instead misfiring brain synapsis. Apparently my brain doesn’t always keep up with 1.6 ghz.

I did, however, push Air a bit with my photo rig. I’ve got Aperture and Photoshop installed and while they aren’t as snappy as on my MacBook Pro, it is viable. Another issue with photo editing is I have to keep my library on an external USB drive so there is one more cause for a slowdown. I wouldn’t want it as my only photo machine but in a pinch, it will work. I’m planning on taking it on vacation with me and leaving the MacBook Pro home.

Speaking of the drive, I have strangely not had any problem living with an 80 gigabyte drive. As I write this, I’ve used 40 gigabytes and have 33 remaining. I’m sure I’ll find a use for that additional space but I already have everything I need for what I do on the MacBook Air.

I toyed with the AirDisk function but it was too slow for me. It was going to take hours to install iWork. Instead I pulled a very old USB external DVD drive out of mothballs. This was purchased for a PC several years ago but the MacBook Air recognized it with no difficulty.

In summary, I am loving my new Mac. It is so thin. I can take it anywhere that I can take a pad of paper. As a result, it is often close by and suddenly “dead time” is becoming “productive time”.

Syncing Data on Multiple Macs

Published at March 13, 2008 in chronosync, idisk and sync. 4 Comments
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So I suddenly find myself using two different Macs. I’ve worked on different computers before but never had two as primarily my workstations. As a result, I’m trying to figure out the best way to keep my data all synced up. This problem is made a bit easier by the fact that the MacBook Air gets used almost exclusively for writing, email, and a few other applications I use for work. As such, I don’t need to sync iTunes data, movie files, and other things that eat bandwidth like candy. The system does, however require that it be reliable, easy, and not ever lose anything. One Scrivener file could have several days worth of work in it. I can not “accidently” sync it out of existence. So as I research this issue I see three viable alternatives:

iDisk

This was actually recommended to me by a friend. I already keep a local copy of my iDisk. This really should be enough. It is always syncing to the .Mac server and when I move from one machine to the other, everything should be there. An advantage of this system is its ease. There are no extra steps required. It is seamless. My concern with this approach is the possibility of something funny at .Mac “syncing” the local copy to zero or (even more likely) a prior version of a file from the other machine. Now I know this is not supposed to happen. However that is not good enough. I can’t have it happen ever. Another concern with this approach is TimeMachine. I know TimeMachine does make a copy of the local iDisk but it is a sparse image and digging an old file out of it is not exactly the simple process I currently enjoy with TimeMachine.

Flash Drive

I have a flash drive on my keychain. I was advised by one Apple Genius friend how he much prefers keeping files between two Macs on a thumb drive instead of iDisk because he doesn’t like the performance hit. I don’t find the performance problem with iDisk to be much of an issue. I also worry again about security. It would be so easy to lose a thumb drive. Granted there would be a local copy on the last machine the file got used on but it still seems a bit klugey. You have to think about what files to copy over every time you sync and I will inevitably forget one or two (or five or six).

Local + iDisk

As a compromise, my current process is to keep documents in the documents folder like I always did. I add a few steps however. I run Chronosync whenever I’m leaving or starting a machine. The Chronosync file is called “iDisk” and compares the current iDisk image with select folders in my Documents folder. It then updates the iDisk with those files. In addition to word processing files, it also syncs over to the iDisk a copy of my OmniFocus database. I then move to the other machine and let iDisk pull down the new files, run ChronoSync again and I’m good to go. This system involves a few more steps but seems more secure (so long as Chronosync doesn’t torch me) and gives me actual TimeMachine backups for the data.

I’m new to all of this “two Macs” business and would love to hear how other people are doing it. Leave a comment or drop me an email.

Selecting Text with the OS X Keyboard

Published at March 10, 2008 in Tips. 3 Comments
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I recently had a switcher friend ask me about selecting and moving around in text in OS X. It occurred to me that there are probably a lot of new Mac users abusing their arrows keys as a result of not knowing how to select text so here is a quick review.

Moving by the letter …

Arrow Keys

Selecting one letter at a time …

Shift + Arrow Keys

Moving one word at a time …

Option + Arrow Keys (right and left)

Selecting one word at a time …

Shift + Option + Arrow Keys (right and left)

Moving one paragraph at a time …

Option + Arrow Keys (up and down)

Selecting one paragraph at a time …

Shift + Option + Arrow Keys (up and down)

Move to Top or Bottom …

Command + Arrow (up and down)

Select to Top or Bottom …

Shift + Command + Arrow (up and down)

Move to Front/End of Line …

Command + Arrow (right and left)

Select to Front/End of Line …

Shift + Command + Arrow (right and left)

Did I miss anything?

New Mac Roundtable

Published at March 10, 2008 in mac roundtable. 0 Comments
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The latest episode of the Mac Roundtable posted in iTunes. If you’d like, you can download it directly right here. In it, we discuss the pros and cons of the MacBook Air, our initial experience with the Time Capsule and a little bit of speculation on the iPhone software development kit which, you may not have heard, was announced last week.

Typical Mac User Podcast

Published at March 9, 2008 in Podcast. 0 Comments
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I did my bit with Victor Cajiao tonight on the Typical Mac User podcast and had a great time. I was very pleased to see several folks in the chat who routinely participate on the blog. Thanks everyone. If you weren’t able to join in you can get the audio from the Typical Mac User Podcast Live feed at the iTunes store or the subscribe button on Victor’s page right here.