I love the polish that comes with every Rogue Amoeba app. When they released their first Mac App Store app, Piezo, I was immediately in. Version 1.1 is out now and records both sides of Skype calls. I’m going to try this with our next MPU episode. If you’re looking for a good recording utility, you can’t go wrong for ten bucks.

Don McAllister of Screencasts Online is one of my favorite people in the Mac community. In addition to being a swell guy, Don is also a really good teacher. If you are going to be near someone with a new Mac or iPad this Christmas, first point them to Don’s new screencast apps. He has them in both the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. They are tailor made for new iPad and new Mac owners. Think about it. For just a few dollars, your beloved can learn about their new technology from Don and his Liverpool accent while you enjoy another cocktail and take a nap. It’s a win-win.

Here are the links:

• Mac Tutor (on iPad) (on Mac)
• Lion Tutor (on iPad) (on Mac)
• iPad Tutor (on iPad) (on Mac)

PostDesk has its annual list of web geeks and their holiday lists, including yours truly.

I’ve been toying with the idea of a journal. When writing iPad at Work, I discovered this really great app, Day One, that takes all the work out of creating an electronic journal. It works on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone and uses Dropbox to keep everything in sync. It has reminders and good security. There is no excuse not to make an entry anywhere with this ecosystem.

So now that the technology is out of the way, I had to figure out why I felt this need to keep a journal. I don’t have any self delusions that a daily entry about the events of my life would be of any interest to anyone. When I am gone, historians aren’t going to need a contemporaneous record of my life. So striking vanity off the list, I can only think of two reasons why I might want to keep a journal:

1. Therapy for myself. It seems a good way to collect and deal with my thoughts about whatever is happening in my life. This is particularly true if I create the entries before ending my day.
2. Nostalgia. It may be interesting in a few years to go back and see where my head was in 2011.

As a result of all this navel gazing and my infatuation with Day One, I’ve decided to commit to journaling 2012. Even if it is just one sentence, I’m going to make an entry every day.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Mac Power Users Episode 67, Web Security, is available for download. We invited George Starcher to join us with advice about staying secure on the Internet. This is a very detailed show in classic MPU fashion. There is a nice summary towards the end though, around the 85:50 mark. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes.

You should really listen to the show but here are a few good points to remember:

1. At home, use OpenDNS.
2. At home, secure your network with WPA2, not WPA or WEP.
3. Public WiFi = Shields up.
4. Public WiFi = No transactions that involve money.
5. Get rid of Flash.
6. Don’t run as Admin.
7. Use a separate browser for your banking transactions.
8. Use 3G instead of Public WiFi if at all possible.
9. Use 1Password.

Great news for Scrivener geeks. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I’ve made no secret that iThoughtsHD is my “go to” mind mapping application. The developer also has a version for the iPhone that shares many of the shortcuts and cloud syncing features that makes its iPad big brother so great. iThoughts for the iPhone has one feature the iPad doesn’t (yet). You can create sibling entries by dictating on the iPhone 4s using commas. The above screenshot was created by me dictating into one node, “Baseball (comma) soccer (comma) football (comma) golf”. This is great for brainstorming. (Note I should have said “cap” to capitalize the sibling entries.) Check out the developer’s video showing off this feature below.

MPU listener Marvin wrote in about how he created playlist folders for each family member to help avoid trashing each other’s playlists using iCloud and iTunes Match. I promptly copied this trick and now we have playlist bliss. Nifty.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Do you have a collection of external hard drives sitting around and an overwhelming sense of confusion about what is stored where? Mike Yenco’s Archive 7 indexes your hard drives and lets you search all of them, even when offline. Moreover, the latest version is in the Mac App Store. I’ve just started using it and wondering why I didn’t do this sooner.