New Links

I’ve added a few new links to the margin and thought I’d mention them in a post.
MacWingNut.com
My friend Darren Rolfe is just like me, a semi-contributor to Surfbits (and about to be a little more involved there) and running a new Mac Blog. I really enjoy reading what is going on in Darren’s world and hope you will too.

ZenHabits.net
I discovered this blog about 2 weeks ago and it has quickly risen to the top of My RSS feed. If there is time to just read one web site a day, it is this one. Leo writes on productivity, parenthood, and good living everyday. His site really strikes a chord with me and I hope some you enjoy it as well.

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Review – Desk Doctor

This review was recorded and can be heard on Surfbit’s excellent Macreviewcast #111. If you have a burning desire to hear me, check it out.
I am part of the first generation of lifetime computer users. My first computer was a Radio Shack computer with 4k RAM when I was about 10 and I’ve spent a large part of the last 30 years behind a computer in one form or another. I’m starting to see just enough grey hair in the mirror to make me suddenly listen to discussions about healthy computing.
It is with this in mind that I took a look at Desk Doctor from Einspine. Desk Doctor seeks to monitor the way you are using your computer and gives you subtle (and not so subtle reminders) on when you need to stretch and otherwise take care of OS Me. The risk to all of us computer users is RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury. Whether you are mining for gold in World of Warcraft or writing under a deadline, you are subjecting your body to the risks of RSI.
Desk Doctor starts out with a diagnostic test that takes about 30 minutes going over the various parts of your body and letting you identify your various aches and pains. This is a very thorough interview. Indeed more thorough than I’ve ever had with any doctor. Then the program takes you through a series of exercises to determine exactly where you are stiff and where you are not. Each exercise is accompanied by a video with the Desk Doctor lady showing you the way.
Once Desk Doctor figures out your particular needs, the program prepares a series of exercises for you. Again, the Desk Doctor Lady shows you each particular exercise. Not only does the program know what exercises you need, it also tells you when you need them. The program logs your activity on your Mac. It tracks them all, key clicks, mouse overs, mouse clicks. It actually keeps score giving you points for doing exercises and taking points for long periods of computing without rest or exercise.
Everything is customizable in the system preferences but the interface does not strike me as particularly clean or Mac-like. The score window is very small but does take screen space. You cannot see your score when it is minimized. It would be nice if they figured a way to integrate the score into a menubar item so your score is available but out of the way. I primarily use the audio alert feature. Whenever I work too long, Desk Doctor “barks” at me. Sure you can use the chime, but the “puppy” sound makes me grin.
All of this monitoring does not come without a price. Desk Doctor uses a lot of system resources. When in monitoring mode it adds between 5 and 20 percent to my menumeters processor stats. It is generally on top of my activity monitor and when I run the videos it sends both cores of my Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro into the 40-80 percent range. This is actually my second attempt to review this program. A few months ago I tried to review it but it was causing all sorts of mayhem on my intel Mac. The new version is Universal Binary and while it does use resources, I used it for 2 weeks without any crashing or other strange behavior. I was actually impressed with the developer who was very inquisitive after my first failed attempt at using the program and appears to be very interested in making this program work.
Because of the resource usage, I don’t run Desk Doctor when playing in Logic or Final Cut. I do, however, spend a great deal of time working at my Mac in work related applications such as NeoOffice, the Omni applications, and Keynote. It runs just fine then. I think I’m actually more productive with it. I dig in and work hard until Desk Doctor’s puppy starts barking. Then I do an exercise or two and dive back in.
There are high res and low res varients. I used the low res version to save a bit of disc space and make it easier on the processor. It is not cheap at $129 but that really isn’t much more than a single trip to the chiropractor so perhaps it is not as bad as it sounds. There is a free 15 day trial so if you are like me and actually remember what a Radio Shack Color Computer is, it probably wouldn’t hurt you to give it a trial run. If you are listening to this, you are the type who is taking care of OS X, so don’t forget to take care of OS Me as well.

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MacSparky Goes Lo-Tech

About three weeks ago I gave up on my windows based task system and switched over entirely to iGTD. I keep my laptop with me just about everywhere and this seems to work out. One issue, however, is the inability to keep my task list on my Treo 650. I must sync the smart phone with my office windows lawyer-type program (TimeMatters) and I’ve found out (the hard way) that syncing a Treo to two different computers can be a very bad thing for data integrity.
Anyway, quite often during the course of my day someone will call, email or walk in my office and tell me of something that will require further action or processing by me at a later time. Stopping what I’m doing and making an iGTD entry is very counterproductive and I needed a better solution. I played around with a few options. I’ve tried typing tasks into my Treo’s task list item but it takes several button presses and the thumbpad doesn’t lend itself to spontaneous entry. The best solution I found is to simply scratch a note when I’m away from the Mac and update iGTD next time I’m working in it. So I’ve been finding myself with this daily pocket full of business cards, sticky pads, napkins, receipts and other flotsam and jetsam that I’ve written a reminder on. (Did anyone know that you can actually write on a corn chip with a felt tip pen?) When I have time I then empty out my pockets and either take care of the action right their or process it into iGTD.
I was in the book store doing a bit of shopping I saw a display of pretty Moleskine notebooks and had one of those “Aha!” moments. $9.95 later I’m the proud owner of a pocket size Moleskine that has now replaced the scraps of paper and chips in my pocket. So far I’m just making a daily list and scratching things off when they find themselves into iGTD. I did, however, leave the first 10 pages blank in case I decide to go crazy and use one of the many interesting Molekine hacks all over the net like here, here, and here. I’ve only been using it a few days but so far it is working out nicely. In the pocket I’m keeping a $20 bill, a few cards, and a shrunken printout of the iGTD database. I do need to get a pen that will fit in my pocket though. Maybe I’ll find one that attaches to my keyring.
Any other Moleskine users out there? Drop me a note and tell me how you are using yours. As a side note, I also bought the pocket music transcription book. I’m writing a bit of music again and thought it would be handy.

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What the heck is ZFS !?…

The internet is hot with rumors about Leopard and ZFS. Apparently some mucky-muck at Sun Microsystems disclosed that the ZFS file system will be the primary file system in Leopard. I guess it is not as big of a secret as everyone was initially saying however since I’m hearing the alpha/beta testers of Leopard have been saying for some time its already in the build. Regardless, all this speculation led me to the question of what, exactly, is ZFS? I read the Wiki article here and it helped a little bit for my non-tech brain but then I really got a handle on it when listening (as a complete coincidence) to the Macbreak Tech podcast where it was explained along with a few chuckles. I’d give you a link but Macbreak Tech is very new and I can’t seem to find one. Just do a podcast search in the iTunes store and you are set. Now if you want me to explain what I understand of ZFS, that just isn’t going to happen. Monkeys shouldn’t do brain surgery and I shouldn’t attempt to explain ZFS.

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MacMediaCast Gets it Right

While I am very proficient at word processing and productivity type applications, I’m a relative newcomer to the media end of Macintosh. As a result, I’ve recently become a fan of the MacMediaCast video podcast which seems almost custom tailored to my Mac Media interest. I highly recommend it. And if an excellent video podcast isn’t enough reason to check out their blog, the folks at MacMediaCast also clearly recognize brilliance in that they picked up my iShowU review from the Surfbits website right here.

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Genius Chronicles

When I first bought my Mac, the Apple Store employees talked about the ProCare service. While I didn’t initially bite on it, after taking a few of the free courses I quickly realized there is a wealth of good information there. In addition the folks at the Irvine Spectrum Apple Store are all quite nice making spending time at the Genius Bar informative and fun. I went ahead and signed up for ProCare a few months ago (fortunately before Apple split it up into two services) Now having taken 4 or 5 classes I can report it is a good thing. I was pretty knowledgeable and my switch to the Mac was relatively painless. The Mac has really opened up the fun side of computing for me with music, video and pictures. I’m finding the genius bar appointments extremely helpful in learning all this media fun. The Genius’ enthusiasm towards Apple software is infectious and could end up costing you a few bucks in new software you didn’t even know existed. My report card on ProCare so far, A+.

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Review – OmniPlan

I recorded the below review and you can listen to it on Surfbits #110.
I have been intrigued with the idea of using project management software in my law practice for several years now. As a litigation and transactional attorney at any one time I have about 30 different cases and I am responsible for along with delegating work to several staff members and paralegals. Having the ability to organize these projects in a way to allow for strategic thinking and keep me honest as the weeks and months tick by would be invaluable. I explored this in my old PC days with Microsoft Project but it felt to me something like trying to hammer a thumbtack with a sledgehammer. Likewise I tried to use a custom template in Microsoft Excel but that also didn’t work for me. Enter OmniPlan [http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/].
I must admit I am a big fan of the OmniGroup. Having been pulled in by OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle, I became curious to see if OmniPlan, Omni’s project management software, could give me that planning edge I’ve been searching for. Put simply, it does.
OmniPlan is a project management application for the rest of us. It allows you to manage project elements, staff, and resources through the use Gantt charts. Like all of the Omni Group programs, the user interface is very well thought out with intelligent use of inspectors. This allows you to keep your project as simple, or complex, as your needs require. This also allows you to begin working with it in just a few hours.
The workflow for setting up a plan is really simple. You type in to the outline all of steps for a particular project along with the time required for each task and then set them out to the planned dates. During this process you can also set up dependencies where one task does not begin until another task ends. There is a lot of customization with these dependencies allowing you to set prioritization or even relating them to material supplies. You can also create these dependencies with your mouse by just dragging an arrow from one task to another. As you go through this process, OmniPlan builds an elegant Gantt chart graphically showing each task. Once you get your plan in place, you can then track your actual time and costs and compare them as you move through a project.
In addition to managing the critical path and milestones, OmniPlan also tracks the costs and resources attached to a project staff member, material, equipment, and groups. Using the built in calendar you can then apportion the availability of these resources or move areas of responsibility. You can even associate an hourly cost to these resources to keep track of your costs.
The program also checks to make sure you don’t goof anything up. For instance if I schedule someone to make lemonade on Monday but don’t schedule anyone to purchase lemons until Tuesday, OmniPlan will let me know ahead of time.
OmniPlan offers a variety of options to share this data. It imports Microsoft Project files as well as a few other formats. Likewise, it exports to Microsoft Project, iCal, HTML, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, pdf, and a few other image formats. You won’t have any trouble sharing your plan with others. I use my MacBook Pro in a windows office and export my OmniPlans to pdf for the various staff members that need access.
OmniPlan is the first project planning program I’ve tried that I can actually use productively. Its friendly interface and simplicity of use make it perfect for my needs. I spent about 2 hours going through the manual and I have already got that time back in better project management. I am admittedly using this in a small office environment but I do not see why this program cannot scale up for more resource intensive projects. There are other project planning programs for the Mac out there and some of them have been around longer and are, presumably, more feature rich. However, OmniPlan was so easy and quick for me to adopt into my bag of tricks that I don’t intent to stop using it any time in the near future.
This application could be of help to you whether you are constructing a building or a pine wood derby car and just about everything in between. If you are considering adding project planning software to your arsenal, I encourage you to visit the Omni Group website and watch the online video demonstrations or even download the demo for yourself. At $150 for a license it is a significant investment but well worth it in my mind.

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Palm Folio and the Radio Shack WP-2.. A New (old) Idea

I was looking at the new Palm Folio and it reminded me of my old beloved Radio Shack WP-2 that got me through lawschool. In many ways it was the best laptop I ever used. I didn’t need to plug it in. It ran about 20 hours on a pair of AA batteries. I beat the hell out of it and it just chugged right along for 3 years. I could fill it with a text file of notes and then go back to my apartment and dump it into my Atari ST Computer and I was good to go. Granted I love my MacBook Pro but it would be really nice to have an updated WP-2. Perhaps something with a simple screen and a decent keyboard that does raw text files and has an SD card slot in it for <$150. Something you could pull out on a train or plane or anywhere else with no fear whatsoever. I actually still have my WP-2. I’ve been letting my kids play with it for several years as a toy. They’ve beat it up more than I ever did and it still looks fine. Maybe I’ll put some batteries in it this weekend and see what happens.

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Rock and Roll Baseball

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – MacSparky style
I’ve got some really great footage of the kids playing baseball. I wanted to put it to the music for “Take me out to the Ballgame” and decided to record it myself. Using Band-in-a-Box, Logic, and my MIDI keyboard and WX11 Wind Controller (MIDI Sax), I came up with the attached as my first attempt at using Logic. For some reason it makes me laugh to think I laid down the Hendrix guitar with a MIDI Sax. I really like the instrument sounds but clearly have lots to learn. Its kind of funny that my first recording as an avid jazz fan is more along the lines of hard rock. My sister in law (a SERIOUS baseball fan) thinks it an abomination. Enjoy anyway.

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Mozy No More

Well my month long experiment of the Mozy service is concluded. Over the course of about a week I was able to upload a lot of my document files and my 10gb iPhoto library. The thought of spending a month uploading my 40gb iTunes library makes my brain hurt. I can see the benefit of online storage but I’m not sold. Instead of renewing I spent $80 on a USB hard drive that I keep in a secure location away from my home.
Mozy in summary:
Pros:
1. $5 a month, unlimited storage
2. Offsite
3. Presumably Secure Services
Cons:
1. SSSLLLOOOWWWWW Upload (1 week for 12gb)
2. How secure is my personal data once I send it out into the ether?

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