One of the nice little features in Leopard that I’m finding myself using more than I thought I would is the Spotlight calculator. Just activate Spotlight (Command+Space) and start typing in your equation. The answer is pops right up. No dashboard or loading of the calculator application. Give it a try.
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Believe it or not, I spend a lot of time thinking about writing. Now I know if you are a regular reader of MacSparky you may chortle but this blog is where I let my hair down a bit. When writing for clients and guys wearing black robes I am always very careful. You only have so much time and attention from your reader and people’s lives depend on me laying out their position favorably and quickly before I lose my reader.
There is a joke in the legal profession. “The difference between a good brief and a bad brief is about ten pages.” This doesn’t mean ten more pages. It means ten less pages. I like to finish my legal briefs about three days before they are due. I then spend the next several days stopping every once in awhile and hacking at it with my red pen. The brief never gets longer during this three day period. It usually gets much shorter. Just today I was paring down one of my briefs and came to a line comparing the other side’s position to Alice falling down the rabbit hole. While that seemed rather brilliant while I dictated it a few nights ago, today it looked cheap, contrived, and unprofessional. Scratch.
So there you have it:
1. Give it some time;
2. Don’t take ownership in every word;
3. Hack away.
There is a point to this post. Honestly.
Today I came across a post at DailyWritingTips.com called “Is There Really Room for Error in Writing?”. It is another fine post and I think Michael really nailed it when he explained:
As a writer, you have a limited arsenal. A sentence can only hold so many words before your reader loses track of what you’re saying. The English language only has so many synonyms that your reader understands, which limits the vocabulary you can use. So a writer has to squeeze all his or her meaning into a small space. There is little room for error.
Go read the article here. If you also “think” about writing, add DailyWritingTips.com to your RSS feed. It is well worth it.
For better or for worse, when it comes to internet security, I’m a novice. I know enough to secure my data. Indeed, since I carry around client data I keep everything locked up tight in an encrypted sparse image as I demonstrated in screencast #__. But in terms of people getting into my system via internet sniffing I know very little. Since some internet security specialists are raising alarm bells over the fact the Mac Firewall is defaulted in the “off” position, I spent a little time reading up on things last night. Apple goes to some length explaining the Leopard firewall right here.
There seem to be two camps on this issue. One group of experts say that the sky is falling and you should never ever turn your Mac on without the firewall enabled. Another group says you probably don’t need your firewall so long as you are behind a decent router. Among those in the second category are Steve Stanger and John Foster (at least I think it was John .. sometimes it is hard to figure out exactly who is talking on MacBreak Tech). Steve actually explained that there are some times when a Firewall is a very good thing. He used a hotel network as an example, but explained that when you are sitting at home or work behind your router, it really doesn’t make much difference. I trust John and Steve and decided I’m not going to get overly excited about this. I’ll probably turn it on when I’m not at work or home but otherwise I’ll leave it off. To each his own but that is me. I live dangerously. You’ll have to excuse me now. I plan to go run with scissors.
This week Quicksilver went open-source which is leading lots of folks to think it will be getting more development attention. That being said, I found an older post on Hawkwings detailing how to tweek the Quicksilver interface. I’m not sure if this is interesting to anyone else, but I sure dig it. Check it out.
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As the Leopard application upgrades roll in I’ve been increasingly using a great little application to keep all of my applications up to date. It is called AppFresh and you can download it right here.
AppFresh helps you to keep all applications (third-party and Apple), widgets, preference panes and application plugins on your Mac up to date, from one place. It works by checking the excellent iusethis.com database for new versions and lets you download and install available updates easily. Check it out.
Scrivener is one of my favorite Mac applications. I hesitate to call it a word processor because it is really more of writing tool than a simple word processor. One of these days I’m going to give it the review attention it really deserves. Nevertheless, today I’ll just report it has been updated for Leopard and looks great. Check it out.
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CNET UK is reporting that someone at ASUS (the guys who manufacture MacBooks) is manufacturing a new Mac Touch tablet-style computer. You never know if these rumors are true but this one makes a certain amount of sense. My guess is that if one exists, we’ll be seeing it at MacWorld. Stay tuned.
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My assimilation as a Mac Geek is complete. We have some relatives in the Bay Area we’ve been meaning to visit for a few years so we decided to go up the week of MacWorld. I don’t think I’ll be buying a ticket for the Keynote ($300!) but definitely haunting the expo floor and sharing my experiences with the MacSparky gang.
I’m going to stay at the Hotel Milano using the deal Dave Hamilton put together over at TheMacObserver. If you are attending, let me know and we can meet up.
I have been dabbling in Applescript and Automator lately. I am really new to it all but enjoying learning something new. Anyway, I found a really good review of Automator 2.0 right here. If you are interested in that sort of thing, check it out.
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I think multitasking is a bad thing. If a thing is worth doing, it should be done on its own. Trying to do multiple items at one time only leads to you doing none of them properly. On a more basic level, allowing yourself to be pulled into mental jijitsu on a repeated basis would be exhausting and not healthy. Anyway, WebMD has a nice article on “How to Multitask Without Losing Your Mind”. My advice still remains, avoid it if at all possible but if you must, read this.
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