Objectpark’s FuzzyClock

My friend, Matt, first showed me FuzzyClock a few years ago, and I’ll admit that, at first, it seemed sort of silly and counter-intuitive. But even after a few days’ use, it became one of my favorite little Mac apps.

Unlike the typical digital clock that tells you the precise time, FuzzyClock gives you — well — a fuzzy version of the time. So, instead of your menubar displaying “4:58:23 PM,” you’ll see “nearly five.”

Plus, you can enter in your own custom fuzz — for example, changing the period from “5:25pm through 5:35pm” to “beer thirty.”

Many thanks to Guido for the fast update to universal binary; he heard my whining the other day, and pushed out a new DMG lickety-split.

Now, I think the last three PowerPC holdouts on my personal UB wish list are SplashShopper, AutoPairs, and HumaneText.

On that last one — a useful OS X Service for turning Markdown text into HTML and back — I suppose its author, Jack, can be forgiven. He’s been kinda busy lately.

Rollabind/Circa vs. Legal Pads  read more »

Creation time for files in Linux  read more »

Windows Vista Build 5744 Discussion  read more »

Seems like every time another Mac user looks over my shoulder, they freak out over the number of little icons I have up in my menubar. And — like all Mac geeks — we have to immediately start trading information, learning tricks, and sharing tips. I’m sure you know the drill by now.

If you were looking over my shoulder right now (and I hope that you are not) here’s the stuff you’d see in my menubar.

The larger version on the Flickr will, where appropriate, let you mouseover for the name and a link, but I’ll save you the trouble of a click by repeating the links below.

• Adium - excellent IM app
• Skitch - Beta of a mind-blowing screen capture app
• Twitterrific - Gives me my Twitter crack
• iScrobbler - Relays my “now playing” info to Last.fm
• quicksilver - Duh. It’s Quicksilver
• Spirited Away - Handy app that hides non-active apps. As seen in my MacBreak demo. Would benefit from an update to Universal Binary
• ChronoSync - Very cool app for keeping two folders synced
• Growl - Notifications out the booty (personally, I like “Music Video” style notifications)
• SynergyKM - App to let you share a keyboard and mouse between multiple computers. Haven’t gotten it working yet, but I plan to.
• Remote Desktop - Control one Mac from another Mac.
• Apple .Mac Sync - Almost-saving grace of the overpriced and underpowered .Mac suite is automatic syncing of iCal, Mail, contacts, etc.
• SoundSource - Free app for changing sound inputs and outputs (highly recommended for musicians and podcasters)
• Spotlight - It’s a piece of crap, but it’s our piece of crap. I tend to use the Quicksilver plug-in more often.

Not 43 folders. Just 3 folders.  read more »

Address book and PDA=>lo-fi  read more »

zonageek: blog: The Geekster Moleskine

Oh, this is a fun mashup of two things I love. Transforming a standard Moleskine sketchbook into an external hard drive:

A few weeks later I accidentally placed my WD Passport external drive on top of my Moleskine notebook and, what do you know, they were pretty much the same size. That got me thinking.

Clever, geeky stuff.

GTD for Linux  read more »

OmniFocus update  read more »

DockStar and MailTags for Tickler File in Mail.app  read more »

Mini CD/DVD storage sleeves  read more »

Scattered Greeting  read more »

PIM for windows-using colleague?  read more »

Email Organization  read more »

Merlin????  read more »

Panic - Coda - One-Window Web Development for Mac OS X

In conjunction with the celebration of their 10th anniversary — and cannily timed to be eligible for an Apple Design Award — Panic has released their new “one-window web development” app, “Coda.”

I’ve only been playing with it for an hour or two, so I don’t have anything revelatory to add to everyone else’s reactions. But, so far, I’m very impressed with the ease of use and lovely design. That said, hiding under the pretty is a lot of great stuff that should make prosumer web designers’ lives easier, including built-in SSH shell, a straightforward CSS editor, and a very configurable multi-paned window approach. I also love the low-key code validation, Hamburger Helper “Clips,” and what looks like a pretty nifty “Bonjour” sharing functionality.

The care that the Panic folks put into all of their apps and the humor and humanity that they express as a company makes me proud to use a Mac. They’re doing God’s work, and, whenever the opportunity arises, I’m all too happy to give them my money.

mac mail virus scanner with signature  read more »

It took me a while, but ever since I’ve gotten my head around Smart Folders (and Smart Playlists and Smart Groups, etc.), I’ve started to think about the way I use my Mac a bit differently.

Clearly iTunes is the winner in this regard (watch for an upcoming multi-part series about Smart Playlists on The Merlin Show), but the Finder, and Address Book, and Mail.app also have an amazing amount of power rumbling under the hood. So, in the interest of spreading the love, here’s four Mail.app Smart Mailboxes that have been rocking my world over the last months.  read more »

BlackBerry - Research in Motion - Technology - Smartphones - Cell Phones - New York Times

An article in yesterday’s New York Times suggests that the upshot of last week’s BlackBerry outage may be about more than just an annoying communication outage — for some, it was a flop-sweat-inducing night of cold turkey.

“It’s random reinforcement,” Mr. Katz said. The fact that you don’t know when important news will come, he said, “means you will quickly engage in obsessive compulsive behavior.”

These social needs and yearnings may drive the use. But at some point, that use becomes an end unto itself — a physical ritual that can take on some of the qualities of actual addiction, said Dr. John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard, where he specializes in neuropsychiatry.

Several years ago, Mr. Ratey began using the term “acquired attention deficit disorder” to describe the condition of people who are accustomed to a constant stream of digital stimulation and feel bored in the absence of it. Regardless of whether the stimulation is from the Internet, TV or a cellphone, the brain, he said, is hijacked.

Sure, I kid the BlackBerry addicts, but I do sympathize. Left to my own devices, I’d check email a hundred times a day and can still half-ruin a vacation with the constant need to “just check in.” Electronic fiddling is a lot like tobacco addiction and a lot easier to get away with nowadays.

Kids and targets  read more »

How do you use 43 folders for filing?  read more »

Journler or iGTD?  read more »

Moleskine Pocket Weekly Planner layout - How to make the best use of it?  read more »