43 Folders

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Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Teacher's Productivity Hampered by technology. No love.

Greetings Programs, I am a User. (Sorry, I rediscovered Tron the other day... Anyways...)

Background: I am a math teacher. High School Math Teacher. I am a engineer. I like elegance. I like usability. I like duct tape. I like being able to come up with my own solutions. I also like to not re-invent the wheel as I have other things to do. Lesson Plans, Grades, Re-takes, filing, parent meetings, staff meetings, continual professional development, making worksheets, tests, learning guides, and that secret side of a teacher called a dating life.

I use macs. I use PCs. I use unix/linux. But my preferred choice is the mac. Why? Because I have one at work and one at home. I was raised on it and unix. I lived in a house that lived by the Customer Calendar (Advertising), so I know products from Adobe and Quark. I like pretty buttons. I am a computer engineer, so I know how the things work. I know I can program my own stuff, but again... I don't like re-inventing the wheel.

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Slate Magazine on the market for "Zenware"

Sort of an add-on to the New York Times piece Merlin linked the other day about Scrivener and its cohort of new writing applications, Jeffrey MacIntyre at Slate coins a new term for programs that eschew the familiar, bloated twiddliness of Microsoft Office for simplicity:

There's an emerging market for programs that introduce much-needed traffic calming to our massively expanding desktops. The name for this genre of clutter-management software: zenware.

The philosophy behind zenware is to force the desktop back to its Platonic essence. There are several strategies for achieving this, but most rely on suppressing the visual elements you're used to: windows, icons, and toolbars. The applications themselves eschew pull-down menus or hide off-screen while you work. Even if you consider yourself inured to their presence, the theory goes, you'll benefit most from their absence.

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Towards being a more entertaining guest

Global Nerdy | How to Work the Room

Joey's condenses some great tips on going from wallflower to party panda. Number one has always stood me in good stead:

"1. Be more of a host and less of a guest. Make introductions and make people more comfortable."

Totally. Not to get all Burning Man on you here, but any event will only be as good as the people who actively participate in it. People who arrive waiting to be entertained are dead weight, while those who do more than the minimum to make things happen can bring the place to life.

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Mostly not-Wookiee-related links for January 23rd

MacBreak 74: Hot Lips and Hawkeye

MacBreak Weekly 74: Hot Lips and Hawkeye

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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, and Rich Siegel

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A look back at Macworld, Office spreads out, MacHeist, .Mac future bright and cloudy, certain gestures and more.

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 74.

I think this might be one of my favorite episodes of MacBreak Weekly. Say what you will about the podcast medium, it's amazing to be able to pull an articulate person like Rich Siegel into your conversation midway -- (~00:38:15) -- just via IM and a phone number. Very cool.

So. That said. I really want the promoters and developer-fans of MacHeist to have their opportunity to respond to what Rich (and we) had to say. Clearly we all think a lot of the Mac indie community, so it'd be valuable to continue the conversation in a way that's fair and civil for everybody.

Directions on how to get your voice heard appear around (~00:57:11) of this episode.

update 2008-01-25 08:21:01

Philip Ryu and Awaken's Jerry Brace will be on MacBreak Weekly next week to respond to Rich Siegel's criticisms of MacHeist in show 74.

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Macworld Expo '08: Merlin talks with the makers of 1Password

Aha! Embeddable video for a third MacBreak interview at Macworld '08 has turned up -- this one's with Dave Teare at Agile Web Solutions, makers of 1Password.

As we discuss in the video, I'm really looking forward to seeing 1Password's secure password bookmarklet for iPhone.

MacBreak: Macworld 2008/Agile Web Solutions


 MacBreak (iPod video) - MacBreak 122: Macworld 2008: 1Password

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