December 2009
43 posts
Unclutter Your Mac in One Week
Sorry folks, but lack of daycare this week combined with end of year financial stuff have finally caught up with me. I wont be able to resume this series until Monday.
Very sorry for the delay.
one forty plus. - The One Week Digital Cleanse →
Guidelines: *email only from laptop or desktop computers *cell phones can only be used to make calls, and no text messages or e-mails are allowed - if you receive a text, you must reply in voice over the phone. E-mails must be returned from a laptop or desktop computer. *no use of Twitter or any other social networking site - this includes reading as well as posting. *no visiting of any...
Get Email Under Control and Save Time with... →
The next version of AwayFind, code named “Orchant” and currently in private beta, is a complete rethinking of the service with the goal of taking the best ideas of the product to heart while curing all of the problems with the original. In my opinion, it largely succeeds. In fact, it is an effort to finally provide the kind of server side, multiple account filtering that many I know have long...
Unclutter Your Mac in One Week – Day 3
On day one of this series, we cleaned up your Desktop and had you organize your files into the already built in groupings on your Mac. The main goal was to get them off of your Desktop and into manageable bunches. Today, let’s take the time to put some of those items where they ideally belong. Once again, I wish to preface that this series may seem rudimentary to some of you “pros” but hang in...
kung fu grippe : Writing Zen: Minimalist Word... →
I use this word processor daily. Even without all the extra features Merlin wants.
It is also an excellent task management application. Everytime I try ThingsFocusOmniSuperTaskAppOfTheMoment, I keep coming back to the simple zen of this one.
10 Things to Do Before the New Year →
There are some good suggestions here. The coming of a new year is an excellent milestone to use for committing to a clean start for the next.
Unclutter Your Mac in One Week – Day 2
In day one of this series, we cleaned up your Desktop and had you organize your files into the already built in groupings in the Home directory on your Mac. Today, I’m going to focus on two other areas on your Mac that are easily cluttered, and near impossible to ignore – the Dock and the Menubar. Here are some suggestions for how to deal with those:
The Dock
The Dock is a very useful feature...
Making Microsoft Office on the Mac look more... →
Not what we believe in.
Unclutter Your Mac in One Week – Day 1
Inspired by, and shamelessly riffing on, the wonderful Unclutter Your Life in One Week, the next 5 days will show you how you can apply some quick and simple steps to get your Mac into ship-shape.
We are going to start with cleaning up your Desktop (and keeping it that way). A computer desktop can get cluttered very quickly with files and folders. After all, it is intended to operate just like a...
6 Changes →
zenhabits:
Choose 6 habits for 2010. I’ll help you form them.
Being a big fan of the power of modest goals myself, Leo’s latest project gets my endorsement
Daring Fireball Linked List: Google's 'Meaning of... →
Google senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg published a long memo “about the meaning of ‘open’ as it relates to the Internet, Google, and [Google’s] users.” It’s the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever seen from Google.
Wow. Note to self: Don’t eff with the Gruber.
Generalization of technological progressions →
But down here, below the clouds, in the world of ebook-reader owners, I can guarantee you that the times I want color are far outnumbered by the times that I’d benefit from sharper, bolder, faster grayscale.
I think Marco’s take on this is the right one. Better does not always have to mean more features, it often simply means making the current ones more useful.
“Men have become the tools of their tools.”
– Henry David Thoreau
How To Clean Up Your Bookmarks In Safari →
Nothing a lot of you don’t already know in this video tutorial. Still, it is a good reminder to regularly go through and clean up things that can get easily cluttered (like your bookmarks). There are a few good tips here so even the vets at this stuff might learn a thing or two. (thx Nick Campbell)
“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump...”
– George Lucas (via i-peach-feng-shui)
Pastebot: A Copy and Paste Playground – Shawn... →
Shawn hits it out of the park with this review of Pastebot, the new clipboard manager for the iPhone (that is nothing short of amazing). I even learned a few new things about it by reading this. Fantastic work on all sides.
Two Good Posts About Email
I wanted to call your attention to two good posts about email – specifically, how and why you should check it less.
First, the totally crush-worthy Erin Doland of Unclutterer urges you to Cure your e-mail addiction:
“If you’re checking your e-mail 24,000 times a year, what are you sacrificing? What are you not working on during that time? Could you reduce your rate to every 15 minutes (a...
An Ode to Droplr →
Droplr is the newly released and dead simple file, image, url, and text snippet sharing tool. I’ve been using it for a bit now and it is excellent and one of the tools you are always coming up with a new way to use.
CB does a far better write up on this fantastic app then I can do on my limited time today. Go read it and then check out Droplr. Droplr is free; whereby free = ad...
Enough | 43 Folders →
“Some graze unlimited bowls of information by choice. Others claim it’s a necessity of remaining employed, landing sales, or “staying in the loop.” Could be. What about you?”
A short read. A must read.
The Tao of Dana →
It’s a Tumblr principally about Feng Shui but there is lots of other chewey goodness on this site. Not Mac related but it is where I spent most of the morning and feel it has a vision that is important enough to share it with you.
Now I just have to figure out what she charges so I can hire her to do my house. (thx EM)
Marco.org - The Tumblr Backup app
→
“Unlike other publishing sites’ approach to backups, our goal was to create a useful copy of your blog’s content that can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD, or hosted as an archive of static HTML files.”
I think a telling mark of any platform or software product is not only how easy it is to get your data in but also how serious and committed are they to letting you get your...
CJ Chilvers - Journal - Simplicity Vs. Clarity →
Straight and to the point. Also, this appeals to the watch geek in me (I used to collect watches).
Welcome to the Minimalist Century →
“The good news is that the minimalist path needn’t be one of simple self-denial. Minimalism is about filling our lives with quality, not just quantity. It’s about reconnecting with the things which make us human, rather than consumers. And you can enjoy these blessings right now.”
Nothing I have not said before so I have nothing I can add. Simply put, this is the reason I wake up and...
Lucidica for Google Reader
In an attempt to bring some elegance and order to Google Reader, I made a mac-centric mod of Jon Hicks’ excellent Helvetireader, called “Lucidica.” It works with Safari, Fluid and Firefox.
Perhaps some of you will find this a bit more “Mac like”.
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill (thx Kate)
Minimal Mac Holiday Gift Guide 2009
Tis the season I guess. Therefore, not to be left out, here is the official Minimal Mac Holiday Gift Guide for 2009. In order to keep it simple, I have limited it to the top five must have gadgets and accessories for every Mac lover in your life. That said, these should also appeal to any PC user as well. They are even great for those who don’t have computers at all.
I mean, seriously...
10 most useful Mail.app keyboard shortcuts « Hawk... →
Since I am on my Mail.app keyboard shortcuts soapbox. Let me squawk about this handy little list you should print out and keep on your desk until they become habit.
Reducing visual clutter in Mail.app | Unclutterer →
My guest post for the always excellent Unclutterer, whereby I show you not only how to reduce the visual clutter of Mail.app but also how to navigate it using the keyboard once done.
I’ve said this elsewhere before but it bears repeating, constraints, when fully embraced, can create unparalleled creativity and force the learning of new ways to do things. When I really wanted to learn how...
WallDock | Power + Cables | Electronics | DLO →
Create a moden and minimalist iPhone dock anywhere you have a wall outlet. Perfect for areas where the wall outlet may be a bit higher like the kitchen counter. More than a bit brilliant if you ask me (via Engadget)
Official Google Blog: Now you see it, now you... →
Google defaults to the formerly experimental fade in style homepage whereby most elements remain hidden, save the logo, search box and buttons, until you interact with the page.
Score one for minimalism.
Obsolete?
After reading this post on Gizmodo, I can’t help but think of Minimal Mac. Cormac McCarthy has made his name writing books and plays, yet every single one of his works has been typed up on one trusty, truly old-school typewriter. With minimal maintenance, he found no need to upgrade to a modern computer. He estimates to have written over 5 million words on the typewriter, and is now...
Clean Mail.app
Since you seem to be in a Mail.app-mood, I thought I’d share my customized version as well. I’m using Letterbox for a nice wide-screen experience. Disabled most of the menu items since I use short-cuts anyway. The short-cut for Search re-enables the menu-item so it’s still there. I use this inbox for all email.
(Submitted by Marc Köhlbrugge)
Gives new meaning to “Inbox...
Letterbox →
Since I can’t seem to get over my fixation with Mail.app today, here is one more thing to pimp it out. Letterbox is a plugin for Mail.app that will make use of the wide screen Apple was so hot to sell you.
(Submitted by Sean McNulty)
Some handy Mail.app Smart Mailboxes | 43 Folders →
So, on the way to drafting up a killer piece about my nifty smart folder setup in Mail.app, I remembered where I got all of those useful tips from. All of these are gems and I use them daily years later.
Mail.app rules! →
TUAW pulls out some great suggestions on how to put Rules to good use in Mail.app. I’m also a big fan of smart folders for slicing and dicing my inbox. I share some of that with you in a later post.