July 2010
39 posts
What’s New in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011... →
Still not what we believe in.
Related Update: Here’s a fun search. Especially for the new visitors.
Tomas Bartko - Icon and web design →
Some very nice desktop pictures here. (via Prettify)
How-To: Give Your Old iPhone New Life With Prepaid... →
Somewhat fiddley but interesting way to use last years model.
WatchI talked a bit about this when I appeared on The Bro Show last week, but I believe that this is the “next big thing” after the “next big thing”. I have been watching this every few days since the first time I saw it. I catch something even more “holy crap” each time.
Of Mice and Magic
You may have heard already but, along with some new iMacs (Win), Mac Pros (Big Win), 27inch Cinema Display (Lickable), Apple released a brand new product – The Magic Trackpad.
Now, there are those who are trackpad people, those who can’t stand them, and a few in-betweeners who are comfortable with either. I’m one of the later. I even have a use case for one – My media center is an...
Lifework - Herman Miller – Inspiration: Graphic... →
I’m not even sure where to begin with the massive level of ninja-level cool on full display here. First, look at that office. Just look at it! Next, check out this snippet:
I have a server which gets backed up redundantly. Network user accounts get backed up to the server automatically, so adding a new MacBook is just a matter of logging in to the server with it. My music is on the...
Minimal writing space.
I tweaked one of the backgrounds in the resource files in Ommwriter to look like my blog, so I could see how the finished writing would look like.
I’ve got my own opinions about Ommwriter but I have to give a hat tip here because it is a very cunning stunt.
Randy's Tech Buying Tips
I wanted to wait until the whole series was up before posting about this one. My good friend Randy Murray has posted a weeks worth of Tech Buying Tips that I can get behind and are very much in the spirit of “what we believe in”. I urge you to read them all:
Tech Buying Tip: Buy Refurb
Tech Buying Tip: Adopt An Early Adopter
Tech Buying Tip: Review the Accessories Before You Buy
Tech Buying...
Episode 16- Minimal Mac - The Bro Show - The Bro... →
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being asked to appear on one of my favorite up-and-coming podcasts, The Bro Show. The show is produced by two UK geeks about topics near and dear to my heart – Macs, Movies and Gadgets as wells as Gaming. Please take some time out of your day to subscribe and give it a listen. You will not be disappointed.
In this episode, we discussed Flipboard, Inception, our...
Frank Chimero →
I’m starting a club. It’s called the “Simple Things Done Well Society,” or STDWS, if you will. We believe that Vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream (so long as it is really good), Ringo Starr is wonderful drummer, and Hemmingway’s sentences are perfect, thank you very much.
Sign me up.
Marco.org - My iPhone 4 antenna-gap fix →
It’s the tape trick, but with an excellent substitute for the tape: invisibleSHIELD film. It fits right over the gap and covers the entire left side, so when it’s held left-handed (as I always hold mine), there’s no electrical bridging.
I actually was asking around the Twitter sphere about minimal case solutions and this was recommended by more than a few people. If I ever get an iPhone 4, unless...
“We love our users. They reward us by staying our users”
– Steve Jobs (via The giant slide behind his head)
The Antennagate Press Conference
You may have heard a little something about a press conference to address the issues some have been experiencing with the new antenna design of the iPhone 4. I followed the Engadget live blog of the event. I also tried to capture the spirit of what was being said in a more humorous way on my personal Twitter account. That said, I thought it fair to provide a basic summary here.
The problem that...
“Music is the space between the notes. It’s not the notes you play; it’s the...”
– Miles Davis (via Timing it – Bobulate)
The Holy Grail Of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture |... →
Ubiquitous capture — that is, the ability to snag any thought or idea any time and anywhere it happens to crop up — is a key component to nearly every productivity philosophy. You want to capture those fleeting ideas before they’re gone, and you don’t want to waste brain power obsessing over remembering it until you can write it down somewhere. Below, I’ll walk you through the best ubiquitous...
A matter of time - Bobulate →
What you actively spend time on, and (far more difficult) what you choose not to do, who you choose not to spend time with, and who and what you decide to say no to — what you choose, then — is how you mark time. And that is all there is.
I’m actually cross posting this here and at Practical Opacity because it is just that important. Time is the most valuable and finite commodity that any...
Choosing simple living | Unclutterer →
An unclutterer is someone who chooses to live without the distractions that get in the way of a remarkable life.
Contrary to what you might assume, the most important word in the definition of an unclutterer isn’t distractions (or what we also call clutter) or even the goal of a remarkable life. The pivotal word in the definition is chooses.
Bravo, Erin. Bravo.
Go read this. Now. Required...
“Having stuff blows. Liquidity is the new luxury!”
– David Karp
Sounds like David is on the right track. (Submitted by Hey Jones!)
Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest... →
“Then Steve comes in,” [Mike] Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it. That’s what...
“I do a little dance when Steve Job successfully removes another wire from under...”
– An interview with Michael Lopp : The Setup
Mr. Lopp may be better known to you by his nom de plume, Rands. He is also who I want to be when I grow up. I would also like to have Merlin Mann as the crazy uncle who always stops over and raids my liquor cabinet. While I’m at it, I’d...
How-To: Combining Hazel and Dropbox to Automate... →
Simply put, Hazel takes the idea of mail rules and applies them to the entire system. At its core, Hazel is a watchdog. You tell it to keep an eye on a folder, and if certain criteria are met, perform an action. We’ve covered Hazel before, but I wanted to focus specifically on combining it with Dropbox.
Hazel is one of those apps I need to eat my own dog food on and spend a few minutes a day...
Bridging The Nerd Gap – My interview with Brett... →
Brett was kind enough to make me his first interview for his new site Bridging The Nerd Gap, which I linked to a few day ago. Therein, he asks me about the tools I use, the process of writing and posting to Minimal Mac, the stuff I read, and even the sites I visit when I have time to kill. Doing it was a ton of fun and I hope he asks me some followup questions in the future.
By the way folks. I...
Your PasswordCard →
A PasswordCard is a credit card-sized card you keep in your wallet, which lets you pick very secure passwords for all your websites, without having to remember them! You just keep them with you, and even if your wallet does get stolen, the thief will still not know your actual passwords.
Such a wonderful, analog solution to a common digital problem. I’m a dedicated 1Password guy myself but...
Are You Using a Broken Tool? | Bridging the Nerd... →
We all have downtime while at work — why not spend that time investing in your toolbox a bit? Next time a meeting is canceled and you find yourself with a free hour, you might consider poking around inside the application where you spend most of your day (Word or Excel are probably common choices here). Look through the endless menus and look for ways to make job easier.
Great advice from my...
Marco.org - Great since day one →
The Android ecosystem doesn’t seem capable of producing devices that are great on day one. Yet Apple consistently pulls it off.
Great analysis of the core difference between Apple and Android. It is deeper than hardware or features. The differences are rooted into the two cultures. Marco is at his best with these sorts of posts.
Review: Moshi iVisor AG - a matte screen protector... →
I know there are lots of folks out there who don’t like (see: loathe) the glossy screens that now come standard on Macbook and Macbook Pro laptops. There are various companies that make solutions for this but it’s a bit difficult to weigh the options. This excellent review from Analog Senses does a pretty thorough job of laying out the pros and cons of a few of them and then going into...
How to Write a Book →
Humans, especially nerds, are creatures of habit. Often, these habits are designed to make the world a predictable place so that our brains can focus on the creative task at hand. The reason I continue to end up in TextEdit is because my favorite feature is the lack of features.
Another fantastic post from Rands. Required reading.
Also, I’m with Rands here. Readers of this site should know...
One Thing Well | One Thing Todo →
One Thing Todo is the simplest todo list ‘manager’ I could come up with:
t() { if [[ ”$*” == ”” ]] ; then cat ~/.t else rm ~/.t ; echo ”$*” > ~/.t fi }
Pop the above in your .bashrc (or similar—it works fine with zsh and ksh).
To add an item:
t Post to the blog about OTT
To read it:
t
Seriously, I wanna be Jack when I...
If it’s not important to you, don’t consume it |... →
It is so easy to buy, acquire, and own things that aren’t important to us simply out of habit or because other people have these things. If you don’t want the responsibilities of home ownership, rent. If you aren’t looking forward to an episode of Wipeout, turn off the television. Stop consuming for the sake of consuming, and buy and spend time on only those things that you need and matter to...
