July 2011
69 posts
Forkbombr — Old Mac of the Month: Performa 578 →
I’m starting a new series named “Old Mac of the Month.” To help get things started, my buddy Kevin Lipe wrote up this piece about the Performa 578.
Wholly carp! This is going to be so much fun.
Moving to a much smaller space - Simpler Living -... →
The good news is that even though we moved to a bigger, more expensive metropolitan area, our cost of living hasn’t risen. We’re saving money by living small — and because we live small, we’re not tempted to buy stuff we don’t have space for.
I’m actually writing an essay similar to some of the ideas in the post linked for the Enough book right now. Here is the basic premise…
If...
Rands In Repose: The Desktop Transition →
This is why much Exposé has been lobotomized in Lion. How would you react if, whenever you were wondering where something was on your desktop, I’d show up, pull every single thing off it and show it to you in a manner completely different from how you organized it?
You’d yell, “Don’t touch my stuff!” because in an instant you’d realize how much organization was hidden inside your...
Giveaway: Destiny: A Fairy Tale by Aaron Mahnke
Since we are on the subject of books…
For today’s two year anniversary giveaway, I have been authorized to offer up three personally signed copies of Destiny: A Fairy Tale the new book from my friend Aaron Mahnke. Think fairy tales are just for kids? Think again!
Destiny: A Fairy Tale is a story about a young man, orphaned at birth with a mysterious key and raised in the quiet village of...
Enough – The Book: A Sneak Peek
So, as I have mentioned and intimated many times in various places, I’m currently hard at work on my next book. The working, and likely final, title is Enough. Anyone who has followed this site long enough should have a basic idea of the what the book will be about from the title alone. That said, for those that are new here, it will be about my ideas surrounding simplicity, minimalism, clutter,...
Why are you an unclutterer? It’s time I fessed up... →
Life, even if we live to be more than 100, is short. Doodads and trinkets and stress and things we don’t want in our lives shouldn’t keep us from the things that really matter. We all should be able to fill our time with moments of happiness, being responsible for those we love and cherish, and living a fulfilling life.
If it weren’t for my frustrating genetic disorder, I doubt I would have the...
Giveaway: Keeping It Straight
Let the two year anniversary celebration continue!
This time around, I’ll be giving away three personally autographed copies of my book, Keeping it Straight - You, Me & Everything Else. In other words, there will be three winners chosen and I will sign a paperback copy addressed personally to each winner.
As a bonus, for those that do not want to throw the dice and would rather simply buy...
Tech Buying Tip #6: Start Over →
A true fresh start may give you a much better experience. Keep your data. It’s mostly harmless and just takes up space. But exercise caution with anything you install that modifies the system. That’s where the memory hogs hide. They’re what slow down your startup, your operation of the machine, and even your shutdown. Eye each application with suspicion before you add it to your new and smoothly...
Giveaway: Quotebook
I’ve said this many times before but I will repeat it again here, Quotebook is my favorite iPhone app. The reasons are simple. I love quotations and this allows me to find them quickly, share them easily, and find even more by author and source. It’s one of those apps that really only does one thing but it does it very, very well.
Well, the fine folks that develop it have given me...
4 Ways Technology Can Enable Your Inner Introvert... →
Email is often fingered as a key factor in the lamentable perpetual accessibility characterizing modern American communication. But it isn’t. It allows you to respond when you’re ready to do so. In fact, sometimes not responding to email in a timely fashion can give the impression that you’re already busy doing other things. Which helps create the space that introverts need.
...
Clutter and Newton’s First Law of Motion |... →
In the case of the Neosporin, and all clutter, I believe Newton’s First Law of Motion can explain how it lingers for years in our spaces. An object (clutter) will stay at rest until a force (motivation) of equal or greater value acts upon it. The thought, “I should get rid of that,” is not a force of equal or greater value than the clutter. As unfortunate as it is, thoughts cannot move clutter....
Giveaway: iRig Mic and iKlip
Today’s giveaway, in celebration of Two Years or Minimal Mac is perfect for the musician who wants to get their jam on with iOS. The iRig Mic is perfect for recording professional quality vocals to your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The iKlip is a universal microphone stand adapter for iPad. Pair both together and you have the most portable and versatile recording setup imaginable. The future is...
Giveaway: Lidpop. Make your Mac react. →
Lidpop makes your Macintosh play a sound when it sleeps or wakes up. Close the lid with a resounding clank or a happy slide whistle. Open it back up with a laugh or a whimsical chime — it’s up to you. Lidpop brings a dash of personality to your computer.
I’ll be the first to mention (and so will the developer) that this app is just for fun. That said, everyone can benefit from...
How the Editor of Windows Magazine Became an Apple... →
The perfect out-of-box experience with the iPhone, the elegance of the whole experience of using an iPhone, re-set my expectations for how consumer electronics and computers should function. I started looking at the out-of-box experience of buying a Windows PC with a new contempt. The crapware. The stickers. The anti-virus software problem where the cure is worse than the disease. The flimsy...
prefs.org →
Want to see what preferences others choose in their applications and why? Of course you do.
Inspired in part by a post about my TextEdit preferences.
Also, you should submit your own because, well, I want to see what others set for preferences and why.
Giveaway: Monoprice 1800mAh Backup Battery Case...
As I stated, in celebration of Minimal Mac’s Two Year Anniversary, I have lined up (and continue to line up even more) some great products to give away.
To kick it off, we have the wonderful and affordable Monoprice Backup Battery Case that I reviewed last week. It’s a really great way to give your iPhone 4 some extra juice on the days you need it. I have one of these to give away...
Year Two
This week, I celebrate the two year anniversary of this site. It continues to be one of the most rewarding and amazing experiences of my life. I’m continually humbled and gratified that even a handful of people would go out of their way to read it. Therefore, there are no words to describe the depth of wonder and humility at these numbers…
Pageviews since this time last year: 1.9 Million...
WatchAgenda - A Better Calendar for iOS [Sponsor]
I’m just going to put this plainly. Agenda is the best calendar app for the iPhone. Period. Trust me, I’m picky about calendar apps. My life is very calendar driven. I look at mine several times a day. Therefore, it has to look good and work good. Agenda does both.
The design is inspired by the mid-century modern office desk calendars of...
Daring Fireball: On Succeeding Steve Jobs →
There will not be a next Steve Jobs. There will be a next CEO.
I’ve been saying the same thing for a while now. Chairman Gruber, of course, says it even better.
Friedrich Online » Blog Archive » My Amazing... →
As writers, both Patrick and Randy run into the same question, but each responds differently. Randy goes back to the shop and finds the tool designed for the job. Patrick makes the tools he has on him work.
The post he is referencing and links to is this one. This is an excellent expansion on something I had tossed off with only an aside. Which I should not have. Because it deserved further...
Apple - OS X Lion Recovery - Introducing Lion... →
If your Mac problem is a little less common — your hard drive has failed or you’ve installed a hard drive without OS X, for example — Internet Recovery takes over automatically. It downloads and starts Lion Recovery directly from Apple servers over a broadband Internet connection. And your Mac has access to the same Lion Recovery features online. Internet Recovery is built into every...
“Over the past decade, better technology has simply reduced the number of things...”
– John Siracusa (via onethingwell)
“1,000,000”
– This evening, Minimal Mac passed one million pageviews since the start of the year. Thank you so much for reading. You have no idea how much it means to me.
All next week, I will be celebrating the two year anniversary of the site. Cooking up some special things so stay tuned.
Monoprice 1800mAh Backup Battery Case for iPhone 4 →
For the past several days, I’ve been testing this Backup Battery Case from Monoprice with my iPhone 4. So far, it’s great.
I really put it to the test this past weekend when I used it while shooting a ton of video and taking photos. It performed great. I just left the pack on and let it keep my iPhone charged while going about the tasks at hand. It was not until late in the evening...
Too Many (or maybe not enough) Word Processors →
A painter doesn’t have just one brush. The carpenter has screwdrivers, chisels, and similar tools of every shape and size. As a writer I could make one tool do everything, but I prefer to let the tools do the heavy lifting while I expend the minimal amount of effort to achieve the best result.
Enough for Randy.
Rodeo App Maker - Capture Your Web Workflow in an... →
Rodeo is a new tool for building websites into apps. Similar to something like Fluid.app but with some advantages over it. For one thing, the performance is much better because the views are preloaded into the app (this makes first launch especially fast) . There is also a way to browse and search further Also, because they are self contained, you can share the ones you have built with others. You...
rs/SafariOmnibar - GitHub →
Safari Omnibar is a Safari SIMBL plugin aiming at mimicing the Chrome’s smart location bar which combines location and search.
From the department of “Hell yes!”
(via Cheri Phillips)
Reading on the iPad — Shawn Blanc →
Anyone who’s spent time with a magazine-ported-to-iPad app (such as the ones from Condé Nast or The Daily) knows the pain of having to wait for the app to download. When downloading an issue of Wired, you literally cannot do anything with your iPad but let it download the magazine issue. They weigh in around 300 MB and easily take 20 or 30 minutes to download on a decent Wi-Fi connection.
...
MacBook Air is where the iCloud lives | Laptops |... →
It’s easy to convince myself that the 11-inch Air is a true signature product for Apple. In context, it’s certainly the most significant piece of hardware Apple’s produced in the past ten years whose name isn’t preceded by a lower-case “i.” And Apple seems to have been building up to the iCloudBook for a long time now.
Not sure I agree with Andy’s conclusion but it is a fascinating...
“Your limitations will define you in the best way. Your limitations make you who...”
– John Mayer – “Manage the Temptation to Publish Yourself” – Berklee Blogs
This whole thing is so chock full of “what we believe in” stuff that it was difficult to pull a single quote. They literally abound.
Seriously, if you do nothing else today, read this. Required.
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
The Glif [Sponsor] →
I would like to take a moment to throw out some thanks to Studio Neat and their excellent iPhone 4 mount/stand The Glif for sponsoring this weeks RSS Feed.
The Glif is likely the only iPhone 4 photo accessory you will ever need. It’s innovative design not only allows you to attach it to a standard camera tripod but also acts as way to stand up your iPhone 4 for viewing in either landscape...
Daring Fireball Linked List: 'We View a Tablet as... →
Electronista:
Microsoft’s Windows Phone president Andy Lees at the Worldwide Partners Conference once again tried to shoot down hopes for tablets based on Windows Phone 7. The use of the mobile OS would be “in conflict” with Microsoft’s notion of having the full speed of a computer in any design, including truly mobile tablets. He insisted that users would want to do PC-style activities on a...
“Tools exist outside time. And as any craftsman knows, select the right tool for...”
– Randy Murray – Tom’s Phone
Marked: MultiMarkdown preview, everywhere →
Marked opens MultiMarkdown, Markdown, Text or HTML files and previews them as HTML documents. It watches the file for changes, updating the preview any time the file is saved. With a full set of preview styles, Marked adds an ideal “live” Markdown preview to any text editor. Plus… copy HTML with a keystroke, save to PDF or Print, or export to HTML in seconds.
Those that know me know that,...
Ding, dong, the PC is dead! What is your next... →
My friend Julio, author of the book iPad Means Business, is giving a talk in the Cupertino area Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 5:30 PM about some of the seismic changes the iPad is bringing to business and what the “Post PC” era might look like.
Julio is an engaging speaker who is full of ideas. Plus, he is a total geek at heart. If you are in the area, you should check it out. The...
Still Life : fiftyfootshadows.net →
What we believe in. And it’s available as a download for a desktop picture too.
MacSparky - Blog - Home Screen - Kourosh Dini →
One thing I actively work on, and have been actively working on for sometime, is maintaining a non-reactive mode of working. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as technology continues its steady advance promising “convenience”, I believe it’s not really a convenience which it delivers. Rather, it’s a shortening of a distance between thought and action. If I’m not careful, this can lead to a more...
Everything Requires Maintenance — Shawn Blanc →
A new operating system is a good reminder that it’s healthy (and for a nerd, fun) to take time out to do a workflow audit. Now is as good a time as any to reassess the tools you’re using and how you’re using them.
Such great suggestions by Shawn here.
