Minor Details

things that interest me

[patch1103]

Made by the same team as Pythonista, Editorial for iPad just debuted and I have to say, this could be the iOS text editor to rule them all. Dropbox sync, versioning, Markdown support, Python scripting, smart keyboard – this app has them and more. $4.99 on the App Store; requires OS 6.

Update: I bought a new iPad mini today just so I could run this app (upgraded from an original iPad).

[mosx]

Released: Markdown for Keyboard Maestro 2

I’m proud to introduce the new version of Markdown for Keyboard Maestro. A Macro Library that helps you write Markdown.

Thanks to @nuclearzenfire for beta testing!

Main improvement areas for version 2 were:

Speed enhancements

Usability enhancements

Improvements for international users

Checkout all new features here.

My favorite changes:

First of all, the macros now have shiny icons, the menu is sorted, macros have been renamed, there’s a help included. I think that’s a pretty huge improvement by itself.

The New Link macro now pulls the URL’s <title> tag, in case you don’t provide your own.

Macro: I often find that I have to restructure text. So v2 now allows you to choose a new header level each run. Just highlight a heading, execute the macro and say header level 4. If the heading was ## the new level will be ####. The two #’s will be removed.

Preview and convert: A simple macro that allows instant preview of selected text in Marked. And one that converts selected text to Markdown, without replacing text.1

The Wiki contains full documentation. Please note that you have to install the Wrap Text Plugin separately.

As for the name, I decided that I want this to be referred to as “Markdown for Keyboard Maestro”. It sounds appropriate, simple, minimal. Please use “#km-markdown” or “#kmmarkdown” on social networks.

Links are now created using a sub-group and a palette. The shortcut is ⌃⌥l to bring up the palette. Here you have 1, 2, and 3 as options for links. Why not more of this? I don’t like this kind of macro execution. A shortcut ⌃E followed by ⌃K to do something just doesn’t feel modern to me. I don’t like Emacs. We’re done with that.

In any case. Download the new version and enjoy the enhanced writing experience!

EDIT: I just updated to MultiMarkdown 4.2 and saw that it adds support for superscript (^) and subscript (~). So a super-late addition are two macros for these.

Note that replacing text is optional. Simply enable the “Keystroke ⌘V” action. ↩

[patch1103]

Terminally Geeky Time Tracking via Screenshots

A few weeks ago I shared this on Twitter: \"Here's an eye-opener: a @keyboardmaestro macro which takes a screenshot every 30 seconds. Review at the end of the day to see where it went."

This is a nifty idea. I could really use this at my office, except I have to use a Windows machine there.

[patch1103]

Mavericks and Tagging - BrettTerpstra.com

The next version of OS X (Mavericks) is going to have file tagging capabilities built directly into Finder (as well as save dialogs and iCloud browsers). In fact, it works in the same way as OpenMeta

This could be one of the biggest new features of Mac OS X for me.

[patch1103]

Handy tip. I've modified it to quickly send links to my work account. One slight change I made was to issue the Shift-CMD-I keystroke instead of cutting and pasting the link and title, which effectively has the same result.

[patch1103]

Spell out digits

Today I wanted to put my cell number in a Craiglist posting, but I'm a bit self conscious of just sticking my number in there. I figured spelling it out would be at least a small deterrent against my number being harvested for something nefarious.1 After doing this manually, I thought, hmm… this would be interesting to turn into a TextExpander snippet. So that's what I did.

#!/usr/bin/env python myInput = '%clipboard'.strip() digits = ['zero', 'one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five', 'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine'] try: for character in myInput: if character.isdigit(): print digits[int(character)], except Exception, e: print "No argument supplied"

I simply made a new snippet, chose "Contents: Shell Script", and pasted the preceding code in. I gave it a trigger of ;spell, so whenever I type that, whatever digits are on the clipboard will be converted to text and pasted in. It ignores everything except for digits, so typing something like:

[phone]

will give you:

one two three four five six seven eight nine zero

Of course, if I was up to something nefarious, I'd write a script using the reverse of this function to parse postings and pull out phone numbers. But don't get any ideas… ;-) ↩︎

[mosx]

I’m working on the next big version of Markdown for Keyboard Maestro. Lots of new stuff is coming. A beta version is available.

These are the various icons I use at the moment:

Thanks to ttscoff for finding iconmonstr. I use lots of them as templates for my icons. Link, Image,...

[patch1103]

MARKUS Swivel chair - IKEA

IKEA - MARKUS, Swivel chair, 10-year Limited Warranty. Read about the terms in the Limited Warranty brochure.You sit comfortably since the chair is adjustable in height.The adjustable and lockable tilt function increases stability and control in different sitting positions.Your back gets support and extra relief from the built-in lumbar support.The mesh material of the backrest lets air through to your back during long sitting periods.The casters are rubber coated to run smoothly on any type of floor.

I'm a firm believer that a good chair is one of the most important productivity tools you can have in your computing environment. Many a chair review will remind you that the exorbitant expense of an Aeron or Steelcase is worth it for your health, posture, sanity, etc.

I finally got tired (and sore) of sitting in my cheap Office Max special, so I decided it was time for an upgrade. Though an Aeron would be nice, I just can't bring myself to justify $800+ at the moment. (Maybe if I start working from home.) After a bit of research, though, I found a great $200 alternative – the Ikea Markus.

I just put it together this morning, but it's great so far. It gives me the back support that the other chair didn't, and I'm able to get it closer to the desk without the arms hitting the desk drawer as the other ones did.

$200 well spent in my book.

[patch1103]

Brett Terpstra just posted a very nice tool for inserting dates using Natural Language. His post is definitely worth a read.

Given my preference for Python and my previous experience with Natural Language Processing, I decided to implement something similar through a Keyboard Maestro trigger.

I have a macro that pops up a text box and asks for the date language you would like to interpret. Apparently KBM does have a leg up on TextExpander, in that it can accept input to a shell script or applescript. KBM truly is a fantastic tool.

I ended up with a really easy workflow that seems to work everywhere.

I tried to get this going the other day, but ran into some problems since Keyboard Maestro runs shell scripts in non-interactive mode, meaning that it doesn't have access to the typical environmental variables, including any PATH variables that are set. A search showed several possible fixes for this, and if I have time, I'll be trying those out today. Other than that glitch though, the parsedatetime module is fantastic and I'll look for ways to incorporate it into more of my Python scripts.

[hgp1964]

Tile, the world's largest lost and found.

Locate anything you attach a Tile to using the Tile app. It’s never been easier to find your keys.

Could be interesting

[patch1103]

So I pre-ordered one of these. Full assessment pending arrival.

[patch1103]

Grilling Geekery

Aside from programming and futzing about with computers, my other main outlet for geekery is outdoor grilling and barbecuing (which is not the same thing, by the way). If you consider yourself an avid outdoor chef, then you are probably a follower of Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's site, AmazingRibs.com. If not, you need to go there right now. Seriously. I'll wait.

Meathead's site is a online cornucopia, a veritable encyclopedia, of grilling knowledge, with recipes, techniques, equipment reviews, you name it. On his recommendation, I've purchased a Maverick ET 732 and a ThermaPen, made Memphis Dust, and turned out some of the best ribs and pulled pork I've ever tasted. I also made a donation, because good advice like that must be rewarded.

So recently when Meathead posted a link to his grilling log on Facebook, I was intrigued. He makes it available as a PDF or Excel file, while looking at it, my other geek passion ignited. Hmm, thought I, there's bound to be a way to make this better. I've been mulling this over the last couple of days. Ideally, I'd want something that I could use on my iPad, but also sync to my Mac. Also, I'd like to have a way to capture, compare, and analyze the data in different ways (yes, a database). Of course, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so the first thing I did was go to the App store to see if something already existed, but I didn't see anything that met my needs.

A couple of different options I'm considering: a full-fledged iOS app (though it's been a while since I've done any iOS programming), a mobile FileMaker Pro database (relatively quick and easy, but overhead of FMP), or some sort of web app. Or, will a Pages document synced via iCloud suffice? Hmmm… possibilities. I'm going to have to think on this one some more. Maybe as I smoke a butt…

[patch1103]

Send URL - Share your Workflows

I have finally converted my Send URL extension into a workflow.

The workflow selects the URL from the frontmost App or a URL from the Clipboard. Supported Apps are:

Safari

Webkit

Google Chrome (Beta/Dev/Canary)

Camino

Opera (and Opera Next)

Omniweb

You can then send the URL to a variety of Apps

Safari

Webkit

Google Chrome (Beta/Dev/Canary)

Camino

Opera (and Opera Next)

Omniweb

Firefox (and Aurora)

iCab…

[patch1103]

Automating Tumblr link posting with Keyboard Maestro

So this is how I do it.

[patch1103]

Keyboard Maestro - Cheat Sheets

Similar to –€“ oh, let'€™s face it, completely inspired by –“ the work of Patrick Welker over at Rocket Ink I'€™ve begun using Keyboard Maestro's palette functionality quite a bit more. My setup is slightly different from Patrick'€™s in that I'm using my palettes as a means to develop muscle memory for certain actions. Many of the apps I use have universal hotkeys for capturing text, quick-entry panels, etc. but remembering all these hotkeys can be difficult so Keyboard Maestro palette€™s are a perfect solution.

Rather innovative use of KM.

[patch1103]

David and Katie take a look at the new version of Keyboard Maestro and discuss what it does, how you can use it to automate tasks on your Mac, when you should use Keyboard Maestro over other automation tools and choosing the right tool for the right job.

If the show notes are any indication, looks like this is going to be an awesome episode – just the thing for tomorrow's commute!

[patch1103]

Byword

iOS has no lack of text editors. Several of these have gotten quite good. I’ve had iA Writer on my iPad for quite some time now, but I confess I haven’t used it that much. My go-to notepad application has been Simplenote on both the iPad and iPhone, mainly because of its syncing ability with nvALT via Dropbox. I’ve always considered it a place to jot short notes and snippets of text, though, rather than something to use for longer-form text. David Sparks over at MacSparky and Mac Power Users raves about Byword, mainly for its Markdown compatibility, so I thought I’d give it a try. In fact, I’m composing this post in Byword now.

I went back to have a look at iA Writer and, while it does have a nice interface, I do find the Markdown features to not be as complete as those in Byword. Another nice feature Byword has is publishing support to tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger, Evernote, and Sciptogr.am (whatever the heck that is). This, however, is considered a premium feature, available through an in-app purchase for $4.99. I find Byword’s extended keyboard with shortcuts to oft-used Markdown symbols to be particularly handy. It also boasts Dropbox support (doesn’t everything these days?) and iCloud syncing.

So far I’m enjoying Byword. I think I’ll stick with it for a while and see how it goes.

[patch1103]

RIP Douglas Engelbart.