Managing Multiple Project's Assembly Notes in One
The problem I have is that I regularly need to open a specific set of Markdown documents scattered all over my file system while I work and have them available at my fingertips. But I need a different set open when working at home and available the same way. The best solution I have found is to use BBEdit projects to manage these document sets. Here’s why and how to do it.
The day he walked to freedom
I remember it as a clear day. Sunny, not hot, not windy, just crystal clear blue skies. The rumor mill had it that he would be released on that day. It had been building up for a while. But no-one knew for sure.
I was on campus at the University of Cape Town when it happened. Word spread quickly. He’s out. Really out. They actually let him go. We had no internet or video phones back then, just word. We did not see him walk along that dusty road to freedom until later. But we all just knew. And we knew that he would next be driven to Greenmarket Square, the central square in Cape Town, for all of us to welcome him.
TextMate 2 Basics
I have been using TextMate for years as my primary programmer’s editor, but it turns out that I only use a subset of its amazing features. I’ve been speaking with users of other awesome programmer’s editors and they wanted to know what it is in TextMate that I love so much and keeps me using it.
So here are the basic parts of TextMate 2 that I use regularly. Maybe you can divine some tips from it.
Merge Asana Projects into OmniFocus
Note: Updated the script, see Merge Asana Projects Into OmniFocus Updated.
I use OmniFocus to manage my personal tasks and activities, but my company uses Asana to manage Project tasks and activities amongst the team. I am so used to using OmniFocus that I often forget to check or update Asana, and thus miss tasks assigned to me or progress by the team.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the projects and tasks in Asana also appeared in OmniFocus? And were updated when they changed in Asana?
Apples and Rotten Oranges
So Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft wrote a thing called Apples and Oranges in response to the Apple Laptop, iPad, iWork, iLife and Mac Pro event yesterday, and sadly, it got a lot of coverage.
So I put my snark hat on and decided to throw darts at his piece (almost completely reproduced here). The text in grey are his words, the rest is me attempting to be humorous, ridiculous or just plain snarky. Take it all with a grain or two of salt. This is the Internet after all
Sanity Saver: Detox expands t.co links
If you use Twitter and click on t.co links, or use Google search and follow their links, chances are your browser history is a mess of t.co/C*R@A%P& or google.com/S$H@I*T#. Which means there is no way to use your browser history to find that page you just saw (or saw a few days ago) and accidentally closed. And autocomplete does not work either.
Shaun Inman (of Mint and The Last Rocket fame) created a Safari extension called Detox a while ago that automatically expands those pesky t.co links and funky Google links back into their original URLs and titles. Making your browser history and autocomplete useable again.
Rails Tricks - Sharing the Model
I am building a series of Rails applications for different users and use cases, but they all hang off the same database schema. Using canonical Rails, that means a single, massive rails app with a bunch of controllers, a heap of views and a complex security model.
I prefer small, focussed apps, so I decided to share the model instead. Here’s how it works.
Sharing the model
Lets call the the first rails project Master. Generate it as usual and create a few models and migrations to set up the database. In my case, the Master rails application is used to do nothing more than import, export and allow users to view the data in the model’s database tables.
Why Microsoft Word must Die
Charles Stross, yes, that Charles Stross writes in Why Microsoft Word must Die:
The .doc file format was also obfuscated, deliberately or intentionally: rather than a parseable document containing formatting and macro metadata, it was effectively a dump of the in-memory data structures used by word, with pointers to the subroutines that provided formatting or macro support.
He focuses on the usability issues, the compatibility issues, the inconstancies and the forced need to upgrade just to read other people’s documents - and the idiocy of using this incomprehensible, short lived format in publishing.
Using Mac Navigation Keys in Visual Studio
As a developer, sometimes I am forced to use Visual Studio to code for Windows. Just like a lot of Mac developers, I therefore run Visual Studio in a VMWare Fusion VM. And it works great.
Except it drives me nuts that keyboard navigation in the Visual Studio editor does not use the same keys as on the Mac. Which means I am constantly seeing the window move around when I am trying to get to a line end. And even if I did remap my brain to Visual Studio’s keys, it assumes I have a Home and an End key to use, which the Mac mini wireless keyboard and laptops do not have.
Homebrew Happiness
If you are expecting an article about beer, this is not it. This is about the best product that helps install and manage the Open Source software on the Macintosh computer that Apple decided not to include in OS X.
In short, I use a lot of Open Source products for work, like postgresql, redis, mongo, node, boost libraries and rbenv. Installing and managing them natively on a Mac was a pain. Homebrew makes installing and maintaining these easy, safe and pleasant without messing up my system. To skip the fascinating introduction and get to the information about the product directly, click Take me to Homebrew Happiness.