So Alfred 0.9.9 was recently released, it’s awesome - and it get’s better with every release. One of the new features is that it supports extensions (applescripts, shell scripts, automator actions, specific file references and search filters) here’s 2 that I knocked together rather quickly.
- Hide / Show Desktop: this shows and hides the files that may be on your desktop, handy for those times when you need to focus - it does it’s mojo by setting a finder flag on and off, your files are uneffected
- Ignore this file with Alfred: this extension is most useful via the files actions interface - I use it to clean up my Alfred search results - search a file, select some of the extraneous result that occassionally happen select this action and those unwanted results shouldn’t include the acted upon file next time.
Stop back to this post from time to time, as I’ll certainly be writing a few more of these
I’m ashamed at how many task management scenarios I’ve explored, you name it I’ve used it - the three constants throughout my arduous journey have been TaskPaper, Notational Velocity & Dropbox - as I’m so fond of saying, “it’s not pretty but it works” One element that’s been missing is a quick low-fat way to drop items into my text files to deal with later, I’m not fond of keeping TP or NV running all the time, as I find a task list in my face distracting and somewhat (strangely) intimidating.
Last week the awesome folks at Alfred (@alfredApp) released 0.9 of Alfred, my launcher of choice - and via my PowerPack license I can run shell scripts, global commands and other assorted tasty tidbits. Today I had a few minutes, so I knocked together a quick append to text file function so I can add my tasks to my list while ‘in the moment’
echo "{query}" >> /Users/you-username-goes-here/path/text-file-name.txt
as easy as that.. more soon.. stay tuned
UPDATE
Some people may want to prepend as opposed to append, this seems to work.
echo "{query}" | cat - /Users/you-username-goes-here/path/text-file-name.txt > /tmp/tempfile && mv /tmp/tempfile /Users/you-username-goes-here/path/text-file-name.txt
Another Update
now packaged as an extension here
Seems like at least a dogs year since I did anything for Illustration Friday, But yesterday I was relaxing at Starbucks with my iPad and figured I’d take an hour or so and knock together something for this weeks theme ‘Beginner’ - not 100% happy with the color, but pretty happy overall - aside from posting this from my desktop computer this illustration is 100% iPad, which is quickly becoming my favorite tool for little spot illustrations.
More Fun Illustrations
Feeling all kinds of gobliny today - took 15 minutes and knocked this silly goblin out in inkPad. Amazing how liberating it feels to draw for drawings sake.
Lately I’ve been really enjoying drawing on my iPad, Last week I bought inkPad, really nice - the developers are obviously AI users, they’ve boiled AI functionality down to the drawing part (which IMHO is what Adobe should have done when they released InDesign) anyway really decent app, drop export, multiple formats (most notably svg,png,pdf), dropbox support. But the best thing about it is the pen tool - took me less than 5 seconds to wrap my head around the subtleties of drawing corner and curved points with my finger tips. All the spots above are 100% straight from inkPad, although I could easily edit them in AI if I needed too. I haven’t used inkPad for any client work yet, but that’s only a matter of time. Anyhow check it out, it’s 5 bucks.
inkPad
So you may not know it but if you’re a subscriber to Comcast’s Broadband Internet you have a 250GB a month monthly allotment, and if you’re anything like us, you may be close to maxing that out every month.
- A small home based business (1 person)
- video chat 5-6 times a month
- 5 Computers with dropbox accounts
- 2 TiVos with netflix
- Pandora Radio
- and the occasional binge on Hulu
I don’t think that’s really excessive, that’s just life in 2011 - especially during a cold winter, we can easily watch 5 movies a weekend. But as of late I’ve been bumping right into that limit - and suspect that sooner rather than later I’ll have to make a decision as to if I’m going to continue doing business with Comcast, or move to a competitor, I’d like to continue with Comcast but I have 2 issues.
Issue One with the Comcast 250GB Cap:
I pay for increased speed (Blast package) doesn’t it make sense that with the ability to consume their product at faster speeds, the cap should increase? If they’re going to cap consumption - the math needs to be fair (and I’ll leave it to you to do the math) Calculate the time it would take to consume the 250GB at the base price speed, take that time and calculate how much each paid tier can consume in that same time period, IMHO THAT should be the cap.
Issue Two with the Comcast Broadband Cap:
They certainly don’t cap any of their other services, want to watch PPV 24 hours a day all month long - they’ll probably send you a holiday card, talk on the phone for 250 straight hours - awesome, but use the internet everyday, all day, and they’ll shut you down.
A simple bookmarklet to isolate the new posts on OneUpMe.com, a facebook driven wordplay game, I’m fairly addicted too.
Show New OUMs
(drag this to your bookmarks bar or right-click and add to bookmarks)
two things never to skimp on, shoes, shellfish - the latter might kill you, the former will only make you wish you were dead..
- original quote SAUL 2010 (who happens to be wearing brand new shoes at this very moment)
if you’re working with a creative who says he can have something for you tomorrow, and you know you’ll be taking tomorrow off, or otherwise won’t get the opportunity to look at the work - let them know that, and give them the extra time, they’ll appreciate the information, and chances are you’ll get better creative.
Posting this here, to hopefully save any other SCX-4100 users some unnecessary pain, after upgrading to 10.6 my printer was recognized but was unable to print. Of Course Samsung no longer offers drivers for the SCX-4100, so after a LOT of trial and error, I discovered that the drivers for the SCX-4500 Universal Print driver work well enough that you can print. Nothing is ever easy peasy anymore.
Get the drivers for the SCX-4100 HERE