saulrosenbaum.com / geek / Page 3

I recently just finished a project that included a day-by-day itinerary, and an hour-by-hour speakers schedule, I really wanted to highlight the current days events, and emphasis the current speakers bio - not a daunting task by any means - but always looking to skin the cat differently, I used a single line of php, and a two generated css selectors.

here’s an item from the event list

<ol id="3070812">
<li>Effective Sales via email</li>
<li>Time: 12pm</li>
<li>Date: March 7th, 2008</li>
<li>Location: Green Room Loungue</li>
</ol>
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I like Math, I like Broccoli and I like Cauliflower - I think the odds are high that I’d like Romanesco broccoli aka fractal broccoli, although I do realize that the mathematical appearance has little to do with it’s taste.

I read about Definr yesterday on DownloadSquad.com, Definr is a web 2.0 online dictionary - it’s fast, it’s minimal, it has autocomplete — and it works - took me about 30 seconds to determine that I can get a definition equally as fast from definr, as I can from the mac dictionary (since I almost always have a browser open anyway) - but to cut my search time down even further I showed it some launchbar love - just add the search template
'http://www.definr.com/*'
and your done.

I’d love to see an API for definr - it seems to have excellent speed, and I do love API’s.

— EDIT —

In order to give other online dictionaries equal time, don’t miss the Urban Dictionary, a handy (and hilarious) community driven dictionary - that features slang to english - perfect for translating that top 40 rap track (note: The Urban Dictionary is generally not safe for work).

It’s launchbar search template would be:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=*

Brand new OS’s are cool, Leopard is pretty neat, Vista blows, but has unrealized potential, the GUI seems to get all the media focus, but functionality is really the key, I propose a simple functionality addition that IMHO will greatly improve users life, workflow, computer experience.

Proposed Functionality:

User while working in Microsoft Word clicks SAVE, dialog comes up, preferred location is chosen, filename complete with extension is typed in, the OS/Software should be aware of four things;

1. We’ve made a preference in our to-be-saved files format
2. That if our chosen format requires additional interaction (e.g. settings) we should be prompted to make those additional choices
3. If the output format isn’t possible, it needs to let us know that
4. If the outputted file [in the desired format] will no longer be editable by the host application, we’re actually asking for it to save a copy, and leave the original edittable

I can hear purists whining now, but I’m not asking for a change, I’m asking for an addition, one I feel is long overdue. Image how simple this would make media creation apps - like Photoshop/After effects/Illustrator/any damn media creation software that supports 1000’s of formats.

Now just to get Bill & Steve together for a conference call.

I: “That uses PHP, and a custom ODBC connector API”

C: “Why are you ALWAYS spelling?”

I almost passed out I laughed so hard, glad it was a conference call.

For years I’ve joked about a utility function that I use on every job appropriately named Client.random() — I know what you’re thinking; Saul, how is Client.random() any different than random()? The answer is actually very simple – Client.random() doesn’t randomize, it iterates - and this post isn’t about programming, it’s about customer relations - confused yet? The difference between the two functions - is the difference between clients and programmers:
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So I’ve been twitting for a short time, Like so many people I downloaded ‘Twittererific’ and have been happily twitting away - it’s a solid sexy little app, and honestly I would expect nothing less from the guys at iconfactory, they rock, and rock hard. Given my recent love affair with the shell, I realized last night that I could easily leverage Launchbar to be my twitting tool of choice; twitters API is simple and concise.

curl --basic --user "USERNAME:PASSWORD" --data-ascii ¬
"status=YOUR DESIRED TWIT" " ¬
http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json"

So to tie that to Launchbar we simply add the argument passed (your typed status) from launchbar into the script, save it in ‘\bin’ CHMOD it executable, and bind it to a search template

curl --basic --user "USERNAME:PASSWORD" --data-ascii ¬
"status=$1" "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json"

That’s all it really takes to post, how simple is that?, of course to get your friends status it’ll take a bit more, I’m thinking ‘geektool’ is the right tool for that job, but that’s a different post (hopefully tomorrow).

Tagged: api, shell, twitter

I’m forever fiddling with online ‘organizers’ one of the nicest IMHO is Backpack by those 37 signals guys, it’s clean and straightforward - and while I doubt I’ll ever actually use it for my day-to-day masterlist, it’s an excellent place to jot down some quick notes - till I can transcribe them into the ‘uber’ paper list that rules my waking hours (yes..paper, I confess, I kill trees, regularly)

So my recent insomnia had me poking at the BackPack API - to see if I could easily marry BackPack to Launchbar which is my preferred launcher du-jour (whole other post needed as to my choosing it over QS) Natively launchbar supports applescript (which I hate writing), and it also supports Shell scripts (which I love writing) so that choice was simple.

BackPack’s API uses XML over HTTP - which I found annoying (which means I couldn’t get it to work) but Backpack also has a email interface - which is cake. I create a shell script named ‘createTODO’ and parked it in my bin directory. I CHMOD’d it executable.

#!/bin/bash

E="address@yourpage.backpackit.com"
S="Subject: todo: $1"
echo $S | sendmail -f youremail@domain.com $A

that’s the nuts and bolts of it really. it’s clean, simple, bulletproof - you don’t even need to worry about your API key, tested with some static content, boooyah! step one done.

Now to connect that to LB it’s so easy it’s sick..
Open your LB Configuration and create a new search template, give it a simple to type name (like TD)
and make the detail is (Note the linebreak ¬)

x-launchbar:execute? ¬
path=/bin/createTODO&arguments="*"

Using it is as easy as;
Trigger LB, type ‘TD’ hit space. type your task/note and hit enter DONE!

I created a similar script and template for Backpack notes, I’m pretty sure you can figure that one out. Maybe the next version will use applescript and have Growl feedback… hmm.

I was looking for a way to drop bookmarks to email threads in Mail.app‡ when I stumbled upon Hallon a VERY cool open-source project by Peter Borg (of Smultron fame), it’s exactly what I was looking for and SO MUCH MORE.

Peter does a much better job describing it than me.

Hallon can create bookmarks in many applications (like iTunes or Mail.app) that usually can’t create bookmarks and they are always accessible from a menu whatever you are doing. You can e.g. bookmark your favorite songs, an email that you have to reply to later that day, some documents that you are working on or the contact information of a friend whom you need to call before the end of the week. And you play the song, open the email, the document or the contact information just by choosing the bookmark in the Hallon menu.

IMHO most software is for the most part derivative, Hallon rings unique, filling a void that most people don’t even realize the have. The ability to jump back into an email thread, an address, a playlist, and set reminders and notes as well is great for anyone who deals with an unreasonable amount of information on a daily basis.

‡ I knew this was possible because my brief exposure to iGTD did this perfectly, iGTD was an excellent program in it’s own right, just not a great fit for me.

Hallon

I hadn’t read too much about the iPhone camera, which is a shame, because given that it’s UI is just about the slickest thing on the phone, it bares mentioning - and given that the light level isn’t too high or too low, the photo’s aren’t bad, true they are a bit artifacty if you compare them to my DSLR - but again my DSLR also weighs 540g (lensless). It would be nice to set the compression and image-size on my iPhone though.

Oh That’s MAXX above, he’s grown up some since this post.

Tagged: cats, iphone