February 2011
27 posts
Done and Done in iBooks
Look at what you get when editing your collections in iBooks:
This is, at least to some extent, confusing. One of those identically labeled buttons should be removed, but I can’t remember which without going to my iPhone and checking what each does.
Looking back on ‘The Tablet’
If you’re thinking The Tablet is just a big iPhone, or just Apple’s take on the e-reader, or just a media player, or just anything, I say you’re thinking too small — the equivalent of thinking that the iPhone was going to be just a click wheel iPod that made phone calls. I think The Tablet is nothing short of Apple’s reconception of personal computing.
— The Tablet, Daring Fireball, 31...
iOS keyboard sounds
Typing on a real keyboard is a wonderful auditory experience. On mine, I find every key produces a slightly different sound when struck. The characters A to Z sound similar, but decidedly different from modifier keys, which are different again from function keys. Return isn’t quite like anything else, and the space bar is remarkably distinctive. I hope it goes without saying that audible feedback...
The new MacBook Pro →
I’m shocked the 13-inch MacBook Pro still exists. It’s filling a gap between the 13-inch Air and the 15-inch Pro, but I’m sure it’s too fat for that tiny gap.
Fame versus everyday words
How famous do you need to be in order to beat an everyday word at a Google search? What I’m looking for is the first page about the person or the common word. That page is almost always the Wikipedia entry.
Note: these are all done from the UK with Google’s UK domain. This will influence some results.
Brown
The university takes the top spot, while the colour’s Wikipedia page beats that of the...
Should I be explaining gin rather than bit error rates?
Just decided to spend 10p to use an em-dash. They make us pay for using proper punctuation in text messages. It’s free here — definitely a good thing.
Old note: Snow Leopard
Here’s a note I made in September 2009 just after Snow Leopard came out.
Snow Leopard nice changes
Bluetooth menu opens without delay
pmtool is now activitymonitord
QuickLook CSV
Opening Inspector in Finder doesn’t distract keyboard focus
No alias on Desktop glitch after Finder relaunch
Finder View options — setting image background uses Drag and Drop instead of mini/fake Finder
Why...
“You should be starting to get some ideas about how to break the chicken and egg...”
– Joel Spolsky
Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store →
…with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription…
…customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.
All this talk about clicking is bothering, because I assume this is about iOS devices, which are tapped. I have to assume, as the release doesn’t mention iOS until right at the end, and then it’s not directly about the new subscription service. Does...
Mac OS X’s Downloads folder — 52 Tiger →
Connor shared a great suggestion:
Although you can’t sort [by date downloaded] in the Finder, if you have the Downloads folder as a stack in your Dock, you can sort it by ‘Date Added,’ rather than Date Modified or Date Created. I’ve got it set up this way, and the newly-downloaded items appear first.”
Very nice, and that’s what I’m going to try. This way I’ll see the...
My lab report process
In the third year of the Engineering Tripos, we do four or five laboratory experiments in each of the first two terms (Michaelmas and Lent). Reports must be written after doing these experiments. I have developed a somewhat unusual process for writing these reports.
The report goes through four different formats:
Markdown
HTML
Pages (iWork)
PDF and print
Writing in Markdown
The first...
WatchThe Churchill Disaster →
A display of much artistry by some of my fellows. This short film looks at the present from a possible future, and tells of a frightful disaster.
Guys, it’s great!
The Churchill Disaster was directed by Rhodri Karim and filmed by Dan Miodrag, with Oisin Kearney.
Grid lock in Finder
I found a brand new Mac trick!
When dragging an item in the Finder, hold down the command key when releasing and the item will snap to the grid.
Assumptions: you are using icon view and have ‘Arrange by’ set to ‘None’ as in the screen shot below.
What this means is that, if you use the Finder in a spacial manner, you can keep your arrangements neat as you go. I was moving some stuff around...
A suggestion from YouTube
Upgrade to Flash Player 10 for improved playback performance.
Yeah, right. Better than Mac OS X’s QuickTime framework, courtesy of YouTube5.
Send your Instapaper reading log to Readability →
Done. It literally took two clicks to link the accounts.
The Readability payment system is a fantastic idea, and I really hope it works out.
To me, Instapaper and Readability look like collaborating competitors. If you link Instapaper to Readability, the two services basically do the same thing. So how do you pick which one to use for reading? Marco Arment addresses this concern:
The...
How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off →
Steve Pavlina:
What’s the real solution then? The solution is to delegate the problem. Turn the whole thing over to your subconscious mind. Cut your conscious mind out of the loop.
Now how do you do this? The same way you learned any other repeatable skill. You practice until it becomes rote. Eventually your subconscious will take over and run the script on autopilot.
This is...
User Interface Design For Programmers →
I recently read this online version of Joel Spolsky’s user interface book. The chapters are also available individually. (Chapter 1.) It’s a really well presented introduction to interface design, and entertaining too.
What I loved was that I was pointed to this book from two sources. Marco Arment spoke about the last chapter in episode 6 of Build and Analyze. Marco was talking about the...
DuckDuckGo is going well so far, after I switched from Google earlier this week.
That’s everything I wanted to know, right on the results page. Perfect.
Interface for sending iTunes Store terms by email
(You’ll get 90% of the value of this post just by skimming. Image, bold text, done.)
When viewing updated iTunes Store Terms and Conditions in the iPhone App Store app, there is an option to have the terms sent to an email address. If you choose to do this, you are presented with this display:
Firstly, this is a bit of an unusual interface element. It is an alert containing a text field....
Fun CSS
I added this CSS rule to my stylesheet:
ol ol, ol ul, ul ol, ul ul {
padding-left: 2.618em;
}
This is fun to read out loud.
The rule is for indenting lists with multiple levels. (I set lists to have no padding so list text is flush with other body text and the bullets or numbers hang in the margin. I want indents for sub-lists, though.)
Swapping Search Providers
With all this brouhaha about Bing copying Google, I though I’d share what was keeping me on Google.
Google’s awesome keyboard navigation.
Keyboard navigation is a recent addition to Google, and I said how much I loved it back in November. This is something I ‘can’t live without’. Until I looked just now, that feature was what was preventing me from trying an alternative. To my immense...
iWork Toolbars — CMDComma →
In my (first) submission to CMDComma, I discuss how I prefer to have my toolbars:
