2023.03.21.

2023.03.19.

Notational Velocity and Twitter as Birdhouse for Mac

This is an old post about how we can select text in any app and send it to places:

Here’s an nice solution to something I’ve been wanting. I love Birdhouse for iPhone, which stores tweets until they’re ready for publication. There’s no Mac alternative, so I’ve been putting potential tweets into Notational Velocity, and then copy-and-pasting them into Twitter when ready.

Today, MacStories points out that Twitter for Mac adds a contextual menu item that lets you tweet nearly any text you’ve selected in Mac OS X. You see where this is going: I can call up Notational Velocity with a keystroke, right-click on a tweet and send it off via the contextual menu. Awesome!

Translating this into the blogging world: we can publish micro posts directly from The Archive – which is the modern version of Notational Velocity – (or any other Cocoa app) using MarsEdit’s new Micropost feature.

2023.03.18.

2023.03.14.

How to Plan Anything by Email Alone — and why it’s Faster – Just Use Email

Interesting article about how we can use emails to collaborate on projects:

For something temporal, and for groups of eight people or less, I believe email is superior for planning. Pretty Trello boards may look like you’ve got your act together, but you still have to type it out, get others to agree, and not forget important details. Trello can’t help you think. Even though software like Trello is quite easy, that doesn’t mean its universally understood the way email is. The documentation for Trello still must be read and understood.

I’m one of those people who like to communicate over email because it’s quick, and you can organize your end in any way you want.

The problem with a planning approach like this is that some people can’t use email appropriately. They create new messages when they should reply; they forget to answer questions etc. It happens on other platforms too. Usually, they are terrible with planning in general. So people blame email for being old and unusable.

Nowadays, a lot of people are in love with Slack.

Let me tell you a secret: it is even worse for work-related communication and project management in any possible way because it is closed, everyone has to use the same horrible client, and people expect instant communication from it (and don’t get me started on people who want everyone to use the status field as team Twitter).

People who couldn’t manage their emails started to blame it, which made companies switch to Slack, where these people are still the bottlenecks in the process, but now everyone has to use the same crappy client.

2023.02.18.

Bookmarked “Scarlet“:

Scarlet is a personal issue tracker that saves to a file that you can include in your project directory, or anywhere you prefer. No accounts, no cloud services, no syncing, no third-party integration. Just a simple place to file away your project’s to-dos and close them when they’re complete.

2023.02.16.

2023.02.03.

2023.02.01.

My Clearing Out My Work Inbox

We can watch Chris Coyier going for a 13 minutes ride of cleaning newsletters and spam from his work inbox.

I usually try to unsubscribe from these type of emails too.

If I can, it goes into the trash. If I can’t, then it goes into spam. I don’t archive these like Chris does.

2023.01.31.

Bookmarked “multi“.

Create a custom, lightweight macOS app from a group of websites.

It’s like a modern version of Fluid app.

Bookmarked “Auxl“.

Auxl is a native API client for macOS. Its powerful node based system provides a whole new way to organise, test, and develop APIs.

2023.01.30.

The Open in Kaleidoscope Service

The Services menu is getting a well deserved love from the Kaleidoscope blog:

The Services menu, originally part of NeXTSTEP, was introduced to the Mac with the advent of OS X in 2001. Throughout the entire history of OS X (now called macOS), Services never received a lot of love or major updates. Luckily, Services continues to work to this day and can be remarkably helpful.

One of the things I like about LaunchBar is its integration with the Services menu. There is no need to install a bunch of LaunchBar plugins; you can simply reuse already provided system services and share extensions from installed apps.

Add to Kaleidoscope

2023.01.28.

2023.01.27.

2023.01.20.

Twitter Officially Bans All Third-Party Apps

Twitter today confirmed that it is no longer permitting third-party developers to create Twitter clients, with the information quietly shared in an updated developer agreement that was spotted by Engadget. A new clause under Restrictions says that developers are not able to “create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

The continued genius of Space Karen just impresses me.

This is the final nail in the coffin of Twitterrific and Tweetbot. These were great apps!

2023.01.11.

2023.01.09.

Learn about how I use OmniFocus

I got a chance to talk on The Omni Show about how I use OmniFocus:

In this episode, we’re joined by Zsolt Benke, a developer from Pécs, Hungary. More than a decade ago, Zsolt started his coding life on the Web, designing and building WordPress sites. Now, he works in both web and iOS development. In his spare time, Zsolt enjoys blogging about productivity and technology, and co-hosting the podcast Agyvihar.

I think it has turned out to be a cool episode. I mentioned a couple of tricks and tips from my current system based on GTD. I hope you’ll like it!

2022.12.29.

Getting the URL of the selected note in Apple Notes

I figured out how to get the built-in Apple Notes URL for the selected note in Hookmark (or in any app that can run Apple Scripts), so I can replace the default Hookmark script, which is a bit cumbersome.

I have a detailed write-up about the script’s inner workings in the Hookmark forums. It can be helpful even if you don’t use Hookmark. You can modify the script to copy the URL to the clipboard.

2022.12.23.

2022.12.19.

2022.10.31.

2022.06.24.