Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007:
Yojimbo Script Updates
Minor updates to a few Yojimbo AppleScripts are available: Export with Comment Tags, Archive Bookmarks, and Backdate Items. These updates allow the scripts to act on items even when Yojimbo’s item list pane does not have input focus. This means you can run the scripts when editing items as well as when selecting them.
8:41 AM Comment (0)
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007:
Yojimbo Export with Comment Tags
In response to this query, I wrote a script which allows Yojimbo items to be exported with their tags preserved as Spotlight comments. I don’t really use Spotlight, so I’m not sure if the comment format is ideal, but it works fine for a first draft.
Download ExportwithCommentTags.scpt.zip 1.1 4k
Put the script in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Yojimbo, select some items, and choose “Export with Comment Tags” from your script menu.
6:32 PM Comment (4)
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007:
anoved.net update
I’ve made some minor changes to anoved.net. Most noticeable is probably the black title bar with my leering grin logo. In addition to serving as a “home” button, it should expand or contract to match the text scale if you change your browser’s text size. The title bar isn’t perfect, but it’s a good candidate for gradual refinement.
A few stupid layout bugs have been fixed that might have affected some browsers. I advise Internet Explorer users who are loyal to that browser to upgrade to IE7 if they haven’t already. Catering to earlier versions of IE is too much trouble.
In favor of simplicity I have eliminated the drawing and flood photo pages. All those images are still available among my Flickr sets.
I have added links in the sidebar to my accounts on a number of other popular or interesting web sites. This is intended to acknowledge my presence elsewhere on the web explicitly rather than presume anonymity. I will add or remove links to or from this list based partly on activity.
I like having the six random samples from my drawing and flower galleries appear on the front page, but I am dissatisfied with the mechanism that retrieves them from Flickr. The rest of the page is briefly deferred from loading while it occurs.
Let me know if you find any broken links or other problems with these changes.
10:39 PM Comment (0)
Posted on Friday, August 17, 2007:
“Open As” Pseudo-Stationery Finder AppleScript
Use this AppleScript to create and open an explicitly named copy of the selected file or folder. You will be prompted to specify the name and location of the new copy. Clicking “Save” will duplicate the item and open the new duplicate.
This script is the result of dissatisfaction with some applications’ lack of support for Stationery Pad files. Specifically, the default behavior appears to be for the Finder to create and open a generic duplicate with “copy [#]” appended to the original base filename. I find it more convenient to name the new instance directly, so that is the functionality this script provides. Stationery pads are not required as it works with regular files.
Rigorous testing has not been performed. Be advised that duplication is performed with cp, which ignored the resource fork in early versions of Mac OS X. Therefore, Mac OS X 10.4 is strongly recommended for compatibility with all files.
Download FinderOpenAs.scpt.zip 3.4K
I suggest saving the script in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder and assigning it the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-O via FastScripts.
7:04 PM Comment (0)
Posted on Monday, August 6, 2007:
Brickshelver Development Release
Brickshelver is a small utility I have written to simplify the process of uploading files to Brickshelf, a popular site for LEGO hobbyists.
When you start Brickshelver, you log in using your Brickshelf account. Brickshelver maintains a list of your Brickshelf folders, but it takes a few moments to conduct this inventory. You can skip this step after the first run for faster logins, but in this case Brickshelver will not be aware of any new folders created via the regular web interface.
You can add files to the list of files to upload by clicking the “+” button or by dragging them to Brickshelver’s Dock icon. The files will all be uploaded to the indicated folder, which can be an existing folder or a new folder created with Brickshelver.
Clicking “Upload” will automatically zip the files and upload them to Brickshelf, creating a new folder if necessary. Upload status is reported in the space to the left of the “Upload” button.
Important Notes
This release consists of a stand-alone application for Mac OS X. This application exhibits many inconsistent or unconventional behaviors, as Brickshelver is actually a Tcl/Tk script bundled in a generic application wrapper. There are a large number of issues that need to be addressed and features that need to be improved, including but not limited to:
- Quit via File→Close or by closing the window, but not via Brickshelver→Quit
- Can’t drag files into the actual window
- Localization
- Layout and appearance quirks
- File type validation
- Cross platform support (specifically, zip and preferences mechanisms)
- Full paths look dopey in file list
I am content with Brickshelver in its current state, but I caution others that it is alpha quality software. Further development depends on the reaction to this release; how to proceed is clear, but I am eager to work on other projects instead.
Download Brickshelver Development Release 2.6MB .tar.gz
Your folder inventory and account information (including unencrypted Brickshelf password) are stored on your computer in ~/Library/Preferences/net.anoved.brickshelver.plist. The format of this file may change in any future releases.
8:24 PM Comment (0)
Posted on Friday, August 3, 2007:
Safe Sleep Nonsense
Today John Gruber cited a TidBITS article about purported problems with Apple’s safe sleep feature. The author of the article, Joe Kissell, concludes that “if I can’t put my brand new computer to sleep and into its bag in less than 10 seconds, something is seriously wrong.” He’s right; something must be wrong with his computer.
As soon as I was done reading the article, I shut the lid of my MacBook. It was not plugged in. I dug a coin out of my pocket, flipped over the laptop, and used the coin to remove the battery. I waved the battery around for a moment to demonstrate that the computer I had just been using was neither plugged in nor powered by a battery. Then I reinserted the battery, opened the MacBook’s lid, and pressed the power button to restore my session. All this transpired within the 49 seconds Kissell says is necessary for his MacBook Pro with 4 GB of RAM to go to sleep:
My MacBook has 2 GB of RAM. I doubt it is true of safe sleep that “the length of time it takes is proportional to the amount of RAM you have installed.” Perhaps it is not a linear relationship, as it takes nowhere near 24.5 seconds for my machine to fall asleep.
Update: I suspect I may be mistaken if the sleep time varies inversely with the amount of free RAM. Even so, the time is not dependent on the amount of RAM installed but rather the amount in use.
12:31 PM Comment (3)