FastScripts as Apple Menu
Back in the day, the System Folder contained an Apple Menu Items folder, the contents of which appeared in the Apple menu. Choosing an item from the menu opened the item from the folder. It was easy to customize the Apple menu by adding folders and aliases to the Apple Menu Items folder.
Here’s what it looked like by default in Mac OS 8.5:
In Mac OS X, of course, the Apple menu is no longer customizable. It still contains some useful items, but it’s not quite the familiar place it once was. The Dock has taken its place as a quick way to access favorite files and folders.
So, if you want to access a bunch of applications from a tidy little menu, and you don’t find it useful to throw your whole Applications folder in the Dock, you turn to the world of third party launchers. Here’s an unlikely solution.
FastScripts is a program I recommend for running scripts with keyboard shortcuts. It’s a power user thing. However, a little-advertised fact about FastScripts is that it will open anything in your Scripts folder, not just scripts.
Choose Open Scripts Folder from the FastScripts menu, and put whatever you’d like—including subfolders—in the folder that appears. Now you can launch those files from the FastScripts menu:
The script items in the menu reside in a subfolder of the Scripts/Applications folder. The subfolders are named after specific applications, and appear in the menu only when that application is frontmost.
Posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008. Tags: applescript, fastscripts, mac.
Drawn Wrong Handed
I’ve started a Flickr group called Drawn Wrong Handed. Here are some of my initial contributions:
I’ve spent this evening searching Flickr for people to invite, and I’ve already got a new member. Ever done any wrong handed mark making? Upload the evidence!
Posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008. Tags: art.
Bricksmith Custom Categories
Here is a hack to add new categories to the Bricksmith part browser. The part catalog is normally organized into categories based on the type of each part (such as brick, plate, or tile). However, if you’re building a model based on a real set, it’s just as useful to present the parts from that set in one category.
Adding a category from a Peeron inventory
To create a category consisting of the parts from set 4891, enter 4891 and click Peeron Inventory:
The script will retrieve the corresponding list of parts and populate a new category containing them:
Adding a category from a file
To create a category based on an arbitrary group of parts, save a list of part file names, like this:
3005.dat
3004.dat
3003.dat
3001.dat
Then enter a name for your category and click From File. You’ll be prompted to select the list you just created.
The script will add the listed parts to the named category:
Limitations
The script is awfully slow. AppleScript’s property list commands are not well suited for making many changes.
Parts listed in the file or inventory which are not already present in your part library will not be included in the category.
New categories are not visible until you restart Bricksmith. (I recommend quitting Bricksmith before running the script anyway.) Custom categories are lost when you reload the part list from Bricksmith’s Parts preferences.
No feedback is provided while the script is running.
Errors are not handled particularly well.
Mac OS X 10.5 is required.
It’s really slow.
Download
Bricksmith Catalog Custom Categories 26.4 KB
Posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008. Tags: applescript, bricksmith, LDraw, LEGO.
Mis Bicicletas
I bought an old road bike for $9 last week. I’ve enjoyed tuning it up and thinking of new missions for it and my other bike.
The basket on the red bike is neat because it can be unclipped and carried around like a regular shopping basket. Quite practical! I’ll upload more pictures to my bikes set as the fleet evolves. I expect a rack and further repairs may be in store for the blue bike.
Posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008. Tags: bike.
A New Study Suggests That…
My friend Dan has authored a study which has received considerable press coverage this week. It is about the circumstantial advantages of ADHD. Articles about his paper have appeared at Scientific American, Slate, The Economist, New Scientist, The Daily Telegraph, and elsewhere.
It’s all in a day’s work for Dan, but it’s nice to see such widespread recognition for his research. He’s given me many insights into the evolutionary elegance of the world around us, and now the world has a chance to consider his insight.
Posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008. Tags: evolution.
Unnatural Selection
As you may know, the runner-up at this year’s Kentucky Derby, Eight Belles, was euthanized shortly after the race due to ankle injuries she sustained just after crossing the finish line.
Interestingly, Eight Belles and all of her Kentucky Derby competitors were in part descended from Native Dancer, an accomplished racehorse whose career was eventually curtailed by a “recurring foot injury” and whose bloodline has a reputation for “producing fragile horses”.
Selective breeding leads to the inheritance of desired traits like being fast and light. When taken to extremes (as with the inbred pure-breeding of some Thoroughbreds, arguably), it’s not too surprising that narrow emphasis on a few traits breeds animals that may otherwise be unfit to withstand aspects of the stress they’re expected to endure.
But then again, Kentucky is home to the Creation Museum. Maybe if they ask nicely someone upstairs will just intelligently design a stronger racehorse.
Posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008. Tags: evolution.
Fuel Economy
In the sixteen years since it was manufactured, my truck has travelled some 190000 miles. Supposing an average fuel economy of 14 miles per gallon, the truck has burned about 13571 gallons of fuel. That’s a lot.
A Boeing 777-200, smallest of the 777s, has a maximum fuel capacity of 31000 gallons. That’s more than twice as much as a lot. The 777-200’s maximum range is listed as 5235 nautical miles, or some 6024 miles. Disregarding other factors, and the possible irrelevance of such limits to typical operation, these maximums suggest a fuel economy between 0.19 and 0.2 miles per gallon.
These calculations are contrived, but it should be clear that a transcontinental flight consumes more than peanuts.
Nevertheless, this comparison should not be construed as an indictment of air travel. There are millions of trucks like mine but only a handful of airliners. Furthermore, airplanes carry many passengers, and cars do not. Last but not least, cars cannot fly. Flight is intrinsically cool.
So, I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how many people a 777-200 would have to carry from NY to LA to use less fuel than those people would use if they each drove a truck like mine the same distance.
Posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008.
Fox Kits
Here’s a video clip my mom took of some little foxes frolicking around their den.
Posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008.
Note Poster
Here’s a script to create a new post in MarsEdit from a note selected in Yojimbo. Why use a script when it’s already as easy as copy and paste? Well, maybe your computer is running out of paste.
tell application "Yojimbo" set _items to selected items of browser window 1 if (_items is {}) or (_items is missing value) then return set _note to item 1 of _items if class of _note is not note item then return end tell tell application "MarsEdit" set _post to make new document set body of _post to contents of contents of _note set title of _post to name of _note activate end tell
Click here to open the script directly in Script Editor. Save it in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Yojimbo and you’re ready to run.
Posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008. Tags: applescript, mac, marsedit, yojimbo.