theNogblog.com » Software

Evernote

Stuart — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:57:49 +0000

I struggle keeping tiny pieces of information together on my Mac. Stuff that I want to keep, but not stuff that is useful in my everyday workflow. I’ve been using Evernote since it was first introduced. In my opinion this is the coolest Web 2.0 software ever. It works on the Mac and iPhone (also Windows and Windows Mobile—if you are into that kinda thing). Evernote is a super-advanced notebook. You can use it to keep track of your notes and web clippings just like other notebook software. The coolness enters when you upload a photo with text. It can be text in a nice font, handwriting or scribbles on a paper. Evernote scrubs your uploaded text and makes it completely searchable! You can access your notes through the client software or through your webbrowser. Evernote has become my collection box for all things! Try out their generous free account and save your notes forever!

Folder Templates

Stuart — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:54:25 +0000

I found a great idea at Productivity 501. Anytime I can streamline my life I go for it. The idea is to create a template folder for clients. Since I do graphic design and photography this is a perfect fit for me. I did not want a folder called “z_template” sitting around my computer so I brought in Automator to help.

1. Read the post on folder templates at Productivity 501 to give you some background. Download the example Automator workflow.

2. New Folder. Customize your subfolders in each New Folder section. I chose to use “_Billing”, “_Contracts”, _Notes, “_Material”, and “_Wrap Up”. Subfolders will initially be created on your Desktop.

3. Get Specified Finder Items. Choose paths to each of your subfolders.

4. New Dated Folder. In this section create a destination for your new client folders. The workflow’s default is the Desktop. On my computer I have it set to my Projects folder.

5. Go to the File menu and save your workflow as a Plug-in or an Application.

When you run the workflow it will create a folder in your specified destination (point #4) with all your specified subfolders (point#2). The template folder will be made with the current date and titled “ProjectName” but you will have the option to change “ProjectName” when you run the workflow. Get the workflow download from Dropio. Hope this helps. Please leave a comment if you have suggestions to make this better or you encounter any problems. Peace.

Free Software

Stuart — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:51:06 +0000

The good folks at MacApper gave me a free license to GarageSale for simply leaving a comment. GarageSale is a beautiful Mac program for selling stuff on Ebay. If you are looking to purchase a branding iron I have one for sale. Thanks to MacApper and to the GarageSale team!

Dark Ages

Stuart — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:47:31 +0000

I can’t believe TBS is still in the dark ages! In this age of the internet everything should be accessible to everyone. The TBS site is not requiring Windows Media Player to watch videos. They are actually requiring Microsoft Windows to view videos. As a Mac guy this drives me crazy! I am still one of those die-hards who refuses to touch anything that is tainted with MS Windows. Do I have the ability to install Windows on my Intel Mac? —yes. Will I ever install Windows on my Mac? — NO! So much for FrankTV. I’m sticking with Youtube. TBS needs to take a clue from Hulu (instead of driving people to use Bittorrent)!

A Whole New World

stuart — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:31:54 +0000

View in Zooomr">My wife has a Dell Inspiron 2650 that’s about to go to computer heaven (of course with it being a Dell it is probably going the other direction). That is until I completely wiped off every trace of Windows and installed Ubuntu Linux. As a brand new Linux user this was quite a chore. Although the install was easy, the rest of the OS was not. Ubuntu did not correctly set up the laptop screen. So after hours of twiddling with the xorg.conf file I finally got the screen set up correctly. Well, Ubuntu worked great (other than the wireless). Then I stumbled on the Brazil-based DreamLinux through Digg. As a lifetime Mac user I always appreciate eye candy. Next thing I knew I was erasing my wife’s hard drive and installing DreamLinux 2.0. I had to create a new xorg.conf to get the laptop screen to display correctly. DreamLinux worked great for several weeks. It was fast, it had all the crucial applications for a basic user, and it was looking real pretty. However, after serveral weeks I realized that it just wasn’t as technically polished as Ubuntu. Plus most of its forum help wasn’t in english. So I started contemplating moving to Xubuntu. As I was downloading the Xubuntu install, I found openSUSE Linux. After checking out a video of SUSE 10.1 in action at OSvids I decided to give SUSE a try. I chose to do the install over the internet. I thought the install was much more complicated than the Ubuntu install. After doing some searches on the internet I found an FTP address that worked. I waited most of the afternoon for everything to download and install. When I started up the SUSE for the first time I was astonished. Everything just worked. No messing with the xorg.conf and no X server errors. On top of that the GUI actually looked pretty good! So after exploring the world of Linux I think I have found my distribution. They key for me at this point is constantly reminding myself that the Dell is still my wife’s computer.

Note: To give a little back to the Linux community you may download my xorg.conf file for the Dell Inspiron 2650.
Ubuntu xorg.conf