“I bought it [BBEdit] at version 5.5, upgraded to 6.0, and recently upgraded that to 9.6 after admitting that TextMate 2 won’t be out until they finish writing Duke Nukem Forever with it.”
Month: January 2011
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Mass Bird, Fish Deaths Occur Regularly
Seth Borenstein on the odd events of the mass blackbirds that fell out of the sky and other mass animal deaths:
On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.
I don’t know whether I should be reassured by this, or even more troubled by this.
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Facebook Goes Secret
Andrew Polacek for the WSJ:
Goldman sent copies of the private-placement memo throughout the day Thursday, often by messenger instead of email to prevent leaks. In some cases, even spouses of the document’s recipients were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement.
This level of secrecy coming from the same company whose CEO wants less privacy. I guess that doesn’t apply to him.
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Getting my Central Hub In Order
If you are a living breathing human being you most likely suffer from a common problem that all humans suffer from: forgetting stuff. Big or small, we tend to forget things. A large part of my job is to delegate tasks — sometimes I remember to follow-up to see if a task has been done, but too often I forget.
About a month and a half ago I got really tired of these delegated tasks falling through the cracks — my system of tracking items needed to be overhauled.
The Old System
Before I talk about how I now track things, I thought it best to talk about how I was tracking things:
- OmniFocus
- Basecamp
- My memory
I used to put things in OmniFocus manually and track them there, or simply add them as a task to someone else on Basecamp. Either way, I rarely would set a due date, instead just waiting for a person to check off their task in Basecamp. With this system about 20% of all things I needed to track would go into either Basecamp or OmniFocus — not so great.
The rest of the tasks went into my brain — just ask my wife how well that works, and I would say that I was missing follow-ups on about 60% of all delegated tasks. This matters in my job for two reasons:
- Maintenance tasks that have not been completed reflect poorly on my company and the building owners. Tenants are less likely to want to renew, or sign a new lease on a building if it is not being well maintained. Putting my company at a high risk of having its contract terminated.
- Safety of tenants is incredibly important — failing to change light bulbs may result in dark pockets at night making the parking lot unsafe for someone to walk alone. There is also increased risk of theft and vandalism, as well as general low visibility concerns.
Sealing the Cracks
Before I could start trying to fix the systems I had in place I first needed to take a brutally honest look at where I was failing. It became clear that I was failing to follow up on sent emails, and phone calls. I also found that the time I spend on Basecamp has decreased significantly, to the point where it is barely used any longer.
OmniFocus
I decided that I was going to try and consolidate all of my tracking into OmniFocus — it is the tool that is with me 99% of the time. To do this I created a new single action bucket and titled it “Maintenance Tracker” — additionally I created another bucket that would serve as a more general tracker and would not reside inside my work project folder.
My goal was to make it ridiculously easy to input items that need to be tracked, while still keeping them separate from items that I actually need to do. After using this setup for a bit I can say that this works fairly well for me. Any time I assign a task to someone else I make sure to note that task in OmniFocus and assign a due date that reflects when I think the task should be completed.
Instead of checking off items when I follow up on them, I will re-assign the due date to a later time if the task is still not completed. I also file all tracker actions under the context ‘waiting’, which is an apt description, as well as being important for the email component.
That pretty much covers the memory fault issues that I was experiencing. Making these steps habit is the most important aspect towards making sure that I don’t start relying on my memory once again.
The last bit that I really needed to tackle was with email. Until I found this magical script I had been using MailTags and setting a waiting context to emails I needed to follow-up on and then sticking those emails into a follow-up folder for later action.
This worked OK, but not great. Typically the follow-up folder would be overflowing with email to the point where I would just gloss over everything and only find the high-priority stuff. I just ignored far too much and began to loathe looking at the folder. Now though I have an applescript that will automatically add emails that have been flagged as waiting with a tickler date, sending them to OmniFocus’ inbox. From there all I need to do is assign a project and they are filed away, complete with a link back to the email that I sent.
It is incredibly important that I get the link to the email that I sent, not a link to the email that I responded to. I need to know exactly what I asked someone and have the ability to re-forward that ask to them in order to make this setup work well for me. The ability to take searching for the right email out of the equation makes the system that much more frictionless.
(As a side note: When I follow-up with people that I have assigned a task via email, I simply forward them the email I sent them and ask for a status update. I haven’t had any complaints about it and I seem to be getting much faster action on items that I send. People don’t want to be reminded of stuff they didn’t do, so they seem to get my stuff done first. This is a nice little bonus for me.)
Highrise
I also have added a new-ish tool to my arsenal: Highrise. I had previously only been using Highrise for email archiving (you can blind copy Highrise and it will store that email with the contact(s) that you are sending the email too) and for culling together all of my contacts for the business to help distribute contact lists to my co-workers.
I have now started to make a better habit of logging notes in Highrise so that my co-workers can stay in touch with everything that is going on. This greatly simplifies our company communications so that we don’t have to meet just to keep each other apprised of what we are doing. Most importantly, Highrise keeps a running log of when tasks are completed (either via entering a note, or responding to a persons email that says they are done). This comes in handy when you need to tell someone when something was completed. Highrise offers a better way to find information that Mail.app does for me.
Central Hub
The key to revising my system was to remove system fragmentation. I was tracking actions in: Basecamp, OmniFocus, Highrise, and my memory. Now, I track all actions in OmniFocus and use the other tools as support.
I only have one place where I need to look to see what needs to be tracked. I cannot begin to tell you how greatly this tweak has effected my business. I am a person who is very embarrassed when I forget things, or when I don’t meet the quality expectations that my clients have of me and making OmniFocus the central hub for my tracking and my tasks has greatly reduced my level of embarrassment.
This all seems so simple and obvious now, I should have been tracking everything in OmniFocus to begin with, but better late than never. I think we all get too caught up thinking that using more tools is a better solution, right up to the point when things start to falter, only then do we realize: the only thing that matters is actually using the tools.
My old system failed because I never checked or use the tools that I had appointed for tracking. My new system is working exceptionally well because I use the piss out of OmniFocus.
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Mac App Store Downloads Top One Million in First Day
Apple literally would have had 5 more sales if I could get on the MAPTORE. ((No way I am calling it MAS.))
[via TechCrunch] -
Duck Duck !Bang
Related to the last item, here is something that really makes DuckDuckGo a great search engine.
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Google’s Decreasingly Useful, Spam-Filled Web Search
Marco Arment on Google’s useless results:
Searching Google is now like asking a question in a crowded flea market of hungry, desperate, sleazy salesmen who all claim to have the answer to every question you ask.
I have had great luck lately using DuckDuckGo.
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The Rain City Superheroes
This is a bad-ass group of superheroes keeping Seattle safe. Winston Ross:
Jones is mostly polite with the RLSH members who criticize him, but he makes no apologies for his approach. The real-life superheroes mostly hand out food to homeless people, he reports scornfully. Superheroes are supposed to take down criminals. “They can keep feeding homeless people with sandwiches,” Jones says. “Leave the crime to me.”
Awesome.
[via Paul Kafasis] -
Markdown is a Skill Every Modern Communicator Should Learn
Steve Rubel on why you should use Markdown:
Video and imagery are critical. But, still, nothing on the web flies the way text does. Words power the web. So it’s critical that every communicator know how to succinctly organize, convey and present ideas for the web and mobile so that they build up readers like nutrients do, rather than weigh them down like junk food.
Agreed and Markdown is a great way to write for the web. Especially when coupled with TextMate.
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How To Fix Mac App Store “Error 100″
If you are only experiencing the “Error 100” message Macstories can help you fix that.
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[SOLVED] The Mac App Store and the ” MZFinance.NoGUIDTokenFailureKey_message ” Error
If you are awake today then you know that the Mac App Store launched (run software update to get it, requires a restart). Upon installing and restarting my machine, I tried to get Twitter for Mac. Yet I cannot sign into the Mac App Store — instead I get this error: MZFinance.NoGUIDTokenFailureKey_message
This issue is not documented anywhere that I can find at this time, except for this discussion thread I started in the Apple Forums.
There is rampant speculation as to what the problem is, but first here is what I have tried:
- Restarting the Mac
- A secondary Apple ID
- Re-installing 10.6.6
- Installing the 10.6.6 combo updater
- Dumping ~Library/Cache and User/Library/Cache
- Dumping all plist and files related to the App Store in Library/Application Support
- Updating all credit card and billing info on the account.
- Updating apps in iOS so that I can accept the new user terms of service.
Here are some things I have learned about this problem:
- People who have used a cloned drive to setup a new computer seem to be experiencing this problem the most.
- Users with this problem report other Macs working with their login.
- Speculation is that the Hardware UUID for people who used a clone on a new machine, or migration assistant is not reporting correctly, causing this problem.
Solution
See below.
[Updated: 1/6/11 at 9:39 AM]
Just got off the phone with AppleCare — they are looking into to the issue now and are currently at a loss. They will be calling me back in a few hours, I will update with any new news as it comes in.[Updated: 1/6/11 at 1:49 PM]
I have heard back from AppleCare and they had me fill out a general form inputting the error code. The Rep I spoke with said that Apple feels confident that the error is on their end, not mine. This step could take well over 48 hours as I must wait for responses. If this step fails I was told there are other options, but these options are more “invasive”. I am not sure what that means, but it can’t be good.[Updated: 1/6/11 at 10:01 PM]
AppleCare wanted me to try resetting the home folder and user ACLs using the re-installation disc. I did that with no success. I will let you know if I find anything else. Major bummer.Solved
[Updated: 1/7/11 at 10:18 AM]
AppleCare found the solution and it is rather simple. Now this solution has worked for me, but there is no guaranty that it will work for you.
Solution: Go to Macintosh HD (or whatever you call your HD in Finder) > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration
For there look for the file labeled: “NetworkInterfaces.plist”
You need to move this file to the Trash, but do not delete it (an Administrator password will be needed for this). Before you restart your computer be sure you have network passwords and settings at hand, you will need this. If you have that reboot the machine and connect to your network.
That is it. If the problem you had was the same as mine, this will solve the issue. If you are still having problems please contact Apple to work with them on the issue.
Please email me if this does, or does not work for you. Good Luck!
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Quote of the Day: Shawn Blanc
“If there ever was a piece of software that was like a good cup of coffee it would be Instapaper.” -
Micron Releases Half-Terabyte Laptop SSDs
Lucas Mearian:
Micron’s new RealSSD C400 flash drive line offers capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB and will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, both supporting a 6Gbit per sec serial ATA (SATA) interface.
I can’t wait for the prices of SSDs to start dropping.
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Blogging, Twitter and Historical Records
Anil Dash expressing his frustration of the lack of archive for Tweets and why you should blog big thoughts:
However, by creating a lossy environment where individual tweets are disposable, there’s also an environment where few will build the infrastructure to support broader, more meaningful conversations that could be catalyzed by a tweet. In many ways, this means the best tweets for advancing an idea are those that contain links to more permanent media.
This is a great analysis of the problems with Twitter and the benefits of blogging. I love getting short thoughts from readers on Twitter — occasionally though people want to debate and Twitter truly is not a medium for that. Whenever I find myself getting multiple tweets from a person on the same topic I usually ask that they blog about it or email me.
I am not trying to remove the conversation from the eye of the public — rather I want the thoughts to be archived and I want to be able to talk in greater than 140 character bursts. Keep that in mind when you are deciding how to respond to someone. If you blog about one of my posts I may not see it, so do be sure to email me the link if you think about it.
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Angry Birds Now Coming to a Carnival Near You
Now this is a reason to start going to carnivals.
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Wait They are Still Around?
Erica Naone, while reporting for Technology Review, mentions some companies being affected by a new SMS bug:
They performed their tricks on handsets made by Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Micromax, a popular Indian cell-phone manufacturer.
I didn’t even know people still use phones from these companies.
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Microsoft Needs to Learn from Apple’s Near Death
I just finished watching Pirates of Silicon Valley – a sort of faux documentary on the rise of Apple and Microsoft. It was interesting to watch this film in the light of today’s world — when the movie was made no one knew that Apple would return from what looked to be certain death and come back to post a $300 billion market cap. Personally I don’t put much weight into the facts and events depicted in the film, nor should you, but you can see a lot of why things between Apple and Microsoft went they way they did. ((Such as why Jobs was kicked out of his company. Why Microsoft thinks the way they do. And so forth.))
In the technology world there are two very important things: making something great for users, and being the first to ship. When you combine these two things you get products like: the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, Mac OS X. When you fail to meet one or both of these goals you get things like: Windows Vista, or the Kin.
That is not to say that Microsoft is always wrong and Apple is infallible. No: both companies are wrong from time to time and both hit it out of the ballpark from time to time as well.
I think as Apple fans we have this fear — irrational as it may be — that Apple will get tripped up the way they did in the late 80s through the mid 90s. We are massively off base with that fear — both Jobs and Apple have learned just how painful their mistakes of the past were.
The problem I see is that Microsoft has yet to learn from Apple’s mistakes. There is a great scene in the movie when Gates, Ballmer, and Allen go to IBM to sell DOS. The character of Ballmer has a great line where he basically tells the viewer that Gates and Microsoft have no such operating system, but that Gates wanted to pitch it and sell it — then worry about shipping and making it. This is a theme carried out in the movie: Apple is visionary and makes neat stuff before Microsoft can; Microsoft just buys or “steals” what they can and ships it as quickly as possible with a wide channel of distribution.
I don’t know how true, or if any part of the story depicted is true, but I think it is an apt reflection of the problems that we are seeing with Microsoft today, as well as companies like:
- RIM
- HP
- Other mobile device manufacturers ((One’s that aren’t called Apple.))
What we are seeing is that these companies come out and announce all sorts of great sounding new products — yet by the time they are actually able to make and ship them the market has drastically changed, OR their product has drastically changed. This, I believe, is the greatest thing that Apple learned: keep your mouth shut, work hard, and ship as soon as you have something great.
The movie perfectly shows the trouble that Apple, Jobs, and other companies ((Xerox)) got into by showing off products before they were ready to ship.
Secrecy is a very hard thing for most companies to adopt. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and various other “small” companies are trying their best to strike a balance somewhere between Apple level secrecy and Microsoft level transparency. A healthy medium satisfies most customers, but is not the most beneficial method for the company because competitors are kept in the loop. Full transparency satisfies investors and consumers, but can be dangerous for companies because their competitors know exactly what they need to compete with. Full secrecy pisses off investors and consumers, but is mostly beneficial for the company keeping the secrets.
Lets go back to Microsoft for a bit — last year at CES, CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage and famously announced slate tablets — tablets that he said would be awesome. ((I am paraphrasing.)) Ballmer made this classic Microsoft move as a way to try and quell rumors of a forth coming Apple tablet — one we now call iPad — yet a year later with Ballmer set to take the same stage, to presumably make the same announcement, we see very few slate tablets running Microsoft.
Microsoft failed to ship.
This won’t kill Microsoft, but it does hurt them both in the short and long term. Sales hurt in the short term and because the company survived the short term sales loss the executives running Microsoft will see no need to change their over arching philosophy: the pre-announcing nonexistent devices.
If Microsoft does not wake up and fails to see a true financial hardship from making promises they can’t keep — what is to stop them from making more promises that they have no intention (or care) of keeping? I am not suggesting that Microsoft start being secretive — rather I think it is imperative for Microsoft to start being realistic about ship dates. They can’t afford to keep announcing things that never materialize.
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CarTrip
Griffin Technology announced a product that is coming soon, allowing you to do a whole bunch of cool stuff with you iPhone and your car — most importantly figuring out what the cryptic computer codes are really saying.
Griffin Technology:
CleanDrive monitors your car’s performance, collecting data like fuel consumption, acceleration, top speed and engine diagnostic codes as you drive. CleanDrive crunches the numbers and displays your “Carbon Score” in an easy-to-understand format on your device’s screen. Instantaneous trip and long-term averages are recorded to give you a clear picture of how your driving habits impact the environment and the efficiency of your car over time.
Count me among the first buyers.
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Leaving Microsoft Hell
Alex Wilhelm got a virus on his Windows 7 computer that left him in serious trouble:
Every single safeguard the OS had failed, and I ended up with a full computer that I could not restore, reinstall, or boot normally in any way without facing an immediate Blue Screen of Death. I sat there in safe mode and picked at my teeth.
Sounds lovely, this though is the best bit:
I still love and prefer Windows 7, but I am forever adding a caveat to that statement: when it works.
So I guess the new tag line for Windows is: “When it works”. Compare that to Apple’s: “It just works”. If you are still confused about which OS you should choose — well, actually, then I can’t help you.
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Android Isn’t About Building a Mobile Platform
Kyle Baxter hypothesizing that Androids Market may be poor on purpose:
If users won’t pay for applications, what will developers use to make money from their applications? Advertising. And Google conveniently owns one of the largest mobile advertising providers, Admob.
The entire post is a must read.