Recent Articles

The level-headed [Dr. Drang on daylight savings time](http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2013/03/why-i-like-dst/) and studies that seek to prove the waste of DST:

>Second, do these “studies” ever look into the productivity of people who can’t get a good night’s sleep from May through July because the sun streams into their bedroom at an ungodly hour and the birds start singing outside their window at three-fucking-thirty in the morning? No, they do not.

Dr. Drang makes some fantastic points in favor of DST, but I still can’t get on board with the notion that *we* should have DST. Even though it would mean sunrise at an [ungodly 4:18a](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php) here in June, that seems like a small tradeoff for fucking with my internal clock.

Drang’s solution is for better programming to make the transition easier, but what about easing into the transition. If we take into account that we, in fact, have most of our clocks internet connected then shouldn’t we be able to slowly shift time every month so that 6:00a (or whatever time) always aligns with sunrise?

Now, unless every clock everywhere was internet connected, this would be a horrible experience. ((That’s an understatement.)) And so would shifting by fifteen minutes every Saturday night for a month, but there *are* other options rather than a twice a year hour reset.

At least I think it is worth exploring and debating those options, so [I signed the petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-bi-annual-time-change-caused-daylight-savings-time/ShChxpKh).

One of the things I used to love about doing all of my writing in TextMate was publishing directly to this site using the “blogging” bundle. iA Writer is a better writing app than TextMate, so the tradeoff when I switched seemed fair, but I still get annoyed every time I copy and paste the latest post into MarsEdit.

This is further complicated by linked-list style posting: When I did *Daring Fireball* style linked lists, with one-line comments, it was easy to quickly post a link with a pull-quote by hitting `CMD+1`. That shortcut dumped all the data I grabbed into MarsEdit. But it sucks for my Kottke-style links where I try to write a bit more — often not in the same sitting.

Bottom line: My most irritating workflow problem *used to be* the amount of copying and pasting going on just to post something to this site.

That’s now changed.

## The Research

The biggest stumbling block was getting the text to WordPress from Writer. I found ways to do it via PHP, Python, and a command line interface — but none of these were solutions that I could figure out, or wanted use. Additionally these solutions require detailed documentation to reinstall, should I start on a fresh computer. ((This is something I have recently done, so I’m a bit sensitive to it.))

I wanted something easier. Actually I wanted an AppleScript that would send the post, but I’ve yet to figure that out.

MarsEdit was out of the running due to it having categories under check boxes that I can’t easily set using the keyboard.

Welcome back TextMate, old friend.

## The Macro

You can see the macro on the side there. It’s not overly complicated, just lots of actions.

Here’s what the macro does (simplified):

1. Grabs the title, which it places at the top of the post, prefixed with a `#` and followed by a carriage return.
2. Grabs the body text.
3. Asks me for metadata.
4. Opens a new TextMate document and dumps all that information in, formatted for the TextMate blogging bundle.
5. Waits for me to publish the post (so I can check everything looks correct).
6. When I hit the shortcut to publish in TextMate, the post publishes. The changes to the Writer file are reverted and saved, then the windows for all the programs used are closed.

Pretty simple.

Another thing I wanted was to set the scheduled publish date, which meant adding a field in TextMate containing a correctly formatted date string. I used a TextExpander snippet to speed things up (`;bdate`).

*(Here’s the detail view of some of the actions that you may find useful. [Pause action](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/pause-km.JPG). [Meta data questionnaire](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/meta-data.JPG). [Text insertion to TextMate](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/insert-txt-km.JPG).)*

## End Result

Now I can publish from iA Writer via a series of simple actions, triggered by a single keystroke.

Because I install this macro’s only dependencies — Writer and TextMate — on every Mac I own, the solution is simple to reinstall and portable.

You can download the macro [here](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/Blog%20Post%20to%20WordPress.kmmacros.zip).

[Debbie Cafazzo for the local Tacoma News Tribune](http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/01/2494665/tacoma-school-board-raises-goal.html):

>The Tacoma School Board Thursday officially raised the bar for expected graduation rates. Board members said they want the district’s overall graduation rate to hit 85 percent by the year 2020.

They are following the tried and true Olympian mantra of trying for Bronze in an attempt to win Gold… No, wait, that’s not how it works. Is it trying to swim halfway across the pool faster than… No. Actually trying for anything less the finishing first is kind of a waste of time, right?

This is what’s wrong with “boards” — they are so goddamned worried about covering their own asses that they set half-assed goals so that, at the very least, they meet their goals and thus shouldn’t be fired.

The goal should always be: 100% graduation. Seems pretty fucking basic to me. (By the way, they are currently at 68% graduation which is absolutely horrendous.)

[Ryan Bateman has some more information about how Google treats its users’ personal data][1]:

Google stores your wifi password if you have an Android phone and sign into it. It stores it in Google’s servers.

According to Bateman, Google uses this information in its setup flow for new and factory-reset phones. Signing in to your Google account will download all of your stored Wi-Fi passwords, along with your contacts, calendars, apps, etc.

In theory, this is a fantastic idea. One less password the user has to enter, one less possible point of frustration.

But, consider for a moment:

Have you visited a friend and joined the Wi-Fi network in their home? Have you had guests over and allowed them on your Wi-Fi network so you could watch that hilarious Harlem Shake parody video? Maybe you’ve visited a small business, whose owner lets you onto their company Wi-Fi network because they aren’t savvy enough to set up a guest network.

My point is, you could potentially have dozens of Wi-Fi passwords on your phone, many of which are not your own, which are now—thanks to Andriod—stored on Google’s servers.

At least we can rest assured that [Google doesn’t have a history of controversial behaviour related to harvesting information from Wi-Fi networks][2].

Or [any of its users’ personal data, for that matter][3].

[1]: http://everythinginthesky.com/post/44230045159/google-stores-your-wifi-password-if-you-have-an
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#Information_collection_from_WiFi_networks
[3]: https://brooksreview.net/2013/02/i-cant-believe-ben-missed-this/

[I thought we covered this a couple of weeks ago](https://brooksreview.net/2013/02/ipad-workflow/), but here’s Ted Landau for Macworld, with the borderline link-bait headline: “[Why the iPad still can’t be a true Mac replacement](http://www.macworld.com/article/2028968/why-the-ipad-still-cant-be-a-true-mac-replacement.html)”

> For wired connections, you are limited to connecting only one peripheral at a time—via the iPad’s Lightning connector. And even with Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, you are limited in terms of what you can connect. Most especially, a host of USB peripherals are impossible to use with an iPad.

Also note that the iPad can’t burn CDs. WTF Apple?

And:

> Similarly, you can’t switch to a larger screen by connecting a Cinema Display to an iPad, as you can do with a MacBook. You can’t do this even via AirPlay. And even if you could, the Cinema Display is not a touchscreen, limiting how effectively you could use it.

This is a stupid point. You *can* hook your iPad to a monitor via HDMI, or an Apple TV. Yes, those are not touch screens, but they *are* external monitors. Also, laptop users typically connect an additional keyboard and mouse, or trackpad, when using an external monitor. Why? Because twisting your head to look at a large screen while typing on your laptop keyboard is lame.

Both quotes are factually accurate *today*, with the caveat: “as things currently exist”.

AirPlay, for the uninitiated, is borderline amazing. I can sit on my couch and send jitter-free HD video and audio to my TV in a matter of moments. I highly doubt Apple is content to stop there with the AirPlay technology.

So yes, connecting peripherals to iPads is crappy today but that could easily change *tomorrow*. That may sound like a cop-out, but what Landau and others are preaching reminds me of a sensational headline from 1996 by William Gibson, proclaiming that: [“The Net Is a Waste of Time”](http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/14/magazine/the-net-is-a-waste-of-time.html). The content of Gibson’s article is even more interesting than its headline:

> That is a large part of its appeal. It is something half-formed, growing. Larval. It is not what it was six months ago; in another six months it will be something else again. It was not planned; it simply happened, is happening. It is happening the way cities happened. It is a city.

At launch, Apple knew the iPad was great for reading the New York Times website sitting on the couch. Apple didn’t know what else the iPad would *become* great for.

Even I, just month’s after the iPad was released (and I started this site), [wrote this](https://brooksreview.net/2010/08/using-your-ipad-with-your-mac-pc-to-help-you-focus/) ((Which was picked up by Lifehacker, and amazingly still gets traffic from there.)) post arguing that the iPad was best used to offload distractions like Twitter from your Mac. That was my best use-case for the iPad — to make it a place for distractions that you ignored.

Six months later the iPad was a completely different machine, and nearly three years later it can *almost* replace my Mac. Actually, over the past two days I’ve used my iPad *more* than my Mac.

And iPad is still growing.

Jean-Louis Gassée [adds to the debate](http://www.mondaynote.com/2013/02/24/ipad-and-file-systems-failure-of-empathy/):

> This brings us to a major iPad obstacle: On a “real” PC the file system is visible, accessible; on the iPad, it’s hidden.

And:

> On an iPad you don’t navigate a file system but, instead, you launch an app that has it’s own trove of documents that it understands — but it can’t “see” anything else.

Except in the case of cloud enabled apps like Dropbox, Box.net, Egnyte and so on. But yes, there is *no* way to get at the file system on iOS and now Apple will have to either ignore the half-a-dozen users clamoring for it, or have to completely capitulate and re-think iOS itself. I hope Gassée holds his breath for that one.

Or Apple could just be depending on the strength of the opportunity that the App Store presents for developers to make the apps and tools needed. From the idea of the iPad being [a terminal for a server](http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad), to robust apps like Dropbox, there is and *will* be a ton of apps that make the ‘lack of file system’ argument unimportant.

[As Shawn Blanc says](http://shawnblanc.net/2013/02/the-ipad-can-be-a-true-mac-alternative/):

> The iPad is a Mac alternative — and only if you want it to be.

Astute.

The argument many make is that *for them* an iPad cannot replace their Mac *right now*. But their headlines always scream “THE IPAD AIN’T MY MACBOOK AND THEREFORE IT IS SHIT”. It’s fair to say that the iPad is missing something for you, but short-sighted and stupid to dismiss it because you can’t connect USB devices, monitors, or see the file system.

I don’t know where the future of the iPad lies, but I believe we aren’t even close to realizing the full power and usefulness that it packs.

The lovable Ben Waldie [posted a fantastic article detailing how to script Do Not Disturb mode on your Mac](http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/04/applescripting-notification-center-scheduling-do-not-disturb/). He is using Automator and Calendar to schedule the script to turn on and off Do Not Disturb mode, but we can do one better because we have Keyboard Maestro.

I simply created a hot key trigger (and timed trigger) in Keyboard Maestro that executes the Applescript that Waldie creates for either enabling or disabling Do Not Disturb mode. It works really well, and is a great tool to add to Keyboard Maestro.