Web
21
May 12
Bang Beer Search
I just realized that DuckDuckGo provides a search bang to automatically search BeerAdvocate.com. They get me.
!beer pretty things
Gets a list of some excellent beers.
21
May 12
Why Wasn’t I Consulted [Link]
A timely article linked by Gruber.1 Paul Ford’s take is one of the best things I’ve read all week. Smart.
Brace yourself for the initial angry wave of criticism: How dare you, I hate it, it’s ugly, you’re stupid. The Internet runs on knee-jerk reactions. People will test your work against their pet theories: It is not free, and thus has no value; it lacks community features; I can’t believe you don’t use dotcaps, lampsheets, or pixel scrims; it is not written in Rusp or Erskell; my cat is displeased. The ultimate question lurks beneath these curses: why wasn’t I consulted?
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I really like Gruber’s style in linking to an appropriate response written by someone else about different events. ↩
19
May 12
40 Hours and a Mule
I’ve done an exhaustive job making a case for the new generation of podcasts and podcast networks. This seems like an appropriate time to talk a bit about Mule Radio.
New Kid on the Block
Initially Mike Monteiro premiered his podcast, Let’s Make Mistakes, on the 5by5 network. It was a dark and cynical perspective on design work and to a lesser extent business in general. I loved it. The podcast featured Mike and Katie Gillum. The show was a perfect balance between the two personalities. After a short time, Mike started Mule Radio with his team at Mule Design1 and the first premier show was Let’s Make Mistakes. Shortly after the launch of the network several new shows started, all featuring employees of Mule Design.
There are some singularly interesting and clever people working at Mule which made all of the podcasts an immediate subscribe for me. I settled into a few regulars that I enjoyed the most.
Hour of Pour
The top of my Mule list quickly became The Hour of Pour with Jessie Char and Jason Permenter. Jessie’s sense of humor and acidic wit had me doing spit takes while sipping my morning coffee. Jason Permenter’s smart and clever come backs fit perfectly with Jessie’s quick jabs. But the show ended recently with Jessie’s departure from Mule Design.2 It’s still among the most entertaining banter, short of YLNT.
Salt and Fat
I enjoy cooking and I consider myself quite proficient in the kitchen. The Salt and Fat podcast was a natural fit. Salt and Fat features another super smart duo, Neven Mrgan from Panic Software and Jim Ray from Mule Design. It’s a light-hearted look at practical cooking tips. It’s better than any show on the Food Network. I’ve learned a number of great tips and motivations from listening to the show.
Let’s Make Mistakes
The premier Mule podcast still encompasses the principles of Mule Radio: 50% entertainment, 50% smart thinking, 0% Bullshit. The show produced one of the funniest hours in podcasting with guest star Amy Jane Gruber.
NSFW
And now for some frank commentary about The Talk Show move to Mule Radio.
I like 5by5 podcasts. I enjoy Dan Benjamin’s work a lot. But I do not know Dan personally. It’s none of my damn business what happens between these people. They make things I like and that’s the extent of my personal involvement.
I get email. twitter.com/gruber/status/…
— John Gruber (@gruber) May 19, 2012
I’ve looked over some of the speculation and personal attacks circulating about Gruber’s switch of networks and have one conclusion: There are a number of self-important dickheads with nothing important to do. I think that describes what’s wrong with many people on the Internet. People take their opinion too seriously and like to inflate their own value. How can anyone without personal connections to and personal knowledge of the network switch have any opinion? Further, who gives a shit. It’s a podcast that isn’t ending, just switching networks. No one shut down 5by5. No one changed anything that materially impacts my life. I had to resubscribe to a podcast on a different feed. Big deal.
SFW
The Talk Show will certainly help Mule Radio and that’s nice for all of us that like smart podcasts. It means we now have three excellent new podcast networks.3 Fans of this new media win all around. Perhaps John Gruber is a king-maker. Perhaps by spreading his massive following around more people will discover these new outlets. Perhaps this is the greatest advertising ruse in podcasting. Perhaps we shouldn’t be concerned with his personal business at all.
- Seriously, Mike without a beard is creepier than Mike with a beard. ↩
- At least that’s how it appears. It was never good with regular appearances, so it is possible that the show will return. ↩
- The 70 Decibels Network is coming on strong too. ↩
14
May 12
The New Simperium API is the Future of Data Availability
Simperium is the company behind Simplenote. It’s now also a data syncing service. Simperium announced the Simperium API and it looks nothing short of amazing.1
Here’s a fantastic example from their API Samples page:
Simperium is offering libraries to incorporate this impressive data sync into iOS, Javascript and Python based apps.
There are a number of other concept videos showing how developers can think about the Simperium service. I’m not sure if this could be done with iCloud in iOS, but I do know that this is not something that can be done with JavaScript and iCloud. To be fair, this is not like iCloud’s data sync. Simperium is syncing much more simple (and much smaller) objects. JSON is really just text.
Just some highlights from the Simperium overview:
Simperium persists your data for you in buckets. Buckets are application-wide namespaces and exist as a convenience for you to organize your application’s data. Every Simperium object is JSON data that is stored in a bucket.
Simperium uses an inherently schema-less datastore. Objects in the same bucket need not have the same structure…
If you are a fan of the Simplenote versioning system, Simperium provides that for all objects automatically. Grab the scrubber and watch the data roll back through time. Restore to any point along that timeline. Now imagine that option in sketching apps, games, or image editors.
Proper versioning and roll-back is something that I would like to see spread into new contexts. Rather than roll back an entire document, I would love to retrieve an old state of an isolated sentence or paragraph.
While the Simplenote app has not changed much in the past 3+ years, behind the scenes they were building the future. I have high expectations for this project.
The three integrations I expect in apps now: Dropbox, TextExpander, Simperium.
By way of Shawn Blanc
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No, I’m still not using Simplenote. I can’t go back until it stops messing with URL encoding in my text notes. That doesn’t detract from how impressive this service is. ↩
8
May 12
Evernote Acquisitions
Michael likes where Evernote is going with their acquisitions of Skitch and Penultimate. I’m not as enthusiastic.
Background
I was an ardent Evernote user from the early days. I started exploring it when it was still web centric. When Phil Libin focused like a laser on the Mac, I was thrilled. I pumped massive amounts of info into it. I had two pro accounts just to support the company.
My enthusiasm waned when I wanted to extract my info into an archive. Evernote provides simple export tools but most of the information is lost or mangled. I decided to future proof all information I wanted to keep for more than a week. I still use Evernote as a central multi-platform clipboard. It’s my short-term memory. Everything else goes into plain text or standard file formats like PNG, JPG or PDF.
Skitch
Skitch is one of the original Mac screenshot apps. It was ground breaking when it first came out in 2010 but development slowed and the application began to feel like abandon-ware. Evernote acquired Skitch in August 2011. I was intrigued by the potential future of the application.
In the 9 months since the Evernote acquisition, Skitch released an iPad app that was attractive but lacked a lot of the features I needed. I stopped using it within a couple of weeks. The app was updated 4 times with bug fixes but never really earned its way back to my iPad. I also haven’t opened the Mac version of Skitch in a couple of months. It just feels stagnant and anachronistic.
I’m dissapointed Skitch has not progressed more. I’m dissapointed integration with Evernote is not better. I can appreciate the idea of single-focus apps but Evernote needs a built in image editor.1 It feels like the only thing Evernote bought was an extra sharing button in Skitch.
Penultimate
Penultimate is consistently one of the top rated sketching apps and I like it a lot. The ink system is impressive, but like Skitch, Penultimate development has slowed way down. There is still no option to zoom in Penultimate and the last couple of updates were minor bug fixes or Retina iPad support.
The Penultimate acquistion feels just like the Skitch acquistion. I’m sure Penultimate will get a more direct method for sharing with Evernote but I’m doubtful there will be much more.
Tear Down These Walls
I’d prefer if Evernote went Full Monty with these acquisitions. Integrate Sktich image editing into Evernote. Provide direct support for Penultimate sketching in Evernote. Both of these apps have overlap with the reasons I want to use the Evernote app. I’d like Evernote to stop buying sharing buttons and start buying Evernote enhancements.
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Perhaps this applies more to the iOS version of Evernote, but I’d still rather have the functionality built right into Evernote on the Mac. ↩
4
May 12
Webfaction and Pingdom
I moved to Webfaction 1 5 months ago and I couldn’t be happier. It’s the best host I’ve used and the support is almost unbelievable. The support group respond to my requests like I was some sort of Gruber.
Need proof? Here’s a typical2 Pingdom Monthly Report:
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That’s an affiliate link. If anyone uses it to sign up I get 10% credited to my account to cover the cost of my hosting. ↩
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Ok, it’s not really typical. Usually there are no outages. This is one of the worst months. One of those outages was scheduled maintenance. ↩
3
May 12
TextDrop Update
My favorite web based text editor, TextDrop received a subtle yet transformative update: Sort by modification time stamp. It now fits almost all of my needs for a basic Dropbox centric text editor.
How is this only $5 per year?
2
May 12
Character Encoding [Link]
A well oranized resource for HTML character encoding from Penn State.
28
Apr 12
Personal Pronouns
I just don’t trust articles that sprinkle “you” throughout the text. “You should”, “You will”, “You can” all feel like preaching or a lack of conviction. I feel the same about the grotesque use of the pronoun “one”.
When I’m editing my work1 and stumble across those pronouns, there’s a good chance I’m faking something. It almost always means I lack confidence in a statement or I am extrapolating beyond my experience.
One should avoid You.
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Believe it or not I do occasionally edit my posts. ↩
27
Apr 12
JavaScript Closures and Variables [Link]
A good introduction to JavaScript closures and variable scope. This stuff always gets me. Also, I rather like anchovies on pizza.
26
Apr 12
Dear Daughter
I like this article on the Murverse.
So they hate you. But fuck ‘em. Because you are a force of nature, a powerhouse of emotion and talent and stubbornness and potential.
I’m a guy. I’m a father. I’m a dad to a little girl. I am not a superhero. I can’t save her from the trappings of a society that still considers equality something reserved for rich white men.
I can teach her to be a superhero. I can give her the armor to defend against the slings and arrows of small minds. I can give her the cunning to outwit them at their own game. I can make her into a monument of self assurance and help her manifest a providence over her world that dimwitted dude-bros will never know. I can emphasize heroes like Nausicaä, Haru, Kiki and Ahsoka.
I can only do so much though. I’d burn down the world for her, but I really just need to give her the confidence to do it her self.
26
Apr 12
Create a Custom DDG Search Box on a WordPress Site
Inspired by Macstories snazzy new DuckDuckGo search form, I decided to make one for Macdrifter.com. DDG makes it pretty easy using their URL scheme.
For my WordPress site, I added a new text widget to my sidebar.
The HTML is straightforward. The URL input parameters for DDG can be found here. What I really like is that DDG provides URL parameters to control both the font and highlighting colors of the search results.
By using the form input type of “search” I get a nice looking search box on Webkit browsers like Safari and Chrome.
On Firefox and IE, the search box looks a little less attractive but functions the same. Type a search and hit the return key to get a nicely formatted DuckDuckGo result set.
The only thing I think the DDG search is missing, is accurate date sorting. Even though there is a sort-by-date flag, it doesn’t work well for me. I still prefer it to Google and I like that the searching does not take up cycles on my host. It’s all handled by DDG.
25
Apr 12
TextDrop App
I’ve mentioned TextDrop in passing but I like it so much that I wanted to write a full review.
What it is
TextDrop is a webapp for notes. It looks a bit like Simplenote or NVAlt but it works exclusively with Dropbox. There is a list of notes on the left sorted by file name, search bar at the top and text window taking up the right 2/3′s of the window.
TextDrop can access all text files in a given Dropbox folder. What’s really convenient, is that I can bookmark different folders and notes with a plain URL structure.
Open a specific Dropbox Folder named “Notes”:
https://www.textdropapp.com/dropbox/Notes/
Open a specific note:
https://www.textdropapp.com/dropbox/Notes/My Awesome Note
I can also bookmark a specific search set too.
Shortcut to query results for “simplenote”:
https://www.textdropapp.com/dropbox/Notes/?q=simplenote
Those are some very useful shortcuts. I now have a group of bookmarks to different folders, notes and queries for quick access from the browser.
Keyboard shortcuts
The TextDrop interface is very sparse. This gives the initial impression that it lacks features. But TextDrop has keyboard shortcuts, and they are good.
| Function | Key Combo | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Search | SHIFT CTRL L | Jump between search bar and document |
| Delete | SHIFT CTRL Backspace | Delete the active file |
| Rename | SHIFT CTRL E | Rename the active file |
| Markdown | SHIFT CTRL M | Toggle Markdown preview |
| Jump Word | CTRL Right Arrow | Jump to next word (normal text area function) |
What it is not
TextDrop is not a complete replacement for something like Simplenote.
- The search is more limited in TextDrop. Search by title only.
- It does not preview MultiMarkdown (standard Markdown only).
- There is no option to share a note.
- There is no support for tags.
- Notes can only be sorted by name.
TextDrop is not Simplenote. In some regard, that’s a good thing. The TextDrop sync is fast. There are subtle bits of polish. For example, tiny colored dots indicating the sync status of each note. This is version 3.0 of TextDrop and it feels like it. I have not had any problems with TextDrop.
Et Cetera
There are no settings for the app, which I like. The documentation and release notes are all presented as another list of notes.
I also like the privacy statement. It’s plain english.
Once you grant us access to your Dropbox, we theoretically have access to all your files, but on our honor we will never, ever, ever read them, store them, or use them in any way except to deliver them into your active TextDrop session.
After deleting a note, TextDrop displays the record with a cross-out. Clicking on the note provides an option to restore the note.
Files can be renamed by double clicking and entering a new name. This is a bit buggy for me on Windows Firefox 11.
Search is fast. A unique feature of TextDrop is searching in sub-folders with a separate list of hits for each sub-directory. Want to search all text notes stored in Dropbox, then you can do that. I don’t recommend it unless you have a small number of files.
The support has been great. Prompt email replies from the developer Sam Nguyen within 24 hours. He’s been honest, thoughtful and nice in each exchange. There’s a real person behind the app and it doesn’t feel like abandon-ware.
TextDrop is $5 per year right now. That’s nothing for browser access to all of my notes in a well designed UI with features that work.
25
Apr 12
TechHive
Macworld and PCWorld1 come together to form a new news site, TechHive. I’m not a fan of the name, but then again Yahoo, Google and iPad all sounded silly at first too.2
It’s about time. It never made any sense to me that PCWorld and Macworld shared editorial talent but were separate things. Of course I love Macworld for their long time mission as the journal of record for Apple related info. Today, the PC World is the Mac World. Everything else is just a runner up.
