mashby » technology

I Still Miss Notify.app

Michael Ashby — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:40:39 +0000

I’m a big fan of Inbox Zero and I wish I didn’t have to give e-mail so much of my attention, but since I’m in charge of support for my company it’s a priority for me. That may make me a bit of an “E-Mail Monkey“, but so be it. It’s a point of pride that I, and the rest of our team, respond so quickly to customer feedback.

That’s not to say that I’m not envious of people who can process their e-mail just twice a day. If support wasn’t one of my roles, I would jump at the opportunity to do the same. Since I’ve chosen not to, there are a few steps that I take to minimize the interruptions. One of the techniques I was a big fan of was to use an app called Notify.

Nofity.app would sit in your menu bar and would check my e-mail accounts and notify me when I had mail via Growl. Of course leaving my e-mail client open would obviously do the same thing, but I liked the fact that I could keep it closed. A simple notification would let me know if the e-mail was urgent, but I didn’t have the constant reminder of a badge notification that I had X number of unread messages.

If the message was urgent, then I could launch Mail.app and address it, but if it wasn’t then I could leave well enough alone until I was ready to process my mail. Again, it was a small thing, but I found it very handy to help me stay focused throughout my day.

Unfortunately, the developer abandoned the software on May 11, 2011 and it no longer functions since I upgraded to Mac OS Lion.

The other day I was lamenting the fact that I still miss not having this little utility. I did a few Google searches to see if I could find an alternative, but came up empty. That was certainly a disappointment, but I was happy to find that I wasn’t alone.

Another Plug For OpenDNS

Michael Ashby — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:11:55 +0000

I did a post last week entitled “I Hope This Isn’t A Trend” and in it, I mentioned how one way to protect yourself from phishing attacks was to use OpenDNS on your computer, or router. The other day I found another reason to recommend the service — malware protection.

Mac Trojan Outbreak

Last week, news come out that approximately 1% of all Mac OS computers were infected with something called the “Flashback trojan”. If this is news to you, then I strongly urge you to go read this MacWorld article from Rich Mogull. It gives you all the information you need to know regarding the outbreak, how to test to see if your Mac is infected and how to prevent becoming infected.

Apple was a little slow to release a fix, which is what led to the outbreak, but OpenDNS was quick to respond in 3 days with news that if you were using their service, you are protected. Color me impressed!

But Isn’t DNS Super Nerdy?

Yes and no. If you dig into the subject, it’s of course pretty nerdy; however, OpenDNS has made it super easy and you don’t have to be a geek to use it. You simply change two fields in the network settings on your computer, or on your router. That’s it!

For home use, I highly recommend creating a free account and setting your router to use OpenDNS. If you’re mobile, then adding the same settings to your laptop is a good idea too.

To help walk you through the process, Katie Floyd, of the MacPowerUsers podcast, did a wonderful screencast on the subject, which I’ve posted below. If that’s too much detail for you, OpenDNS has excellent tutorials as well.

A Great Read – “Facebook and Instagram: When Your Favorite App Sells Out”

Michael Ashby — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:37:26 +0000

I love great writing.

Paul Ford has written an article for NYMag that definitely qualifies as great writing (like just about everything he writes). In Facebook and Instagram: When Your Favorite App Sells Out, Paul eloquently clarifies how most Instagram users feel about the Facebook acquisition and provides a great deal of clarity in the process.

There are so many gems in the piece, but here’s a little sample.

So if you’re an Instagram user, you’ve been picking up on all of the cues about how important you are, how valuable you are to Instagram. Then along comes Facebook, the great alien presence that just hovers over our cities, year after year, as we wait and fear. You turn on the television and there it is, right above the Empire State Building, humming. And now a hole has opened up on its base and it has dumped a billion dollars into a public square — which turned out to not be public, but actually belongs to a few suddenly-very-rich dudes. You can’t blame users for becoming hooting primates when a giant spaceship dumps a billion dollars out of its money hole. It’s like the monolith in the movie 2001 appeared filled with candy and a sign on the front that said “NO CANDY FOR YOU.”

A great read. [via Ftrain]

Oh, and if you like this article, be sure to check out The Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which I’ve linked to in the past.

I Hope This Isn’t A Trend

Michael Ashby — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:46:30 +0000

Yesterday, I received the following text message on my iPhone.

There’s a couple of things that give me pause here.

The sender assumes I have a phone with a web browser so either they’re taking a random guess, or they know I have an iPhone
The URL will probably confuse most people.

I don’t have any studies to back this up, but I think it’s fair to say that most people don’t know how URLs work, much less what the most important portion of a URL is.

The first thing you see in the above text message is the www.apple.com and that’s the least important part. However, the average user sees apple.com and assumes incorrectly that the message is from Apple. The most important part is the todayswinners.info — that is the ultimate destination that this spammer is wanting me to go to.

This text message is doing something called phishing and it’s goal is to trick you into giving them your information. I didn’t click the link, so I don’t know what specific information they’re trying to extract from me, but that’s their goal.

Unfortunately, it’s not going away anytime soon and now that I’ve received my first text spam message, I’m sure this is but the first of many I can hope to receive. I’ve already added my number to the Do Not Call List over a year ago, but that’s not going to stop this kind of activity.

How To Protect Yourself

The only way to protect yourself from a phishing scam is to know what to look for. I highly recommend taking the OpenDNS Phishing Quiz and see how you score. I just took the test and was surprised by some of the samples. It’s a good way to see just how clever phishers are getting these days.

If you want to take extra steps, you can also choose to use OpenDNS on your home network. One of OpenDNS’ features is that they block phishing sites among other things. It’s free for home use and it’s what I use on my home network. I’ve been using them for a couple of years now and have been very pleased.

There’s a simple guide to setting up OpenDNS on your computer, or router at use.opendns.com that gives you step-by-step instructions.

Clacky Types Again!

Michael Ashby — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:05:15 +0000

When I made the switch to the Mac back in 2006, one of the hardest things to give up was “Clacky”, my much beloved IBM Model M keyboard. Not having the Command Key, or a Windows key for that matter, was an unfortunate deal killer for me. Granted the keyboard was made in 1990, so neither of those keys existed at that time, but alas I opted to bid a fond farewell.

Since then I’ve used a Kensington SlimType and then eventually the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. In addition to my affection for typing on my desktop keyboard, I had also become quite accustomed to typing on a laptop. Both of the keyboards that I migrated to were of the laptop style, so it wasn’t something that was hard to adjust to, but I have frequently thought back fondly to my days of banging away on old “Clacky”.

A Friend Rekindles An Old Flame

A few weeks ago my good friend, Mike Rohde, tweeted that he had just purchased the Das Keyboard and I was curious as to why. His reply?

He recently landed a book deal with PeachPit Press and with the long hours of typing ahead, he felt he needed a new tool to help ease all the hours of typing that he’s expecting, or so I would assume.

The Das Keyboard is a modern keyboard and uses a similar buckling spring that the old IBM Model M keyboards used. They’ve recently announced a Mac version and after seeing what Mike opted to purchase a thought occurred… “Could I still use Clacky if I wanted to?”

Testing On The iMac & The iPad

My first test was to simply attach the PS/2 to USB adapter to the end of the extremely long cable and plug it into my 27″ iMac to see if my desktop would even recognize the keyboard, much less, let me type. Standing behind my computer, I plugged her in and then walked around to sit down. My screensaver was up, so I had to enter a password to get to the desktop and was able to enter the password on Clacky! Test 1 complete.

The next test was to see if I could use Clacky on my 1st generation iPad. Adding the USB adapter from the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, I fired up the iPad and waited. There was an error message stating that my device wasn’t compatible, but I launched the Notes app and typed a few strokes and was surprised to see that it worked!

Of the two writing environments that I would find myself in, I could easily use my IBM Model M. Amazing.

Why Did We Break Up? Oh Yeah…

The instant I started typing, it felt like home. The feel. The sound. All of it came rushing back and I felt guilty for leaving Clacky in storage for so long. It was akin to remembering an old flame and wondering why it is that you guys broke up in the first place. And then you remember why.

1. She’s Loud
I’m on the phone a good bit for work and I often type notes while I’m talking. There’s no way that I could do that discretely with Model M. It’s not that I’m trying to type in secret, it’s just that it’s distracting to the other person on the phone.

Granted, I could always keep my Apple Bluetooth keyboard on the side, for when I’m on the phone, but I don’t know that I would want the additional clutter of a second keyboard.

2. She’s Missing That Special Something
I use the Command Key all the time on the Mac and not having it makes it near impossible to use my desktop. I also use function keys quite a bit and need the “fn” key to access some of the speciality keys.

There are options to remap another key to take the place of the Command Key, or the “fn” key, but it’s just too big of a stretch — literally. Since I use the “Ctrl” and the “Alt/Option” key as well, I would have to use a key that’s in a completely different location from where I naturally look for it with my fingers.

3. She’s Fat
The Apple Bluetooth keyboard and the Apple Magic Pad both fit inside the footprint of the IBM Model M with room to spare. Now, I’m not so much of a minimalist that the footprint is a deal killer. It’s the fact that it changes my orientation beyond just using the keyboard.

I’ve become quite accustomed to not having the numeric keypad on my keyboard. The track pad fits nicely in the space typically reserved for the keypad and I like how my hands fall when I’m working. Having the keypad back means that I have to reach out for a mouse, or trackpad and it just feels awkward to me now.

Since switching to the smaller keyboard, I’ve had fewer back issues and I think it’s due in large part to the change in my setup. It’s been years since I’ve been to the chiropractor and I used to go about every 6 months for a tune up.

So Is Clacky Going Back To Storage?

NO. Sure there are a lot of negatives and for day-to-day typing, I just can’t see using Clacky. However, there is a scenario that I can see all those negatives falling away — extended typing.

I have a new user manual project that is coming up soon and I can definitely see using Clacky to make quick work of that project. Also, I can see wanting to break her out when I’m writing blog posts, such as this one. Often times I think they’re going to be short and sweet, but inevitably they turn into much longer entries and having such a beautiful typing experience is a real bonus.

In both of those examples, I’m doing extended typing where I’m not shifting focus (cmd + tab) into other applications and I’m limiting my distractions (phone calls) so that my sole focus is on typing. In these scenarios, Clacky is the perfect companion.

Case in point, I’ve typed this entire blog article on the iPad using WriteRoom. There’s no Command key on the iPad, so it’s not missed, and I’ve been able to simply focus on typing. Thanks to the built-in support for DropBox, the article was continually synched to my desktop and I was able easily bring it into MarsEdit and add the images and the few remaining links. Overall, it was a very seamless experience.

My Dream Keyboard

The Apple Bluetooth keyboard will be my main keyboard for the foreseeable future if for no other reason than the fact that it’s quiet. However, I can imagine having a secondary keyboard that is stowed away and brought out when longer typing sessions are required. Here’s what that dream keyboard would look like…

1. Buckling Springs
Spending this afternoon typing on Clacky has been _so_ much fun, so my dream keyboard would have to have these keys.

2. Small Footprint
I like the abbreviated style of the Apple BT keyboard and don’t need the keypad, so I would want the same format

3. Mac and Special Keys
Having the Command and Option keys, as well as the audio and brightness keys are a must.

4. Wireless
I’ve become spoiled by Bluetooth. All of my import devices are wireless: keyboard, track pad and mouse. Not having a tangled mess of cables is really, really nice.

Now that I’m thinking about it, if you took the Apple BT keyboard and put buckling keys on it, I’d be in heaven!

Additional Photos & A Video

If you’d like to see the rest of the photos I shot, as well as a video of what the keyboard sounds like when typing, you can view them on my Flickr page at this link.

Go Read This

Michael Ashby — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:45:41 +0000

I just finished reading a link from DaringFireball and so moved by it, I had to share it on my blog. I’m at a loss of words on how to introduce these two pieces, but thankfully Gruber has done all the hard work for me.

Paul Ford, back in July, a lovely gut-wrenching piece for The Morning News. Read it, you won’t regret it. Then, when you’re done, read today’s postscript.

via DaringFireball

One Drop Too Many

Michael Ashby — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:08:22 +0000

Earlier this week, my iPhone 4 slipped out of my hands and fell on the sidewalk outside of a Chipotle restaurant. Unfortunately, it was one drop too many and the screen broke. As luck would have it, the screen still works and the phone is still functional, albeit hard to read through the cracks.

My first thought after seeing the damage — OK, my second through, first being #$!@&*! — was to contact my good friend Rob Stanley over at AX Micro to see what my options were. Rob and I met back in the day when he got started in his business selling replacement glass for the original Palm Pilots. His business has exploded since then and I figured if anyone knew what my options were, it’d be him.

Thankfully, he quickly responded and explained that the iPhone 4 has the screen married to the glass, so I could just replace the glass, I had to do the whole screen. That explained why the iPhone 4 replacement screen was $99 and the iPhone 3 is $40. I ordered one along with a few accessories and everything arrived last night.

Before I began the take apart, I decided to check out Rob’s take apart video and I have to admit, I have a bit of a doubt. There are a lot of screws and small pieces! The video provides plenty of detail, so I’m going to soldier on and I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Update

Here’s a handy tip. Be sure to order a screwdriver with your replacement screen! Yeah, none of the tools I have in my office are small enough for the little phillips to even begin this project. LOL! So I just ordered the phillips, standard and pry tools from DirectFix, which should arrive next week.

Then I had another thought. We have a company here called iRestore that specializes in iPhone repair and after a quick call they explained that they could repair it in about an hour. I think the price of having them do the work is worth the time it’d take me to do.

Update 2

Two hours later and my iPhone 4 is as good as new. Only cost $40 to have the guys at iRestore replace the front screen while I went to lunch. Totally worth it and if there’s a next time, I’ll just have them supply the part(s) as well.

I Love This Freak-er

Michael Ashby — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:36:23 +0000

This is a fantastic example of adding personality to a Kickstarker project. I may have no real interest in the product, but I had to contribute just because I love their marketing style. Brilliant.

Giving “Wumbler” A Test Drive

Michael Ashby — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:33:04 +0000

After my post entitled WordPress Needs More Tumblr Style Templates, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I kept returning to the themes I listed over-and-over. Each time picturing what my site would look like once the theme was activated. None of them had 100% of what I wanted, but as you can no doubt tell from the site, I went with Wumblr from Themify.me

My First Impressions

Actually, I’m very impressed! After un-zipping the file, I looked high and low for a .readme file, or something providing the instructions of all the plugins I’d need, custom fields, and whatever other errata in order for the theme to work properly. In actuality, all I had to do was simply upload the theme like I would any other theme.

Once uploaded, customizing the theme was a breeze. Most of the settings were in the custom sidebar and all the necessary widgets were already installed. It took me all of 5 minutes to completely customize the site. It seriously could not have been easier.

95% There

Now that the new theme is in place, I’d say I’m a about 95% there. I’m not wild about the headers for each entry and the body type. It’s not horrible, but I’d like to punch it up a bit. Of course that’s easy enough to do through CSS, it’s the other 95% that’s hard and thanks to Themify, that part is already done.

In the meantime, I’ll keep playing around with the new “Post Type” feature in WP and how I can customize MarsEdit to take advantage of some of Wumblr’s additional features.

What Do You Think?

Overall, I was looking for something clean and minimal, but with a nice overall design ascetic. Other than wanting to make a couple of tweaks, I think the new theme is a nice improvement. What do you think?

WordPress Needs More Tumblr Style Templates

Michael Ashby — Sat, 07 May 2011 14:35:27 +0000

I’ve been thrilled beyond belief since switching to WordPress back in 2008 and I continue to be amazed with nearly every update. WordPress is truly fantastic software and it forms the base of any web project that I’m involved in because I can manage just about any type of content I need to. That being said, Tumblr keeps tempting me with it’s themes and it seems my eye isn’t the only one it’s captured.

Tumblr’s built-in themes are great on their own, but then you have designers knocking it out of the park on free templates like Sean Farrell’s new theme Leatherbound, or premium themes like Vintage Scrapbook by Pixel Union and I have to admit to a bit of blog envy.

Tumblr is a simplified tool for blogging, so perhaps I’m drawn to the simplicity of the designs, but I’m having a hard time finding themes on par for WordPress. It’s not that WordPress is lacking in the themes department. ThemeForest recently announced that they now have over 1000 WordPress themes. Sifting through those 1000 designs, I see that many of the premium themes out there are focused on taking your weblog beyond the basic blog. Magazine styles and portfolio styles abound, but none of those fit my needs.

I have a simple weblog and I need a simple, but elegant template. This may explain why designers are drawn to doing Tumblr templates. The format is standardized and simple in nature and doesn’t require that you design with a framework in mind, or with the expectation that — through custom plugins and custom fields — a user will expand your work beyond the basic blog and thereby “break” your design.

Could that be it? Tumblr is easier to design for and that’s why so many designers are trying their hand at it? To test this theory and end my frustrations with my earlier searches, I Googled for “Tumblr WordPress Themes” and was surprised to find a couple of good links with decent resources.

22 Tumblr Style WordPress Themes and Microblog in WordPress with these 15+ Tumblr Style WordPress Themes both yielded some nice designs that were definitely in line with what I’ve run into for Tumblr. Below are a few my favorites:

LightBright

Minblr

Wumblr

Memoir

With thousands of themes out there both in free and premium models, roughly 25 are in a “Tumblr Style”. That’s not a lot. Maybe I’m an edge case, but Tumblr is clearly capturing mindshare and I have to think that some of it is due to it’s simplicity and great looking themes.

Any Buyer’s Remorse Yet?

Michael Ashby — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:39:09 +0000

Today Apple unveiled new iMacs, which marks the second refresh to the line since I purchased my 27″ i7 back in January 2010. I dug through the specs, like I’ve done before, to see if there was anything compelling enough to consider upgrading.

The differences between what I have now and the new 27″ i7 are:

A processor that is .6 GHz faster

2MB less L3 Cache

Upgraded video card with quadruple the RAM (2GB vs. 512MB)

HD FaceTime camera

(2) Thunderbolt connections

Last time it was easy scoff at, but I have to admit that this time has me scratching my head a bit. I even went so far as to price the value of my current machine on Gazelle (screenshot) to see how much I’d have to come up with.

$2,730.16 – New 27″ iMac w/ Tax
$1,132.00 – Current 27″ iMac
————————-
$1,598.16 – Difference

With that much of a gap, it just doesn’t seem worth it for the upgrade. The difference alone is enough for a MacBook Pro.

So do I have any buyer’s remorse? Absolutely not. I’ve had this machine for almost a year and a half and if my 2007 MacBook is any indication, I’ll be using this bad boy for many years to come.

Quickbooks Online Crashes Safari

Michael Ashby — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:44:12 +0000

I’ve been a QuickBooks user since I started my first company back in 1997. It’s been a love hate relationship mostly because I don’t enjoy working on the books. Recently though, QuickBooks has kicked things up a notch by drop kicking my browser when it prints more than one time.

When I switched to the Mac back in 2006 I wasn’t happy with the Mac version and so I continued to use the Windows version. In 2009-2010 I switched to Quickbooks Online because it looked like the product had become more stable and relable.

Why didn’t I get QuickBooks for Mac? Well, for starters it’s almost $200 and (from what I’ve heard) lacks many of the features found on it’s Windows counterparts. Of course QuickBooks Online charges me a monthly fee, so I suppose it’s all the same in the end.

I have looked for alternatives, trust me. I bought Cha-Ching, but they were acquired by Intuit. I signed up for Mint and they too were acquired by Intuit, but they’ve at least kept the service running. Even today, I did a search on AlternativeTo.net, but I just don’t see any viable alternatives.

There are some great invoicing products out there, like FreshBooks, but I need the full accounting package, not just invoicing.

Why am I so down on QuickBooks? Because of a new little gem that happens every time I need to print more than one item. I can consistently crash QuickBooks Online meaning that my browser completely shits the bed and crashes. What special magic does it require? Simply print more than once. Don’t use Safari you say? Well, the same thing happen in Firefox and Chrome as well. It’s a pain in the ass, but at least it’s consistent.

Here’s a video that will show you how the crash ~~works~~ happens.

QuickBooks Online Crash Issue When Printing from Michael Ashby on Vimeo.

I posted a question in the Intuit Community [link] and was surprised that I got a response. Unfortunately, the response was to call customer support. I’ll be sure to get right on that when I have an hour to waste.

In the meantime, if anyone has any other suggestions, I’m all ears.

Oh My Stars…

Michael Ashby — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:50:39 +0000

This really takes me back to my heydays with my lust for Palm and all things clear. And the fact that all it takes is patience and paint thinner is driving me nuts. I can’t tell you how badly I want to run to Home Depot right now.

Going Flashless

Michael Ashby — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:08:43 +0000

Taking a page from Daring Fireball and going flash free. I like the fact that I can fall back to Chrome when I need to for Flash, but I’m eager to see how much content is out there in HTML 5.

I’ll keep you posted.

How To Import A Movie Into Keynote

Michael Ashby — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:24:10 +0000

I had a client ask me to walk them through how to import a movie into Apple’s Keynote presentation software. I took the opportunity to use ScreenFlow and play with the new features, like text overlays.

I encourage you to open the video in a new window and then the pop up to see it at full resolution.

No Buyer’s Remorse Here

Michael Ashby — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:32:26 +0000

Apple just came out with their latest iMacs yesterday, so I took a look at their specs to see how much has changed in the last six months. I’m happy to say very little!

If I were to replace my 27″ i7 iMac today, I would get the following:

A processor that is .13GHz faster.

Memory that is 266MHz faster.

An upgraded video card (ATI Radeon HD 5750) with twice as much RAM (1GB).

All-in-all, that’s not a huge bump and certainly one I can live with. This iMac is still the most insanely powerful, gorgeous computer that I’ve ever owned. I often feel unworthy to own such a pristine piece of technology, but there’s no way I’d ever think of giving it up either.

My Thoughts Exactly

Michael Ashby — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:08:13 +0000

I just read a great article on Gizmodo by Peter Serafinowicz regarding the various reasons he chooses to pirate music and video entitled “Why I Steal Movies… Even Ones I’m In. It’s a pretty funny read, but it’s also very much on the nose for why I too sometimes download content through illegal means.

I recently directed the music video for Hot Chip’s “I Feel Better.” Contractually, the video had to be hosted on EMI’s official YouTube channel, which disabled non-UK users from viewing it, limiting its audience by around 80%. Frustrated, I put it up on my own YouTube channel with no region restrictions, and at time of writing is just shy of a million views. EMI then remotely disabled embedding on my version, thereby limiting its audience again. If you’re in the business of promoting a band, why would you want to stop people watching their promotional video? (emphasis added)

What I liked about this article is that it isn’t just another geek railing about how business just doesn’t get it and old people are stupid. Peter is incredibly talented and is a content creator himself — and yet he pirates his own content too!

If you don’t know who Peter Serafinowicz, then here’s a couple of nuggets:

Played “Sctanley” in the movie Couples Retreat and “Pete” in Shawn of the Dead

Done some great voiceover work, including Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode 1 and “The IT Crowd”.

There’s a nice interview with him from last February on Boing Boing.
And last, but certainly not least… wait for it… he freaking created “Look Around You“.

If you’ve never heard of “Look Around You”, then go bit torrent it right now! Just kidding. You can watch it on YouTube [link]

How I Blog

Michael Ashby — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:54:43 +0000

This is my third article today and I was contemplating why I was posting so much this afternoon and the answer surprised me — because it’s fun! I have created a toolbox of software that makes publishing to my blog quick and easy.

I thought it might be helpful to explain the tools behind mashby.com, so below are the four tools that make up my blogging toolbox.

WordPress

At the heart of my tool set is the Content Management System (CMS) that I use to manage all the content on this blog. The software I use is called WordPress.

I’ve written before about how wonderful WordPress is in an article entitle Alchemy In Action, so there’s no need to to repeat myself. However, I will add that since I wrote that over a year ago, WordPress has just gotten better-and-better. It’s an amazing blogging platform and it’s what allows all the other tools I use to really shine. 

MarsEdit

As great as WordPress is, I find that I prefer to create my articles in an off-line editor versus creating the posts through a web browser. My tool of choice is MarsEdit by Red Sweater software.

Do I have to use an offline editor? Of course not, but there’s something special about being able to save drafts of posts, or easily format images in software written specifically for the Mac. There are a bevy of features, such as a robust WYSIWYG editor and the ability to have a perfect preview of your article before you publish, but the following are the key features for me:

Ability to save drafts — I tend to write in fits and starts due mostly to interruptions. With MarsEdit I can save an article I’m working on and then finish it later.

Easy Image Posting — Posting images is as easy as dragging and dropping directly into the article. The image will upload when the article is published, but I can position it and see what it looks like in preview prior to publishing. Brilliantly easy and this feature alone is worth the price of the software.

External Editors — I’ll go into detail on this one in the next section, but when I really need to focus, this one little trick is worth it’s weight in gold.

Support For Multiple Blogs — I actually use MarsEdit for multiple sites, so having one tool to publish from is a big help.

Write Room

Sometimes I need to drown out some of the distractions on my desktop. E-mail, instant messengers, not to mention Twitter can make my desktop a bit of a minefield. So when I need to focus just on the text of what I’m writing, I turn to WriteRoom, by Hogsbay Software.

It may seem like a simple tool, which it is, but it can make a big impact on helping you to focus. Everything drops away behind a solid background and all that remains is the simple text and cursor. The only thing I can focus on is typing. In the immortal words of Stimpy, “Joy!”

Thankfully MarsEdit supports external editors, so I simply select “File \ Edit in WriteRoom” and I’m now in typing bliss. When I’m done, or ready to do some fine tuning with links and images, I simply hit escape, and save and close WriteRoom and everything imports back into MarsEdit.

The process is actually so smooth, you’d think that the two programs were written by the same developer.

Skitch

Last but certainly not least in my toolbox of blogging must-haves is Skitch.

Skitch is a unique imaging tool that lives directly in your title bar. When you need to grab an image, you simply take a quick screenshot and drop it into MarsEdit. It literally couldn’t be easier.

If you need to do some editing, you can resize, crop, add text, or graphics and of course name the file. It’s intuitive and easy to use and best of all — it’s free!

I use Skitch all the time, not just for blogging and I really wish these guys would ask for money. I would happily pay for it and I want to ensure that the program stays around. It’s not a replacement for Photoshop, but for 99% of us image editing mortals, it’s more than enough for what you need.

Conclusion

So there you have it. My complete arsenal of tools and how I use them. Hopefully some of what I shared may be of use to you and may assist you in finding an easier way to manage, edit and publish to your blog.

To show you how all of these tools work together, I threw together a quick screencast so you can see each tool in action. Enjoy.

How I Blog from Michael Ashby on Vimeo.

QQ

Michael Ashby — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:50:29 +0000

As you can see from the image above, I don’t qualify for the subsidized pricing until March of next year. QQ

My Workspace

Michael Ashby — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:35:37 +0000

Our Internet went down for about 30 minutes today, so I used the time to take a couple of new photos and a screenshot of my workspace today. You can find the set on Flickr at this link, or I’ve embeded the slide show below.

AT&T Text Support

Michael Ashby — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:55:55 +0000

Hopefully the text message above is an indicator that AT&T is looking to be more proactive in customer service.

AT&T has been ranked lowest in customer satisfaction as far as service is concerned. However, 98% say they’d buy another iPhone on AT&T because they’re so happy with the device.

I’m no huge fan of AT&T, but my service here in Nashville has been good and I’ve been happy with the service since I switched from Sprint for the iPhone back in 2007.

They have sent me several text messages (all free) letting me know about my minutes and text messages remaining, which I think is fantastic. The screenshot above shows a text message of a new cell site that’s been installed near my home.

I haven’t had to deal with customer service, but if the above image is any indication of how they’re being pro-active, I’m all for it.

Questioning My Connections

Michael Ashby — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:07:12 +0000

As I stated in my last post, I’ve been on a bit of a minimalism kick of recent. I’ve been contemplating my needs for things in my life and trimming down where I can. Over the weekend, I thought long and hard about my use of Instant Messengers and why I’m constantly logged into so many.

In 1997, I took my first contract as a consultant with the Kansas Building Industry Workers’ Compensation Fund, which was based out of Topeka, Kansas. Wanting to stay in touch with family and friends, I came across an application called ICQ (pronounced I seek you). I was online a good bit, even back then, so when a friend would log on to the Internet I was notified that they were online and I could say “hey”. It was revolutionary at the time and I guess for me it was the Twitter of the late 90′s.

Soon there were copy cats as other Instant Messenger networks entered the market. Each one offered a new feature, or I had a client that used a different network, and thus I ended up joining them all. Fast forward to today and I’m looking at eight different messaging networks that I’m logged into on a daily basis.

AIM — npugdotorg

Google Talk — mashby@gmail.com

ICQ — 12443768

MSN — ashbygroup@hotmail.com

Facebook — mashby@gmail.com

Mobile Me — michael.ashby@me.com

Skype — mashby

Yahoo — ashbygroup

Wow. Do I really need to be logged into all these networks? Of course not. Programs like AdiumX (mac) and Trillian (win) make it easy to stay connected, but that doesn’t justify the number of open loops and potential distractions.

So Who Made The Cut?

I use Google Talk for work and it’s my primary IM network, so it stays. Mobile Me allows me to support Mac users via iChat and Skype I use from time to time, so I think both of those will stay as well.

As for the others, I’m canceling my accounts as soon as this article is posted. If you’re on one of these networks, I’m sorry, but feel free to use Google Talk, or send me an e-mail.

What’s Next?

I’m still contemplating other areas of my digital life, such as RSS, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but I haven’t finalized my decisions as of yet. When I do though, I’ll be sure to post about it.

My Desktop (12/11/2009)

Michael Ashby — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:44:56 +0000

My Desktop (12/11/2009)

Originally uploaded by Michael Ashby

Been awhile since I posted a screenshot of my desktop, so I thought it was time for an update. I’ve been on a minimal kick these days, and this is about as lean as I’ve been able to get it.

What’s Different?

Removed all icons from the desktop.
I usually have so many apps running, that I can never see the desktop and since I use QuickSilver, there’s rarely a need to click on an icon, so I opted not to have any.

Removed icons from the dock and set to hide
Again, since I use QuickSilver, it’s a rare occasion that I need the dock so I remove every icon I could and set it to hide. There’s a closeup shot on Flickr that shows what’s running at start up.

Removed / Hid icons from the Menu Bar
I used to have a have a TON of icons in the menu bar. Then the thought occurred to me, “Why do I have so much clutter and distractions?” So I took a look at what I actually needed and dispensed with the rest. The only icon I’m undecided about at this time is the DropBox icon. There’s no way to remove the icon within the app itself, but there is a method to hide the icon.

Last, but not least, the wallpaper is PinPoint by Otis Bee. So there you have it. Way too much detail about my minimalist Mac OS desktop. Enjoy.

Been Busy Streaming

Michael Ashby — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:26:43 +0000

Recently Dan and I have been doing some video streaming gigs with a buddy of ours Nic Dugger. I came across the on demand links on uStream, so I thought I’d share.

Pre-Show: Carrie Underwood at the Grand Ole Opry

Carrie Underwood at the Grand Ole Opry

Jimmy Wayne Live Chat and Performance

The Road Less Traveled — E-mail Archives

Michael Ashby — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:39:50 +0000

I recently upgraded from version 1.0 of the iPhone to the iPhone 3Gs and did so using the “Restore from backup” feature. For the most part everything went fine, but for a couple of security apps that I use, the transition was all but smooth. Without getting too technical, what I learned was that these apps rely on a serial number and when you do a restore, the app generates a new serial number and thus the application no longer works with your account.

After calling tech support, I found that the fastest way to resolve the issue was to locate an e-mail the company had sent me back in 2006 with specific information that would allow them to verify that I was indeed the owner of the account.

That’s when a larger problem reared it’s ugly, ugly head — e-mail archives.

I tend to hang onto things, especially when they are digital because they take no physical space. This is especially true of e-mail. I save every e-mail sent to me and I’ve been doing that from day one. As simple as that may sound, it’s been a long and winding road through a variety of e-mail clients I’ve used over the past 15 years.

As you might imagine, over the past decade and a half and I’ve not always been successful in brining my e-mail archives along with me. I have several “islands” of digital data stored in one program’s format or another. These drives have been pulled from old computers and are sitting in desk drawers, or on shelves somewhere. I could resurface Route 66 with my good intentions of going back to import my e-mail from the old program I was using into the new shiny program that I just had to try.

Right now I’m migrating back to Apple Mail from Postbox and this time I’ve vowed to do things right. I’m taking the extra time to bring my archives with me and it’s a tedious process.

How I Import My Thunderbird (Mac) E-mail Into Apple Mail (mail.app)

Run the Remove Duplicate Messages Thunderbird Add-on to shrink down the archive and remove duplicate messages, if any.

Break up my yearly archives into quarterly archives so that the file sizes aren’t so huge by moving all e-mails within a specified date range (Jan 1 – Mar 31 for example) into their quarterly folder

Right-click each folder I’ve touched and choose “Compact”

Find the location of my profile (~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/Mail/Local Folders/) and drag the archive I’m importing to the Eudora Mailbox Cleaner icon on the dock, which imports the archive into mail.app. I do this one archive at a time.

Launch Apple Mail, find the imported folder and choose “Mailbox \ Rebuild” from the top menu

Move the imported e-mail to the proper archive folder “On My Mac”.

Rinse and repeat as needed

Bear in mind, this process is something that has evolved over time. My first several efforts yielded very poor results, but as I tried one method after another, I whittled away at the issues plaguing me until I arrived at a proper solution that works well for me. As I write this, I’m currently working through my 2007 archives, with 2006 being my last archive.

The real question is how I’ll bridge to my other digital islands and import old e-mails from The Bat! and Eudora. Those are of course in Windows and I’m sure will each yield their own special kind of hell as I tear up the road that led me back to these near-forgotten artifacts.

So What Do You Do?

As the last of my 2007 archive is being rebuilt in Apple Mail, I can’t help but wonder what other people do. Am I alone in not wanting to discard past conversations and hang on to these little tidbits? Assuming I’m not alone, how do you handle your archives? Do you use MailSteward, or similar tools?