from the edge of the deep green sea

So I got a bit fed up with my Ecto for OS X, which was my previous blog editing software. At the beginning, it was OK, but sometimes it just pulls some wacky editing that makes me go into the html that it generates and try to get the whole thing fixed; which is not only frustrating but time consuming as well.

I have looked for a while, and the best blogging software there apparently is is called MarsEdit, which I am using to write this post.

You basically edit the posts in HTML format, but you have the option to access commonly used markup macros to make everything simpler:

This makes editing a whole lot easier for people who are not really into HTML.

I really like the dual pane view you get in real time on how your blog post will look as well:

To insert images, there is a handy media manager that allows you to upload directly to wordpress & Flickr. While this works great and is way faster than Ecto, I still prefer to use Skitch, the best snapshot taking utility with the gayest icon ever.

I still need to figure out some things, such as finding if there is a way to paste code snippets that will be formatted based on on what they are (C++, Javascript, CSS, etc.). But I have to say that it is snappy and very easy to figure out. Bu-bye Ecto!

Oh, and as an extra, you can add Wordpress categories from the program itself – +10 extra coolness points

It’s been a since I posted anything Mac related, and now that I am trying to get everything as organized in my life as possible, I’d thought I’d share on how I am trying to achieve a non-entropic life.

I know what you are thinking, well – there is iCal…yes, you are right, but it sucks. I dislike iCal for various reasons:

• There is not a way way to set a user configured default for alarms and notifications
• There is no way to quickly look at upcoming tasks without opening the damn thing
• Selecting Dates for To Dos need to be done via direct edition of dates and months – is it too hard to have a freakin’ calendar to choose the stupid date? I mean, even web applications have this component, why it is not present in iCal is beyond me:

Ok, now that the iCal rant is over, let’s see how I am managing to work more efficiently in all this mess.

Easily Add New Events Todos with QuickCal

The first thing I found was Quikcal. Don’t judge it by it’s look, it’s quite powerful. It allows you to quickly enter events without switching to iCal, bur rather by invoking a widget. Once you have the widget open, you can quickly set up an event or todo by using mere English:

It’s extremely small, unobtrusive, and efficient. It has nice extras such as the ability to have multiple time zones:

And there you have it! You can now enter/view events and Todos w/o opening iCal. If you want to have Growl notifications of your events, check OmniGrowl.

On March 20, all telephones in Costa Rica will be changing from seven digits to eight digits. This means that all cell phones will now be preceded by the number eight whereas every other line will be preceded by the number two.

Changing to the new format is going to be a major pain in the ass for everyone, especially those that cannot synchronize their phone numbers with their computer. If you are one of these unlucky bastards, then this post is not for you.

As requested by my sister, I had the displeasure of working with AppleScript one more time to create a script that would change the phone numbers from address book to the new format. The script checks every number in your address book and only changes those numbers that (after removing empty characters, and other quirks) are of length seven. I have tested the script with all the addresses on my address book and so far it it has been able to replace every one of them correctly. In theory, the script will only modify numbers from Costa Rica. This does not mean that the script is perfect, so use at your own risk.

Remember to always always always always back up your address book before running this script. if you need help backing up, please check the following link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AddressBook/4.0/en/disc.html

Download the script from the following location:

http://tinyurl.com/y8qd66t

How to use it

Once you have downloaded the file, carry out the following steps:

1. Open the script that you downloaded by double clicking on it (an application called script editor will the file for you)
2. Your address book should automatically open
3. Back up all of your information
4. Highlight all of the contacts that you want to modify (you can quickly do this by going to the edit menu and choosing select all)
5. Switch back to the script editor application and hit the big Green Run button:
6. 
7. Follow the directions

The operation is dependent on the number of contacts that you have. I have about 315 cards and the process took about 10 seconds.

As of this point, I don’t even know if this is going to work. I want to install SSH on the AppleTV so I can then add an external USB drive as the primary source of storage. This is being documented so that someone can learn from my mistakes, to ease out the documentation out there that is a bit rough around the edges, and finally to guide someone who is willing to help find any stupid mistakes I made along the way…let’s get started…

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Oftentimes we are looking for application bundles that will let us use a new application instead of two old ones. This time around, I will recommend the exact opposite: install two apps that will replace your use of Preview.app (the default image and pdf viewer for OS X).

There is nothing wrong with preview, in fact, I think it is way ahead than any of the default image viewers in Windows (not sure if in Vista, this has changed). Preview is also by far more efficient than Adobe’s PDF reader when it comes to skimming through PDFs. That being said, the old Preview has just not learned new tricks in a while, so let’s go ahead and let the old guy rest and bring in two new additions to the game.

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If you want to browse the Internet using Safari without being annoyed by all the Flash Advertisements, check out Safari Plus:

http://web.mac.com/jrc/SafariPlus/

It will block all the garbage and substitute it by a dotted window. If you want load the video, just click the box.

If you ever need to upload an image so that anyone can see it, you might need to use imageshack. The process is straighforward, but if you have a Mac, the process can be a matter of seconds. With the widget created by the good folks at Model Concept, the process is as easy as what you see in the images above (which are images hosted on Imageshack).

Drag an image to the widget and it will not only be automatically uploaded for you, but it will also create a tinyurl so that you can reference the image without having to write long ass URLs. The URL to the image will be on the clipboard for your easy access. Mix that with my super kick ass script and now you can embed an image in an e-mail in really no time at all. Here is the direct download since the one in the web page seems to be messed up:

http://www.modelconcept.net/downloads/widgets/image-upload-widget.zip

Apple’s Mail application is a great way to deal with your everyday mail, but it lacks in some areas. One thing I cannot stand is not being able to edit an HTML message directly. If you want to embed an image from Flickr, for instance, you cannot. You have to manually create a web page, include the image as part of the html source and select Mail Contents of this page, which is clearly overkill.

After some testing, I wrote an applescript that will write an e-mail message with the image URL you have on the clipboard. If you ever want to embed an image in a mail message, just copy the URL onto the clipboard, run the script and you are good to go. Read more for the source!

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Backup – not everyone does it, yet everyone needs it. If you do not backup and have yet to lose something, consider yourself a very lucky person because sooner or later, something will fail. Whether your machine crashes and damages data, or you drop your portable and mess up the hard drive, or whether someone breaks into your home and steals your stuff, it is bound to happen. You need to backup things that are irreplaceable (pictures, documents, work) on weekly basis. I have quickly grown into a backup freak and will show you in this post, how to backup some if your things in the best way possible.

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I use Synergy as an iTunes navigator, which works great. You can assign shortcuts to move to next track, pause, and so on. Another cool thing that it does is to get the artwork for the current track in case it does not already have it. Synergy, however, will not set the artwork on the mp3 itself, it will just place it somewhere on your HD. You can however, select the menu option to copy the artwork of the current track:

That is all very nice, yes – but what about the other tracks on the album that should have the same artwork? By downloading some scripts from Doug’s Applescript’s site, I was able to write a small script that will set the artwork of the current selection to that of the currently playing track. Read more to get a hold of the script.

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