A More Useful 404: "When broken links frustrate your site's visitors, a typical 404 page explains what went wrong and provides links that may relate to the visitor's quest. That's good, but now you can do better. With Dean Frickey's custom 404, when something's amiss, pertinent information is sent not only to the visitor, but to the developer—so that, in many cases, the problem can be fixed! A better 404 means never having to say you're sorry."
(Via A List Apart.)
Porsche Dilutes the Brand Yet Again: "Porsche shows off the Panamera, which looks like a lowered and lengthened Cayenne with a 911 front end. At least it'll be available with a gas-electric hybrid drivetrain. Maybe.
(Via Clippings.)
The 10 most useful Linux commands: "
Maybe the command line isn’t your favorite place to hang out, but to be an effective Linux admin, you need to be able to wield a few essential commands. Jack Wallen says these 10 are guaranteed to simplify your Linux admin life — and he explains why.
I understand that many of you don’t want to use the command line in Linux (or in any operating system, for that matter). But the truth is, to be a good administrator, you have to know the command line. Why? Well, with Windows there are times when the command line is the only thing that can save your skin. With Linux, the command line is vast, reliable, flexible, fast… I could go on and on.
And of the 2,119 possible commands from the /usr/bin directory (in Mandriva Spring 2008) and the 388 possible commands from /usr/sbin/, a few are indispensable. Here are 10 of them that might make your Linux admin life — or your introduction to Linux — a whole lot simpler.
I could make this easy and go with the most used commands (cd, ls, rm, etc — okay, etc isn’t a command, but you get the point). But instead, I am going to go with the most useful commands, and I’ll keep it as distribution-neutral as I can.
Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.
I figured it was fitting to put the top command at the top. Although top is actually responsible for listing currently running tasks, it is also the first command Linux users turn to when they need to know what is using their memory (or even how much memory a system has). I often leave the top tool running on my desktop so I can keep track of what is going on at all times. Sometimes, I will even open up a terminal (usually aterm), place the window where I want it, and then hide the border of the window. Without a border, the terminal can’t be moved, so I always have quick access to the information I need.
Top is a real-time reporting system, so as a process changes, it will immediately be reflected in the terminal window. Top does have some helpful arguments (such as the -p argument, which will have top monitor only user-specified PIDs), but running default, top will give you all the information you need on running tasks.
To many administrators, links are an invaluable tool that not only make users lives simpler but also drastically reduce disk space usage. If you are unaware of how links can help you, let me pose this simple scenario: You have a number of users who have to access a large directory (filled with large files) on a drive throughout the day. The users are all on the same system, and you don’t want to have to copy the entire directory to each user’s ~/ directory. Instead, just create a link in each user’s ~/ directory to the target. You won’t consume space, and the users will have quick access. Of course when spanning drives, you will have to use symlinks. Another outstanding use for links is linking various directories to the Apache doc root directory. Not only can this save space, it’s often advantageous from a security standpoint.
Tar, zip, and gzip are archival/compression tools that make your administrator life far easier. I bundle these together because the tools can handle similar tasks yet do so with distinct differences (just not different enough to warrant their own entry in this article). Without these tools, installing from source would be less than easy. Without tar/zip/gzip, creating backups would require more space than you might often have.
One of the least used (but often most handy) features of these tools is the ability to extract single files from an archive. Now zip and gzip handle this more easily than tar. With tar, to extract a single file, you have to know the exact size of the file to be extracted. One area where tar/zip/gzip make administration simple is in creating shells scripts that automate a backup process. All three tools can be used with shell scripts and are, hands down, the best, most reliable backup tools you will find.
I wasn’t about to place just one text editor here, for fear of stoking the fires of the ‘vi vs. emacs’ war. To top that off, I figured it was best to throw my favorite editor — nano — into the mix. Many people would argue that these aren’t so much commands as they are full-blown applications. But all these tools are used within the command line, so I call them ‘commands.’ Without a good text editor, administering a Linux machine can become problematic.
Imagine having to attempt to edit /etc/fstab or /etc/samba/smb.conf with OpenOffice. Some might say this shouldn’t be a problem, but OpenOffice tends to add hidden end-of-line characters to text files, which can really fubar a configuration file. For the editing of configuration or bash files, the only way to go is with an editor such as nano, vi, or emacs.
Many people overlook this amazingly useful tool. Grep prints lines that match a user-specified pattern. Say, for instance, that you are looking at an httpd.conf file that’s more than 1,000 lines long, and you are searching for the ‘AccessFileName .htaccess’ entry. You could comb through that file only to come across the entry at line 429, or you can issue the command grep -n ‘AccessFileName .htaccess’ /etc/httpd/conf/http.conf. Upon issuing this command you will be returned ‘439:AccessFileName .htaccess’ which tells you the entry you are looking for is on, surprise of all surprises, line 439.
The grep command is also useful for piping other commands to. An example of this is using grep with the ps command (which takes a snapshot of current running processes.) Suppose you want to know the PID of the currently crashed Firefox browser. You could issue ps aux and search through the entire output for the Firefox entry. Or you could issue the command ps aux|grep firefox, at which point you might see something like this:
jlwallen 17475 0.0 0.1 3604 1180 ? Ss 10:54 0:00 /bin/sh /home/jwallen/firefox/firefoxjlwallen 17478 0.0 0.1 3660 1276 ? S 10:54 0:00 /bin/sh /home/jlwallen/firefox/run-mozilla.sh /home/jlwallen/firefox/firefox-bin
jlwallen 17484 11.0 10.7 227504 97104 ? Sl 10:54 11:50 /home/jlwallenfirefox/firefox-bin
jlwallen 17987 0.0 0.0 3112 736 pts/0 R+ 12:42 0:00 grep --color firefox
Now you know the PIDs of every Firefox command running.
Permissions anyone? Linux administration and security would be a tough job without the help of chmod. Imagine not being able to make a shell script executable with chmod u+x filename. Of course it’s not just about making a file executable. Many Web tools require certain permissions before they will even install. To this end, the command chmod -R 666 DIRECTORY/ is one very misused command. Many new users, when faced with permissions issues trying to install an application, will jump immediately to 666 instead of figuring out exactly what permissions a directory or folder should have.
Even though this tool is critical for administration, it should be studied before jumping in blindly. Make sure you understand the ins and outs of chmod before using it at will. Remember w=write, r=read, and x=execute. Also remember UGO or User, Group, and Other. UGO is a simple way to remember which permissions belong to whom. So permission rw- rw- rw- means User, Group, and Other all have read and write permissions. It is always best to keep Other highly restricted in their permissions.
Call me old-school if you want, but any time I plug a device into a Linux machine, the first thing I do is run the dmesg command. This command displays the messages from the kernel buffer. So, yeah, this is an important one. There is a lot of information to be garnered from the dmesg command. You can find out system architecture, gpu, network device, kernel boot options used, RAM totals, etc.
A nice trick is to pipe dmesg to tail to watch any message that comes to dmesg. To do this, issue the command dmesg | tail -f and the last few lines of dmesg will remain in your terminal. Every time a new entry arrives it will be at the bottom of the ‘tail.’ Keep this window open when doing heavy duty system administration or debugging a system.
One of the greatest benefits of Linux is its stability. But that stability doesn’t always apply to applications outside the kernel. Some applications can actually lock up. And when they do, you want to be able to get rid of them. The quickest way to get rid of locked up applications is with the kill/killall command. The difference between the two commands is that kill requires the PID (process ID number) and killall requires only the executable name.
Let’s say Firefox has locked up. To kill it with the kill command you would first need to locate the PID using the command ps aux|grep firefox command. Once you got the PID, you would issue kill PID (Where PID is the actual PID number). If you didn’t want to go through finding out the PID, you could issue the command killall firefox (although in some instances it will require killall firefox-bin). Of course, kill/killall do not apply (nor should apply) to daemons like Apache, Samba, etc.
How many times have you seen ‘RTFM’? Many would say that acronym stands for ‘Read the Fine* Manual’ (*This word is open for variation not suitable for publication.) In my opinion, it stands for ‘Read the Fine Manpage.’ Manpages are there for a reason — to help you understand how to use a command. Manpages are generally written with the same format, so once you gain an understanding of the format, you will be able to read (and understand) them all. And don’t underestimate the value of the manpage. Even if you can’t completely grasp the information given, you can always scroll down to find out what each command argument does. And the best part of using manpages is that when someone says ‘RTFM’ you can say I have ‘RTFMd.’
Without these two commands, using removable media or adding external drives wouldn’t happen. The mount/umount command is used to mount a drive (often labeled like /dev/sda) to a directory in the Linux file structure. Both mount and umount take advantage of the /etc/fstab file, which makes using mount/umount much easier. For instance, if there is an entry in the /etc/fstab file for /dev/sda1 that maps it to /data, that drive can be mounted with the command mount /data. Typically mount/umount must have root privileges (unless fstab has an entry allowing standard users to mount and unmount the device). You can also issue the mount command without arguments and you will see all drives that are currently mounted and where they’re mapped to (as well as the type of file system and the permissions).
These 10 Linux commands make Linux administration possible. There are other helpful commands, as well as commands that are used a lot more often than these. But the commands outlined here fall into the necessity category. I don’t know about you, but I don’t go a day without using at least half of them. Do you have a Linux command or two that you can’t live without? If so, let us know.
(Via 10 Things.)
Solar Panels on Graves Help Power Spanish Town: "Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a gritty, working-class town outside Barcelona, has placed a sea of solar panels atop mausoleums at its cemetery, transforming a place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy.
(Via Clippings.)
Beware of rogue security software: "Fake virus warnings in pop up windows try to trick you into clicking links that will actually infect your machine. Read how to help protect yourself from rogue security software."
(Via Clippings.)
Killer open source monitoring tools: "From network and server monitoring to trending, graphing, and even switch and router configuration backups, these utilities will see you through.
"
(Via Computerworld Breaking News.)
Reducing IT budgets: "I oversee the budgets of several technology organizations, all of which are under pressure to react to the faltering economy. At BIDMC, capital budgets are constrained, operating budgets are being tightly managed, and no staff reductions are planned. At Harvard Medical School, senior leaders are seeking a 10% reduction in the school's operating budget. How can IT organizations approach operating budget reductions?
1. Engage all your staff. They can identify operational inefficiencies, redundancy, and savings opportunities. Any budget reduction results in rumors, speculation, and fear of job loss. Engaging your staff in the budget process empowers them, informs them, and reduces their worry.
2. Find the low hanging fruit - vacancies, travel/training, consulting fees, food/entertainment, and other 'nice to have' expenditures are the first place to start any budget reductions. I passionately support training, but when faced with budget cuts, most staff would elect to support salaries and reduce training.
3. Identify service reductions - all IT projects are a function of scope, resources, and timing. Reducing the scope of service and determining what projects to cancel is an important part of budget reductions. One challenge is that organizations often have short memories. If you offer a budget reduction linked to a service reduction, you may find that the budget reduction is happily accepted but the service reduction is forgotten in a few weeks. In fact, many departments throughout the organization will suggest that budget reductions are possible if more automation and technology is added to their work processes. Reducing service at a time when customers need more service may not be the optimal approach, which I will discuss further below.
4. Extend timelines - assuming that resources are diminished and scope is already reduced, the last lever a CIO has is to extend the timelines of new projects. Instead of delivering new software this year, delay it to next year. Existing staff can take on more projects only if they have a longer time to do them.
5. Accept risk - Our job in IT is to ensure stability, reliability, and security. 99.99% uptime requires multiple redundant data centers, but there is not a precise cookbook as to how this should be done. I have implemented 2 data centers a few miles apart and not a grid of worldwide data centers. Why? Because risk = likelihood of a bad outcome * the impact of that outcome. When creating budgets, I decided that the likelihood of a regional disaster which destroys the IT capability of the entire Boston region is small. The likelihood of a single data center fire, flood or explosion is measurable, so I chose to mitigate that risk. In times of budget stress, a re-evaluation of risk is appropriate. Can network, server, storage and desktop components be kept for a year or two beyond their usual lifetimes? Can maintenance contracts be reduced or eliminated and mitigated by having spare components handy? Just as with service reductions, the strategy of increasing risk to reduce costs must be widely communicated, so when a failure occurs, everyone understands it was a risk accepted as a result of budget reductions.
In general, I do not recommend fighting budget reductions with overly dramatic stories of doom and gloom. That is not professional. Instead, CIOs should provide senior management with a list of services and a list of risks, then decide collaboratively what to do. This ensures that the CIO and IT is seen as an enabler and team player rather than a cause of the budget problem.
Having been through numerous budget reduction experiences over the past decade, I have witnessed the paradoxical effect that IT budgets are sometimes increased when organizational budgets are decreased. Savvy administrators know that economic downturns provide the urgency to re-engineer processes and accomplish politically difficult strategic changes. A short investment in automation can lead to long term reductions in operating costs. Thus, this downturn may be the opportunity to eliminate paper, streamline labor intensive manual methods, and consolidate/centralize for economies of scale.
Over the next 60 days, I will work with Harvard Medical School administration on all these issues and report back as to what we collectively decided to do."
(Via Clippings.)
|
(Via Clippings.)
Going solar? Seven sites map your plans: "Consumers and business owners seeking to install solar power can turn to these Web sites for interactive maps and cost estimates."
(Via Clippings.)
Gallery: The 10 Coolest James Bond Cars Ever: "
:
Sweet cars and amazing, if improbable, car chases have been essential elements of James Bond movies since the series began in 1962. The tradition continues in Quantum of Solace, which finds our favorite superspy behind the wheel of a hot Aston Martin DBS and — in a nod to these eco-conscious times — a Ford Edge that runs on hydrogen (in the film, if not in real life). But it takes more than a fuel cell to make the list of the 10 coolest Bond cars ever.
Left:
The quintessential Bond car appeared in Goldfinger, and it is both the most famous Bond car and one of the most iconic vehicles in the history of film. In addition to gorgeous lines and stunning speed, Bond's DB5 featured machine guns, a bulletproof shield, radar and that über-cool ejector seat that could villains flying at the push of a button.
: This one's tricky because Bentley never produced a car called the Mark IV. Ian Fleming made that up. Bond drove a 1933 Bentley convertible with an Amherst-Villiers supercharger in the novel Casino Royale. Various Bentleys have appeared in Bond films, including From Russia With Love, in which our hero seduces Miss Sylvia Trench behind the wheel of a 1930 Bentley Derby similar to the one in this photo by Flicker user starpitti.
: The Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me is almost as famous as the DB5, if only because it could turn into a submarine at the flick of a switch. The car featured surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes and depth charges, all of which we find amazing given the shaky reliability of the electrical systems in British cars.
: Strictly speaking, this wasn't Bond's car. It was driven by his assistant, Aki, in You Only Live Twice. But it makes the list because it was chock-full of cool gadgets — including a television, a cordless phone and a voice-activated stereo – that are commonplace today but the stuff of science fiction in 1967. Toyota built a GT without a roof because Sean Connery was too tall for the coupe.
: Aston Martin returned to Bond's fleet in 2002 after the spy's brief dalliance with BMW in the late 1990s. The Vanquish that appeared in Die Another Day came with an ejector seat and a cloaking device that rendered the car invisible. We prefer the more muscular and understated DBS in Casino Royale because it's a better match for Daniel Craig's darker, more brooding Bond.
: Yes, Bond drove a Mustang, albeit briefly, in Diamonds are Forever, and he looked almost as cool as Steve McQueen did driving his 'stang in Bullitt. Connery took the Mach 1 on a wild ride through Vegas, getting up on two wheels to squeeze through an alley. The film editors weren't so skilled: The car is shown entering the alley on one set of wheels and emerging on the other.
: Pierce Brosnan drove the convertible Beemer in The World Is Not Enough, but it was a BMW in name only. The Z8 was still a prototype when filming started, so the film featured a Cobra kit car wearing BMW skin. We're still not sure where Q found room for the surface-to-air missiles, let alone the six cup holders, but now we know where they put the movie camera.
: Bond stole this car from a dealership showroom to make an escape in The Man With the Golden Gun, making a spectacular corkscrew jump over a canal to elude his pursuers. The stunt was planned with help from a supercomputer at Cornell University, and it is the only time in history an AMC Hornet has ever looked cool.
: This Whyte Industries jobby appeared in Diamonds Are Forever. It's a moon buggy. 'Nuff said.
: Another Bond car that wasn't what it appeared to be. The 2CV couldn't outrun its own belching plume of exhaust, so the car in For Your Eyes Only was tricked out with a hotter engine, a modified transmission and a reworked frame. It still had trouble outrunning the humble Peugeots – Peugeots — pursuing it, so Bond had to resort to skilled driving and good luck to make his escape.
(Via Clippings.)
Obama to deliver weekly address via YouTube: "President-elect Barack Obama will be delivering his weekly presidential address via YouTube as well as radio, his campaign says."
(Via Cnet.)
I
switched
in 2002 and have written
probably way too much on
my relationship with Apple computers, including one piece grandiosely entitled
How To Use Mac OS X.
Well, I use one for several hours a day almost every day and while I
feel a little humbler now, I still thought it would be worthwhile writing down
the practices that serve this particular experienced and intense user well. It
crosses my mind that there might be a useful minor meme in this if a few
others did too.
I think I’ll try to keep this up to date as time
goes by and I change my work habits.
I’m not claiming that any of you should do things this way, just
describing what works for me. Quite likely your history and usage patterns
are radically incompatible with mine. I’m an old Unix guy, as in comfy with
bash incantations. I’m a
programmer who puts in a few hours every week working on code. I’m a writer,
obviously. I’m a voracious over-the-top news-hound, it’s a key part of my job
to know what’s going on out there. I’m a photographer. And I travel a
lot.
Maybe the most important decision you have to make about your computing
environment is where you put your data.
These days, it’s very easy to arrange that a lot of the important stuff is on
the Net, with the help of source-code control systems, IMAP, and Webmail.
This is good because the Net is less likely to lose it than you are.
The next question is, do you spread your stuff across multiple computers,
and if so do you use an outboard disk, and how do you pump information back
and forth?
In my case, I always have one notebook which is my primary master computer,
and all my data is on it. The current iteration has a 180G drive with 60G
free. The only reason a heavy photographer like me can get away with this is
that I’m ruthless; I discard all the pictures except for the ones which
are good enough to publish, or document the life and growth of my family.
I recommend this ruthlessness; most serious photographers I know burn huge
amounts of storage with throwaway shots that nobody will ever look at or care
about. I end up keeping up about a hundred a month.
Oh, it also helps that I use the last-but-one computer (currently a G4 PowerBook) to
keep all my music on and reload iPods; the main machine has almost no
music.
The convenience benefits of having all your data on just one portable
machine are not to be sneezed at.
For organizing my files, I’ve ended up using almost entirely date
hierarchies. I have one YYYY/MM/DD tree for ongoing,
and two other YYYY/MM trees, one each for my work materials at Sun and my
photographs. The little picture at the right is my Finder sidebar; it gives
me quick access to this and last year’s Sun data, to this and last month’s
photo directories (‘2008-10’ and ‘2008-11’) and this and last month’s
ongoing work (‘10’ and ‘11’). I have to rejigger the
sidebar around the first of each month.
Maybe there are better systems, but this one saves an enormous
amount of thinking about where to put things, and doesn’t seem to get in the
way of finding them.
I also have a big honkin’ Mac Pro that I use for image and occasional video
editing. I keep the photo directories and Lightroom database in sync between
the two
using
rsync in a sort of
brute-force way. I should really switch to something more sophisticated.
I back all this stuff up using a Terabyte Apple Time Capsule. Recently I’ve
adopted
Time Machine
Editor; I schedule backups to happen every 24 hours, and then I launch one
manually most evenings after dinner while I’m doing child-care.
Since I travel a lot, I care a lot about weight. I can’t use a netbook
because I need to do some image editing and coding, but I don’t need
high-end performance, because for serious work I have the meat-grinder at
home.
Thus, I pick the lightest
Mac notebook with a drive that I can squeeze all my data onto. Currently
that’s a BlackBook, but it’s getting a little long in the tooth; I suspect
that by the time I need to switch, I’ll be able to get a MacBook Air with
enough storage; failing that, it’ll be one of the current MacBooks.
I use Lightroom for pretty well all my serious photo processing.
I’ve got Photoshop Elements around, but I find that I hardly ever use it any
more. I don’t, however, use Lightroom for camera downloads; I prefer
the lightweight ‘Image Capture’ utility that comes with OS X. So I dump the
RAW files into the directory-of-the-month, and then use Lightroom to discard
most of them and pretty up the keepers.
I did make the effort of going back to the beginning of digital time, 1998
in my case, and keyword-tagging all the photos. It was several evenings
of solid work, but I’m glad I did it, particularly for family stuff.
I always use Lightroom in full-screen mode with the
sidebars and bottom-bars and film-strips hidden; with the single
exception of the Develop module’s essential right-hand sidebar where all the
controls are.
It’s at the right. On every Mac notebook, horizontal screen space is ample
and vertical space is precious. Right seems more natural than left because
that’s where the Finder wants to herd the desktop icons.
I don’t auto-hide, because lots of Finder icons tell you useful things like
unread mail counts. Well, except for when I’m working on something
serious or complicated.
I’ve organized the Dock by categories, with icons locked in place, from top
to bottom. First,
sysadmin stuff: Finder, Preferences, and Terminal.
Next, read-the-world stuff: Newsreader, browser, IRC client, IM client, and
Twitter client.
Next, in the middle of the Dock, contribute-to-the-world stuff: Mail, photo
editor, text editor, IDE, and office suite.
Next, biz stuff: calendar and address book.
Then it gets miscellaneous: iTunes, Time Machine, VPN client.
The only launcher I use is
TigerLaunch; it’s minimal
but it suits me because usually I launch each app once then leave it running,
except for Lightroom, which is too heavyweight to have around when I’m not
using it.
The key point: All these things are anchored; thus, everything in the Dock is a
running app and it’s always in the same place.
I don’t have any directories or files or dividers in the Dock.
At work and at home, I have huge 23-inch-or-greater outboard screens. I
used to work with the laptop open, thus with two screens, but I eventually
found it simpler just to have everything on one big one, so I leave the
laptop closed; I only really use its screen when I’m on the road or loafing in
front of the TV.
Sidebar: Working in Top-Down Mode
If you’re working with a closed notebook, you’re probably using a USB
keyboard/mouse, and there’s a problem because if you put the notebook to
sleep, then it’ll wake up again when you unplug the USB. So you can lift the
lid, unplug the USB, and use the laptop’s trackpad to shut it down. Or,
there’s this incantation:sleep 5; osascript -e 'tell application 'System Events' to sleep'That’ll give you five seconds to pull the USB before the
notebook starts snoozing.
I don’t use Spaces, because the big heavyweight programs that it’d be handy
to sequester away, like Lightroom and NetBeans, seem to interact toxically
with it. Eventually I may start doing that. But really, I’ve just got used
to having my desktop background almost entirely obscured by a messy clutter of
windows. It doesn’t seem to get in the way, and the screen is big enough
that I can usually arrange to have the things I care about all visible at the
same time.
For similar reasons, I don’t ever use the little orange ‘minimize’
button that’s in between the red and green buttons at the top left of each
window. If I really don’t want to see something, command-H for ‘hide’ makes
it go away. More often, if I really need to focus on something, I’ll
hit ‘Hide others’ so it’s the only thing on the screen.
As for my Desktop folder, it’s a mess. I’ve never figured out a good way to
organize it. It has a random clutter of things I’ve downloaded but not got
around to dealing with, and a few folders that I’ve not found a better place
for. Maybe someday I’ll think of something better.
Finally, I never use Dashboard. I think I’m in the majority here; I
occasionally see people flipping over to check a stock quote, but not
that often. Silly thing.
For maximum security, you should turn FileVault on and set your computer to
require a password when waking from sleep. Both of these options, however,
carry a significant performance penalty, and FileVault has cost me a whole
disk’s worth of data when it went bad (I had backups). I keep changing my
mind on the cost/benefit trade-offs.
If you’re using FileVault, you should have a privileged secondary account
on your computer even if you’re the only person who uses it. If your
FileVault gets corrupted (it happens), you’re going to want to be able to log
on to repair the damage.
Most Mac users aren’t old Unix hounds and aren’t software developers and
thus don’t use the command-line much at all. Which is perfectly fine. I do, though.
I don’t use iTerm and I don’t use tabs and I don’t use
screen. I just keep as
many Terminal.app windows open at a time as necessary, and rotate among them
with command-`. This is usually only a couple but sometimes lots and lots.
I use a nice pale bland background color and Courier New Bold 12.
When in the command line, I use OS X’s open command a lot,
it’s wonderful. Also command-F to find things to cut and paste.
At the moment I’m using Mail.app for my first.last@sun.com
email, and GMail (wrapped in the excellent
Fluid) for the address on the front of
XML 1.0.
I wish each could be more like the other in some ways. I’ll probably switch
to Thunderbird for one or both eventually. Why, after all these decades, isn’t
there One True Email client?
Despite my repeated kvetching about iCal, I still use it; it syncs with my
phone and I like the smart-appointment thing that Mail.app does, and it’s
become somewhat more reliable and performant over the years. Keeping my work
and family calendars in sync is still a major pain in the butt; there’s lots
of room for progress here.
NetNewsWire
for feeds,
Colloquy for IRC,
Adium for IM,
Twitteriffic for
Twitter,
OpenOffice.org for biz docs,
NetBeans for Java/C/Ruby coding,
and
Aquamacs Emacs for Perl coding and writing
ongoing.
In each case, I’ve tried the serious alternatives. In most cases, the
alternatives are good too. Well, except for NetNewsWire, which stands
alone.
You can really do a lot without taking your hands off the
keyboard. If you learn all the Option-key-based shortcuts you’ll be able to say
things like ‘17ºC’ and ‘reëxamination’ without having to go looking. When you
do have to go looking, make sure you’ve got ‘Show Character Palette’ as an
option under the little flag menu at the top right; it gives you a handy
Unicode-based selector for when you need things like ☮ and ぽ.
Also, using the helpful keyboard-remapping preferences, I’ve turned the
silly caps-lock key into a control key, and turned off all of the
special meanings for function keys so I can use them in Emacs. It means I
have to use the ‘fn’ key if I want to change the volume or brightness; so be
it. I have the useful Exposé actions tied to various screen corners.
My main browser is
Camino. This is such a minority
choice that maybe it’s becoming untenable. I was originally driven to it
years ago
because Safari wasn’t stable enough (and was a memory hog), while Firefox just
wasn’t Mac-like enough.
I gather both of those have improved, but I have to say that Camino is damn fast
and damn smooth and damn nicely Mac-integrated.
I actually keep Safari open most times too; I use it for online banking and
other high-value transactions that feel out of place nestled in among the
twenty or thirty Camino tabs I usually have open.
And I have Firefox around for debugging JavaScript and when other
browsers are acting weird.
I used to use Fink but now I use Ports. Maybe if I revisited the decision
now it’d go the other way. Doesn’t seem a big deal.
I hook a ton of stuff up to
Growl and
use its ‘Music Video’ display mode; for me, it’s the ideal mix of, on the one
hand, easy to take in with a glance, and on the other, easy to ignore.
Looking back over my six years in the Mac world, I don’t think I’ve ever
gone six months without a setup change. I’m sure there’ll be more.
(Via ongoing.)
Draft Steve Jobs to run GM? Why not: "The auto industry obviously is in a world of hurt. But financial rescue plan or not, its biggest need is that spark of creativity which once put Detroit on top. That's where Silicon Valley might offer some help"
(Via Cnet.)
Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet: "Much more than a way to tell friends what you're doing, Twitter can be a valuable business tool -- if you know what you're doing. Here's how to juice it for all it's worth.
"
(Via Clippings.)
