Categories
Productivity Software Technology

Quicksilver Abracadabra Gestures

Abra
Wow. Quicksilver never ceases to amaze! You can now create mouse gestures to do anything Quicksilver can do using a plugin called Abracadabra.

It’s a basic plugin, but it’s incredibly helpful. You needn’t be working for Coca Cola, o2, Citibank or any other big corporation to benefit from this extension, it works perfectly well on a home Mac that’s just carrying out small jobs.

To use it, first, go to your Quicksilver preferences, in plugins, choose “other plugins” to find plugins that aren’t installed and check the box next to Abracadabra.

Abra1

Click the plus sign by Abracadabra (you probably have to have “Enable advanced features” set to Beta in the Application settings.

You’ll now have a new menu item called Abracadabra. Select it and add the sounds you want to hear when you do a gesture that is recognized or when you make a mistake and do an unknown gesture. You’ll also want to pick a key to use with Abracadabra.

Abra2-3

Now click the “Triggers” category in preferences and create a new trigger by choosing the plus sign at the bottom then doing something you might normally do in Quicksilver such as committing something to SVN (or opening a folder or whatever you do with your Mac).

Abra3
Now change the Trigger type to Gesture, and in the drawer that slides out, draw the gesture you’d like to make in order to perform the action.

Abra4

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You’re done! Try it out by holding down option (or whatever key you chose) and performing the gesture. If you did it right, you’ll get cool green stars, otherwise they’ll turn red.

Categories
Business Money Software Technology

An Update on Enrichr, Software, Investing etc.

Enrichr - Pursuing Success

A few things have happened lately. One is that the Daily Press is running an article on bloggers and apparently I’m going to be featured. I had a phone interview and the photographer came over and took pictures of me standing by my computer :).

We decided to change the name of the Community of Success (mentioned below) to Enrichr – Pursuing Success. The main reason for the change is that we (there are three of us running the site) decided that Community of Success sounds, for lack of a better word, nerdy. Enrichr is a play on Flickr (obviously) and is a pretty good representation of the purpose of the site–to enrich people’s lives through providing knowledge and motivation.

I’ve also started documenting my efforts to find an investment property on that website.

I’ll take this chance to write about some good software I’ve found lately too:

1. MediaCentral – a program similar to Front Row but in my opinion better. It uses Spotlight to find media anywhere on your hard drive.

2. MP3 Trimmer – fully featured shareware with nag screens to merge mp3’s (or spilt them). I sometimes end up with audiobooks I’ve ripped from CD that are in a million files. This program rejoins them nicely. I also recently discovered you can join them in iTunes before importing them by going to Advanced > Join CD Tracks if you have them all selected.

3. Colibri – The real Quicksilver for Windows? Doubtful, but at least it looks similar. Free.

4. Loudblog – Very cool PHP software for podcasting. With Loudbot it can also be integrated with other blog software.

5. MODx – An interesting looking CMS that is “Web 2.0 buzzword compliant.” One of the few CMS’s that has looked interesting to me lately.

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Categories
Software Technology Web Services

How to Find a Great Domain Name Revisited

Domains
A couple months ago I wrote about how to find a great domain name. Since then, I’ve found several other tricks, related articles and sites… here they are:

1. Instant Domain Search – This is the site I’ve been using most. Start typing a domain name and as you type it shows you if it’s available or not. No submit button, no waiting, just good quick results. Can’t beat that. There is a similar site called Ajax Whois that’s not quite as fast (it requires verification), but adds the functionality of seeing whois results.

2. Domainers – Turns out there are people making a bit of money off buying and selling domains, or buying domains hoping people will land on them and click a link. By a bit of money, I mean millions of dollars a year. Business 2.0 has a great article on the subject.

3. Sedo.com – If the domainers article piqued your interest, check out Sedo–a quick place to park your domains to make money off ads or put them up for sale. I’ve parked a few there myself until I have time to develop them. If Sedo doesn’t meet your fancy, check out Afternic, DomainHop or DomainSponsor.

4. Looking for a different way to sell your hot new domain? Check out DomainState or DNForum. The former appears to be less trafficked and free while the latter is not free but is always buzzing.

5. All existing domains – This one is a gem sent from Beau (the guy who made Instant Domain Search). Fax in your address get access to a list (available over FTP) of all active .com and .net domain names. Very cool.

6. 2.99 domains – From Yahoo, sign up for them all at once because the offer is good for new customers only, after you’re signed up the price goes up to $9.95. I was able to get 5 domains for 3 bucks a pop. After that offer expires, I’d recommend checking out Namecheap. Their domains are 8.88 each and the tools to manage them are outstanding.

7. A ton of other name finding tools. My last post generated some good ideas in the comments. Here are tools that people recommended:

  • WordConstructor – This one is awesome. It comes up with short, catchy names with greater ease than any of the other tools I’ve found.
  • OneLook – Dictionary that supports wildcards. Could be useful. There’s also a reverse dictionary.
  • RhymeZone – This one also comes up with some surprisingly good made-up word.
  • Whois Source – A smarter-than-average tool for domain name spinning.
  • Nameboy – Enter two words and get suggestions. This one wasn’t as useful as some of the others, but I figured I’d add it here anyway

8. DomainsBot – I mentioned this one in the previous article, but since then they’ve pulled a few more tricks out of their sleeves. They now have a Lab where there are a few really cool tools.

  • WordTrends – Plugin a couple words and see how often they are used in domain names.
  • DomainStats – A couple interesting research papers on domain names. No charge to read them.
  • SearchCloud – I found this one to be the most useful, type in some words and get a list of related words and available domains.
  • SplitIt – Make sure your domain name will be interpreted how you hope it will be.
  • Shadow – I didn’t try this one, but it’s a piece of software you download to crunch data to find good domains… let me know how it goes if you decide to test it.

So.. there you go, more tools for finding domains than you can shake a stick at. Enjoy.

Categories
Software Technology

Alternatives to Ruby on Rails

Fire
I’ve been learning Ruby on Rails for the past few months. Along the way, I’ve found several similar frameworks in other languages:

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I haven’t tried anything but the real thing (and I’m loving it) but I thought the list was a pretty good indication of the amount of hype and energy surrounding Ruby on Rails.

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Categories
Technology

What Makes a Podcast Successful

Porch
Since writing very critically about independent podcasting, I’ve been trying to prove myself wrong. I’ve since listened to many podcasts, and found a few things that seem to make or break a podcast from the point of view of a listener.

1. Multiple voices. None of the Podcasts I currently subscribe to are produced by one person or feature a sole voice. All are either in an interview format or are the combined efforts of more than one person.

2. Under 1/2 hour. Occasionally I’ll find a podcast that I can stand to listen to for more than 30 minutes, but I’ve found that to be the exception rather than the rule. The biggest tendency of podcasters seems to be to ramble about random, unrelated things. It’s entertaining occasionally, but usually is hardly interesting. I’ve found that Podcasters that limit themselves to under 30 minutes usually hold my attention more and have me looking forward the next issue rather than pushing it off for later.

3. Real Content. If you can write a blog entry that could contain all the information in your podcast, do that rather than making a podcast. I will only listen to a podcast if I think it has information I can’t glean quicker by scanning a blog entry. Real content to me is an interview, a recording of a conference or panel, a story, art–read me some poetry or play some music, meaningful conversation between two or more people–stuff I can’t necessarily get by reading a blog.

4. Great audio. This almost goes without saying, but since so many people still don’t get it right, I’ll add it here. Make sure the volume level is normalized, that you don’t cut off highs or lows and don’t convert a high quality audio file to a low bitrate mp3. If it doesn’t sound good, it doesn’t matter how good the content is, I’m not going to listen.

I still only listen to about 3 or 4 podcasts. My favorite format by far is the interview. I’ve fallen in love with Podtech.net‘s podcasts which are almost always entertaining and informative–and under 15 minutes. The others I listen to are actually mostly not regular podcasts–I enjoy listening to Y Combinators startup library, Evening at Adler from DrunkenBlog, the Ruby on Rails podcast and occasionally one or two others.

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Categories
Software Technology

Business as Usual

Letter
Dear Google and Sun,
Thanks for making the connection between the JRE and Google toolbar for me. I hadn’t realized that because I wanted your runtime environment I also wanted to clutter up my browser a bit more. Makes sense now though. Maybe while you’re at it, you could also bundle in some other cool browser extensions I didn’t know I needed.
-Marcus

Dear AutoDesk,
Hands off Maya! Leave her alone. The Personal Learning Edition & Mac versions are good.
-Marcus

Dear Macrodobe,
Well, you’re it now. No competition. What’s next?
-Marcus

Dear Weblogs Inc.,
Are you sure you want to be the next Nullsoft?
-Marcus

Dear Apple,
October 12 better be good. It’s been way too long.
-Marcus

Dear Upcoming,
Congratulations on becoming Flickr’s newest sibling. Seems like Yahoo’s doing good things these days.
-Marcus

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Categories
Design Software Technology

Tumblelog

Projectionist

Here’s something to keep an eye on – Tumblelogs. Basically a blog with quick posts consisting of pictures, quotes, links and whatever else is on the mind of the author. Tumblelogging is bound to grow–as of today there are 540 Google results for “tumblelog.” I predict 10,000 within 6 months. I’m not sure of the origin of the word, but the best I can tell it was coined here. The best example (by far) is the gorgeous Projectionist website… a site that has forever changed the way I think about blogging. Amazing.

I can definitely see the need for a CMS that supports this style of blogging. Hopefully Lifecapsules will fill the need.

[UPDATE: That didn’t take long–10/12/2005 – 12,100 results from a search for Tumblelog]

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Categories
Software Technology

CMSFactor.com Launches!

Cmsfactor
After months of anticipation (you HAVE been anticipating it, haven’t you?) CMSFactor.com is finally ready to go, complete with a handful of new articles to get you started. Created by yours truly, the purpose of the site is to make content management system recommendations and give practical information (rather than the typical press releases on other CMS websites) and write about the subject of organizing and managing content online in general. Check it out!

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Categories
Software Technology

Two Great Mac Apps and One Missing In Action

iCalView - Great software.

The good:
1. iFlash – a flash card application for OS X, is everything you’d expect a Mac app to be. Clean, simple, intuitive and functional. I’m using it to study for the Real Estate exam and I couldn’t ask for better. It’s stable, actively developed and has enough features to make it powerful without being complex. Highly recommended $10 shareware with a generous trial period and free mode.

2. iCalViewer – shows your iCal appointments on your desktop in a unobtrusive, useful way. I’ve never gotten in the habit of opening iCal to see what’s coming up, but with iCalViewer events are always right there, in context and only the relevant ones show up. Shareware, $11 with a generous trial and free mode.

The missing:
A good sync application for PocketPC to OS X. I have PocketMac and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I’ve read the reviews for the Missing Sync and wouldn’t consider dropping $40 on software that has 2 1/2 of 5 stars on MacUpdate and 3 of 5 stars on VersionTracker with enough bad reviews to scare anyone off. Maybe I need to switch to Palm or just give up on having a handheld that syncs properly with a Mac.

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Software Technology

The Death of Independent Podcasting

Death of the Podcast

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Podcasting is nothing more than a phase. It will probably always be around in some format or other, but it is destined slow down to the point of existing in the form of only a few (maybe 20 or 30 at most) podcasts that anyone cares about or listens to. The following points are generalizations, but ones that I feel mostly hold true.

1. Podcasts are time consuming to create. You can’t sit down on your lunch break at work and whip one out. You can’t write one on you PDA in the train on the way to work, you have to be physically in front of a computer with a microphone and have a dedicated chunk of non-interrupted time. Most people don’t have time to do that–not unless they are making money off it, which brings me to point two.

2. Podcasts don’t make money. I’m definitely not saying that every podcaster wants to make money, but if they wanted to, could they? I would guess there are probably 10 podcasters who actually make money and most of them have been around long before it was called podcasting. They have real experience in the industry and are producing full-fledged radio shows. Not only that, they are mostly run by companies with sales teams and content editors.

3. Podcasts are expensive to produce. In order to create a quality podcast, you’ve got to have some nice equipment. Just any old microphone plugged into your computer isn’t going to cut it. Not only do you have to have the equipment and software, you’ve got to know how to use it. Combine not making money with being expensive to produce and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

4. Podcasts are boring. On the whole, the podcasts I’ve listened to are good for the first couple episodes, but quickly dry up. I’m not assigning blame–it’s really hard to come up with 30 to 60 minutes of interesting content, especially if you’re doing it alone and on a regular basis. For the most part, it seems like people just don’t have that much to say or that much time to prepare to say it–not unless they have a team behind them preparing content and taking care of the technical side of things.

5. Podcasts sound bad. People who make it into radio generally get there in part because they have a good, interesting radio voice. Unfortunately we weren’t all endowed with radio voices. Even the most interesting and compelling content can become dull and hard to listen to if the presenter doesn’t have an appealing and varied voice.

6. Podcasts are too long. In my experience, the content that a 30 minute podcast contains could probably be gathered in about 2 minutes of scanning a website. Sometimes it’s nice to have 30 minutes to hear someone leisurely sharing their news and views, especially on a long car ride, but for the most part, I feel like constantly reaching for the fast forward button.

7. Podcasts are light on content. I read an article saying Audible.com’s stock was taking a hit because free podcasts may replace audiobooks for a lot of people. I seriously doubt that will be the case. Listen to an hour of almost any book from Audible, then listen to an hour of a podcast. After which do you feel you’ve learned more? Been more entertained? Enjoyed? In my experience, it’s almost always the audiobook. Some people will opt for the free option of a podcast rather than paying for an audiobook, but I believe most people value their time enough to pay for content that they will get the most from.

I discovered podcasts in March of 2004, before the term podcast was coined. I was excited about them for about a month then quickly lost interest. I believe the same thing will happen for many other people as well; they’ll lose interest in all but the most professionally produced podcasts. The successful podcasts will probably be produced by companies who also do Public Radio, a select few who figure out to make money podcasting and the occasional enthusiast who has a lot of spare time on his or her hands, a great voice, technical skills and a whole lot of interesting things to say.

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