Update: The dock is back on the bottom.
]]>
Update: The dock is back on the bottom.
]]>defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end from the Terminal followed by a killall Dock to effect the change. I used to think having the Dock on the right was the way to go since it gives more vertical space on the external display. However, because my home setup has the MBP about twenty inches from the external display, glancing at the Dock required neck movement. Not to mention the extra mouse travel needed to navigate around the Dock.
So far, I’m digging the Dock on the bottom, but that could change. As I’ve written before, I’m a constant tinkerer.
Here is a photograph of my nephew Max Von watching the trains go by at Christmas 2007. Max Von and I have a special bond whereby his birth date is one day after my birth date. Interestingly, his brothers’ (they are twins) birth date is one day after my wife’s birth date. That’s some kind of crazy coincidence. Perhaps even a big coincidence.
]]>Since I was basically running off a system that I configured in 2004, I decided not to do an inline upgrade of OS X Leopard. I had installed, uninstalled, re-installed at least a hundred apps. I also tooled around with MacPorts and rolled my own MySQL installation. Enough already, I thought. Let me start clean. So, I popped in the OS X Leopard disc and performed an erase and install. Don’t worry, I had a bootable copy of my hard drive in case the shit hit the fan.
The big idea was that I would only install back the apps that I really used. This worked great for a few weeks. But, as usual, I started playing around with software demos and buying apps like I was single handedly supporting the entire independent software business. Couple that with more experimentation into being a developer (I’m not) and my “fresh OS X” system is now loaded with more crap than ever.
I decided to do another clean install of OS X. Computers are my forte, so I was definitely up to the task and confident I could mitigate any risk of losing my data. Moreover, I could restore the data with minimal fuss from the parent application. Example, putting all my iTunes music back as if nothing happened.
I printed out a list of all the applications in the /Applications/ directory from which I would select only those I need to put back. I crossed off all the apps that come standard with the installation (iCal, Safari, etc.). Then, I put a blue circle next to all the apps I consider essential (TextMate, Yojimbo, TextExpander, LaunchBar, et al.). After I installed the essential apps, I crossed them off the list in red ink.
I put a red dash next to some apps that I am considering leaving off my system (1Password, Firefox, MarsEdit, et al.). These are apps that I have used, but not so much that without which I couldn’t function.
The remaining apps on the list are still pending a verdict. I will try to get along without them, until when I try to do something and realise the app isn’t there.
The following are the lists of apps that made the cut, got cut, and are still pending.
And that’s that.
Update:
These apps have been installed as of 2008-12-02.
Update 2:
Most everything is back.
]]>I use OS X Mail and have three email accounts: Apple’s MobileMe, Google’s Gmail, and NJIT hosted by Google.
The preview pane is set to the closed position, because I prefer opening a message in its own window. It helps me to give more attention to each message.
The MobileMe account configures itself and I don’t remember if I made any changes to the default settings. When I first setup the account for Gmail, I noticed it added a bunch of folders to the Mailboxes pane. To fix this, I added an IMAP Path Prefix to the two Gmail accounts named IMAP. I then created two labels in Gmail: IMAP/Sent and IMAP/Trash. This will add them to the mailboxes pane, but you can click on them and select Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Sent (and Trash) from the menu.
I have three mailboxes named @action, @reply, and @waiting where I move messages that I need to act on, reply to, or am waiting for. I also have a mailbox named Archive with a subfolder for each of the forenamed email accounts. Any message that might need to be kept around for a short while is moved to this mailbox. Occasionally, I will go through the Archive mailbox and delete items that have lost their flavour.
I have six options available to me for each message.
Some messages can be deleted immediately without further review and this is handled with a quick press of the delete key. If I am going to reply immediately, I highlight the relevant parts of the original message and craft my reply, using the inline replying style, of course.
Moving messages to the ‘@’ mailboxes is achieved with keyboard shortcuts and some AppleScripts invoked by Red Sweater Software’s Fast Scripts. Here is the script to move a message to the @action folder:
tell application "Mail"
move selection to mailbox "@action"
end tell
Before moving the message, I press Shit + Command + U to mark it as unread, so it will show the count next to the mailbox.
]]>My Inbox has three subfolders: @action, @reply, and @waiting. The AppleScripts are invoked with Ctrl + a, Ctrl + r, and Ctrl + w. If a particular message must be kept for a subsequent reply, it gets moved to the @reply folder. Similar rules apply for actionable items and waiting for items.
This setup allows me to hide the Folder List. Instead, I use a custom Favorites Bar with the Inbox, subfolders, and Calendar. I haven’t figured out a way to navigate between them with keyboard shortcuts yet, so I just hit Command + B to show the Folder List and navigate therein. If I’m lazy, I’ll go to the mouse. My purpose for showing these folders is to see where I have some business that needs attention.
I use a MacBook Pro.
The laptop is placed to the right of the Cinema Display and I keep the Dock on the right. This makes more sense with a widescreen display, since the screen is wider than it is tall. The MBP used to be on the left. I also tried going clamshell mode for about a week, but it didn’t work out. Clamshell mode is when you close the lid on the MBP and work solely off the external display.
I didn’t bother to clear the desk before taking this picture, because I wanted to show how it looks while I’m working.
Here is a list of some of the peripherals and accessories.
This is the style guide for kevrodg.net. This is a normal paragraph and how it looks. Sometimes, it will be necessary to type random text. I am trying to learn the Markdown syntax to make it easier to write blog posts.
This is a paragraph below a small header. Can you see what it looks like? Is there enough information here to make a qualitative judgement about this section? Perhaps not. I will type a little bit more to add some more text. There are probably other things I could type here as well, but for now, I think this will suffice.
There will be times when I may add some code to this site. That should appear as follows:
You can type history | grep synergy to recall the synergy command.
There will also be blocks of code as show here:
vlan 1
name "DEFAULT_VLAN"
no untagged 1-16,21-24,Trk1-Trk2
no ip address
exit
Most certainly, I will incorporate blockquotes in this weblog. Following my previous pattern, the blockquote begins here:
This is part of the blockquote. this is still part of the blockquote. How is Expression Engine handling all this in MarsEdit? Only a send to weblog will show the result.
This is a regular paragraph after a block quote.
]]>