David Jack Wange Olrik » Productivity

Pick of the week: DocScanner™

davidolrik — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:08:23 +0000

I seem to have fallen behind on my weekly picks, Christmas, $work and life in general have kept me very busy lately, but I’ll try to get back to my weekly¹ schedule again.

This weeks pick is DocScanner, an iPhone app that allows you to have a flatbed scanner² in your pocket. While DocScanner isn’t the most pretty or well designed iPhone app, it certainly doesn’t lack in the feature department.

Notable features include both really good edge detection, OCR and WiFi sharing. There exists quite a few scanner apps on the App Store but this one is definitely the one to get.

On a recent business trip I used DocScanner to keep track of all the receipts I accumulated during the trip. Back home I exported them all to one huge PDF file and emailed it to our accounting department. No need to fiddle with those old school analogue receipts anymore.

My wish list for future versions³ of DocScanner are: A cleaner⁴ user interface, PDF files with the OCR’ed text included and direct upload to Dropbox.

Update: As of version 3.0.3⁵ DocScanner will embed the ORC’ed text into the pdf files!

Please don’t kill me if it isn’t precisely weekly.
and a whiteboard scanner and just about any other kind of scanner you can think of.
and they release new versions quite frequently – About once a month.
and by cleaner, I mean more iPhone-ish
Released on January 30th 2010

Pick of the week: Pixelmator

davidolrik — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:44:52 +0000

This weeks pick is a mac app called Pixelmator. Pixelmator is a lightning fast image editor for the mac – kinda like a Photoshop lite but unlike Photoshop¹, Pixelmator really feels like it was build for the mac. Pixelmators feature set is some what smaller than its big brother but most² of the time it will get the job done.

I have been using Pixelmator for a litter over a year now³, and Pixelmator just keeps getting better and better with each new release. The latest release brought the long waited slice tool which is of great use when creating graphics for the web.

Another great thing about Pixelmator is their tutorial section on their website. There the creators of Pixelmator shows you how to use it to create all kinds cool effects.

Pixelmator costs just $59⁴ and is truly “Image editing for the rest of us”.

With each new version of Photoshop it seems to move further away from being a true mac app.
Unless you are need an image editor for professional reasons, it will get the job done every time!
I got it as part of the second MacHeist bundle.
Which is approximately 43.19 EUR, and is way less than any version of Photoshop costs.

Pick of the week: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile

davidolrik — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:25:06 +0000

A recent tweet by @drwave from Pixar prompted me to check out SketchBook Mobile from Autodesk, and boy am I glad I did!

I have always wanted to get better at drawing, but I have never set aside the time it takes to master this creative skill. As with all creative disciplines the winning formula for getting better is 10% talent and 90% effort¹ and with this little app I always have my drawing tools with me, so I can doodle away anytime² I’m in the mood for it.

SketchBook Mobile is loaded with features, and still manages to have a very non intrusive user interface, it just stays out of your way so you can concentrate on sketching.

SketchBook Mobile makes really good use of Apples Multi-touch technology both for drawing and for zooming and panning around your sketch – Oh, and it has undo too!³

SketchBook Mobile is available in the App Store for just $2.99

Anyone who tells you different should go listen to a couple of talks from Merlin Mann: Toward Patterns for Creativity and Doing Creative Work – Seriously, go! now! – And then go make stuff!
This is the effort part, the more you do it the better you get.
A much needed feature that my analog drawing tools is sadly missing.

Pick of the week: Prowl

davidolrik — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:00:51 +0000

This weeks pick is another iPhone app by the name of Prowl. Prowl promises to bring Growl from your desktop to your iPhone. When I first heard about Prowl I thought that this was surely the stupidest app ever! – Why on earth would you want your Growl notifications on your iPhone?¹ The answer is you won’t² – Prowl has an extensive API that will let you write scripts in numerous languages, including my all time favorite Perl, and this is where Prowl gets really interesting. This means you can get push-notifications from practically anything you can think of.

I once wrote an IRC notifier for Irssi that will message you via XMPP whenever someone highlights you or sends you a private message while you are disconnected from Irssi³.

It worked ok, but what I really wanted was a way where Irssi could connect directly to Growl and notify me whenever something interesting happens.

With Prowl all I need to send a push notification to my iPhone, is a small piece of code that looks something like this:

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#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use WebService::Prowl;

my $ws = WebService::Prowl->new(apikey => 'your personal apikey');
$ws->verify || die $ws->error();
$ws->add(
application => "Irssi",
event => "Query",
description => "Joe: I like coffee",
priority => 0,
);

So based on my old notifier program, I quickly whipped up an Irssi Prowl Notifier program So now I get notified with a push message whenever something interesting happens on IRC. There is even a WordPress plugin that will notify you whenever someone posts a comment on your blog.

Anything you can think of, Prowl can notify you about.

Don’t get me wrong I love Growl and use it extensively.
Well at least I won’t – I feel the Growl desktop notifications belong on the desktop.
I run Irssi inside Screen so it will persist even when I logout of my account.

Irssi, Jabber & Adium

Pick of the week: My iPhone

davidolrik — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:19:11 +0000

This weeks pick is late, so late that it is actually a pick for both this week and last week. As you might have guessed from the picture it’s my iPhone.

While on vacation in northern Jylland my MacBook Pro died . So for the past 2 weeks my iPhone has been my primary “computer” for Instant Messaging, Twitter, Email, Web browsing and all that stuff that I usually do when I am online. I have previously written about using the iPhone as a laptop replacement when going to conferences, but this is different – this is everyday and for everything.

The iPhone actually did quite well when you think of its relative small size and small keyboard¹. For most tasks I can say “There is an app for that”, I even upgraded this website using nothing but my iPhone. The only task I really missed my MacBook Pro was for programming, so my secret project is a bit behind schedule. Oh, and I did miss out² on the online launch sale for the iPhone 3GS, but I think this was mostly due to the fact that 3.dk didn’t scale under the pressure of the danish iPhone fans desperate to get a proper carrier with a 3G network that actually works.

One thing you have to remember though, is to always bring your charger and your USB cable as there will be some days where you’ll drain the battery and that little extra juice³ you can get from a quick charge here and there is a lifesaver.

If you thought that I was attached to my iPhone before the “Jylland incident”, think again – that attachment has been taken to a whole new level…

My precious…

I find that the keyboard on the iPhone is no better or worse than any physical keyboard of the same size. You just need to get used to it. – Actually I find it a little better
I have ordered a 32 GiB iPhone 3GS – Now I’m just waiting…
A couple of months ago I ordered a Juice Pack Air from juicepack.co.uk but I have still haven’t received anything from them – quite frustrating…

Spaces just got a whole lot better!

davidolrik — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:20:33 +0000

I use Spaces a lot and today it just got a whole lot better! Back in the olden days I used VirtueDesktops which in my opinion was way better than Spaces, but the project died and we were left with Spaces.

In the beginning Spaces sucked a lot and it would move you to another desktop in a seemingly random way. This behavior is still the default for new installs of Leopard! Well… Apple finally fixed it¹ and gave us an option called:

When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application

This option is checked by default and should have been named “mess up spaces”, believe me you do not want this option to be checked².

Spaces is also rather limited in how you can configure the hotkey that switches from space to space, and it is in this area that Spaces just got way better. Will Henderson recently released a little tool called MultiClutch that will let you bind a three finger swipe to a keystroke. Download it, install it and follow this little guide and soon you will be swiping from space to space!

Disable whatever hotkey you currently have configured for Spaces³
Open the MultiClutch PreferencePane and select the “Global” application.
Add a new gesture by clicking Add⁴ in the bottom right corner. “Swipe Left” is the default, double click in the “Key Command” column and press your preferred “go left” hotkey⁵
Add a new gesture by clicking Add in the bottom right corner, change “Swipe Left” to “Swipe Right” and then click in the “Key Command” column and press your preferred “go right” hotkey⁶
Repeat for Up and Down
Open the Spaces PreferencePane and re-enable your preferred hotkey
Swipe away!

MultiClutch will also let you configure other multi-touch gestures such as pinch open and close. If you find it useful please consider giving a small donation to the developer.

There are lots of other hidden options that improve the way Spaces work and you can find some of them in the article on MacOS X Hints
Well maybe you do… then by all means go ahead and click it – I just don’t know anyone that think the default behavior is sane
If you don’t, you will switch away from the MultiClutch PreferencePane each time you try to bind your current hotkey to the three finger swipe
It’s the small + sign
I use control + left
I use control + right

Pick of the week: PTHPasteboard

davidolrik — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:55:04 +0000

This weeks pick is an oldie, but a goodie. It is a Mac app that I can’t live without. I work with computers all day long developing software for various $clients. When developing software I spend a great deal of time in a text editor¹, mocking around with code i.e. moving text from one file to another.

PTHPasteboard gives me a pasteboard with a configurable number of slots² for storing clippings³. So instead of jumping back and forth between windows and applications copying and pasting, I can copy every block I need from one file, switch window and then paste each block where it needs to be.

PTHPasteboard is also useful for people writing lots of email as you can define any number of pasteboards with commonly used phrases and sentences. I even have a pasteboard with ssh-keys, that I use when ever I login to a new Unix server. It lets me add my ssh-key to the authorized_keys file quickly and easily simply by hitting a customized hotkey and selecting the proper entry from the pasteboard⁴.

PTHPasteboard also exists in a Pro version that’ll let you sync pasteboards across computers or even share pasteboards between users on different machines. The Pro version will also let you paste through filters, and comes with a whole slew of predefined filters that will you remove formatting, convert line endings, encode as hex, convert camel case to underscores and much more.

I use 1Password for all of my passwords and PTHPasteboard has the ability to ignore specific applications. That means that my top secret passwords will never end up in plaintext on one of the pasteboards – clever eh?!

Best of all the basic version of PTHPasteboard is free! – But I suggest you buy the Pro version and support the developer⁵, even if you’ll never⁶ use the advanced features of the Pro version.

In writing this blog post I used PTHPasteboard extensively, moving text around and finding and inserting links through the entire post.

Update 2009-08-30: Please note that PTHPasteboard is not compatible with Snow Leopard

Update 2009-09-04: PTHPasteboard is back and compatible with Snow Leopard! Unfortunately for those using the free version, only the Pro version will be supported under Snow Leopard.

Preferably Emacs, TextMate or Xcode
I currently have 100 slots in my main pasteboard.
This can be both text and images with and without formatting
And best of all It can be done without ever touching the mouse
The Pro version only costs $24.95, which is quite cheap considering the usefulness of this app.
Most of the time I only use the basic features of PTHPasteboard

1Password touch 2.0 and 1Password 3.0

davidolrik — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:19:23 +0000

Everyone’s favorite credential manager will be out in version 3.0 later this year with a completely redesigned UI. Agile offered us a sneak-peak of the new Locked Screen, and I must say it looks spiffy.

While we wait for 3.0 I suggest you upgrade your keychain to the Agile Keychain format which features stronger encryption, allows for file based syncing¹ and much more.

Another thing you can do is get² or upgrade³ 1Password touch which have just been upgraded to version 2.0. This is a huge upgrade which finally brings full support for Wallet Items to the iPhone in addition to faster and more reliable syncs.

1Password is one of my most used applications and I can hardly wait for version 3.0.

Which means that you can do backups with rsync or Dropbox
1Password touch is free until June 5. 2009
Be sure to upgrade the desktop version first and sync your iPhone before upgrading your iPhone

Creative use of Apples Time Machine

davidolrik — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:14:59 +0000

I Just had an Apple moment! A moment where you truly feel the amount of thought that goes into creating all the cool stuff¹ at Apple.

I was just about to install the latest beta of the iPhone 3.0 SDK, when I ran out of disk space. What to do ? - I could get up from the couch and find an external hard disk, but that one was also stuffed… I think…

Well I didn’t bother to check, instead I chose a random² folder in my home directory that weighed in at just under 3 GiB. I then went on to install the SDK.

After the installation I deleted the SDK disk image, and then “Entered the Time Machine” and restored the folder.

Quite useful! – So if I one day need a lot of storage, and I am far from home, I’ll just delete³ my iTunes music folder and restore it when I get home.

Yes, I know I sound like an Apple fan boy, so deduct 10% of my enthusiasm for everything I say about Apple
Well not completely random, I chose a folder that I knew hadn’t changed in the last couple of days – i.e. I knew it was backed up properly!
Please don’t delete just any random folder, pick one you know hasn’t changed since the last time Time Machine backed up your hard disk

A new Perspective on GTD

davidolrik — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 07:11:00 +0000

By now I am sure you all have heard of OmniFocus, and if not let me start by stating that “This is the most powerful GTD® app on the marked today”.

I have used OmniFocus on and off ever since the first public pre release, and when Omni later introduced “Perspectives” I was sold – I have been a die-hard OmniFocus user ever since.

OmniFocus is very powerful, and can seem a little daunting¹ at first, but after a while it’ll grow on you and make you more productive than you have ever been before.

While OmniFocus could seem overly complex² to the casual observer, “Perspectives” are what keeps it all simple. Perspectives are effectively user definable filters that let you “drill down” through all of your tasks and only show you what is relevant right now. E.g. I don’t want to be bothered by work related tasks when I’m not at work – it lets you keep your focus.

If you haven’t read “the book”³ yet, I highly recommend that you do, it has the potential to transform your life.

For a system like Getting Things Done to work you have to do it all the time, you have to make it a habit.⁴ When you are away from your computer you still need to be able to capture new tasks and ideas, and having two systems for the same thing doesn’t work well for me. Fortunately Omni has created an iPhone version of OmniFocus that completes the system for me.

The only thing I miss now is for my perspectives to sync to my iPhone. But it looks like this might happen not too far into the furure.⁵

Give your self time to get acquainted with OmniFocus it’ll pay off in the long run
It really isn’t – it’s just very configurable
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
and that takes time
and you can help make it happen by emailing the Omni support ninjas and requesting this feature