For No One

Steven Seagal might be joining THE EXPENDABLES 3!!

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:04:37 -0400

Steven Seagal might be joining THE EXPENDABLES 3!!:

If Seagal does end up in The Expendables 3, I guarantee at least one ponytail joke (probably more).

App Store Trials

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:47:06 -0400

Amy Worrall:

I’m going to add my voice to those calling for trials of App Store apps. Here’s how I could see it working: Developers can choose whether to allow a trial of 1, 7 or 30 days, or to disallow trials…

I think her plan makes sense, but I have one question/suggestion about this part:

Once a trial is used up, you can’t get a trial of that app again on the same Apple ID.

What about after the app gets an update? Say you try out Photoshop, but it’s missing one feature you desperately crave (automatic LOLcat-style captions, naturally). You want to hold out until they add that feature. Years pass, and they add it, so you want to check their implementation (does the font they chose do your wit justice?). If you can’t try it out again, after a certain amount of time, or after a certain number of updates, that makes trials a lot less useful.

(via Daring Fireball)

Running AppleScripts from Automator

Fri, 03 May 2013 09:21:00 -0400

These days, I’ve been using Automator more and more to run AppleScripts (especially since Mountain Lion came out and disallowed Calendar, née iCal, from triggering AppleScripts directly: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59257/ical-no-longer-runs-scripts).

I began copying and pasting scripts into my workflows, which is a messy solution. I kept the scripts around, because it’s easier to write and debug them in AppleScript Editor, and especially since I converted them to plaintext scripts and uploaded them to GitHub, it’s very useful to be able to easily diff them, as well.

But there’s a better way. A much better way, in fact. AppleScripts can call other AppleScripts, and this works from within the Run AppleScript workflow action, as well. The full solution looks like this:

on run {input, parameters}
    
    run script file "Macintosh HD:Some Directory On Disk:a cool script.applescript"
    
end run

Doing it that way, the Automator is a simple wrapper – you can set it and forget it. I’ve even confirmed that this works with scripts in the plain text .applescript format and compiled AppleScripts (.scpt).

Update

You can also pass the input and parameters arguments into your scripts from Automator as well. Just use the same on run handler that the Run AppleScript action defaults to (as shown above) in your script file, and pass the arguments from Automator like so:

run script file "path to script like above" with parameters {input, parameters}

Learn CSS Layout

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:27:37 -0400

Learn CSS Layout:

This site teaches the CSS fundamentals that are used in any website’s layout.

I assume you already know what selectors, properties, and values are. And you probably know a thing or two about layout, though it may still be a rage-provoking activity for you. If you want to learn HTML and CSS from the beginning, you should check out this tutorial. Otherwise, let’s see if we can save you some fury on your next project.

An awesome, awesome resource if you understand CSS in broad strokes, but not how the layout details work. I learned something from almost every page.

Wat (Video)

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:51:00 -0400

Wat (Video):

Great short talk that should have any developer rofl’ing.

Hey great script for the transcoding, works like a charm!!! If you were to always encode to ATV3 preset and to the same destination folder, what would need to be modified to not receive prompts and just get to work as soon as you choose the service. On the side what are you using to tag data, any automation for this?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:00:00 -0400

Thanks, I’m glad you find the Automator Service helpful. You can modify it as below to do what you’re asking (it makes it a lot simpler, actually). You set your destination and preset on lines 15 and 16.

on run {input, parameters}
    set handbrakeCli to "/Applications/HandBrakeCLI"
    
    -- Make sure HandBrakeCLI is installed
    set handbrakeInstalled to false
    tell application "Finder" to if exists handbrakeCli as POSIX file then set handbrakeInstalled to true
    if not handbrakeInstalled then
        display alert "Install HandBrake CLI" message "Please install HandBrakeCLI into the /Applications directory
 
The HandBrake CLI can be downloaded at http://handbrake.fr/downloads2.php" as critical
        return
    end if
    
    -- Be sure to include the trailing slash!
    set the destination to POSIX path of "/Volumes/SomeVolume/Encoded/"
    set chosenPreset to "AppleTV 3"
    
    repeat with inputFile in input
        -- Get original file's name
        
        set thePath to POSIX path of inputFile
        set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
        -- Get the file name
        set inputFileName to (item -1 of (every text item of thePath)) as text
        
        -- Get the file name without an extension
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
        set inputFileNoExtension to items 1 through -2 of (every text item of inputFileName)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
        
        -- Put back together if file name included periods
        set outputFileName to ""
        repeat with fileNamePart in inputFileNoExtension
            set outputFileName to outputFileName & fileNamePart & "."
        end repeat
        
        -- Put on the preferred extension
        set outputFileName to outputFileName & "m4v"
        
        set handbrakeCommand to "nice " & handbrakeCli & " -i " & quoted form of (POSIX path of inputFile) & " -o " & quoted form of (destination & outputFileName) & " --preset='" & chosenPreset & "'"
        --return handbrakeCommand
        do shell script handbrakeCommand
    end repeat
    return input
end run

To tag the files when I’m done, I use the incredible iFlicks. I used to muck around with MetaX, which is free, but much more of a hassle. iFlicks is even AppleScript-able, so you could add it to the service (maybe I’ll post an update for that at some point).

On purchasing an older iPhone

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:02:00 -0400

A relative recently asked me whether he should get an iPhone 4 as his first iPhone, two models behind the iPhone 5, released roughly 6 months ago. I imagine the advice I gave will probably apply to the same question around this time next year, substituting model numbers.

No one knows when the next iPhone will be coming out, but odds are in favor of August or later. I would definitely recommend against the iPhone 4 at this point in time - I had it for 2 years, and it was great when it was new, and is still decent now, but starting to show its age. And when you buy a phone, you’re committing to 2 years of using it. Disregarding the points situation¹, an iPhone 4 is free (or maybe $1) when you sign up for a 2-year contract. The iPhone 5 is only $199, which is nothing compared to how much you’re going to be spending on a service plan over the life of the contract.

I’ve owned the 1st-gen iPhone, the 4, and now the 5, always buying them at launch, and have been relieved to upgrade both times. After a couple of years, the older phones start to feel slower. Apps run slower, you start to get constrained by the memory, and you’ll lose support for the latest OS sooner. I would strongly recommend the iPhone 5 if it’s at all possible - the 4G/LTE alone justifies the price difference, not to mention the larger screen, and thinner/lighter design.

I might add, depending on the person, to wait for the next model. If I were ready for a new phone, that’s what I would be doing. I had to wait 2.5 years between iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, because of the change in release cycle they began with the 4S. If I were impatient (or didn’t care about obsolescence), I would have gotten a 4S when my 4’s contract was up.

My upgrade strategy for Apple devices though, is to wait for the next model when I’m ready to upgrade. You guarantee yourself the longest period between product releases you could possibly anticipate. Of course, that doesn’t apply if your phone/computer breaks and you need a new one, but if you’re in a position to do so, I would recommend it. Also, you may be someone who doesn’t care about having the latest and greatest, and every model of iPhone has been great, so you have to make your own decision.

He has reward points from a credit card which can help him get a phone at a discount. ↩

littlebigdetails: Gmail - Incompatible versions of Internet...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:01:50 -0500

littlebigdetails:

Gmail - Incompatible versions of Internet Explorer show a damaged envelope as the favicon.

/via Eric Hansz

Very clever, that.

I have just read your article "Abolish All Patents". You do make some valid points but I think Patent Law has went seriously off track. I believe the original intent was to foster an atmosphere of creativity. I think the current state of Patent Law is exactly opposite of the original intent. I believe the solution lies in the direction of giving a Patent holder A certain amount of time to produce something under the patent, if nothing is produced the patent is nullified.

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:50:00 -0500

It sounds like you essentially advocate a “no squatting” stance. Since patent trolling¹ is indeed one of the most problematic symptoms of the current system’s shortcomings, I agree that requiring an implementation of the idea could be part of a useful solution, especially for software patents. And setting an expiration date beyond which there must be an implementation seems compatible with the underlying principles of patent law, as time limits, regardless of whether anything is produced from the patent, have been part of intellectual property law from the beginning (in the US, at least).

As I see it, the biggest problem in trying to set such a limit would be deciding on the term of the limit. If you have too long a period, it will not deter trolls, and if it’s too short, it won’t protect legitimate inventions adequately, as some ideas may take a while to implement, and the longer you wait to patent an idea, the longer your competition has to steal it out from under you and patent it first.

Thanks for reading the post² and writing back – I enjoy the discourse.

A practice in which someone patents a software idea without ever putting it into a product, but then uses the patent as a land mine for legitimate software to trip over, often many years later, after the idea has become obvious and commonplace ↩
For anyone who hasn’t read it yet, the title reads “Abolish All Patents?” and goes on to answer that rhetorical question with an emphatic “No!” ↩

I wonder whose job it is to come up with sample data for display...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:53:17 -0500

I wonder whose job it is to come up with sample data for display Macs in the Apple Store. They’re definitely having fun at it…

Tumblr+ 1.2 is out!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:26:00 -0500

This is an important update for anyone who… actually uses the thing. I haven’t been blogging for a while, so I don’t know how long ago Tumblr ditched the separate post editing page, but that and other changes left the extension bruised and battered.

I stepped in today to patch it up, and learned a whole lot about a web framework I didn’t know existed before tonight. The update should roll out to everyone automatically.

S3stat - Analytics for S3

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:42:32 -0500

S3stat - Analytics for S3:

As mentioned in my post announcing my switch to Amazon S3, I’ve been using S3stat to give me feedback on how many of you guys are downloading Tumblr+. I’ve enjoyed using the service, and it was very painless to set up. As I use S3 for more things (I plan on hosting a new web site there soon), it’ll be good to have analytics on which pages are getting visited, and how much data is going to which particular resources.

One thing it pointed out to me is that most of my traffic at present is coming from crawlers spamming my bucket trying to find API calls in a nonexistant /soap directory. Now that I know that’s a potential problem (bandwidth being sucked up uselessly), I will be looking into potential solutions to that problem.

Also, they are generous enough to offer a “Cheap Bastard Plan”, for which this post is essentially payment¹. If any of my online endeavors eventually begin to bring in revenue, I will switch to one of the paid tiers, but for now, I greatly appreciate the free option.

Consider this full disclosure, though they had no input on what I posted here, and everything I’ve said is how I honestly feel, and I would have probably written a similar post at some point in the future, besides. ↩

littlebigdetails: YouTube - To celebrate 1 billion views, a...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:48:36 -0500

littlebigdetails:

YouTube - To celebrate 1 billion views, a tiny dancing Psy was added to the video page for Gangnam Style.

Makes sense to commemorate such a record being set.

Hi I am struggling to compile the code in automater. It says it is expecting a line end

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:56:00 -0500

Update You can disregard the tip below, as I’ve fixed the syntax highlighter bug - you can double-click to select again, and it should work. I tested it myself.

Please make sure you’re following the updated instructions in Step 7 of the post: “due to a bug in my syntax highlighting library, please select the code by dragging with the mouse, instead of double-clicking”

Preferred nomenclature

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:19:00 -0500

I was refreshing myself on Markdown syntax¹ (specifically for headers) on John Gruber’s authoritative Markdown Basics page, when I realized I had made a minor mistake in Tumblr+. “Footnote-style” is not the preferred nomenclature, as Gruber himself refers to them as “reference-style”. I have pushed out an update to the extension to address this oversight.

I was writing the My Stuff page at the time. Check it out! ↩

Tumblr+ 1.1

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:22:20 -0500

Today I released version 1.1 of Tumblr+, which added two features:

Markdown has now blossomed into its own menu item, encompassing three actions: the existing (renamed) “Define unresolved footnote links”, and two new ones allowing you to convert between footnote-style and inline links ([text](http://link.com) vs [text][link-name]...[link-name]:http://link.com). This corresponds to Issue #2 on the GitHub page for this project
I added a “Help” menu item, which makes it easier to get a hold of me (and to see the current version you’re running, which could help with troubleshooting

You can update from your Extensions preferences in Safari, or if you have automatic updates turned on, expect it soon.

your script for encoding multiple handbrake files returns the error Expected end of line, etc. but found “"”.

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:40:00 -0500

Update: This is working now, you don’t need to use the workaround below.

As explained in the answer I gave here, this is a bug in the syntax highlighter I use. As a work around, select the highlighted code and paste it into the workflow, instead of double-clicking. I’ve updated my post to highlight this point.

I hope that works for you. If it doesn’t, let me know, and I’ll dig further.

R.I.P. GitHub Downloads

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:58:00 -0500

When I first published Tumblr+, I decided to use GitHub’s “Downloads” feature, used for distributing binaries of projects. You upload a file to them, and people can download it. I got it free with the free GitHub account, and they provide unlimited downloads, and also a count of how many downloads each file gets (presently over 3600 - many thanks to those who have tried it out). Everything was running splendidly. And then, GitHub decided to pull the plug on the Downloads feature.

After thinking about what to do, where to move my hosting to, I decided on Amazon S3. Luckily, this change has been non-disruptive. The manifest file (which tells Safari when there are updates and the place from which to download them) was part of my checked-in source code, so I was able to push out an update to that. Everybody reading this who has updated their extension has already downloaded it from S3. Hooray for small victories. However, Apple’s link still points to GitHub. I submitted an updated listing to Apple, but until they accept it, new users will come through GitHub and then be updated to S3. I hope Apple updates my listing before GitHub pulls the plug completely.

In addition, Amazon S3 doesn’t give you download stats (at least not in an easily digestible form), so I signed up for S3stat, which promises to offer that service. I’ll submit a post once I’ve used that service long enough to report on it. Hopefully, the files are small enough (and still relatively obscure enough) that I can coast by on the free S3 plan for the next year, and maybe sign up for S3stat’s hilariously named Cheap Bastard Plan, but this ultimately means the extension will start to cost me money at some point in the future, which sucks.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve added a small new link to my sidebar, which happens to make it fairly easy to donate money to support me and my work. If you use anything I’ve put out there, between my extension, and the various AppleScripts I’ve posted, you can give a token donation to show your appreciation and help keep the lights on. Also, every link I’ve ever posted to an item on Amazon.com has an affiliate link attached, so that way we could each get something.

I’m not begging, nor do I plan to, but now if you feel the unavoidable urge to show your support, I’ve given you a means of doing so. Also, I’m starting to use GitHub’s issue tracker, so if you have suggestions for Tumblr+, that’s the best place to post them.

Wow, this is awesome. I wonder why they didn’t use that...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 08:51:37 -0500

Wow, this is awesome. I wonder why they didn’t use that title domestically…

(via AICN)

What government does best

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:32:13 -0500

What government does best:

John Gruber, on the FAA requirements regarding electronics:

Disgraceful for a U.S. government agency to be spreading what amounts to nothing more than voodoo.

I disagree, this is what our government does best.