I’m very proud to announce the launch of FavePersonal; a WordPress theme designed for personal websites. I have been using (and building and…
Fellow Colorado web geeks, I made you a t-shirt. The code that comprises the white stripe is a full, working HTML page with canvas code that draws…
It’s been very interesting to me to see how some folks are re-evaluating their work/life balance in the wake of reading Isaacson’s Steve…
Yes, I said I’d never buy anything from Kensington again but the SlimType got pretty good reviews so I decided to try it out. The Good The styling of the keyboard is pretty nice. The volume keys and sleep (power) key work without drivers. The Bad Keys are stiffer than a Power/MacBook keyboard. A little…
Back in January of 2005 I asked for Windows Explorer replacement recommendations. A number of people stopped by and shared a long list of recommendations, however none of them came close to being acceptable to me. I was contacted back in June 2006 by Jim Kueneman, a delphi component developer who was interested in piecing…
I gave the Logitech S 530 a fair shake, even after its drivers caused my machine to freeze up (which in turn corrupted my hard drive and cost me several weeks in data recovery hell). The thing is, I just didn’t like the keyboard action. It’s not as bad as the membrane keyboard that Apple…
My Logitech S 530 keyboard and mouse arrived today as expected. I plugged them in and they worked straight away – so far so good. Then I downloaded and installed the drivers – that is when the problems started. I configured the drivers after the required reboot, and about a minute later the machine froze…
With nothing but frustration from other solutions I’ve tried, I migrated my calendars to Google Calendar (GCal). This is a half-solution for me right now, but absent a viable alternative, it’s really pretty good. Here’s how I’ve got it set up: As always – back up everything first. I exported my Personal 2006, Work 2006…
I’ve been using a Zimbra account for the past couple of weeks and have found it not to be reliable in syncing my desktop and laptop (both Macs). Yesterday, I was looking at iCal on both machines plus the web interface. I kept synching both machines, but all 3 screens remained different. I had to…
Adam Tow has just released MsgFiler, an absolute must have add-on for Mail.app users that file messages. Trust me, this puppy will save you serious time every day. Go download it now, then come back here and read more of the back story. Back in 2004, I was so fed up with Mail.app that I…
I’ve gotten a number of e-mails (strangely no comments) asking if I’m: still using Vebio1 for my invoicing, and if I’d still recommend the service. The answer to both questions is yes. Having automated monthly invoicing means one less thing I need to think about – I love it. Vebio also added logging expenses (and…
FastMail, my e-mail provider (which I am no longer recommending), has had my account down for most of the day Friday and it looks like the downtime will continue through the weekend. This downtime is more problematic to me than their last partial outage, since this one affects my main account. I was hopeful that…
Knowing I’m an interested party, Brett1 sent me a link to the article on LifeHacker that explains how to use ScheduleWorld as a sync hub for your PIM data. It all looks really good, including supporting over the air (OTA) sync of BlackBerry devices. I tested the sync with Google Calendar and it worked. So…
Apologies for the long delay in getting this review up (especially since a few folks have been asking for it). I’ve been using FastMail1 as my mail service for a little over 4 months now and I really regret not making the move sooner. I decided to go with FastMail in part because they have…
Haub asks: Hey Alex….I also have a MacBook and am wondering if you’ve had any of the random shutdown issues as described here. My 14 day return window is over tomorrow and you being a power user could shed some light on how your machine is holding up. I’ll be pretty ticked if I get…
I went through the i use this site and clicked on the apps I use most often. Pretty slick! My list there is a bit more recent than the list I already had here – though I doubt that will remain the case for long.
Answering your MacBook questions… Andrew writes: How do you find the keyboard with extended use ? The spacing looks excessive but my casual use at the store seems to find it fine. It feels just like a normal keyboard to me. The key travel and spacing is standard, it’s just the look that is different.…
Several folks have asked for my thoughts on the heat issues and battery life of the MacBook. Here they are… Heat Yes, this puppy gets hot. The left side gets hot enough that I wouldn’t want it on my lap directly (I use several lap desks), and the heat is most intense when I’m running…
Since I got the MacBook, I’ve been using it quite a bit. The consulting work I’m doing requires spending some time in the Windows-only world of Visio, and I’m running it on the MacBook using Parallels. For a beta virtual machine, Parallels is pretty good. I’ve had some fun getting my Windows license key accepted:…
Ever since the titanium PowerBook G4′s, I’ve placed a cloth over my laptop keyboard when closing it to keep the keyboard oils from transferring to the screen and making that horrible key pattern on the screen. Jason got me started with this, as he’d been doing so with the original PowerBook G4 I bought from…
We’re currently testing Mailroom for the Use Tasks service. The main benefit for us in using a system like this is that it gives us easy visibility into what the other person has done regarding a customer request, etc. – no more doubled replies to the user or wondering if the other fellow responded on…
I finally installed Growl recently. Two main thoughts: Why didn’t someone kick me in the butt and tell me to do this sooner? Someone really needs to improve the initial “ok, now what?” user experience.
Another 48 hours with the BlackBerry. There is a lot to like, and some not as much. The biggest issues for me are still the lack of IMAP functionality and the ability to reply from a different address. More notes: Battery life is decent – I got about 2 days out of it and my…
I took the plunge – I’m currently playing with a BlackBerry 8700g on T-Mobile. The keyboard is good. Why can’t I be logged into more than one IM network at a time? Odd. The interface for this thing is not as friendly as the Palm OS. I’m still having trouble believing this… but it appears…
On the recommendation of a colleague, I upgraded my T608 bluetooth mobile connection to a Samsung A900 (on Sprint’s EV-DO network – they call it “Power Vision”). I finally got the phone provisionsed and wow – was he right! This connection is bloody fast! The process was not without its hiccups: I was first told…
I’ve toyed with multi-clipboard apps in the past, but I think I’ve finally found one I’m going to stick with in shadowClipboard. I really like the implementation, and so far prefer the simple interface to the advanced interface. I’m a productivity tool junkie, but a very particular one. I probably ditch 90% of the software…
In the comments of my post listing my install process, Bill recommended Desktop Manager for virtual desktops on OS X. This got me thinking about using virtual desktops on my PowerBook again. I’ve tried this a few times, but never stuck with it. Here are some of the virtual desktop apps I’ve tried over the…
I used Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) in a multi-step process to replace one of the disks in my RAID array, and it worked like an absolute champ! I used CCC twice in the process, once to clone the existing RAID drive to an external drive, then the second time to clone the external drive back…