Beckism.com

Although it’s been a mere nine short months since the last time PathFinder was on the MacUpdate promo, it’s come back for another run. I highly recommend PathFinder; along with LaunchBar, it is one of the tools that I can’t make it through a work day without. Basically, if you haven’t experienced the PathFinder tabbed interface and drop stack, you haven’t lived. For today, May 8, 2008 only you can get PathFinder for $19.95, 43% off its normal price.

Even if you miss the deal, you’ll likely still be able to get PathFinder through MacUpdate for a discount a few days to weeks afterward. Here’s a direct link to the PathFinder page, so feel free to check it out.

Bookends is on sale for 50% off today April 3, 2008 only over at the MacUpdate Promo. Although I haven’t tried Sente in a while, when I was doing my senior thesis Bookends was the best reference software on the market for Macs (Sente had a nicer interface, but didn’t support the social sciences as well; probably more appealing if I were in medicine). If you do research, you really ought to give Bookends a look; it’s an invaluable tool, even if it’s a pretty ugly program at first glance (although maybe version 10 has a more Mac-like interface; I primarily used version 9).

MacUpdate usually runs some level of sale on the software for a few days or weeks after the initial promo, too, so even if you miss the one-day 50% off deal it would probably be worth checking out.

I’m just going to step right up and admit that I love Scribbles. The simplicity of the program and the beauty of its interface make it a joy to use; takes me straight back to my KidPix days, but so much more elegant.

Now Scribbles 1.2 is out and it adds the only two things I was sorely missing: an eyedropper tool (that lets you pick colors from anywhere on screen, not just in Scribbles) and the ability to move, rotate, and scale single layers (instead of only being able to move the whole document). Here’s the best bit: the addition of layer-specific moving/scaling/rotating necessitated the addition of a single tool and a contextual interface element. Hey Adobe, Pixelmator, and even Acorn: are you watching? You could learn something about how necessary all those buttons and menu commands are.

The update also adds the ability to hold down shift to draw straight lines, automatic Sparkle updating, an optional grid, and several welcome interface tweaks (more details in the Scribbles blog). If you haven’t tried Scribbles, you’re missing out on a great little app. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to occasionally scribble something on-screen.

I can’t believe that I haven’t blogged this yet! Last weekend I noticed Apple was selling refurbished iMacs for a steeper discount than normal, and after a little soul-searching I bought myself a refurbished 24″ glossy widescreen iMac. I hadn’t intended to buy it for a couple months, but I couldn’t pass up $400 off.

It arrived on Wednesday, and after spending most of the day migrating stuff over from my MacBook Pro I was able to start using the iMac for work on Thursday. It is now my work machine, and I’m a multiple-Mac owner.

I am ecstatic about the iMac. The screen is huge (which was why I wanted one; I’ve been getting frustrated with my ability to do detailed graphics work on the MacBook Pro), and absolutely gorgeous. It’s perfect for the image work that I need to do, too; when I started using it Thursday, I instantly noticed some fairly severe JPEG artifacts that I’d missed on the laptop. I am continually impressed with Apple’s design ethic, and the iMac is a great example of why Macs are a better choice than just about any other computer out there.

The move from a single computer to computers that are designated “work” and “personal” has been an interesting one. I decided before the computer arrived not to use Apple’s migration assistant to move my data. The iMac has plenty of room, of course, so synching my home account wouldn’t be a problem space-wise, but frankly my Home folder is a disaster. I try to remember to use AppZapper, but there are possibly hundreds of unused preference files from apps I installed once and never touched again, not to mention the hell of my desktop and downloads folders. My documents folder is slightly better off, but still suffers from a number of folders that third-party software dropped inside without consulting me.

In any case, migrating to a new computer seemed like an ideal time to clean things up, so I did everything by hand. Took a while, but the spotless iMac desktop tells me it was worth it. I also discovered some tools to ease multiple computer problems, but I’ll share those another time.

My absolute favorite time tracking software, OfficeTime, was updated today to version 1.3. This version brings a whole bunch of improvements to how OfficeTime interacts with iCal calendars, as well as a number of bug fixes and other good stuff.

OfficeTime is at the same time the simplest and one of the most powerful of the time tracking applications that I’ve tried, and I use it daily. Once I’d tasted OfficeTime’s speedy project switching and quickly generated reports, there was no going back. Every once in a while I try the alternatives thinking that surely one of them will have something on OfficeTime but so far I’ve never even been tempted by the competition. I highly recommend the program to anyone trying to keep track of their time across multiple projects who also needs simple invoicing.

Wow. Like others around the web, I am shocked to learn that IE 8 will render pages in standards-compliant mode by default; Microsoft has spoken out and reversed their decision to have IE 8 require a meta tag for standards mode.

This is so mind-boggling that it’s hard for me to process. Microsoft is giving improved web standards priority over backwards compatibility and, more importantly, listening to the developer community (many of whom spoke out vehemently against IE 8’s proposed requirement of a meta tag to operate in standards mode). Thank you, Microsoft. I’m really happy to know that you’re actively working to support web standards, and especially that you’re willing to listen to the community.

HarperCollins has a web program called Browse Inside that allows you to browse books on your computer before buying them. Although most of the books in the program offer 20% of the book for your reading pleasure, HarperCollins is testing the effect on sales of offering full text versions. For the next month (March 2008) you can read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for free, along with a number of other titles that don’t excite me as much.

If you’ve never read American Gods, this is a fantastic opportunity. It’s a wonderful book, and the Browse Inside application is pretty slick. For iPhone users, there is also a version of Browse Inside specially formatted for your phone.

Go. Read. Enjoy.

And NewsFire 1.5 is released with…a larger next button.

Here is my excitement at finally seeing a new version of NewsFire. Here is my excitement comically deflating to the sounds of trumpets going wah wah waaah.

Although there isn’t a link anywhere on NewsFire’s new, information-less website, you can still see the release notes for 1.5 if you know where to look. Given that nothing substantial appears to have been changed, I guess I’ll continue to use NetNewsWire. I used to love NewsFire, but the small annoyances, coupled with the fact that David Watanabe appears to hate his customers, finally forced me to migrate to NetNewsWire.

I have to admit, though, I still kind of miss NewsFire’s all-in-one list of headlines. NetNewsWire is far more difficult to skim through. Ah well. I shall toil on.

I’ve been doing some writing exercises, and I’m finally back in the short story zone. So keep a weather eye out for the first piece of new short fiction on Beckism.com in quite a while.

Obviously, this post itself is largely pointless (”oooh, fiction is coming! Be excited or something!”), but I published it because I have a question: are people going to be totally weirded out if I publish short fiction full text, just like my non-fiction articles? I’ve got a system in place that will let me use an excerpt or teaser (Dirt Man is currently using it), but I want people to read this stuff, dammit. And I know when I’m a first-time visitor to a blog, I almost never click through a “read more” link.

Your thoughts are welcome and appreciated. And if no one speaks up, then I’ll just quietly start slipping bits of fiction onto the site, because I miss making stuff up and putting it online.

The Big Word Project was launched a couple days ago, and it’s an interesting idea. Basically, it’s just a list of a lot of English words. If you pay them $1 per letter for a word, that word will be a link to a website of your choosing henceforth (though pick wisely, because you can’t go back to change it later).

Possibly the most intriguing get-rich-quick scheme I’ve seen yet, and certainly a creative web venture. Will the site have any sort of longevity, or were the people who defined “spam” and “crap” to point straight to www.thebigwordproject.com correct? Regardless, the idea, though probably just a good way to convince people to spend money on nothing, is creative enough that I bought a word for Beckism.com. And to be honest, going through and seeing what words have been chosen for what websites is kind of fun. Props to the developers for thinking outside the box.