“No graphic in human history has saved so many lives in africa and asia.”
— Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
Mac Productivity 101
Here are the tools I mentioned in my Mac Productivity 101 session at the San Fran MusicTech Summit:
Know your instrument
- Inquisitor: Google inside Safari
- Quicksilver and LaunchBar: application launchers
Collaboration
- SubEthaEdit: collaborative text editor
- Screen Sharing: built in to Mac OS X Leopard
- Address Book: built in to Mac OS X
- Teleport: share one keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs
- Adium: multi-protocol instant messaging
Audiovisual
- Audio Hijack Pro and WireTap Studio: record any audio on your Mac
- VLC and Perian: play pretty much any video
Eliminate Distractions
- Spirited Away: hides unused applications
- Writeroom: full screen text editing
Save Your Ass
- DiskWarrior: recover damaged drives
The slides
Verizon: 93% wrong
Eyeless Writer called Verizon 56 times to ask two different data pricing questions. 93 percent of reps answered at least one question incorrectly.
Friendster is a click whore, too
If you tell it to, Friendster helpfully reminds you when your friends’ birthdays are coming up. This is handy for calling them, writing them, or leaving them happy birthday comments on their wall Friendster profile.
Look at the email itself:
What’s missing? The birthday itself. Instead of building trust with its members by providing them useful information, Friendster, too is nothing but a click whore.
Why not to attend Harvard Business School
LinkedIn tells me Fact: Harvard Business School graduates have 58 connections each (average)
I have 270, and it didn’t cost me $83,000.
TiVo needs a migration assistant
When you upgrade your TiVo, you lose everything.
Season passes, wish lists, saved thumb ratings, channel configurations — everything. Yes, you can transfer recordings — but only one at a time. It’s a very slow, very manual process.
What TiVo needs is a migration assistant. When you get a new Mac, the Mac OS X setup assistant automagically copies over your applications, network settings, files, user account, password.
After you’ve migrated everything, you log in to your new Mac, just like it was your old Mac. You don’t notice a difference. Just that it’s faster.
What TiVo can learn from the phone company
I recently purchased a TiVo HD. The TiVo was pre-activated, so I didn’t have to activate it on tivo.com.
Before I pass on my old TiVo (a series 2), I want to transfer the programs from it to my new TiVo HD. In order for transfers to work:
- both DVRs must have active service agreements
- “allow transfers” must be enabled on tivo.com
- both DVRs must be associated with the same tivo.com account
For some reason, my new TiVo was associated with the account of the person who ordered it, not my account.
I called TiVo, confirmed a few details, and they sorted everything out.
So, what’s the problem? It requires human intervention. The first time I attempted this process, the TiVo call center was closed. This account transfer should be a self-service option.
When I forget my password for AT&T’s web site, they text me a new one. It’s a pretty smart idea — communicating the secure information out-of-band.
My TiVo should have a unique identifier — other than the service number — that’s only visible from the device itself. Since my TiVo connects to the Internet already, this should be pretty straightforward. Once I enter that information, TiVo can confirm ownership of the box, and transfer it over to my account.
Samantha Murphy’s digital freedom spot
Great work, Samantha!
Hidden Leopard feature: System Profiler
Here’s a neat Leopard trick I haven’t seen anywhere else.
Hold down the option key while choosing  > About This Mac, and the menu item will change to “System Profiler.”
That’s much quicker than the old method of (i) select About This Mac, (ii) click “More Info” (iii) close the about window.
The traveller’s lament
In 2007, I visited many cities — including Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Boston, Washington, DC, New York and Toronto. I used the transit systems in the last four and, of course, the San Francisco bay area. Over time, a few questions emerged:
- Why do I have to have a different card for each city?
- What transit systems offer good deal for visitors?
- How do the prices and features compare, generally?
