Category: OS X

Apple Music and Last.fm scrobbling update

Last November, I wrote:

Switching from Rdio to Apple Music might mean scrobbling to my Last.fm account will be inconsistent, which makes me sad because I’ve been tracking since 2007.

Since then, I add songs, albums, or playlists in Apple Music to my library before I start listening.

With iTunes 12.5.1.21 and Last.fm Scrobbler 2.1.371, I now see songs played from Apple Music are scrobbled, even if they aren’t in my library (including playlists).2 Yay!

Context: Apple Music and Last.fm: Does it Scrobble? — Florian Eckerstorfer

  1. On OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. ↩
  2.  Radio…no joy. I don’t use it at the moment. ↩

TaskPaper 3: Fold and Focus

Two days at work alongside TaskPaper 3, and I’m digging these two features:

Folding items – You can now fold items, hiding the items indented under them. To fold and item click the blue bullet point to the left of the items text.

Focus projects – You can now truly focus projects instead of just filtering to show a single project. The difference is when you focus a project like this you’ll no longer see all the leading indentation. This means you can create deep levels of subprojects and still edit them comfortably, instead of seeing a bunch of leading whitespace everywhere.

I keep track of my work through our various ticket (email) queues with a few notes under the task for each queue. Having everything neatly folded when I open TaskPaper and makes me happy. I switch to the Today saved search, then working through tasks one at a time, focusing with ease when needed. Super quick, and entirely from the keyboard.

It’s also fast and handy to start a clean ad hoc brain dump without opening a new file or window. (I did this today reviewing some information for an internal P2 thread.) The following takes a couple of seconds.

  1. Start a new line.
  2. Create your heading.
  3. Go In (⌥⌘→), and all the other text disappears.
  4. When you’re done, you can Go Out (⌥⌘←).

No need for the text? Indent the line after the header for speedy folding (⌘.) under that header. When you’re ready to trash that text, fold the branch (⌘.), select the branch (⇧⌘B), then delete (⌃⇧K).

Try the demo!

Workflow: Alfred and DMCA predefs at Automattic

In November 2014, my pal and colleague, Clicky Steve, posted at Transparency Report for Automattic, “Open Sourcing Our DMCA Process“:

[…] we are pleased to announce that today we are open sourcing our DMCA process docs on GitHub – under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

[…] there is also a comprehensive set of detailed ‘predefined replies’ that we use when corresponding with both users and complainants in specific situations.

For awhile, I had these saved as Snippets in Alfred, which meant I couldn’t easily share those with my team.

So, I made an Alfred workflow with the DMCA snippets I use most frequently:

screen shot a8c dmca predefs.png

When using the predefined reply To User → Processed Notice, we’re working with two browser tabs because we create a new ticket to the site owner.

After I confirm the notice is valid and process the takedown request, I do the following:

  1. Copy the text of the DMCA notice from the complainant, then press Control–Tab to switch to the new ticket in the other browser tab.
  2. Clicking in the body of the message, I summon Alfred ( ⌘–Spacebar ), enter the keyword dmca.b.proc, then press Enter.

How’d I save time?

  • Since I have the {clipboard} dynamic placeholder (Alfred) inserted where the complainant’s notice needs to be pasted, it saves me the motion of another copy-paste. Estimate: 5 seconds.
  • I don’t have to navigate through our ticket system snippets by trackpad. Estimate: 5 seconds.

Save ten seconds per notice — I’ll take it!

Assuming I don’t have any blockers for uploading the Alfred workflow to Automattic, I’ll work on sharing it in the near future. 🙂

Hello, Day One 2!

I got the latest version of Day One for my Mac and iPhone, taking advantage of the 50% off pricing.1 Jake Underwood wrote a solid review at MacStories. I’m determined to get into a habit of writing regularly for myself.

Here are my notes during the migration from Day One Classic:

Next, I’ll start with a few reminders throughout each day on my phone. I haven’t before, but I’d like to see how I feel after adding that small habit. To make it quick, I can use my Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch K811 Keyboard and Amy’s Glif (affiliate links) when I’m at my desk.

(I should review the Day One Uses page.)

Using this fine app, I look forward to being mindful of my thoughts, feelings, and actions on a regular basis.

Another cool tidbit: dayoneapp.com uses WordPress and Jetpack! ⭐

  1. I think today is the last day of the sale pricing for the iOS app. However, from the Day One listing in the Mac App Store, “Sale extended until Feb 17th to assist our users that have no yet heard about the new app, and those having trouble purchasing due to errors in the Mac App Store.” ↩

Noizio

Noizio is a slick, flexible, and free(!) app that plays ambient sounds. I just installed it on my Mac and iPhone to use when listening to music isn’t proper for the task at hand.1

The current version offers fifteen ambient sounds. I dig the simplicity and ability to mix the various sounds at different volumes. Saving different “Mixtures” will be fun to try.

If you’re a fan of Coffitivity, Noizio is worth checking out. 🙂

Just turn on the sound and allow yourself to become engulfed in the tranquil sounds of nature. Whether you wish to feel as if you’re sitting near a fireplace under a cozy blanket, or that you’re meditating on a desolate sea shore as gusts of wind ruffle your hair, Noizio will be there to set the mood. With this ambient sound equalizer, not only will you be able to relax, but you will also increase your productivity, as you’re trying to concentrate on your work!

  1.  Playing in the background while I write this post: Campfire, Winter Wind, and Deep Space. ↩

See ya, Rdio

When I opened Rdio today, I saw a link to the message following message: Important information about your Rdio account. I learned about the beginning of their end a couple of days ago through sad colleagues and friends on Twitter. I started using Rdio in 2012 after a recommendation by Andrew Spittle, and I’ve had fun listening to new music.

Gary Pendergast wrote about replacing Rdio. Referring to his post, our three must have items are:

  • Offline sync to mobile.
  • Ability to play from my Mac.
  • Family accounts.

After I read Macworld’s Apple Music FAQ, I started the Apple Music three-month trial, plus Family Sharing for Amy and myself.

Switching from Rdio to Apple Music might mean scrobbling to my Last.fm account will be inconsistent, which makes me sad because I’ve been tracking since 2007. 😢

On July 8, 2015, Florian Eckerstorfer posted, “Apple Music and Last.fm: Does it Scrobble?“. I have Last.fm installed on my Mac, and I just installed QuietScrob – Background Last.fm Scrobbler. Fingers crossed.

Alfred 2.7.2, snippets, and Quick Entry for Things

When using Alfred’s clipboard and snippet viewer with the Quick Entry window for Things, the item would paste into the previously active window, not the Quick Entry window.

I use Alfred snippets1 or several items of text in clipboard history when entering new to-dos into Things, and have been annoyed for awhile because I couldn’t do the same with the Quick Entry window.

Today, I’m stoked to see that Andrew and Vero fixed it. Thank you! ⭐

I think one—or both—of the first two items from the Alfred Change Log for 2.7.2 addressed this issue:

  • Significantly improve Alfred’s focusing behaviour, not taking active from the currently focused app. This improves a number of things including clipboard history paste behaviour with a multi screen setup.
  • Bring the Alfred window forward in the window hierarchy
  1. Specifically, timestamps. It’s a worthwhile habit to note when you added a to-do, or track how long it took you to complete a to-do. See also: Using Dynamic Placeholders in Clipboard Snippets. ↩

Transporter Sync: Installed!

I ordered a couple of Transporter Sync units after hearing it mentioned on Mac Power Users. It was icing that they offered a 2-for-1 Transporter Sync Mother’s Day special. I felt that Connected Data site sold the strengths of their products well, and I was ready to take some control of my data.

I’ll share my initial thoughts and experience.

I only had a 120 GB USB hard drive, so I ordered a 1 TB Toshiba Canvio Basics USB 3.0 Portable hard drive.

Setup was really easy. Plug in the Ethernet cable, hard drive, then power. And wait.

  • 120 GB hard drive: the Transporter sync took 22 minutes before the light turned solid blue. 100 GB available.
  • 1 TB hard drive: 17 minutes.

So much room for more activities!

A couple of missteps happened during the account setup process. Their site didn’t recognize my Transporter Sync as active, so I had to claim it manually ny entering a couple of fields from the bottom of the device. (For my convenience, I took a photo of information on the bottom of the device.) Secondly, the password length is limited to 32 characters.

I added a couple of Shared Folders with Amy, who doesnt have a Transporter for herself. Yet. Like Dropbox, she’ll need to create an account, then add the apps to her devices befofe she can use the Shared Folders.

On my laptop, I’ll use Selective Sync to uncheck these Shared Folders. I want the data in her folders sync’d to the Transporter Sync hard drive, but the files won’t be copied onto my laptop.

I started moving folders from Dropbox to my Transporter. Aside from on-the-fly organizing, it was simple moving my files. I also added some movie files that weren’t on Dropbox, and was pleased that those would finally be sync’d.

Testing a couple of apps was painless. In nvALT, I switched the folder to my Transporter, then tested a few edits to see if they sync’d. In Alfred, I also had to change the sync folder location from its settings.

Fast forwarding to the present, I have 19.1 GB sync’d to my Transporter, not much left on Dropbox, and looking for more to “migrate”!

I’m stoked because:

  • Transporter for iOS has automatic upload enabled with my camera roll to start when I’m at home and on WiFi. I usually import photos with Lightroom, and delete them from my iPhone with Image Capture. Now any photos that were in limbo won’t be anymore.
  • I have access to my hard drive.
  • I don’t have to worry about my hard drive.
  • Data is encrypted during transfer.
  • Nobody else sees that data unless I allow it.

I’m not sure if I’ll use the Transporter Library, as my laptop hard drive is spacious, but I’m glad I have the option. (Confession: Access speed would be slower.)

I’ll post a follow up sometime to describe some quirks that are super minor, and wanted to publish this right away because I’m pretty stoked. 🙂