The built in dictionary in OS X is great, but sometimes I want a little more. Agile Tortoise, maker of Terminology and Drafts app, also provides a very good dictionary lookup Web site called Term.ly.
I created an Automator service that allows me to select some text and then pop open the Term.ly definition as a small pop-over panel. I can then select a word in Term.ly and it will replace the selected word in my document and add the new term to my clipboard.
A nice series of posts from Luc Beaulieu, Professor of Physics. Some good app suggestions too.
By way of the DEVONtech blog
I wish native email services including better custom message handling. I like what services like Tray have to offer. I’m a little put off by the landing page having a link to the angel investor page, but that’s my problem.
By way of @rands
Everyone has their pet peeves. Some people are bothered by a misplaced comma, and some are irritated by poor email etiquette. I get that some busy people have a distaste for the simple “thanks” email.1 Not me, I like the poor little “thanks” reply. This is in stark contrast to the rest of my feelings about email. I do not feel obligated to reply to emails that are irrelevant.
I live in email during the day.
From the NYT:
Professors Carmon and Kahneman have also found that we are more concerned with how long a line is than how fast it’s moving. Given a choice between a slow-moving short line and a fast-moving long one, we will often opt for the former, even if the waits are identical.
I’m glad we are passing out of the “Agile fixes everything” mentality. Being nimble and responsive is good, but I’ve never liked the strict policies required by Agile.1
Andy Singleton is more pissed-off about Agile than I am. It’s a good read but I really liked the Dilbert strip he includes:
Indeed Dogbert. Indeed.
I’ve never worked in an Agile team but I work in an environment that embraces some of the principles.
I provided a quick review of the latest update to Drafts for iOS yesterday. Within hours there was an update to a similar app, Scratch.1 Of course, I took a look.
The Speed of Text Scratch is one of a new generation of iOS apps, the quick entry apps. Drafts and Launch Center Pro are good examples and I like where this trend is going.
Until Drafts and Scratch, an index card was the fastest way for me to take a note.
Michael Schechter recently posted a macro to embed nvAlt linked files in OmniFocus. He will probably be the first to admit that it’s less than ideal. OmniFocus doesn’t recognize the links properly. I’ve played with something similar but ended up linking directly to a shared Dropbox document. That also was less than ideal.
About a month ago I updated my process to use TextDrop instead.1
TextDrop can link to a Dropbox folder of notes or to an individual note in Dropbox.
I’d like to continue my discussion of fiddling but look at a different aspect: Tools
My garage workbench has no less than 6 hammers. I have a rubber mallet, heavy mallet, finish nail hammer, claw hammer, ball-peen hammer and sledge hammer.1 Sometimes it takes trial and error to figure out I need a new hammer. Sometimes it’s obvious from the start. I’ve never tried to install a baseboard with a sledge hammer and I’ve never tried to remove a concrete walkway with a rubber mallet.
Collin Donnell has the right idea. Glassboard is just public enough to be inclusive but it’s not so public that it smells like a dung heap.
I was thinking it would be cool if there was a slightly less public way for all of the productivity nerds out there to share and discuss ideas than posting publicly on the Internet, so I’ve created a Glassboard for anyone who’s interested.
