I never miss an opportunity to learn more about Applescript and extending my applications in ways the developers never considered. I also work in text files for all of my notes.
Background At home I'm on my Mac with Notational Velocity and Omnifocus close at hand. However, at work, I use a windows machine with Resophnotes. Resophnotes is a wonderful Simplenote client that is as close as you can get to Notational Velocity on Windows.
If I had any doubt that technology was not living up to my expectations, I'm a believer now. I just installed iPhone Remote on my Mac Pro and all I can say is WOW! My iPhone can control my Mac over the Edge network. iPhone Remote is brought to us by the good people at Google (code named Telekinesis). Maybe they got tired of waiting for the gPhone and decided to make the iPhone the device dreams are made of.
I tend to listen to Podcasts (one of the best is MacBreak Weekly) while I work. But when my wife starts talking to me from the other room, I have to stop what I’m doing to navigate to iTunes just to click Pause. It finally reached a level of annoyance that made me fired up Script Editor and throw together a little script to do it for me. This is just about as simple an Apple Script as you can get:
Recently, Google labs introduced their new "Code Search" tool. This got me to start looking for similar search engines on the web. One of the nice one's I've used is "Programming is hard" which has some nice formating, but limited languages. While many of the examples are way over my head as a new coder, these snippets have a lot to teach. I't is mind blowing just how efficient an experienced programmer can make a routine.
I came across this Wordpress blog post today. The author breaks down some fundamental guidelines for coding. To summarize: You should take as much care formating code as you would with an essay. This is good advice. I'm still a beginner when it comes to heavy lifting with Objective C, but I have already learned this lesson the hard way. It is much easier to find mistakes when you have the proper punctuation.
It's been awhile since I posted about my journey into Objective C and Cocoa programming. It's going a lot slower than I had hoped, but I up to page 260 in "Programming in Objective C" so at least I'm not a complete slacker. It doesn't help that most of the really basic material is as exciting as a wet shoelace. But today on my commute to work I read about Functions and Structures.
I use a lot of Applescript when I use my Mac. I’ve learned quite a bit about the language over the years. Needless to say that it makes me a little snobby about using Automator. For the most part, I hate automator because it is so limited. What it has is pretty much all you get to do. However, once in awhile I gain an added appreciation for its simplicity. Here is an Automator “script” that takes a screenshot and then places the screen shot in my blog photos library within iPhoto.
I’m still working through “Programming in Objective-C” (Stephen Kochan). Since I commute on the train, I have plenty of time during the day to read. I’m about a third done. I hope to finish in a couple of weeks. So keep in mind this is all still really new to me. I’m not trying to create a tutorial, but rather share my experience learning the language. This one is very closely related to the previous post.
I’m not big on CEO worship. There are a few people that I give tremendous credit to for changing the world for the better while also making bucket loads of money. Stephen Wolfram is probably at the top of my list. His ideas are audacious and inspiring.
This article on Venture Beat is a good look into what he’s trying to do.
“Just as we curate knowledge, we also curate APIs, devices, and digital information,” says Wolfram.
