Dropbox Sync API permalink

I’m excited to see how iOS apps integrate with Dropbox’s new API. iOS developers now have a cost effective alternative to the sometimes unreliable iCloud. This will be a win for everyone.

Mon, February 4, 2013
Dieter Rams and Why Designers Will Lead the Future permalink

Josh Long:

Good design will have to play a part in urban development, starvation in third-world countries, and caring for an over-populated and over-poluted planet. In the near future we will be challenged with serious design problems.

Good design solves problems. Whenever you are challenged to find a solution, either independently or societally, adhering to design principles will always yield the best results.

Tue, January 29, 2013
Apple Releasing a 128GB iPad with Retina Display permalink

For iPads to supplant laptops as the go to mobile productivity device a storage bump was sorely needed. Some industries generate significant amounts of data in their daily operations. This move will open up the iPad to a new group of professionals. At $929 the flagship iPad has nearly reached pricing parity with the 11-inch MacBook Air. I believe this speaks volumes about how Apple views the iPad.

Fri, January 18, 2013
Thu, January 17, 2013
Carmen Ortiz Issues a Statement Regarding the Handling of the Aaron Swartz Case permalink

Carmen Ortiz:

As federal prosecutors, our mission includes protecting the use of computers and the Internet by enforcing the law as fairly and responsibly as possible.

I would love to hear what her definition of protecting the use of computers and the Internet actually entails. If it really is simply “enforcing the law” then she deserves all the negative attention that she’s received. It’s no secret that current American laws hardly make sense for both computers and the Internet. Mr. Swartz did what he did in the name of protecting the use of information funded in part by the American public. I think it goes without saying that she only issued a statement expressing condolences to protect her political career. I somehow doubt she experienced the same sense of outrage and sadness that the rest of the Internet felt the day he died.

Tue, January 15, 2013
Writing Tools permalink

Matt Gemmell shares the tools of his trade in an amusing blog post. The very first tool he lists warms my heart.

Poster 2.0 permalink

Federico Viticci:

Poster 2.0 is out today, and it’s another fantastic update that reassures me Tom is committed to making this app the best WordPress editor for iOS.

I agree with Federico that this is the WordPress editor of choice for iOS. It’s a beautiful app and a perfect example of good mobile development. Poster is the type of app that is self explanatory as the user navigates the interface. WordPress becomes complex to use once the more advanced features are implemented. Poster deals with this gracefully even on the limited screen real estate that an iOS device provides. This update is a solid refinement to a must own app if you blog with WordPress.

Mon, January 14, 2013
The Case Against Aaron Swartz Was Complete Garbage permalink

Mike Masnick:

It’s not about what’s right. It is entirely about them winning, getting the press coverage and “making examples” of people. And they’ll go to amazing lengths, and create pressure that you and I can only have nightmares about, to get people to accept bogus “plea” deals, just so they can notch up another “win.” It’s scary, scary stuff. Fighting back may have been the right thing to do, but must have created a level of stress unimaginable to most people.

The fact that a system is in place to exact tyranny on American citizens in order to bolster the careers of government officials is disgusting. My hope is that the Aaron Swartz story will be a wake up call but that’s optimistic. America’s indifference to their freedom seems incurable at this point.

Fri, January 11, 2013
Tue, January 8, 2013
Matias Brings Tenkeyless Mechanical Bluetooth Keyboard to Laptops permalink

Peter Cohen, The Loop:

Matias likens the new Laptop Pro to an Apple-made keyboard that’s still a fond memory for long-time Mac users. “It’s basically a smaller, quieter, wireless, Apple Extended Keyboard II,” said Matias in a statement.

Having a wireless mechanical keyboard for my MacBook holds a lot of appeal. Though, they dropped the ball with the quiet part. The Cherry MX Blue switches in my WASD are a dream to type on. The clicky nature of the key press is so satisfying.

Mon, January 7, 2013

iA Writer Previews in Marked with AppleScript

I’m a big fan of both iA Writer and Marked. While I do most of the writing for my blog in BBEdit, I enjoy writing in iA Writer for other non-blogging tasks. iA Writer does offer a Markdown preview to quickly ensure everything is formatted correctly but its functionality is limited. Marked on the other hand is a Markdown processing powerhouse. It offers many advanced options to both preview and export code. If you maintain a blog it’s the best $4 you’ll ever spend.

I’ve been using an AppleScript assigned to a hotkey to automatically preview Markdown written in BBEdit with Marked. It has always frustrated me that I didn’t have the same workflow in place for iA Writer. So naturally I adapted my BBEdit script to be iA Writer friendly. You can view the results below. I use Keyboard Maestro to execute the script but FastScripts and Alfred can both do the job. If you’re a Byword fan the same script will work. Simply, replace any reference to iA Writer with Byword.

-- Preview the currently active iA Writer document using Marked.
tell application "iA Writer"
	activate
	
	-- Ask iA Writer for it's active document.
	set the_document to document 1
	
	-- Save the document or prompt if not previously saved.
	save the_document
	
	-- If the file is saved, open it using Marked.
	tell application "Marked"
		set the_file to the_document's file
		open the_file
		-- Bring Marked forward so it becomes visible.
		activate
	end tell

end tell
Wed, January 2, 2013

QuickLogin

Last year Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software created an excellent WordPress plugin that allows a user to simply hit the escape key and be whisked off to the admin login page. He named it QuickLogin. This functionality is something that Squarespace users have long enjoyed and served as Daniel’s inspiration. I’ve been using this plugin since its creation but always felt it could be better. I’m normally logged into my WordPress site in Safari making the plugin not very useful. So, as all happy hackers would do, I forked the plugin on GitHub and made it better. My version of the plugin will also take you to the login page if you’re not already logged in. However, if you are already signed into your WordPress installation a swipe of the escape key will take you directly to the Dashboard.

Of course WordPress offers a toolbar to authenticated users making basic admin tasks trivial. I hide the toolbar while signed in as I’ve always found it distracting when viewing the public side of my site. With this plugin I’m now only a keystroke away from the admin section. This is pure bliss to me.

You can fork my version of the plugin on GitHub. Enjoy!

Mon, December 31, 2012

Looking Forward

As the year comes to a close, I find myself recommitting to writing and enhancing this site. I have a lot of new ideas for how to create compelling content that adds to the discussion in a meaningful way. There are a million “link blogs” already out there. The last thing I want for StephenHowells.net to become is a regurgitation of the same stuff that’s been published everywhere else on the web. With this in mind, I’m going to adopt a subtle change in direction.

Launching in early 2013 will be a screencast series. These screencasts will consist of my various workflows and thoughtful software reviews. I know these videos will be helpful and informative to both novices and experts alike. Even if you know all there is to know about a given topic sometimes it’s fun to see how someone else works.

Another addition to the site will be more articles that contain the helpful code snippets I write as well as the ones I find on the web. I’m perpetually learning more about Ruby, PHP, Python, and AppleScript. My promise is that as I make bigger strides learning these languages, I will share the knowledge with my readers who may be learning to code as well. Expect more <code> tags in 2013.

I’m still going to add link posts to the site but this will be a fun new direction. I can’t wait to get 2013 underway. This is just the beginning for what I have planned.

Wed, June 13, 2012
Readability Ditches Flawed Money Collecting Practice permalink

Richard Ziade:

Ending the publisher payment system allows us to put our full energy behind making Readability incredible for all of our users. We’ll continue to work with publishers, just as we’ll continue to forge relationships with developers and writers and readers and everyone else that’s become a part of the Readability ecosystem. It’s been a hell of a first year. The next one will be even better.

Well, it couldn’t be worse.

Mon, June 4, 2012
Asus Ditching Android For Windows 8 and Ivy Bridge In Transformer Tablets permalink

Jon Brodkin:

Announced today at Computex in Taiwan, the Asus Transformer Book will come in 11.6, 13, and 14-inch screens with a resolution of 1920×1080, and a range of Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors, according to ExtremeTech.

Extremetech said the prototype from Asus is not without problems. “The tablet is positively riddled with air vents,” the site notes, while raising questions about the battery life for a device with such powerful hardware.

Riddled with air vents?! Sign me up!

Thu, May 31, 2012
Sat, May 26, 2012
Shawn Blanc Reviews the New Codas permalink

Shawn Blanc:

The premier difference between Coda 1 and Coda 2 is its improvement between components. The workflow. Though each individual component (the text editor, the FTP client, etc.) has been improved upon, the most significant improvement to Coda is its central aim as a one-window web development tool.

I love the new Coda. It’s a thoughtful reimagination to what was an already great app. Diet Coda is a complete triumph. It has raised the bar in iOS development.

Wed, May 23, 2012
Tue, May 22, 2012