I try a lot of new programs. I often fall prey to habits and go back to the program I’ve been using instead of giving the new one a chance. Keyboard Maestro helps me get the right one.
One of the most recent programs that falls into this category is Sparrow. It’s a mail program that has benefits over Apple’s Mail.App program. Of course, my fingers type “mail” into Alfred when I want to see my email.
I have been the Treasurer of our Homeowners Association for almost a year now. During that time I’ve received dues, paid bills, handled some legal issues, renewed registration with the State, prepared budget reports for the other board members, etc.
I would have a terrible job were it not for Evernote. Here are the ways I use Evernote to keep on top of things:
It has been a couple of weeks since I posted about my macro to help compose quick and dirty MultiMarkdown documents for email, web sites, etc.
I have since revised it to be a bit nicer. If you have any changes please feel free to let me know about them via the address on the contact page.
I just started my 30 day trial of Keyboard Maestro. I am 3 days into it and am ready to buy it. It is a remarkable tool for anyone who wants to tinker with that kind of thing.
I often find myself making quick little MultiMarkdown texts for use as emails or quick Evernote documentation. Until now I was just grinding out the text the hard way – create a temporary file, edit it in TextEdit, save it, drag it to Marked (another excellent tool by Brett Terpstra), and then type my usually short message.
I have been typing since 1976. My mother was trained to be a secretary and learned to type on a keyboard without letters drawn on the keycaps. “Old school” trainers knew if you learned to type by looking at the keys you would never become as good as you could be. She made me learn on an old Royal manual typewriter without looking and with proper typing technique as well.
I love photography even though I’m a rank amateur at it. I enjoy everything about it… composing the shot, learning the equipment, seeing how different things affect the shot, and post production.
It’s easy to get in a hurry and take a photo that’s somewhat less than great but guess what? Sometimes you don’t need an expensive polarizing filter to save an otherwise awful picture. Take this one for example:
I didn’t write this. It was an email a friend sent me that sends me these kinds of emails… kinda ironic.
Subject: Cheer
As we end the year 2010, I want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.
I no longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, or have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel. Continue reading
Originally posted Oct 17, 2010
Ok, so last time I talked about security and how tough it is to pull off that level of safety. Well one tool that has done more than all the rest of them together for me is LastPass. I could write an entire book on LastPass but I’ll spare you all from that. 
LastPass, oversimplified, is a multi-faceted program that lets you keep all of your passwords in an extremely safe manner. In the simplest terms it is a password vault type utility but it is much more than that! To use LastPass you install it (more later) and then any time you need a password you just log into LastPass with one password and it either provides the password to you or it securely inserts it into the website you are accessing.
Originally posted July 24, 2010 You can hear the audio file of this review at this link. This is a review I did of MacJournal for the Nosillacast Podcast hosted over at Podfeet.com – A Technology Geek Podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh Bias! I am posting here because it is a new way of thinking for me… I am an old-school computer geek but the people in the Mac community are changing my perspectives. I’ve done magazine reviews in the 80’s but this will be recorded as an audio review for a podcast show. How far have we come since I first laid hands on a computer in ’78!
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