A really neat idea to get a quick overview of the stats. And it looks awesome too! The idea of a status board like the one by Panic — which is inspired by the status page published by Cultured Code — inspires to do something similar to use as my default-browser-home-page on my Mac.
Counting Characters
Just recently I opened my RSS-Reader and found a post by Chris Bowler regarding counting characters and using a script to do it system wide. Just some weeks ago I had the same problem and searched a script, found nothing to useful and cobbled something together my self. Since I use Quicksilver to launch apps, I also wanted to use Quicksilver to do the character/word and paragraph counting.
Now I do not want to share my own script — it was not that great — but after reading the post by Chris Bowler, I improved it a bit to work just perfect with Quicksilver and completely without Automator.
activate
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using command down
set theInput to (the clipboard)
set theInput to (theInput as text)
set myCount to count (theInput)
set myWords to count words of (theInput)
set myParas to count paragraphs of (theInput)
tell me
activate
display dialog "Characters: " & myCount & return & "Words: " & myWords & return & "Paragraphs: " & myParas buttons {"Thanks"} default button 1
end tell
Download the Count_Characters_v1.0.scpt
What the script does is: It copies the currently selected text into the clipboard and counts the characters, words and paragraphs which are than output in form of a short text message at the display.
I hope that script helps a some people, I would like to get some feedback.
How to Backup your (digital) Life
Just recently a someone who just found about my homepage via his daughter, asked me a question about how to backup pictures and other data nowadays. The question mainly was what to use: DVD? CD? HDD? Online? Or something completely different?
If you have the need — and I think that is one absolute must — to save your data in case something bad happens it is a combination of all the different systems (redundancy).
DVD and CD
I think that is one old method which should not be used because the safety provided by DVD’s and CD’s is not that great. You need to store them somewhere not to hot and not in sunlight in addition to that many other cases can cause harm to the data. In the end it is just a redundant method (to save your data a second time if you really feel the need to).
HDD — Hard-Drives
I would say that is most common nowadays. Hard-Drives are very cheap and come with many many GB / TB to store your files at. If you are lucky enough to own a Mac with OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard you also have the program TimeMachine.app which makes backing up your Mac and other external drives work like a charm. For Windows I would need to search something simple to use but I am sure there is something (maybe not as simple and shiny as TimeMachine.app.
Online Backup
There is a problem with online backup. Right, it has become very cheap nowadays and it also is save because you give the files to experts who do nothing else. They developed a system — and hopefully go on developing it — to store files safely and redundant. The problem with online backups is that you give your data to someone who you do not know. With some family pictures that may not be a big deal but for business it may be. I would say that most of the companies who provide that kind of online backup like for example CrashPlan.com should be trust worthy but you never know.
What I Use
First of I use a 1000 GB external HDD to backup my MacBook via TimeMachine.app. Also I have several external drives to mirror some data and to store some data externally. First there is one 60GB 1.8″ external HDD which I use as an mirror of important data to carry around. Secondly there is one 250GB 2.5″ external HDD which is used to save some data I do not need all the time on my MacBook (for example downloaded programs, movies and other purchases I do not need available all the time). Third there are two 3.5″ HDD one 300GB and one 160GB to again mirror some of my files (not the system and not on a regular basis but the important stuff on occasion. As an addition I use DropBox (free) for crucial files (mostly documents and some creative work). Also I just started to use CrashPlan.com about one month ago (the trial is near to its end) and am pretty happy with it. I seriously think about purchasing that service cause it makes it easy to backup (you do not even notice it) and are save to go.
And last but not least, I still use DVD/CD as a backup system but just in one particular case: client project is done => the data is burned to hand it — mostly in DVD/CD format — to the client and a copy of that is stored on DVD/CD in my archive (still the data is stored on my HDD’s but just in case).
Conclusion
In the end it depends on your needs and your wallet. If you travel all the time you may not be that well with online backup but still I would say you should backup some things online (important documents and works). But if you are at one place (like most of us) you can run a combination of the things named above. For example TimeMachine.app to an HDD plus online backup to CrashPlan or some other place. I think than you are pretty save that nothing happens and if something happens, at least you have your files on hand than.
But at times, I wonder if it isn’t just the next fad. It’s certainly partly a backlash to the personal productivity movement, with GTD at the centre. But maybe it’s also the new GTD. Instead of doing work, people are still tinkering. But now they do so under the guise of ‘reducing’ or ‘simplifying’.
I think he is right. A certain amount of complicity is OK and I will go into deeper thoughts about this soon but for now I agree 100% with Chris. Everything simple does not mean you get more done. Sometimes personally I get stuck in getting everything simpler and than get nothing done in the end!
My Project launched, AIDvertisement is Live
I did it! This is the story behind AIDvertisement. I had an idea about 1 year ago, I started to work at it immediately and I did not finish it right there. The reason for not finishing it was that I started to work on other things, started to think about other things and in the end I went to a new school and stopped nearly all projects I was working on at the time.
But now I had one week off from school (holidays) and thought: One week should be plenty to finish what I wanted to finish a year ago. So I started to get going and rock this thing through. And now here the result is. I am not to happy about the design and some other things but I am happy that I am finally releasing it to the wild. And to mention it I just read a post where I found the following quote and I think it is totally right. I can improve what I started not as good later on too.
That anything you do you should do the best you can, but even if you don’t have it perfected before you start, for goodness sake, man, still start.
Now what is this thing about? First, it is called AIDvertisement. Second it is about advertisement and aid—who guessed right?
But what is the deal? More than one year ago—just after the start of FusionAds, I got hooked by the way advertisement should look like, not distracting, simple, beautiful and elegant. Some time later, I started to think about how I could give something to organizations like Greenpeace and UN-Aids or BlogActionDay and than I had an idea. I though why is there no advertisement network for such organizations where everybody can grab one tiny code sniped to include banners of such organizations at his own site. So I started, not finished. Started again and finished it. I hope you all like it and I hope even more that some people are going to implement the banner code at their sites.
In the end there is just one thing left to be sad. Right now this is an one man show. But I would like to change that! So if you would like to help me with some stuff please feel free to contact me at ads@aidvertisement.net or via Twitter @AIDvertisement
Now check out the AIDvertisement, and start helping to solve problems.
How does a photographer evolves? What changes over time, how does he take pictures and how does a photographer think about his own work?
Someone tried to answer that question and showes his results in a graph.
A — not so sexy designed — little tool to get the best DNS Server near your home!
Are you a power-user with 5 minutes to spare? Do you want a faster internet experience?
Try out namebench. It hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer to use. namebench runs a fair and thorough benchmark using your web browser history, tcpdump output, or standardized datasets in order to provide an individualized recommendation.
Try namebench, my new DNS is about 20% faster than the one I used before!
To help everyone — from occasional viewers to regular submitters — reflect on their own experiences with new clarity.
If you are photography savvy like I am, you probably will love that site and the lovely photographs at it! Have a look and be inspired.
I absolutely love the cave style subway! Thats art in bit.
