“Quite possibly the last hammer you’ll ever have to buy.”
Month: August 2011
Garrett Murray Gets Fresh →
Until last week, Garrett Murray hadn’t done a clean install of OS X since Tiger shipped in 2005:
That OS X made it so simple and safe to upgrade to each major release, and that Macs made it so simple to clone the entire filesystem onto an entirely new machine was a godsend for computing. But it also made me 100% unwilling to start over. That is, until I started doing it this week and realized just how much bloat there was:
- 215 apps in my Applications folder, over 140 of which I hadn’t used in as long as I could remember
- 400MB of content in ~/Documents, not a single bit of which was anything I wanted or needed, including five years of iChat transcripts
- Freelance client work from 2002 (!)
- 18 PrefPanes, only three of which I had touched in recent memory
- 26 Login Items, some of which I didn’t even recognize and had to research
- Three versions of the Apple Developer tools, including Xcode 3, Xcode 4 beta (ugh, seriously?) and Xcode 4
- A complete user account I used to use for presentations at conferences with random junk all over the desktop
A Great Article About Standing Desks →
I’ve read many articles and personal stories about standing desks, but this article by Corbett Barr is one of the better ones. Corbett not only shares his personal experience about moving to a standing desk, but he also lists out several resources and other areas of information regarding standing.
I switched to a standing desk two and a half months ago and it’s been a love-hate relationship. I love the extra energy that I feel throughout the day, and I love knowing that it is far healthier for me to stand than to sit for such long periods of time.
But deep down I don’t like standing. For me, I’m giving something up that is most often experienced only when sitting: that feeling you get when you lean far back in your desk chair, take a deep breath, hold your coffee in both hands, and stare up past the computer — simultaneously reveling in the quiet joy of the moment while also thinking your way through whatever conundrum your project has presented you with.
[Sponsor] Timing – Automatic Time Tracking for OS X →
Timing is the best way to keep track of the time you spend with your Mac. It automatically tracks which documents you are editing, applications you use, and the domains of the websites you visit. You’ll never have to worry about forgetting to start or stop a timer again!
After tracking, just drag and drop activities into projects. Sophisticated graphs show you how you spent your time each day and which projects consumed most of your time.
Only this week, Timing is available at a 50% discount off the regular price of $19.99. Get it from the Mac App Store today!