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Link Posts

On Pagination Navigation  →

Some food for thought from Jason Kottke which has led me to test something new here. Instead of providing the standard “previous entries” link at the bottom of the homepage (which takes you to /page/2 and onward), I’ve replaced it with links to recent articles, interviews, and reviews.

The idea is that someone at the bottom of the homepage is more likely than not a new reader (regular readers hang out at the top of the site or in the RSS feed). So why direct a new reader to what I linked to last week? It seems to make a bit more sense to tell them about the recent and premier articles that have been written here.

On Pagination Navigation

Scott Adams on Entrepreneurialism  →

Scott Adams has an article in the Wall Street Journal today. Scott’s a fantastic writer, and his piece for the Journal is a savvy combination of stories, advice, and wit.

That’s the year I learned that if there’s a loophole, someone’s going to drive a truck through it, and the people in the truck will get paid better than the people under it.

Also:

Simplicity makes ideas powerful. Want examples? Read anything by Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett.

Scott Adams on Entrepreneurialism

Mike Rohde’s Sketchnotes from the Chick-fil-A Leadercast  →

Some great sketches by Mike Rohde from the Chick-fil-A leadership conference held in Atlanta, GA this past Friday, May 6. Mike has sketches and notes from sessions with Seth Godin, John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, and others.

I would have liked to be at this conference, but I couldn’t make it. Fortunately, as is the case with all of Mike’s sketchnotes, these are delightful to look at and they contain many great quotes. Like this page, for example.

Mike Rohde’s Sketchnotes from the Chick-fil-A Leadercast

An AppleScript for Opening the Current Safari URL in Google Chrome  →

I use Safari sans Flash, and so I launch Chrome for times when Flash is needed (which is a few times a week). I was having the same problem as TJ: setting a global shortcut key to launch Chrome via the Developer menu wasn’t always working. However, this AppleScript works like a charm.

Be sure to download the “updated” script found at the bottom of TJ’s post. It fixes a bug in the original script.

And for the curious nerdy, my keyboard shortcut for this is CMD+OPT+G and I’m using FastScrips of course.

(Via DF.)

An AppleScript for Opening the Current Safari URL in Google Chrome

“Link, Pull, Response”  →

Tim Carmody, who guest wrote for Jason Kottke last week, wrapped up his stint with a post about why he loves Kottke.org and, really, what makes for a great weblog.

These [link, pull, and response] are also the elements that help establish bloggers’ identity as readers in conversation with other readers: I have seen something that I feel strongly enough to think and write about, and what would make me happiest is if you look at it, then think and write about it too.

What I like about Tim’s post is how he relates the structure of a weblog to its voice. Especially for sites that post a high frequency of links to other sites, the structure of link posts can contribute greatly to the voice of the author. The words used are not the only elements which establish voice. Other key players include structure and site design.

“Link, Pull, Response”

The Phonetic Field  →

In a contact’s entry you can add a phonetic first and last name. This is great for making sure the Voice Command says the names of your friends and family correctly as well as understanding you when you are trying to voice dial someone.

For example, I used to drive 10 minutes to my office every morning and would use that time to call my mom and say hi. Her name is Bea Blanc but my iPhone wanted me to pronounce it “Bee-ahh Blank”. It was bad enough that the iPhone fumbled up her name, but making me mispronounce it as well was just plain rude.

And so I entered her phonetic first and last name as “Bee Blonk” respectively. Now I don’t have to mispronounce her name when calling via voice dial. I know not everyone uses the Voice commands, but I like them. It’s like having your own assistant. iPhone, get my mother on the line, would you?

To set a phonetic field just go to a contact’s entry from your iPhone, scroll to the bottom, and tap “Add Field”. From there you’ll find the fields you’re looking for.

(Thanks Sean for the tip!)

The Phonetic Field

KanjiPictoGraphix  →

I want to thank Renkara Media Group for sponsoring the feed this week to promote their upcoming app for the iPhone and iPad, KanjiPictoGraphix.

Renkara Media Group has been working with Michael Rowley to turn his best-selling mnemonics book for learning Japanese, Kanji Pictographix, into an app for the iPhone and iPad. To help with the creation of this app Michael re-drew many of the visuals from his book. The app contains not just Michaels mnemonic visuals, but also stroke order diagrams, vocabulary words, and a dynamic filtering and sorting system.

It’s due out soon. You can check out the website to see a promo video and to sign up via email to be notified once the app is available.

KanjiPictoGraphix

Byword  →

Lately I’ve been writing the initial drafts of my longer-form articles using Byword and I really like it. Its glory is that it’s a very simple application.

When you work on a 23-inch monitor a good full-screen writing app can be hard to find. Apps that look good in full-screen mode on a 13- or 15-inch screen don’t necessarily scale well to 23 inches. Byword, however, scales quite well. It looks great regardless of if I’m writing on my laptop display or my cinema displays. And the dark color scheme is just splendid.

And the latest version (1.1.1) which shipped just about a week ago now includes autosaving and QuickCursor support among other improvements.

Byword