Federico Viticci:
The hardest thing to do when configuring Keyboard Maestro is trying to take a look at yourself and how you work with a Mac from the outside, and ask your hypothetical external projection “how can this guy improve his workflow?”.
I love that sentence. For one, it’s just fun. Also, Viticci is right. Power tools like Keyboard Maestro, Hazel, and Text Expander are handicapped only by our imaginations.
Goodfoot is an iPhone app that helps you find cool, nearby places. And it does so by using the Gowalla API in one of the most clever ways I’ve seen.
I came across this app while doing research and preparation for our Creatiplicty episode with Trent Walton.
Goodfoot works by taking the most popular spots on Gowalla and then sorting them by distance (walking, biking, or driving distance) from where you currently are. Then it removes all the non-interesting spots from the list (such as big-brand locations, doctors offices, grocery stores, etc.) and does a pretty good job at only showing you worthwhile locations.
As you’re looking at each location Goodfoot has its own built-in Awesometer®. Goodfoot’s Awesometrics System rates the likelihood of that location being awesome by looking at how many total check-ins the location has compared to how many of those check-ins are unique. So, for example, a place with 100 check-ins from 100 unique people is probably a tourist hotspot and thus not that awesome (unless you think gift shops are awesome). A place with 100 check-ins from 20 people is clearly a local favorite and thus more likely to be awesome.
Once you find a spot that you want to go to, you can view that site in Gowalla or use Google Maps to get the exact location and directions.
Goodfoot is just a buck in the App Store and works wherever Gowalla users have been.
It’s funny because it’s true.
From Mike Rohde’s sketches to the final UI design.
Chad Sellers’ new note-taking application for the iPad is like no other. Pear Note can record audio as you’re taking notes and it then maps the time stamps of the audio track to the text that is typed and when. If you take your iPad into meetings at all then you may want to check out Pear Note. There is also a Mac version which has previously sponsored the RSS feed.
Ben and I had to reschedule last week’s Friday episode to yesterday. And apparently recording at the beginning of the week gives us more to talk about. Such as pens and hipster PDAs, the old Palm Pilots we’ve owned, Ben’s affinity for microwave popcorn, and other various news goodies.
My thanks to Tyler Hall for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote his Mac app, VirtualHostX 3.0.
In short, VirtualHostX is a Mac app for setting up, running, and managing virtual hosts on your Mac.
As any professional Web developer knows, doing your development locally is simply how it’s done. Setting up your Mac to run the necessary server software is the best way to build and develop websites and web apps. And if you have more than a single site you’re building and working on then you’re going to want to set up virtual hosts. And that is where VirtualHostX comes in.
This app is professional-grade, and it has been used by many of the best in the business for years.
Derek Punslan, one of the guys who helped me cut my teeth on Mac and web nerdery back in 2006 and 2007, has been recommending VirtualHostX since 2009.
Brian Warren, the senior designer/developer at Happy Cog Studios uses VirtualHostX.
VirtualHostX works on top of the server software on your Mac. Your Mac can easily be used as an Apache server, and all you need to do is install PHP and MySQL. Most people, myself included, recommend you use MAMP for that. MAMP is free and it installs all the necessary server software so your Mac can run websites which require databases (i.e. local WordPress installs).
I suggest you read Sean or Aaron’s tutorials on getting MAMP set up and then installing VirtualHostX. The setup is extremely easy (it took me longer to download MAMP than to set it up), and in just a few clicks you’ll be all set to install and run a WordPress or Expression Engine website right from within your Mac.
For a long time I did my web design and development on a live server. I guess that is fine (though it is a bit dangerous, but hey, that’s how I roll), but doing web design and development locally is so much better and more convenient for two primary reasons: speed and speed. Moreover, you can design and develop even when you’re not connected to the Internet.
(Note that if you’re using Typekit, you can add your localhost sites to your Typekit Kit. Simply edit your Kit and add “localhost” as well as whatever URL you chose for your local development URL to the domains list.)
Version 3.0 of VirtualHostX, which just shipped a few days ago, has some very clever new features. Namely Lift Off, a new Domain Details tab, and a new icon.
With Lift Off you can share your site with anyone online. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received emails or Twitter DMs with a screenshot of a site that a friend is working on. If that friend were using VirtualHostX they could send me a working URL via Lift Off and I could see the live site in my browser.
Tyler describes Lift Off like this:
Lift Off creates a secure connection between your Mac and the VirtualHostX Cloud then gives you a unique URL that you can pass around to your boss, client, or friend to view your site.
Since your virtual host is being served live off of your Mac, there’s no uploading files or waiting. Changes you make locally appear automatically for your users.
The second big update is the Domain Details tab. It’s a tab that is specific to each virtual host you have set up. In there you can log and store all the various details related to the domain you are doing design and development for (such as FTP, SSH, DNS, database config info, and more).
VirtualHostX 3.0 would be worth it for its new features alone. You can try it for free to see for yourself, but you may want to pick it up soon as it’s currently on sale for shawnblanc.net readers.
Apparently many of my friends dress like nine-year-olds.
Forty images on The Big Picture weblog chronicling the destruction and cleanup of the towers and the building of the memorial site.
MG Siegler reporting on the upcoming Gowalla app that is being announced today at TechCrunch Disrupt and will soon be shipping:
The main middle tab is now “Guides”. Here you’ll find curated travel guides for various places around the world. For example, if you load up the app in San Francisco, you’ll see the San Francisco guide, as well as the East Bay guide and the Stanford guide. You can quickly scroll through other guides not near you as well. And Gowalla has the ability to make special guides on the fly. For example, they made a TC Disrupt guide for event-goers.
Clicking on these guides loads up a bit of information about the city as well as all of the must-see spots. Again, because Gowalla has years worth of location data, they’re able to easily populate robust guides. Some of the locations are curated, some are based on check-in data and people favoriting places. The Gowalla “Highlights” feature also plays a role here.
This is a fantastic move for Gowalla. I have always fancied the app and its service, but I never could sustain using it every day when I was out to lunch, out to coffee, out shopping, out on a date, etcetera. This change in focus towards “traveling and storytelling” sounds like just the right move.
A hefty update to the TestFlight SDK today brings in-app upgrading for users, crash reports for developers, and much more. TestFlight is the greatest thing to happen to iOS app beta testing since Apple’s iPhone SDK.
On Friday I picked up the Tools & Toys t-shirts from the print-house and they look fantastic. Over the weekend Anna and I arm-wrestled PayPal, printed shipping labels, folded shirts, and packed the shipments. I am going to the Post Office this morning to drop everything off, which means the shirts will be arriving at your door within the next several days.
If you ordered a large shirt, they are unfortunately back ordered from American Apparel. The local shop that printed my order is expecting the shirts to arrive from American Apparel later this week, and as soon as they do your shirts will be the first to get printed.
Again, thanks to everyone that ordered a shirt. Wear it often, and wear it proudly.
— Shawn
This year’s September 11 cover of The New Yorker is wonderful. It makes a great tribute to their 2001 September 11 cover that was black on black, as well as nodding to the reflecting pools and the memorial that will open this Sunday.
CIO Mike Brown: “Forget about the competition, we are playing catch-up with the customer psyche.”