ExpanDrive
ExpanDrive allows Mac users to mount remote storage as though it was local. While this alone isn’t rocket science, the variety of supported remote storages and the reliability of the software have made it a nearly indispensable tool.
I routinely use it to mount:
- the home directory on my linux host (over ssh),
- my personal Amazon S3 account, and
- my company’s corporate Amazon S3 account
ExpanDrive relies on the MacFUSE kernel extension. MacFUSE is a Mac variant of the FUSE which allows programmers to implement complete filesystems as a user-space (i.e., not in the operating system kernel) application. This is a huge advantage the technical bits of which are beyond the scope of this post. Curious technical readers should check out the FUSE article at Wikipedia.
As a total bonus ExpanDrive supports and preserves OpenMeta metadata on the ssh and Amazon S3 volumes I’ve used. I’ll be writing another post on OpenMeta soon. Until then go get yourself a copy of ExpanDrive!
Filing email on your Mac
Every now and again you find a little piece of software that, in hindsight, you wonder how you lived without. A while ago I found just such a piece of software, MsgFiler. The developer recently released an upgrade exclusively through the Apple App Store which provoked me to purchase the upgrade and renew my appreciation for what I begun to think was a feature built-in to Apple Mail!
MsgFiler makes filing email messages as efficient as possible.
A few things make this a great match for me:
- First, I’m a keyboard person. If I can avoid reaching for the mouse/trackpad, I will. I’m much more productive that way.
- I get a lot of mail. Most of it I read and file. Some of it needs a response.
- Second, I have a lot of IMAP folders. Enough that navigating the hierarchy in order to file a current Inbox-resident email can be a hassle. I’ve tried various filing patterns and schedules – until now, all designed to time-box my filing effort. Until now… :^)
MsgFiler is invoked with a (configurable) hotkey (I used the suggested Apple-9 combination). You then get a dialog box for searching your folders (using an “incremental search” interface). When the search has narrowed your list you press your down arrow to drop into the selection box. Select the destination folder and press Enter. Message(s) is/are filed. Done. You can select multiple messages and file them. You can Copy messages (i.e., as opposed to moving them).
Highly recommended!
Caffeine for your Mac
Sometimes it’s the small things that make a difference. In this case a friend of mine referred me to a very clever little utility called Caffeine. From the product’s webpage:
Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Hold down the Command key while clicking to show the menu.
Run and get some.
Hard Drive Upgrade
It’s a drag to constantly watch your hard drive space and be in a constant state of housekeeping. Add to this the get-a-bigger-5400-rpm-drive-instead-of-a-smaller-7200-rpm-drive mistake I made a year ago and you have my recipe for a hard drive upgrade.
As part of my move to Leopard I wanted to take the opportunity to get a little hard drive headroom.
I found a reasonably priced and compatible model (Hitachi Travelstar™ 7K200) from macsales online store.
While the installation instructions seemed a little involved I actually have a decent set of tools. Turns out it was pretty easy. I am impressed at the assembly of the MBP. Lots of screws – all metal-on-metal.
If you’re thinking of an upgrade and have the tools and an open work area you should go for it!
Some bookmark sanity
Since my “clean” installation of Leopard I’ve been making a point to avoid making a mess of my “personal information space.” One area of marked progress has been my bookmarks.
A lot of my time is spent demonstrating our products. In various situations I use Safari (of course), Firefox, Opera, and Camino. I use multiple browsers in order to demonstrate application compatibility, to exercise multiple authenticated user perspectives and to take advantage of browser-specific features. My demos (and most of my routine browser use) are based on a large set of bookmarks.
Until today I tried (and mostly failed) to keep bookmarks in sync manually. Not any more!
Today I found Safari Bookmark Exporter (SBE).
SBE is a free and simple utility that exports my Safari bookmarks into mutiple formats. It is smart enough to find my Firefox profile directory and render a proper bookmarks.html. I’ve been using this just for a day and I can’t imagine not having it!
Leopard
I am finally a Leopard user!
I had been holding off pending the release of what I’d hoped would be a final release of my contact manager (Daylite from Marketcircle). Unfortunately, I was faced with waiting until mid-January (the next time I’d have the time to do something like this) or use a third-beta release. I chose the beta release. :^)
Getting Things Done & OmniFocus
As a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (aka GTD) approach to task management I was eager to see a “proper” implementation. I’ve experimented in the past with kGTD (the creator of kGTD has joined OmniGroup in a marketing capacity) and EasyTask. Neither had the desired level of polish and features.OmniGroup (developers of OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, etc.) recently announced that OmniFocus 1.0 will be released on January 8, 2008. I signed up to beta test this product in September or so and have been following it since. I’ve started using the recent betas as my primary means of task tracking and… it’s awesome. With a whopping five or six days of using it I recommend it.They have a deal going where if you order “soon” you get a fifty percent discount. I’m going to use this until just after Thanksgiving. If I like it then as much as I do now I’ll be a customer of yet another OmniGroup product.
