Neil Boyd

About Me | neilboyd.co.uk | fearofconfusion.com |

Categories | calepin | foc | itunes | mas |

Tags | one star | two star | three star | four star | five star | accounts | airfiles | apple_id | application | articles | attachment | blogger | bookmarks | box | calepin | chronories | cloudapp | codecademy | date | delicious | diary | dropbox | elements | email | evernote | filename | finder | ftp | gadget | google | guardian | howto | ia_writer | icloud | ideas | instapaper | ios | ipad | iphoto | ipod | itunes | jumper | launcher | learning | mac_app_store | mail | markdown | mobileme | news | notes | openphoto | organise | osx | pagination | password | photos | pinboard | postbox | postever | problem | quickever | review | reviewed | screencast | screenflick | settings | search | shortmail | sparrow | storage | textexpander | textforce | thoughts | tips | transmit | trying | utility | video_notes | webdav | wifi | wikipedia | writeroom | writing | youtube |

• Idea to make a future dated post that appears at the top of Page 1 and which contains the all the Categories and Tags in my posts.
• This provides a way to search my posts.
• By listing the categories and tag, I am more able to be consistent in their use and see which are unnecessary.
• Identifying the different Tags. Trying the idea of adding identification to tag types
  | general term | app or application | website or web service |
  
• Tags like Evernote, Instapaper and CloudApp can crossover between app and website but are marked according to which type of service the majority of posts are about.
• Could contain an About Me / Bio details with links my other sites.
• Could contain the Shortmail me! Widget.
• Shortmail widget could be added to posts individually.
• I have added "with_future_date": true to my setting.json file in the Dropbox/Apps/Calepin/ folder

Send an Email with 500 characters
or less, to me using:

Alternative ways to get to various places in Google Chrome, type about:[word] in the Omnibox (address bar) to jump to that section e.g.

• about:bookmarks = Bookmark Manager
• about:history = History
• about:extensions = Preferences > Extensions
• about:settings = Preferences > Basics

• about:kill = Aw, Snap! page (He's dead, Jim! on a Chromebook)

• about:crash = Aw, Snap! page

• about: = Version details
• about:cache = Cached pages
• about:plugins = Plug-ins
• about:flags = Experimental features. One that caught my eye is Photo Editing. With it enabled there is a View and edit button in the File Manager. Edit allows simple image editing such as crop, 90° rotate, auto-enhance.

• about:memory = Memory usage
• about:network = On Chromebook displays Wi-Fi Network information
• about:histograms = Meaningful to those that understand it
• about:dns
• about:stats ?

I have had a spate of very spammy-looking Twitter account following me. Whilst the names are always different the avatar photo ID is not.

Since version 15 update to Google Chrome I have been having problems with web pages freezing and needing to be killed.

Aw, Snap! Indeed.

So this could be an extension conflict problem or a corrupt user profile. Which ever it is, it will cost me some time to fix it.

Update:

I noticed that my Evernote Extensions were not updating using the Update extensions now button. I had to remove them and reinstall them to get the latest version in Google Chrome for Mac. They are the up-to-date versions on the Chromebook, so is this just a update issue with Chrome for Mac?

It seems on first test of pages that previously caused Aw, Snap! that with the updated Evernote extensions (particularly the Evernote Web Clipper which was called Clip for Evernote and was a relatively old version) these pages have loaded without problem.

I will need to do some more testing to see if the problem has really stopped. I will also need to keep an eye on what version numbers the extensions are and what is the latest version in the Chrome Web Store. I have regularly clicked the update extensions button but it appears not to work for all extensions.

Note: Trying to see what was different between Google Chrome on my Chromebook and my Mac I listed what was on each. In the lists below Apps/Extensions in bold are not on other device.

Update Mon-09-Jan-12: Still problems. Disabling all Extensions. Re-enabling them one-by-one. Trying different combinations of Extensions. There is not one Extension that causes the problems. It will appear that one is the problem but in another combination there is no problem when the previously problem Extension is re-enabled. Combine this with all same Apps and Extensions enabled on the Chromebook and there isn’t a problem with them (or I can’t recreate a problem page at the moment).

Update Tue-10-Jan-12: This is costing a lot of time. The only thing to do is to work with a vanilla Google Chrome, one with no apps nor extensions and see what happens.

Google Chrome for Mac (16.0.912.75)

Apps Installed

1. Chrome Web Store
2. Blogger
3. Picasa
4. Gmail
5. YouTube
6. Picnik
7. Scratchpad
8. Google Books
9. Google Docs
10. Google Maps Removed
11. Google News Removed
12. Google Reader
13. Box
14. Clock
15. (Kindle) Cloud Reader Removed
16. Evernote Web
17. HootSuite Removed
18. Pixlr-o-matic
19. Prezi Removed
20. QuietWrite Removed
21. 20 Things I Learned…

Extensions Installed

1. 1Password Removed Always locks page on first call with Cmd \
2. AVG Mobilation
3. bitly Removed
4. Blogger Dynamic Views (Google)
5. (Evernote) Clearly
6. Clock
7. Create Link
8. Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer (Google)
9. Email this page (Google)
10. Embedly
11. Evernote Web Clipper Problem
12. FastestTube
13. Google Dictionary
14. Google Quick Scroll
15. Google Tasks
16. Google Translate
17. Greplin
18. Native URL Shortener Removed
19. Paste to YoruFukurou
20. Picasa Uploader
21. Picnik Extension
22. Pixlr Grabber
23. Postponer Adder
24. Postponer Manager Removed Problem
25. RSS Subscription (Google)
26. Scratchpad
27. Screen Capture (Google)
28. Search by Image (Google)
29. Tab Menu
30. TinEye Reverse Image Search Removed

Chromebook Google Chrome 16.0.912.75

Apps Installed

1. Chrome Web Store
2. Blogger
3. Picasa
4. Gmail
5. YouTube
6. Picnik
7. File Manager
8. Scratchpad
9. Google Books
10. Google Calender
11. Google Docs
12. Google Maps
13. Google News
14. Google Reader
15. Box
16. Clock
17. Evernote Web
18. Pixlr-o-matic
19. HootSuite
20. Prezi
21. QuietWrite
22. Google Talk Launcher
23. 20 Things I Learned…
24. Entanglement

Extensions Installed

1. AVG Mobilation
2. bitly
3. Blogger Dynamic Views (Google)
4. (Evernote) Clearly
5. Clock
6. Create Link
7. Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer (Google)
8. Email this page (Google)
9. Evernote Web Clipper
10. FastestTube
11. Google Dictionary
12. Google Quick Scroll
13. Google Tasks
14. Google Translate
15. Greplin
16. Native URL Shortener
17. Picasa Uploader
18. Picnik Extension
19. Pixlr Grabber
20. Postponer Adder
21. Postponer Manager
22. RSS Subscription (Google)
23. Scratchpad
24. Screen Capture (Google)
25. Search by Image (Google)
26. Tab Menu
27. TinEye Reverse Image Search

ImageOptim is a free OS X application for optimising and so reducing the file size of images. It works via the Services Menu or simply launching the app and drag-and-drop a PNG, JPEG or GIF file onto its window. One extra component can added to enhance the PNG optimisation. The tool is called PNGOUT. It isn't essential for ImageOptim to work to have PNGOUT installed. I found that PNGOUT needed to be added to the hidden /usr/bin/ folder. Adding it to another folder did not work for me.

1. Download PNGOUT

2. Open: ImageOptim > Preferences… > PNGOUT
   

3. Type the PNGOUT path as: /usr/bin/pngout

4. Alteratively: It is possible to browse to the hidden folder in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Click Browser then press Command Shift . to reveal all hidden folders and files. Press same combination to hidden again. In this case, it's as easy to type the path.
   

5. Add the PNGOUT file into the /usr/bin/ folder. This is the method I used to add PNGOUT to /usr/bin/

6. Authenticate the move of PNGOUT to bin

I wondered how to reveal and open a hidden folder in OS X. There are applications that will show and navigate hidden folders, for example FolkLift. I know that the Finder can work with hidden folders once they have been made visible without the need for any other app. I knew that the folder I wanted was /usr/bin/. I used this method to reveal the folder:

1. In a browser (I used Google Chrome) enter web address of: file:///usr/
   

2. Drag the link to bin/ onto the Desktop
   

3. Double-click the file location icon
   

4. Finder opens the bin folder as a visible folder so that I can drag-and-drop files into it
   

With the demise on MobileMe, its web sites and easy blog hosting and publishing using iWeb, a vacuum has been created for easy blog writing and publishing. Saving plain text files to a Dropbox folder doesn't get much easier for creating a blog post. This appears to be the route take by three different sites, with the option to add formatting to the text using Markdown notation to make text bold, italic, add links, lists and pictures.

A couple of weeks ago I started trying Calepin.co. I like it. I like the look and feel of how it works. I am able to do what I have wanted, given my limited knowledge of such things. It is enough for me to understand.

Today I see there are two more such sites.
Scriptogr.am which appears very similar to Calepin. The signup and connection methods are identical to my memory. Scriptogram seems to manage files and posts slightly differently. There are plans for more customising of Scriptogram sites than Calepin says it will offer. I have connected Scriptogram to Dropbox and will give it a try.

Skrivr.com is also a Markdown / Dropbox blogging method as I understand it. Signup is by invite only. I do not have an invite but if I get one I will try it.

They all look to be trying to fill the void of simple blogging but from different angles. Hopefully not too many toes will be trodden on in the dance of these new hybrid blogging platforms.

Learning JavaScript Notes

• Confirm Dialog box: confirm("This will appear in a Dialog box")

• Alert Dialog box: alert("Stay Alert but not Alarmed")

• Declare a variable: var myName;
• Assign a variable: myName = "Neil";
• "Neil" is a literal string
• Variables and Literals can be treated in the same way.
• myName.lenght will return the value 4

• A variable can be the result of other variables and literals

• Modulus operator - Find remainder of a division using %
  Example: number % 10

• Text is entered as a String.
• All strings are surrounded by quotes.
• Text can be manpulated in same way as numbers.
• A substring is an extract from a string using the substring() method.
  Example: "hello".substring(0,2)
• Saving a substring to a variable: var three = "Neil".substring(0,3)

• Replace strings using replace(), in format: .replace("original","replacement")
  Example: "hello world".replace("hello","goodbye")

• .toUpperCase() or .toLowerCase() that is the question.

I saw a mention of Code Year on Twitter in the morning. In the evening when I looked at the Code Year site over fifty-three thousand had signed up. I entered my email and clicked the Start learning! button; a very simple and easy way to join up.

A little while later I got a confirmation email with a get started now link. So I have started. What it entails are a series of short interactive exercises introducing how to code with JavaScript. It is free. It encourages and it is positive in its instruction. Every stage is rewarded with points and achievement badges. Let's see if I can continue. Already I have seen benefit, in that I looked at a web pages source code and recognised some of the constructs of JavaScript.

Now the number signed up is over one hundred and forty thousand and counting which shows how many people want to learn.

Pleased I got this

Jumper is an OS X utility application for launching apps, opening documents or folders. I have tried a couple of (what I thought were similar) launcher application and have never got on with them. For some reason Jumper is different and it works for me. I have it set with a little half button at the top left of the screen. I click that button and out pops Jumper (if you like keyboard shortcut, it can be called with one of those too). Adding apps, folders, documents and creating 'categories' to contain these groups is simple and intuitive.

Why Jumper works for me is that it allows me to easily group together the apps and folders that I use with a project so I can quickly open and move between these elements without having to remember app names or folder paths and Jumper presents these elements in a clean, visual point-and-click way.

The Settings file for Calepin is a plain text file named settings.json which is saved in the same Dropbox/Apps/Calepin folder along with all the other post-files.md for Calepin. Currently my setting file consists of the following:

{
    "default_date_format": "%e %B %Y",
    "default_pagination": 6,
    "with_future_date": true
{

Update Wed-18-Jan-12:

Removed "with_pagination": true, as is no longer necessary.

A couple of thinks have happened that have made me re-look at the concept of Trust as a guiding knife as to whether to keep or kill a project. Kill being a metaphysical use of the word. Project being any object, application or work.

Can I rely on a thing? Can I Trust it? If yes, keep it. If no, get rid.

Let's try to make this a solid year of progress.

Instapaper iOS app has made a right mess of the pages forwarded to Evernote - not including the web page link and doubling up all pictures. It's a pain of an app. Following on from my Trust concept, Instapaper is an app to drop. Also all the links I sent to Pinboard bounced and were lost. Pig-boo.

With Pinboard, I think the password had been changed again by me after the connection was originally made between Instapaper and Pinboard, during the period I stopped using Instapaper. Rather than on my return to Instapaper, the app saying, "Oi, I can't connect to Pinboard, reconnect me", Instapaper carried on as if everything was OK. Leaving me to discover that the load of deleted article that I had bookmarked to Pinboard before deleting, have not been bookmarked. Leaving me with no record of the notes and tags I gave each article after reading it. Leaving me reminding myself never to use the Instapaper again.

Best way to use Wikipedia

• Two versions Articles and Articles for iPad
• Bought both versions after finding iPod version so easy and clear to use
• Got the supporting app On This Day…

Thoroughly recommend all of them.

A Crashing App

Stylist and innovative, the Guardian iPad edition delivers the news [crash] in a new and dynamic [crash] way. It's a very [crash] impressive app but it [crash], frequently, [crash] crashes on my iPad 1.

There are often article that have no Share button that are available to share from the website or the iPhone version of the Guardian. This I find frustrating. Although I think the app is very good, I won't be buying a monthly £10 subscription because of the crashing and the Sharing frustration.

I have the The Guardian for iPod(iPhone) with yearly subscription app. I will more likely renew this although it uses a subscription method that bypasses the App Store and I do not like to use.

Polished but Unreliable

Elements - Dropbox and Markdown Powered Text Editor looks good but I have found it unreliable and do not trust it with my data. When used with Dropbox I have had syncing problems. In the past, files we're corrupted or left blank. I have had 'ghost' files, where it shows there are files in Dropbox but has deleted them and left them in its local folder making me erroneously think they hadn't been deleted. Currently, on the iPad 1 iOS 5, syncing with Dropbox shows the file titles but no content with an 'Error Saving Local Changes' 'Cocoa Error 4'. When it works it looks pretty and is useful for displaying Markdown text but I have uninstalled it. I cannot trust it to work. Now I use Textforce for editing Dropbox text files.

Useful Day Cataloger

Since buying Chronories, I have used it everyday so it works. It is a way of cataloguing each day I use the computer without necessarily having to do anything. The key thing with a diary being that it is kept and Chronories has done this for me. I have found the record of hours spent at my machine and which apps I've been using each day, to be most helpful. I have tried other apps for this but I have found that Chronories does it the best, with the least intrusion and least use of CPU capacity. I have found the Developer helpful and responsive. Visually, I don't like the large mood icons nor the styling of the bar graphs. It would be nice to change them. Generally what is recorded, the time frame and style of graphs, can all be customised. I find that it is different from an app like Day One which I use as an hour-by-hour note keeper of what I'm doing, Chronories I use as an overall day insight and the diary enteries I make reflect that difference too.

Makes Fast, Easy Post to Evernote

Although Quick Ever can't post images, I find this an indispensible app and use it every day. Being a Plus app, the single purchase means I have both an iPod and iPad optimised version. It is a quick way to post notes to Evernote (Evernote being tediously slow when it contains thousands of notes). It works off-line. It's different from another third-party Evernote app I use daily called Post Ever in that Quick Ever does not join multiple posts into a single note within Evernote, each post is a single note which makes it good for posting ideas and thoughts to Evernote.

Excellent Day Note Diary

Multiple notes made over day are added to single note in Evernote make an excellent way to keep a work diary. (This can be changed in the app's setting but it's why I use this app.) There are two different versions one for iPad and iPod/iPhone, I have bought both because I like the app. Each post appears in chronological order in the same Evernote note whether posted from iPad or iPod. It's easy to add Camera or Photo Album images to notes but I rarely use this feature.

Post Ever | PostEver for iPad is a fast way to add multiple thoughts with each addition being time stamped. Notes can easily be edited or added to using the Desktop version of Evernote.

Write up how to use Transmit to mount a 'Drive' on the Mac Desktop to Box Share Folder. Making use of the free 50GB of storage on Box (if you access Box from the iOS app) much easier to use.

• Compare this to the OS X method that doesn't work for uploading. Method noted with Clarify is yet to be published.

Seeing plain text notes published on Calepin I find very encouraging to the processes of writing up notes. The title, date, category and tags inserted with TextExpander add structure to the note making process, increases focus on what the note is about and what I want to cover. It removes the blank-page block of writing. Saving them in the one Dropbox folder, dated and titled, gives them order and place. Seeing them on Calepin gives them purpose.

Suddenly short, throw-away notes have a purpose. It's worth writing things down. It's simple and no effort. It's better because they exists as a starting point if I want to continue writing on them. If I don't develop them then they still exists as a note and a note that I can view as an web post article. Writing things down and seeing them on a web page makes it more encouraging to polish the note into a full post. A post would never be written if I had intended to write a post.

The fact that a note is 'published' with each save removes the preciousness of having to 'make a post'. The use of Markdown means that even a simple bullet point list is easy to write. Start each line with a hyphen-space-word combination and I have a bullet-point web page note. Making a list of what I want to write about can be easily written and looks like a 'real' post when viewed on Calepin. Even a first 'brain-drain' stage of getting the points I want to make, out of my head and into words, becomes a 'valid' post on Calepin just because it has been saved to Calepin's Dropbox folder. I particularly like using the Mac App Store application iA Writer for the task of writing. It's a joy to use.

The fact too, that I can write these same text notes, to the same folder, using the same TextExpander trigger on my iPod or iPad using Textforce app is also very encouraging to writing down notes. (Elements--not an app I like--or any other text app that supports TextExpander and a user selectable folder on Dropbox can be used. Note: Some apps don't allow the user to choose the Dropbox folder to save to.)

Notes are not lost in some proprietary app or file format. They are not locked onto one device. They can be edited and updated on any device. When you see the text, it is in more human readable Markdown if any formatting or links have been added. (If you need to embed HTML things such as YouTube videos, that can be done using the standard HTML code.)

One thing that usually inhibits me is if things get too precious that I feel that cannot complete them perfectly. When I feel this towards something, I do not start it. If things become too important then I don't want to do it wrong. If I do not want to do it wrong then I become frozen. Calepin and informal notes that are posts feels like a way to 'break the ice' on preciousness, perfection and fear of failure and fear of being wrong. There is a greater chance of doing rather than just thinking about by breaking the resistance to the starting the doing-process.

With there being no difference between saving and publishing, or saving and updating. If I want to see the update in a browser, then I just go to Calepin.co and click publish to update all posts. If I want to use it on FoC, it's already written or at least started.

Well, that's the theory. Let's see what happens in practise over the coming months. My Calepin site is neilboyd.calepin.co

Write up of how I moved Delicious bookmarks to Evernote via Pinboard.

• Failure of AppleScript
• Success of WebApp and Pinboard XML

Some tips about what I do to manage and organise my photos and images in iPhoto.

I do not like iPhoto. I am using version 9 (iPhoto '11) on Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). It comes free with Macs. It is the default app for importing and managing all photos from camera cards and iOS devices when they are connected to the Mac. I use it to manage all my images from my iOS devices. I find it difficult to use when managing lots of images. These are the techniques I use to try and make iPhoto manageable.

1. Keep images from different devices grouped in separate Events
2. Keep each Event to contain a single month's worth of images.
3. Use tags on images I want to collect together.
4. Use Smart Folders to show the tagged images

Notes on First Go

• Sunflower for system audio record already install with version 1 so I didn't need to install anything (check Mac audio is recording).
• Microphone sound recording from built in microphone sounds loud. Better (louder and more clear) than usual.
• Fixed screen record area is clear to see.
• The options to follow the cursor are difficult to use without a far bit of practise because you cannot see what part of the screen is being record.
• It is posible to change the camera record mode during recording. Press Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-2 (can be changed) during recording, the recording pauses and a dialog appears that lets you choose the record type. Problem: Having started with an outlined fixed screen, changing to a moving area keeps the outlined area (good) but during export of the finished movie this outline appears in the screencast (bad).
• Try recording with a moving camera then change to fixed and see what happens.
• Easy to add a watermark to the video.
• Doesn't seem that you can change font for the keyboard key display.
• Movie can be exported in various formats with or without mouse and keyboard clicks being shown after recording.
• No post recording editing can be done
• Can choose to record just a window by clicking on it.

One observation on uploading images and photos, the Photo details are governed by the EXIF data in the image. This data cannot be edited on OpenPhoto therefore to organise images by date, edit the EXIF data before uploading.

PNG files are uploaded and shown on OpenPhoto but PNG images cannot contain EXIF / IPTC data so will always be the date of upload.

The OpenPhoto Project is an opensource project for photo sharing that can use Dropbox, Amazon S3 and other servers to store the images, with the app to display the images installed on ones own server or more easily using OpenPhoto.me. I wondered if it was a way to 'house' photos used in Calepin blog posts with both being stored in the Dropbox/Apps folder.

I had a fairly frustrating time trying to set it up. The connection to Dropbox caused a server error. OpenPhoto BrowserID login method locked up in Google Chrome browser and I had to complete the process in Safari. Once logged in, OpenPhoto said I am using an Amazon AWS S3 bucket supplied by OpenPhoto and that Dropbox in not connected and yet an OpenPhoto folder has been added to my Dropbox/Apps folder. When I upload or delete a photo using the openphoto site, it is added or deleted from my Dropbox. Update: Apparently it was a bug which has now been fixed is the connection is showing correctly in OpenPhoto Settings.

The URL for each of my images is awesomeness.openphoto.me and not neilboyd.openphoto.me which has surprised me. I've had a look at someone else's account image URLs via Google and they have username.openphoto.me on some photos and awesomeness.openphoto.me on others. So maybe this URL scheme is evolving and each image has a unique URL that isn't tied to an account name should that username change.

Overall, not a happy start. Not what I was expecting. OpenPhoto is a site to display photos in a gallery and have people comment on them. It is not geared toward housing my photos with an easy way to embed them in my blogs or on Twitter. I wondered whether OpenPhoto would have the options to share or embed an image like this on Skitch but with my images kept in Dropbox.

this is the page at my Skitch

OpenPhoto is at an early stage of development. It is just starting to open up to a non-developer know-nothing like me with the OpenPhoto.me hosted option. I don't understands the APIs and PHP frontend stuff on github. I thought OpenPhoto might be more like Calepin.co for easy start, with an easy way to embed my photos. Maybe it will be.

This an image I have on neilboyd.openphoto.me

The date format of the post can be changed using the setting.json file that can be saved within the Dropbox/Apps/Calepin folder. By default the date is in the American format of Month day, Year.

Calepin uses the Python time strftime() Function. From this site's Directives, I added the following to the settings.json file to get a UK date format.

{
    "default_date_format": "%e %B %Y"
}

My current settings.json file is:

{
    "default_date_format": "%e %B %Y",
    "with_pagination": true,
    "default_pagination": 7
}

By default the index page of a Calepin site is a long list of the post titles. This can be limited to a default of ten post titles on a page. The number of post titles can also be changes. The way to specify how to do this is a little unclear on the Calepin Guide page. I have found that:

• : true must be added to the "with_pagination" setting.
• If there is more than one line of settings, all except the final line need a comma at the end. (This may be obvious to a coder but not to a layman like myself.)
• The number of posts needs to be greater than the default or specific number of posts per index page before the Page 1 of x is shown.
• There is no problem with_pagination added to settings when less posts than specified are on the page.
• Changes to the settings.json plain text file take effect next time the Publish button is clicked.

Example of the settings.json file. This plain text file is saved in the Dropbox/Apps/Calepin folder :

{
    "with_pagination": true,
    "default_pagination": 7
}

These settings will add page numbering on the index page once there are more than seven posts.

I am trying a TextExpander snippet with the Calepin metadata of:

Title: %|
Abstract:
Date: %Y-%m-%d %1H:%M
Category:
Tags:
Status: Draft
Slug:

Update Wed-18-Jan-12: New slug added, Abstract: for a précis of the post to be shown under the title on the Index page.

Title:, Category: and Tags: will all be filled in but Status: and Slug: will mostly be blank.

I want to try a post to see if posting blank Status and Slug metadata causes a problem.

Update:
With Status: blank and Slug: blank when Published, one new post was indicated but no new post showed on the site.

With Status: deleted and Slug: blank the Post published but the URL was http://neilboyd.calepin.co/.html

Conclusion:
Delete all blank or unused metadata placement holders.

One thing about the Textforce iOS app that confused me originally was that only .txt files were shown in Dropbox when in the app's Settings it says any file extension can be saved (as I understand it.)

It isn't clear but to use an extension other than txt it must be added to the Setting panel and the extension must be added without the dot prefix -- md not .md

By default all new files have the .txt extension but this can be edited. If md is not added as an extension in Settings then .txt will be added to the end of each file regardless of what it has been changed to.

Flushed with the success of posting to Calepin from the iPad, I am trying this from an iPod. I am using the Textforce app because of its ability to work with any Dropbox folder and to set the file extension. Textforce also works with TextExpander.

It's interesting to see which apps work with the Dropbox/Calepin and that this combination is flexible enough to work across devices, apps and OSs.

I am re-editing this using Elements app. Both Elements and Textforce are Plus apps and work equally well on an iPad. Both allow Dropbox folder selection and file extension setting. Elements has a Markdown preview mode. Following big problems I've had with Elements when using a folder with hundreds of files, I do not like to use the Elements app but am giving it a go. Elements works with TextExpander.

For the hell of it, I have re-linked WriteRoom on the iPod to the Calepin Dropbox folder and am using it the edit this paragraph. WriteRoom is the least flexible of the three apps for changing Dropbox folders. It requires unlinking Dropbox. Manually typing in the correct file hierarchy to the Calepin folder. Checking that md is an accepted file extension then re-authorising the connection to Dropbox. Textforce is the easiest and most flexible for moving and working with different Dropbox folders. WriteRoom works with TextExpander and is a Plus app.

I am trying calepin.co. It is a site that connects to Dropbox to enable Markdown text files save into the Calepin folder within Dropbox, auto-magically become web posts via the Calepin site.

It's easy to get started. On the Calepin site I enter in a username. The next step take me to authorising a connection between Calepin and my Dropbox account. Once logged into the Calepin site, creating a Dropbox hosted blog posts is just a click away.

1. Save Markdown text files to the Apps/Calepin folder within Dropbox
2. Click Publish on calepin.co
3. The post is created or updated at my Calepin site

Each update needs to be Published again using the Calepin Publish button after the updated file has been saved within Dropbox. Refreshing the browser with not show the update.

There are certain metadata words to include in each post file such as date and title. The default setting of these could be added using TextExpander. More information about using Calepin is on the Calepin Guide.

At the moment I am trying out this combination of Calepin and Dropbox. So far, I like it.

Sparrow email client for OS X can send attachments with emails in the traditional way or it can make use of the Cloud storage services of Dropbox or CloudApp. Sparrow does all the uploading to the Cloud service then copies the Cloud service link into the email making the process very easy. I have done a couple video screencasts showing adding an attachment with Sparrow using CloudApp and Sparrow using Dropbox in earlier posts. The Cloud storage attachment method can get around the problem of file size limitations set by email services.

One thing I like about using Dropbox for attachments is that I can update linked files. For example, if I send someone a PDF document then after sending it I see that glaring spelling mistake (the one in the main title that everyone else see instantly), with Dropbox I can replace the error-ridden PDF with an updated one and so long as the updated file is exactly the same name as the original and in the same Dropbox folder, the Dropbox link in the email will not be broken. Everyone who received the email will download the updated PDF. No further emails need be sent.

Originally Sparrow used the CloudApp service. In Sparrow's last update it added the Dropbox service. What I didn't realise was that this is an EITHER / OR option. With having the CloudApp already setup, I didn't see Dropbox as available. To get the choice I needed to Disconnect from CloudApp first.

Connect Sparrow with Dropbox

1. Disconnect CloudApp

1. Click Sparrow > Preferences... > Services
2. Click Disconnect

2. Choose Attachment Service

1. Click Dropbox

3. Log in to Dropbox

1. Enter Dropbox Email and Password
2. Click Log in

4. Allow Sparrow to Connect to Dropbox

1. Click Allow to Connect Sparrow with Dropbox

5. Dropbox as Attachment Service

To go back to using CloudApp, Disconnect Dropbox and re-connect CloudApp.

[1:19s] The latest update to Sparrow email client version 1.5 on Mac OS X adds the option to use Dropbox for email attachments. Shortmail is a text only email account for emails of less than 500 characters. Using all there together makes adding 'attachment' links to Shortmail emails very easy to do. Sparrow can also do the same thing with CloudApp and Shortmail.

Links in Shortmail emails work within the Shortmail iPhone app.

One thing to be aware of with the link created by Shortmail, which is a shortened link of the Dropbox link [see update below], is that this shortened link is not secure. It can potentially be viewed by anyone. Anyone can type in a variation of the final few letters of an http://shml.me/ link and see the result of that 're-created' link. There is a chance that the random 'found' link could be to your image or file. Some people like to play this type of 'link roulette' to see what surprises they might find. So I would not use Shortmail and this technique to send links to images or information that I want to keep secret. (Mind, is anything secret on the web?)

Link Roulette can be played with other very short URL schemes. I first came aware of it with CloudApp and cl.ly links using four characters. CloudApp have a more private http://cl.ly link followed by 20 characters which is now the default link used by them. You can choose to use the shorter 4 character link by default or on an individual basis. Dropbox iOS app can create a http://db.tt link using 8 characters.

Note that Sparrow puts the image in the Public folder within Dropbox but uses a 32 character unique name for the folder in which the attachment is place. So this potential privacy issue is from using Shortmail with Sparrow and Dropbox because Shortmail makes a short link of the Dropbox link. It does not happen when Sparrow and Dropbox is used with another IMAP email account such as Gmail. Now following the Shortmail update nor does it happen with Shortmail!

Update: A few hours after I posted this, Shortmail change how they handle Dropbox Public links. They are no longer shortened, more can be read here: http://blog.shortmail.com/2011/12/using-sparrow-and-dropbox/

Air Files is an iOS app that can store and view multiple different file formats whether they are images, audio or Office documents and more. The app comes in two versions: ファイル君(Air Files) for iPhone or iPod Touch or AirFilesHD for iPad. It is one of the least expensive apps for transferring files onto an iOS device without going through iTunes or needing to upload files to Dropbox. I have used them since version one and used FTP file transfer to move multiple files in one go onto the iOS devices. With version three of Air Files for iPhone/iPod, the FTP transfer stopped working for me. Connection kept being refused. Transfer of files, one at a time, still worked with a browser but that becomes tedious with lots of files.

The solution I found was to use my FTP client, Transmit, but use the protocol of WebDAV and the server settings of HTTP. This is what I did to make file transfer work again:

1. Air Files Wi-Fi Transfer settings on iPod
Launch Air Files on the iPod and tap Wifi

1. I used the HTTP server settings. The number before the colon (3 in my case) is different on different devices. The other numbers (8080) stay the same.
2. I needed to enter a simple name and password to make the process work.

2. Setting up Air Files Connection in Transmit
In Transmit I click the WebDAV button to create a connection favourite.

1. Choose the Protocol: WebDAV
2. The server number is the number given next to HTTP on the iPod before the colon (:8080)
3. Use the User Name and Password entered on the iPod
4. The Port is the number given after the colon on the iPod. In my case 8080. Do not include the colon.
5. Click the + to add the settings. Then click Save

3. Apple System Preferences Sharing
On the Mac the File Sharing needs to be checked. Click Apple > System Preferences…

1. Click Sharing
2. Check File Sharing

4. File Sharing Options
Having checked File Sharing, to the right of the System Preferences File Sharing window there is an Options button:

1. Click Options...

5. Share Files Using FTP
I have found that I also need to:

1. Check Share files and folders using FTP

6. Connect Transmit to Air Files

• Launch Air Files on the iPod
• Double-click the Transmit connection saved earlier
• Hopefully the Air Files folders will appear in Transmit ready to drag and drop files into.

Given my troubles with MobileMe Mail and the Mac's Mail application, I am trying out Postbox version 3 email client. Initial impression is that Postbox is a clean looking app with nice touches.

Adding the MobileMe Mail account went smoothly. I have also been able to add an iCloud Mail account to Postbox and again this went without problems. To add the iCloud Mail to Postbox, I used the Mail server settings given on the Apple Support page. With the MobileMe Mail account I am still getting password rejection problems.

I have been able to get the MobileMe password accepted when using Postbox by:

1. Cancelling the password request dialog
2. Quiting Postbox
3. Re-launching Postbox
4. Entering the MobileMe password in the password dialog that appears on re-launch but sadly this does not always work. At least Postbox doesn't remove all my previously downloaded emails when this happens like Apple's Mail.app does.

I don't know why Sparrow email client app is immune to these password problems but currently it is, thankfully. I hope to write a comparison of my feelings towards Sparrow and Postbox when I have spent more time with them both.

One of the first 'touches' that I noticed and liked when using Postbox is how it connected a reply to the original sent message in a very clear and useful way. It's much like some Twitter clients show a conversation and initially it appears much easier to follow than the Gmail variation. The image below illustrates how clicking on the message box underneath the reply reveals the original message from the Sent box.

Send an Email with 500 characters
or less, to me using:

Shortmail is an email account that is created by signing in to shortmail.com using Twitter authorisation. It's a bit different from standard email in that each message is limited to 500 characters (about 80 words) with no attachments, so messages are brief. It can be used privately, like a sightly longer-form Twitter DM conversation but without the need to follow one another. It can be used publicly where any one can see the conversation on the web or even public and open, in which anyone can participate via the web page, much blog like comments.

Shortmail has just released a free iOS app version of Shortmail. A Shortmail account can be setup from within the app. The iOS app makes using Shortmail very easy, quick and responsive.

With Shortmail being an IMAP email account it can also be added to a standard email client by setting up a password and following the instruction once logged into the Shortmail website under the Account > Advanced settings. It can be very easily added to the Sparrow email client with just the Shortmail email address and password. An advantage of the Sparrow client is that it displays a character count as you type although it is not as quick to notify of messages as the iOS app.

There is a Shortmail Me! Widget that can add a button or link to a web page to enable any one to click and send a short message. I wondered how easy this would be to add to a Google Blogger site and the answer is very easy:

1. Simply copy the button or link code from the Shortmail Me! Widget page.

2. On Blogger: go to the My Blogs Overview > Layout > Add a Gadget and choose the HTML/JavaScript gadget. Click the plus symbol to add it.

3. Paste the Shortmail code into the Contents area of the gadget window.

4. Replace YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS with your Shortmail address.

5. Save.
6. Adjust the layout position of the gadget on the layout page as desired.

Having added it to this Blog, I will find out what happens in practice.

Since iCloud came into being and because I've stayed on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, I've been unable to move MobileMe to iCloud, resulting in nothing but problems with MobileMe Mail.

On iOS devices I've just clicked OK to warnings that my username or password are incorrect. The result may be that my latest emails are not downloaded but the ones already downloaded have remain on the device and then things seem to work again. After a period of time and by doing nothing suddenly new emails appear in the inbox. The issue is different on the Mac.

On the Mac, if I type in my password to the dialog it is refused everytime. My only choice is to Cancel. If I then Quit and Relaunch Mail.app then my MobileMe account is removed and all my previously downloaded emails are unavailable.

Sometimes I can get them back by entering my password in the Settings for the MobileMe account within Mail.app. Sometimes I have had to delete my MobileMe account from Mail.app then add it again. Sometimes I have had to re-add it and do the Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Accounts Information > Incoming Mail Server: Password: [enter password]. I find that entering my password via Apple > System Preferences... > MobileMe > Account doesn't solve the problem. I need to add it in Mail.app Preferences.

This problem has been on going since 10 October 2011 and the launch of iCloud . On Friday 25 November, the problem got worse. When I deleted my MobileMe account from Mail.app, I was unable to add it back because the password was refused every time during the initial stage of adding the email account back into Mail.app . This meant that all my emails were deleted from my Mac, I couldn't add them back and the only way to access them being online via a browser. On my iOS devices, the password was now always refused and the inbox was not being updated on each device.

Whilst I was unable to add my MobileMe Mail account to the Apple Mail.app, I was able the add the account to a third-party email client called Sparrow first time and without problem. I have changed my default email client from Mail.app to Sparrow by changing the Preferences in Mail.app to Mail > Preferences... > General : Default email reader: Sparrow. Yes, I know, read it and weep Apple. These are not happy times for me and Apple products. (Alternatively, Sparrow can be set to be default mail reader from Sparrow > Preferences... > General: System: [Check] Make Sparrow the default mail reader. I prefer to set it from within Mail.app because if feels more insulting to the app that's giving me grief.)

With MobileMe in the iCloud era, there are two IDs: an Apple ID (that works with iTunes Store, Apple Online Store, the Mac App Store) and the MobileMe Primary Email ID. They can be one and the same email address or different. You can associate more that one email address with an Apple ID. This works around the problem of someone who used a different email address with FaceTime to still be able to use that FaceTime connection and be linked with the one Apple ID. In theory the .Mac [username]@mac.com is interchangeable with the MobileMe [username]@me.com but I have had issues. I have not had issues with an account created in the MobileMe era (post .Mac era) which only has an @me.com email address. The problems come with my main and older @mac.com/@me.com email address.

Amazingly, I just had a thought that I had an iTools email account prior to 2002. I wondered if this was causing the problem. I have been able to reclaim it using https://appleid.apple.com . That account has one email address unified as an Apple ID and Primary Email Address. Beautiful. Sadly my main .Mac / MobileMe email-account-and-everything-bought-from-Apple ID refuses to be unified. It says that the Email address is already verified for another Apple ID. BUT I HAVE ONLY USED IT WITH THE ONE APPLE ID ACCOUNT. Give me strength. This main Apple ID spans the era of .Mac to MobileMe and so has both an @mac Apple ID and an @me Primary Email Address. I wonder now if there is an Apple ID for [username] without the @mac.com or @me.com to add to the confusion. Clearly the simple elegance of Apple hardware engineers design is not matched by their confused software engineers Clouded Services vision. What it means is that when I add my @me.com email to Mail.app it has the Apple ID of the @mac.com account but Mail.app uses the mail.me.com and smtp.me.com servers of MobileMe which then reject my Apple ID @mac password. My @mac password is of course the same password as my @me password because it is the same username account that Apple in its infinite wisdom decided to give two email address when launching the MobileMess.

I have now deleted and MobileMe Mail accounts on my iOS devices. When I re-add my Primary Email to Mail on the iOS devices, using the @me.com email, the account ID is changed to the @mac.com Apple ID and the servers are also changed to the .Mac era ones of mail.mac.com and smtp.mac.com . I am unable to change this on the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard version of Mail.app.

So now I am into a new day and Mail.com refuses my MobileMe password yet again. The problem continues. I need the sword of Alexander the Great to cut through this Gordian knot. Maybe it's available on eBay or maybe I should cut my losses and just use Gmail.

[0:38s] Sparrow from the Mac App Store is a mail client. From version 1.1, it can add any IMAP email account including MobileMe, Yahoo and Gmail. This video note shows how to re-order a list of accounts in Sparrow.

Sparrow Default 'From' Account
I notice that with Sparrow set as the default email client, the top email account in the list is the default email account from which new emails are sent. Update: Which ever account is selected in Sparrow becomes the account used as the 'default' account. So if a I choose to email a link from the browser and Sparrow is open and the third account down the list is selected, that third account will be the 'From' account (it's easy to change the From account but take care not to overlook this). If Sparrow is quit and I email a link from the browser, Sparrow will launch and the top account in the list of email accounts will by default be selected and so will be the 'From' account.

Note on ScreenFloat Mask in screencast
To try out an idea for hiding part of the screen, I used a screenshot of the Desktop background to cover the email account names using the app called ScreenFloat. With hindsight, it would have been better to have used a plain piece of the Preferences panel and resized it, to cover the details.