eugene gordin

Just a quick post today about something I’ve been patiently waiting to be released: Silverflow Interface for Quicksilver.

I’ve written about Quicksilver before, and now that its open-source I still highly recommend it. However, for those looking for a little more dazzle for their Quicksilver interface can download Silverflow, a coverflow-type interface.

Julius Eckert has more than a handful of very good looking QS interfaces, but Silverflow is now in open beta and I recommend those that don’t mind little beta bugs to try it out. Its a beautiful thing.

[Quick note: to install Silverflow, simply double click on the .tgz file that you get from Julius' site, and then double click on the Silverflow.qsplugin that gets extracted. Then, fire up Quicksilver and press cmd+(comma) to see the Quicksilver preferences. In the Preferences section, click on Appearance in the column on the left, and then under Command Interface select Silverflow. All done!]

Tags: Technology
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In my search for the ability to hide an app’s dock icon, I ran across a little application called Dockless, which removes the application’s dock icon even when its running. The program is amazingly simple: it surveys all of the applications on your Mac and then gives you the option of having a dock icon for it while its running or not. You can just as easily restore the dock icon for an application as you hid it.

There is one downside to this approach (which as far as I know is the only approach to this problem). When you hide the dock icon for an application, you will no longer be able to control it if you close its window. Since you’d use Dockless on the kind of applications you want to hide tend to be those that should run in the background without much intervention anyway, this isn’t much as problem.

However, I have found that that problem is easily remedied by two different solutions

1. You can bring up the program’s main window by relaunching the program (a quick keystroke in Quicksilver or from Finder), which will bring up the program’s window again.
2. You can get to the program’s preferences by remembering the keyboard shortcut for preferences on a Mac (typically ? + ,)
3. Worse comes to worst, you can always rerun Dockless and re-enable the app’s dock icon. Configure what you need, and then hide the icon again with Dockless.

So there you have it – a simple app that provides a simple solution for an annoying problem – be sure and check out Dockless!

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I’m pretty anal about my stuff. Ask my friends, they’ll undoubtedly agree, I like to keep a clean house. Therefore, just as I like my room clean, I like my computer clean too, especially when it comes to my desktop.

As announced at WWDC, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will include a “new” desktop feature called Stacks, which basically allows you to quickly access your downloads folder in a Apple-esque, beautiful way. The reason I have the word new in quotes is because this feature is technically available right now in OSX 10.4 Tiger, albeit not as pretty. I used to use this method to access my Applications, before I realized that Quicksilver blew this method out of the water.

Currently however, most people’s download folder (on a Mac) is their desktop, which tends to lead to uncurtailed clutter, only justified by easy access to the files you just downloaded. Stacks (in Leopard), and moving your downloads folder to somewhere other than the desktop and using the folder method (in Tiger, mentioned above) can help clean up this clutter, but both don’t quite solve the problem.

In fact, both methods move your downloads away from your desktop, like throwing all of your clothes in your closet and shutting the door, merely hiding the problem instead of fixing it. That’s where Hazel steps in, cleaning up your closet folders based on whatever criteria you want. Let me give an example:

Since I read a lot of music blogs, I often find myself downloading single mp3s here and there that I find in posts. These files then sit in my downloads folder until I drag them into iTunes into my Music To Explore playlist. However, with Hazel, I can automate this action, telling Hazel to monitor my Downloads folder for mp3 files, and, when it finds some, to add them to my Music To Explore playlist and then delete the files from my Downloads folder. This is all done VERY simply with Hazel’s straightforward interface, and rules can be created to do all kinds of interesting things. I quote from TUAW:

“Hazel can automatically import image files into iPhoto, music into iTunes, add Spotlight comments, organize files into folders and even subfolders, add Finder color labels to files, run AppleScripts and so much more. Hazel can even manage your Trash for you by setting a specific time frame after which older (but not all) files should be deleted, or even a size limit that the Trash should be kept under (say, 2 GB). All this is done completely and transparently in the background, allowing you to get things done while Hazel works its magic.”

Hazel is a very cool program, and can help remove the clutter on your Mac, regardless of where the clutter is. Check it out at Noodlesoft, its got a free demo version on the site and the program is only $16. If you have any questions on how to set up Hazel, leave me a message and I’ll gladly help you out!

Tags: Apple, Interesting Finds, Software, Tips
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Have you ever copied something from one place, intending to paste it somewhere else but you never actually pasted it? Later you realize that you have since copied something else to your clipboard, and that first clipping is now gone? I do it all the time. I just forget that I wanted to paste that paragraph or message, and move on to copying other things.

Well, luckily our good (and extremely helpful) friend Quicksilver has the perfect solution for this – the clipboard module. Basically, once you install it, it keeps track of the last 50 or 100 items on your clipboard, and allows you to easily access and paste them, even after you copied something else. To try it out:

1. Open your Quicksilver preferences
2. Click on the Plug-ins button in the toolbar
3. Click on the All Plug-ins section in the left column
4. Look for and check the box next to the Clipboard Module (this should install it)
5. Once installed, click on the Preferences button in the toolbar
6. Click Clipboard in the left column
7. Check the capture history box
8. Choose how many clipboard items you want Quicksilver to keep track of
9. Check the Hide after pasting button (optional)
10. Close the preferences window

You’re all done. Now when you want to see your clipboard, open Quicksilver like you normally would and press Apple+L. You should now see a clickable list of what’s on your clipboard. Just click on the item you want and Quicksilver will not only put the item at the top of the list, but also paste the item in whatever field you have clicked at the time.

Its a very simple, smart solution for a common problem. Try it out and let me know if its helpful!

Tags: Apple, Software, Tips
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I am a big fan of Quicksilver. Rare is the day that I sit in front of someone’s Mac without recommending they download it. However, it wasn’t always like this. Even as an avid reader of all kinds of Mac sites, it was only after several months that I realized how truly powerful, simple, and effective Quicksilver really is.

If you haven’t heard of Quicksilver before, it is a file launcher. I’ll provide an example: Lets suppose I needed to open up good ol’ trusty TextEdit. On a regular machine, I would go to Finder, go to Applications, find TextEdit, and double click on the icon. That seems like a lot of steps for an action I do all the time. With Quicksilver, I simply press Apple+Space, start typing the first several letters of TextEdit, and it brings up the TextEdit icon for me, and I simply press return to open the program. Quicksilver does all of the finding for me. All I need to do is know the name. It also works for your files, not just applications. It also does all kinds of other interesting things. If you’re a visual learner like me, there are tons of Quicksilver tutorials on YouTube (like this one). Sounds both helpful and a little daunting right?

Luckily, LifeHacker, a website that I read daily has offered a Beginner’s Guide to Quicksilver, which, in very basic terms explains what Quicksilver is, how to install it, and several great ways to use it. This is the first part in a multipart series, and I will update you guys on when new parts come out.

I highly recommend every Mac user get and use Quicksilver (its 100% free!) as well as read the LifeHacker guide. It is by no means a “poweruser” tool, and is an extremely useful addition to any Mac.

Tags: Apple, Software, Tips
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I’m back with the third and final installment of my series on essential software for all new computers. While the first and second parts of this series covered the basic necessities, this third part will cover software that is just good to have around (for both Macs and PCs). Lets start with software for OSX, and finish with a couple PCs applications.

For OSX:

Internet Telephone Skype: Skype allows you to speak to anyone in the world with a computer and an internet connection for free. You can also currently make free calls to any telephone number in the US, and make international calls for fixed minute rates. Video chat is also available. Application Launcher Quicksilver: An application launcher, Quicksilver can speed up drastically everyday tasks by allowing you to do a variety of things with simple keystrokes. Space Saver Monolingual: Monolingual is a must have application for all users that are, well, monolingual. Basically this program allows you to remove all of the unneeded language files except the one you need. It can save you up to 3GB of space! Notifications Growl: Growl is a notification system for OSX that can alert you about anything from instant messages, to finished FTP tasks, to a new song playing in iTunes, all with a beautiful customizable interface.

For PCs:

Archiver WinRar: WinRar is a replacement for windows compressed folder handling. It allows you to both create and extract all kinds of compressed filetypes. iTunes iTunes: There’s really no good reason to recommend iTunes except that its probably the best music player out there for windows. Also, I really like it because it gives Windows users a look into the simplicity that is Mac OSX.

Well that pretty much wraps up this series. I hope that it helped and if you know of any software that I missed, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll add it.

Tags: Apple, OS Independent, Software, Windows
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