PanaGeek

Well, it isn’t much of a change, but I traded in the generic banner for a photo from Resurrection Bay, Alaska. I’m not completely happy with the text color, but I’ll leave it for another day.

MacZOT.com is a web site dedicated to cool software for Mac users. They are currently running another BlogZOT!, which is where people post about the website and/or a certain piece of software. Pzizz sounds like an interesting piece of software, and I plan to try it out. Here are the BlogZOT! details:

MacZOT.com Fans want Pzizz because ‘According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep deprivation and its effect on work performance may be costing U.S. employers some $18 billion each year in lost productivity. Another study pushes this cost to over $100 billion.’ – link to full article

I like text editors. They’re kind of like word processors, except they focus more on function than form in what you write. I have used SubEthaEdit for a couple of years, mainly because it is fast and does a good job of text coloring. In XCode, I was using the built-in editor but I didn’t like how the auto-complete works. It is very aggressive, so that I often had to go back and delete text that it had inserted. Then I read an article about TextMate in MacTech Magazine. TextMate is a highly customizable editor that allows you to do all sorts of cool stuff when coding. While it has a lot of methods for doing this, the end result is that you save time and reduce error by inserting blocks of code. This goes above and beyond most text editors that complete a command, or a command and its arguments (like XCode does). For example, typing “class” and hitting the tab key produces this (while typing python code):

class ClassName (object):

def __init__(self, arg):
    self.arg = arg
    pass

You can’t see it here, but TextMate highlights the word ClassName, allowing you to overwrite it with the actual class name. Then, when you hit tab it highlights the word “object” again allowing you to type in your code. In short, it is great for me when I forget how to write a class in a given language. Additionally, TextMate can be used as the default editor in XCode, giving the cocoa programmer the best text editor in the best development platform.

What make all of this coolness happen are bundles. Bundles are modules that address a specific coding language. Users can modify existing modules or write their own. I saw a bundle called TODO yesterday that looked interesting. It allows a coder to place comments in code, such as “TODO” or “FIXME” that the TODO bundle can parse and create a To Do list. While this is cool for coders, I also thought that the functionality would be cool for GTD.

I created a GTD bundle using the TODO bundle as a base. I added custom functions to add tasks, change tasks to complete, and that sort of thing.

This is a great tool. In my opinion, it is emacs for OS X, without the psychoanalyst!

Well, I went out and bought the new Army jammies today. Maybe I’ll change my mind in a while, but I’m not impressed. The fabric seems very light, like it would last about half an hour in the jungle, less if I was in a hurry. Velcro is great for kids’ clothes, but it seems like the designer had a friend who owned a velcro factory. Final initial thought – if the jacket can use a zipper closure, why can’t the trousers? I’ll try posting again after I’ve worn these clothes for a while.

I just stumbled across a new feature in iTunes, called “Just for You.” This is a playlist based on songs that you have bought in the past. While the suggested albums may not be great matches, the individual songs were quite good. I may end up buying some of the recommendations – which will only generate even better recommendations…

On a related tangent, I hope that I never lose my iPod. It’s not about lost songs (I back all of my music up) or even identity theft – it’s more about somebody I know discovering how strange I truly am. How this ties in to the previous statement is that Apple now seems to be able to guess my tastes in music. How long before, “So, what’s on your iPod?” is a standard interview question?