Our New York City client is a full-service agency for the digital age. They are looking for 2 full time, on-site, salaried Senior iPhone App Developers paying to $140,000 + benefits. Relocation assistance provided if required. US Citizens, Green Card holders, EAD or CAN only please.

POSITION #1 – Senior iPhone App Developer, NYC 100-130k
POSITION #2 – Mobile Tech Lead, NYC 120-140k

Skill Requirements:

* Strong C, C++ and Objective C
* XML and SQL
* MVC design pattern
* Xcode
* iPhone SDK

Both roles are VERY hands-on senior, hard core, iPhone App Developer roles where the person/s they hire for each role has been 100% hands-on for years, not necessarily iPhone apps of course, but C, C++, Objective-C and the like for a majority of their career. Current iPhone app dev experience as well.

TO APPLY: The absolute best way to apply for this job would be to not only submit your resume and/or portfolio or samples, but to elaborate on how your experience relates to the job description and submit your salary requirements to beau-AT-open-source-staffing.com – These applications will get noticed first.

Thank you and happy holidays,

Beau J. Gould
Open Source Staffing
www.open-source-staffing.com
beau-AT-open-source-staffing.com

So as noted, I tried using PathTools with FleBuilder under Eclipse 3.5 except FlexBuilder just has too many issues under 3.5. I gave up on PathTools with FlexBuilder but it’s been just awesome with the recent JaveEE 3.5 build. I only had one not-even-gripe as there really isn’t anything to complain about. It opens Terminal for the new paths instead of iTerm. Fortunately a little scripting later and it’s all good based on some code from the iTerm site and also this snippet.

You can see in the PathTool preferences what is called in order to do some of the interaction. Launching a terminal in the selected path is simple enough and is located here: /Applications/eclipse/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi/bundles/685/1/.cp/scripts/cdterminal.scpt

Changing that to the following makes it launch iTerm instead, with a little simple error correction. I hadn’t done Applescript stuff before so was just trying it out. I love these little bits of integration/customizations that are possible.

on run argv
set cdTo to item 1 of argv
tell application “iTerm”
activate
– talk to the first terminal
tell the first terminal
– launch a default shell in a new tab in the same terminal
try
launch session “Default Session”
on error
display dialog “There was an error creating a new tab in iTerm.” buttons {“OK”}
end try
tell the last session
try
– cd to the requested cdTo path
write text “cd ” & cdTo
on error
display dialog “There was an error cding to the requested path.” buttons {“OK”}
end try
end tell
end tell
end tell
return
end run

So as noted, I tried using PathTools with FleBuilder under Eclipse 3.5 except FlexBuilder just has too many issues under 3.5. I gave up on PathTools with FlexBuilder but it’s been just awesome with the recent JaveEE 3.5 build. I only had one not-even-gripe as there really isn’t anything to complain about. It opens Terminal for the new paths instead of iTerm. Fortunately a little scripting later and it’s all good based on some code from the iTerm site and also this snippet.

You can see in the PathTool preferences what is called in order to do some of the interaction. Launching a terminal in the selected path is simple enough and is located here: /Applications/eclipse/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi/bundles/685/1/.cp/scripts/cdterminal.scpt

Changing that to the following makes it launch iTerm instead, with a little simple error correction. I hadn’t done Applescript stuff before so was just trying it out. I love these little bits of integration/customizations that are possible.

on run argv
    set cdTo to item 1 of argv
    tell application “iTerm”
        activate
        — talk to the first terminal
        tell the first terminal
            — launch a default shell in a new tab in the same terminal
            try
                launch session “Default Session”
            on error
                display dialog “There was an error creating a new tab in iTerm.” buttons {“OK”}
            end try
            tell the last session
                try
                    — cd to the requested cdTo path
                    write text “cd ” & cdTo
                on error
                    display dialog “There was an error cding to the requested path.” buttons {“OK”}
                end try
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
    return
end run

I bought a Polaroid PoGo Printer the other day.  It was on sale at “The Shack” for $29.99.  I’d always been intrigued because its little and battery powered.  The printer uses ZINK technology.  Its inkless — the color is embedded in the paper and appears when the printer heats the paper.  More about ZINK can be found here.

The printer connects via USB to Pict-Bridge enabled cameras and via Bluetooth to cameras and PCs.  One thing it does not do, however, is connect to an iPhone!  So I set out to see if I could print to the PoGo printer from my iPhone.

The first way is to copy the picture to a computer and then print from there — but that just isn’t fun enough.  So I decided to see if I could at least automate this process and keep it wireless.

The picture’s path would still be iPhone to computer to printer.  This is the process I used:

1.  Take picture on iPhone
2.  Email picture to myself from iPhone
3.  Use mail’s rules to detect the picture
4.  Have the mail rule run an AppleScript to send the picture to the printer

So — next I had to figure out the AppleScript and the rule.  I find AppleScript not particularly intuitive.  Figuring out how to get the picture from the email and then send it to the printer via Bluetooth was basically a process of Google Search, trial, and error.  In the end, I cobbled it all together.  My solution is fairly fragile.  It barely works, but it does work.

Here’s the AppleScript:

using terms from application "Mail"
 on perform mail action with messages newMessages
 tell application "Mail"
 (* Only process 1 message.  Note: rule ensures the message has at least 1 .jpg
attachment *)
 set firstMessage to item 1 of newMessages
 set theAttachment to first item of the firstMessage's mail attachments
 set theAttachmentPath to ((path to home folder) as text) & "test:"

 -- Make the file name unique-ish by adding a number representing the time to the file
name.  This is because iPhone sends pictures as photo.jpg.  
 set theAttachmentFileName to theAttachmentPath & (time of (current date) as string) &
theAttachment's name
 save theAttachment in theAttachmentFileName
 -- Use Bluetooth File Exchange to send the file to the printer.  I could only make
this work by using the numeric name for the printer.  This is found from getting additional
info about the device from Bluetooth preferences.
 -- You have to pass the file name as a POSIX formatted string.
 tell application "Bluetooth File Exchange"
 send file POSIX path of theAttachmentFileName as string to device "00-04-48-13-95-11"

 end tell (* Bluetooth File Exchange *)

 -- Make sure the file is fully transferred to the printer before deleting it.
 delay 30

 tell application "Finder"
 delete theAttachmentFileName
 end tell (* Finder *)

 end tell (* Mail *)
 end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

In order to use the script, you need to create a folder on your Mac called “test”.  This folder needs to be at the top level of your user (Macintosh HD:<username>:test).  You can go thru the script and change the name and location of the folder, if you want.  Also, I saved the script into that folder — just to keep everything together.

Next you need to create a rule in Apple’s mail.app.  Here’s the rule I created:

Note:  You also need to create a mail folder called “temp”.  The messages are stored there.  You can delete them after the image has been printed.

To use the rule and script:

1.  Make sure your printer is paired with your Mac.  Instructions on pairing the Polaroid PoGo printer with a Mac can be found here.
2.  Make sure the printer is fully charged, turned on, and connected to your Mac.
3.  Make sure mail.app is running on your Mac
4.  Take a picture with your iPhone (or you can use one from your photo gallery on the iPhone).
5.  Click on the “share” button when viewing the photo, and choose “Email Photo.”
6.  Send the photo to yourself (the account where you created the rule in mail.app)
7.  Once the photo is sent from your iPhone, and received by your Mac — printing should automatically begin.

My script will only print the first photo attached to an email.  Also, you should not send a second photo until the first one is completely printed.  Things will not work if the printer battery is nearly depleted or the printer doesn’t have any paper.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this process let me know.

Las acciones de carpeta son uno de los elementos menos conocidos de OS X. La idea de fondo es que podemos asignar un flujo (de Automator o AppleScript) a una carpeta para que cuando se añada un elemento nuevo dentro de ella, ocurra algo. Por ejemplo, subir archivos a un servidor, añadir las imágenes a iPhoto, convertir los archivos a otro tipo y un largo etcétera.

Un uso más bien simple pero no por ello menos efectivo es el que haremos a continuación. No sé si sea problema mío, pero generalmente no me doy cuenta cuando salta el stack de Descargas, al haberse bajado algún archivo. Esto puede ser un poco desagradable a veces, por ejemplo, cuando un amigo me manda algo y necesita que le comente rápidamente sobre el tema y yo, muy distraídamente, sigo haciendo otras cosas.

¿Cuál es el plan? Es muy simple, se trata de configurar una acción para la carpeta de Descargas que, cuando se termine de descargar un archivo, nos dé un aviso con la posibilidad de mostrarnos el archivo. De hecho, si estamos usando Snow Leopard, nos avisará 3 segundos después de cuando el archivo deje de cambiar de tamaño, lo que ocurre con gran probabilidad cuando se termina de bajar.

Entonces, manos a la obra. Abrimos como siempre Automator y nos pregunta qué tipo de flujo queremos realizar. Elegimos Acción de Carpeta

Luego de eso, nos muestra la típica ventana de Automator, pero preguntándonos en qué carpeta usaremos la acción. En este caso, elegimos Descargas.

Una vez elegida la carpeta, buscaremos en las acciones de Automator (en la barra lateral) la acción Solicitar confirmación. Esta acción nos muestra un mensaje y prosigue con el flujo si la respuesta es positiva. Si no, cancela todo.

Escribimos un mensaje apropiado

Y terminamos el flujo añadiendo la acción del finder Mostrar ítems del Finder.

Guardamos con un nombre apropiado (en mi caso, “Preguntar Mostrar ítems del Finder”) y estamos con Automator.

Ahora, lo que debemos hacer es configurar, efectivamente, la acción en la carpeta de descargas. Para eso la selecionamos en el Finder y buscamos en el menú contextual cómo configurar la acción de carpeta. En Snow Leopard, podemos hacerlo en el submenú Servicios.

Esto abre la configuración de acciones de carpeta. Nos da a elegir una lista con las acciones disponibles.

Seleccionamos la acción que deseamos

Y nos muestra la carpeta y sus acciones relacionadas.

Y estamos. Cuando descarguemos un archivo, aparecerá una ventana como esta (¡con error en la interfaz de usuario y todo! En este caso, el error es del sistema)

Y bueno, funciona como debe funcionar. Las acciones de carpeta pueden ser bastante útiles y eficaces, dada la variedad de acciones de automator y de scripts que podemos integrar. ¡Espero que haya sido útil!

We use this as a droplet, so we can convert dropped FLA files to PNG in a shot. The original script is much larger, as PNG files are post-processed before using them (need some tweaks in GraphicConverter or a similar apple-scriptable app), but it is a skeleton you can use in many little automation projects involving the wonderful world of AppleScript and Flash Javascript (aka JSFL), the language used to automate and extend the Flash IDE capabilities.

AppleScript --> FLA to PNG (click to enlarge)

The FLA file will be exported as PNG using the last settings you used to export a PNG file.

You can download it here.

AppleScript is useful for all kinds of little tasks. If you’ve created one that you run fairly often, but do not want it to appear in the dock, there is an easy fix for that.

First, save the AppleScript as an Application Bundle. As a side note, saving as an Application creates a Power-PC application that will launch slower on Intel machines. An Application Bundle creates a Universal Binary which will launch faster and is required anyway to hide the icon. See this Mac OS X Hints article.

Second, you must modify the applications Info.plist file. This can be found by right-clicking the app and selecting Show Package Contents. The file can be found in the Contents folder. Add the lines
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
just above the line that reads as <key>WindowState</key>. Save and you’re done.

Another option is to download Icon Hider and drag’n'drop your application to it. I included the code, so if you wish to see it simply drag’n'drop the app to the Script Editor. Beware, though, after editing a plist file with Icon Hider the plist file will not appear correctly in TextEdit. It works fine though in Mac OS X 10.5.

I wonder why there aren’t as many reviews on the GTD package, Ready-Set-Do!

It’s basically a bunch of AppleScripts but created in such a way that the Finder and iCal are everything you need for your GTD system.

It utilises some very basic in-built OS X tech like getting iCal to open a “Weekly Review” script on a particular day and at a particular time.

It’s a bit hefty for a download compared to other GTD standalone applications but it does have an excellent summary guide to the GTD system. At the very least you could use Ready-Set-Do! as a practice platform and move on to other more expensive, complex and paid set-ups if you wish. (See also: Task Coach and Thinking Rock)

Running AppleScripts can be a bit slow of course. But I genuinely appreciate the effort the programmer has made: Even as a bunch of AppleScripts, Ready-Set-Do! feels like a seamless and coherent system. (I surmise it must have taken excellent planning on the programmer’s part to do this.)

At the same time, because of its aim to integrate both Finder’s Folder Actions and iCal’s alarms it feels amazingly “transparent” – your experience of GTD becomes just a way of re-organising what you already have as opposed to needing to have and learn a new set of tools or applications.

I remember GTD wasn’t about the tech per se. And the very fact that you can’t do a Quicksilver keystroke means you’re being asked to think in that split second if the material is really relevant.

Like art, there is always “the shock of the new”. Ready-Set-Do! seems to have made it easy for those new to GTD to assume a fresher understanding of what their manner of working lacks.

Or as Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi used to say: “All of you are perfect just as you are and you could use a little improvement.”

-

Theoretically, if you’ve been well-trained by Ready-Set-Do!, you can well use the folder structure given to you as your GTD system. That is, you can create projects as folders (which is what RSD already does) but create actionables using text files using something like NuFile.

And mark things off as done with Finder’s Labels. There are no check-boxes in the Finder anyway.

Contexts could be done by hashtagging #context in the Comments field of the file or even having Title, Subject, Context fields in the text file itself. I imagine this is the sort of thing that would make the “Search For” section of the Leopard Finder sidebar fun and useful.

It’s essentially like Things, just that you aren’t paying anyone money. You only get things like autocomplete of tags and all that automation if you pay for a new piece of software.

As well: I do remember that there are shareware and open-source tagging software available for the Mac. I don’t tag that much except when blogging. I tag my posts only to create references of themes and contexts. In other words, my tags are rather “indeterminate” as a lexical system, hence my not using them for actual file/to-do organisation.

I so need an IT friend. I’ve tried creating smart folders for my own purposes like “Find files downloaded in the past 24h in the Downloads folder”, but I don’t know how to. Smart folders on OS X by GUI still seem quite specific in regards to the criteria for search. Time-based searches seem difficult – unless of course I code my searches.

This is the AppleScript code we use to pass data from FileMaker to a remote MySQL database. It requires FileMaker, the MySQL binary installed in your machine and a connection to a remote MySQL-powered server.

The “code” tag is crap, so I’ll post an image of the code and a link to the code itself. You can download it here.

AppleScript --> FileMaker to MySQL (click to enlarge)

This way we feel comfortable working “at home” with a full-blown interface in FileMaker and we can populate changes to the server when needed.

Convince Finder to eject disks.

Download Eject Disks 0.4

Eject Disks version 0.4 is released! Get it from the link above.

Changelog:

• Fixed drag and drop and Finder selection.
• Added more timely dialog boxes using CocoaDialog.
• Changed Finder selection options so you can choose to do a normal scan if there is an inadvertent Finder selection.
• Fixed bug parsing optical volumes with spaces in the name so they don’t appear twice.
• If a disk and it’s subvolume(s) are selected for ejection, now subvolumes are skipped instead of throwing errors.
• Removed official Tiger support since I no longer have a Tiger test system.

More info on the Eject Disks product page.

Tested on:

• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

You can read the post here or just use this solution.  A script to open current Finder folder in the Terminal

Last night the good people from iMug had me over to talk about Snow Leopard and in particular the improved services menu. There a good mob the guys and gals of iMug mostly older professionals who use Macs as part of their every day work / life.

Basically I demonstrated for them the improvements (under the hood) that Apple have made in the latest version of OS X (10.6). By my count Snow Leopard contains over 100 significant modifications and improvements, but more than enough people have already covered most of these on other blogs so I’ll not add to the noise on this. If you are interested to find out more then check out Apple’s enhancements and refinements page.

Other then the update to 64 bit in the system and many of the core apps the big ticket item is the upgraded to the services menu. In older versions of OS X the services menu appeared as a menu item in the drop-down menu under the program name in the menu bar. It contained a long list of ever service, functions provided by other applications to the system and other applications on it. Whilst this was a cool way of extending the overall functionality of the system it was not very user friendly as the list contained every service available whether you used them or not and whether they were relevant to what you were doing  at the time. Having a service to rotate an image available when your editing text in a text editor is obviously as useful as proverbs on a Bull.

Well Apple have made some very significant changes. The service menu is now contextually aware so if you are editing text in a text editor you will only see the services that are relevant to the task at hand. Even more handy is the appearance of the services menu in the context menu (control+click / right click) of all applications that support this functionality and in the Action drop-down menu in finder (the button with the cog wheel icon on it). So there are at least three convenient locations you can find the services menu now.

The services menu is also configurable now. To do this all you have to do is click on ‘Service Preferences…’ in the service menu or open the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keybord preferences pane and you can switch the service on and off as you like. You can also change the keyboard shortcuts for each service. The trick is to double click on the existing shortcut (or select a service and hit enter) to make changes.

If you want to take things to the next step and create your own services you can do so with the new service template in Automator. All in all I think what Apple have done with services in Snow Leopard is brilliant and should bring the power of automation to many more Mac users. I suspect this is due in no small part to Sal Soghoian [2] the product manager for automation technologies at apple who introduced me (and about a hundred other transient BFFs) to the new services menu a few months ago.

The Mac OS X Automation web site, which was set up by Sal, is the best place to find out more about services. There are a number of service you can download from the site as well and tutorial on how to roll-your-own as well. There is a good primer article over at MacWorld and a Wikipedia entry about the service menu too.

Freedom 0.5.1 (2009-05-04) Fred Stutzman

일정 시간 인터넷을 꺼 주는(!) 유틸리티. (via thriftmac)

내 맥에서는 제대로 동작하지 않는데, 우선 시간을 제대로 입력받지 못 한다. (기본값 480분으로 설정)

그리고 실행 중에 어플리케이션을 선택하면 기부를 요구하는 화면이 뜨는데, 여기서 Exit를 누르면 그냥 종료된다. 사용자가 인터넷 사용을 재개하는데 약간의 장애물을 설정하는 게 좋지 않을까?

이 화면에서 Register>Cancel을 해도 어플리케이션이 종료된다.

어플리케이션 아이콘은 David Vignoni이 KDE 3.x를 위해 제작한 Nuvola Icon 1.0 (2004-10-15) 중 Clock 아이콘이다.