Archive for the 'Rave' Category
Charity PJs
December 8
I ordered a few pairs of pajamas for my son about two weeks ago from Disney’s online store. He loves Cars, so three pairs of PJs make a great Christmas present with his favorite characters on them. They got here about a week ago.
One small problem, though. They sent two of one print and one of another, leaving one print off. I thought about just mailing the package back, but decided to check on their web site first to see if they had some other option.
I filed a support request about what I should do. A couple of days later they emailed me to get some more information (I, like a dumbass, didn’t tell them which set they had repeated and which they had left off). Then, yesterday, I got a final email from them telling me they had sent the missing set, at no cost to me. The also asked me to give the repeat away to a local charity.
Maybe I’m too cynical, but it seems out of place in our modern society for a giant company like Disney to be so giving. I know they do all sorts of charitable events and they fulfill children’s wishes and stuff, but that never happens to me, you know? It’s never a personal thing, and that makes all the difference. So now, Elaine and I are looking for somewhere local (or not so local, if you know of a children’s clothing-focused charity) to donate the brand new pajamas to.
We’ll definitely be buying things from Disney in the future.
Turning Tricks
February 9
Since I’m a stay-at-home dad now (not that I’m not looking for work!), I’ve had to adapt how I use my computer. You can’t just plop down on the couch (or, more likely, our new recliner) with the iBook in your lap and go crazy.
The external USB keyboard that Elaine got me for Christmas last year (an old strawberry iMac one that’s been rekeyed to Dvorak) works great. The keys are a little loud, but not so bad that it wakes Monkey up if I keep the typing sane and calm. And Quicksilver eliminates the need for a mouse to launch programs.
Still, a few things bugged me. For one, I couldn’t always know or remember the keyboard shortcut for something in some obscure app that I only use every 3 months. Enter KeyCue. This awesome little app shows all the keyboard shortcuts for any app when you hold down the Command key for a (configurable) brief period. It even changes the highlight depending on your modifier keys.
If that’s not quite enough for you, Apple has something a bit more roundabout built-in. Hit Control+F2 to focus on the menubar. Esc will take you out of it if you don’t chose something.
Window-switching is another area. Yes, I know I could use Exposé, but having learned most of my Mac on an iBook, the function keys aren’t always the most useful (you have to hold down a second key to, for instance, go to Dashboard). I’ve used Witch and it works great if you need to jump from one application’s windows to another’s. If you just want to switch around the windows in a single app, though (like TextMate which has great shortcuts for almost everything else), Witch makes it a bit difficult, as the list is presented in alphabetical order, which is, I now see, configurable. Now, though, I know why TextMate didn’t build that in; Command+` rotates between all the windows open in a given app. Does Apple love you or what?
And, lastly, I’ve been using Firefox for quite awhile since Safari isn’t the most stable on my computer (probably my fault) and I’d really rather work with something more cross-platform. It is, however, a bit annoying to have to reach over to my trackpad just to switch tabs (Command+Shift+Left/Right, or Command+Tab number), switch to the search bar (Command+K) or address bar (Command+L), or switch the search engine (Command+Up/Down when in the search bar). Thankfully I’ve found all of those in the last couple of days. Oh, and to just search through the links on a page, hit ‘ before you start typing.
So I seem to be pretty well set for all of this mouse-less, keyboard-only computing. Now if only I could figure out someway to get my computer to fetch me a drink. Do you have any awesome keyboard/usability shortcuts that you want to share?
Flickr Pro
April 25
Wow, first off, much thanks to Adam Michela AKA soopa for providing the Flickr Pro account that I won. Of course, I couldn’t have won it without Erik running his Flickr giveaway. So ginormous thanks to both of those guys. I haven’t really gotten to use Flickr a whole lot yet, but I hope to as soon as I can. I’m definitely going to carry my camera around a lot more. Watch for updates!