I’m sure ***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/*** or someone else has mentioned this program to me in the past, but I finally got around to checking it out. ***Quicksilver|http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/*** is a utility for Mac OS X 10.3 or later that is an application launcher, search engine, organizing tool, and much, much more. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is. It’s much easier to try it out.

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Quicksilver’s iTunes Functionality|ppp

I would have been a bit baffled with Quicksilver if it weren’t for some tips I received from ***Ben|http://www.benbrophy.com/*** and ***Matt|http://photomatt.net*** at the WordPress Meetup[*]. First, they recommended deleting everything from my Dock and starting with a clean slate. That forced me to rely on Quicksilver for application launching. They also recommended that I check out ***Dan Dickinson’s Tutorial|http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php*** and the ***43Folders Quicksilver archives|http://www.43folders.com/quicksilver/index.html***. These tutorials have a lot of tips on how to get started with Quicksilver and how to use it to “own” the Mac OS.

If you’re using a Mac, and haven’t tried Quicksilver… give it a shot. But be sure to go through those tutorials… it will make a lot more sense and be a lot more useful if you do.

[ * I’ve found that when I attend user group meetings of this type, I don’t get as much benefit from the discussion surrounding the meeting topic as I do from simply observing how other people go about using their computers. I pick up far more tips and insight from these face-to-face meetings than I do when discussing things in online forums. With online discussion, you don’t have the opportunity to observe someone actually using their computer and the ability to ask them, “Hey, what’s that you just did?” Don’t get me wrong, discussing the meeting topic is great as well, especially if you have a particularly difficult problem. They’re often easier to solve when meeting face to face. ]

Today was a day of many “meetups” for me.

First, I met up with ***Nikki|http://everytomorrow.org/*** and Matt in Boston. We walked around the city for a bit and I showed them where Becky works. Next, the three of us met up with Nikki’s cousin Tom and his wife at ***Trident Booksellers and Cafe|http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/*** on Newbury Street for brunch. After (a very light) brunch, Nikki, Matt and I strolled down Newbury to ***Fire and Ice|http://www.fire-ice.com/*** for a late lunch, where we met up with ***PhotoMatt|http://photomatt.net/*** and ***Sarah|http://curiousrose.com/***. Fire and Ice is a much better deal at lunch time… at dinner it’s around $17, but is only $7.95 at lunch. Finally, the five of us walked a few blocks back up Newbury to ***Tealuxe|http://www.tealuxe.com/*** for the ***Boston WordPress Meetup|http://wordpress.meetup.com/10/***. There were nine people at the Meetup:

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* Me
* ***Nikki|http://everytomorrow.org/*** (***Nikki’s blog entry|http://everytomorrow.org/index.php?p=1614***)
* Nikki’s Matt
* ***PhotoMatt|http://photomatt.net/***
* ***Sarah|http://curiousrose.com/***
* ***Matt May|http://www.bestkungfu.com/*** (***Matt’s blog entry|http://www.bestkungfu.com/archive/date/2004/11/the-first-thousand-is-the-hardest/***)
* ***David Clark|http://www.davidsaccess.com/*** (***David’s blog entry|http://www.davidsaccess.com/index.php/wordpress-meetup/***)
* ***Ben Brophy|http://www.benbrophy.com/***
* Marty Rozmanith

|qqq

Discussion ranged from upcoming features in WordPress, to Matt’s work at c|net, to Mac OS X, to the unbearably cold weather in Boston (according to the PhotoMatt and Sarah). The company was excellent and I would love to attend this or any other Meetup again. I would encourage everyone to check out ***Meetup.com|http://www.meetup.com/*** and find or start Meetup groups in their areas. Other groups on my docket for possible attendance are the Boston Mac, iPod, PHP, and Movable Type meetup groups.

All in all it was a very long day, and after leaving Beverly at 9:30 a.m., I finally returned at 11 p.m. The photos from today are available for ***all to enjoy|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_wp_meetup_200411***.

The three most important applications for my computer use at home are, in order of importance:

Web Browser
Email Client
Instant Messaging Client

I am constantly re-evaluating which is the best software solution in each category. I know there are a lot of choices in both categories, but to simplify my life, I’ve whittled it down to either a solution by Apple Computer on one hand, or a particular Open Source solution on the other hand.
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I think ***this|http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/6541*** is a terrific idea. Who wouldn’t love the gift of a better, faster, safer web browser?

If you need or want any technical books by ***O’Reilly|http://www.oreilly.com/***, check out this ***43%-off sale|http://www.bookpool.com/.x/skwrrxz5v1/ct/65*** at BookPool… could save you a lot of money.

I’ve been a customer of ***SprintPCS|http://www.sprintpcs.com/*** since May 12, 2000 – over four and a half years. Because of my loyalty, Sprint has offered me 10% off of all of my recurring monthly fees for the life of my contract if I renew for another two years. Considering that I’ve been happy with them for a while now, I think I’ll bite. Sweet!

I needed to send a package today, so I headed over to the Post Office. I was about to go in to the counter to conduct my business, when I passed a curious looking machine – an “Automated Postal Center”. Nobody was using it, so I checked it out and used it to send my package. It has an ATM-like kiosk, which is connected to a scale. You can use it to look up ZIP codes, print postage labels, even sign up for things like delivery confirmation. Within a few minutes I had weighed my package, selected the destination, printed labels with Priority Mail postage and delivery confirmation, paid with a debit card, and deposited into the adjacent collection bin. The machine was remarkably easy to use, though if you’re accustomed to working with an ATM, there will be a few differences. So if you’re in the US, look for an “APC” at a Post Office near you. It’s pretty cool! Here are a few photos from the adventure:

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A full view of the APC|ppp

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A closer view of the APC screen and keypad|ppp

Sure, lots of people claim to have pretty old computers in their homes. But many of those folks actually have a fairly late-model computer that they use for their main day-to-day tasks, and just keep those old computers around for kicks. Our main computers, on the other hand, really are old – relatively speaking. I really started thinking about this when I saw that RAM for our laptop had showed up on Apple’s ***clearance hot deals|http://hotdeals.apple.com/clearance/index.php*** page. So here’s a look at our old-but-still-kicking computers:

* ***PowerBook G3/400 Pismo|http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g3/stats/powerbook_g3_400_fw.html***. Manufactured in August 2000, purchased by me in January 2001.

The Pismo has had numerous upgrades and replacements over the years: a new power adapter, new LiIon batteries, new power/sound board, maxed out RAM, upgraded hard drive. I think the hard drive may be on its last legs, but I still have one month left in its three year warranty. I’d love to replace the Pismo with a newer PowerBook or iBook, but I’m not about to take on an additional $1000+ in debt right now. Not when we’re trying (successfully) to pay down our debt. Besides, we (Becky mostly) get a lot of use out of it. Becky uses it to play a mean game of Freecell at ***Pogo.com|http://www.pogo.com/***.

* ***PowerMac G4/450 Sawtooth|http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_450.html***. Manufactured in December 1999, purchased by me in September 2003.

It’s got a decent graphics card (nVidia GeForce4 MX) which helps out with Quartz rendering in Mac OS X. This is the machine I mainly use at home.

* ***HP Pavillion 6730|product=58757&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph05747***. Purchased some time between 1998 and 1999.

The Pavillion, well… it is used when we need Microsoft Word for some reason, and occasionally I boot it up to make sure it still works, but other than that, it is left alone.

For those of you who aren’t named Chad, or aren’t otherwise technologically inclined, I’ll try to put the previous post into layman’s terms. I think this is probably about half of our audience. For the other half (Nikkiana, Mike, Chad, etc), feel free to skip this post. 🙂
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I’ve been working on writing my first Movable Type plugin. So…

qqq|If this shows up in a ‘quote’ box…|qqq

ccc|And this shows up in a ‘code’ box…|ccc

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And this shows up in a centered div…|ppp

Then it is working! Cool!