A Stylish Treat for Mailplane Users
With the move of everything back to jimmitchell.org, I decided to use the Google Apps Standard Edition (free) to manage my email, calendaring, et al. The one thing that bugged me the most was the extra ads and other fluff in Gmail that was visually distracting. Because of that, I resorted to using Firefox with the Better Gmail add-on, or Google Chrome with the Better Gmail extension. While they were great, I still wanted my email in a separate app, mostly because I have a habit of quitting my browser when I’m done using it (this goes back to my System 6 days probably).
I’ve been a long time user of the very awesome Mailplane by Ruben Bakker, but was always a little bugged by the afore mentioned ads and other fluff. Because of it, I’d flop back and forth between browser and Mailplane use.
I’m happy to say that I’ve finally solved this dilemma by releasing my very own Mailplane Clean CSS style sheet. This is basically a rework of some styles that are part of the Google Chrome Better Gmail (Unofficial) extension, with the addition of others that I wanted (like making the bottom button bar go away).
The best way to see what it does is download the stylesheet archive, and set Mailplane to use the custom stylesheet in “Preferences > Tweak UI > Custom Stylesheet.” Then restart Mailplane and bask in the awesome goodness. I promise, if you’re a Mailplane user, you’ll like this stylesheet. It makes everything about the Gmail UI so much cleaner.
I will probably add the file to the “mailplaneapp” Google Group in the near future, so keep an eye out for it there if you prefer. If you have any questions or comments about the stylesheet, drop me a line through my contact page.
Report: Verizon iPhone finally coming; will you switch?
Apple is reportedly developing yet another version of the iPhone for launch this summer, according to “people briefed on the matter” speaking to the Wall Street Journal. On top of this news, the company is also preparing a CDMA version of the new device that will work with Verizon Wireless.
(Via Ars Technica.)
The iPhone on Verizon has been speculative fodder for a long time now. While it seems like it could be plausible, I’m going to say not yet — but it will happen eventually.
AT&T service blows from what I continually read (I’m a satisfied Verizon customer), so I’m sure Apple wants to do something about that. For as much as AT&T service stinks, the next best GSM alternative is T-Mobile, which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t have anywhere near the infrastructure to handle the data needs of most iPhone users. So I say that a Verizon deal will eventually happen — but not this summer. It will only happen when Verizon rolls out more than two 4G cities, which means it might be closer to the end of 2010 (maybe in time for the holidays), or summer 2011.
Additionally, I really, really, really doubt Apple is making a CDMA based iPhone just for Verizon to sell for a year or two while 4G coverage rolls out. So on this point, I call total bull on the “people briefed on the matter” mentioned above. Apple doesn’t brief anyone on anything. We all know that. And if Verizon briefed anyone they may find themselves in hot water.
Admittedly, I’m far from well versed in wireless technology, and could be talking out of my left elbow. If you know more than me on the topic, please set me straight. At any rate, should the iPhone come to Verizon eventually, I might consider dumping my Blackberry in favor it. That is a big maybe, though. I still prefer the BB hardware keyboard over the software version on my iTouch hands down…
Yasu 2.6.7 Released
I’m pleased to announce that Yasu version 2.6.7 has been released for public consumption. This update adds the following:
- Added browser cache, history and cookie removal routines for Google Chrome.
- Addressed a rare issue that caused the “Reset home permissions” option to fail on some systems.
- Rebranding the software back to the “jimmitchell.org” name.
As always, it’s a recommended update for all users. Click on over to the Yasu page and download now if you haven’t already.
Speaking of releases, do you realize it was nine years ago today that the first version of OS X was released to the general public? Man, how time flies…
What to do When Songs on Your iPod Skip
Troubleshooting Songs That Skip
Symptoms: While playing a song, iPod unexpectedly skips to the next song. Find out what you can do if your iPod unexpectedly skips while playing a song.
More often than not, my skips are due to damaged song files that were ripped eons ago, which I don’t have the original discs for anymore thanks to the neighbor’s kid who broke into my car…
Anyway, this article does give some good pointers to deal with that unexpected skip.
FontSquirrel.com Adds @font-face Generator
Create Your Own @font-face Kits
Usage: Click the “Add Fonts” button and select all the TTF and OTF fonts you want in the @font-face kit. Choose your option then click the download button at the bottom. Voila!
I’ve just started getting into HTML5, CSS3 and @font-faces, and FontSquirrel.com is the resource I turn to the most for eye-catching web enabled type faces. Now they’ve added an @font-face kit generator to their offerings. Just upload a font (that’s legally eligible for web embedding, naturally), and you get your own font kit — ready to add to your CSS.
Very nice resource, and all for free.
SecondBar Puts a Menu Bar on All Your Macs Monitors
SecondBar Puts a Menu Bar on All Your Mac's Monitors
Mac only: Multiple monitors do great things for your desktop space, but your menu bar sticks to one screen. If you’re looking for more menu access, free utility SecondBar puts one at the top of each monitor.
As veteran Mac users know, each application’s menus fill in the menu bar at the top of the desktop, not the window of the app itself, as in a Windows desktop. When you have a lot of apps open in different spots, it becomes inconvenient to access an app’s preferences or deeper features with a mouse. SecondBar adds a customizable menu bar to your second, third, or tenth monitor, letting you keep your focus on one screen at a time.
SecondBar is a free download, Mac OS X only.
(Via Lifehacker: mac os x.)
Getting Back to Basics
As some readers may know, I’ve been doing this dual presence thing for the past couple years; the Jim Mitchell Design business where I offer Yasu and FileMaker development services, and the Jim Mitchell dot-org presence where I give a glimpse into my personal life as well as offering my silly little WordPress themes and other whatnot to whoever wanted it.
Last week, I came to the realization that I’m no longer being as productive in my personal life as I’d like because of the “duality” I’ve created with maintaining two online presences, and that each has suffered because of it. So I’ve decided to make the change back to the way I found myself most productive and fulfilled… And that is to simply offer it all under “jimmitchell.org” again. That means one site, one email address, one place to download everything from, etcetera.
The truth is, my day job has changed so dramatically over the last 5 years that I’m not anywhere near where I was when I chose to split my personality. Back then, I was working as an in-house FileMaker developer and Mac systems support specialist. Now, I’m working as a business analyst and handling special projects for my employer — and have found myself busier than I’ve ever been. Trying to keep that many balls in the air at one time has been causing me more stress than I think I was aware of.
So, I’ve decided to get simple again. I have projects I like to dink with. WordPress themes, Yasu, AppleScripts, and even some small FileMaker projects — but I’ve made the choice that they are not going to dictate how my personal life is spent anymore. Family is far more important right now, especially with my youngest son entering the formative teen years.
What does this mean to you, the reader? Probably more “personalized” content, with more of a view into my real life. You’ll see some updates to my WordPress themes (Plane Jane is in bad need of modernization – I’ve got some killer CSS3 ideas for it). You’ll see updates to Yasu (one is “thisclose” to being released), and maybe even a new app this summer (I’ve got a great idea for a freebie app).
Thanks to all who’ve hung around, keeping me in their RSS feeds. I promise there will be more than just twitter updates from this point forward.
Woes of MacBook Pro Unibody Owner
A little more on my MacBook Pro woes…
Since I’ve had this machine, a MBP Unibody 2.6 Ghz / 4 GB RAM purchased in September of 2009, I’ve had to back it up, completely wipe the internal HD, and restore 5 times. Two of those times, I’ve completely zeroed the drive for extra measure. I even tried starting entirely from scratch once hoping that would finally fix my issues to no avail. In that time I’ve ended up with a “keys out of order” error more times than I can remember. Running a single user “fsck” at boot usually cannot fix the problem. I had to lay out $100 for DiskWarrior to finally resolve that. Still, through all of that, I seem to keep coming up with issues on this unit. I’ve never had this much trouble with any Mac I’ve owned–ever.
Here are the symptoms that eventually lead up to the disk to going bad: When putting the machine to sleep for more than an hour by closing the clamshell, upon waking by re-opening it, the MBP will spontaneously log itself out, sometimes only once, other times it will happen multiple times in a row (I think I counted 5 logouts once). Usually, after all that excitement, any app that I try to launch will immediately crash. I do not keep any apps running when putting the unit to sleep anymore. I’ve lost too much work because of it. Twice I’ve gotten kernel panics instead of spontaneous log outs. It is far more likely that this machine will wake with an issue than not.
Logs allude to crashed threads in windowserver, CoreGraphics, as well as a video driver (not sure which right now). I’ve tried removing every single system add-on that I’ve ever installed, but still have problems. I’ve also cleared every single cache I can get my hands on and then some, but still have problems.
Right now, I’m testing the memory using Memtest. When I left for work this morning, it had not found any problems yet. If it were as simple as a bad memory module I’d be thrilled — but to be honest, I’m thinking the problem lies in the 7200 RPM drive I had installed as a BTO option when I ordered it from Apple. It’s always seemed to be a little finicky.
Because of this lemon fresh Mac, I’ve lost countless hours, and have fallen way behind schedule on a project that I promised would be delivered a month ago. I’m finally giving up and visiting the Genius Bar at my local Apple store tomorrow. So far, I’ve had pretty good luck with them helping me solve issues with other machines. Hopefully they can with this one too. I just hope I don’t have to send it back to China to get fixed. That would put me another month (or more) behind schedule.
More to follow, I’m sure…
Secure Virtual Memory on OS X
Since the purchase of my 2009 MacBook Pro, I’ve had a nagging issue of anytime the machine sleeps for an extended amount of time (30 minutes or more), when I woke it, it would freak out and apps that ran fine before putting it to sleep suddenly start crashing on launch. The system would become so unstable that a full restart was required to get back on track. I’ve always chalked it up to a flakey machine, and that it was something I would have to live with.
Last night, when I cracked the MBP open, I was greeted with a nasty kernel panic which lead to a whole array of disk errors that could only be repaired using DiskWarrior (a huge shout out to Steve Basile (@xebrawerx) for the reminder on Twitter — this saved my bacon last night).
After rebuilding the disk directory, I decided to see if I could get to the bottom of the flakiness once and for all. I started off by disabling every “add-on” utility I had: Growl, TextExpander, Hazel, Default Folder X, etc. Then I got to digging around in the Apple control panels to see if there as a setting I was missing somehow.
When I got to the Security system preference, the “Use secure virtual memory” was selected. It got me thinking that if the VM was being encrypted, and when the machine is put to sleep that maybe something in memory (RAM) or on the hibernation disc image is changing which doesn’t match the encrypted VM somehow on wake, thus causing the machine to not know what’s where in RAM. It’s a stretch, but worth a try I figured.
So far, by turning off the “Use secure virtual memory” option — which I’d enabled in Leopard 10.5 without issue — the machine seems quite stable, waking without issue. As a (possible) added bonus, performance seems to have increased a touch since the virtual memory isn’t having to be encrypted on the fly.
More to follow if there’s anything worth noting — as in I was wrong in my assumption and my MBP is really a MBL (MacBook Lemon).
UPDATE: Nope. That didn’t fix it. Back to the drawing board. Thinking Genius Bar visit is in order for this weekend. Maybe bad RAM?
UPDATE 2: Decided to completely wipe the machine and do a fresh install of Snow Leopard, along with fresh installs of all applications. A pain in the backside, but the only real way to be sure it’s software related instead of hardware. More to follow…
Yasu 2.6.6 Released
Yasu 2.6.6 has been released which addresses the “error 2″ error issue that some users have been reporting. It’s a recommended update for all users. Please visit the Yasu page to download the latest version.
