Hard Drive Master Class

My friend Victor Cajiao over at the Typical Mac User podcast hit one out the park this week with his Hard Drive Master Class with George Starcher and data recovery expert Scott Moulton. I learned a ton.

Four Years

Four years of MacSparky.com.

Millions of page views, multiple speaking gigs, two books, and countless new friends.

Thanks everyone for stopping by.

Acorn 3.0

While I’m sure there are a lot of good reasons to spend $800 on Photoshop, I find Gus Mueller’s Acorn scratches the itch for me quite nicely. The good news is there is a new version with plenty of new features and, for a limited time, it is just $30.

Tembo: Spotlight plus.

Recently, I’ve been talking about HoudaSpot, a great Spotlight add on with tons of granular controls. If you’d like to get more out of Spotlight but don’t want the complexity of HoudaSpot, Houdah’s developer has a simpler version, Tembo. I really like it and it is in the Mac App store for $15 right here.

MultiMarkdown 3.0

Fletcher Penny has been hard at work on MultiMarkdown and now version 3.0 is out at his updated Web site. Check it out.

Mac Power Users 47: Dropbox Awesomeness

Mac Power Users Episode 47 is available for download. Katie and I are joined by Eddie Smith from Practically Efficient and we go deep on Dropbox.

You can get it on iTunes here or on the web right here. Enjoy.

Atari Greatest Hits. Can. Not. Resist.

Thanks to John Gruber, this morning I discovered the Atari Greatest Hits app. This universal application lets you purchase classic Atari arcade and 2600 console games a la carte or $15 for the whole lot (100 games). For me, there wasn’t even a question. I bought them all. I squandered untold hours of my youth playing these games and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again. Who among us of that age did not become utterly hypnotized by our very first avatar, a tiny square that we pushed around the screen on our Atari 2600 consoles in Adventure. My real weakness, however, is Tempest. This appropriately named game sucked down my quarters like a binging wino back in the day.

Having played with several of the games over breakfast, it is hit and miss with the controls. Tempest, thankfully, does a good job with the virtual spinner but the Fire and Blast All buttons are too far apart from each other. Asteroids is a mess. The spinner is right next to the thrust controls. Any asteroid hunter worth his salt knows you use that thrust button very gingerly.

Overall, Atari Greatest Hits is a very enjoyable trip down memory lane. Check it out.

Get Your Hands Dirty

This post is admittedly off topic but I wanted to acknowledge a friend, Conor Fitzpatrick, a small businessman with a big idea: turn city-folk into farmers. Conor’s company, MiniFarmBox,, sends you everything you need to grow your own vegetables. Spring is theoretically on its way and now is the time to get set up. Conor even has an Earth Day Special. I’m growing strawberries with my 9 year old this year and they will be delicious.

Home Screens - Ben Waldie

This week’s home screen post features Ben Waldie (Web site and Twitter) is the godfather of Mac automation. Ben has written books and published some excellent screencasts on the subject. Indeed, when Microsoft wanted to add Automator tools to the office suite, they went to Ben. I had the pleasure meeting Ben this year at Macworld and he is just as nice as he is smart. So Ben, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Well, I should probably begin by explaining my home screen app organization process. As you can see, I organize my apps into folders, which are arranged alphabetically. Within each folder, I arrange the apps themselves alphabetically too. By doing so, I always know where any given app resides. The only exceptions are games, which I don’t organize alphabetically. Why not? Because I have multiple folders of games, and I don’t want to reorganize every time I install a new one. (I also arrange my Mac OS X Dock alphabetically, and yes, I realize I’m a freak.)

While I probably wouldn’t consider them most interesting, the apps I use the most are the ones that let me get work done efficiently while on the go. I use Mail and Safari regularly, iCal and AddressBook (with MobileMe sync), Dropbox, OmniFocus, and LogMeIn.

The app I find most interesting and fun is Star Walk. Just point your iPhone at the sky wherever you are, and it shows you real time information about stars, planets, satellites, and more.

What is your favorite app?

My favorite app changes on a regular basis. At the moment, it’s probably Reeder, which I use to keep up to date on the latest tech news. I love its ease of use, nice interface, and sync integration with Google Reader, which eliminates the need for me to read the same headlines when I switch devices.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I freely admit that I love Facebook for keeping track of what’s going on in the lives of friends and family.

What is the app you are still missing?

This isn’t an app, it’s more of a feature… I’m still missing a way to wirelessly keep my entire iPad/iPhone in sync with my Mac. Sync is super important to me, since I never know what device I’ll have with me at any given time. I have configured some apps to sync using Dropbox or MobileMe, but I’d like to see something on a more global scale.

An app I’m missing is one that will eliminate supermarket and other retail membership cards, so I don’t need to carry them in my wallet. I have actually seen some apps designed for this, but they don’t work with most checkout scanners.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

It’s difficult to calculate, but I would estimate that I often don’t go for 5 minutes without using one or the other. My wife just considers them extensions of my arms.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature is probably the camera. I love having such a great quality camera with me wherever I go to capture the funny things my kids are doing, special events, UFOs, or whatever else I encounter. I also love using apps like Photoshop Express and Camera+ to manipulate and improve photos right on my phone. And, of course, the ability to video chat with the kids when I’m away on business is simply awesome.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I’m sure there are a million things I’d add or change. One would be to improve the printing capabilities. Another would be to allow FaceTime usage over 3G (in the interim, Skype works great for this).

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks for your interest in checking out my home screen!

Thanks Ben.

Mac at Work Update

Mac at Work continues to sell and I continue to receive e-mails from people all over the world enjoying the book and every single one of them makes my day. Thank you all for your love. Moreover, when Merlin Mann said the book was so good he wanted to punch me in the face, I realized I need to add testimonials to the Mac at Work page. It is now easier than ever to buy the book or download a sample.