Quicksilver

I have been in the process of planning out switching to Linux in 2010 for my main development computer (a laptop), as well as for various web and database servers I am responsible for at work.

I’ve been making good use of Sun’s awesome (and free) VirtualBox program, which allows me to create any number of virtual computers to experiment on. I’ve had a couple of CLI-only server versions running (Debian and Ubuntu), as well as what amounts to a desktop system for the last three Ubuntu releases: 8.10, 9.04, and the just-issued 9.10.

My User has information that could… that could make this a free system again! No, really! You’d have programs lined up just to use this place, and no MCP looking over your shoulder.

I’ll cover the whys and wherefores of switching in the future. For now, suffice to say that the ever-increasing commercialization of Mac OS X, with accompanying restrictions, has been grating on me for some time now. I am also attracted to the notion of software freedom (having been a huge fan of the original Tron movie ;) and of course the cost savings can be dramatic. And since I work primarily in education, I think we would be neglecting our duty by not exploring the open-source world.

All that is visible must grow beyond itself, and extend into the realm of the invisible.

One of the first and ongoing steps is compiling a list of application equivalents to programs I am need of.

• Mail -> Evolution
• iCal -> Evolution
• Exchange -> Evolution \m/
• MacJournal -> Zim or RedNotebook or Lifeograph
• iPhoto -> filesystem + gThumb (still need EXIF editor: JHead?)
• iTunes (music) -> Rhythmbox
• iTunes (podcasts) -> Rhythmbox (audio ok, testing vidcasts)
• OmniFocus -> Getting Things Gnome (GTG) or spreadsheet?
• Adium -> Empathy
• Quicksilver/Spotlight -> Deskbar-Applet
• iFlash -> Mnemosyne
• NetNewsWire -> Liferea or Gregarius
• Tweetie -> Gwibber
• VoodooPad -> Zim
• MarsEdit -> Drivel, BloGTK, or Gnome Blog?
• Dictionary.app -> Gnome Dictionary
• RPG -> see http://www.shell-fu.org/lister.php?id=885
• Black Ink -> Xword
• Desktop Pictures rotation -> Wallpaper Tray (Gnome panel)
• GarageBand/podcasting -> Audacity + LMMS
• OmniGraffle -> Dia
• Minuteur/ApiMac Timer -> Timer Applet

Still looking:

• Time Machine (backup) -> roll-my-own or manual?
• Bluetooth File Exchange -> built into Gnome?

Stuff that exists in both places:

• Firefox
• MacVim -> Gvim
• Audacity
• GIMP
• VirtualBox
• ClamXav -> ClamAV
• VLC
• MySQL Administrator and Query Browser
• NeoOffice -> OpenOffice
• Google Earth
• MacNikto -> Nikto

If you’re looking into switching as well, or just are looking for new apps to try out whatever your platform, check out AlternativeTo, which provides alternatives for Linux, Mac, and Windows programs.

Note: Written before the current cold whacked me in the head and upper respiratory tract. Bits are incomplete. Suggestions are welcome.

End of line.

I was curious about whether or not the indispensable utility Quicksilver is currently compatible with Snow Leopard. A googling produced this thread over at the Google Groups for Quicksilver.

The quick answer is “yes and no.” ;) When last I scanned the thread, things were narrowing down to potential plugin issues which can be mitigated by moving the Application Support folder for QuickSilver aside and then adding plugins and what not back in one-by-one until the crash-causing culprit is found. See this FAQ for more info on doing that.

YMMV.

So, after some investigation and experimentation, here are the tools so far for my “Remind Like Water” project.

• Remind
• Growl
• iCal
• Quicksilver

A tiny Applescript is also used, but only due to iCal’s apparent inability to deal directly with a shell command script.

This project isn’t complete by any means, but these are the first steps, seeing if my idea is feasible.

Remind

I created a “Remind” folder in my home folder, as well as making a ~/.reminders file via Terminal.

Inside the Remind folder are several files for various purposes:

• birthdays (family and friends)
• home (non-work appointments and errands)
• local (hometown events)
• office (work meetings and events)
• recurring (daily and other tasks)
• seasons (http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Earth_Seasons)
• sports (baseball games)
• sunrisesunset (http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Remind_Cookbook)
• tv (weekly television shows)

All of these are included in .reminders with lines that look like:

INCLUDE /Users/robert/Remind/birthdays

Growl

Installed the growlnotify utility, which enables me to interact with the Growl notification system, running Remind commands, the results of which are displayed in Growl message windows.

iCal

Created a new event called “Remind” that is scheduled for 05:00 and repeats every day. It uses an alarm to run a script (unfortunately an Applescript is necessary) called whatupdog.scpt

whatupdog

This command, once Remind is set up properly, serves to get your current day’s reminders, then display them in a Growl sticky message:

remind ~/.reminders | growlnotify -s

Just to avoid any directory and portability issues, here’s what it will look like with all the pathnames added (assuming everything is in the same place on your system):

/usr/local/bin/remind /Users/robert/.reminders | /usr/local/bin/growlnotfiy -s

I put that line in a file called whatupdog which is saved in my ~/Scripts folder and made executable via chmod.

Also there is an Applescript that contains only this line:

do shell script "/Users/robert/Scripts/whatupdog"

saved as whatupdog.scpt in the same spot.

Thanks to the iCal alarm mentioned above, I would then get a sticky Growl note every morning — and since iCal handles alerts even if the computer is asleep or off, I theoretically won’t miss anything.

Quicksilver

This will eventually be used to append events and to-do items to the various ~/Remind files.

More to come.

kGTD is pissing me off. :)

Generally speaking, it has done a serviceable job during my recent experiments, even if it has (understandably) slowed down as dozens of projects and scores of actions are added.

But where it’s beginning to fail is on the recurring actions. There’s some sort of screwy thing going on during syncing where random recurring items are either “completed” out of repetition (and thus existence) or are kept moving to the next day.

This is not acceptable for a system that is supposed to be trusted; unfortunately, since kGTD is apparently not going to be updated with the still-unscheduled appearance of OmniFocus, I am forced to look at other options.

I think I have three or so choices (which isn’t to say there aren’t others), not counting sticking with kGTD for now. None of them is ideal; all of them will be supplemented (and thus improved) by using Quicksilver as the main entry method.

1. Anticipating Leopard’s coming improvements, trying an iCal-only system even though its current slowness is a big drawback.
2. Cobbling together something with Remind, as I’m well-familiar with its syntax and could get back up to speed pretty quickly.
3. Switching over to the quickly evolving iGTD.
4. Some combination thereof, e.g. using Rem2ics and iCal to Remind.

More later. It’s time to get my muffins prepped for baking. :)

In Quicksilver, you can choose whether or not to show its icon in the menubar and/or the Dock. It’s tempting to keep the Dock clear and choose only the menubar (or live dangerously and not show either ;).

One reason, at least, to show it in the Dock is in case Quicksilver locks up with the spinning rainbow beachball of death. Having the icon in the Dock will make the application available in the Force Quit Applications dialog box, which it isn’t with just the menubar icon.

Naturally, you can kill the QS process via the command line, but this is a little handier.