Monthly Archives: January 2011

Notational Velocity: Taking notes like a Boss.

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About a year ago reconstructed my note-taking process on my MacBook Pro and iPhone. After listening to Merlin Mann talk about the original Notational Velocity on MacBreak Weekly episode 178. So I decided to give it a try.

At the time I used Evernote for my notes. The problem with Evernote was that if I wanted to edit a note on my iPhone, the iOS version just appended the file. I never liked that. It messed up my notes. The cool thing about Notational Velocity is that it’s all about .txt files. The power of simplicity!

Long story short, I downloaded the original Notational Velocity application on my Mac, created a folder in my dropbox and signed up for Simplenote.

Then came the big revolution with Notational Velocity with a Markdown hack.

My setup today.

I have disabled syncing with simple note. Now I only use Dropbox for syncing my devices. I have also moved from Notational Velocity with markdown to Notational Velocity Alt. The reason being the landscape layout and custom CSS support in NV Alt.

My Custom CSS file for NV Alt

I thought that I would share my CSS file for NV Alt.

After the first time you run the Preview window, look in ~/Library/Application Support/Notational Velocity and you’ll find two files:template.html and custom.css. If you’re handy with HTML and CSS, feel free to customize these in whatever way you like. You can add Javascript as well, but you’ll need to load external scripts from a url or using a full file:// path. If worst comes to worst, you can just delete or rename your customizations and the default files will be put back in place automatically.

body,p,td,div { font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:1.4em;font-size:12px; }
p { margin:0 0 1.7em 0; }
a { color:rgb(13,110,161);text-decoration:none;-webkit-transition:color .2s ease-in-out; }
a:hover { color:#3593d9; }
h1.doctitle { background:#eee;font-size:14px;font-weight:bold;color:#333;line-height:25px;margin:0;padding:0 10px;border-bottom:solid 1px #aaa; }
h1 { font-size:24px;color:#000;margin:12px 0 15px 0; }
h2 { font-size:18px;width:auto;margin:15px 0 10px 2px; }
h2 em { line-height:1.6em;font-size:12px;color:#111;text-shadow:0 1px 0 #FFF;padding-left:10px; }
h3 { font-size:14px; }
h4 { font-size:12px;margin-bottom:1.3em; }
.footnote { font-size:.8em;vertical-align:super;color:rgb(13,110,161); }
#wrapper { background:#fff;position:fixed;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;-webkit-box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 4px #8F8D87; }
#contentdiv { position:fixed;top:27px;left:5px;right:5px;bottom:5px;background:transparent;color:black;overflow:auto;text-indent:0px;padding:10px; }
#contentdiv::-webkit-scrollbar { width:6px; }
#contentdiv::-webkit-scrollbar:horizontal { height:6px;display:none; }
#contentdiv::-webkit-scrollbar-track { background:transparent;-webkit-border-radius:0;right:10px; }
#contentdiv::-webkit-scrollbar-track:disabled { display:none; }
#contentdiv::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { border-width:0;min-height:20px;background:#777;opacity:0.4;-webkit-border-radius:5px; }

Boom!

How to open vim in terminal from Finder.

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I’ve committed myself to use VIM more on my mac. (It took me a few years to realize that VI is not the worst texteditor in the world, but It might be the best…)

I found this on superuser.com.

Create an Automator Application to run the following applescript:

on run {input}
   set the_path to POSIX path of input
   set cmd to "vim " & quoted form of the_path
   tell application "System Events" to set terminalIsRunning to exists application process "Terminal"
   tell application "Terminal"
      activate
      if terminalIsRunning is true then
         do script with command cmd
      else
         do script with command cmd in window 1
      end if
   end tell
end run

Save the automator application. (eg. name it Vim Launcher)

Right click (or control-click) on your custom vim-type file (eg. use .vim as the extension) and under Open With…* choose the bottom option Other… and find your Automator Application (eg. Vim Launcher), double-click it.


Boom.

Jumpcut

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Jumpcut is a very small and sleek application that keeps a buffer of your recent clipboard on your mac. I use it all the time on my mac.

About

Jumpcut is an application that provides “clipboard buffering” — that is, access to text that you’ve cut or copied, even if you’ve subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut’s interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard’s history.

Using Jumpcut

Jumpcut is designed to be simple. Download the application, double-click the .tgz file to open it, and drag the application (the one with the pretty scissors icon) to your Applications directory. Launch Jumpcut. A scissors icon will appear in your menu bar. Now whenever you cut or copy a text item, it’ll be added to the “stack” of clippings that Jumpcut has recorded. Clippings can be accessed in one of two ways:

  • Under the menu bar
    Choose a clipping from the Jumpcut menu.
  • Through a pop-up bezel
    In any application into which you want to paste an item from Jumpcut’s stack, press the hotkey to activate Jumpcut’s bezel. (The default value for this hotkey is Control-Option-V.) A little window like the one you see when using the application switcher or the brightness controls will appear. While holding the modifier keys (for the default hotkey, this is the Control-Option combo), use the arrow keys to scroll through the stack.

When you’ve selected a clipping, Jumpcut will put it on the pasteboard and attempt to paste it into your application. It does this by mimicking a user typing Command-V, so unusual applications which don’t use this to indicate “Paste” will be confused. The clip will still be on the pasteboard, though, so you can paste it normally. If Command-V is used in a non-standard way in applications you are trying to paste to, a preference is available to disable the “paste” action for clippings selected from the menu bar. In this case, choose the clipping and paste however your application asks you to do it.

I’ve tried to allow a few different methods for navigating in the bezel. You can move down the stack using the right arrow, down arrow, or “V” key; you can move up the stack using the left arrow, up arrow, or “Shift-V”. Home moves to the beginning, and End moves to the end. Page Up and Page Down scroll through the stack more quickly. If you change your mind and decide not to paste the application, hit escape to make the bezel vanish. A “sticky bezel” preference is available; if it’s selected, you must explicitly hit return or escape to dismiss the bezel.

Jumpcut remembers the last clipping you selected using the bezel. The next time you bring the bezel up, it will start with that clipping unless it’s scrolled off the stack.

Download: http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/

TestFlight simplifies iPhone app testing with over-the-air distribution

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This is cool!

TestFlight is a new service that aims to fix a lot of the problems with iPhone app testing. If you’ve ever developed an iPhone app or served as a tester for an unreleased one, you know how much of a pain it is: collecting the UDIDs for the testers’ phones, distributing .ipa files, and then distributing new .ipa files every time something changes … yuck! TestFlight streamlines the process, keeping track of all your testers and pushing app updates over the air.

…

If you want to demo TestFlight, you can (no joke) drag your .ipa to a box on testflghtapp.com, enter some email addresses, and hit submit. Then, just watch the counter tick up as your testers install the app. That’s why they call it “magical.” TestFlight is free for developers, and enterprise accounts are available if you email the devs.

TestFlight simplifies iPhone app testing with over-the-air distribution.

Textexpander

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I have been using Textexpander on my mac for over 2 years. Textexpander enables you to write custom snippets of text that gets inserted every time you type the abbreviation that’s linked to the snippet. Sounds complicated? It’s not..

Save time and effort with TextExpander! Whether it’s a simple email signature or several paragraphs of a standard response, you’ll love how easy it is to use TextExpander to avoid typing the same thing over and over.

Personally I’ve been using Textexpander for small stuff. For example every time i write the abbreviation ddate it gets substituted with todays date, formatted just the way I like it. The same thing for my signature when i write ssign. My use is somewhat trivial, but you can create quite cool custom snippets that for example will type a custom response to an email.

I have recently started using Textexpander on my iPhone and iPad. Works great.

Links

Veeam backup: vbk is locked running session

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This morning I realized that the Veeam backup did not run last night. And when i tried to run it again I got an error saying that the backup .vbk file was locked by a running session. (Having just rebooted the server, there should be no running job locking the .vbk file)

So I found a page describing the issue:

A few nights ago, one of our Veeam Backup jobs was hung. I tried the “Stop Job” option but seemed to have no effect. I then rebooted the backup server but found the drives for the server being backed up were still mounted to the backup server. I issued a “Retry Job” but the job came back failed with an error: “vbk is locked running session”To resolve this issue and to get the job runnable again:

  1. Launch the vSphere client, go to Edit Settings on the Veeam VM

Remove any hard drives that shouldn’t be there(VMDKs mounted for the job).

  1. Remove any orphaned snapshots on servers being backed up.

Create a manual snapshot, go into Snapshot Manager - > Delete All.

vbk is locked running session.