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  • Nerdy Things I Can’t Live Without #2: Quicksilver
    Jan‣25‣08

    Quicksilver

    This plugin for Mac changed my life and continues to do so to this day.  As it says on the website “at first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher.”  It allows you to find an application quickly and launch it.  This is the most basic use for it.  It is handy because now I don’t need to have 30 icons on my doc.  Instead I press option+tab, type the first 2-3 letters of the application I want to launch and hit enter.  It’s that simple and takes about a second.  But it’s not a hard coded launcher, it actually indexes your system and searches it.  So say I need to capture some audio to make a new ringtone for myself.  I do this rarely so the apps I use for that are hardly ever used.  I remember the one I use has “audio” in the name somewhere so I type “audio” and it returns a list of the apps containing that text.  Usually exactly what I need is right there ready to launch but in the worst case, couple down arrows and I’m there.  No digging around in finder to find the app.  And it goes further than that, it is not limited to applications it can index your entire system.  So you can find files and folders fast, faster than spotlight in my opinion.

    Now the app launching capapbility is alone enough to make this a powerful app.  What’s even better is the plugin’s capability to interact with other applications.  You can do just about anything you can imagine.  You can control iTunes from anywhere with a few shortcuts.  You can send quick IM’s.  You can add things to your GTD app.  You can even set a timer or do calculations with it.  It’s mindblowing the versatility you have with just one shortcut.  I am still an amateur at this, I don’t use it even close to its full potential.  Try it out, you’ll like it.

     Bonus NTICLW: YubNub.org

     YubNub is a quicksearch utility for the web.  It’s just like google but with the addition of search commands.  So say I want to look up snails on wikipedia.  I type in “wp snails” and it goes straight to wikipedia’s page on snails.  There is a command for just about any site you can think of.  The site allows users to create their own so there are about a million to just from.  The ones I use most often are: yt = YouTube , imdb = imdb.com, a = Amazon.  Now the reason why this is a bonus on this post is its amazing interaction with Quicksilver.  Normally I would have to go to my browser, go to YubNub and then search.  But with a QS plugin I can access this from anywhere.  I pull of QS type “yub” and then I can enter my search.  Its so amazing! I’ve already won a few office trivia challenges with this.

     I cannot do either of these utilities justice.  Please visit their sites and try them out.

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  • Nerdy Things I Can’t Live Without #1: Zamzar
    Jan‣23‣08

    I’ve become very attached to various pieces of software and webapps and I often find myself wanting to evangelize for them.  So here’s a new thing that may or may not get the blog ball rolling again.  I’ve got lots more.

    Zamzar 

    This site saves my hide on a regular basis.  What it is is an online file conversion tool.  It is extremely helpful in dealing with files that you don’t have the best or appropriate software to handle them.  It has four easy steps right on the home page.  1) upload a file 2) choose what you want your file converted to 3) enter the email you want the file download link sent to 4) Go!  It’s that easy.  And I’ve never waited more than an hour for my converted file to come back.  zamzar-screen

    They offer conversions for just about any file type: video, image, audio, documents and archives.  I have to be honest and say that I have really only used the service for video conversions.  I am not a video guy, nor do I have a lot of video software and equipment so it is often that I get befuddled with a WMV file I can’t do anything with.  I’ve had great success with converting files to and from and back and forth from WMV, FLV and MOV.  They have all been perfect conversions.  I always expect to see some degredation or bad quality but the result always comes out great.  I shall try and make a point of testing other conversion types.  This thing really is fast and easy.

    The service is free for files up to 100MB, 5 conversions at a time and 24 hour download window.  You can get paid plans for anything more that you need. The only thing I don’t like about the site is I can never remember the name when I need it.  Zimzoo? Zamalam? Zarza? Good thing I have del.icio.us, but that’s another story.

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  • A Digital Christmas Card and my Top 10 Christmas Songs
    Dec‣14‣07

    Merry Christmas to all and to all a digital Christmas card. Click here to recieve my binary seasons greetings and to hear my top 10 Christmas songs this year.

    Here is my top 10 in no particular order with commentary:

    1. A Marshmallow World by Bing Crosby
    Can you really have a Christmas song list without Bing? No you cannot. This is one of my favorite Bing songs ever. Who can resist the cheer! It has perfectly described the wintery Colorado weather we’ve been enjoying the last few weeks.

    2. Frosty the Snowman by Dan Tymins
    I love the acoustic play on this thumpity thump thump over the hills of snow. I never really liked this song till ‘ol Dan did it justice.

    3. Oh Come Emmanuel by Rebecca St. James
    This song is truly haunting in the way I think the true spirit of the season is.

    4. I Saw Three Ships by Michael W. Smith
    What can I say? I am a sucker for the pipes.

    5. In Like a Lion (Always Winter) by Relient K
    I don’t have enough room on the internet to talk about this song. It is probably one of my favorite songs ever. C.S. Lewis painted such a beautiful allegory in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Relient K powerfully expresses the emotions of the Narnian citizens waiting and longing for their savior. If you don’t listen all the way through the song you might feel that it is quite depressing. Well, it is kind of at the beginning. Always winter but never Christmas is a desolate prospect, but when everything is brought to life by the appearance of Aslan (Christ) the joy melts away all the cold. Ok, anyway the reason I love this song the most is I think this is a perfect picture of what Christmas means, at least to me. It is a full on celebration of the appearance of Christ on this world and his victory over evil.

    6. Winter Wonderland by Joy Electric
    This song just makes me happy. Always has, always will.

    7. Song For A Winter’s Night by Sarah McLachlan
    I love the feel of this song. It’s a bit sad if you listen to the words, but anyone who’s been in love understands the longing expressed here. I could stretch it and say it also works as an extension of the longing for our savior like in the Relient K song. But whatever, I like it.

    8. Let it Snow by Michael Buble
    This is just classic.

    9. Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby
    My man Bing bringing the island greeting.  For those who don’t know I’m heading for Hawaii the day after Christmas so the song has extra special meaning for me this year.

    10. White Christmas by Norway
    Hold your eggnog high and get the Christmas party started!

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  • I am 48% Addicted to Apple
    Dec‣13‣07

    48%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

    Looking for payday loans?

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  • benlew.com is officially live
    Sep‣25‣07

    My professional side finally sees the light of internet with my first ever online portfolio. It’s a very simple site built from scratch in Textmate and brought to life with a little Thickbox. Also included on the site is my brand new hresume built using Resolio, a handy hresume generator. There are still some kinks to work out but hey, it’s live and it works!

    This is quite an accomplishment for me since I’ve had an online portfolio in the works for about 7 years. There have been countless iterations getting more complex, then more simple, then more complex. On and on and with an artist’s inability to get any personal promotion work done it never came to be. So today I rejoice.

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