briandigital:

lifestreaminbits:

bicycle rush hour in the Netherlands

Media Temple has a new offering that looks like a Slicehost slice. It’s just a Linux server, you do the rest.

At first glance, it’s cheaper. A slice starts at $20 for 256MB RAM, then goes up to $38 for a 512MB slice. The MT (ve) starts at $30 for 512MB.

Anyone try this yet? I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know my Slicehost sliced, but was a long time Media Temple customer prior. Actually, I still have 2 (dv)s there.

Choice quotes that I really connect with:

I’m not on IM.

Email is best as it provides something to reference, especially if you have details that need to be read and remembered for later. However, with the growing pile of emails that emerge day to day like a beast that taunts you with its sheer prowess, it’s becoming the beast on my back some days. I hear and read “Inbox zero,” so often these days that I realize that email is failing somehow. It is no longer as effective. We no longer pick up the phone to connect to someone directly and immediately. It is a passive and sometimes, a passive-aggressive, form of communication that is chance, hope, a lack of responsibility and demands rolled into one.

A phone call serves all other needs. A phone call is classic and direct. As a teenager, it was all I had. I didn’t have an email account until I was 20 and those were the Pine/Telnet days.

via @kottke: “Jesse Schell talks about the psychological and economic aspects of Facebook games and what that means for the future of gaming and living. If you make products or software that other people use, this is pretty much a must-see kinda thing…the last 5 or 6 minutes are dizzying, magical, and terrifying.”

I don’t always agree with 37signals, some of us have to work in settings that we don’t have full control over and that aren’t so ideal, but Jason Fried nails the problem with the corporate workplace. I have my whole office to myself and even I find myself doing work after hours because that’s the only time that is interruption-free.

See also Paul Graham’s classic post from last year on Manager vs. Maker schedules & time.

Why yes, we do like Evernote.

Was a federal holiday, and a snow day in Salem. It was incredibly satisfying. I spent the day focused on one single project without contending with the phone or email.

That the channels were silent was important. It’s not enough to declare a given day a quiet one. The noise is still there, and those missed calls or unread emails need answering.

Is there no other way to be able to focus on working rather than reacting?

Finally made it to Build Guild again on January 12th, as captured by @prwood.

I’d love a set of “MJR” prints. (Via @simplebits)

I’ve been using Things for a while now and recently read up on some of the wiki posts for getting the most out of the app, primarily those documenting scripting Things using AppleScript to maximize productivity.

When I get into the office in the morning, I tend to jump into work or get distracted by something interesting, and don’t necessarily stick to checking my calendar and To Do list diligently. I do, however, check my email on my iPhone during my walk in. Having an email listing my appointments and tasks for the day would be perfect.

I use Things on my laptop (my primary computer) and my iPhone. I shut my laptop down occasionally, so relying on it for any sort of automation wouldn’t work 100% of the time. Step 1: Synch Things with my office iMac. My appointments in iCal are already in place, I use .mac and Spanning Sync to sync my calendars across computers and with my Google Calendar, and Mail syncs accounts using .mac as well. For this, I’ll be using a neutral email account to send the agenda to my slimkiwi.com address: My .mac account, set as the default account in Mail.

With all that in place, it just comes down to writing AppleScript against the three apps. Fortunately I found some quick examples on the Web to toss together, documented in the following script:

-- This first portion came from:
-- http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=23652&sid=ba05d6b94df919be25bdf8e0721df1ee#23652
set Now to current date

set TodaysDate to date string of Now
set MidnightToday to date TodaysDate
-- Needs to run in the AM for the +1 to work
set MidnightTomorrow to (date TodaysDate) + (1 * days)

-- These two vars are mine, to build up the string for the email
set Agenda to ""
set ToDoList to ""

tell application "iCal"
	-- Work and Home are my calendars, use your own
	set AllCalendars to {calendar "Work", calendar "Home"}
	
	repeat with EachCalendar in AllCalendars
		set CalendarName to name of EachCalendar
		
		set TodaysEvents to (every event of EachCalendar ¬
			whose (start date is greater than MidnightToday and ¬
			end date is less than MidnightTomorrow) or ¬
			(start date is MidnightToday and allday event is true))
		repeat with EachEvent in TodaysEvents
			if contents of EachEvent is not missing value then
				set TheEvent to contents of EachEvent
				set EventProperties to properties of TheEvent
				set EventName to summary of EventProperties
				set EventLocation to location of EventProperties
				set EventDescription to description of EventProperties
				
				if not (allday event of EventProperties) then
					set EventTime to "at " & time string of start date of EventProperties
					if start date of EventProperties comes before Now then
						set EventStillToCome to false
					else
						set EventStillToCome to true
					end if
				else
					set EventTime to ", All Day"
					set EventStillToCome to true
				end if
				
				if EventStillToCome then
					set EventAttendees to attendees of TheEvent
					set AttendeeNames to ""
					repeat with EachAttendee in EventAttendees
						set AttendeeName to display name of EachAttendee
						set AttendeeNames to AttendeeNames
					end repeat
					
					-- Start building message 
					-- The original code appears below. I shortened it to a 1-line summary
					set EventMsg to "* "
					set EventMsg to EventMsg & CalendarName & ": " & EventTime & ", " & EventName
					
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & "From the " & CalendarName & " Calendar, "
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & "Today " & EventTime & ", "
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & "is the " & EventName
					-- if EventLocation is not in {missing value, ""} then ¬
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & ", at " & EventLocation
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & ". "
					-- if EventDescription is not in {missing value, ""} then ¬
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & "The notes indicate: " & EventDescription & ". "
					-- if EventAttendees is not {} then ¬
					-- set EventMsg to EventMsg & "Expected attendees are " & AttendeeNames & ". "
					-- display dialog EventMsg
					
					-- Build up agenda list:
					set Agenda to Agenda & EventMsg & "
"
				end if
			end if
		end repeat
	end repeat
	-- Pause before quitting the app
	delay 5
	quit
end tell

-- display dialog Agenda & "
--
-- "
-- Found Things code at
-- http://culturedcode.com/things/wiki/index.php/Log_Today_List_%28AppleScript%29
tell application "Things"
	repeat with aToDo in to dos of list "Today"
		
		-- Pretty simple, first hit project to do, then area to do, then individual to do
		if (project of aToDo) is not missing value then
			set ToDoList to ToDoList & "* " & (name of project of aToDo) & ": " & name of aToDo & "
"
		else if (area of aToDo) is not missing value then
			set ToDoList to ToDoList & "* " & (name of area of aToDo) & ": " & name of aToDo & "
"
		else
			set ToDoList to ToDoList & "* " & "" & name of aToDo & "
"
		end if
		
	end repeat
	-- Pause before quitting the app
	delay 5
	quit
end tell

-- Email code is from:
-- http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/applescript/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-applescript/
-- I'll be running this on an iMac I leave running in the office, with my .mac account
-- set up as the default mail account. iCal will sync with .mac and gCal (via Spanning Sync)
-- so it'll be fresh. Things will sync via Dropbox directory.

--Variables
set recipientName to "Mark J. Reeves"
set recipientAddress to "me@slimkiwi.com"
set theSubject to "Today's Agenda"
set theContent to Agenda & "

" & "To Do List:
" & ToDoList

--Mail Tell Block
tell application "Mail"
	
	--Create the message
	set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:theSubject, content:theContent, visible:true}
	
	--Set a recipient
	tell theMessage
		make new to recipient with properties {name:recipientName, address:recipientAddress}
		
	end tell
	--Send the Message
	send theMessage
	
	-- Give the message time to send
	delay 30
	quit
end tell

There you have it: An AppleScript you can run or schedule to pull today’s appointments and To Do list together in a summary email that will land in your inbox, relying on your favorite productivity apps.