Ask Different Chat - 2012-02-15 (page 2 of 3)

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5:00 PM

I'd really like to work on cleaning the entire tag database

I'd like to reduce the total tags for IOS and OSX which are the major headaches, and clean up the hardware ones also.

@stuffe No nesting AFAIK. And you'll need moderator help with cleaning things. Best to edit things and perhaps make a separate chat room for proposed tag cleanup so we can have that discussion in a clean space

magpie says wat (and such)

I may bash out a proposal to sort them out, starting with a list of ones that I think are entirely redundant.

starting with [osx-lion]

(shudder)

@stuffe Also - asking here on meta would be great. As well as asking on the main meta - what can be done to feature improve the tag settings. You'll get an answer on how the devs think about tags by asking two good questions on MSO...

@stuffe don't - dive right in - you've got backup :-)

Forgiveness, not permission.

I'll probably think about forming a question. I might put it on Meta here, get all of us to collaboratively edit the question to ensure it meets consensus, then you can move it to mso

need to form the idea fully, it;s a bit half baked in my mind even now.

Tags work fine for keepfitcookery.se

a frying pan will never have a fryingpan-2.0

eggbeater-BETA

5:05 PM

Congratulations new mods! (For your diamonds)

I think a parent/child relationship would be ideal. Works well for tagging my photos in Aperture.

I'm going to set up a seperate room

But then again, I won't be asked to code it.

I mean you can ask, but it would take a really really long time.

@bmike I know! I had the same thing!

Here's my list of what I see as the best - primary tags we have for OSX - stackexchange.com/filters/11798/osx-on-apple

All the other respective tags should be synonyms pointing to these main tags - with merging to follow.

Let's post a link to the new room and go over some ideas to make sure everyone is on board.

5:09 PM

I set up a chat room for tag discussion. I'd like to let it rumble along for a few days to formulate a better MSO request.

I'll certainly want @KyleCronin and @NathanGreenstein to weigh in on the goals - they will have valuable experience as none of the new mods has done the synonym process yet.

@bmike Quick question.

Better tags for Ask Different

ideas and criticism of the existing tags and proposals to make...

@stuffe Awesome!

We need that.

@bmike What do we do about this question. It doesn't have an accepted answer, since it was migrated.

@bmike we can talk about that on the call :)

5:12 PM

@KyleCronin Indeed! it will be nice to learn firsthand what operations are easily reversible and which are not.

This will be interesting to watch.

Popping corn now…

LOL

@daviesgeek Vote on it :-) Although we want people to accept answers - it's ultimately their question. I think the votes say all that anyone needs to know how to use that question if they stumble upon it.

@bmike Ok, I just didn't know what we did about it, and I didn't see @KyleCronin there....

5:14 PM

@daviesgeek He's everywhere, that @KyleCronin - you just don't always see ninjas, now do you?

As they teach in Black Rock Ranger training, "First, do nothing."

@bmike No....he's a vampire...

Jan 31 at 19:06, by Jason Salaz

Don't be surprised. He's just a vampire, that's all.

user image

Umm..@bmike, was there a reason you didn't close this?

ooh - what about a vampire ninja? (U NO MESS WITH UR MODS)

user image

5:16 PM

@bmike Nice!

Nothing wrong with that question in my eyes Davie, it's targeted and specific. I just don't think there's an answer for it. (At least not an affirmative answer).

@daviesgeek Simple - it's a good question first and foremost. I wanted to edit into shape.

It is practical, objective, well researched, specific and actionable.

Was thinking of suggesting my iCase Origami/Apple Bluetooth solution but the OP seems dead set on having the keyboard attached.

It clearly will have a good answer assuming someone modifies or manufactures such product. It's about using Apple hardware - not simply a "pick the best X" hardware-recomendation question that we all can agree aren't a good fit. I think it's a good fit and worth keeping.

Ok....

5:19 PM

@jaberg You can answer saying that this is the best option you know of - and call you the areas where it fails the criteria listed. That is of use to all of us.

@daviesgeek Why might it be closed in your eyes? Did my edit help or hurt the question in your eyes?

I was thinking it was more along the lines of a shopping recommendation.

Thanks for the sticky star.

I've done that on a couple of other questions this week @bmike. I'll likely toss such an answer together later.

@bmike Oh, I saw the question before you made the edit.

JAS. Reading it again.

@Daniel Congrats on your diamond.

The difference, as I see it Davie, is the difference between "What is the best printer?" and "Can anyone suggest a label printer certified for use in an explosive atmosphere?"

2

@bmike You didn't change the question, just the title, and I think that it really helps.

5:23 PM

The first becomes an Epson vs. Canon vs HP rant (most of which probably has little impact on the OP's specific need). The latter is focused and has specific answers.

I still immediately saw it as a shopping question, but I suppose that it could be okay.

It does have a more specific criteria.

However, there are 3 close votes on it.

@daviesgeek I always look to frame a question in the best possible light - isn't it striking how important the title is in framing how you process the exact same words? I love questions that answer specific issues that are real. You can always take that knowledge with you shopping. A simple here's the answer shopping question gets stale and unuseful very quickly.

@bmike Thus the importance of a good title.

@daviesgeek Yup - and they helped me see the need to improve it immediately.

gotta go.

5:25 PM

BTW, @jaberg you can call me Matthew if you're not @-replying. Davie looks weird to me......

Before I do, can someone star this for me

Better tags for Ask Different

ideas and criticism of the existing tags and proposals to make...

3

Yes.

ta

Byee

Will try to remember to do one or the other

Ok.

Actually, @stuffe, put the description with a link to the room instead.

5:26 PM

But I often type faster than I think—which frightenly isn't all that fast.

Please drop by the tag discussion chat room to help formulate a community view on tagging both in AD and the SE system as a whole. chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2510/tag-discussion

@daviesgeek meta.apple.stackexchange.com/questions/1009/… ?

Gotta go

someone can remove the old star I am sure

I've renamed the room to hopefully attract more input.

Better tags for Ask Different

ideas and criticism of the existing tags and proposals to make...

Man, the one day I'm packed to the brim with work is inevitably the most exciting day in chat thus far.

/me disappears again

5:41 PM

by the way @bmike you can migrate the existing chat discussion from here to the tag room

the menu on the side room > message admin

@JasonSalaz we'll try to make it extra awesome - oh - errr. perhaps that's not what you wanted ;-)

:(

@Daniel Ok I get it.

That's really weird I can see the starred emoticon on my iPad, but not on my MBP. Anyone know why?

starred emoticon?

you mean the actual star

6:26 PM

I screwed the pooch on this edit--can a mod revisit and approve the later revision?

1

Q: How can I find what is making my Mac to run hotter and causing the fans to run more often?

My Macbook Pro's fans are running louder. I've also noticed that the average internal temperature is significantly higher. (187°F as I write this.) This didn't used to happen unless I was running full-screen video or recording multitrack audio. I've made no other changes to the computer that I ca...

heating processor

Err never mind. I think that was the latest and it was still screwy. Changed "causing" to "making" and didn't kill the "to"

Have I mentioned that my head hurts?

funny, I don't see any pending edits

You don't. But I'll redo it again now

Pending now.

I appreciate it. Now to find my glasses--and an aspirin.

Someone else has been approving them for you :P

7:22 PM

@Daniel Hey, you closed this question:

-1

Q: Android app remote for iMac and MacBook pro

I am looking for an app for Android phone that would replace my current apple remote I use for my iMac and MacBook pro. I think remote is rf remote but could also be ir remote and I don't know if my Droid razr has either of the two emitters so please lemme know if its physically possible at all. ...

Why didn't you just migrate it? I think it is a legitimate question for the Android site. I don't think it should have been closed.

@JasonSalaz This one

Not the star, the emoticon that was starred.

user image

Nathan Greenstein

@daviesgeek App recommendation questions are off topic on the android site.

@NathanGreenstein Oh, I didn't know that.

Nathan Greenstein

You always have to read the FAQs of the other sites before migrating :)

(doing that ^)

Which browser do you use, daviesgeek?

7:29 PM

Google Chrome

that's why

I see.

They're only visible in Safari

That's what I expected.

@JasonSalaz I was using Dolphin (iOS)

@JasonSalaz How do I view them in Chrome?

I'm pretty sure you don't.

Or at least I don't know how.

Or this: chrome.google.com/webstore/search/emoji

7:40 PM

You ruined my fun @JasonSalaz. I was going to offer @daviesgeek the answer so long as he submitted his query in the form of of a well-structured question. ;)

I am actually going to ask the question.

On the site, I mean.

Well Jason beat me to the answer anyhow.

None of the top results on that search work @Jason.

@jaberg You don't use Alfred??

I use Quicksilver.

(I was seeing what the emoticon was in response to)

@jaberg Have you used Alfred?

7:44 PM

No, I haven't. I'm happy with my workflow and resistant to constant tweaking.

I see.

Just curious to see if you have used it before.

When I first switched to Lion I was trying to run ultra-lean and used Spotlight, but when QS got updated I decided I could take the process hit in exchange for being able to define the shortcuts for my most used apps.

Hmmm....

Also used Google Quick Search Box (the 20% project by the original developer of QS) for a while, but QS is more stable and offers additional features if I choose to use them.

So you don't know the differences between Alfred and QS?

7:49 PM

I steer clear of Alfred/QS/etc

Why?

You mean other than QS is abandoned? (iirc)

QS got updated within the last few weeks I think

Well, I don't use QS anymore, I use Alfred.

Okay, this is still killing me. @daviesgeek, go earn a quick 2 points by proposing the edit that removes the "to" after "Mac" in the topic line:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/40460/how-can-i-find-what-is-making-my-mac-to-run-hotter-and-causing-the-fans-to-run-m/40461#40461

7:50 PM

@stuffe Did it? I may have to switch back.

Thats nice...

@daviesgeek Because I don't feel the need to have a ruthless efficiency on my creative machine

Yes, there was an update recently.

I did 13 years Unix tech support. Saving 5 seconds off a task enough times had worthwhile results - get rid of the user faster. At home, saving 5 seconds seems pointless

@jaberg How's that? (BTW, I don't get rep, I'm past that point.)

7:51 PM

QS is no longer abandoned. Current home is [qsapp.com/]()

Ah. No worries. My edit was accepted, unfortunately it was incorrect too. I left that extraneous "too" in there. I feel sorry for the OP who seems by all counts to be literate.

You know, I may have to switch back.

@jaberg Wait, but I changed it again.

I find that using QS/Alfred etc at home is just an exercise in tech muscle flexing. I see the use in many circumstances, but for me I would rather enjoy what I am using than see everything as a task I need to do faster

Nice, QS is open source now!! i remember wishing that had happened, because there was something I wanted to add at that time. forget what exactly it though... was probably a better calculator or something. :P

Yeah, QS was a big part of my workflow until it began to crash.

Someday I'll understand the parser in chat.

7:54 PM

@jrg How easy is that?

@jaberg qsapp.com

I just typed "http://qsapp.com"

Yeah, I get that now.

@daviesgeek I don't know, i couldn't find the source code so I didn't figure it out.

Or you can do [Quicksilver](http://qsapp.com)

Quicksilver

I know Markdown.

I see.

You didn't understand how the chat parser worked.....

7:56 PM

QS was open source for quite some time--there were a couple of branches.

Then it went cold for awhile. Then it emerged reborn in it's new home.

I think it may have gone Open Source when the dev went to work for the Goog, but it may have been shortly before.

I really like the new QS. It's faster and as far as I can tell, probably won't crash

That was a quick road test!

Ahh, @daviesgeek nailed it - workflow is the word I wanted, workflow is for work, not for home (for me)

Even at work I don't demand 100% optimized workflow. Sometimes a little inefficiency is a good thing.

And too much time spent thinking about "pens and notebooks" leaves too little time for "writing".

3

stuffe.net/2011/09/in-defence-of-inefficiency

Thanks for that edit--whomever is responsible. That was going to keep my up tonight.

8:02 PM

@Jaberg I wrote a long winded blog post using that very word. in defence of inefficiency

@stuffe I think we may be brothers from different mothers.

I was considering an experiment, to rebuilt my Air, and use nothing except built in apps

I was going to then blog about it, and show how you can use the tools Mac OS X gives you to recreate most any app via studious use of automator etc.

I have been undergoing a similar "experiment" myself. Not quite that cut-throat, but really trying to minimize apps, overhead, etc.

Twitter client? No need, just use Automator to create a toolbar-less safari window with the mobile browser agent pointed at twitter.com, et voila, twitter client without any 3rd party app

The air I'm typing on at the moment belongs to my Mom. She's gone on a vacation for a week and I have the computer for updates and maintenance.

8:07 PM

And so on. There's so much stuff you can do with smart folders, folder actions, automator and a bit of scripting

Took my less than 30 minutes to have it up and running as a useful "road machine" thanks to minimal apps, app store, dropbox, etc.

And when I installed Lion, I started from scratch with all apps, extensions, etc. Trying to eliminate cruft.

@daviesgeek Closing it on this site was the correct action. It is not on-topic here. Separate from that, it might be on topic somewhere else. I'm certainly not about to migrate anything without investigating the target site, and in this case, it was off-topic for the suggested target site. But even if it were on-topic there, unless I knew immediately (which will take time), it was off-topic here, and needed to be closed.

That's more useful to me than shaving two seconds off the way I access Byword. (Not that it takes me two seconds.)

Your blogpost just earned a place in my Instapaper bin BTW.

Coo, cheers.

10 second twitter client via 2 step automator action:

user image

Note Bene @daviesgeek that @stuffe's Twitter client required two steps while my Screenshot Scale Service required only one. ;)

@daviesgeek This conversation about streamlining software feeds directly into my why I use Safari answer to your poll too.

8:19 PM

@jaberg It's 2 steps in Automator, but only one once you've saved it as an application :)

@Daniel I see.

I am impressed. Didn't mean to imply otherwise. Never occurred to me to do this. But I think I might now--and kill another app off my main workstation.

It's not ideal, there's no minimise button etc, so it doesn't really handle like a proper app. I'm sure with some fiddling you could do it.

Given the amount of fiddling I do on the current app, I suspect it would serve 90% of my diminishing Twitter needs.

Congress has its briefs in a twist about "Addressbookgate", eh?

See I don't even need twitter, you can just post a screenshot every couple of minutes.

@stuffe Awesomely cool!

8:32 PM

@jaberg That is an insanely good quote: "And too much time spent thinking about "pens and notebooks" leaves too little time for "writing"."

Unlike you guys, I have too many third-party apps that I use.

@JasonSalaz It's a paraphrasing of Merlin Mann.

sounds like something he'd say

@daviesgeek great for getting an iOS app running on your Mac ;)

On a new machine, I would install Google Chrome, Dropbox, Menu Meters, Coda, and Quicksilver (or Alfred)

@stuffe How does it work?

8:35 PM

“How many of you have thought more about the kind of notebook you buy than what you’d like to write as a result of it?”

/me raises hand

@jaberg Haha, I like it.

I've heard other versions too—that's just the one that The Goog kicked to the top.

user image

en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Merlin_Mann

8:36 PM

user image

One is a downloaded iOS app

@daviesgeek Just to be controversial, I'd posit that Menu Meters is a waste of resources and that the OS comes with a perfectly good browser.

The other is an automator workflow running on a mac that took 10 seconds to create

Safari is not perfectly good. That CW taught us that :>.

Whatevers. And yet here I sit, typing and surfing in Safari.

@JasonSalaz Yes!

8:38 PM

With no extensions, plugins, etc.

(But I can divert the contents of a text input field into Byword thanks to @stuffe)

I was being sarcastic.

I recognized that.

But I too use Chrome

I do have chrome on my main machine because I don't have Flash installed on that computer

@jaberg Which would be Activity Monitor?

@stuffe Um, so what is the workflow?

8:39 PM

@daviesgeek He said browser not resource monitor.

No. browser is Safari but yes, Activity monitor serves as a resource monitor.

I was debating two of your decisions.

He was refuting Menu Meters outright and counter-arguing Chrome.

Oh, I see, you were talking about 2 different things...

Sorry.

You could just as readily refute my QS with Spotlight. It's about choices.

@jaberg Safari has always been horrible for me. Slow, hanging on pages and just a pain in the neck.

8:41 PM

@daviesgeek get urls from list (www.facebook.com) > safari popup (set agent string and window size to iphone)

thats it

And, at least in this forum, the debate is intended as good natured fuel for conversation.

However, there are several people that I know that Safari is just fine for.

I also really like anything Google.....

…because I like being tracked in everything I do. ;)

Privacy is dead.

(And yes, I use Google for plenty. I'm living in a glass house there)

8:42 PM

Right....(sarcasm)

@jaberg I don't really care about Google tracking my web searches...

Just realized that this is a reference to the last AD podcast.

That's because your searches are more innocent than mine.

@jaberg Right!! (sarcasm)

The Sarcmark has never been so prolific before.

@daviesgeek You will when you realize how bad it is having data in a database that you can never purge, or know about, or correct one day.

I can delete web searches. Whether or not that actually deletes it from Google's db, I don't know.

8:45 PM

It doesn't.

and then there's ancillary data.

like page visit frequency

blocked sites

And all the ad metrics.

"After viewing a video of Phoebe Cates emerging from a swimming pool jeff visited…"

As cringe worthy the "microsoft" on message promotion is, it makes the point of mechanized scanning benefitting one party at another's expense.

@jaberg LINK PLEASE

LOL. I made it up. But certainly you've seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

8:47 PM

Ugh. bmike. I can't believe you reminded me that those videos exist :/.

don't even know who phoebe cates us.....

@JasonSalaz I want a better example of why being the product is disturbing, but can't find any that make the point so well.

@bmike Nice...

I understand the point, but there's just so much difference in detail than those presented.

@stuffe I'm binging her right now... (errr - googling her.... err - blekko - jeez nothing fits)

8:50 PM

Also, Microsoft's ad campaigns are so bad.

However, I'd rather let Google have my info than FB.

Here you are @bmike. Funny thing, I had to "verify" my age by logging into YouTube (with my google account) before I could view this video.

Facebook ipo / number of users = about $6

IPO?

i would pay $6 a year to get rid of ads and zynga....

8:51 PM

@stuffe Phoebe Cates is a young actress (of my era) known for not being very particular about the roles she chose or the costumes she wore.

(Actually, she's a little over a year older than I am—but always young in my mind.)

@daviesgeek for the automator working?

Initial Public Offering--the price the stock "went public" at.

But in this case @stuffe seems to be referring to the total sum of the IPO.

yes

user image

brofist

@jaberg They are SO TRACKING YOU NOW.

8:57 PM

So long as they think Phoebe is the "worst" thing I look at on the internet I should be safe.

@JasonSalaz I want to find the other hand so I can use both fists

2

Pretty sure there isn't another, unfortunately.

And that one makes the wall…

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