I met a Mac that sang the blues…

Ahh… you’re at home because your father has grounded you from being able to head to your local wi-fi hotspot. You of course needed to go there so everyone could see you updating the website that you are hosting on your Macintosh server at home (which happens to reside in your father’s office). Wouldn’t you just loooove to scare the shit out of him while he is on the phone with his boss? And make him think that your Mac is possessed? Or about to take over the world? Well, VNC (or ARD) into your Mac, use trendy spotlight to open the Terminal, and type the following:

say "Hello, sir. What is your name?"

The possibilities are endless! I personally did this with my dad and he is convinced my computers are plotting against him. The reason you have to use VNC or ARD (as opposed to SSH) is because these are using a session on the actual computer. With a remote login type deal, the say command will try to use the computer you are connecting from to play the sound, which will not work.

If you type in “man say” (without the quotes) into the terminal, you will see all of the fun things you can do with the say command. the -good flag will sing whatever text you tell it to say to Pomp and Circumstance (lol high school graduation!) Just don’t do this at your local café. People will get mad at you for interrupting their smooth jazz and they will break your round black glasses. And steal your drink. And then you lose.

Blogging from class. With love from the iDouche
Alexander

Things is Cool

Being big and important on a Mac all day is tough work. Even I, the pretentious iDouche, can lose track of when I should be studying, when I should be working, and when I should be blogging. It sure would be nice to be able to sip my Caramel Macchiato without worrying if I am going to flunk out of school and not be able to afford a wonderful Macintosh in the future. So what is an iDouche to do? The solution is simple, and Cultured Code has it: Things.

Things is an excellent task management program. At first glance, it may seem like a simple to-do list. While that is the backbone concept of this program, it keeps you much more organized than you would think. You can organize your tasks by date, priority, and assign tags to your tasks (much like you assign M3U tags to MP3s or how you assign tags to articles in your blog). The interface even allows you to look at things as they are coming up next. Here is a screenshot:

As you can see, this shows my outstanding commitments that I need to adhere to and remember. For example, notice how Danny’s Party is just a normal task, but down at the bottom my Psych Final is tagged as high. In this view, Things is showing everything as a normal task. But what if I want to only view items tagged as High? Well, if you notice the bar along the top of the right pane in the window, that bar has the names of all of the tags you currently have being used. You can also choose so if you want to see only untagged items.

Another cool feature of Things is that you can easily add new tasks without actually opening up the interface. Things does have to be running in the background, but if you press Control + Option + Space, you get this window:

Now you can easily add a task with minimal effort! Perfect for adding that appointment at the Genius Bar whilst in the middle of writing the juicy bit to your romantic novel. Just keep in mind that it put items in the Inbox by default (a section where items are temporarily placed while you decide a good place for them to go). Things is much more powerful than everything I’ve outlined here. But you should check it out yourself at http://www.culturedcode.com/things. There are features like collaborating between users, for example, that I would never have a chance to try out because I am the only one who is allowed to use this Mac. Keep in mind that Things is only free until January 6, 2009, when it is released at the Macworld Expo. The price will be $49, however, if you are hip and trendy and love your iced café lattes (like me), you will get a 20% discount by signing up for the newsletter before the release date.

Well, it pains me, but I must adjourn as being this pretentious for this long has made me grow weary… And reviews take a lot out of me as well. I just don’t have it in me to be pretentious tonight anymore. And I have to get back to writing my novel. About sex. And scandal. And berets.

Stay exclusive, Mac users.
Alexander

Enter the iDouche.

Hello. My name is Alexander. I just purchased a Mac about a month ago and I must say that it has been a completely life changing experience for me. It’s taken a while to submit but I now have this insatiable urge to just blog blog blog blog blog. And write a novel. Or a screenplay. And wear a beret. And drink coffee. And brag to others about my unfinished novel/screenplay. And drink more coffee. And purchase a black turtleneck sweater. And purchase another beret. And also buy round black sunglasses.

After a good day of writing my novel and going to school for graphic design, I enjoy sitting down with a nice game of Plasma Pong or Quinn, and play classy jazz tunes using iTunes. When I must be parted with my Mac, I am unfortunately forced to use a Dell laptop. But not to worry, fellow iDouches, as I have installed the beloved Leopard on it through sheer dedication and perseverance.

Another amazing thing that has happened since my inauguration into the Mac world is that I have developed a delightfully smug, yet light British accent. My grades in school have soared because I now realize the dangers of becoming too engrossed in gaming, which is impossible with the Mac because gaming is not pertinent to us Macintosh users. Well, fellow iDouches, I must bid you adieu, as I have a Pre-calculus class coming up, and the road to graphic design won’t paint itself, you know.

Ciao
Alexander, the iDouche