Timing Your Mac Usage

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Have you ever wanted to know what the heck you're spending all your time on the computer doing? Now you can track what applications, website, etc are taking most of your time. I'm hoping to use 'Timing' to increase my productivity.

Timing automatically tracks which documents you are editing, which applications you use, and the domains of the websites you visit. You'll never have to worry about forgetting to start or stop a timer again - there are none! It's all done in the background!

For the next couple of days, you can purchase Timing by Thomas Osthege and Daniel Alm at 50% off! If you don't trust my recommendation, then check out the free version, Timing lite, which only allows you to show todays' and yesterdays' data. But seriously, at $4.99, there's nothing to complain about! For a full list of apps that can be tracked with Timing, refer to the FAQ.

thomas osthege

Inside Clash of Clans' North44's George "Jorge" Yao

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If you are predisposed to having an addictive nature and download Clash of Clans (iOS/Android), you're bound to get sucked in. Hopefully you won't spend too much money on in-app purchases buying gems or upgrading your town, but it's hard to resist the temptation especially when going for that third builder! Clashofclans jorgeyao

I'll admit that I was really into it and still dabble from time to time but I've seen friends and family glued to their screens for hours every night trying to stay on top of their town. Heck, even one Christmas mass involved some Clash of Clans gaming though I'll admit I wasn't the guilty one. Hell, even my barber boasts about his clan and shows me his town EVERY time I come in. When he's not cutting hair, he's clashing and clanning it with the other three chairs.

The NY Times posted a great insight on North44's George Yao and how he was able to maintain being the top player for 6 months in the Clash of Clan Universe.

There was a price, however, for being the world’s premier Clasher. Part of it was measurable. To stay on top, Mr. Yao was spending at least $250 a week on the gems. By the time he had dominated the leader board for three months, he told me, he had sunk as much as $3,000 into Clash and was running out of money. He feared that he couldn’t keep up with wealthier rivals and threatened to quit.

To grasp the extent of Mr. Yao’s immersion in the game, you have to understand a little more about the strategy of Clash. In order to keep your trophy count high, a premier player has to avoid being attacked by other top contenders. You can do this either by staying constantly online or by the protection of a “shield” that usually lasts for 12 hours. You automatically get a shield when an attacker destroys 40 percent of your village or your town hall.

In time, he found another, simpler way to shield himself. When a member of North 44 would quit the game, Mr. Yao would take over his account. Then Mr. Yao would use one of his multiple accounts to attack himself when he needed a shield. In order to pull this off, though, he had to keep all of these other accounts highly ranked, which meant playing as many as five accounts at the same time, around the clock. Another wealthy clan member in the United Arab Emirates bought Mr. Yao three iPads to make this feasible — but even then, it was feasible only in the technical sense. At one point, he was bringing five iPads into the shower with him, each wrapped in a plastic bag, so that none of his accounts would go inactive.

Of course, he's retired since then and can't stand the site of the game.

DaisyDisk App Review

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Here's an amazing review of the app DaisyDisk by a good friend Hung Nguyen. It's his first guest post here on elijahnicolas.com and I can't wait for more from him in 2014. Let's give him a warm welcome with retweets and comments!

DaisyDisk by Hung Nguyen

Critically low on disk space to where I no longer could make full backups of my iPhone, I dug into the usual suspects folders such as Downloads, Movies, and my Other folder ::wink:: to do some housecleaning, only to discover that they consumed a scant amount of space. Of the 159 GB, paltry by todays standards I know, where the f**k was 60% of it? I spent about fifteen more minutes digging through a few Finder windows, and then I opened up iTunes, my eyes glazed over by the multitude of indicators, buttons, and menus, and I said to myself "You could spend the next hour fumbling your way through this godforsaken app, or you can find a good diskspace management app and let it do the work while you make yourself a sandwich." Well I don't think I have to tell you which option I chose.

I chose the latter option dammit. A quick Google search and up came a flowery titled app called DaisyDisk. The name made me smile, and a review I read online was glowing. Easy to use and I only have to spend $10? Now we're talking. Bought it through the AppStore and it arrived in seconds. Upon startup, the software asks that you give it permission to read your hard drive, a one time drag and drop operation. Easy enough. Click on SCAN and wait a few minutes. For my 159 GB hard drive on an old 2GHZ Core 2 Duo, I believe it took roughly 6-8 minutes to complete. During this time I happened to connect my WD My Book external drive and DaisyDisk automatically detected and displayed it in its UI; the active scan on the primary drive was unaffected. Nice.

Daisydisk map

After the scan completed, I was presented a high level analysis of the disk usage. My main user profile happened to be using almost 90% of the disk space, Applications used the second most, and so on. But here's where I became impressed. When I clicked on the info table, which was color coded and easy to read, the UI smoothly drilled down to the next level. The animations and menu transitions are reminiscent of Minority Report in its fluidity and sleekness.

Alright, the Pictures folder is using a fair amount, which was to be expected from a self-professed abuser of selfies, but what's this? The Music folder was taking a significant amount of space, much more than I had expected. All my music listening is through streaming services. Intrigued, I dug deeper, again by simply clicking on the file items displayed in the analysis table. Eventually, the app revealed that Podcasts and iTunesU were using about 20 GB of space. It reminded me of the time I subscribed in a flurry to thirty different podcasts as part of an ill-fated effort to get smart. Tell me how that worked out, I ask you.

Best of all, DaisyDisk makes it dead simple to delete these files. You drag the files/folders you want to delete, in my case entire folders of Podcast and iTunesU subscriptions, to a designated area in the UI which acts as a sort of dumpster. When there is any item in the dumpster, a Delete button appears alongside some topical info about its contents. Once you're ready to delete all that crap, you click on Delete, and you get a 5 second countdown to stop the process before DaisyDisk takes out the trash for good. The application gives ample warning these files will be permanently deleted in case you think this is all fun and games. This is not a game.

Upon deletion of all your educational media you procured with deluded aspirations, DaisyDisk congratulates you with a cheeky message about how you should feel good for being able to delete a file. The message went something like "Yee-haw! You just deleted your files!" or some close approximation to it. You even have the option of tweeting your accomplishment if you're one of those types. Overall, DaisyDisk is impressive software and I highly recommended it.

Instagram Direct Only... for Hipsters

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I'm totally just being facetious with the title, but in all seriousness, Instagram's newest video promoting their latest software update screams just that. Maybe I'm totally out of touch now as I'm getting older but wow. It's an interesting feature but when I send a photo to an individual, I'm not scared about it being cached or kept. I also don't use Snapchat (but yes I have it installed) but I've always felt like sharing with everyone. That's just me. If I need to send a photo to my "friends" or "family", then I just send them via iMessage. How about you?

Looks like the offer that Facebook and Google both gave Snapchat a while back is looking a little better. Oh well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

After sending, you’ll be able to find out who’s seen your photo or video, see who’s liked it and watch your recipients commenting in real time as the conversation unfolds.

And looks like this was washed away rather quickly as news, but Twitter coincidently released a new feature that allows pictures to be 'Direct Message'. Have you used that feature yet?

Yay for Slice!

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If you haven't used the app called Slice (iOS / Android / Web), here's a great write up by my wife Adelle on her recent experience.

Yay for Slice!

by Adelle Nicolas:

Two weeks ago I had purchased a pair of Corso Como 'Famenka' Flat Nude 6.5 M on Nordstrom.com as a gift to myself for my new job. Nordstrom was in the midst of their Half Yearly sale, so I got a pretty amazing deal on the flats and bought them for under $40!

About a week later, I received a notification on my phone from the Slice app (iOS / Android / Web) that alerted me of a $10 price drop in the shoes I had purchased. The Slice Team also sent me an email about my Nordstrom purchase and included a link to the item I purchased with the new adjusted price, my order number, as well as Nordstrom's customer service number so I could inquire about my refund. I used all the information I was given and talked to Jeff in customer service and I was quickly and kindly refunded the $10 on my credit card. I ended up getting a 50% discount on some very comfortable flats thanks to Slice!

Corsocomopamenkaballetflat

If you have any questions about privacy, you can check out their FAQ. Most importantly, the most asked about question, I've posted here for direct reference.

Does Slice store my password to my email account?

Slice uses a secure protocol called OAuth (oauth.net) to allow for authorization to your Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Outlook.com account. For these accounts, the authentication happens between you and Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.com, and we never even see the password you enter for your email accounts. OAuth is used by many popular websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and of course, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

For mail providers that do not support OAuth, like AOL, iCloud/MobileMe, Comcast and Cox, we will need to store your email passwords to be able to process your receipts. The passwords will be stored and encrypted in a separate, secure database.

With all these sales going on, I bet 'You Need A Budget'

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Today is the last day to take advantage of the fabulous app, "You Need a Budget" at 50% off! Buying software this "cheap" that helps save, realize and create a surplus of cash… What more do I have to say? Don't take it for me, try them out for free for 34 days but seriously, what's $30 in the scheme of things when it'll help create that budget that you've always wanted. It's available for either PC or Mac, so everyone one of you can take advantage of this great offer. As of this post, you have 10 hours left!

And one more thing, if you buy YNAB now using any of my links, then you'll also get an additional $6.00 bringing the price down to $24.00!!! Leave a comment when and if you buy it! Let's start saving and spending wiser together!

You Need a Budget

I can't wait to jump into 2014 with YNAB in my pocket! That said, they also have an amazing companion app for iOS or Android. If you're not yet ready, you can always listen to their great podcast or follow their blog.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. I just like them a lot.

Wordpress Throws in Built-In Support for Markdown

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With the Ghost platform recently launched and proving to be a viable medium for easy publishing and a clean writing style, it comes as no surprise that Wordpress finally supports writing in Markdown. For those that are unfamiliar with the style, here's the definitely from creator John Gruber.

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

I've been learning how to write in Markdown and have installed awesome plugins for support in my Wordpress site such as Markdown on Save Improved and WP-Footnotes. Of course with this launching, I suppose I can turn these off now but I still have yet to find where to "activate" the setting.

You can find a quick reference guide here.

markdown in wordpress text editor

Footnotes Finally!

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I've finally found a viable, easy Wordpress plugin for footnotes and activated it here on elijahnicolas.com ((first post with embedded footnotes)). I decided to go with Simon Elvery version instead of Austin Sweeney's only because I could customize it within a "Settings" tab. I like Austin's idea about how his Civil Footnotes makes decisions for you and that you could edit the output easily in the plugin, but I just proved to be a little lazy. They seem to operate in similar fashion and I couldn't be happier. ((for some reason, my social plugin and the new wp-footnote plugin are conflicting in the spacing area beneath the body of my main text in preview mode but not when the post is published. Weird.))