If you’ve ever found yourself scrabbling around looking for that elusive readme file and a reminder of how to insert images in Markdown, or the correct syntax for inserting interactive HTML5 content in your code, Cheaters is probably what you’ve been looking for all along. Brett Terpstra, Cheaters’ creator,...

After reading Tyler Reinhard’s Getting Things Done with Semantic Notes a couple of days ago, I was keen to start implementing the system immediately. While I wouldn’t describe my note-taking system as chaotic, it certainly isn’t GTD friendly. One of the keys to making the system work properly is a solid approach to...

Last night when I tapped a link in @MacDrifter’s RSS feed in Mr Reader (since closed) on my iPad, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Two hours later I’d read, and re-read, Tyler Reinhard’s Getting Things Done with Semantic Notes. Reinhard says: The first obvious change I needed to make was the process by which I take,...

One of my clients uses a font that only includes the proportional figure style, but prefers figures in text to display as oldstyle. In order to achieve this I have to deploy a second font, a small-caps version. This creates a problem for me during typesetting, in particular because that client’s market reports can...

In How I Made a 26-Hour Day, on Svbtle, Andrew Dumont describes how rearranging his day led to significant productivity improvements: Wait a minute, didn’t I just wake up two hours earlier? Well, yes. But I optimized my day, significantly. Along with waking up earlier, I segmented out the thing that caused the...

There are countless apps for taking screenshots on a Mac. So many, that it’s easy to forget this facility is baked in to OS X. I was reminded of this when I wanted a screenshot of a specific application window. Should I launch Skitch and delve into its complex array of options, or was there a better way? There is a...

This past year has been one of trials and tribulations. I’ve tried out many more apps, both free and paid, than you will find listed in this post. Some apps hung around for a while; others were swiftly discarded. With one exception, I use the apps listed below every day. Scrivener is the exception, but only because...

Keith Houston, of the Shady Characters blog, says farewell to 2012 with another link-littered post full of punctuative goodness. Miscellany №21 includes reference to Ralf Hermann’s Typographic Myth Busting: What’s a Ligature, Anyway?: Ligatures – simply put, two or more letters rendered as a single combined...

Note: Mono Social Icons font has since replaced Pictos icon fonts on this website. There are a number of reasons for choosing an icon font over a bitmap image: Bitmaps are poor at scaling Bitmaps require more http requests Bitmaps are difficult to manipulate. That’s good enough for me. You’ll find a more detailed...

This useful TextExpander snippet is courtesy of Michael Schechter, in Naming Files And Avoiding Folders. TextExpander’s snippet window In TextExpander, Schechter uses the following abbreviation: bX and pairs it with this plain text snippet: Blogx – %| – %y-%m-%d When called, the snippet inserts your keyword and...

I don’t spend every day building websites, which is why I lean towards suites of tools that allow me to get things done quicker, and usually without resorting to the command line. The following method – post installing Compass and the 960 Grid System – steers clear of the command line. Use it to set up a local...