by steelie -

Mac OS X + Twidget + Twitter + LoudTwitter/TwitterSync + Vox/Facebook = Ultra-Efficient/Lazy…

For those of you who are tired of seeing the daily Twitter-update posts from a number of your VOX friends and neighbours, I apologize in advance.


Why?

Because for all the VOX/Twitter/Facebook users out there who also happen to be Mac users, I have figured out the most efficient / laziest one-stop solution to bring all three together by updating your Twitter status using the Twidget Dashboard Widget.

Here is what you will need:

Okay, once you’ve run out and purchased your Mac and installed Twidget, and signed up for all the lovely little account listed above, you’ll need to do some configuring…


First, let’s set up VOX to be able to receive these posts from Loudtwitter. Make sure you’re logged into VOX, then click on  “Account” at the very top. On the “Account” page, click the “Mobile Settings” tab on the left. You can either use your main Mobile Posting address with LoudTwitter or you can create an “Additional Posting Email”. I would suggest the latter as you can custom tag it (twitter, loudtwitter…).

VOX set-up: done.

Next, copy the email that VOX generated for you, and hop on over and log-into to Loudtwitter. Your home page will have all your setting options right there. Click on “Email posting setup”, then enter the VOX-generated email address and click “OK”. Then be sure to change the “Change the twitter followed” setting to your twitter username. You can tweak the “Change post time, formatting, etc” settings to your liking once everything else is set up.

LoudTwitter set-up: done.

Next, let’s set up Facebook. Log into your account and do a search for TwitterSync. Add the application. Now, in the settings for TwitterSync, the only setting you really have to enter is the “Twitter Name” you want it to follow and the password for you account if your tweets are protected. Click “Save Changes”.

Facebook set-up: done.

Last but not least, let’s set up the Twidget Dashboard Widget. Enter your Twitter user name and password into the fields provided on Twidget and click “Done”.

Twidget set-up: done.

Now you should be able to just hit F12 no matter what you’re working on and instantly update your Twitter and Facebook status, simultaneously. At the end of the day (specific time can be updated in your LoudTwitter preferences) LoudTwitter will compile your tweets for the day and post an entry to VOX detailing your adventures from the previous day.

For PC users, I understand that there a number of Twitter plug-ins for Firefox that will essentially serve the same purpose as Twidget. All other steps in the set-up should be exactly the same.

I’m pretty sure that covers everything… if anyone has any problems setting this up, let me know and I’ll figure it out and update the instructions accordingly.
—
steelie

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by steelie -

Well, the Camino web browser it is then…

Thanks to Mena for the Camino reminder!!

Fellow Mac users… I do believe this is the one…

I used to use it years ago when I had gone on an anti-MS spree, before I was able to upgrade to OS X to get Safari.  I’ve just downloaded it again…  I had fogotten how nice it is. For anyone who’s looking for that Safari alternative but doesn’t was to go to Firefox, Camino is that great little middle ground between the two. Now, it doesn’t have the same level of customizability as Firefox but it was built specifically for OS X so it behaves in a much more Mac-like way.

Also, if any of you are interested in customizing things like I am you should go to pimpmycamino.com to see what’s available. I highly recommend the Camitools and Caminicons to tweak the look and feel.

One of my favourite interface features about Safari is the Address/Progress bar combo which, unfortunately, Camino does not have. However, in a very Mac-like way, Camino lets you shuffle around the Icons so you can at least place the spinning progress wheel next to the Address bar for some immediate visual feedback (see image below).

Thanks again for the Camino reminder, Mena.
Camino. Yeah. I’m all over it…

Oh, right. Camino also allows you to sync your bookmarks with an FTP server of your own choice and sync those bookmarks with other computers as well. NEAT!
—
steelie

Custom Camino
Custom Camino

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by steelie -

“Compose” test using Apple’s Safari 2.0.4 + latest Webkit build…

Okay, I have to admit… I’ve been known to be one of those pain in the ass people who occasionally feels it necessary to inform VOX of my thoughtful suggestions to make the site better (even though the more I use it, the more I realise how much it just kicks ass). Well, I think I may have posted ± three separate ”feedbacks” complaining about how Apple’s Safari’s incompatibility with VOX has been a source of frustration for me.


As per VOX’s suggestion (every time I try to compose a post in Safari) I finally decided to try Firefox. While it does allow most/all of the composing features one would need to successfully compose a post in VOX, it is thoroughly less pleasant to deal with on a regular basis… it's clunky… it doesn't do really some really simple things that you get spoiled by over in Safari.


For example…


When you go to type in the address in the URL bar it will auto-complete the entry with your most visited site with the same spelling AND provide a pull-down list of all other options — in order of most visited by ME. With Firefox you are presented with a pull-down list of the most recent places you’ve been which rarely includes my most visited places.


In Safari, I can choose to block or un-block pop-up windows from the FILE Menu or by simply pressing a keyboard shortcut… same for emptying the cache… and deleting history can be done from the HISTORY menu. There is no need  to open the preference panel  every time you've visited your online bank and you need to empty the cache of your personal information or delete history… novel ideas, I know.


The tabbed-browsing feature has the “close tab” button on the tab itself as oppose to the other side of the screen so you can close a tab in the background by means of this little button. Plus you can toggle from tab to tab using key-commands. With Firefox, you either have to highlight the tab then go click the button to close, or you have to right-click the tab and choose close from the pop-up menu… both ways take three to four times longer — I know, I know, we're only talking seconds here but they add up to frustration and interface friction.


Of course, you can install various extension to Firefox to increase its functionality including ones for closing the tabs and adding key-commands to allow for tab-toggling but the interface is still clunky.


In Safari, one of my favourite interface features is the Address Bar which is also the Progress Bar. So, as soon as you’ve entered your destination URL and pressed enter, the blue progress bar travels along the back of the Address Bar giving immediate feedback that things are working to get you where you need to go. In Firefox the progress bar is a bout an inch wide and tucked down in the bottom corner where you have to go searching for it every time…


ANYWAY…


Following another “suggestion” from the VOX team (more like a “swim at your own risk” statement than a suggestion really) I installed the latest nightly build of Webkit which promptly crashed Safari… brilliant. After restarting, however, I was pleased to find that I can now at least use some of the basic formatting tools. Specifically, the following: bold, italics, underline, left-align, centre-align and right-align. Colour me excited…


Oh well, it is getting there, slowly but surely… just too slowly for my liking.


BTW, for any one who cares, this entry was composed entirely using Safari with the latest nightly build of Webkit, except for the hyper-links and spell-checking, which were done in TextEdit.


Goodnight all.

—

steelie

[UPDATE]

I did a bit of searching and it turns out that you can also download an extention that will allow Firefox to combine the Address and Progress bars and it can be found here. It is way more intuitive than Firefox’s default Progress Bar so I (personally) highly recommend it.

I guess the personal goal for this will now be to try and make Firefox as Safari-like as possible.
I’ll start a running list of all the extensions I find to make life more Safarifox and bearable.

—
steelie

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