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DimScreen simply dims your screen
Once upon a time, I had an application which would dim the screen of my Mac down to 0, and then exit. Somewhere along the way I seem to have lost the app and can no longer find it. Yes, I know I could just hold F1 and do the same thing manually, but I liked having an app that just did it for me. So I did what any self-respecting geek would do: I wrote a shell script. Others did the heavy lifting Let me be clear that my little shell script wrapped in Automator was only a tiny piece of this puzzle. First I'm going to tell you who did all the heavy lifting, and then you can decide how you want to put the pieces together for yourself. (I highly recommend reading to the end before you do anything.) Nicholas Riley wrote a C program called brightness which I found via Matt "Danger" West's website, which I found via Google. Matt includes the source code on his page, or you can download the original 'brightness.c' here and then you can compile it (according to Matt's instructions) using this line: gcc -std=c99 -o brightness brightness.c -framework IOKit -framework ApplicationServices Of course that assumes that you have Xcode installed. If you don't, you can either download and install Xcode (warning: it's 3 GB to download and I think it's somewhere between 7-10 GB when installed). If all of that seems like a lot of hassle, Matt also made a pre-compiled binary available for you to download. Here's what I did I wrote a shell script (dimscreen.zsh) which looks for brightness at $HOME/bin/brightness. If it does not find it there, it will attempt to download it "automagically" from my personal website and then install it to $HOME/bin/brightness. Once brightness is installed, it will dim the screen to 0 and then launch your screensaver. Why does it launch your screensaver? Because otherwise when you went to use your Mac, you might have forgotten that you set the brightness to 0. If you move the mouse or type, you won't see anything. However if the screensaver is on, one of two things will happen: If you have enabled the preference which requires a password to be entered after your screensaver is turned on, you will see that prompt. (Mac OS X is smart enough to automatically turn the screen brightness up a little for you to see that you need to enter your password.) If you do not require a password to be entered after your screensaver is turned on, my script will turn the brightness up as little as possible after the screensaver exits. That should keep you from getting blinded if you are working at night. Then you can adjust the brightness to whatever level you want. I took dimscreen.zsh and made it into an app ("Dim Screen.app") using Automator. I put dimscreen.zsh and the 'Dim Screen.app' and the 'brightness' command (and the source code) all into one nice neat package and put it on my Dropbox as DimScreen. "How do I use this?" 1) If you are the trusting type (or just impatient), download DimScreen, double click it to 'unarchive' it, and then move the 'Dim Screen.app' to /Applications/ (or wherever you keep your apps) and run it. The first time you run it, make sure that you are online so that it can download the brightness utility. (It will only do that once.) 2) If you are trusting to a point but don't want the app to download anything automatically, make a directory called 'bin' in your home directory (that's the one which has the 'Desktop' and 'Documents' and 'Downloads' directories in it). Then double-click the DimScreen.tar.bz2 file, and move the 'brightness' file to the ~/bin directryory you just created. 3) If you pride yourself on your distrust, then by all means, download the source code from the links provided above, compile the 'brightness' command on your own, and move it to ~/bin/ (where ~ is your Home directory). (If you are someone who likes the Terminal.app, you might want to put the dimscreen.zsh script into your $PATH as well, so you can launch it from the command line.) Once you have it installed, launch it via whatever app launcher you prefer. If you want to make it a "one click launch" you might consider Apptivate, a handy little launcher I reviewed previously. There are other ways to do it, of course, but Apptivate is still my preferred "I want to press this key (or "this key sequence") to run this Application/Script/etc" solution. P.S. Yes, I know about Control + Shift + Eject I am sure that some Mac keyboard aficionado will not have been able to wait until the end of the article, and is already writing a comment to tell me that if I press Control + Shift + Eject, then the Mac's screen will turn off. I know. The problem is, I never remember if it's Control or Command, and do I have to hold down the fn key or not. Plus it's really not the same thing, I don't just want it off, I want it dimmed all the way down. I still wanted an (even) easier way. I'm used to triggering all sorts of actions via LaunchBar and wanted to be able to dim my screen that way too. When I read on Apple Stack Exchange about someone who couldn't get that keyboard shortcut to work, I went looking for that old app (mentioned at the beginning of this article) and when I couldn't find it, I decided to just roll my own. Are there other ways of doing this? You bet. If you have a preferred solution, feel free to let us know in the comments.
LaunchBar 5 gives powerful launching options, on sale
LaunchBar is a smart launcher, which learns from your habits and patterns to help you work more efficiently. Until midnight tomorrow (Sunday, eastern time) MacUpdate Promo has LaunchBar on sale for $17.50, which is 50% off the usual price. I love LaunchBar because it's smart. For example, I use Mailplane instead of Mail.app, and LaunchBar has learned this, so when I trigger LaunchBar and type the letter 'm' it shows me Mailplane. If I type 't' it shows me Twitterrific but if I type 'te' it shows me iTerm. It doesn't just let you launch apps either, you can also launch Preference Panes, create new events in iCal, search your address book (one of my favorite 'tricks': search for someone in my addressbook, navigate to their their phone number, and then press Enter. LaunchBar will show the phone number "full screen" like so: You can also copy Address Book information from LaunchBar, use it to begin email messages, and more. Using the "Instant Send" feature, I can select a file in Finder, then trigger LaunchBar and press "Command" twice (you can choose from several key commands to trigger Instant Send), and LaunchBar will offer to open the file in whatever application I search for next, similar to if you had right clicked on the file, chosen 'Open With' but your hands never touched the mouse. If you 'open with' your mail client, it will create a new message with the file attached. Or maybe you have an image that normally opens with Preview but you want to edit it in Pixelmator; Instant Send makes it easier and quicker. LaunchBar also has a built-in calculator and clipboard history. Do you use search engines? LaunchBar will let you create searches right from within itself. It comes with a slew of search engines built in, and adding your own is simple. Quite simply, LaunchBar is one of my absolutely essential applications. I've tried the others, and I always come back to LaunchBar. See previous TUAW coverage of LaunchBar.
Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts
There are a plethora of "launcher" apps out there. I've used LaunchBar ($35) since it was released for NeXTStep; other folks seem fond of Alfred (free, with additional powerpack for £12, or about US$20), Butler ($20), Keyboard Maestro ($36) or Google Quick Search Box (free). The venerable but now mostly-dead QuickSilver (cue moment of silence followed by someone yelling out "I'm not dead yet") is being kept alive by a band of merry coders who hope to revive it. Heck, even FastScripts and OS X's own Spotlight can serve as launchers. I come not to replace your favorite launcher, but to supplement it, with an incredibly handy $3 app called Apptivate. Read on for details
Mac power tools: charge up your workflow
I recently bought a new Mac, and I decided not to migrate years of cruft over to a pristine Snow Leopard install. I also decided to shed years of stale workflow and adopt a new way of doing things. Enter the power tools: software that augments the power and performance of OS X to do things faster and smarter. I'll examine some general system enhancements and look at a couple of powerful Mac/iPhone app combos that really work well together. Step one was finding a replacement for my beloved QuickSilver. I had abandoned QS well over a year ago due to performance issues on most of my Macs, but after a nagging pain in my wrist surfaced, I realized I had to find more keyboard shortcuts. Enter LaunchBar, which fills in for 90% of what QuickSilver used to do for me. LaunchBar is one Ctrl-Space (configurable, of course) away from Spotlight searching, Google searching, application launching, math calculations and much, much more. LaunchBar is $25 around $35 per seat, and worth taking 15 minutes to learn the basics. Go ahead, hate me for giving up QS, but try LaunchBar before you hurl the insults. Next I needed a better way to juggle 3 Gmail accounts. But I also needed a way to track the metric ton of inbox items that flow through those email conduits. The solution was the combination of MailPlane and Things. I had really dedicated my heart to Toodledo, but there's one trick I couldn't replicate on any setup (The Hit List included): when I get an email in MailPlane, I can select some text and press Shift-Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-0 and the Things HUD pops up and autofills the notes section with a link to the email itself. It is awesome. Not perfect, mind you, but a huge thing for me. Read on for more power tools and tips.
LaunchBar 5 beta available now
File launchers -- programs that make it easy to launch applications or utilities from a few clicks on the keyboard -- are increasingly common Mac utilities. Although I don't personally use a separate launch utility (I use OS X's Spotlight), others here at TUAW have expressed their devotion to Quicksilver in the past. TUAW readers and bloggers have also expressed their love for Objective Development's LaunchBar. The company is furthering development of that application, and has recently announced the release of the beta version of LaunchBar 5. This version of LaunchBar boasts a number of improvements, including a new application icon designed by Bonsai Studio, which is known for designing themes for RealMac Software's RapidWeaver. Some of the featured improvements to LaunchBar 5 include: • Clipboard: A clipboard history has been added, as well as adding items onto the clipboard without overwriting what is already on there. • Quick Look and iCal support • An improved calculator based on the Unix 'bc' tool, with the ability to be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. • LaunchBar is now scriptable via AppleScript. • Firefox 3 support, German localization, automatic software, and more. LaunchBar 5 is not available for purchase yet, but you can download and enjoy and the beta until January 15, 2009. Single seat licenses will be available for € 24 (around $30), € 39 (around $50) and upgrades from previous versions will be available starting at € 9 (around $11). A license key for those who want to try out LaunchBar 4 during this beta period is also available. You need to be running OS X 10.4 or higher to use LaunchBar 5. [via Macworld]
GTD with Launchbar and scripts
Saul Rosenbaum sent us the tip on this one, and he points out that we're a little "Quicksilver centric" around here at TUAW. He's right, we do love Quicksilver, but it's not the only launcher on the block. Launchbar is another good one (and actually, I've been playing with Sapiens a lot lately, so look for a post on that one soon, too).If replacing Finder with Quicksilver isn't your thing, maybe running GTD apps with Launchbar is more up your alley. Saul has a short writeup on how to get Launchbar running a trigger (he uses "TD") that you can throw short notes into to work with the GTD system. It's a simple process-- since Launchbar already supports shell scripts, you can create a script, hook Lauchbar up to it, and pretty soon you're taking down tasks and notes at a moment's notice.
LaunchBar 4.3 adds Instant Open / Send and more
I'm a devoted Quicksilver man myself, but the venerable LaunchBar seems to have started the whole keyboard launcher trend and retains many committed fans. Just updated to version 4.3, Objective Development has added a number of new features. In particular, Instant Open allows you to execute a command without hitting return, while Instant Send allows you easily to send files to LaunchBar (both of these are possible with Quicksilver, though the implementation is different). There are other improvements to the calculator, iTunes support, and more.While I can't imagine switching myself, I've heard some on the Mac web suggest that LaunchBar is more stable than Quicksilver and so might be worth it for some. LaunchBar remains $19.95 and a demo is available.[via Daring Fireball]
TUAW Podcast #26: File Launchers
We talk up the file launcher and manipulator Quicksilver quite a bit here at TUAW, but there is a solid batch of similar productivity-enhancing utilities that offer different things for different users. Whether you're looking for a simple utility that lets you launch your applications faster than Spotlight can find them, or you're prepared to step up to vast amounts of power and flexibility with what you find and how you use it, chances are I covered an app in this screencast that will fit the bill for you. From the power of Butler to the simplicity of Namely, I wanted to give you at least some of the basics and a visual on how 5 different launchers work, as well as their pros and cons and how they differ from each other. However, since I am a Quicksilver lover at heart, it is very likely that I missed a key feature or two in these apps, so feel free to highlight your favorite features and what you think new users can truly benefit from in the comments. Also, for anyone interested in what I'm using to create these screencasts, I include a very short blurb at the beginning which highlights a few of the tools I use to record the screencast and create some of the effects I use.This time around I've decided to try something different, and I've created two versions of the screencast. In our podcast feed is an iPod-friendly version of the podcast that's 640 x 400, 17 minute and 40 MB - that's the one you can get by subscribing to our iTunes Store podcast feed or our direct TUAW podcast feed. I've also created an HD version for those who want something with a little more detail (sorry, we don't have an RSS feed for HD podcasts yet; this is a new thing so we'll see how it goes). That one will look better on larger displays and should play mighty fine on the Apple TV.To make sure we're all on the same page and that you can run out and grab demos of these launchers, here is a list of links to all the apps I mention in the screencast, including the ones I use to create and record it:Launchers Quicksilver - donationware LaunchBar - commercial: $19.95 Butler - donationware Overflow - commercial: $14.95 Namely - donationware Screencast recording Desktopple Pro - hiding the desktop icons, custom wallpaper and more (which we've mentioned before) Mouseposé - spotlight effects, keystroke overlays (which I didn't use in this specific screencast) and other presentation highlighting tools (mentioned here) iShowU - excellent and customizable app for recording screencasts (mentioned a couple times here) I hope you enjoy the screencast, and please feel free to leave feedback to let me know how I'm doing with producing these. If you prefer HD podcasts that look better on screen and can play on an Apple TV (instead of 640 px wide podcasts which are the max an iPod can handle), definitely let me know that too.
Trampoline: the quickest route to the tools you need
Application launchers are diversifying in big ways, and it's great to see the market expanding. After discovering LaunchBar then switching to Quicksilver, it was obvious how useful these apps are and how important it is that there be a wide variety of them. A new launcher I just found, called Trampoline, definitely adds a new flavor to the mix. Trampoline bills itself as "the quickest route to the tools you need," and it fits the bill pretty well. Unlike other similar app launchers and file manipulators, Trampoline offers what I would call a 'circular Dock' that can be toggled via a key or tied to a mouse button. Users can add their favorite and most-used apps to this on-call Dock, and it appears underneath your mouse, wherever that may be. As a unique alternative to other comparatively 'bloated' app launchers (though I say that with love as I cannot work without Quicksilver), Trampoline offers a simpler, more direct approach to keeping your beloved tools right at your fingertips. A demo is available from Old Jewel Software, and a license costs $19.95.
Search your Stikkits from Quicksilver, browsers
Remember that iNik guy we mentioned, who put together a handy package of Mac OS X tools that interact with Stikkit, the online PIM that thinks so you don't have to? He swung by our original post to mention that he's posting all sorts of Stikkit tips for working with this wholly unique PIM service (which, surprisingly, iNik says works fine in Safari but not IE - how cool is that?), and so far, many of them are Mac-based. His latest tip involves configuring popular Mac OS X browsers, and even Quicksilver and LaunchBar, with the ability to search your stikkits right from the comforts of your tools of choice. iNik includes instructions for setting up Firefox and OmniWeb, though sadly not Safari since it hasn't been endowed with alternative search engine super powers just yet. Still, this is another handy trick for getting that little extra something out of an online organizer.
Stikkit web service has all sorts of Mac OS X integration
Stikkit is a new web service in the same organizational vein as Backpack, but it employs some pretty wild tricks and technology to help get your productivity on. The idea behind Stikkit is to get rid of the manual page organization that locks you into one form of hierarchy or another by allowing you to create simple text notes, and organizing your information by watching the language you use in these notes. Tags also play a heavy role here, but for example: if you start writing some ideas down in a note, but then start a new line with "buy eggs," Stikkit now knows you just created a todo, and it automatically lists that note in your todo section, but it can also list the note in your bookmarks section if, say, you add a link to a site you need to visit at a later date. Stikkit is also smart enough to catch notes with a person's name, phone number and IM name, as it will then file that under your peeps section as a contact card. It's a pretty wild system that I urge you to check out, and they have a few screencasts listed on their main page to help you get your feet wet. But why am I telling you all this, you ask? Well, Stikkit is gaining some pretty impressive Mac OS X integration that makes using this service a real dream. First up is a 'New Stikkit Package' created by Nik, one of their enthusiastic users (found via DF). This bundle of tools allows you to create a new Stikkit via AppleScript, your favorite app launcher like Quicksilver or LaunchBar, and even a Service (you know, Apple Menu > Services) which lets you create a Stikkit from text selected in almost any Mac OS X application. It's a pretty handy bundle that offers a lot of flexibility in how you work with Stikkit. Another really impressive integration trick this service has is accepting drag and drop calendar events from iCal. I found this screencast on Stikkit's blog which demonstrates literally dragging an event from iCal onto a new Stikkit note in a browser, and the note collects all the info it needs like the name, date and time of the event, and even any notes you might have added in iCal. I was impressed to discover that this even works with Firefox, where traditional Mac OS X drag and drop goodness like this tends not to play. If you've been looking for a handy online PIM to store your stuff, Stikkit is a great option, though due to its unique technology, it might take some getting used to. I urge you to check out their screencasts to get started, and then move on to cool tools like Nik's package if you catch the bug.
Search Gmail from LaunchBar, Butler, others
A MacOSXHints reader submitted a simple trick to allow app launcher utilities like LaunchBar, Butler and others to search Gmail. All you have to do is add a new search template to your launcher of choice with a specific URL and you're off to submitting Gmail search queries from [insert launcher name here]. The query URL to use is: http://mail.google.com/mail/?search=query&view=tl&start=0&init=1&fs=1&q=* But check the MacOSXHints post for instructions on how to tweak that line depending on which launcher you're using. For Quicksilver users, a comment on their post revealed the line you have to use (I think you have to have the Web Search Module plugin in order to be able to add this search to your catalog): http://mail.google.com/mail/?search=query&view=tl&start=0&init=1&fs=1&q=*** Enjoy.
