Management
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Office management, Azeroth-style
Josh had his leadership role in WoW pop into his mind during a job interview, and he channeled that into an interesting little article about how to convert WoW roles into the roles people play around the office. I think he's really got something here-- stay tuned for how you can buy a ticket to his "Management, Azeroth-style" seminar, which will teach you and your staff how to tackle even the hardest raid bosses projects.We've heard quite a few times before that WoW can help you on the job, but I don't know that I've ever seen the roles detailed so clearly. Josh says the Main Tank is the outside communications person for the project, and fends off managers and other departments to make sure members can get their jobs done. The Main Healer keeps motivation up rather than hit points, and make sure everyone stays on task and working. And the DPS are the meat of the project, doing the day-to-day damage to accomplish objectives. The idea works pretty darn well, actually-- at least until your project manager starts taunting the CEO and your senior producer stays up late one night and catches aggro. But definitely an interesting read if you've ever been given the task of running a team of people, in or out of game.
How to stop Vashj and Kael from destroying your guild
Last week our own Marcie Knox pointed out in her Ready Check column the daunting task that's given to raiders when they face Lady Vashj and Kael'Thas Sunstrider. These two bosses have earned their reputation as a guild killer, and are some of the hardest encounters in the game. While there is a plethora of information out there on how to defeat the technical aspects of the fights, very little is written on the social aspects these fights give us. Examining what can be done to keep a group of raiders together during this difficult time is critical to success.Lets take a brief look at why these two encounters are so difficult. When it comes down to it, Blizzard is testing our ability to deal with two different skill sets. The first being immediate and unknown change, and that comes with Vashj during phase two and three: which side will the Naga spawn, where will the Tainted Element appear, how many times is your main tank going to get rooted and bat poison dropped on him, which way will the tanks need to drag the Naga around to avoid getting the melee cleaved, etc... On the flip side to Vashj's unknown factors exists Kael'Thas. Kael is definitely a scripted encounter. We know what order the advisers are going to come up in, we know (sans gaze) where they'll go, we know what Kael will do when he reaches 50%, and we know what order we need to get the weapons down. This fight is all about repetition of a scripted encounter.
Domestic marketing executive booted from Warner Bros.
Shortly after the selection heard 'round the world was made, one of Warner Bros.' (owned by Time Warner, which also owns Engadget's parent companies) own has been given the boot. Granted, this wouldn't be nearly as surprising if it were happening on the red side, but we digress. Dawn Taubin, the head of domestic marketing at the studio for six years, was recently ousted after Jeff Robinov -- who reportedly didn't exactly get along with Ms. Taubin -- was promoted to president. Currently, no replacement has been named, but whoever manages to grab the role should have a much easier time now that the studio can focus on one side.[Via AdAge, thanks Rye C.]
Adtec reveals TELEHOOK cable management system
We know, there are probably more cable management options out there than anyone cares to tally, but Adtec is hoping to grab the attention of those who admire style and simplicity with its latest alternative. The TELEHOOK Cable Manager and Shelf System consists of a four-foot long aluminum bar that is capable of handling ten or so power / AV cables (detailed after the jump) while also holding a couple of adjustable shelves for components of your choosing. Reportedly, these units can be mounted directly on dry walls, but we wouldn't recommend tossing any extraordinarily hefty receivers (or similar) on this thing without a stud in the background. Nevertheless, Adtec claims these can also be painted to match your interior, cut depending on size requirements and used to hold as many AV devices as you can find room for. Only problem? The $120 price tag affixed to each four-foot channel and the $170 required for a two-pack of shelves.[Via Widescreen Review]
Librarian Pro: Keep track of your media and more on Mac and PC
Watch out Delicious Library, you finally have some competition on the way. Koingo Software's upcoming Librarian Pro for Windows and Mac will bring some interesting new features to the media cataloging table. While its standard UI doesn't look quite as flashy as Delicious Library's (though it features a 'Gallery mode' that displays everything by cover art that the company hasn't posted a screenshot for), Librarian Pro allows users to catalog PC hardware and software in addition to books, movies, music and games. In fact, it can scan your hard drive (I assume both Macs and PCs) to automatically catalog your software. Users will be able to create smart collections for organizing their stuff any way they please, and Librarian Pro allows for multiple media databases to help keep different collections separate (say, one for your home stuff and another for your work-related books and software). Speaking of staying organized, Librarian Pro can also display a panel of contacts from Address Book to show you who borrowed what, when and how many. Another cool new feature takes Amazon integration one step further by allowing you to shop the site from within Librarian Pro, immediately adding anything you purchase to your collection. Fortunately, Librarian Pro works with Amazon Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, German and France, and the database is fully UTF-8 compatible spanning both Mac and Windows systems. Librarian Pro will be available for download and purchase on September 1st (I have no idea why they announced two days early) for $29.95, with a 15-day trial available to get your feet wet.[Update: By the way, I forgot one thing: to help facilitate switchers, Librarian Pro can import from Delicious Library, DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia and Gamepedia.]
NetworkLocation 2.0 goes official
We first mentioned NetworkLocation back in November '06, and since then this automated location manager and setting switcher has been upgraded to v2.0 with some killer new features. In addition to automatically changing settings like system volume, opening a webpage, playing an iTunes playlist or switching Mail servers all based on the wired or wireless network you connect to, this new version adds a great new feature that users have been dying for: the ability to auto-detect which network you're connecting to and begin changing any settings you prefer with no effort on the user's part. Also on the new actions list are things like disabling bluetooth and locking the keychain, with another great enhancement making it easy to duplicate locations and stets of actions: the ability to drag and drop said actions between locations. NetworkLocation has also received plug-in support, with the first plug-in available for rooSwitch, another utility we love that allows you to switch between multiple profiles and sets of data for an application (i.e. - multiple Yojimbo libraries or different Firefox profiles with their own bookmarks and add-ons). I have to say, after the development crew was kind enough to allow me to test the beta, NetworkLocation 2.0 has become one of my can't-live-without Mac OS X utilities. I move between home networks, multiple coffee shops, wireless on campus and friends' houses, and allowing NetworkLocation to adjust all my settings automatically in the background is easily worth the $25 price tag (though upgrade licenses are free for 1.x owners). Heck, I'd go so far as to say NetworkLocation should be the next Cover Flow, deserving to get bought by Apple as a feature Mac OS X should have had a long time ago.
PackRat 1.2: Backpack client adds better list management and a new trial period
Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.
MMO players make great leaders
Do you think that playing World of Warcraft has given you leadership skills? A study done by IBM and Seriosity claims:Hundreds of thousands of players -- sometimes millions -- interact daily in highly complex virtual environments. These players self-organize, develop skills, and settle into various roles. Leaders emerge that are capable of recruiting, organizing, motivating, and directing large groups of players towards a common goal.Of course, IBM and Seriosity are attempting to sell MMO-inspired business solutions, but the study itself is interesting even to those of us who aren't in the market. In it, IBM and Seriosity suggest that within MMOs, players need to organize in order to accomplish goals -- and the skills of the player who organizes your guild's raids are no different from a manager in a traditional office environment.
Hazel 2.0 beta released with application uninstalling, tons of new features
Hazel is one of those truly clever, useful apps that I think could make the Mac computing world a better place if everyone bought a license (and used it, of course). If you haven't seen our previous coverage, Hazel is - in a nutshell - your "personal housecleaner," allowing you to specify rules for moving and organizing your files just like you would with Mail messages. For a basic example, you could create a rule that watches your Desktop for downloaded files types like .ZIP, .DMG, .SIT, etc., and automatically move them to a Software folder once they're a day old. Hazel's abilities don't stop there, however; not by a long shot. Hazel can automatically import image files into iPhoto, music into iTunes, add Spotlight comments, organize files into folders and even subfolders, add Finder color labels to files, run AppleScripts and so much more. Hazel can even manage your Trash for you by setting a specific time frame after which older (but not all) files should be deleted, or even a size limit that the Trash should be kept under (say, 2 GB). All this is done completely and transparently in the background, allowing you to get things done while Hazel works its magic.Have I piqued your interest? Good, because Paul Kim at Noodlesoft has just released a much-anticipated Hazel 2.0 update in beta with some significant new features. At the top of my personal list is full-blown support for uninstalling an application and the ability to preview rule matches so you can polish your criteria before flipping the switch. Read on for details on these killer new features and more.
Peter Adderton out as Amp'd CEO
When a company files for Chapter 11, we figure that's often a strong indicator that a management change is in order; that's the situation MVNO Amp'd Mobile finds itself facing as of late, and the rumors that CEO Peter Adderton's days were thusly numbered have finally materialized into reality. mocoNews reports that the ex-chief is still Amp'd's largest single shareholder and maintains a position on the board, but President Bill Stone now finds himself with top billing on the company's management roster. Bill: best of luck, dude.[Via mocoNews]
Typinator 2.0 released with a flood of new features
Typing tools that increase your efficiency are all the rage for anyone who has to type more than their name and credit card number on a daily basis, and ergonis just upped the ante with the release of Typinator 2.0. Competing directly with similar tools like TextExpander and TypeIt4Me, this new version of Typinator brings a virtual boatload of new features to the table, including: Sets allow convenient organization of abbreviations Import and export of abbreviation sets Comes with auto-correction sets for English, German and French Import from Textpander, TextExpander and TypeIt4Me Application-specific set assignment Typinator can be disabled in individual applications Clipboard insertion within expansions Streamlined user interface for improved conformance to Apple's guidelines The abbreviation table can be sorted by abbreviation, expansion, options, and conflict status Expansion of abbreviations is much faster now, even while typing extremely fast and with thousands of defined abbreviations and auto-corrections Significantly reduced memory requirements, especially with large expansions and much, much more As a paid user of TextExpander, this new release of Typinator looks quite tasty indeed. I'm actually just glad the typing tool space is getting more competitive, as I can't write or work on the web without one anymore. A demo is of course available, while a single licenses sells for about $26 (EUR 19.99).
TUAW Tip: Address Book offers a lot of handy contact management
Address Book is one of Apple's apps that might seem too basic at first glance to many a user. While this under-appreciation could largely be due to its unassuming name, Address Book offers a surprising amount of useful features, especially in the contact management department. Of course, there are the typical Apple-esque Smart Groups which you can use to automatically and dynamically round up contacts based on any criteria you want (family last names, employers or even notes you add yourself), but check out the Card menu in Address Book and note two options: Merge Selected Cards and (my personal favorite since I play with way too much synching software in the name of TUAW and Download Squad) Look for Duplicate Entries. Those are two great tools for ensuring your contacts only take up one entry each in Address Book (if you only want one entry for each, that is), and I highly recommend using Look for Duplicate Entries if things get out of hand, as it's saved me countless hours after botched synching sessions and wayward synching software had their way with my contacts. Importing new contacts cards (usually .VCF files) is nothing very special, but Address Book is pretty smart when you import a card for someone already in you contacts list. Typically, Address Book will catch the potential duplication and offer you four options for managing both the old and new cards. A window will be presented with four buttons along the bottom: Keep Old, Keep New, Keep Both and Update, allowing you to ensure that you don't blow away old data you want to keep for the contact while importing anything new you might need. Combine some of these tricks and tools with the Mail + Address Book tips Merlin Mann wrote about back in April, and you have some pretty powerful tools for managing your contacts and organizing the correspondence you have with them.
Cha-Ching on reverse sale until 1.0 debuts Friday, a new feature announced each day this week
Midnight Apps, as promised, has announced Cha-Ching 1.0 is landing Friday, April 20th, 2007. Cha-Ching is an excellent personal finance management app that I feel safe calling a Quicken killer, at least for many people's needs. Since its beta days, Cha-Ching has featured things like a simplified UI, tagging and other goodies to bring a little fun to tracking one's cash and credit flow, but this final 1.0 promises even more new features. So many new features, in fact, that the company will be announcing one big one each day this week until Friday, when 1.0 will be released for download (in light of this promotion, I tip my hat to their site designer for the sketchup and 'not quite finished' touches on the site). Today's feature: Spotlight Integration - users will be able to search for any transaction or tag from the comfort of a Spotlight window, which means they can also create things like Smart Folders to get a quick glance at transactions without even having to open Cha-Ching.Stay tuned to Midnight Apps all this week to hear more about the great new stuff coming in Cha-Ching 1.0, but if you're on the fence with whether to purchase, you might want to act sooner than later: now that the app is all growed up, it's going on a 'reverse sale' that ends Friday. Through its time in beta, Cha-Ching has cost $20 and is still at that price - but only for today. Each day this week, Cha-Ching's price will be raised by $5 until Friday, where it will take on its full price of $40. If you ask me, a happy user of Cha-Ching since January when I attended the developer's presentation at the Apple Store during Macworld 07, Cha-Ching is a great value even at its full price, so any day you buy this week will be a bargain. But you don't have to take it from me: you can download a demo of Cha-Ching in its current 0.5.2 beta version to get your finance on and decide for yourself.
Desktopple on sale for $9.95 at MacUpdate
Well shiver me mousies - it's a good thing I haven't quite convinced my wife why I need yet another piece of software, because Desktopple, the powerful desktop hiding and management app from FoggyNoggin Software that I just mentioned, is on sale at MacUpdate for a mere $9.95. That's 41% off its regular price of $17.00, and a great deal on what is probably the most powerful and easy to use app in its class for podcasters and desktop clutterbugs alike (oh yea, just like the car commercials - I went there). Check out my previous post for a refresher on what Desktopple is capable of, or snag a demo and take it for a whirl yourself, but don't forget that MacUpdate's sale is a one-day-only deal.
TUAW Podcast #22: 1Passwd
This week's podcast covers 1Passwd, the password manager and autofill tool that brings some really unique features and multi-browser support for the Keychain to the table. For just under 8 minutes I demonstrate some of the killer features of this app that go above and beyond the norm, and the whole thing weighs in at a mere 28MB. Snag it from our iTunes Store Podcast directory, this direct link or our own podcast rss feed. Enjoy!
Hazel update brings even more productivity to automated file manager
I instantly fell in love with Hazel from Noodlesoft the first time I found it back in September '06, and since then it has received a literal landslide of new features that make it even more indispensable to any heavy file trafficker. For those just tuning in, Hazel is fundamentally a file organization utility; it allows you to set up a series of rules that watch files in directories of your choosing, and then it carries out various actions based on your criteria. For example: I download a lot of videos, particularly motion pieces I find from studios all over the web. I also download a lot of DMGs and ZIPs in the name of TUAW, and as you might guess, after just a busy morning of all this watching and downloading, my desktop is about as messy as the typical freshman dormroom. Enter Hazel, the background file management ninja. For these two scenarios, I have a couple of rules that watch my Desktop for files of type Movie, DMG or ZIP which were added more than 1 day ago. These rules will then move said files into their respective directories (Movies and Software, as one might guess) and apply a blue label to them, just to make sure I know what was moved how.
1Passwd 2.3 brings new UI, folders, 1Click Login Bookmarks and more to browser keychain tool
1Passwd from Agile Web Solutions is one of those browser addons that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, as if its developers had an epiphany while laying in a field of not-too-prickly grass on a perfectly warm, sunny day, asking themselves: "how can we make the world a better place?" Which browser does 1Passwd work with, you ask? Why, just about all of them. This password and identity manager integrates with nearly every major Mac OS X browser, including Safari, Firefox, Camino and OmniWeb, as well as DEVONagent and even NetNewsWire, to bring Keychain nirvana and multiple identity autofill to website forms (that's right: Firefox can use the Keychain, thanks to 1Passwd). In other words: it's an über-Keychain for your browsers, allowing you to stop caring about which one you're using, where you saved that forum's password or how you're going to fill out the umpteenth store registration. And as you might have guessed from my introduction: I kind of like 1Passwd, and a recent upgrade to v2.3 offers even more to rave about.Most noticeably, the new version ushers in a fresh new UI, shedding the old 'n busted brushed metal for the unified look that's all the craze with 3rd party developers and lovers of good-looking software. Don't be fooled though; the new features are far more than skin deep. Folders and smart folders are now in full effect, allowing for more flexible organization of your unruly collection of logins. Another really slick new feature is 1Click Login Bookmarks, which allow you to save a bookmark with specific login credentials - perfect for sites at which you have multiple credentials. Goodbye, tedious logging in/out all day!Plenty of other new and updated features are detailed in this blog post, and many of 1Passwd's major features, such as Firefox integration and Palm/Treo syncing, have screenshots or video demonstrations on its product page (scroll down for all the goods). A demo is available, while a single license costs a mere $30, with a 3-license family pack for $40.
LANrev v4 released
Got a big ol' bunch of Macs to be managed? Your choices are numerous, with Casper, FileWave and of course Apple Remote Desktop all smoothly monitoring and updating your OS X clients. Now, with the latest update to cross-platform asset manager LANrev (which bears a striking resemblance to another management tool -- not surprising, same development team!), we get supercharged Active Directory integration, new packaging and deployment tools for software installs, and theft prevention features like IP tracking and iSight snapshots. A 30-day demo is available.
Set preferred addresses for Address Book groups
Dan Moren at MacUser just removed a long-standing headache of mine and I'm sure many others by posting on the ability to specify default addresses for Address Book groups. Here's a little background if you're scratching your head: in Mail.app, you can type the name of a group to address a message to every member of that group. The catch is that if any of those members have more than one email addresses in their card, Mail.app arbitrarily chooses which address gets used when that member added as part of a group. This can cause all sorts of problems, ranging from minor annoyances all the way up to sending a NSFW (Not Safe For Work) forward to exactly the wrong address.Enter the wonders of being able to set a default address for these members in groups. This removes the worry from using the power of groups to address your messages. All you need to do is select Edit > Edit Distribution List... (not the greatest name for this feature, IMHO) to access a panel which allows you to chose default addresses for all the members of your groups. What's even better is that this panel allows you to simply specify one label or another (Work, Home, etc.) for all the members in that group, instead of forcing you to manually chose labels for each member, one by one. Nice.
Sony shuffles top PlayStation management
Get used to some new titles for the top people responsible for the PlayStation. Sony announced today that current Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi will become the chairman and group CEO of the division. He will be replaced by Sony Computer Entertainment America chief Kaz Hirai, who will move to Tokyo to lead the worldwide group. SCEA vice president and co-COO Jack Tretton moves up to take Hirai's former place, becoming the first American to hold the hold the top post at the American computer entertainment division. The changes take effect tomorrow.What to make of the reshuffling? While the new chairman title is a nominal promotion for Kutaragi, it's hard to see this as anything but a rebuke for the "father of the PlayStation" after the PS3 launch was beset by delays and missed production targets. Sounds to us like he's been told to go sit in the corner (office) and think about the "big picture." Hirai, who has been the more public face of the PlayStation in America, will now have a more active role in overseeing the PlayStation's worldwide fortunes. Get used to seeing a lot more of Tretton, a Sony veteran who has operated mostly behind-the-scenes until this point.Read -- Bloomberg Story on ReshuffleRead -- SCE Announces New Management Team (press release)Read -- SCEA Elevates Jack Tretton ... Kaz Hirai (press release)
