RIP Chick Corea

This week we lost jazz pianist Chick Corea (Wikipedia). I’ve been a Chick Corea fan my entire life. He got his start with several jazz greats (including Miles Davis) but really arrived as an early pioneer of jazz fusion with his band, Return to Forever. LIke so many greats, Chick was constantly trying different things and sounds. At one point he had two bands, one focused on electric instruments and another focused on acoustic instruments.

Regardless, he was amazing when he sat at a keyboard. The thing that always stood out to me was how effortless he’d make it look. Almost like he was barely touching the keys. If you’d like to listen to some Chick Corea music, I really like his Chick Corea Plays album recorded live in Paris a few years ago. Chick talks about some of his favorite music as well as playing.

Chick also did a lot of duet collaborations. One of the best was with vibraphonist Gary Burton. They made several albums together over the decades. Below is a tiny concert they did together giving you a tease of their music.

We’ll miss you, Chick.

Automators 69: Joe Buhlig and Automating OmniFocus

The Omni Group has released a remarkable automation platform for their apps, including OmniFocus. In this episode of Automators, automator Joe Buhlig joins us to talk about his automation journey and working with the Omni Group’s new platform.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

Sync Up, a OneDrive podcast: Takes you behind the scenes of OneDrive.
PDFpen, from Smile: The all-purpose PDF editor for Mac, iPad & iPhone.
HelloFresh: Click this link and use code automators10 for 10 free meals, including free shipping!

Hyper Key Via BetterTouchTool

I’m a big advocate for the hyper key. This idea was first introduced to me by Brett Terpstra and involves mapping Shift-Control-Option-Command to the caps lock key. Using the hyper key opens your keyboard up to a ton of new easily triggered shortcuts. Historically, I’ve done this remapping with Karabiner Elements. However, this remapping just got a lot easier. BetterTouchTool has added the a new feature that lets you map the hyper key combination to any key (including caps lock). See the screenshots below for how to set it up. Also, the developer has a walkthrough right here.

Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020

Every year, Backblaze, the online backup service I use, publishes its failure rate for the hard drives it uses in its backup servers. The latest report is up and this is useful data. In 2020, they added nearly 40,000 drives and monitored 162,530 drives. With those sorts of numbers, you can get an idea for what hard drive manufacturers are cutting the mustard.

My big take away is that drives are getting better. The overall failure rate is down and big winners were Seagate and HGST. If you need to buy any spinning drives, I’d recommend checking this out.

The Growing Movement for Hyperlinking and Contextual Computing

Ryan Boren, the former lead developer of WordPress, has thought a lot about text, hyperlinking, and contextual computing. His recent post assembles a lot of resources about the importance of text and linking, including my own post on contextual computing.

There is a movement afoot to democratize text and hyperlinking on the web, in apps, and across our computers. For the longest time we’ve been spinning our wheels using computer data (particularly words) as digital approximations of the printed words that came before them. That needs to change. Using hyperlinking and contextual computing, we take the written word (and the underlying paradigm about how we work on a computer) from one dimension and convert it to three dimensions.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this myself and I truly believe dynamic, bi-directional linking across files and apps can dramatically improve the way we use our computers and develop our days. It is the way for computers to truly serve the role as “bicycles for the mind”.

DEVONthink Updates

DEVONthink got some significant updates today. First, DEVONthink To Go 3.0 is out now. They’ve made no mystery of the fact that they wanted to substantially improve their mobile app and they have. This new version is much closer to DEVONthink on the Mac. The mobile version now has support for multiple windows and the pointer on iPadOS, dark mode, and context menus. They’ve also added a number of new settings to personalize DEVONthink To Go. Other new features include:

OCR converts scans to searchable PDFs on the device.
Shortcuts actions let you automate everyday tasks and integrate DEVONthink To Go with the rest of the iOS ecosystem.
Documents can be opened and edited in other apps directly from the Share sheet.
Version 3.0 supports Mac-style document annotations and ratings, unifies inboxes, tags, and trash groups like on the Mac, and adds new global smart groups.

There’s both monthly and yearly subscription options, as well as a one-time purchase. If you have version 2, you will be able to choose a free upgrade subscription until the end of July, 2021, and receive a discount on the one-time purchase. I also dig the new icon.

They’ve also added CloudKit-based sync and released a new version of DEVONthink for Mac that also supports the new sync protocol. I’ve been using the betas and using the CloudKit sync. In my experience, it’s been noticeably faster and I’ve not had any data loss. Getting data (via sync) onto the mobile versions of DEVONthink faster and more reliably substantially increases the app’s overall utility. I’m so pleased that the DEVONthink team is putting so much effort into the iPhone and iPad.

Inside Details of Steve Jobs Keynotes

I was fascinated by this interview of Wayne Goodrich, who helped Steve Jobs plan many Keynotes at Next, Pixar, and Apple. The whole article is worth reading but there are two things that really stood out to me.

Steve Never Scripted Words

Steve didn’t script his presentations but instead used the preview slide just to show what was coming up next. The point was that the extensive preparation made scripting unnecessary.

“The Keynote development, the slide sequencing, the simplifying and honing were all part of his method for being as empathetic, emotive, charismatic and precise as he was on stage. It came from time spent working on the story with his slides, then rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing. Not from a script.”

This is the same way I prepare for all major presentations. I do so much planning and rehearsal, that there is no need for a script at show time. I’ve always felt that makes the presentation the most organic and allows for the most connection with the audience. Of course, in order for this to work, you’ve got to put in the work.

The iPad Nearly had Two Connector Ports

According to Wayne, the original iPad had two thirty-pin connectors, one on the bottom and one on the side. The problem was that Steve really hated the product photos with the unsightly 30-pin connector on the side. Wayne photoshopped a picture removing the side port and ultimately the port was removed.

“So, that evening before shutting down for the night, I photoshopped out the port on the long side on a few of the shots and sent them off to him [Steve Jobs]. I figured he’d see them in the morning and we’d have a good laugh about it. Instead he almost immediately called me as said, “These are exactly what I was looking for… oh you didn’t?” To which I replied, “I did” and the phone went click.

There was no way to get a beauty shot that Steve would accept with that port on the side, so the iPad shipped without it. It also simplified the presentation, which he liked.”

It’s hard to believe that they would remove a useful port to make a better product photo but is it that hard to believe?

Mac Power Users 574: Calendars, Contacts, and Tasks

Stephen and I get back to basics on this episode of Mac Power Users. Check out how calendars, contacts, and tasks can be effectively managed across a range of devices and apps.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!
The Intrazone, by Microsoft SharePoint: Your bi-weekly conversation and interview podcast about SharePoint, OneDrive and related tech within Microsoft 365.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.

Podcast Recording Software in Motion

For the longest time, many (most?) podcasters recorded shows using a combination of Skype (that we all love to hate) and Ecamm’s ingenious Skype Call Recorder (that we hate to update, seemingly once a week). It seems that between continual changes with Skype and Apple’s release of Apple Silicon, Ecamm has decided to stop updated Skype Call Recorder. Jason Snell has the full story. This really represents the end of an era for folks making podcasts.

So for the first time in a long time, I’m looking seriously at podcast recording tools again. For several years now, I’ve been using Audio Hijack as my primary podcast recording tool. It, in effect, relegated Skype Call Recorder to a backup system for me. (But when it comes to making podcasts, backups are good!) Below is my Audio Hijack setup for recording the Mac Power Users.

When I took the above screenshot I didn’t have my MixPre (Audio device) or fancy headphones plugged in, but you can get the idea. I’m able to make three simultaneous recordings in Audio Hijack with 1) me alone, 2) everybody else on the call without me, and 3) a combined audio file. Usually, I only need that first recording but if the other person’s recording fails, I can use that second recording for a separate edit track. The third, combined, recording can be used to sync audio.

I can’t recall Audio Hijack ever failing me. Nevertheless, I really felt good knowing I had that Skype Call Recorder backup. With its demise, I can make a backup of me alone using QuickTime, but it’s really not the same. I’m not capturing the entire call. I’ve been talking to other podcasters about this dilemma and the collective wisdom seems to be leaning toward moving the entire recording process over to Zoom. Zoom allows you to make a recording of the entire call as the backup. Audio Hijack will remain the primary recording, I’ll just point it at Zoom instead of Skype. I’m not alone in reconsidering the workflow. I think Ecamm’s abandonment of Skype Call Recorder is going to end up changing the way a lot of podcasts are recorded.