Patrick’s Twitter experiment:
I will be treating my stream more like a microblog. I will be posting updates mainly through Reeder, Quotebook, Birdhouse, etc. This is an attempt to improve the quality and the value of the stuff I’m sharing. I want to share things that I think will add value to your precious and limited time. My hope is that you will find it worth the interruption and I will evaluate what I post based on that criteria alone.
I decided to take a look at what apps the following tech pundits put on their iPhone homescreen and tally the results of this improvised survey.
Surveyed Population:
- Patrick Rhone
- Stephen M. Hackett
- John Gruber
- Shawn Blanc
- Craig Hockenberry
- Dave Caolo
- Ben Brooks
Please note that the results are not intended to be accurate on a timely basis, as the furnished homescreens were submitted over the course of the past year or so. Nevertheless, trends should appear and the data should speak for itself.
![Patrick Rhone’s (relatively) current homescreen. A LOT of curation goes into this homescreen. This should be displayed in Apple stores (or museums) on how to do it right.
[via minimalmac]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li8gwgoi7W1qzjb7co1_r1_400.png)
Patrick Rhone’s (relatively) current homescreen. A LOT of curation goes into this homescreen. This should be displayed in Apple stores (or museums) on how to do it right.
Patrick the champion of TextEdit on his default window setting:
I have it set to default to plain text, 90 characters x 50 lines, Menlo 12pt for my font (after a long flirtation with Droid Sans). Been using basically this setup, except for font changes, for years and have grown very comfortable with it.
Andy Ihnatko on how he resets himself after a bad start to his day:
Sometimes the stink of failure is a physical thing. Wash it off. No kidding. Brush your teeth, wash your face, change into a clean shirt. Move to a different workspace. Once you’ve left behind all of the sights and smells of your Ungodly Unproductive Morning, your brain restarts and reboots.
Some really great perspective on not giving up when the going gets tough.
Shawn Blanc’s excellent analysis on his future Mac purchase:
The 13-inch MacBook Air has everything I do need, nothing that I don’t, and even a few additional features such as being light weight and having a thinner form factor. Which means that for me, going from a 15-inch MacBook Pro to a 13-inch MacBook Air will be an upgrade.
WHAT IF THERE ARE 15-INCH MACBOOK AIRS? WOULD I BUY ONE OF THOSE? As I mentioned above, I would rather have the smaller size over the larger screen.
The MacBook Air is forcing many of us to decide between the 13” MacBook Air and the traditional-sensible default of the 15” MacBook Pro workhorse. Shawn explains why, for many of us, the new workhorse will be the next generation 13” Macbook Air.
Randy Murray on his bag protocol:
As an aside, here’s a tip for using any bag: load it before you leave, unload it when you return. Keep only the barest essentials in the pockets. If you do this, you’ll load only what you absolutely need for the specific trip and when you return you can load items into your inbox, as needed, for processing. This will train you to pack and carry less.
Thoughtful wisdom.
This really is an amazing deal.
I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro separately, but when I saw that I could have both (and more) for less than the price of either one alone, I was sold.
I’ve got all of Ben Brooks posts on Keyboard Maestro queued so that I can learn from his experience on reducing the waste on repetitive tasks.
If you’ve been itching to snag Keyboard Maestro or TextExpander, grab it here!
Full Disclosure: The link above is part of Productive Mac’s deal of getting it for free.
