February 8, 2016
Caret Innovates
Caret.io
This is not a review. I was just checking out the demo and came across these features which I want to highlight. I don't like the idea of writing a review based on a demo. You have to use a program for a while to have a clue about how well it does.
I am always looking for innovation in the text editor space. Frankly, there hasn't been much for a while. Everything seems sadly derivative of each other. Caret, to its credit, adds some elements which are new.
Preview and editing are the same window.
Typora displays the preview as soon as your cursor leaves the markdown tag. Caret.io doesn't do that, it just shows you the preview, in the same editing window, it is a toggle tied to the ⌘ + P keystroke. You get to toggle the preview off and on. I find it more useful than the standard always on preview window on the right of the editing window.
Context commands or spelling suggestions through ⌃ + spacebar
While you are writing in Caret, you can press ⌃ + Spacebar, and a dropdown menu appears. In the case pictured, you have the ability to search for the word that the cursor is on.
Ctrl + Spacebar
Browse the current folder through ⌘ + T
When you are editing a file, you can browse the folder that the file being edited is in by pressing ⌘ + T. You are given a search window, it supports fuzzy searching, but it lets you access the file-system from within the application and that is new to the minimalistic markdown editor space.
Cmd+T
Browse recent files through Cmd + E
A list of recent files that you have been working on is available to you through the keyboard command, ⌘ + E. Includes a search box too. It is a nice way of building in file navigation into a text editor. Lets you browse your file-system without using the mouse.
Cmd+E
File navigation through a list like that is reminiscent of Windows, or Unix for me, not really a Mac feature. It makes the task of switching to different files easier and non-intrusive.
A gripe
There are keyboard commands which are standard on the Mac. You move lines up and down, on the Mac, by the keyboard command, ⌘ + ⌃ + ↑ or ⌘ + ⌃ + ↓. Don't like it when apps change the default keyboard commands on the Mac, Caret uses ⌥ + ⇧ + ↑ or ⌥ + ⇧ + ↓ to move the current line up or down. I don't want to learn a new command to work in specific programs when a standard option is available and widely supported.
Conclusion
I am intrigued by Caret. It brings some improvements to the genre which I suspect are a function of its cross-platform nature. Caret is available for the Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. I am going to keep monitoring its progress. I am happy to see the innovations brought to the genre.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie
Markdown
Caret
January 26, 2016
Noizio - A Sound Equalizer for Your Life
Product: Noizio
Price: Free
Update: The product is updated to version 2 and is now a subscription service. I am not going to subscribe. If you are interested in this product, you might want to check out Noisli - Improve Focus and Boost Productivity with Background Noise.
Original Article:
In the 1980s I spent a fair amount of time traveling by trains in India. Train journeys in India are a multi-day affair. A trip from Calcutta to Bombay took a little more than three days.
I loved the sound of the train. There was always the hustle and bustle of people talking, the train had its own rhythmic sound and there was the sights. Having spent my childhood in the concrete jungle of Calcutta, I was greeted by the sight of miles of open farmland. The ubiquitous bull pulling the hoe, the children playing their games, and the rain.
There is a particular rhythm to a train journey. You wake up in the morning and you are greeted by the silence of the train stopped in a station in a village you have never heard of. You peer out of the window and you hear the tea-seller, yelling “chai, chai garam” (tea, hot tea). You gesture to him, and he comes to your window, bearing a kettle of piping hot tea. He pours it into an earthenware cup made of clay, and hands you this manna from heaven. You buy a couple of samosas (fried vegetable concoction) and take a sip of this lovely masala tea (tea with spices). Food tastes different in a train. Your senses are deprived of the usual and you get to focus on the new. I miss those samosas, and I do miss those little earthenware cups of tea. The train starts moving again, and you savor the tea, and after you are done, you toss the little cup out of the window. It shatters into little pieces and takes it rightful place in the soil of India. This is recycling at its best. It is going to go back to being clay and wait for the next person to pour it into a kiln to make an earthenware cup for tea.
You read a book, you spent hours staring out of the window, seeing the lives of people you will never know. The villages pass by you in a blur and you see the occasional group of children playing cricket in a little field, or a group of farmers buying and selling their produce in a local market. You pass by houses, and hanging on lines made with rope, see their clothes drying in the sun. There is color everywhere, and you just look at it, you wonder about their lives.
I seem to remember a lot of rain during my trips. Rain has a particular rhythm all its own too. It is also transformative. Everything gets cleaned and freshened. The greens look greener. The clay of the soil looks a strange shade of terracota, and the smells get overwhelmed by the smell of wet soil. I loved the rain. I loved the sound of the rain and thunder with the underlying beat of the train. It relaxed me.
I would look forward to these trips. I used to work like a mad person when I was in Calcutta or Bombay, and then there would be a break. A break of three days spent travelling with nothing to do. Just relaxing and enjoying the sights and sounds of daily life in India. It was beautiful.
You must be wondering by now, what brought on this strange nostalgic trip. It is an app called Noizio. Available for free in the App Store, for the Mac and for iOS, it is an ambient noise generator. It provides you a lot of choices, and you can configure just the right mix for yourself. I have a mix which provides me with rain, thunderstorms, slight patter of a coffee shop and a train journey. This is what brought on this nostalgic walk through my memories.
Noizio
It is ideal background noise to help you concentrate on the task on hand. You can save the mix you create to reuse when you want. There are lot of choices of sounds and you can design the right mix of sounds for you to concentrate and be productive, or just to relax and sleep.
It is well-designed software which is good at what it intends to achieve.
I cannot recommend it enough.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie
Noizio
ambient
sound
January 20, 2016
Now for Something Completely Analog
Product: Blomus Muro - Notepaper Roll Holder
Price: $25.40
Blomus Muro
I love lists. Love making them. Love curating them. Love reading about them.
The Blomus Muro - Notepaper roll holder was an impulse purchase.
It is just a roll of paper which you write on and tear off. But boy, is it well designed. Made of steel, it looks and feels like something that will last for ever. It is simple. It is heavy, and it is functional.
It ships with the kind of screws that lets you attach this to a wall. I am using it on my desk. It uses the 2.25 inch paper used in calculator rolls, they are available cheap everywhere. I love this thing.
The Blomus Muro is designed and engineered in Germany and made in China.
I bought this for myself.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie
Tool
Bicycle For Your Mind