Date Posted: November 6th, 2009
Many of you may have heard of WriteRoom, and simple text editor for Macs that blocks out all distractions. It’s a great little tool, performs exactly as advertised, but it costs (as of today) $25.00. Pretty steep price for a text editor, even if it does perform exactly as advertised.
Also, while I like the distraction free environment, there’s other stuff I like to have in a text editor: syntax highlighting, easy search within the file, keyboard shortcuts, etc. It does’t have to be heavy on the toolbars and text markup a la Microsoft Word or Open Office, but I’d like it if it had a little more functionality than, say, Notepad.
Truthfully, I like vim. It takes a bit of effort upfront to figure out, but after that initial investment it’s really a great text editor. Now if only it did the distraction free thing…
Oh wait. It Does!
At least it does on the Mac. Not sure if it does on the PC or Linux versions, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does.
If you do have a Mac, and you already love vim or would like to learn how, here’s how to get the distraction free version to work.
Step 1) Download MacVim.
Then install.
Then start it up.
Step 2) Pick your color scheme.
To change your color scheme you can use the main toolbar as such: Edit –> Color Scheme –> murphy.
“Murphy” is the one I’m using. You can choose whichever on you’d like. One with a dark background is probably a good idea since in fullscreen mode, the sides will be black.
Alternately you can use the command
:colorscheme murphy
in execution mode.
Step 3) Turn on spellcheck
Using the toolbar go to Tools –> Spelling –> Spell Check On
Using execution mode:
:set spell
Of course, you don’t have to turn this on, but for writing blog posts it is useful.
Step 4) Turn on Word Wrap
Using the toolbar go to Edit –> File Settings –> Toggle Wrap at Word
Using execution mode:
:set linebreak
Step 5) Full Screen
Press the following three keys:
Command Shift F
That will toggle Full Screen mode. Then you basically have WriteRoom with the features of vim. 
How to get a quick word count
In command mode press the following:
g Control+g
Which is to say press g, and then press Control and g at the same time.
Enjoy!
Tags:
Recommended Stuff, Self-Discipline, Thrift Tips.
Posted at
3:22 pm | No Comments »
Date Posted: November 2nd, 2009
For my graduation present, Aaron got me a Roomba. Specifically a Model 530 Roomba. Let me tell you, in spite of it being a cleaning appliance, it is the coolest present I’ve gotten in a while. Our house is now the most vacuumed house of anyone I know, and it’s all thanks our Roomba, Sven.
If you google at all you’ll find plenty of reviews about what Roomba can and can’t do, so I’m not going to repeat them here. Instead I’ll tell you about some indirect benefits of having a Roomba do the vacuuming and some tip or two about how to keep it in good working order.
Good Thing 1: No Clutter on the Floor
Sven can’t clean under the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. In fact he’ll get stuck in them.
This was the main reason I wanted to get a Roomba: I wanted a strong incentive to keep my clutter off of the floor. For the most part it’s worked. At the very least I’m quicker now to put away whatever it is that’s on the ground, since I’d like to let Sven be able to vacuum all the rooms.
Of course, the way around this is to pile your clutter on couches…
Good Thing 2: No Crumbs in the Kitchen
We cook a lot. And with cooking comes food prep detritus landing on the floor. Before Sven we’d sweep the floor after washing the dishes. I used to dread doing it. Now we can just put Sven in the kitchen and let him do his thing. It’s not perfect, but it goes a long way toward making our kitchen a more pleasant place to work.
Tip: How to Clean Your Roomba
The one downside with the Roomba is that it has to be cleaned fairly often, and unlike other vacuum cleaners the process has multiple steps. You have to empty out the bin and then clean off the brushes. If you have long hair the brushes will have hair wrapped around it. Both Aaron and I have long hair so we’ve experienced this firsthand.
Roomba’s fairly easy to clean except for the beater brush. For whatever reason, the part that gets lots of hair caught in it is a solid piece of plastic that can’t be removed. At least not easily. There’s no tool that comes with it either.
To clean out that roller we use a pair of Toenail clippers kinda like these. They aren’t perfect, since they don’t quite fit inside the clogged area, but they do a pretty good job. With enough patience I can usually remove all of the hair stuck in there.
Final Thoughts
Will the Roomba solve all of your clutter problems? No. You have to really want to not have clutter first. Roomba can only act as a final push to get you to keep it off. Also, I’d say you have to already be pretty enamored with the idea of Roomba doing the vacuuming for you. If you don’t think Roomba is the coolest thing ever, I imagine it’s affect on your life will reflect that.
Was it worth it for me? Absolutely. Will it be worth it for you? You’ll have to answer that yourself.
Tags:
Organization, Recommended Stuff, Self-Discipline.
Posted at
3:17 pm | No Comments »
