
Note to self: Neatreceipts method
Information Science | Information TechnologyLaunch.
Got to Receipts tab.
Select receipt folder (by year & currency).
Sort by Vendor.
Check that all categories for each Vendor have only minimal expected variance. (e.g. sometimes drugstore, sometimes groceries...)
Note if any vendors (particularly restaurants) have mutiple receipts with amounts varying by less than 20% on a given day (where one was a cash receipt and the other was a credit card).
Copy the tax/pst/gst ammounts from cash to credit receipt.
Select cash receipt (holding down CTRL) and select credit receipt (so black arrow is pointing to credit receipt).

1239482 seconds since last panic
My mac gave me the grey message of death.
thats just over 344 crashless days, though. so im thankful for that...
i just really want to know what went wrong...

Tag Folders (or maybe just smart folders) broken after 10.6.1 upgrade
Organizational Science | User Interface | file management | Ontology | Open Source | Organizational Theory | Taxonomy | tools | Usability | automation | Categories | Classification | Keywords | Search Strategies | Text | trial and error | TroubleshootingNo Smart Folders made by Tag Folders show any contents, even after "successfully" tagging files. Using other means, verified that OpenMeta Tags are attached: TagFolders' Smart Folders just aren't showing any contents.
The upshot is; I can get the TF Smart Folders to function, but my fix occasionally causes the Tag.app they belong to stop working. For details, read on...

Hard to clean spots, No. 8: My Work folder
file management | CategoriesMy Work folder is for the documents that I (or any collaborators) produce for specific projects. The important organizational idea here is just identifying the area of my life to which these documents chiefly pertain.
This used to be a lot worse than it is now. On its way now, but there are still some big question marks.

As mentioned in a previous post, you find my Work folder in ~User/Documents. Inside, my Work folder is broadly segregated into context areas: AS, clients, education, GRS, employment, projects, MRB.

Updating to DockSpaces 2.45 breaks FlowSpaces PLIST hacks
User Interface | tools | Usability | reviews | trial and error | TroubleshootingMy FlowSpaces project has relied to date on DockSpaces 2.1, which has a number of warts. Since I am not shy about sharing both the ups and downs of technology, this post discusses the pros and cons of DockSpaces and my recent attempts to update to its most recent version in context of the FlowSpaces project objectives.
So what's wrong with the old DockSpaces? First, it only allows Spaces integration (Dock/Space bindings) with the first 4 spaces.


What 'Spaces Integration' means is that when switching to any one of the first 4 spaces, the right dock will load automatically.

Hard to clean spots, No. 7: My Databases folder
Databases | Categories | ClassificationAs mentioned in a previous post, I have relocated certain folders out of my Documents folder, into a new folder created in my Home folder.


Hard to clean spots, No. 6: My Documents folder
Content Management Systems | file management | Taxonomy | ContextOkay, (small rant to follow) does it bother anyone else that app-makers interpret Apple's guidelines of limiting the locations of application-written files etc. to 'Application Support,' 'Preferences,' or 'Documents' as 'put everything in the damn Documents folder?'
Its just kind of anti-social behavior on the part of developers makes it hard for users to keep documents in their Documents folder. I, for one, have done my best to keep non-documents out of my Documents folder. Microsoft apple division, I hate you for putting 'Microsoft User Data' in my Documents folder. you suck. Keep your nasty data files where they belong. And you others...you know who you are. Shape up.
Seriously, guys, if something is a database app, like DevonThink or Delicious Library, what is documenty about the database file itself?!? (More, and more serious stuff, after the break..)

Whats with these Stacks 'Drawers' anyhow?
User Interface | file management | Taxonomy | tools | Usability | Search | softwareAs a sidebar to my discussion of my strategies for managing my Applications folder, Ill answer the question: Whats with these Stack 'Drawers', anyhow?
A 'Drawer' is used to visually brand any Stack with a nifty customisable icon that remains the first item in the Stack regardless of how many new items are added to the Stack's folder.
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But first: Why would you want to do all of this?
These simple steps allow users to visually customize and thus (hopefully more easily) differentiate among the Stacks in their Dock.
Here's how:

Hard to clean spots, No. 5: My Desktop
file management | toolsActually this one is usually, mostly all right.
My desktop is my landing pad for my own work, or stuff I grab from the internet that requires special handling (like renaming, tagging, filing, conversion, analysis etc). Like when I want to quickly make an icon for a new concept I am trying to represent and grab some images from the web as conceptual resources; or for PDFs, Word documents, and other stuff I've dragged from my Downloads folder to work on before filing.
Desktop Shortcuts are the enemy! And so is a mess of files...
My desktop is most often empty. This is my ideal.
When I have to keep this project or that in mind, ill sometimes drag an alias (or the project folder itself) to the desktop. Its being there irks me just enough to provide an extra nudge towards completion.

Hard to clean spots, No. 4: My Applications Folder
file management | tools | Search | softwareOkay so this one is not *really* so bad. But its easy to get out of the sweet zone with this one, too.
I recently switched from a 'multiple-custom-folders-inside-the-Applications-folder' to a single custom folder inside the Apps folder. Ask me why...and we'll test your threshold of pain-tolerance, geek style.
Recent blog posts
- Note to self: Neatreceipts method
- 1239482 seconds since last panic
- Tag Folders (or maybe just smart folders) broken after 10.6.1 upgrade
- Hard to clean spots, No. 8: My Work folder
- Updating to DockSpaces 2.45 breaks FlowSpaces PLIST hacks
- Hard to clean spots, No. 7: My Databases folder
- Hard to clean spots, No. 6: My Documents folder
- Whats with these Stacks 'Drawers' anyhow?
- Hard to clean spots, No. 5: My Desktop
- Hard to clean spots, No. 4: My Applications Folder
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