tips-tricks

Yes, I’m back from hiding with another empty promise to blog more often. :)

This one is a pretty simple and “obvious” hack. Last week Cool Tools posted a link to a simple and very ingenous device for holding those extra cords behind your desk, the Keep-a-Cable cord organizer.

While I could have just bought a pack for $5 and be done with it (and I encourage you to do so if you’re so inclined rather than rather blatantly ripping off their idea like I did), I’m just not that kind of guy. I can’t look at a flat 5-cent piece of stamped plastic and not want to make my own.

So I did. Details below the fold.

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If you’re between the ages of 18 and 30, and you live in a place like Seattle, there’s a good chance you live in an old apartment building like I do, and there’s a good chance your windows are drafty as hell in the winter.

If so, pick up a can of this stuff. “Wind Jammer” removable caulk. Its made by the same company as Loctite, and I found it at Home Depot. Comes in a convenient can so you don’t even need a caulking gun (because you live in an apartment and unlike me you probably don’t have one). Caulk up your windows in the winter so they’re not drafty, and peel it off in the spring. Your building manager will never be the wiser, and you’ll be much happier.

I’ve had it on my windows for the past month or so and my apartment is toasty warm now. I definitely recommend it. And I’m not being paid to say this (yet).

So, I thought I was really bright a few days ago at Fred Meyer, picking up supplies to fix stuff around my apartment. A flapper valve for my running toilet, some gaskets for a dripping faucet, and a can of “Plumb Away” to clear out a slow-running bathroom sink.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into…

Of course I followed the instructions. I filled the sink with water, covered the backup drain with a wet rag, and pushed downwards on the can as if it were a plunger to force my pesky plug out of my plumbing.

And then my world exploded.

I live in an older apartment building. Older as in probably about 60-70 years old. Which means I have about 50-60 years of crud built up in my plumbing. All that crud, with the exception of the crud actually clogging the sink, chose exactly that moment to leave my plumbing. And exit promptly all over my bathroom.

As it seems, the extra large backup drain of my sink also provided an extra large exit for said crud, all of which promptly forced its way out past my carefully placed rag, and all over my bathroom. Covering my sink, my shower, my walls, and even myself. No innocent bystanders were spared.

The results? I was left with:

• A bathroom covered in crap that was older than me
• A sink fully of lemony fresh fizzy water
• A drain that is still completely plugged

And, while wiser for the experience, I’m still $9 poorer, and I still don’t have a completely working sink.

So I finally figured out how to write AppleScripts that hook directly into Quicksilver’s “text clipping” interface. For the longest time I’ve wanted to be able to set away messages from Quicksilver… and now I can:

using terms from application "Quicksilver"
    on process text ThisClipping

    tell application "Adium"
        set my status message to ThisClipping
        set my status type to away
    end tell

end process text

end using terms from It may not look like much, but I’m a happy boy. Put that into an AppleScript using Script Editor and save it to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions. Restart Quicksilver, and you’ll be able to set any text you type in Quicksilver after the “.” command as your Adium away message.

The on process text terms has lots of other uses too. I’m sure I’ll come up with more.

If you’re a competitive sailor, you can’t get much better news than what you’ll get every day from Scuttlebutt. The problem is that it’s an email list, and if you get as much email as me, the last thing you need is one more email to read.

But one thing I do spend some time reading each day is my blog RSS feeds. I use Bloglines, a free online feed reader. Recently I discovered a great feature in Bloglines where you can get a custom email address to turn periodic email lists into feeds in your bloglines account.

Instructions below the jump…

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