SMS Slingshot

Graffiti Research Lab LASER Tag

This is a short tutorial on using symbolic links to sync files that live outside of your Dropbox or other sync folder. 

I use this to synchronize my Omnigraffle stencils and Adobe templates across multiple Macs.  Although untested, this may also be used to get around the restriction that Live Mesh imposes on not allowing items within system folders to be synced (e.g. Library on Mac or Application Support on Windows).

What is a Symbolic Link?
They are basically the UNIX equivalent to an “Alias” to a file on a Mac or a “Shortcut” in Windows.

Why do I care?
Because they are actually more powerful and can be used to do some nifty tricks.  Symbolic links can point directly to the actual file from multiple locations.  An alias or shortcut is a file in itself, and in some ways is treated like any other file.  If you were to synchronize an alias, the shortcut reference file is copied over, not the file it points to.  So we can use symbolic links to synchronize preferences or system files that live outside of your Dropbox, Live Mesh, or specific backup folder. 

source:
http://www.pxc.me.uk/misc/dropbox_mac_use.html#symboliclinker

The easy way – install this finder applescript
http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html
The readme file explains how to install, as there are a couple ways to do it depending on which Mac OS you are using.

And for the technical, a full-on terminal method can be found here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643

Also see this Dropbox-related post:
Sync your files across multiple computers seamlessly

Dropbox:
Free for 2GB of storage space.

Beautiful interface, easy to use, cross platform, including an iPhone app and mobile site.
The iphone app is handy for viewing PDFs, but currently only offline syncs the list of documents, not the actual content.
Sharing is easy, but limited to options.  In my case, I want access to other people’s folders ONLY on the website.  I don’t want every change they make to automatically sync to me all the time, eating up resources.

Live Mesh:
Free for 5GB of storage space

As of this review, still in beta.  It provides the ability to sync ANY existing folder you wish, provided it is not a system folder (anything within the Library folder on Mac OSX).
The Live Mesh web interface allows for a lot of flexibility in what you sync to which device.  At the time of my review, the mobile app was not yet available.

For either the above software solutions, you can sync items or folders outside the main sync folders using symbolic links.  I use it to sync my Omnigrafffle stencils and templates across computers.

Ultimately I’ve continued to use Dropbox and have been extremely happy with it.  If you use this referral code, we both get an extra 250MB storage.

Researchers at Loughborough University found that it took an average of 64 seconds for a person to recover their train of thought after interruption by email: those who check their email every five minutes waste 8.5 hours a week in this way. “There is no doubt that people use it as an avoidance tactic,” says Yoram Kalman, a post-doctoral researcher in online communication at the Open University of Israel. “The modern office worker works for an average of three minutes before an interruption occurs.”

According to the psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, the stress of trying to process information as rapidly as it arrives is reducing us to quivering wrecks of indecision and demoralisation. As email becomes easier and quicker to use, we are finding it increasingly difficult to sift the relevant information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/01/email-facebook

As of this date of this posting, here is the full list of the iPhone 3GS Voice Control commands available.  Hopefully as this is adopted, they will roll out more – like finding a contact’s info or initiating an email by speaking the name.

Start Voice Control:
Press and hold the Home button or your headset middle button until the Voice Control screen appears and you hear a beep. 

Cancel Voice Control:
Tap the cancel button on the screen or say “cancel” to close Voice Control.

Call someone in your contacts:
   * call + [name of the person or phone number]
   * dial + [name of the person or phone number]

 If the person has more than one phone number, add:
   * home
   * mobile
   * work
   * other

Make a correction:
   * no
   * nope
   * not that
   * not that one
   * wrong

Music playback:
   * play
   * play music
   * play + album + [name]
   * play + artist + [name]
   * play + playlist + [name] 
   * pause
   * pause music
   * next song
   * previous song
   * shuffle

Music Info:
   * what’s playing
   * what song is this
   * who is this song by
   * who sings this song

Use Genius to play similar songs:
   * Genius
   * play more like this
   * play more songs like this

For best results:
Speak clearly, naturally (like you are making a phone call), pausing slightly so each word is distinct.  Use only iPhone commands and full names or numbers.