Nothing Up My Sleeve

Appearing in The Magic Cabaret

This Wednesday, December 16, 2009, I'll be performing at Chicago's Magic Cabaret. Get yourself a ticket and come see the show! Here's the scoop about this week's show:

Greetings, Magic Fans! On December 16 we're doing a special edition of The Magic Cabaret! PT Murphy will be out of town, so David Parr has invited TWO fab guest performers to join him for this Wednesday's show: Gordon Meyer and Joe Diamond!

Gordon lives a Lamont Cranstonesque dual life. By day, Gordon explains the workings of computer software to the public. By night, he works feats of legerdemain that cannot be explained! Gordon is one of the warmest, friendliest, tallest magicians we've ever met -- AND he bears an uncanny resemblance to the Magic Cabaret mascot, Mr. Cuddles -- so we're sure you'll enjoy meeting him as much as we enjoy having him around!

Joe might not have a secret identity, but he makes a living by defying the boundaries between what we assume can and can't be done. Can thoughts be perceived? Can distant events be sensed? Is your mind an open book? When you see Joe in action, you may feel compelled to reconsider your answers to those questions! ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance -- you'll be too busy having fun to wonder what to call it, so let's just call it MIND MAGIC!

All this, and a bit of holiday magic from David Parr!

New Mac utility for Proximity Detection

Using Bluetooth to detect when you are at home is a handy technique for home automation. For all the details, see my article Your Mac Knows When You're Home.

A new, inexpensive ($7.77) utility, Airlock is designed to lock your Mac when you walk away from it. However, it also allows you to run a script when you walk away, or approach, so this opens the door to the techniques described in the article.

The Vue Personal Video Network

Remote video monitoring of a home, whether for pets or security, remains one of the most common home automation questions that I receive. A new product, The Vue Personal Video Network, looks like a good solution for many cases.

I haven't tried it, but it's nice that you get two cameras in the basic kit, and can add up to 50 (!) more if you have the desire and cash. I also like that the wireless cameras have to be associated with the base station so that their signals can't be evesdropped. (That's a common problem with other non-Wi-Fi wireless cameras.) Their use of a central monitoring service is what simplifies setup and provides ease-of-use, but it does mean you'll have ongoing annual expenses.

All in all, it looks like a good solution. If you've tried it out, drop me a line and let me know what you think. The basic kit is also available on Amazon with many useful reviews.

For more on remote monitoring solutions, see: Macintosh Home Monitoring, Home Petcam Made Easy, and Standalone Home Monitoring Devices.

INSTEON at 45% off for Thanksgiving

SmartHome has opened their "Black Friday" sale early, so between now and Nov 30, 2009 you can get many INSTEON modules at a 45% discount. Now's a good time to pick up some extra goodies for your smart house.

My favorite productivity apps for iPhone

My friend Fredrick asked me about which iPhone productivity apps I find most useful. I thought others might be interested too, so here's what I sent him:

Consistency

A nice little way to ensure you do things that aren't driven by exact dates, but rather, intervals. That is, watering the house plants every 4 to 7 days. Or changing the furnace filter every 25-40 days. Try out the desktop version first to get a feel for it. I've been using it for many, many years.

Here are some articles that explain more about this unique application:

Merlin Mann on Consistency

Gordon Meyer on Consistency

To get Consistency, use these links:
Sciral Consistency for iPhone OS

Sciral Consistency for Mac and Windows

Things

For regular task and project tracking, I use "Things". The Mac desktop version is an Apple Design Award winner, and I personally love it. The iPhone companion syncs with the Desktop so I use both together.

Things for iPhone OS

Things for Mac OS X

Foodle

For grocery shopping, I think Foodle is the best. Lovely, and my fave feature is that it uses the GPS so you can find things again in the store. I keep separate lists for Grocery, Liquor, and Hardware Stores. I use the paid version, but here's a link to the freebie so you can try it:

Foodle for iPhone OS

Password Wallet

I use Password Wallet to store the zillion user IDs and Passwords that we all have. The iPhone version syncs with the Mac version. It's not a very aesthetically pleasing set of apps, but it's very reliable. The app 1Password is more popular, but I shun it because on the Mac it hooks into Safari in an unofficial way that can cause problems. Password Wallet plays by the rules and causes no worries.

Password Wallet for iPhone OS

Password Wallet for Mac OS X

WriteRoom

For writing I use WriteRoom. It syncs with a cloud service (run off Google's servers) so it's easy to work on a document on the phone or at the desktop. There's a Mac version too, but it's not necessary to use them both.

WriteRoom for iPhone OS

WriteRoom for Mac OS X

HeyWay

My wife and I both have iPhone and we both travel, so we use the free version of HeyWay to let each other know when we've arrived at our destinations safely. We used to send SMS messages (and still do when time allows) but this is much faster when all you want to do is say "I've arrived". There's a paid version that lets you add a message, but we use the freebie.

HeyWay for iPhone OS

FAA Wait

FAA Wait taps into the FAA database of airport delays. Great way to know what the airline isn't telling you, or is about to tell you when they finally find the time.

FAA Wait for iPhone OS

Inquisitor

Inquisitor is a very nice web searching tool. Seems like you don't need this, but try it, and you'll be hooked. Everyone I've told about this loves it.

Inquisitor for iPhone OS

InstaPaper

Instapaper saves web pages, in nice readable text form, so you can read them offline later. You install a bookmark for it on your desktop, then add articles using your desktop we browser, and they show up on iPhone for later reading. I use the paid version I love this so much, but here's a link to the freebie to try.

Instapaper for iPhone OS
Instapaper website

Yelp

My wife and and I both use this when traveling, it will show you nearby restaurants etc and you can peruse the reviews to see if there's a good place nearby. Invaluable when you don't really know the surrounding area.

Yelp for iPhone OS

So there you go, the most-used apps on my iPhone. Hope you find it useful.

Dual-band INSTEON LampLinc

The new Dual-band LampLinc dimmer from Smarthome is a very interesting device. Prior to this, INSTEON only used RF signals to bridge the power line. But this device responds directly to RF commands. (It also responds to commands on the power line.) This is a smart move by SmartHome as it should make INSTEON even more reliable.

A cautionary tale

An iPhone in an unbuttoned breast pocket is not as secure as you might think. On the plus side, though, I have conclusively proven that iPhone 3GS is not a witch, as it does not float.

LED Message Display via the Web

The iXP3 Internet Messaging Clock is a persistence of vision clock that also receives messages from the Internet. This could be a handy thing for home automation, if the aesthetic of the clock is acceptable to you. I'm not so excited that you apparently have to proxy messages through a central website, though.

ScanSnap driver update for Snow Leopard

Fujitsu has released updated drivers for their ScanSnap line of workgroup scanners. See Snow Leopard Update for ScanSnap for details. Thanks to Dave P. for the tip!

For more about paperless offices, see My Paperless Office.

View an iSight camera remotely

How to view webcam video from a remote location is one of the most frequent questions I get, so I'm pleased to discover a new option. RemoteSight is a new product from the makers of SecuritySpy, allows you to easily stream live video from an iSight camera to a web browser. One nice feature appear to be (I haven't yet tried it) that there's very little user interface--the only visible component is a menu bar item. See the Macworld article, RemoteSight turns an iSight into CCTV for another perspective.

See also Home Petcam Made Easy.