Delicious Library Distorted Book Cover Art

My wife and I decided that we need to make more room for our daughter’s toys and books in the house so we decided to back up some of our books on our shelves in the studio. We share our studio with our daughter’s playroom and this would allow us to accommodate the gifts and things that the grandparents love to buy.

Before packing up the books I decided that I should put to good use Delicious Library, available for the Mac only. I fired up Delicious Library and used my built-in iSight web camera to scan the bar codes for instant gratification of filling the books cover art and details from Amazon.com.

I do have one complaint. It’s such a minor issue that I hate even mentioning this but it’s really bugging me. The shape, size and dimensions of the books are not accurate on screen. I know that the guys at Delicious Monster use the format (paperback, hardback, and even comic book) to determine how the book will display in Delicious Library.

 

The Calvin and Hobbes books above are not displayed accurately. If you are familiar with these books (and I know a lot of people are) you will recognize that the are not printed in portrait orientation, but rather in landscape. Thus, Delicious Library distorts the cover.

Well, other than this one issue I really love Delicious Library. Head on over to the Delicious Monster Web site and check out Delicious Library. Who knows, maybe version 2 will have a solution for this.

Trimming the attention sails at Like It Matters

Trimming the Attention Sails is a great article at Brian Oberskirch’s blog, Like It Matters. It’s about dealing with things that are keeping you from Getting Things Done. It has a large focus on email, news feeds and computers, but also a couple of good points about meetings and new ideas. Definitely worth a read.

moleskinerie: What's on the OUTSIDE of your Moleskine?

moleskinerie: What’s on the OUTSIDE of your Moleskine?:

I found this cool blog post at Moleskinerie. It’s a link to a Flickr group of Moleskine users and their cover designs. Very inspiring since I have not decorated my Moleskine’s cover.

Image Courtesy of Moleskinerie.com

Now I have to really think about what to put on the front of my Moleskine. It appears the Apple sticker has already been posted in the Flickr group. Maybe a comic book lettering design would be original. I guess we’ll just have to see what I come up with.

Correo: New Mac Open-Source Email App

Correo is a new open-source mail client for OS X. Correo combines two popular Mozilla projects, Camino and Thunderbird, to create a polished native Macintosh application.

Current list of features are:

• Create multiple mail accounts (POP and IMAP);
• Reply, Forward, and write new messages (via SMTP); and
• Ability to setupinterface for 2 column split view or 3 column view.

There are many planned features for the mail client, including:

• plugin capability (to allow development of extensions such as PDA synchronization);
• tabbed window interface;
• address book support;
• keychain access; and
• various other to-be-determined features.

Download Correo 0.1 to test it out. A word to the cautious: Be Careful! This is a 0.1 application, meaning its a brand, spanking new beta. Mke sure you have a back-up of your Mac just in case something weird happens. You can read the wiki for support and development information.

Correo is currently in the early stages of development, and the latest release for the application is the 0.1 release.

Correo - a new mail client for OS X

Getting Things Done (GTD) with a Moleskine

Recently, I have been developing the best method to manage myself and my multitude of personal and client projects. I’ve tried dozens of Mac software and Web apps and even bought and listened to David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) audiobook. I have read tons of blog posts about GTD. None of the methods I have found successfully work for me, and I think the reason is that I like to draw. As much as I want to be a hardcore, computer savvy guru, I just can not seem to get away from pencil and paper.

In the course of my GTD surfing, I discovered that Jon Hick tried using “Moleskine” at one point to organize himself. I had never heard of “Moleskine” and thought I would check out this piece of software. Boy was I wrong. It was not software at all. It’s a unique and high quality notebook. Being an artist all of my life I wondered why I have never heard of Moleskine. Heck, it was the sketch pad of choice for Mr. Van Gogh. A little bit of research on the trusty old Internet and I found out that a couple of national book stores carry Moleskines. Good. So I picked myself up and headed out to one of these book stores and bought me a Moleskine.

How Does This Help Me Get Organized?
The Moleskine allows me to write down my notes and tasks AND sketch at the same time, ANYWHERE. Something my Mac (or a PC) would NOT let me do without bulky equipment. My next task was figuring out how to organize my sketching and my task listing. Easy enough. I turned to the Internet again and found the below sites.

Lifehacker.com: Getting Things Done moleskine hacked
Lifehacker.com: Moleskine lessons learned and tips
PigPogPDA - A Moleskine Hacked into a Complete System
Moleskine Adaptation for DIY Planner

Pretty cool stuff. In the end I decided to start sketching in the front half of the Moleskine and started my task lists on the last page working backwards. When the two meet in the middle I’ll get a new Moleskine.

Cool Links
The people that brought the Moleskine to the United States:
http://www.kikkerland.com/

If you are a big Moleskine lover like myself then you definitely need one of these:
http://www.innskines.com/pages/about-innskines