I am a total Mac newbie, but didn\’t just fall off the apple cart. I know a must have, indispensable item when I see one; that is why Quicksilver was the first Mac app I dragged into my Application folder. For the past week I\’ve been bumbling around trying to learn as much as I could about it, and wanted to share two cool (to me anyway) tricks I discovered by accident.
Dock the shelf:

• Invoke Quicksilver (control+spacebar is the default hotkey)
• Open the shelf (alt+command+S)
• Drag the shelf window to the edge of your screen, and release
• Move your pointer away from the shelf. After a few seconds the shelf will slide out of the way until you mouse to the edge where you dropped it.

I discovered this trick because I have gotten in the habit of dropping links, and things on it. But I realized that there was no clear button that I could click to empty the shelf for me, and there was nothing in Quicksilver itself–say a Clear Shelf action–that would perform the task, and Remove is always grayed out on the context menu. So here I was with fifteen or twenty items on my shelf and no idea what to do. So after lots of hunting and pecking, here is what I found.
Clear the shelf:

• Invoke Quicksilver
• Open the shelf
• Click on an item
• Drag the item to the trash can on the dock

Download of the Day: Desktop Manager for OS X: via Lifehacker

Mac OS X only: The free Desktop Manager creates and manages multiple virtual desktops on your Mac for spreading out windows across several workspaces.

Create one desktop for email, one for browsing, one for IM\’ing, and one for hardcore work. With Desktop Manager you can switch between desktops with a quick keypress and a transition of your choice. (I prefer the \”Swap over\” myself, which looks like a cube of desktops flipping sides.) I saw this one over someone\’s shoulder at ETech this week and I haven\’t stopped using it since. Desktop Manager is a free download, Mac OS X only.

Desktop Manager 0.5.3 [MacUpdate]

(AP) NEW YORK Sandra Bullock has agreed to star in a film about \”Peyton Place\” author Grace Metalious, whose million-selling novel scandalized the nation 50 years ago and eventually ruined the author's life.

Bullock is co-producing with Carol Baum, whose previous films include \”Fly Away Home\” and the remake of \”Father of the Bride.\” Naomi Foner, whose credits include \”Running on Empty\” and \”Bee Season,\” is writing the screenplay.

\”Grace Metalious was a housewife with three kids running around with runny noses, living in a town (Gilmanton, N.H.) where she didn't belong, didn't fit in,\” Baum told The Associated Press in a recent phone interview. \”Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anybody, she was writing the sexiest novel in history, in her kitchen.\”

Metalious' novel of sex and scandal in a small New England town, based partly on Gilmanton, was published in the fall of 1956. Although it was banned in several cities, \”Peyton Place\” became one of the best-selling novels in history and led to a popular movie starring Lana Turner and Hope Lange.

But Metalious never recovered from her sudden notoriety. Her marriage fell apart, her children were harassed and the author herself received threatening calls and letters. She became a heavy drinker and died of cirrhosis in 1964, at 39.

\”She was ahead of her time, but not in a self-conscious way,\” Foner told the AP. \”She was one of those people who told the truth, almost naively talked about it, and got vilified for talking about it. I'm not sure if she had the muscle to deal with it.\”

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Top Five Tips To Generate Ideas For Your Writing:

Stuck for writing ideas? These tips will help you to generate ideas that you’re EAGER to write.

1. Flip and Rip. Get a stack of OLD magazines. Flip through each magazine rapidly. For this process, it’s important that you DO NOT read. You want intuitive messages, and reading locks you into your unintuitive left brain. Rip out any pages which catch your attention. Remember: DO NOT READ.

2. Walk and Talk. Go for a long walk, or a drive, with a tape recorder. This is the same process as the magazine flip-and-rip. TALK about whatever catches your eye into the tape recorder. Just describe what you’re seeing — don’t label, or form opinions, or judgments. DESCRIBE what you see, hear and smell.

3. Nap and Tap — your right brain. Take a ten-minute nap. Just close your eyes, and relax. This technique works best either at the end of the day, or after lunch. You’re aiming to reach the hypnagogic state that you’re in just before you fall asleep. Images will drift through your mind. Get up slowly, and write. You may have no idea what you’re going to write about, that’s fine– let your right brain do the work. This technique is brilliant for breaking through blocks.

4. Top Ten Ouches. List the top ten most annoying people/ annoying habits or annoying anythings in your life. Annoyance is anger, which is ENERGY. You need the energy to write with power.

5. Word Flood. Read the dictionary or thesaurus. Five minutes of this and you’ll generate more ideas than you can use this week.

Technorati Tags: Writing Tip

My wife is very clever (though, since she is married to me, an argument can be made as to just how clever). I keep my Moleskine with me at all times, but since she works retail she is unable to keep up with a notebook, a pda, or even a few scraps of loose paper. So to keep on top of things she scribbles little notes to herself on masking tape (making sure to use an indelible marker) and sticks them on the inside of her shirt, at the hem. All she has to do is roll up her sleeves for her todo list, or roll up the hem of her shirt for her schedule.

PC-Com 7.32 was released today, March 7th, 2006, and it has several new features and bug fixes, which are described below.
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This may have been said, or done, before, but I have recently acquired a new little habit. While I am catching up on the news feeds I like, or hitting the groups (be they Yahoo or Google) I force myself to unsubscribe from at least one feed or group each session. This may sound like a no-brainer to you productivity mavens out there but for me it took a bit of stumblin\’ and bumblin\’.

First I tried to move feeds to a holding pen where they would be on a five day probation, at the end of which I would ostensibly zap them. Trouble was that I, if given time (and five days seemed to be just enough time), could find any number of reasons to keep the little bastards. It was then that I realized that my habit of consigning them to, and subsequently rescuing them from, this news feed purgatory was just bad for all involved; better to hit delete and move on.