Click Here To Read Part One of “Learn To Speak AppleScript”

To recap the end of Part One, your goal will be to build a script that will save your emails as text files. The actual programming will be covered in Part Three and, when we get there, I’ll try to stay more “conceptual”.

My goal will be to give you a feel for how an AppleScript does its job — but still include enough real-life code to keep it interesting for more experienced scripters (or for people who came here from a search engine looking for a bit of code to get their scripts up and running!)

But, if you are a beginner, don’t let those computer code snippets intimidate you! They are included primarily so that you can see what a real-life Script looks like and not with any expectation that you master the intricacies of the AppleScript language.

After all, this is really an exercise in teaching you the fundamentals of thinking and speaking AppleScript. In other words, this is going to be more like an English class in literature where we talk about books and what they mean — and not a grammar lesson.

In fact, that metaphor is actually a pretty good way to get started!
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Learn To Speak AppleScript, Part 2: Baby Steps

If you are Japanese and an Evernote user, you’re certainly feeling the love this week!

Veritrope.com reader Synkuro sent me a message this morning that lifehacking.jp contributor and author Masatake E. Hori has launched his ebook tutorial for Evernote. Written with the help of co-authors Shogo Sasaki and Etsuo Ohashi, “Evernote Handbook” is a guide for people just getting started with Evernote — but also contains tips for more advanced users!

Although my ability to understand Japanese is limited to slowly sounding out Hiragana and acting like a delighted child when I recognize a word, a Google Translation of the website suggests that buyers will receive free updates to the ebook as they are made available.

And if you like your books in a more traditional format, a different book in paperback written by Masato Kogure and Masaki Ishitani is also available for pre-sale on Amazon.jp.

The paperback appears to have at least one thing that the ebook doesn’t — a snazzy photo of Evernote CEO Phil Libin on the cover. According to Phil’s Twitter feed, the book is currently the 17th best-selling book on all of Amazon Japan which, if I were in his shoes, would engender a somewhat “Spinal Tap”-like feeling.

Yes — Japan loves Phil this week and, thankfully, it’s not for his cover version of “Sex Farm”! The real reason is that Evernote just released version 1.70 of it’s Mac Client — with an improved Japanese translation of the program’s interface! (English-speaking computer users often forget just how spoiled we are to have most applications available primarily in our native language!). The release is a by-product of Evernote’s ongoing translation efforts — I really like their “crowd-sourcing” approach to this and hope that it becomes a trend in software development.

A Quick Reminder

A while ago, I added a social bookmarking button to Veritrope.com to let you send posts directly into your Evernote account — this is primarily for people who are on a work computer where they can’t install Evernote (or who are away from home). It is a tiny little thing, so I thought I’d call your attention to it in case you missed it….Clip away!!!

A Good Week For Japanese Evernote Users!

The selectees of PDN’s “30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2010″ were announced today — and I was overjoyed to learn that Adrian Mueller was on this list.

“Overjoyed” isn’t an exaggeration. Anyone who knows Adrian and his work is thrilled for the guy!

Originally from Switzerland, Adrian and I met about the time he first arrived here in New York about 10 years ago. Since then, I’ve seen him build up both his photography business (Fabrik Studios U.S.A.) and his technical skills as a commercial photographer, year after year.

Click Here To See Images From The PDN 30 Gallery

So, if that maxim of every “overnight success” taking at least a decade is true, then it has been a fortuitous coincidence for me that I’ve been able to watch someone actually achieve it from the start.
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Triumph of the Awesome: Adrian Mueller Selected For 2010’s PDN 30 List!