Tag Archives: Evernote

Hurricane Sandy. Evernote AppleScripts.

Veritrope-colored Lightshow as the ConEdison Substation Explodes

It’s certainly been a crazy week here in New York, dealing with Hurricane Sandy and her aftermath: My neighborhood was spared, suffering nothing more than a few downed trees and brief flickering of our lights when a power transformer down the street exploded. But just a short distance away from here, the storm surge did tremendous damage. Many people lost power, heat, water, and in some cases their homes.

I had planned to run another contest this week but, given the circumstances, I didn’t really feel like it.  We’ll do it once things start feeling normal again — hopefully in a few days. In the meantime, would you please consider giving a little something to one of these fine groups?

Evernote AppleScripts Update

A quick code-related update — Many people have been asking if there’s been any progress on fixing the AppleScripts which were broken by Evernote “sandboxing” their app.

Evernote recently announced a completely rewritten Mac app which is now in beta testing. Once it’s released, I’ll continue working on the AppleScripts for Evernote. One side benefit for all you early adopters — since the beta is being distributed outside the Mac App Store, many of the broken AppleScripts seem to be working again.

Feel free to send me a message on Twitter or on App.net if you want to let me know how the new Evernote is working for you.

Excelsior, My Friends

I can’t remember when I learned that the state motto of New York was “Excelsior”1, but it’s a nice word for us New Yorkers — everyone really — to keep in mind during difficult times.

Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s also the title of a Walt Whitman poem which, when it originally appeared in the second edition of Leaves of Grass, was called “Poem of the Heart of the Son of Manhattan Island”.

Like a true New Yorker, Walt couldn’t help but brag a little.
Okay — a lot:

Who has gone farthest? for I would go farther,
And who has been just? for I would be the most just person of the earth,
And who most cautious? for I would be more cautious,
And who has been happiest? O I think it is I—I think no one was
ever happier than I,
And who has lavish’d all? for I lavish constantly the best I have,
And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be the proudest son
alive—for I am the son of the brawny and tall-topt city,
And who has been bold and true? for I would be the boldest and
truest being of the universe,
And who benevolent? for I would show more benevolence than all the rest,
And who has receiv’d the love of the most friends? for I know what
it is to receive the passionate love of many friends,
And who possesses a perfect and enamour’d body? for I do not believe
any one possesses a more perfect or enamour’d body than mine,
And who thinks the amplest thoughts? for I would surround those thoughts,
And who has made hymns fit for the earth? for I am mad with
devouring ecstasy to make joyous hymns for the whole earth.

I’ve lived in Brooklyn for a dozen years now and I’ve come to believe that this “Nobody has it better than us” attitude is some of what gives my brawny and tall-topt city its resilience. Whitman’s poem — and New York swagger itself — perhaps isn’t so much boasting as it is a wish for happiness to everyone who lives here.

So let me sign off for now with this wish for you — No matter where you live or what kind of week you’ve had, I hope you are able to look ever upwards and smile.

  1. Often translated from the Latin as “Ever Upward” []

A few Alfred extensions for use with Safari, Google Chrome, and Evernote

Alfred Logo
Knowing how to use keyboard shortcuts is one of the best ways to improve your productivity on a computer – and even more so when you use them to trigger “recipes” of commonly repeated but complex tasks.

One of my favorite programs to help you use these shortcuts is Alfred (the “Powerpack Edition”, naturally). I was planning on waiting for the relaunch of Veritrope to start sharing some Alfred extensions, but it seems that I just can’t help myself!

Here are a few that I’ve recently added to some scripts in the Code Library:

Does anyone want to see more Alfred / Keyboard Maestro / Text Expander stuff around here? Let me know in the comments — or send me a note on Twitter or on App.Net.

Version 3.3 of the Mac Evernote Client seems to break several Evernote AppleScript functions. Get the latest updates on the situation here.

Shortly after Evernote’s new client for the Mac (version 3.3) was released, I began receiving reports that some AppleScripts were either partially or totally broken. (An example – the Evernote-to-DEVONthink AppleScript isn’t working because, when you ask Evernote to export notes via AppleScript, it now causes a disk permission error.)

I contacted Evernote’s Developer team and they’ve told me they are working on the Evernote AppleScript bridge and that the product team is looking into the errors. I’ll post updates here as I have them but, if AppleScripts are a critical part of your workflow, you may want to hold off on updating to 3.3 until we know more!

Update on November 4, 2012

Evernote recently announced a completely rewritten Mac app which is now in beta testing. Once it’s released, I’ll continue working on the AppleScripts for Evernote. One side benefit for all you early adopters — since the beta is being distributed outside the Mac App Store, many of the broken AppleScripts seem to be working again.

Feel free to send me a message on Twitter or on App.net if you want to let me know how the new Evernote is working for you.