Many of my friends are in the latter group. They’ve often told me “I started reading one of your computer posts and got a few paragraphs in… when I realized that I had no goddamn idea what you were talking about!”

And so with this subtle encouragement, it occurs to me that some content that is less “nuts-and-bolts” and more “Why should I care about this nerdy stuff?” is probably in order.

Why Should They Care?

Earlier today, I was replying to someone in a forum thread about scanning paper documents when it occurred to me:

This is the type of stuff that is (or will be) important to so many people in their everyday lives, but it hasn’t yet made the leap into what we consider “The Ordinary”.

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”¹ I think he was wrong.

Any sufficiently advanced technology doesn’t seem magical — it seems mundane.

“We’ll Be Number One for Takeoff — As Soon As The FAA Finishes Rebooting!”

Whether you like it or not, the fact of the matter is that most people’s lives are getting geekier by the month — which means that what used to be “geeky” is becoming more ordinary.

Don’t believe me? Here in the U.S. earlier today, the Federal Aviation Administration suffered a “nationwide system outage”, which is another way of saying that the failure of a single, solitary internet connection created thousands of bored and frustrated people drinking bad Airport coffee for hours this morning.

Off the top of my head, here are three recent, mundane examples of how the concepts behind the way that computers make and use their files have impacted me or the people I know:

• My fiancée (a clothing designer) calls me and says “I’m leaving work — just as soon as this dumb file finishes rasterizing!”
• A client emails me saying “I can’t seem to download and watch my son’s video… and when I email the file to Windows users, they can’t figure out how to open it”
• My friend who is a music producer sends me an MP3 of a track we’ve been collaborating on. In the time it takes me to walk to my subway station, I download the music to my iPhone and check it out while riding the train to an appointment.

I Got Your Magic Right Here!

Try to have a conversation with an ordinary person about what, exactly, electricity is and how it works…

Most people have a vague idea but, even so, it doesn’t make the idea of electricity feel daunting or especially mysterious to us.

It’s just something that hums along in the background of our lives.

Frankly, that’s okay: An understanding of how electricity works doesn’t make it work any better, right? Flick the switch and the light goes on.

An electrician that I know here in New York puts it pretty well: “Two hundred years ago, I would have been considered a “magician”. One hundred years ago, I would have been a “scientist”. In our time, I’m just a guy doing a job.”

But apply this notion to our modern, digital society: The concepts relating to how computers store and share information, which used to be the sole purview of the pocket-protector crowd, are actually now “the hidden loom” used to weave together so many strands of our everyday lives into a functional tapestry. It’s become more like electricity — something that is taken for granted, but upon which so many other things depend.

And yet, it’s also different than electricity in at least one key way:
Knowing more about how it works actually makes it work better!.

Stay With Me On This…

People are people.

Start to skim a posting like the one I was writing earlier today about scanning papers into your computer and you’ll see phrases like “compression ratio” and “downsample”.

Nine times out of ten — you’ll zone out and move on.

So how can we start to talking about this stuff in a way that captures your interest long enough to de-mystify it’s more boring technical aspects?

My approach-du-jour is this: Let’s make it real life, not abstract. And let’s also work in as many “Animal House” references as humanly possible.

On the Next Page: Flounder and the Not-So-Mysterious Art of PDF File Compression

1. Report on Planet 3 (Signet SF, Y5409)

Want to quickly export your Yojimbo entries into Evernote? Read on!

After releasing the Evernote to Yojimbo AppleScript earlier this month, some readers asked if there was a script to do the reverse — Yojimbo to Evernote exporting.

Brett Kelly had already written a great script that would do a complete transfer of all of your Yojimbo items into Evernote. I asked him if he would mind if I used it as a launching pad for a fuller script — and he graciously told me to go for it!

Features

• This AppleScript exports a copy of all the selected entries in your Yojimbo database (except those in the Trash) and then imports them into an Evernote notebook.
• When the script needs to export a file first, it places it into a temporary folder on your Desktop and then deletes it when completed.
• In addition to facilitating a full export of all your items into Evernote, this script also gives you the option to export items by Collection (i.e., Images, Bookmarks, PDFs).
  
• Any tags inside Yojimbo will be added to your imported notes in Evernote. You’ll also have a chance to add additional tags to the note on the way in, and you can now select which notebook will receive the import (or create a new one!).
  
  
• When the “Source URL” slot wasn’t already being used for a web link, I added clickable URI links that open up your original Yojimbo note.
  
• Automatic Growl detection has also been enabled which will save you a trip to the Script Editor to enable/disable it. As the export completes its transfer of a Collection, Growl users will see a notification window with that collection’s icon and the number of items that were transferred. If you’re transferring everything all at once, you’ll get notifications for each collection so you can track the progress of your export. When the script is complete, it’ll give you the final tally via Growl as well.
  

Current Limitations and Open Issues

(Otherwise known as “Places Where You Could Help Out!”)

• Errors that will undoubtedly arise when you do something that I didn’t think of or test for!

How to Install and Use

Just run the script and follow the menus to select the notes to send to Yojimbo!
If you’re importing a lot of items, I’d recommend that you change a few settings inside Evernote before beginning the import. In the “Clipping” tab of the Preferences menu, uncheck the boxes in the section called “After a clip:”

If the boxes are checked while importing a large number of items, Evernote will fill your screen with open windows and sound like it is repeatedly shooting you with a laser from a 70’s Sci-Fi movie. Trust me — uncheck the boxes first and you’ll be much happier!

Source Code and Download Link on the next page!

Features

• This script exports a copy of all the selected entries in an Evernote notebook and saves them into Yojimbo.
• Automatic Growl detection has also been enabled which will save you a trip to the Script Editor to enable/disable it.

Current Limitations and Open Issues

(Otherwise known as “Places Where You Could Help Out!”)

• Currently, links to audio clips from Evernote will appear to import into Yojimbo. However, the links are non-functional. I’ll look at what can be done about this in future revisions (and based on popular consensus);
• Errors that will undoubtedly arise when you do something that I didn’t think of or test for!

How to Install and Use

Just run the script and follow the menus to select the notes to send to Yojimbo!

Source Code and Download Link on the next page!

Latest Update: 8 February, 2010

Want a script customized for your workflow (or a new one that you don’t see here)?

Contact me to find out how to commission a script!

Did this list help you out? Please make a donation!

Evernote Scripts / API Applications:

Veritrope.com Scripts

• **NEW** RTF/TXT File Imported (To Improve Formatting Over Native Import)
• Safari URLs to Evernote (To Generate A Quick List Of Bookmarks from Your Open Tabs)
• Yojimbo to Evernote Exporter
• Evernote to Yojimbo Exporter
• NetNewsWire to Evernote: Batch Sending (For when you need to do some heavier lifting — slower, but brings over multiple items)
• TWO Scripts Connecting DEVONthink and Evernote!
• Evernote to MacJournal Exporter
• MacJournal to Evernote Batch Exporter
• Apple Mail to Evernote
• Export Evernote Notes to HTML (Legacy Script)
• Export Notes From Evernote to an RTF text file
• Export a List of Titles for Notes In Evernote to a text file
• Microsoft Entourage to Evernote
• NetNewsWire to Evernote: Single Headline or Tab (For the quickest way to get an item into Evernote)

Want to know when this list has been updated?

Follow Veritrope on Twitter

Are you using Snow Leopard?

Be sure to check the Snow Leopard Services page as well!

Other Scripts/Extensions/Projects

• **NEW** Import Delicious Bookmarks into Evernote.
  
• **NEW** An Applescript to push all of your LittleSnapper snaps into Evernote, including tags/ratings/title/date!
• **NEW** Toodledo-to-Evernote Workflow
• Automator Actions for Evernote
• Livescribe/Evernote AppleScript
• Import Amazon Kindle clippings into Evernote
• AppleScript to Export entire Evernote notebook in PDF format
• PHP code to send a WordPress post to Evernote
• Ruby Script to import Twitter favorites to Evernote
• Ruby Script to improve import of Delicious bookmarks into Evernote
• Using a Greasemonkey script to speed up import from Google Notebooks to Evernote
• Greasemonkey script to force https: on Evernote websites
• Use the Evernote Bookmarklet via Ubiquity
• AutoHotKey Script for Evernote
• Ubuntu Evernote Clipping Script
• Camino Browser Toolbar Script
• Journler to Evernote AppleScript
• Clip to Evernote via Quicksilver and AppleScript
• Copy title and URL in the front most window of Safari to Evernote with link
• Creating a daily log in Evernote from Quicksilver
• Import Yojimbo items into Evernote
• A Ruby/AppleScript solution to post NetNewsWire Items to Evernote
• Import Evernote ENEX Files into DevonThink as HTML
• A MacFUSE-based file system for accessing the Evernote service. (Under Development — Use with caution!)

Written (or know of) an Evernote Script not listed here? Post it in the comments below and I’ll add it to the list!

Evernote Accessories + Services:

• Pixily is a service that Evernote users can ship their paper documents to — they scan, categorize and upload the documents to a customer’s web account, where they can be transferred into an Evernote account with the push of a button. For a limited time, Pixily is offering Evernote users a $10 discount. To take advantage of the discount, follow this link and type EVERNOTE into the coupon code field during checkout.
  httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srR1RUt0U5w&feature=player_embedded
• The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Deluxe Bundle Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner — available for the Mac and also for Windows users — is Fujitsu’s latest, greatest version of their sheet-fed Document Scanner. With the push of a button, you can create a PDF file of up to 50 pages at a time. Just drop those PDFs into Evernote and, voila, you’re paperless. You can even scan your documents directly into Evernote. I own the previous model and have whole-heartedly recommended it to clients who are trying to digitize big piles of paper quickly (BTW — they also love it!):
  
• The Griffin Clarifi with EasyDock(Black) is a case for your iPhone 3G or 3GS that allows you to sharpen the iPhone’s close-up photos of business cards, receipts, or any small portion of text. Once your picture is in Evernote, text inside the image is recognized and available for searching (and easy cut-and-pasting into your favorite contact manager / word processor / etc.)
  Pretty spiffy! Check out this video from the Evernote blog of the Clarifi in action!:
  httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vduAAtinBG0
• Don’t have an iPhone? Maybe you need to capture larger amounts of text (like a whiteboard)? How about the name and location of a store or a restaurant while you’re sight-seeing? Eye-Fi makes a whole series of SD cards aimed at both PC and Mac users, professional photographers, and even video enthusiasts! It works with most digital cameras and even allows you to send geo-tagged photos directly to your Evernote account over its own Wi-Fi connection. Not only is the text in any digital photo automatically recognized and indexed, but the *LOCATION* as well. It’s a perfect way to keep a “virtual travel scrapbook”! I use this one myself — and I couldn’t be more pleased with how easy and well it works.

And again, check out this video from Evernote to see how it works:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzFpQbV5In8&feature=player_embedded

Did this list help you out? Feel free to make a donation!