Validate Your Life - Latest Comments

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:06:20 -0000

Given the responses to this article I will very very likely either a)add more on text-expansion productivity to this article and/or (more likely) b) have another article on more advanced text-expansion.

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:04:40 -0000

To conclude (at least for now) my lengthy sequence of (genuinely excited!) responses to your comment:

I'm partially convinced this distinction of a "professional text-expander user' is practically entirely (>90%) total hokum and something you devised to more effectively sell phraseexpress.

There's nothing wrong with phraseexpress as a windows os option for text-expansion, but if you could provide details onto defining "Text-Expansion at a Pro Level" the idea of professional text-expansion might seem less ridiculous, or even very clear.

Cheers!

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:57:57 -0000

What other uses are there other than mainly
commonly used code
frequently typed sentences
date format strings and more.

I journal extensively (insane amounts of journaling) and one thing I have used text expanders for me (on likely a very non-pro level) is separators (just ascii text separations to distinction different entries as well as precise date-time stamps) and other things. I'm aware of 'journaling apps', but I rarely like putting data in some software app because of frequently migrating OSes or changing apps. I've learned simplest types of files (spreadsheets, text files, and the like) protect me from being glued to an app (like losing tags or something, which I don't have to worry about). I've dealt with extracting my files out of an app and havoc of that on too many occasions.

An example is productivity apps. Some productivity apps make it easy to put yoru 'todos' on a text file or some other app, but some are very cumbersome. Try extracting over 50 todos from google tasks, for example! Enormous headache. With productivity appeage I've evolved into (hopefully, eventually) making my own productivity app, but text files works best after using/testing
Read-Set-Do
Omni's products
Cultured Codes' Things
Reminder fox
google tasks
and many more.

This could be genuine dislike and/or incompatibility with those programs, but most likely it's just wanting to code my own productivity app.

BACK to Text-Expanders....

Typeit4me.
Are you familiar with that one? That was the first text expander I ever used and had a brief email correspondence with that UK coder. That was a superb text-expander that offered a lot of advanced features that were fairly accessible. How do you compare phraseexpress to that text-expander.

Also, AutoKey does have a few less 'advanced features' but my point is, for my purspoes, those 'missing advanced features' are not missing at all. Autokey accomplishes precisely what it needs to, nothing more is needed, and additional features would make the nifty (fairly bug-free app) likely unnecessarily bloated. Most people think 'more features' is always a plus, but I've evolved into preferring bloat-free apps ftw. I'm not implying phraseexpress has unnecessary features, but rather that Autokey suffices and that sufficiency is is not inadequate in anyway, in many ways it's very complete. (but re windows os, phraseexpress is stellar).

I still can't believe you coded that. that's so awesome!

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:36:26 -0000

"easy to use interface to setup their abbreviations and a software that assists them and adapts to the way they work"

That's probably the text-book definition goal of every text-expander to have ever been coded.

I understand you prefer phraseexpress (why not? you made that?! That's so awesome!), so you will have a natural tendency to look down on other expansion apps.

Maybe you could enlighten on some special usages of text-expansion for advanced professionals (possibly as a guest writer or as comment response)?! Cheers!

I Guess I'm saying two things:

1. Avoiding you framing phrase-express as having advanced features that go unused by most users, that other text-expansions do not.

2. Wanting to learn more advanced text-expansion tricks!

I could see how you doing a guest article on this site specifically on text-expansion (possibly only with phraseexpress) might be illuminating (for some kind of "Advanced Text-Expansion" part 2).

But a part of me is not buying the 'professionals' and non-professional distinction. Who the heck is a 'professional text expander user'? If anyone uses text-expansion imho they're inherently fairly professional as-is.

Seriously an honour. Thanks again for comment!

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:28:24 -0000

The Author-Coder of PhraseExpander?!! Wow! Woah! What an honour (srsly)! this is awesome! Would you be interested in writing a guest tech post? How did you stumble upon this article! What a treat! Thanks for the comment! Superb Wow!

re your response

What do you mean b y 'raw functionality'? That seems to imply that Autohotkey is incredibly limited, which I completely disagree. For windows OS phraseexpress is my preferred text expander (but obv. AutoHotKey for linux).

Many special features are untouched by most users. I see what you mean by paid text expanders offering more 'time saving' (key-tapping-saving) scripts and automatic expansions, but the advanced features of (as you said, usually paid) text expanders I think really are neglected and therefore not worth the cost (unless of course the person is a text-expanding guru-expert).

From what I've seen, much of the 'advanced features' of (often as you said, 'paid') text expanders is that those advanced features are so 'advanced' that anyone who would use them would be fairly close to being able to possibly design their own text expander app.

Maybe some text expanders' advanced features have simpler implementation than others, but some 'advanced features' often involve a lot of cryptic format strings (especially with date and time) that are incomprehensible to most users. Personally, I love customization with format strings (like arranging the year/date/month to output a text-expanded timestamp precisely as how one would want it to look and time-date text-expansions are an example of a frequent auto expansion that has a lot of preferences (arrangement and display of y/m/d).

" The main advantage for professionals"...I must say I resent your implication which seemed to be that people whom use AutoKey are NOT professionals, which is incredibly not true.

How would you define a " Professional Text-Expander User"?????

I shared ways I use text expansion in the original post and listed a few more ways. What other ways do YOU use text expansion? Considering that you actually MADE (wow that's awesome) that app, how you utilize text expansion would probably be much more interesting.

Personally, I use text-expansion for code, date-time formats, frequently used sentences. Basically, the only and best things to use text-expansion for.

how do you distinguish a "Professional" froma non-professional. All in all (correct me if there is more to this) but it IS just merely a text-expansion application. It's a convenience. it's not an IDE or something incredibly elaborate.

Re: Atheism FTW: SAGAN! The Man! Astronomy-Physics Cosmos Awesomeness

John Thomas Kooz — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:36:09 -0000

you know...upon reading and being mindful of your response (and the professionalism of it)..I realized atheism is unquestionably a hobby of mine and important, but it's a fun knowledge interest. My expertise is more with computers and other content on validateyourlife. however, a)good to get a response from someone is knowledgeable on those two blokes and b)no problem with blogging and podcasting on a topic that you like (even if aren't as savvy with it as other areas)...no problem at all!

Re: Atheism FTW: SAGAN! The Man! Astronomy-Physics Cosmos Awesomeness

John Thomas Kooz — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:15:42 -0000

thesauros, Would you be interested in writing a guest-column for a science or Atheism FTW article on the site? Please respond with the site Contact form if interested. Cheers!

Re: Atheism FTW: SAGAN! The Man! Astronomy-Physics Cosmos Awesomeness

John Thomas Kooz — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 03:35:55 -0000

You sound like you could be a professor of cosmology (srsly)! And you seem incredibly versed in Sagan and Dawkins, sharing some beautiful quotes. But alas, I must ask (as Chris Pirillo once asked me in a tweet lol), what IS your point? Were you adding (admitted your comment was highly eloquent) details to a post that you yourself wanted to write? (sounds like, possibly tbh). Were you refuting something? Whatever the reason, I wouldn't be surprised if you said you had written a book on something related to dawkins and sagan given eloquence of response. Cheers.

Re: Atheism FTW: SAGAN! The Man! Astronomy-Physics Cosmos Awesomeness

thesauros — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 23:16:25 -0000

Non life evolving into life is exactly what Richard Dawkins has proposed. This, even while he says, “I'm sceptical of strongly held beliefs in the absence of evidence.”

He's not alone.

This is very typical, virtually ubiquitous behaviour on the part of atheists. Carl Sagan is said to have replied to someone pushing for an intuitive answer that Sagan wasn't prepared to give, “I prefer not to think with my gut.”

Dawkins says that he stands in awe at the genius of Sagan's “immortal” claim. Yet Sagan is the man who said, “The universe is all that has ever existed or will ever exist.” Thinking with his gut made Sagan a strong believer in the now discredited and utterly refuted Steady State model of cosmology. Sagan claimed that the universe is all that has ever existed just as though that was something more than wishful thinking, or more precisely, just as though it was something other than drawing a conclusion directly from his gut. That doesn't seem like “immortal” thinking to me.

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

Andrea Nagar — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:12:49 -0000

Hi there, I'm the author of PhraseExpander and I would like to add my thoughts to the discussion.
I think the main difference between Autohotkey (which is a fantastic tool) and other phrase expanders is what's built on top of the raw functionality of text expansion and the scripting language. Paid tools tend to have a certain focus on specific features (we are focused on document building) and target specific categories of users. The main advantage for professionals is having an easy to use interface to setup their abbreviations and a software that assists them and adapts to the way they work. I see that also support is a very important matter.

I'd be interested to learn how you are using text expanders: what tasks do you think are text expanders more useful for?

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:14:04 -0000

To each his own, but after sampling (and thoroughly utilizing) Typeit4me, TextExpander, PhraseExpress/Expander, and Autokey, I prefer the linux Autokey. But again, raw functionality, they're relatively similar, but enormously huge computational time-saver. Awesome!

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

John Thomas Kooz — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:07:24 -0000

Merlin Mann was right when he said that something like some tech stuff is not necessarily 'ponzi scheme-ish' (an analogy I really dislike), but a lot of similar ideas. PhraseExpress is superb and I meant that instead of PhraseExpander. Thanks for the comment! When you consider raw functionality, however, if you type a shortcut and the text effectively expands, that's all that's needed . A few text expanders had built-in variables (like date/time formatting) which was convenient. Whatever the app; very nifty tech-computer utility. Good that linux has its own flavour of textexpander's, too!

Re: The 7 Most Essential Survival Knots One Must Understand and Know

Emniel — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:06:18 -0000

Great post, thank you! A monkey's fist is useful for throwing a rope accurately over a distance, perhaps to cast a line to someone in need of rescue, or to hoist something over a high beam or tree branch. In certain situations, it could be handy for one's survival.

Re: NerdCoach Episode 3: AutoKey – Superb Automatic Text-Expander for Linux

Jim — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 04:57:41 -0000

Funny, that you mention Windows text expander programs except the very one, Autokey originally got inspired by: http://www.phraseexpress.com

Btw, PhraseExpander is a commercial rip-off of the freeware http://www.wordexpander.net

Re: Proper Cat-Feeding Techniques: Dry Food Has the Following Problems for Cats

Purplepanda-5 — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:12:19 -0000

The photo above is NOT of a FAT cat!! There are 3 cats in the picture!!

Re: Concealing/Changing WordPress Post Author

Articles — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:16:16 -0000

Well i think this a great post i like it very much thank for share this:)

Re: Save Space: Massively Slim down Windows 7 System Partition

Asdasd — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:36:33 -0000

powercfg !! (not powerfg)

Re: Want to Accelerate Your Usage of Time and Productivity? Try Pomodoro!

John Thomas Kooz — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:13:12 -0000

Hey Jana,
Thanks for the feedback (and especially positive feedback)!! That helps and keeps me going!

As for pomodoro...yeah it's pretty awesome. But as I said in the post it's pretty simple too. It's just using 25-minute works sessiosn with 5-minute breaks. It's not rocket science. But to each his/her own. It is a cool way of looking at time. And for someone trying to focus on entrepreneur stuff (meaning less appointments, typically) using time chunks (like pomodoros or however long) is more practical than normal time calendar in some ways. Cheers!

-- John

Re: ‘I think therefore I am’ Origins

John Thomas Kooz — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:59:51 -0000

Pure opinion, but I say neither. Cartesian dualism and special relativity. Both great...but they both stood on the shoulders of giants and both used prev mathematicians/philosophers/scientists for their breakthroughs. Thus, I say neither. But I will say that Descartes was a French and I ahve lived in france so I have a preference for that (but Albert changed the way physicists look at science and the world). I'd say descartes is overlooked but had huge impact.

Re: Minimalism and ‘Possibly Useful But Discardable’ Items

John Thomas Kooz — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:50:12 -0000

Thomas!!

THanks for responding, mate!! I wanted to earn and have career be linked to blog/site/books/podcast. Podcasting is my dream of sorts (at least currently) the fact that you seemingly listened to and then responded ON SITE (I am still working out how to respond on site as comment LOL) is VERY confidence-inducing, makes me happy, is inspiring, really opens my eyes. you just wrote a sentence, but it is VERY meaningful. THANKS for the encouragement. Oath!! I will prob post this on site as response to comment. cheers!
-- John

BTW. This is an excerpt from my BOOK. I spent a LONG time writing that book (2 years +) and got all jazzed up to record this excerpt from it. I am proud of this recording and thinks it's quality, too. Thanks!

Re: Minimalism and ‘Possibly Useful But Discardable’ Items

Thomas — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:15:15 -0000

very official sounding podcast John! sounds like it could be on a talkshow or something. --Thomas

Re: How ISBNs Work and Why You Do Not Need Them (ebooks ftw!)

Stella — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:21:59 -0000

"(Note receiving the ISBN and not submitting the book and ISBN to the database would be like getting the stamp and envelope and not sending it.)"
- You are absolutely dead right about this. If you don't ensure that you submit your ISBN and the metadata (information such as title, author, publisher, description, format, price etc) about your book to a bibliographic agency such as Bowker in the US or Nielsen in the UK then people may find it more difficult to find out about your book and you may lose sales. This goes for both printed and e-books.
A correction though - ISBN is no longer a 10 digit number. It's been a 13 digit number since 1 January 2007. 10 digit ISBNs are no longer valid and must no longer be used or assigned. The first 3 digits of the 13 digit ISBN are an EAN prefix. At the moment, most ISBNs will start "978" but other prefixes will come into use.
"Check Digit – the final single 0-9 digit at the end of every 10-digit ISBN that does some kind of ISBN validation"
-The check digit is mathematically calculated and validates the rest of the number. It is helpful (among other things) in catching transcription errors.
"(amazingly books in, for example, .epub and .mobi formats require distinct ISBNS!)"
- Yes, in order that users can search for and be sure they will receive just the edition they need and which will work on their device then separate identifiers are needed in the wider supply chain. Also, some versions may include useful features to aid accessibility (such as text to speech) while others may not - to help those customers who want to find and use the accessibility functions that work best for them, separate metadata (and separate identifiers to link the metadata) are essential.
The time it takes to get an ISBN depends on the individual national ISBN Agency arrangements - many can provide it in much less than 15 days but publishers can only apply to the ISBN Agency that operates in the country where they live.

Re: It’s Elementary: Don’t Demolish Doyle’s (Sherlock Holmes’ Creator) Domain!

John Thomas Kooz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:11:30 -0000

Hi thanks for the (positive) feedback! It's Elementary, really ;D I don't get paid for maintaining this blog, so encouragement, at the very least, is very useful, much appreciated, snd genuinely helps a lot! Cheers.

Re: ‘I think therefore I am’ Origins

Sarmeintovictoria — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:32:30 -0000

who is the most great ALBERT EINSTEIN or RENE DESCARTES????

Re: Want to Accelerate Your Usage of Time and Productivity? Try Pomodoro!

Jana — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:00:22 -0000

Really great article! I use this technique for a long time ant it really works for me.

PS: I use also this platform online for Pomodoro Technique: http://orkanizer.com