Archive for the ‘app’ Category

Abort an Automator workflow

I wanted to abort an OSX Automator workflow if there’s no internet connection. That function does not exist. It can be done by inserting the action Run Applescript though:

try
do shell script "curl www.apple.com"
on error
do shell script "killall name-of-this-script"
end try

Fill in the name of your Automator application and if there’s an error the script will terminate itself. This way you can build multiple checks. For instance I have another check that stops the automator workflow if a certain disk is not mounted. And suddenly Automator becomes a handy tool.

Using Twitter feeds to feed your Fever

Shaun Inman redefined the feed reader with his brilliant application Fever. The best thing about it, apart from the brilliant user interface, the beautiful layout, the usability, the feel of a native app, is the fact that you can actually use high volume feeds without reading them. The idea is that a link gets more interesting when more feeds link to it. So fever has this section called Heat where all these interesting articles are shown.
Get on with it!

I need Zooom

It’s one of those apps you forget you have installed. You only remember you use it when you work on a computer that doesn’t have it. Zooom does two things. It lets you resize a window without the need to point exactly to that small square in the right bottom corner. And it lets you drag your windows without the need to point exactly to the title bar. You need it too.