My primary method of collecting research information while browsing the Internet on my Mac is to clip them as rich text or save links and URLs to Evernote.

There are times however, when I just want a quick way to copy and paste whatever information I select as pure text into a simple text file. In this instance, the text file acts as one big, giant clipboard (let’s call it “Clipboard.txt”) that gets a constant stream of new text incrementally added to the top, a collection point for my rapid-fire copy and paste activity in the browser.

I’d also want to perform this copy-and-paste activity without having to constantly switch between the browser (say, Safari) and the text editor. My text editor of choice for this kind of work is nvALT (a brilliant, Markdown-enhanced fork of Notational Velocity), which is able to instantaneously display the updated contents of Clipboard.txt, and syncs with Simplenote to boot.

It turns out that a free solution exists on the Mac, in the form of Automator, for exactly this kind of requirement.

Please note that if you want to view the generated Clipboard.txt text file in nvALT, the nvALT note storage option `Store and read notes on disk as:` must be set as `Plain Text Files`.

The following are the 7 steps required to construct such a solution, which we’ll name “Send text to nvALT“.

Steps to construct the “Send text to nvALT” Automator service

Step 1 – Launch the Automator app. I prefer to just invoke Spotlight with command+spacebar, type the first few characters of the app’s name, and hit return after the app is selected from the list.

Step 2 – Choose the Service document type. We’re building a workflow that can be called in any application with a keyboard shortcut or selected in a contextual menu brought up with a right mouse click, so select the Service icon and click the Choose button.

Step 3 – Add the Run Shell Script action. Make sure Actions is selected (this is the default), then search for “shell”. Alternatively, click on “Utilities” in the Library column, then click on the “Run Shell Script” action and drag it to the workflow area.

Step 4 – Paste the following code in the Run Shell Script action. I’ll explain in a bit about the script and file choices. Please replace with your own preferred folder and files.

cat > ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/dlc_temp.txt
printf "\n" >> ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/dlc_temp.txt
cat ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/Clipboard.txt >> ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/dlc_temp.txt
mv ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/dlc_temp.txt ~/My\ Stuff/@NV/Clipboard.txt

More details:

1. Folder: (User Home)/My Stuff/@NV. Notice in the code that “My Stuff” is entered as “My\ Stuff“. The script that runs in the shell expects literal spaces to be escaped with the backslash (“\”) character.
2. Temporary file: dlc_temp.txt. This file is required because I want the most recently-pasted item to appear at the top of my clipboard file. The UNIX shell command cat that’s used in the code is only able to append (or add) information to the end of an existing file. So I’ll be using “dlc_temp.txt” to paste in the most recent item, followed by a line feed, then the entire contents of the existing “Clipboard.txt”. The script will then rename “dlc_temp.txt” to “Clipboard.txt” and replace the old “Clipboard.txt”.
3. Clipboard file: Clipboard.txt. This will be the name of the main file that stores all my clipped textual information. Although not necessary, I’ll keep this file open in nvALT so that I can take random peeks at the information that’s been copied so far.

Step 5. Save the service and give it a name. Use command+s or File > Save…. I’m going to call it “Send text to nvALT”.

Step 6. Assign a keyboard shortcut. With a keyboard shortcut, all I’d need to do to add new information is to select some text in the browser (or in any other application for that matter – could also be a PDF in Preview) and hit the shortcut. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts (I usually just search for “keyboard” in Spotlight).

Click on “Services” in the left column, then scroll the list on the right until you see the service you’ve just created. Double-click the empty space just to the right of the service name, and press the keys for the desired keyboard shortcut. In my case, it’s control+command+v.

There are two issues to look out for in this step:

1. Ensure that the assigned keyboard shortcut does not clash with any existing combination that’s in use by other applications. In my case, control+command+v clashes with the “Paste to Evernote” shortcut, so I disabled its use in Evernote.
2. It might be a bug, but I noticed that whenever I assign a keyboard shortcut in this window, the check mark on the left hand side of the service would disappear, effectively disabling the service. Make sure you check the box, if required, after you assign the shortcut.

Step 7. Use the new service. Open up a web page in your favorite browser or a PDF document in Preview.

Select some text. Clip the text to the text file using one of the following:

1. Right mouse click > Services (this step is sometimes unnecessary, depending on the application) > Send text to nvALT, or…
2. Name of app in the menu bar > Services > Send text to nvALT, or…
3. Simply hit control+command+v. Repeat this as many times as desired.

Open your Clipboard.txt text file in nvALT, a text editor such as TextMate, or in Quick Look (accessed by pressing Spacebar once Clipboard.txt is selected, this window remains open in Mac OS X Lion even after you’ve switched to another app). If you’re on Lion, do not view Clipboard.txt in TextEdit as the displayed content doesn’t get automatically refreshed with the addition of new content.

Summary

It’s pretty easy to build a custom Automator service to incrementally copy new information to the top of a text file. With a keyboard shortcut assigned to perform the copy, paste and file update in one stroke, you’ll save yourself from having to perform lots of tedious and repetitive keystrokes in clipping large amounts of textual information into a text file.

The new, default Safari 5.1 behavior for finding text on a webpage (keyboard shortcut command+f) is “Starts With”, and not “Contains” like it was in older versions.

This means that if you’re looking for the word “Expression”, you’d have to begin by typing “Exp”.

Entering a portion of the word by starting somewhere in the middle, for instance “xp” or “ess”, would simply give you a “Not found” result.

To revert to the old Safari behavior, simply start a Find operation, then click on the magnifying glass and select the “Contains” option. Safari remembers your choice until the next time you manually change it again.

If you feel like using a more technical method to force “Contains” to be the default behavior, follow this plist hacking tutorial by brunerd.

In Mac OS X Lion, when you open a single PDF document in Preview, you won’t see the sidebar.

This is the default behavior in Lion, unlike in older versions of Mac OS X where the sidebar is visible, showing the table of contents or thumbnail images representing the individual pages of the document.

To change this default behavior so that you’re always able to see the sidebar whenever you open a PDF, you’ll need to change a preference option.

Call up Preferences by clicking on Preview > Preferences… in the menu or pressing the keyboard shortcut command+,.

In the Preferences window, click on PDF, and check the option On opening documents: Show sidebar when opening single file.

Your PDF documents should now open with the sidebar displayed by default.

You can also control the display of the sidebar with the view control buttons located in the toolbar.

From left to right, the view control buttons are:

1. Content Only – no sidebar will be shown.
2. Thumbnails – sidebar is visible, showing thumbnail representations of the pages in the PDF.
3. Table of Contents – sidebar shows a list of topics which, when clicked on, takes you directly to the relevant page.
4. Contact Sheet – no sidebar or content is shown in this mode, but a grid of thumbnails of the document pages is displayed.

Have you watched the new iPad advertisement, “Learn”?

There are a couple of interesting apps that appear in that promo video.

Here’s the complete list, with direct links to the US iTunes App Store where you can view ratings and read the user reviews:

1. TED
2. Chinagram
3. iBooks
4. Skeleton System Pro II (NOVA Series)
5. Solar Walk – 3D Solar System model – Pay once for a universal app that runs on both the iPad and iPhone.
6. t Chess Pro – tChess Pro is a universal app – buy it once and run it on your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The Learn Chess mode fetured in the ad is only available on the paid Pro version in the Actions menu – tChess Lite does not have it. But to enjoy just the Learn Chess feature, you can download Learn Chess by the same developer, and it’s free.
7. Garage Band for the iPad
8. MathBoard for the iPad – I think I’ll need to get this for my kids to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division math.

Since switching from Windows to the Mac in late 2007, I’d always wanted a way to cut and paste files from one folder (or directory, in Windows parlance) using keyboard shortcuts.

In Windows:

1. You first select one or more files.
2. Press Ctrl+X to “cut” those files.
3. Navigate to the destination directory.
4. Press Ctrl+V to “paste” the files there.

Prior to Mac OS X Lion, to perform the same on the Mac, I’ve had to open and arrange two Finder windows, one is the source folder where I want to copy the files from, and the other is the destination folder where I want to move the files to. Having selected the files, I’d then drag them from one folder across to the other.

With the just-released Mac Lion 10.7, you can now use keyboard shortcuts to “move the files” from one folder location to the other.

No, we don’t use the term “cut and paste files” over here in the Mac world.

Here’s how you move files on the Mac:

1. Select the file or files you want to move. I’ve selected two files in the example below.

   

2. Press command+c to copy the files.
3. Navigate to the destination folder.
4. Press option+command+v to move the files there. The screen capture below shows the two files already moved to the destination folder.

   

Windows habits die hard, and I personally find the system-wide “cut and paste” concept more consistent and easier to work with. On the Mac, you have command+x –> command+v for cutting and pasting document data, while having to remember to use a different set of key combinations – command+c –> option+command+v – to copy and move files.

I’m confident though, that it’s just a matter of time before muscle memory sets in and I should be able to deftly move files with my keyboard without having to think too hard about the whole process.

Gregg Keizer, for Infoworld.com:

All new installations of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion are equipped with Boot Camp 4, which runs only Windows 7. The older Vista and even-creakier Windows XP do not work in Boot Camp 4.

According to Apple, Boot Camp 4 requires “an authentic, single, full-installation, 32-bit or 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate disc.”

But Mac users who are upgrading to Lion or migrating an older pre-Lion machine to new hardware powered by Lion can retain the older Boot Camp 3 and thus the ability to run Vista or Windows XP, Apple said. Those customers cannot upgrade to Boot Camp 4. “If your Mac has a Boot Camp partition with Windows XP or Windows Vista, you can continue to use your Boot Camp partition, but you can’t upgrade to Boot Camp 4.0,” Apple said in the online document.

Launch Activity Monitor, show All Processes, filter on “saf”, and you’ll notice that Safari 5.1 now has a new running process named Safari Web Content.

[Click for a larger image]

The reason for this is described well in this article titled “Major overhaul makes OS X Lion king of security“:

With virtually all browser exploits targeting the way the program parses web content, Apple engineers have tightly locked down the new process, called Safari Web Content. The design is intended to limit the damage that can be done in the event an attacker is able to exploit a buffer overflow or other bug in the browser.

“Now, you end up inside this restricted process that only does the web parsing, and you can’t do other things you might want to do as an attacker, such as write files or read a person’s documents,” Miller explained. “Even when you get code execution, you no longer have free rein to do whatever you want. You can do only what the sandbox allows you to do.”

Since AAPL doesn’t pay dividends, here’s a better idea for generating an additional stream of income off the Apple stocks you already own – Covered Calls.

This idea came to me from a comment by “Peter” to the article “Why Apple shares are dirt cheap“. Peter writes:

Seriously? The dividend argument? This is 2011, not 1971.

Write covered calls against the common stock. Even with extremely conservative strikes that will never be exercised, you can easily earn 2-5x the dividend return of other shares.

You cannot generate the same returns on those other dividend shares precisely because their boring growth rates do not generate enough IV to make CCs worth the effort.

70% institutional ownership. Who do you think is writing options every week and month, and then pinning it nearly every week and month at max pain? Dividends are peanuts compared to this income stream.

By Andy M. Zaky writes a fantastic analysis of the growth potential of Apple (AAPL) stock price at Fortune Tech CNN:

The fundamental difference between other large cap tech stocks and Apple is Apple’s unique cash generating abilities, its cash position, and its extraordinary 70% growth. Apple trades at a lower cash multiple than any other large cap tech stock and has more net cash on the balance sheet than any other company in the S&P 500. At a $305 billion market capitalization, Apple trades at only five times its cash. Remove that cash from its market capitalization, and Apple trades at only a $245 billion enterprise value, or $268 a share — that’s only 14 times earnings.

But even more impressive is Apple’s ability to generate cash. In the last four fiscal quarters alone, Apple’s total cash rose 50% from $39.8 billion to $60 billion — a jump from $43.26 in cash per share to $64 in cash per share. Based on very realistic projections, Apple will probably end the year with $81 billion in cash, or $86 in cash per share. For the 2012 fiscal year, it will likely post at least $120 billion in cash or $125 in cash per share.

In fact, it is very likely that Apple will have more cash than its current market capitalization in less than five years. Once Wall Street begins to catch on to this reality, Apple shares should see a major upside correction. And this is precisely why Apple shouldn’t trade below a 20 P/E ratio over the next several years.

christopher126 wrote the following about the Apple TV2:

Guys…if you have a Mac, a large flat screen HDTV and a lot of photos…believe me the streaming/slide show with some internet jazz playing in the background is worth the price of admission.

I don’t even edit photos anymore…I just delete the bad ones and put all the rest of them over to AppleTV. When I invite friends or family over for dinner they just love to see photos of themselves.

It’s so elegant. Typical Apple!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t invite them over to watch a boring old slide show like years gone by. I just have it on sort of in the background and it’s like a fireplace or aquarium.

I put it on in the evenings and my GF loves it. We view our photos more this way than if they were on the computer or certainly in an album or shoebox!

I mean it guys, your GF’s, wives (or both) will think you are a genius.

I have not shown it to anyone that has not been extremely impressed by it!

I know TV speakers aren’t the best…but they are ok for ambient music…with AppleTV, I got rid of all my stereo equipment and speakers. No wires, power bricks. This and in the car or running is the only way I listen to music anymore.