Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with quicksilver

Tethering: AT&T goPhone SIM into USBConnect Quicksilver??

shipbreaker — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:02:09 -0800

Can I put an AT&T goPhone (Pay-as-you-go) SIM into an AT&T USBConnect Quicksilver wireless-modem? Or, will only contract AT&T SIMs work? I know this is probably a question for AT&T Customer Service or Technical Support.

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And what's up with iPhone tethering!??

Quicksilver loses track of moved files. Why no?

middleclasstool — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:48:12 -0800

How can I get Quicksilver to keep track of files that have moved? I'm running QS B54 on OS X Leopard, and love the heck out of it, but I have only one problem with it (beyond some minor buggy lack of functionality since a1c0r stopped supporting it, anyway). The problem is that I'm also running Hazel, and I have a rule set up that scans for anything in my Documents folder that's been untouched for more than n weeks and moves it to a subfolder labeled "Archive." Keeps only new and relevant stuff in Documents, so it's easier to browse.

However, I've noticed that after Hazel moves a file, QS can't see it anymore. If I go browsing for a file in my archive folder and manually open it, then QS again has it indexed, but I'd rather (if this is possible) somehow configure QS so it keeps track of the file or folder even after it's been archived. Is there a way to do this?

Wacom Display Toggle Advanced Options?

Señor Pantalones — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:28:22 -0800

[wacomfilter] quicksilver (or system hotkey) + wacom screen switching integration? I use the ExpressKey on my wacom to toggle display focus (preferences->expresskeys->display toggle). My primary is a 30", secondary is the built-in screen on my MBP.

There are two reasons this is annoying:
1. The expresskey only functions when pen movement is detected, meaning I have to move the pen while pressing the button to switch screens. This makes single-handed screen-switching difficult.
2. It's just not in a convenient place for me since the wacom is my primary mousing input located to the right of my keyboard. The expresskeys are on the left or right and require more cognitive load than usual mousing behavior.

I'm looking for help in a few possible ways:
1. assigning display toggle to the secondary button on the stylus. The prefpane won't let me.
2. assigning display toggle to a quicksilver command
3. assigning display toggle to a system hotkey

Can anyone recommend a way to implement one of the above three?

Thanks!

where does quicksilver look for ical calendars?

viscountslim — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:24:01 -0800

Where does Quicksilver find calendars when adding items to iCal? When I go to the third pane to specify the task's calendar, QS presents me with a list of choices that I assume I created at some point in the past but which in no way correspond to my current list of iCal calendars. I want to delete these ghost calendars and make sure that QS accesses my current list. Any help would be much appreciated.

nu-Quicksilver

low affect — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:06:20 -0800

Where do I find newer builds of Quicksilver? I know there are some newer, non-blacktree versions of Quicksilver getting made. I don't have the time or will to go hunting through forums for them, or to figure which one is most stable and best. What have you found? Is it more snappier than B56? I'm on Intel Leopard.

What's your favorite app launcher?

abkadefgee — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:29:51 -0800

What app launchers do you use on the PC? And is there something I'm missing about Enso? I am a constant user of Launchy and it's one of the first programs I install on a new computer I'm using. I also just started RocketDock, although I'm not totally sold on it being better than the Start Menu/Task Bar, but that may change over time. In addition, I occasionally use scripts in AutoHotKey, but that's slightly more tedious.

I also just installed Ubiquity to use within Firefox.

I always like to find better tools if they're available, as the difference between using Launchy and not using it was like night and day and if there's something better, I want to know.

Enso seems to be beloved by many, but to my eyes it looks like a more complicated Launchy and little more. Instead of "Firefox" I have to type "open Firefox." Is there something I'm missing that makes this worthwhile? I'm happy to use both if using Enso occasionally has advantages over just using Launchy.

Quicksilver-style completion in bash shell?

dmd — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:44:57 -0800

How can I get Quicksilver-style completion in the bash shell? Suppose I have a bunch of files in a directory. One of them is named 'metafilter'. I'd like to say cat mflr[TAB] and have that be expanded.

I think this is equivalent to asking for an implicit * between each typed character.

Anyone have bash-completion-fu?

Help me, I'm a late adopter.

Zarkonnen — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:26:43 -0800

How do I learn new programming languages and start using modern web apps without getting frustrated and angry? So I'm in my mid-twenties and work in IT. I've been watching the last couple of years of exploding creativity on the net - literally millions of blogs, new programming languages, new ideas like twitter, citizen journalism, etcetera.

But lately I've realised that despite being able to see the potential benefits and really actually exciting possibilities of all this new stuff, I grumpily dismiss it and stick to how I've been doing things for the past couple of years. I use email, Java and PHP, and HTML 4.0.1 Transitional. I occasionally write some stuff in my site's news section, but I doubt my completely random ramblings make anyone come back. I'd like to think that I might have some interesting things to say on some topics, but I can't find the time to write about it, and it feels odd to intersperse "here's some photos I took" with "here's a detailed analysis of this political situation". I don't use Ruby Twitter XML Python LISP Quicksilver GTD Podcasts RSS Lifehacks. I don't contribute to wikis, or talk on forums (with the pretty much sole exception of MeFi).

At the same time I'm getting very frustrated with the limits of the tools I do know how to use - Java's verbosity and lack of support for first-class functions is a pain, and I don't like the fact that I'm always the last to hear about everything interesting that happens on the net. I have no coherent systems for making notes or keeping track of appointments or tasks, despite the plethora of Mac programs available for doing just that.

Why is this a problem? Well, I'm not even thirty yet, but I can already feel myself falling behind the times. I don't want to end up as the kind of programmer / person in general who toils away on some legacy project in a little corner, insisting "we've always done it this way" until one day I get fired for being completely superfluous. I want to want to learn new things. I want to be more organised.

So is there a question in all of this? Yes! I want you to tell me how to break out of my rut. Tell me how I can learn about, and start to use, new stuff, despite the two big obstacles I'm about to describe.

Obstacle number one: Why do I dislike new things? To a large part, to be honest, because the people who do use these things and try to promote them really grate on my nerves. Take programming languages: many advocates of new languages (Ruby, I'm looking at you) start off their pitch by pointing out how useless language X (also known as "Java") is, and how using their language allows you to become a massively more enlightened individual. Along the way, there is a strong implication that anyone who still uses language X in 2008 is a hopeless dinosaur. Way to insult your audience.

Number two: I find learning new things really unpleasant. Faced with needing to code a small website, another programmer would say "Cool, a chance to try out this new Python framework, and this AJAX front-end library - no one's ever tried using them together before, but I have a really clever plan involving metaclasses". I say "Well, I don't really want to take too much time on it, so let's code it up in imperative-style PHP 4. It's clunky, it's incredibly verbose, the code is hideous, and errors are hard to track down, but I know how it works and can liberally reuse code from previous projects." Of course, this is a caricature, but the point remains that that other programmer will end up being more productive and motivated than me, perhaps not on this project, but on the next, where I'm still using PHP 4, but the other guy would be using said Python framework (but not the AJAX library, because it turned out to be too buggy).

So why don't I go off and do like the other programmer? Because the framework and the library will have terrible, hard-to-find inconsistent documentatio, bugs that cause the default configuration to fail silently, and creators who have the attitude described in obstacle #1. And here's the crux of the matter: where the other programmer would think "Cool, a challenge! Let's try to get this working." I fly into an impotent rage, cursing the code, its creator, and myself. I will yell at the computer when yet another promising documentation link 404s on me, I will make strangling motions at the screen when it turns out that I installed some package whose name has no vowels on the wrong path, and I will mentally tally every single problem I've had getting the whole thing working. Both the other programmer and I will take about five hours to get the framework up and running, but while that's five hours of joyful problem-solving time for the other guy/gal, it's five hours of fuming at the computer for me, and I'll have a headache at the end. And somewhere along the way I will probably give up and code the thing in PHP 4 or Java, feeling guilty for being a dinosaur.

Much the same happens when the Thing in question isn't a programming language but a website or some organizer/productivity program.

So to the end of not having to look at new things anymore, I now come up with automatic put-downs for every new thing that crosses my path: Ruby's syntax is horrible, Twitter is shallow, XML is verbose, Python is white-space-sensitive, LISP is unreadable, Quicksilver is unstable and obtuse, GTD is for obsessive-compulsives, podcasts are narcissistic, RSS is inefficent and ill-defined and life hacks are impractical. Contributing to wikis is pointless, and all forums are full of 13 year olds.

Still, I want to learn and use new things, because I find them fascinating and recognise their potential. So what techniques, states of mind, resources would you suggest that I could use to approach learning new languages, starting to use new websites, new modes of communication, etcetera, without just coming away pissed off and exhausted?

(And if you've read all of this, congratulations. You get a voucher for small prize, redeemable anywhere on the moon only.)

Quicksilver for Bookmarklets

jpcody — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:55:32 -0800

Is it possible to access Firefox bookmarklets via Quicksilver? I'm looking to be able to "Shorten URL" or "Gmail This" or "Add to del.icio.us" and there's workarounds for most things, but just accessing the bookmarklet via QS would be best.

Quicksilver/Growl/Twitter Menage A Trois

jpcody — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:15:18 -0800

How can I get Quicksilver, Growl and Twitter to play nice with one another? I'm looking to tweet via Quicksilver. And have Growl tell me that it was done. And have something in there check my length. I've found a script to do this:

I'm no programmer, and I'm using the script from here [(http://jwdunn.com/2007/11/29/how-i-use-quicksilver-ii-scripts/) see "For Tweeting"], and the instructions from here (http://blog.codahale.com/2007/01/15/tweet-twitter-quicksilver/).

I didn't have an "actions" folder, so I created one. And Growl registered my script. It just isn't actually sending the tweet. I've got Twitterific, so that has my login information in my keychain, and I changed the script from:
set twitter_key to first Internet key of current keychain whose server is "twitter.com"
to
set twitter_key to first generic key of current keychain whose name is "Twitterrific"

Still nothing.

Any further advice?

Move quicksilver's bezel interface

ehamilt0n — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:05:35 -0800

Does anyone know how to change the screen position of the Bezel interface in Quicksilver. I have a dual-monitor setup and I'd rather move it to one screen or the other (which is available with Cube or Primer.) If its in the center of the screen and there are three panes displayed, the center one is difficult to see.

Acting without doing SOUNDS good, but...

synecdoche — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:44:56 -0800

What's the deal with Quicksilver? Everywhere I go on the internet, Mac users rave about Quicksilver. I've downloaded it a couple times, and I sort of get that it COULD be really useful, but I am not sure how.

I'm an academic, and my computer is primarily used for writing, research (including, but not limited to, reading and taking notes on PDF documents, and using online databases for journal articles), e-mail, browsing the Internet, listening to music, and occasionally watching videos.

So what am I missing with Quicksilver? I see so many other people who get a lot of use out of it, and I am sure I can fit it in somewhere, too, but I just can't seem to figure it out. I download it and then promptly forget that it is there, and after a while, delete it. This cycle repeats every few months. I fully admit, though, that I don't take as much time as I should with it before I lose interest.

Why does my Gmail Notifier and Quicksilver unexpectedly quit?

The Coach LD — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:24:23 -0800

I'm running OS X 10.4.10 on an Intel iMac. I've never had any troubles until about a week ago, but now every once in a while, both Gmail Notifier and Quicksilver quit for no good reason. The icons in the menu bar disappear and I have to restart both of them. This sometimes happens after I wake my computer up from Sleep mode, other times it happens while I'm working on the computer. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Help My Mac Tell Me When to Blow My Nose ...

WCityMike — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:08:03 -0800

I'm looking for a Mac OS X application that lets me quickly, without a clunky UI or 500 steps, tell the Mac to pop up an alert at specific times of day, with the ability of recurrence. I've tried some apps and ruled them out: Alarm Clock Pro has a background daemon that has a nasty memory leak that the programmers just won't fix, and its UI isn't really good (it's a crossplatform app); iCal and Entourage are very bloated for this sole purpose, and I dislike iCal's UI for entering tasks; remind combined with growlnotify was unreliable, despite a lot of effort to debug; and Quicksilver's timed events isn't really what I'm looking for, either. Just give me something that lets me tell my Mac to pop up a window every Thursday at 7:30 pm, or every day at 10:30 pm, or just tonight at 5:00 pm, or so on that says text of my choosing. Preferably freeware and a universal binary (an application that runs natively on the Intel Macs), but I won't be more picky than I've been already! :)

You can assume my level of competency on the Mac is not too bad. I've goofed with Unix and command-line stuff, and I feel moderately comfortable with higher-level techie stuff, although by no means am I an expert.

Good, free, keyboard based windows application launcher?

jaimev — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 21:35:10 -0800

Quicksilver is to Mac OS X as _____ is to Windows Actually, I use LaunchBar on my Mac, but have heard good things about another keyboard-based Mac application launcher, Quicksilver. One of which is it's free.

So what's the equivalent in the Windows XP world? Bonus points if it runs on Windows 2000 also.

MacOSX: Pasting text when edit menu is disabled?

sdis — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 12:58:05 -0800

Mac OS X: Is there any way to paste text when a program disables the edit menu? With Quicksilver, maybe? I'd like to paste addresses into my label making program (Brother's P-touch Editor v.3.2), but unfortunately, it's pretty badly programmed, and disables the edit menu when I bring up the dialogue box to insert text. Is there a way to get around this. perhaps with Quicksilver?

(Note: While I'm not very experienced with QS, I tried to take some text, copy it to QS's clipboard, bring up the clipboard when the Label software's dialogue box was open, and paste it without any luck. Dragging and dropping the clipboard entry doesnt work either. Any ideas?)

Using Quicksilver to run a shell script in the current Terminal window.

tweebiscuit — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:07:30 -0800

Quicksilver / OS X shell junkies: How can I have Quicksilver run a shell script in the current (or a particular) terminal window? Alternately, how can I pipe the output of the script to a particular terminal window? I have a script which I need to run 100+ times a day, and occasionally scan the (often quite long) output. The two QS options for running scripts are to "Run...", which puts the output in the Quicksilver pane -- unhelpful, because then I can't scan the results -- or "Run in Terminal", which opens a new window -- unhelpful, because then I eventually have to close the 30 or so terminal windows that get spawned. Any advice? I guess I could do something like pipe the output of the script to a file and then tail -f that file in a separate window, but I'd also like to know if there's a Quicksilver solution.

Switching Audio Outputs in OSX

rossination — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 01:01:26 -0800

Is there a way to quickly switch between audio outputs in OS X? I have speakers set up through a Griffin iMic, and I also have headphones that I plug into my iBook's headphone jack. Sometimes I like to be able to quickly switch from one to another. Currently I have to go to the sound preference pane choose from my options there. Obviously this isn't an enormous pain in the ass, but it would be nice if I could map it to a keystroke or something. I have Quicksilver and have fiddled with it a little, but if there is a way to make it do what I want, I can't figure it out.

Why is Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle in the SF/fantasy section?

londonmark — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:35:43 -0800

Why is Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle in the SF/fantasy section? I've just finished reading book one of the cycle, Quicksilver, and while I can't say with any certainty how historically accurate it is, the science all appears to be correct for the era, and even the alchemists are distinctly ordinary in the sense that nobody accomplishes anything supernatural. It looks more like a historical novel -- albeit a mind-bogglingly brilliant one. If it wasn't so darn good, I might even have been disappointed that nobody casts a spell or conjures an interdimansional familiar to do their bidding. Trade descriptions?

Mini Mac Me

Colloquial Collision — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:46:47 -0800

Is the new iMac Mini comparable in performance to the old G4 Quicksilver? Rather, are there any grievous issues as to why one should not consider purchasing an iMac Mini?

nagging quicksilver question

hughbot — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 05:57:20 -0800

QuickSilverFilter: After purusing this thread on cool Mac OS apps, I decided to try out Quicksilver. I think it's pretty darn spiff, but there's one thing I can't figure out. (MI) I downloaded an Adiium plug-in, and I can't seem to get it to work. I asked on the official forum, but I didn't really get any answer I could use, or understand.

How do I encorporate Adium into Quicksilver? I have the Plug-in, but I can't get it to "Load into Memory." Try to be as user-friendly as possable, becasue I'm a total QS newbie.

Should I read Cryptonomicon before Quicksilver?

elsar — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 13:40:54 -0800

NealStephensonFilter: I just bought Quicksilver in the airport, am enjoying it, but curious if I should be reading Cryptonomicon first. Any opinions?

What launcher do you use?

tetsuo — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:43:01 -0800

What launcher do you use? Quicksilver for Mac OS X seems to cause some kind of conflict so I'm axing it.

What am I missing about Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver?

heather — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 09:18:13 -0800

Quicksilver. What am I missing? (more)