John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged productivity · everything

A selection of Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts | 456 Berea Street

Mac OS X contains extensive keyboard shortcuts that allow users to accomplish nearly any task without touching the mouse, contrary to the common misconception that the operating system requires frequent mouse use. The author provides comprehensive tables of essential shortcuts organized by category—global commands, Finder operations, text navigation and selection, and application functions—noting that many remain obscure because they don't appear in menus. Users can further customize these shortcuts and enable Full Keyboard Access through System Preferences to maximize keyboard-only navigation.

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So, You're Going To Make Money as a Web Designer | Webdesigntuts+

Shane Pearlman walks through the practical and legal foundations for establishing yourself as a legitimate web design business, covering everything from choosing a business structure (sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation) and obtaining necessary licenses to setting up separate bank accounts and tracking finances. He emphasizes that treating design work as a formal business—rather than informal freelancing—protects you legally, maximizes tax deductions, and ensures compliance with government requirements, though specifics vary significantly by location. The guide includes contributions from designers in different countries (Netherlands, Canada, Serbia, Australia) showing how business setup requirements differ globally, from registration systems to tax obligations.

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Mozy Drops Unlimited Backups, Introduces New Pricing

Mozy eliminated its unlimited backup plan in favor of tiered pricing (50GB for $6/month or 125GB for $9.99/month, with additional storage at $2 per 20GB), dramatically raising costs for existing users—the author's own backup needs of 226GB would jump from $5/month to $20/month. The piece questions whether this industry shift toward metered plans makes sense given that storage costs actually decrease annually, and suggests readers explore alternatives like Carbonite that still offer unlimited plans.

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Little Big Details

I can't summarize this content because it doesn't appear to be a saved article. It's a list of UI/UX design details and microinteractions from various platforms (Twitter, Google, Outlook, Slack, etc.), presented as disconnected bullet points rather than a cohesive piece with an argument or narrative. To write a meaningful summary, I'd need an actual article—something that makes a sustained argument, reports on findings, or tells a story that has a discernible beginning, middle, and end.

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Pinboard - antisocial bookmarking

Pinboard is a paid, ad-free bookmarking service designed for privacy-conscious users who want a simple, fast way to save and organize links without tracking or surveillance. The platform integrates with browsers and services like Twitter and Instapaper, and offers optional archiving that creates full-text searchable backups of saved content and monitors for broken links.

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Tower - The most powerful Git client for Mac

Tower is a Git client GUI that simplifies complex Git operations through a visual interface, offering features like pull requests, interactive rebasing, conflict resolution, and file history tracking without requiring command-line expertise. The tool is marketed to developers and designers who want faster workflows and clearer visualization of version control operations.

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33 Great Mac Applications for Web Designers | Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch

This article catalogs 33 Mac applications across various categories—productivity, design, development, file management, and utilities—offering brief descriptions of each app's core functionality to help designers and developers find tools suited to their workflows. The list spans task managers like Things and The Hit List, design applications like Sketch and Acorn, web development tools like Espresso and CSSEdit, and utility apps for everything from clipboard management to file organization. The piece aims to help Mac users identify productivity-enhancing software that can accelerate their work and improve their professional output.

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3 'once-and-for-all' business growth decisions you can nail down this weekend | MyVenturePad

I'm unable to write a summary for this item. This appears to be the "About" and privacy policy pages for MyVenturePad itself rather than a specific article saved from the site. To summarize a saved piece, I'd need the actual content of an article or report—such as a specific story about a business, entrepreneur, marketing strategy, or technology development that the site published. If you'd like me to summarize an article, please share the text or title of the actual piece you saved.

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Calling BS on perfectionism | Boagworld

This post is a web designer's rant against the cult of design perfectionism, arguing that obsessing over detail wastes time and money, that "perfection" is too subjective to justify the arrogance it often carries, and that pragmatism suited to context, budget, and audience is the better standard. The author supports the case with a personal example: a deliberately simple, unpolished youth group site built in iWeb, which he defends as the right solution for a project with no budget and a small audience. It is worth keeping as a concise, opinionated counterpoint to the perfectionist ethos, prompted by Karl Mendes's earlier post and reinforced by a quotation from 37signals' *Rework*.

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How to Make the Most of a Small Workspace

Small workspace design requires bold choices rather than timid minimalism—pick one strong color or feature rather than playing it safe with bland whites and neutrals. Beyond aesthetics, success depends on ruthless daily purging and smart organization based on how frequently you use items, combined with strategic use of vertical wall space and good lighting to make the area feel larger and more functional. The key is treating your entire desk as a "deal with it now" zone where clutter instantly becomes visible, forcing you to maintain systems that prevent the small space from becoming overwhelmed.

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5 Useful Tools to Track Twitter Unfollowers

This article surveys five web tools for tracking Twitter unfollowers and analyzing follower dynamics, including Friend or Follow (which identifies non-reciprocal followers), TwUnfollow (which sends email alerts when users unfollow you), TwitterCounter (which graphs follower trends and growth predictions), Goodbye, Buddy! (which sends humorous direct messages about unfollowers), and TweetEffect (which correlates specific tweets with follower gains and losses). The piece suggests these services can help users understand when and why people stop following them, though it emphasizes that Twitter metrics shouldn't be mistaken for real-world success or popularity.

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Untitled (http://html5boilerplate.com)

HTML5 Boilerplate is a professional front-end template that streamlines web project setup by providing a starter HTML file with recommended meta tags, a base CSS file with styles and media queries, server configuration files for performance and security optimization, and documentation on icons and additional best practices. It's designed to eliminate repetitive setup work and help developers launch projects confidently with modern web standards already in place. The template is used by professionals across the industry who want to avoid reinventing foundational project structure.

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