Thursday
Sep202012

Setting Up LogMyRun Actions In Launch Center Pro

Setting up LogMyRun actions in Launch Center Pro is easy. After you install Launch Center Pro on your iPhone or iPod Touch, tap the pencil icon in the upper right-hand corner of the app. 
Next, pick a spot for your shortcut to a LogMyRun action by tapping "+" and choosing "Action" from the popup.
The Action Composer will appear, with links to all of the apps on your device that support Launch Center Pro. Scroll down to the LogMyRun icon and choose the action you want to add from the list.
That's it. You're finished. The next time you tap the LogMyRun icon in Launch Center Pro, it will take you right to the action you set up.
Creating frequently-used LogMyRun actions in Launch Center Pro is a great way to make tracking your runs on the go even easier. Launch Center Pro is available from AppCubby on the iTunes store for $2.99 and supports hundreds of apps. Try it and check out appcubby.com if you are curious which of your other apps support Launch Center Pro. LogMyRun is available on the iTunes Store for $1.99.
Saturday
Aug042012

LogMyRun 1.2 Coming Soon...

It's been less than a month, but LogMyRun is about to get a big update with some really cool new features and interface enhancements.

Stay tuned....

Thursday
Jul192012

LogMyRun Released

Squibner Mobile is pleased to announce the release of LogMyRun 1.1 which adds the following features:

  • Run Data Export. Export your running log to a CSV fle via email, which can then be opened in any spreadsheet application like Numbers or Excel.
  • Facebook Support. in addition to email and Twitter support, you can now share your runs with your friends on Facebook.
  • URL Scheme Support. Add a run, view your log or a graph of your run data via the following LogMyRun-specific URLs:
    • logmyrun://add
    • logmyrun://log
    • logmyrun://graph
 The URL scheme for LogMyRun works great for quickly launching each of these actions via an app like Launch Center Pro.
Thursday
Jul192012

Happy Terpstra Day

In honor of Terpstra Day, I thought I would share a little workflow I set up yesterday.


I work with a lot of PDFs, many of which are not text-searchable. I love PDFPen's OCR feature, but I do not like interrupting my work while I wait for PDFPen to finish OCR on a long document. I also would like to trigger PDF OCR on the go from my iPhone.


To accomplish this, I set up a Hazel rule for a Dropbox folder that I set up called "OCRd PDFs". The Hazel rule is applied to any file in that folder where the "Kind" is PDF and the "Date Added" is after the "Date Last Matched". This last bit is important to avoid running OCR on the entire folder of PDFs each time the rule runs. For files matching those criteria, I run the following embedded AppleScript that I found here:
tell application "PDFpen"

	open theFile as alias
	tell document 1
		ocr
		repeat while performing ocr
			delay 1
		end repeat
		delay 1
		close with saving
	end tell
end tell

Now, each time I drop a PDF in the "OCRd PDF" folder, it automatically gets OCR'd in the background for easy text searching later.


When I'm on the road, I route PDFs through my email and use the Mail.app's "Open In" feature to open the files in Dropbox where I then upload them to the "OCRd PDFs" folder. As long as the Hazel rule is running on my Mac back home, the OCR'd PDF is waiting for me when I get back to my desk.

Saturday
Jul072012

Coming Soon....LogMyRun 1.1

We've gotten some great user feedback and have some great new features coming soon to LogMyRun, including:

 

  • Exporting - export your data via email in CSV format, which is compatible with spreadsheet apps;
  • Facebook sharing - in addition to Twitter, email and SMS, LogMyRun 1.1 will support sharing your runs on Facebook;
  • Launch Center Pro Support - quickly add a run, view your log or graph your runs via Launch Center Pro.
  • Interface Enhancements;
  • And More.

 

Tuesday
May222012

..."learning to code” and “becoming a programmer” are not the same thing, and that doing the former in a time when software encapsulates nearly everything we do is personally empowering.

- Joshua Kopstein, The Verge

Friday
May182012

Learning to Code != Becoming a Coder and That's OK 

Jeff Atwood of StackOverflow sparked an interesting debate this week with his piece Please Don't Learn to Code. I will grant Jeff that the "everyone should learn to code" meme jumped the shark around the time that the mayor of New York signed up for Codeacademy, but, while I share Jeff's sceptisism that mastering programming is a necessary life skill, framing the issue as a binary choice between becoming a coder or not strikes me as a artificially narrow.

I also agree with Jeff's sentiment that:

The general populace (and its political leadership) could probably benefit most of all from a basic understanding of how computers, and the Internet, work.

But it is not the kids that need remedial computer training, it is their elders. I have three boys who are 8, 12, and 14 and in my experience, the kids are the ones with the basic computer skills who end up teaching their teachers, whether it is how to format a document or change a laptop's screen resolution so a Keynote presentation looks right. Too many teachers and school administrators still view computers as time-wasting cousins of game consoles and the Internet as something that needs to be monitored, filtered and generally kept out of the hands of kids. Together these create an environment incapable of helping kids who do not have basic comptuer skills and bereft of opportunities for kids who want to learn more.

Far too often schools still use computers as they did in the 90s when CD-ROM edutainment titles reigned. There may no longer be a plastic disk involved, but the concept is the same -- passive receipt of pre-packaged information. This is the exact same story that has played out since the filmstrip from my youth.

The difference that coding provides to kids is an opportunity to actually make something. If you have ever written a program of any size or sophistication, you know the excitement of bending the computer to your will and seeing it do as you command. That is a powerful thing in the hands of a kid.

Gabe over at MacDrifter.com put it well in his own post:

As a scientist and a hacky computer programmer, I see a direct parallel between [science and programming]. They both teach the following skills:

  • Abstract problem solving through visualization
  • Cause and effect
  • Hypothesis generation
  • Hypothesis testing
  • Record keeping

These are all important skills in a liberal arts education, regardless of whether the pupils become scientists or programmers. Instead of sitting kids in front of high-tech versions of filmstrips, expose them to code. Done right, they will learn problem-solving and other skills regardless of whether they decide to become experts.

There is also a need for better outlets at school for kids who do want to take coding to the next level. These kids are the next generation of professional programmers and should be encouraged. The lack of programming classes in schools is disheartening. In my area, all that is offered is Java, and not until at least sophomore year of high school, long after most kids show an interest in learning to program. For self-starters, there are outlets like Codeacademy.com, Coursera.org, Udacity.com, iTunes U and hundreds of tutorial sites, but schools should offer more to students at an earlier age.

I am sure it was not his intent, but I worry that Jeff Atwood's article will discourage someone who wants to learn to code. Learning to code is not the same as becoming a coder. There is room to use coding as a teaching tool and for the dabblers as well as the professionals. The opportunities for anyone interested in coding have never been greater -- they should be encouraged to give it a try, not told to move along.

Thursday
May102012

LogMyRun Sharing

Another feature that sets LogMyRun apart from traditional paper-based running logs is its sharing features. LogMyRun users can share their runs with friends, family, teammates, coaches and others using Twitter and email. 

Wednesday
May092012

Stats at a Glance

LogMyRun is an easy way to enter data about your runs and track your progress; just like you would in a traditional paper-based running log. But with LogMyRun, you can take it a step further. LogMyRun keeps tabs on your runs automatically calculating all sorts of stats: weekly, monthly and annual mileage, fastest and slowest pace, and longest, shortest and average run distance. Each of these stats is available at the bottom of the main screen and can be accessed by swiping left and right to switch between stats views. 

LogMyRun is available worldwide on the iTunes Store.

Wednesday
May022012

Graph Your Runs with LogMyRun 

LogMyRun takes the traditional paper running log to a whole new level by taking your run data and displaying it graphically. Simply tap the "Graph My Runs" button from the main screen or tilt your iPhone into landscape mode when you are viewing your log. Your runs will be displayed as a graph, like this: