You Can Be a Cartoonist with Bitstrip

Murphy always thought he could be a cartoonist if he could only draw. Another dream shot down. The cartoon you see here was made with bitstrips. It’s still in beta, but you can request an invite on their site.

I think I’m going to develop these characters.

Google 411

Maybe Murphy was the last to know about Goog411, but here’s a quick post anyway, in case any readers don’t know about it yet. All you do is dial 800 Goog 411 or 800 466 4411 from your phone.

The automated system prompts you for city and state and then a business or category. So you could say something specific like Moe’s Tavern or something generic like plumber. Goog 411 will tell you the address of the business it thinks you’re searching for, or read you a list of businesses if there are multiple matches. When you confirm your selection the call is transferred to the phone number. As an alternative you can say “text message” and the details will be texted to your phone, assuming you’re calling from your mobile.

Goog 411 works well. The interface is quick and Google seems to have a good handle on voice activated systems. There isn’t a lot of extra conversation. Murphy finds retrieving voice mail irksome because the prompts say things like, “You have reached the blah blah messaging system, there are x messages in your mailbox.” It should say, “x new messages, y saved messages.” Extra conversation isn’t useful when you’re trying to get through twenty messages.

The Google system also facilitates going back a step and starting over easily without disconnecting the call and calling back. In other words, it’s a nice interface. Best of all, you don’t have to pay one or two dollars to your cell provider for directory assistance. Just add Goog 411 to your phone’s contacts.

If you like these kind of services you should check out Microsoft’s Tell Me too. It has additional features like stock quotes and sports results. Murphy had more trouble navigating the Microsoft service, but maybe he was mumbling. You can try Tell Me at 800 555 Tell.

Murphy didn’t see anything about these services outside the USA. Anyone?

Great Stuff

An industrious Murphy Mac visitor has taken two posts and run with them. Things that would have taken Murphy weeks to unravel have been hammered out in mere minutes.

First, Chris at millshalligan posted a widget for converting a single file into an encrypted file. (After seeing Murphy’s post here!) So if you’re a Widget kind of person and not really interested in the Terminal take a look.

After that, Chris posted a solution for having your WordPress site contact your Mac via Growl when a comment is posted to your blog. Murphy had wondered about the plausibility of such a feature in his own Growl post. Maybe Murph should wonder about some other stuff and see if Chris keeps cranking out answers.

It looks like Bluehost doesn’t allow the outbound Growl notification - unless you pay an additional $30 annually for a dedicated IP address. Check with your own host before trying this out.

Thanks to Chris at millshalligan for some great stuff.

Vegas

Murphy’s in Vegas this week - no screencasts. There’s plenty of other stuff to keep you occupied though. If you’re a switcher and you haven’t taken the time to get familiar with the Terminal maybe this is the week to do it. Start with the older posts in the Terminal category and work your way through.

Or visit some other sites. Murphy saw some great stuff with the Command key over on Silver Mac. And the guys at MacApper are always writing up tons of useful software. The Mac Lawyer proves there’s a Mac site for everyone with plenty of practical information.

More time to kill? And money? You could sign up for a Bluehost account. Better yet - buy yourself something on Amazon. You get a new toy - Murphy gets a cut! Either way you’ll be buying Murphy a little more time at the tables so he can get his room comped!

Murphy’s Product Picks

Some readers have suggested a PayPal button on Murphy Mac. Murphy’s not going that way for various reasons. But here’s another idea: Let the big players like Amazon support Murphy. If you’re making a purchase, just enter the Amazon site through Murphy Mac or Murphy’s new store.

Murphy’s listed some products he uses that you might like. If you’ve got specific questions about any of them send an email to murphy at murphymac dot com. We’ll try to send you a prompt reply.

Before you head to the store we’ll tell you a little bit about why we like some of the listed gadgets:

• Macbook Pro - Rock solid laptop. Picked over the Macbook for the video card and the display size. It runs a little hot, but there are fan utilities that make a difference.
• Mac Pro - Murphy doesn’t have one. But he’s got a G5 that’s easily the best desktop he ever owned.
• Breville Ikon Electric Kettle - Cool blue light, nice power switch and plug, slow eject lid, like your tape deck from 1986.
• iPod Shuffle - The perfect car iPod. No display to look at, no collision. Great for podcasts. Perfect for the gym.
• Nikon 50mm Lens - Great for portrait work. Murphy hates to use a flash. This lens is a bargain and takes maximum advantage of available light. The D70 is a fantastic camera, with stellar battery life. Hundreds and hundreds of exposures without a charge. Check out Nikon’s newer cameras in their digital SLR lineup.
• Netgear Routers and Hubs - Murphy has never used the Linksys products. No reason. The Netgear stuff works well with Macs and is easy to set up. Netgear has plastic hubs, and metal ones like you’ll see in the store. Murphy likes the form factor and solid feel of the metal cases.

This iPod Nano Case is free - after a rebate.

There’s a CSS book in the store, it’s one of the better tech books Murphy’s ever read. There’s also a John Sandford book about a Minneapolis cop. The whole series is really good.

We’ll probably be adding to the store before too long, especially if someone buys something.

Nothing in the store that interests you? Not a problem, anything you buy at Amazon supports Murphy when you enter Amazon through this link. Not buying anything? We still want you to visit Murphy Mac. Click here for the RSS feed.