J.: February 2008 Archives

Despite the lack of activity here, quite a bit has been going on with respect to my technology goals.  Several detailed posts—on applications, web apps, and syncing, among other topics—are forthcoming.  But now, a fun diversion.

Knowing there are many ways I could streamline my productivity at the computer, I recently purchased books on AppleScript and Automator.  Back in the day, I learned AppleScript in conjunction with the HyperCard development I was doing.  The many demands life seems to throw put the kibosh on programming—I haven't developed much of anything since Apple killed off HyperCard half a decade ago—and any AppleScript proficiency I had acquired quietly slipped out my ear.

As I was browsing at the public library this week, I grabbed Andy Ihnatko's "The Mac OS X Tiger Book" and placed it into my stack for checkout.  I wasn't certain why I'd picked the book up, other than the fact that I've enjoyed Andy's commentary for many years and wondered why I've never read a book he authored.  After some casual browsing, I stumbled across chapter 17 and realized why the fates had compelled me to grab the book.  Andy's exuberant cheering of these built-in tech marvels set me to work.

I had struggled with Automator when I first purchased Tiger last year, and quickly gave up.  Without the benefit of documentation, the software seemed limited.  I am glad Ihnatko's ringing endorsement convinced me to take another look.  This morning, I developed several useful workflows, one of which I find amazingly cool and will describe here.

Instant Podcast
Most of my favorite news sites and blog authors don't create podcasts.  This means I have to spend time reading these web pages (when I should probably being doing other work).  Enter the Instant Podcast workflow (click the thumbnail for a full-size image).

This little marvel hits your favorite web site (Step 1) and grabs the text from the page (Step 2).  It then converts the text to audio using Mac OS Text-to-Speech (Step 3 - I've selected Victoria, but choose your preferred voice).  Steps 4 and 5 append the date and time to the file name, just so we're clear as to when this recording was made.  The workflow finishes up by using iTunes to convert the raw audio file to MP3 (Step 6 - Using MP3 compression will save considerable drive space over the original recording's AIFF format) and adds it to a playlist I've created just for these files.  The workflow even cleans up after itself, deleting the original audio file it created.

I plan to use several copies of this workflow, each creating an audio version of a different site.  And because Automator workflows can call and execute their brethren, I can create a master workflow that will run each of these in sequence, then can either add the new files to my docked iPod (via Automator's Add Songs to iPod action) or just update the iPod outright.  This master can be saved as an iCal plug-in and set to execute each day at some ungodly hour (say 4:00 AM).  Fresh content for my drive to and from work every single day... and increased productivity once I'm there.  My boss and I could both be happier.

The workflow should be easy to recreate, but I've still decided to link to a downloadable version, if you're especially lazy.  You'll still need to make some modifications of course: inserting your URL of choice, selecting a base file name, deciding on date and time formats, and choosing a playlist for the new audio files.