Snow Leopard’s Spotlight is my new LaunchBar. It is not that LaunchBar failed me in anyway, if anything it launches my apps and files better than Spotlight ever will. I am just looking for a change and Spotlight looks good enough for me.

After using LaunchBar for the last decade I decided to give Spotlight a chance. After all it has been part of my desktop since Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and I thought it deserved a little attention. Sure, I have used Spotlight’s search functionality in the past, but never before did I actually embrace the little magnifying glass in the top right hand corner of my display. My command + space key sequence had always been previously set to LaunchBar, and I remember being rather annoyed in the past if anything but LaunchBar opened when that key combination was pressed.

The turning point for me giving up on LaunchBar was its inability to index my server side contacts under Snow Leopard. This is not a failure on the part of the LaunchBar people, Objective Development, but rather an omission by Apple in their Address Book API. Either way if my contacts are on Exchange, and I am using Snow Leopard’s Address Book, LaunchBar can’t index them. And because LaunchBar can’t index them, it can’t display vital contact information quickly in large type across my display. Now this might not sound like big deal, but bringing up people’s phone numbers, and contact information quickly is a big reason why I prefer LaunchBar over other launchers. The surprising part about all this is that Spotlight does not have this functionality either. The reason I am moving to Spotlight is because it is built into the system so well it doesn’t require a separate index at all, and that beats using hacks like running Microsoft Entourage as a way to keep your contacts indexed by LaunchBar. Call me a hack, but I am adopting Spotlight because of it is already there, not because of what it can do over my previous solution.

A key to using Spotlight properly is organizing it’s preferences. Because I go to Spotlight to launch Applications I have put Applications category at the top of my search results. Next for me is System Preferences, because I often consider them the same as applications. Folders are an important way of organizing files, and they are third on the list because I more often identify a project by its folder, over the project file itself. Forth is Music because with Spotlight search I can easily jump to the next track I am interested in listening to. Documents, PDFs, and Presentations are all lumped together in number five because I consider all these filetypes documents, but rarely search for them individually. The rest of my Spotlight search categories are left unchecked. In the case of Pictures, and Movies these file types are rarely named efficiently on my computer, and I have other ways of locating them. I leave Mail Messages, Contacts, Events & To Do Items, Webpages, and Fonts unchecked because I never search for these items individually, and instead open their respective home applications when working with these files.

I have been using LaunchBar since before it was a Mac OS X application. Since it ran on the NeXTstation I acquired in my youth but didn’t know very much about. LaunchBar has always been my secret weapon for accessing files and applications fast. Performing its trademark command + space quick search gets me to the applications and files I need, without accessing a filesystem full of things I don’t.

Prior to using LaunchBar I would build myself elaborate systems of convenience, that when looking back weren’t that convenient at all. Before Mac OS X this consisted of constructing multi tabbed Launcher palettes with my most commonly used Applications sorted into predetermined color coded categories. During the early days of Mac OS X, I relied on the Dock and DragThing’s ability to awkwardly replicate the time consuming organization of my Classic Launcher. It was not until I rediscovered LaunchBar that I once more had my favorite files and applications at my fingertips.

Over the years LaunchBar has had many competitors, that have offered many new and exciting features superseding the functionality of my stalwart veteran. The fact that I am a simple user who only wants to launch commonly used applications and files quickly has kept me with LaunchBar all these years. In my eyes the competitors either offer too much in the way of functionality, or their approach is too slow. I don’t need fancy boolean expressions, or the ability to output one application’s results into another. I don’t need dazzling visual representations of my search results, or unconventional graphical user interfaces. All I care about is consistency; if I start typing my favorite applications name, I expect it to launch when I press return. LaunchBar has always delivered the expected results to me, and is wasn’t until the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard that I ever looked towards something else.

Intended to be more of an expanding list, this series of notes is purely a rant on the various computer interfaces I find intriguing, but too irritating to adopt.

Computer pen tablets have always fascinated me. Before I was into computers I was into pen and ink illustration, and the combination of a stylus with the limitless possibilities of a computer canvas has persuaded me to purchase more than one Wacom tablet over the years. Unfortunately for me the feel of drawing on a plastic slab has never replaced the real texture of pen on paper for my creative endeavors. There is just something about the sensation of plastic gliding across smooth plastic that alters my strokes and changes the medium enough to inhibit my full time adoption.

Ironically another reason I am turned away from the tablet for illustration is the limitless resolution it offers. When working with paper, my canvas is restricted to specific dimensions and a strict real world resolution. With the computer my canvas can be endless not only in scale, but in depth, and hue as well. Part of the creative process for me is the restriction offered by real world mediums, and although the tablet offers infinite possibilities with zero mess it is those possibilities that keep me from adopting it creatively.

I don’t find the abstraction of drawing on one surface while looking at another to be too much of a problem, but for many artists this abstraction is what keeps them from adopting a pen tablet. Preferring to draw on paper and scan in their work over paying for the high cost of an expensive Cintiq display, that allows for direct input, many artists make good with what they have. Pen tablets come at an additional cost, and I can see why some artists prefer to take advantage of the less expensive, less obtrusive technologies they already own.

Finally picking up a stylus and placing it down continuously is far more tedious that grasping a mouse or manipulating a trackpad. Using a pen tablet just feels so modal to me. I am either manipulating a pointers coordinates, or entering text. The two tasks never seem to intermingle with each other as seamlessly as they do when an alternative interface device is involved. Using a modern computer is about performing both these tasks together. I can’t be waiting around while my hand finds my stylus.

I am sure many of my inhibitions could be cured with a little practice, tolerance, and patience, but why should I let the digital world impede on the rewarding experience of well established analog controls like pen on paper.

Every couple of months it is nice to start over. Backup everything on my computer, format the hard drive, and restore the OS, data, and application I use most. I call this procedure a nuke and pave and the first step starts with an additional backup of my home folder.

By backing up my home folder a second time I confirm I have a double copy of everything that is important to me. I say double copy, because I am always backing up my data in the background, and the second copy I make prior to a Nuke and Pave is purely a safety snapshot taken seconds before my data will be erased. I create this snapshot using Apple’s Time Machine, and an external hard drive. I exclude all of the files outside of my home folder, because I know that everything important to me lives at home. I trust Time Machine, because it has worked for me in the past, and because it keeps its backups as straight files, and not proprietary compressed collections. Time Machine also excludes unnecessary caches and logs, making the backup process go faster.

Once my second backup is complete. I visit the few applications and services I have installed that require deactivation of their DRM software. For me this means deauthorizing my iTunes, and Audible accounts in iTunes, and deactivating my Adobe software from any of the CS4 applications. If a preference exists to delete my license file from the computer I always select it for good measure. It might be true that for some applications or services you do not need to be deactivated if I am reinstalling the same application on the same computer, but with a different operating system. I never like to take chances with DRM, it is always better to just deactivate, than plead with tech support later.

With my backup complete, and my software deactivated it is now time to boot from my OS restore media, and format the drive. For most people this means booting from the disc that came with their computer, or the most recent version of their preferred OS. For me it means booting from the external hard drive I have prepared with a copy of my preferred OS, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. I boot from an external hard drive connected via Firewire 800 purely for the speed benefit over booting from a CD. If you do as many system restores as I do you will want to take the time to make a system restore hard drive yourself.

A quick trip to Disk Utility is all you need to format your hard drive, although I usually choose to repartition my hard drive from Disk Utilities partition tab just to be on the safe side. I then continue with the installation, but before committing I always remember to uncheck any of the fonts, languages, and printer drivers I don’t plan on using. With my disk reformatted and my customizations in place I am now ready to begin the installation.

Once the installation is complete and my computer has restarted it is now time to restore my data. The easiest way is to let the Migration Assistant go to work on my last minute Time Machine backup and restore everything into my new home folder. Even though my home folder is the only folder I choose to backup it is a good idea to deselect Applications, Settings, and Other files outside my home folder for the cleanest possible restore. If I hadn’t gone through my Home folder’s Library recently I may deselect it as well, and go back later to manually copy over my valuable preferences and settings.

With my data restored via the migration assistant I am ready to perform software updates, and reinstall the applications that live outside of my home folder, Adobe Lightroom, and Design Standard CS4.

After that all that is left to do is reconfigure some basic system preferences and enjoy my newly restored computer.

Last night, for no reason at all, I double backed up all of my data, wiped the hard drive on my MacBook Pro and reinstalled my applications from scratch. The whole process including copying 100GBs of data to and from backup took just over two hours. My strategy for a quick and easy rebuilt starts with how I use my computer. By installing less stuff, I archive fewer files, maintain a smaller data footprint, and am able to recover faster from hardware failure, or the occasional urge to nuke and pave.

It all starts at home
Starting with Mac OS X, a true multiuser operating system, Apple introduced the concept of the individual user’s home folder. Long heralded by UNIX fanatics as the place to put your stuff, my home folder has been my one stop directory for personal files ever since. Gone are the days of housing things in different folders under the root level of my hard drive. By keeping everything at home I instantly know where to go to retrieve everything that’s important.

Organize the Apple way
Inside of your home folder are several default directories supplied by Apple. (Desktop, Documents, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and Sites) You can either choose to use or ignore these pre established directories, but I am telling you to use them if only because it will keep you organized Apple’s way. If you keep things where Apple expects them to be, like your iTunes folder in Music, or iPhoto Library in Pictures, you will have a easier time migrating your data to a new computer running Mac OS X.

Two Applications Folders
On my computer I am the only user, but I have two applications folders. Applications that have to be installed by an installer program (traditionally installed application) are placed in the default Root Applications Folder (/Applications). Applications that can be installed via drag and drop from a disk image are placed in a Home Applications Folder (~/Applications) I created. The benefit of this deliberate separation is that when backing up my Home folder I can also archive many of the Applications I use most in the version I use them. The remaining applications installed within the Root Applications must be reinstalled later due to their various support files.

The Library
Mac OS X has several Library folders used to store preferences, and application data. The Root Library (/Library) stores data prevalent to all users, while the Home Library (~/Library) stores data specific to you the user. If you are the only user on your computer you may want to move some of files from the Root Library to your Home Library for easier backup and transportation. Third-party Fonts, Preferences Panes, Screen Savers, and Application Support files are just some examples. Be careful what you do in your Root Library as modifications made here may be harmful to traditionally installed applications, your operating system, or other users.

Consolidating personal data into your Home folder will not only keep you organized, but with the proper backup will ensure your valuables make it to the other side of a Nuke and Pave.