Many people think “curly” quotes look better than "straight" ones.

You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to type a single or double curly quote:

1. Single quote open (‘) — option ]
2. Single quote close (’) — shift option ]
3. Double quote open (“) — option [
4. Double quote close (”) — shift option [

However, I think it makes more sense to use [ and ] for open and close versions instead of the shift key. I found myself constant typing “mismatched‘ quotes. I also wanted to use the shift key for double quotes since that’s how the normal keyboard button works.

1. Single quote open (‘) — option [
2. Single quote close (’) — option ]
3. Double quote open (“) — option shift [
4. Double quote close (”) — option shift ]

Since OS X supports custom key bindings, I looked for a way to fix this. The trick is to create a file called DefaultKeyBinding.dict in the KeyBindings folder inside your Library folder. You can use this file to override the default key bindings for most applications.

Here are my changes. Please feel free to copy the settings below and save them to your own computer. You may need to create the KeyBindings folder if it isn’t already there.

/*
 Updates Apple's default keybindings for curly quotes.
 See http://www.danandcheryl.com/1072

 Save this file here:
 /Users/<name>/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict
*/
{
    "~[" = ("insertText:", "‘");
    "~]" = ("insertText:", "’");
    "~{" = ("insertText:", "“");
    "~}" = ("insertText:", "”");
}

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“Want to sell your car?” he asked. I admit to being a little taken aback. My car isn’t for sale. He was in a van obviously owned by his employer with another guy driving. He’d seen my car and had the guts to ask a complete stranger waiting at an intersection if he wanted to sell the car he was driving.

“Sure,” I smiled. I don’t really want to sell my car. Not for market value anyway. It’s too much hassle to replace. But if he’s really interested, maybe I could get a good deal. I suppose he already knew how awesome an old Honda Civic can be.

“How much?” he wanted to know. “I have no idea,” I shrugged. He asked how many miles it had (about 200,000) and got my phone number as the light changed.

“I’ll call you,” he promised as we drove off in different directions. I guess I’ll find out. Meanwhile, I am taking a look around my life to see if there is something I want that I haven’t had the guts to ask for.

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In short, the book is really good. The principles can be applied in non-work settings, to any group of people working toward a shared objective. The biggest downside is that, to be useful, those principles must be adopted by the leader of the group. The CEO of Imagine Learning is an advocate, which is one of things I like best about the company.

The principles, in the order in which they need to be applied, are:

1. Leaders who are ambitious for the success of the company over themselves.
2. Getting the right people into the company (and the wrong ones out) before making other decisions.
3. Honest assessment of the present combined with optimism about the eventual future.
4. Exclusive focus on a single idea at the intersection of passion, economics and being the best.
5. Freedom and responsibility within a disciplined system.
6. Selective use of technology to accelerate success.

Some excerpts should help illustrate why I like the book so much.

You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. (p13)

The purpose of compensation is not to ‘motivate’ the right behaviors from the wrong people but to get and keep the right people in the first place. (p50)

Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. (p58)

The entire management team would lay itself open to searing questions and challenges from [people] who dealt directly with customers. (p72)

Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness. (p100)

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline. (p121)

Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure. (p156)

If you want to build an enduring and financially successful company, I don’t know of a better place to start than Good To Great.

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#include <IOKit/IOKitLib.h>

/**
 Returns the number of seconds the machine has been idle or -1 if an error occurs.
 The code is compatible with Tiger/10.4 and later (but not iOS).
 */
int64_t SystemIdleTime(void) {
    int64_t idlesecs = -1;
    io_iterator_t iter = 0;
    if (IOServiceGetMatchingServices(kIOMasterPortDefault, IOServiceMatching("IOHIDSystem"), &iter) == KERN_SUCCESS) {
        io_registry_entry_t entry = IOIteratorNext(iter);
        if (entry) {
            CFMutableDictionaryRef dict = NULL;
            if (IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperties(entry, &dict, kCFAllocatorDefault, 0) == KERN_SUCCESS) {
                CFNumberRef obj = CFDictionaryGetValue(dict, CFSTR("HIDIdleTime"));
                if (obj) {
                    int64_t nanoseconds = 0;
                    if (CFNumberGetValue(obj, kCFNumberSInt64Type, &nanoseconds)) {
                        idlesecs = (nanoseconds >> 30); // Divide by 10^9 to convert from nanoseconds to seconds.
                    }
                }
                CFRelease(dict);
            }
            IOObjectRelease(entry);
        }
        IOObjectRelease(iter);
    }
    return idlesecs;
}    

I consider this code to be in the public domain. Please feel free to copy and paste.

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Sending a file to a printer using the lp command is easy. However, this approach does not work for PDF files formatted for landscape printing. You can specify landscape orientation, but I wanted a way to detect the orientation automatically.

PDFKit has a PDFView object that has a printWithInfo:autoRotate: method. However, adding a PDFDocument to a PDFView and telling it to print doesn’t work. I eventually stumbled onto the fact that PDFDocumenthas a secret method that makes printing easy. So here is the code:

#import <Quartz/Quartz.h>

- (void)printPDF:(NSURL *)fileURL {

    // Create the print settings.
    NSPrintInfo *printInfo = [NSPrintInfo sharedPrintInfo];
    [printInfo setTopMargin:0.0];
    [printInfo setBottomMargin:0.0];
    [printInfo setLeftMargin:0.0];
    [printInfo setRightMargin:0.0];
    [printInfo setHorizontalPagination:NSFitPagination];
    [printInfo setVerticalPagination:NSFitPagination];

    // Create the document reference.
    PDFDocument *pdfDocument = [[[PDFDocument alloc] initWithURL:fileURL] autorelease];

    // Invoke private method.
    // NOTE: Use NSInvocation because one argument is a BOOL type. Alternately, you could declare the method in a category and just call it.
    BOOL autoRotate = YES;
    NSMethodSignature *signature = [PDFDocument instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:@selector(getPrintOperationForPrintInfo:autoRotate:)];
    NSInvocation *invocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:signature];
    [invocation setSelector:@selector(getPrintOperationForPrintInfo:autoRotate:)];
    [invocation setArgument:&printInfo atIndex:2];
    [invocation setArgument:&autoRotate atIndex:3];
    [invocation invokeWithTarget:pdfDocument];

    // Grab the returned print operation.
    NSPrintOperation *op = nil;
    [invocation getReturnValue:&op];

    // Run the print operation without showing any dialogs.
    [op setShowsPrintPanel:NO];
    [op setShowsProgressPanel:NO];
    [op runOperation];
}

I consider this code to be in the public domain. Please feel free to copy and paste.

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Shaving with cold water seems like a hardship, a practice that must be endured in Spartan living conditions. After all, it’s wet shaving doctrine that a man must always shave with hot water. It not only feels nice, it softens the beard and supposedly gives you a more comfortable shave.

But what if that advice is wrong? What if it’s actually better to shave with cold water…?

Well, according to a bunch of authors in the 19th century, cold water shaving is indeed superior to shaving with hot water.

The biggest improvements for me were:

1. Much easier to cut my hair. I have a smoother shave with one pass than I was getting with two.
2. Getting fewer nicks and cuts on my face.

I have to admit, I’m sold.

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We got some really good pictures of Grandma with the grandkids.

And Cheryl always seems photogenic.

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Reading the nutrition labels, however, taught me something interesting: Cheerios has by far the lowest sugar content of any cereal we eat. While shopping, I found myself in disbelief, telling random people in the super market, “Do you know this stuff has twelve times as much sugar as Cheerios?” I started calling it the Cheerios Factor.

To give you an idea, here is a list of some breakfast cereals and their sugar content. Full nutrition information is available online from General Mills, Kellog’s and Quaker. However, Post prefers to summarize it for you.

Yes, Cheerios has half the sugar of Grape-Nuts. The only cereal I’ve found that beats Cheerios at its own game is Fiber One, which I’ve never actually eaten.

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So she wrote some lyrics.

And sang them.

Then asked me to mix it with the music from the original Broadway show.

And here is the finished version:

There’s no progress like personal progress
To help your testimony grow
Getting your medallion is so thrilling
There is so much more for you in store
If you just keep your feet a-moving
Then you are proving that you are more
Than before
There’s no people like you people
There’s no people I know
Setting goals will help you and you will go far
It doesn’t matter where you are
This is your movie and you’re the star
Let’s get on with our goals
Let’s get on with our goals

They are planning to perform the song for the girls during the program. Should be fun. :)

We’ve places the lyrics into the public domain. Please feel free to use them.

UPDATE: Here is a video of the leaders performing. Cheryl was disappointed she was out of town and couldn’t be there.

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