Terminal Productivity Tip: ^^ notation

It turns out that most of us computer users have to use the glorious old terminal every once in a while, whether it's finding out our IP, finding out whether your internet is down by pinging google, or installing updates on our server over SSH. Today's tip will help you out when you have multiple tasks to do with similar syntax, or when you misspell a command.

The notation for this command is "^foo^bar" where "foo" is a snippet in the last executed command that you want to find and replace and "bar" is what you want there instead. It automatically executes the command as well. So next time you accidentally type "pnig www.google.com", instead of having to type the command all over again, just type "^pni^pin", and it'll execute "ping www.google.com." This is also useful if you are installing apps using "apt-get" in debian based linux, like Ubuntu. Sometimes I can't quite remember the name of the package, so I can easily try a few combinations without having to retype the whole "sudo apt-get install [package-name]" over and over.

If you liked today's hint, be sure to subscribe. Any questions or suggestions can be directed to evan [a] multithreadedmind.com, or to @multithreadblog on twitter.

Google Productivity Tip: The Single Most Useful Feature of Google Calendar

Possibly the most useful feature on Google Calendar, that I'm surprised more people don't take advantage of, is the Quick Add box. You can write in an appointment in normal language, such as "Meeting with John at Zoes Kitchen at 3m Thursday," and Google will magically turn that into an appointment on you calendar with all the details you've specified filled in.

This is handy on the google end of things... but even more so in different applications for both mac, pc, and linux. Because you don't have to fill in an entire form, it's perfect for knocking off appointments, while you are still thinking about other things, so you can polish them up later.

The obvious solution for mac to do this is of course quicksilver. Go to your preferences, plugins, and install the Google Calendar plugin. The syntax is invoke quicksilver, hit ".", then type the event's text. Hit tab, then start typing calendar. You should see the "Google Calendar Event" option come up. Hit enter, and away you go.

On PC, you can do the same sort of thing with the popular quicksilver clone Launchy. I had this working on XP and Vista, but I've seen a friend experience some trouble on Windows 7, so have caution. You'll need Launchy installed (www.launchy.net), as well as the Google Calendar plugin, (which can be found here.) Instructions are included, and are fairly straightforward.

For all you die-hard linux fans out there, there is an excellent solution in the person of Gnome-Do. Gnome-Do comes packaged with a google calendar plugin, and works wonderfully. Just go to it's preferences, install the plugin, set up your google account in the plugin preferences, and you are ready to go. It's as slick as Quicksilver... and if you haven't tried it already on your ubuntu box, you are missing out.

One massive oversight in the Android platform in my mind is that this functionality is not built into the Calendar app. It seems like it was designed with mobile in mind, and I hope google wakes up and makes an update.

If anyone has any tips or tricks related to the Quick Add box, or questions, please add a comment, or @reply me on twitter at @multithreadblog.