I have not included any institutional storage systems or sharing options such as Blackboard or CTools. I have also not included Google Groups or Google Docs. Instead, I've focused just on services that let you share data, not collaboration suites or whatever the other stuff calls itself. I've found those to be useless when it comes to sharing video and annoying when it comes to sharing anything else. Annoying means it takes too many steps to upload or download (e.g., Blackboard, CTools) or it ruins my formatting (e.g., Google Docs). Dropbox wins because it works just like a local folder but automatically syncs elsewhere. I'm currently using it for 3 projects and sharing LaTeX, BibTex, Word, Excel, plain text, AVI, MOV, and MP4 files.

Note: I'm ambidextrous and use these services on both Mac and Windows machines. I don't use other platforms.

Data Sharing

Migrating to Snow Leopard for Rails Development

As always happens when upgrading or installing, it seems, I did run into a few problems.

Errors and Workarounds

Problem: Git doesn't want to install.

Error:

ld: warning: in /opt/local/lib/libiconv.dylib, file is not of required architecture

Workaround:

MacPorts is to blame. To uninstall MacPorts, use

sudo rm -rf \
/opt/local \
/etc/manpaths.d/macports \
/etc/paths.d/macports \
/Applications/DarwinPorts \
/Applications/MacPorts \
/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
/Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
/Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
/Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
/Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
/Library/Tcl/macports1.0

(Thanks, Simon Engledew)

Problem: MySQL gem doesn't install.

Error:

ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension mysql

Workaround:

Make sure you installed the latest version of MySQL, the MySQL Preference Pane, and that you started the MySQL server before trying to install the gem. iCoreTech has directions for installing MySQL and MySQL gem on Snow Leopard.

Other Options

HiveLogic has another method for installing Git on Snow Leopoard. I was having trouble with the package installers, and doing it "by hand" via HiveLogic's instructions worked well.

My project uses RMagick. RMagick's DMG installer wouldn't work for me either. I was able to install RMagick from source using a script from OnRails.org.

#danahjsb network

Image size depends on the user's number of followers. Edge color depends on the kind of edge - yellow indicates a following relationship, blue a reply/mention relationship. Compare our graph to Marc Smith's graph of the #win09 hashtag users:

#win09 network

You'll notice a couple of things. First, Marc is better with NodeXL than I am, and his graph is just easier to read. Then, dig a little deeper and notice that the network of users who used the #danahjsb hashtag is more densely connected. The #win09 network is brokered by the guy in the middle, and the #danahjsb network has no obvious brokers. More to come on my thoughts about the symposium talk and panel, stay tuned.

* only users whose tweets are public are included in these network diagrams

More Info:

What the hashtag?! - view the tweets

Coming Soon - watch the symposium talk and panel

svn+ssh://user@host/repos

you'll likely get an error such as

svn: Expected FS format '2'; found format '4'

which means that you're repository was created in a newer version of SVN than the version you run when you call svn+ssh. Using Jeremy's instructions results in two versions of Subversion being available on your server - one in /usr/local and one in /opt/subversion. In order to use the one in /opt/subversion (the newest one) through an SSH tunnel, you need to make some SSH configuration changes on your server.

Getting svn+ssh to work requires:
1. Set (or uncomment) PermitUserEnvironment Yes in /etc/sshd_config (on server)
2. Add PATH=/opt/subversion/bin:$PATH to ~/.ssh/environment (on server; may have to create the environment file)
3. restart SSH (on server) with sudo /sbin/service ssh stop and sudo /sbin/service ssh start
Ta da!

Thanks for the jumpstart, Jeremy!

Rackham, the graduate school at the University of Michigan, has arcane and ugly formatting requirements that my dissertation must meet in order for me to receive my degree. They will not let me graduate if my margins or headers are wrong. That's pretty compelling incentive to get my formatting right. Using the excellent "Using Word 2007 for Your Dissertation" guide provided by the University Library's Knowledge Navigation Center as a starting point, I set off to make sure Word would format my dissertation correctly.

The keys to making your formatting life easy with Word are styles and templates. You can learn more about both at Microsoft's site. I'm a faithful style user, and I assume you can easily become one if you aren't already. All text in my documents is associated with some style - e.g., Normal, Heading 1, Long Quote. You need not worry about the specifics of a style while you write - just make sure all your text is associated with a style. Word does much of that automatically. Once you're done writing and ready to format, you should first open a new blank document and create a template.

Creating a Template

The real purpose of your template is to store the formatting rules you assign to all your different styles. Your template need not have any content, but I find it helpful to write a little something so I can at least see my style changes in action. To create a template, you need to edit the styles so they match your formatting rules and then save the document as a template (*.dotx) instead of a regular document.

Attaching Templates to Files

Once you have defined all your styles and formatting rules in a template, you need to attach the template to your Word document. In Word 2007,

1. Go to the Office button
2. Choose "Word Options" from the bottom
3. Choose "Add Ins" from the side menu
4. Choose "Templates" from the Manage drop down at the bottom
5. Click "Go..."
6. Click "Attach" and navigate to the template file you just created and saved
7. Make sure "Automatically update document styles" is selected
8. Click "Ok"

You should see your document change to reflect the formatting rules in your template.

Using Quick Styles

One of my favorite features of Word 2007 is the Quick Styles feature. Quick Styles let you save template rules so they are accessible from the "Change Styles" menu on the Home ribbon. To get your formatting rules into a Quick Style, essentially saving you the hassle of attaching a template:

1. Open your template file
2. Click "Change styles" on the Home ribbon
3. Choose "Style set" and then "Save as Quick Style Set..."
4. Give your set a name you'll remember and click "Save"

Now, you can apply your template's rules in any document right from the Quick Style menu by click "Change Styles", then "Style Set," and choosing the name you gave your set.

Notes

I wrote this post in part to remind myself of the steps involved. Styles and templates can make working in Word incredibly easy, but you absolutely must always use styles to format your text. If you make changes by hand (e.g., clicking Ctrl+B to make something bold), you'll screw the whole process up. Only when used together (and exclusively) will styles and templates make your writing life easier.

Office 2008 for Mac can do the styles and templates stuff but does not have a useful Quick Styles feature. To attach a template to a document in Office 2008 for Mac:

1. Open the "Tools" menu
2. Choose "Templates and Add Ins..."
3. Click "Attach" and navigate to the template document you created
4. Make sure "Automatically update document styles" is selected
5. Click "Ok"

If you're using RefWorks, you should use either Word 2007 or Word 2008 but not both. RefWorks gets confused when you try to add or edit citations with both programs. I do most of my writing in Word 2007 on a virtual machine running Windows 7. I occasionally make edits using Word 2008 natively on my Mac, but I do not make changes to citations in both programs.