West Arete Computing » Blog

ChamberU: Getting Twitter and Facebook to Work for You

Clinton Judy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:48:17 +0000

On October 6th, we’re hosting a session at the Penn Stater. It’s about getting Twitter and Facebook to work for you or your business. Twitter, Facebook, and other online community tools have enabled us to reach a larger audience, communicate more effectively with that audience, and receive feedback from a larger group of people. We’re reaching our clients and fans on a more personal level, and we’re communicating with friends and family more frequently and with more ease. Isn’t the internet awesome?

We’re super excited to host this workshop. I personally can’t wait to see more local businesses get connected to us, their customers, and to each other over the internet. If you feel like you’ve been missing out on the social media phenomenon, or you don’t understand how tools like Twitter and Facebook can enable your business, this workshop is for you!

Here’s the flyer. And here’s the registration page.

We hope to see you there!

Quick Look preview from the command line

Scott Woods — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:32:02 +0000

(This post is only for Mac folks, and only the ones that spend time in the terminal at that. Everyone else can safely ignore this.)

As you may already know, you can open a file from the command line using the “open” command. The file will be opened using the default application for the file type. For example, running “open spreadsheet.xls” will open that file in Numbers or Excel, and running “open” on a directory will open that directory in a new Finder window. Think of it as a double click from the command line.

However, while working in the terminal today, I found myself wanting to open a spreadsheet using Quick Look just to get a single value. There’s a command called “qlmanage” that allows you to open the Quick Look preview of a file using the -p option. To make it more convenient, I created a short executable shell script called “ql” and put it in a directory that’s in my $PATH:

#!/bin/sh


# Display the Quick Look preview for the given file.
if [ -z "$1" ] ; then

  echo "Usage: ql ”

  exit 1

fi

exec qlmanage -p $1 2> /dev/null

Now I can preview a spreadsheet (or any file) from the command line using “ql spreadsheet.xls”. To close the preview, just hit Ctrl-C.

Giving from the top

Scott Woods — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:57:21 +0000

1% For The Planet is a group of companies that have pledged to donate 1% of their annual sales to nonprofit environmental organizations. By donating a fixed portion of their “top line”, these companies are committed to giving through thick and thin.

They’ve just released a new promotional video that they’re showing during Jack Johnson’s world tour. I love Tyler Stableford’s photography, and the soundtrack is great too (Matt Costa):

Since our first day in business, West Arete Computing has been proud to be a member of 1% For The Planet (we’re member #97). It’s great knowing that every project that we’ve ever worked on has resulted in more funding for some of our favorite nonprofit environmental organizations.

It’s been a privilege knowing the people at 1% For The Planet for the past few years. You’ll never find a more driven, energetic, fascinating group of people. It’s been thrilling to watch how much the movement has taken off recently — there are more than 900 member companies now.

Keep your eye out for the 1% For The Planet logo. I keep on finding it in places that I didn’t expect. It’s great to see it on things that you’ve been buying for years.

It’s also great to go to work each day knowing that part of that effort goes towards keeping central Pennsylvania beautiful.