One computer annoyance solved

I post this as a public service announcement for Mac users who are frustrated like I was until a few minutes ago. As most of you who use keyboard shortcuts know, command-tab will let you switch between applications, and command-` will let you switch between windows within the same applications. You can even switch tabs within a browser: command-shift-] or command-shift-[ for Firefox and Safari. But I could never figure out, using a keyboard shortcut, how to select a window that I'd previously minimized.

Apparently there are two ways, one built-in and clunky, and one freeware that's nice and sleek.

The built-in and clunky way is to press control-F3, which selects the dock, move the cursor over to the minimized window, and press spacebar or enter. Note: You have to press escape after selecting the window, or you'll still be navigating through the dock.

The nice, sleek, freeware way is a program called Witch, which lets you scroll between windows all windows -- even minimized ones -- using keyboard shortcuts. The default is option-tab, but it's super-customizable. I've only been using it for about five minutes, but I love it already. (Here's a review on LifeHacker.)

Anyway, like I said, just a public service announcement for those who were annoyed by the same thing as I was.

Slowly going crazy in karate

Sometimes, muscle memory is wonderful. Other times, it drives me absolutely up the wall.

Take, for example, the Shotokan kata we started learning yesterday, Heian Nidan ("The second heian kata"). This is extremely similar to Pinan Sono Ni ("The second pinan kata") I learned while I was doing Kyokushin karate. Extremely similar. I bet that to the untrained eye, this video of Pinan Sono Ni (repeats at 0:45) will be virtually indistinguishable from this video of Heian Nidan (repeats, slower, at 1:05). But while they're super-close, they're not the same.

Take, for example, the very first move. In my old style (Kyokushin), the first move of Pinan Sono Ni looked like the picture on the left. (Clicking will take you to a larger version.) Note the hands. They're far apart, with the right hand just next to the face and palm pointed toward the floor, and the left hand at shoulder height, about a body's width away from the shoulder, with the palm facing back towards the practitioner.


Now take a look at the picture on the right, which is the first move of Shotokan's Heian Pinan kata. Again, look at the hands. The first thing you'll note is that they're much higher up and much closer together. Instead of forming a big space, it almost looks like your arms are forming a rectangle. The right hand is slightly forward of the face, with the palm facing outwards, and the left hand is up at the same level, with the palm facing the same direction as the right hand.

It's not a big difference. It's very subtle. But it's the sort of thing that drives my muscle memory crazy, as it continually wants to do what's in the first picture, and I try to tell it to do what's in the second. The entire kata is full of these sorts of little differences. (In the old style, for example, one move had the front leg coming back to meet the back leg; in the new style, the back leg moves forward to meet the front one.) There are five katas we're doing that have the same sort of subtle-but-important differences. It's going to drive me crazy, precious. Yes, it is.

Grab bag of links

I know, I know. I'm going overboard with the posts today. But these are just links, so it's all right. (Right?)

1. BP spills coffee (3-minute video) -- a satirical little video: a BP exec spills coffee on the boardroom table, and the executive team rushes into high gear to clean up the spill. Hilarity ensues.

2. Eating well on $1 a day -- this guy is utterly amazing. He made a deal with his sister that he could eat well on just $1 a day, using various couponing skills. So far, in the almost two months he's been doing the project, he's been eating extremely well, donated a TON of food to local food banks, and bought over $1,100 worth of food for about $40. I'm in awe.

3. The 10 most important things they didn't teach you in school -- though I don't usually link to Cracked articles, this one's pretty spot-on. (Even if the writing is a bit over the top compared to what I generally like.)

4. The life you can save -- I recommend watching the very powerful 3-minute video. Then do whatever conscience (and heart) tell you to do.

5. Vision simulator -- a very cool simulator that shows you what it's like to be red-green (or blue-yellow) color blind. Worth playing around with.

6. The fast lane - The slide (2-minute video) -- From the guys that brought us piano stairs and the world's deepest garbage can comes a new project designed to make life more fun (and, in the process, get us moving a bit). I wish these guys were in Montreal.

7. Extrapolating (xkcd comic) -- just a cute xkcd comic I've been meaning to post for a while. Sometimes I really love xkcd.