Posted on

Using Dropbox For An Easy Restore Of All Your Computer’s Settings

Just to be clear, Dropbox isn’t backup software; it’s a syncing service.  If you delete a file and that change is synced, and your file no longer exists.

I really love the things you can do with Dropbox.  And since I’m stingy, I wanted to use Dropbox for backing up–and more importantly–restoring my computer.

One thing I always hated about getting a new computer was losing all of the customizations and settings that accrued over time.

Before this little trick,

I would spend an entire day re-configuring my computer to get it back to the way it was.

Continue reading “Using Dropbox For An Easy Restore Of All Your Computer’s Settings”

Posted on

How I Went Paperless And Clutter-free For $32

Ever since I discovered Dropbox, I felt weighed down by the clutter of physical documents.  I use it for all of my digital documents.  After a while, physical documents and pieces of paper began to get on my nerves.  It was much easier to have searchable PDFs that I could access anywhere.  To that end, I wanted to be able to convert any physical document I received into a searchable PDF.  See the video below for the entire workflow in action. Continue reading “How I Went Paperless And Clutter-free For $32”

Posted on

Automatically Sort Dropbox Camera Uploads Based On Their Geographical Data

I have been a long time fan of using Dropbox to manage my photos, even with the release of Photos.  I have especially liked it ever since Dropbox enabled Camera Uploads from their iOS app.  With my latest script, I can now upload photos from my iPhone and have them automatically sorted into folders based on the city they were taken in.

To accomplish this, OS X’s Spotlight (mdls ) is used to extract the coordinates from the photo, and then those are sent to Google to get the city (or the state, address, and more). Continue reading “Automatically Sort Dropbox Camera Uploads Based On Their Geographical Data”

Posted on

Batch Rotate Photo Files With Hazel and sips

If you have a ton of photos that are all facing the wrong direction and don’t want to do them individually, you can use Hazel to automatically go through a folder and rotate the images for you.  All it takes is a one-line bash script and a Hazel rule.

sips -r 90 "$f"

This rotates the image 90 degrees.  You can set it to 180 or whatever else you want. Continue reading “Batch Rotate Photo Files With Hazel and sips”

Posted on

Trigger Scripts Via Dropbox And Hazel

I haven’t found a great use for this yet, but you can have your Mac automatically run a script by simply creating a file/folder in your Dropbox.  To do this, you need to set up Hazel to watch your Dropbox folder for a certain file/folder, and if it appears, trigger a script.  You could also use folder actions, or launchd, but it will be much more challenging.

In the example below, I simply play a sound byte of the Borg claiming that resistance is futile. Continue reading “Trigger Scripts Via Dropbox And Hazel”

Posted on

Reduce And Resize Dropbox Camera Uploads Automatically With Hazel

I usually use my iPhone to take pictures for my Website and then upload them via the Dropbox app so they appear on my computer.  This is a nice feature, but the photos are way too large to use on a Website.  Instead of opening each one in Preview, scaling it down and saving it.  I created a Hazel workflow that does this for me automatically.  It then copies the original file to the Photos folder. Continue reading “Reduce And Resize Dropbox Camera Uploads Automatically With Hazel”

Posted on

Backup OpenEmu Save States to Dropbox

OpenEmu is one of the best ways to play your favorite retro games.  A long-time feature of emulators is the “save state,” which acts like a long-term Pause button.  It will save your game in the exact spot you decide (not just at a checkpoint in the game).  You could even save your game while you are in the middle of a jump and the next time you loaded the game up, it would start right there.

This trick uses a symbolic link, similar to how you can un-clutter your Dropbox.  In this case, you will put the save state folder into your Dropbox and then make a symlink in the original location. Continue reading “Backup OpenEmu Save States to Dropbox”