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Sync Settings between PCs using Dropbox

Sublime Text 2 is my favorite text editor, and I use it on all of my machines - personal PC, personal Macbook, and work laptop (Windows). To make Sublime Text even more useful, I like to keep the same configuration of Sublime on each computer, which I can do by using Dropbox to sync the configuration files, and giving Sublime Text symbolic links (shortcut directories) to those files on Dropbox. Here's how to do it:

Initial setup / first computer:

1. Install Package Control into Sublime Text.
2. Exit Sublime Text.
3. Create a new directory called something like ST2 somewhere in Dropbox. Mine is at Dropbox\App Backups\Sublime.
4. Find your ST2 user directory. It will contain directories named Installed Packages, Packages, Pristine Packages and Settings.
   • In Windows 7, this is usually C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2.
   • In Mac OS X, this is usually /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2.
5. Move Installed Packages, Packages and Pristine Packages from the ST2 user directory to the ST2 directory in Dropbox.
6. Open up a Command Prompt or Terminal window with Administrator privileges (right click and choose "Run as Administrator) and navigate to your ST2 configuration directory.
   • In Windows 7, this is something like cd C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2.
   • In Mac OS X, this is something like cd /Users/[username]/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text\ 2/.
7. Create a symbolic link for Installed Packages.
   • In Windows 7, this will be something like mklink /D "Installed Packages" "C:\[ST2 Dropbox directory]\Installed Packages".
   • In Mac OS X, this will be something like ln -s /[ST2 Dropbox directory]/Installed\ Packages ./Installed\ Packages.
8. Repeat the above step for each of the other directories mentioned in step 4.
9. Wait for Dropbox to finish syncing.
10. Open ST2 and bask in your marvelous synced settings.

After ST2 configuration is on DB / Subsequent computers:

1. Exit Sublime Text.
2. In your ST2 user directory, delete or rename the Installed Packages, Packages and Pristine Packages directories. You'll be replacing them with the Dropbox ones.
3. Open up a Command Prompt or Terminal window with Administrator privileges (right click and choose "Run as Administrator) and navigate to your ST2 configuration directory.
   • In Windows 7, this is something like cd C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2.
   • In Mac OS X, this is something like cd /Users/[username]/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text\ 2/.
4. Create a symbolic link for Installed Packages, Packages and Pristine Packages directories.
   • In Windows 7, this will be something like mklink /D "Installed Packages" "C:\[ST2 Dropbox directory]\Installed Packages".
   • In Mac OS X, this will be something like ln -s /[ST2 Dropbox directory]/Installed\ Packages ./Installed\ Packages.
5. Open ST2 and bask in your marvelous synced settings.

These steps will sync Installed Packages and Color Scheme between every ST2 instance that you configure this way. If you also need to sync layout or the recent files list, you can sync the Settings directory.

This basic process will work for any application that contains settings in a flat folder structure, such as many of Photoshop's configurations. You'd just need to figure out the specific directories that you need to sync.

Mothers' Day Paperweight.

I made this paperweight during an Art By Fire Blow Your Own event in April of 2010. The colored core was (probably) made from shards of a failed piece at Art By Fire, which were preheated in a small kiln. I picked that up on a bitrod, and did a few rounds of shape and encase to create the final form.

My favorite part of this piece is all of the bubbles; created by leaving divots instead of a smooth surface when dipping into the furnace for another layer of glass. There is a particularly lovely streak of teeny bubbles, and one large bubble in the center.

Quick and Dirty Git Tricks 1.

Git is a version control system which is pretty useful, but a little complex. If you use git, here are somethings you'll be doing frequently:

git add .

Add all files in the current directory to your open repo; now git will watch them for changes, so that they can be committed.

git commit -a -m "message"

Commit all files changed to a branch with a message. If you don't commit your changes, you'll lose the work.

git log -3

Show the 3 most recent commits and their comments.

Quick and Dirty Mobile Friendly Updates.

Here are a few quick and dirty upgrades to make your site more usable on mobile and small-screen devices. (Your site is already standards based, right? Good.)

Throw these in your head:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True">
<meta name="MobileOptimized" content="320">

And this in your stylesheet:

html { -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; }

This will give your users pretty good usability on their mobile devices (even when changing orientation on iOS devices) without downloading the whole jQuery library.

Photoshop CS6 - The Little Things.

There are some awesome little things that I've noticed in the first week or two of using Photoshop CS6. They're super useful in my web developer workflow, and they're just little things that really add up to save me a ton of time.

• With the marquee tool, a tool-tip shows the dimensions of the currently selected area.
• Holding Shift when dragging a new guide snaps that guide to the ruler marks.
• When creating a new guide from the View Menu, it re-uses your previous orientation selection (Horizontal or Vertical).
• Control + mouse scroll will scroll the image horizontally.
• I can finally paste a hex color (with the # ) into the color picker.
• Alt + click on the Layer Styles triangle now opens (or closes) all layer styles.

These small improvements to my everyday workflow are far more important than whopping huge new features that I (the web developer) probably won't ever use.

More Tax Tips.

The following job search expenses are tax deductible, so hold onto those receipts:

• Parking expenses
• Employment agency fees
• Resume preparation fees
• Postage for job-search correspondence
• Travel expenses

As before, please remember that I'm not a professional tax person, and you should consult one of those folks if you have important tax questions.

Another 3 Books for Web Developers.

After reflecting on my recent post Three Must-Read Books for Web Developers, I thought I'd also share three of the books I read when I first started building web pages back in 1999:

1. Unknown giant HTML4 reference manual: Embarrassingly, I can't remember the precise title or author of this one. It was a 700+ page reference manual for HTML4 and XML. It may or may not have included a bit on JavaScript, but I don't think there was any CSS in it.
2. Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design [with CDROM] by Vincent Flanders, Michael Willis: This was a design focused book which looked at a bunch of hideous and painful websites of the time. Pick up a copy if you want to see how far web site have come.
3. JavaScript Goodies (2nd Edition) - Joe Burns, Andree Growney: This was a pretty good introduction to JavaScript for its time. I read the first edition, and then picked up the second edition when it was published in 2001.