Installing ePocrates for OS X: a vendor on the edge

ePocrates is a widely used prescribing tool. I don't see patients, but I still keep a copy on my Palm. My wife uses hers; it's a significant driver of PDA sales to physicians. Alas, my latest installation shows that ePocrates on the Mac is all but dead.

The first sign of trouble was that ePocrates is using the obsolete .hqx file format to distribute the Installer. That format belongs to the current owners of Stuffit Expander, a notorious bunch of spammers. I had to reinstall StuffIt Expander to open it.

The next sign of trouble was use of the old VISE installer -- an obsolete tool that knows nothing about permissions. It aborted during the early install without an error message. To make a long story short the OS User who is doing the sync has to have admin privileges; I was foolishly trying to install the Mac OS X way -- using an Admin account.

Then, even with new admin privileges for my wife's account, and even with the Firewall off, and even with "enable Internet Connection Sharing" on or off, I couldn't get the ePocratest AutoUpdater application to contact its server. Clicking on "test" did nothing - no error message, nothing.

After a few retries it seemed to sync, but I never got the Rx application! I did get the data sets and the annoying marketing blurbs.

I found the .prc files in the ~/Documents/Palm/User_Name/ePocrates subfolder and made some guesses as to the ones I needed. After a few tries I was able to get the Palm to come up with the Rx data and without an error message.

I'll give ePocrates a break on the later issues -- but not the privileges problems and the total lack of error messages. I'm using Missing Sync to connect an old PalmOS 4.x Samsung i500 to a very modern OS X workstations. It's not surprising there are issues. The sad part is that the install could be very simple. Download a simple .dmg file, click on a few .prc files, check the firewall, and go.

Looking at what ePocrates has delivered I'd bet there's nothing left of the original team. I wonder how well they'll weather the Vista transition; that's going to be a real challenge for Palm as well. Ecosystem changes tend to eliminate the more frail species.

Update 1/16/07: An ePocrates employee who has worked at the Mac version left a comment asking me to contact him. I won't publish the comment (it was just a request to contact him) because it includes his corporate email address, but I will follow-up.

Update 1/22/07: ePocrates did not respond to my f/u email to them.

Update 1/26/07: I recently had to update my XP version of ePocrates. The install ALSO failed, though that could be a corporate firewall issue. The error message simply said the server could not be reached. The XP install offers a large variety of free add-on tools that are not available in the XP install -- though they are all simply prc files that could be easily added to any Palm device.

Also, I was asked for more details on how I got ePocrates working on the Palm. I'll check the backup directory for the device and see if I can enumerate the prc files used.

Google SMS and the nine digit zip fad to come

Google SMS is impressive. It helps to know the zip code, ideally to nine digits, of where you're at. Remember when it was a geek fad to mark WiFi sources with chalk drawings? We need a new geek fad of putting tasteful stickers with nine-digit zip codes on street signs ... (yeah, I know that's illegal...)

Here are my favorites. I use the zip code wherever possible. I need to find an SMS gateway so I can test these further on my computer. The Froogle option is handy when shopping ...

Search Features	Example query
Local Listings	sushi 94040
Weather	weather NYC
Translation	translate hello in french
Driving Directions	pasadena CA to 94043
Web Snippets	g hubble telescope
Q&A	abraham lincoln birthday
Area Code	650
Froogle	price ipod player 40gb
Calculator	1 US pint in liters
Help	local

I'll message these to my phone so I can keep the list handy as a reminder.

PS. I'm amazed to learn that the rich text editor in Firefox supports adjusting table margins and deleting rows!

RoughlyDrafted: best iPhone coverage thus far

Inside the iPhone: EDGE, EVDO, HSUPA, 3G, and WiFi is the best iPhone speculative reporting to date. I'm not done reading; I'll look to see how many of the seven reasons the iPhone is locked they'll review.

Update: The network discussion and comments is the article worth reading, I skipped the rest. I can definitely confirm that Sprint's 3G CDMA network service is a battery killer.

Apple's Mac web site is deteriorating

In another sign of Apple's disinterest in OS X, their web pages continue to deteriorate. This page on AppleScript is typical:

Apple - Mac OS X - AppleScript

Apple provides a variety of AppleScript script examples via download from the AppleScript website, including script collections for the Finder Toolbar, QuickTime Player, iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD.

The link (not shown here) to the AppleScript website doesn't work -- that website is gone. It now redirects back to the page containing the link.

The nervous among us have to wonder how serious Apple is about the Mac and OS X these days ...

OS X Automator: abandonware or a great future?

HyperTalk is the leading example of an abandoned Macintosh technology, but there are many lesser examples. AppleTalk has been on the edge intermittently, OS X services have been abandoned, OS X Java is gone, and, of course, there's Sherlock. Widgets and Automator are relatively new; the former appears to have a future (note the iPhone examples), and I'm cautiously optimistic about Automator.

Most recently I've been trying to use Automator to deal with the worse OS X application ever; my search for solutions led me to a page I'd blogged on before. This time, I read the comments. Sal Soghoian was the PM for Aperture last summer...

ATPM 12.07 - How To: Maybe You Ought To Be Using Automator

.... Sal Soghoian · July 03, 2006 - 16:21 EST #17

Thanks to all for their input and suggestions.

The Automator team is hard at work developing the next version of Automator for Leopard. We're examing all of the issues raised here and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

Meanwhile, there is much you can do with Automator right now in Tiger that you may or may not be aware of. For example:

1) You can run workflows within workflows by adding the Run Workflow action to your workflow.

2) Automator is not limited to AppleScript. Automator actions are written in Xcode and as such can use any language or frameworks supported by the OS. Xcode comes with three Action templates: AppleScript, Cocoa, and Shell. These templates can expose any available OS tools, such as PDF Kit, Core Image, Core Data, or Core Video.

3) Automator includes actions for easily adding your own custom code to a workflow. If there's not a action for what you want, you can use Run AppleScript, Run Shell Script, or Run Webservice to create your own action to fill the gap.

4) New Action collections are being released all the time. There are Action Packs for MS OFfice, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, FileMaker, ARD, and more.

For a thorough overview of what Automator is, how it works, and how to expand it's abilities -- along with sample workflows and downloads -- vist AUTOMATOR.US...

Sal Soghoian · July 05, 2006 - 12:44 EST #22

RE: controlling FireFox Automator relies on an application's published frameworks or scripting hooks to control it. If there are none then your options are limited. However, you can use other means to open URLs in Firefox.

1. Set Firefox to be the default browser. This is done in the Safari preferences pane.
2. Add a Get Specified URLs action to a new workflow. Enter the URLs you want to open
3. Add a Run AppleScript action to the end of the workflow and enter this code:

on run {input, parameters}

if the class of input is not list then set input to input as list
repeat with i from 1 to the count of input
set this_URL to item i of input
open location this_URL
end repeat

return input
end run

Run the worflow! If you want to be able to enter URLs when the workflow runs, save it as a plugin to the Script Menu and set the Get Specified URLs action to display when the workflow runs by clicking the disclosure triangle at the bottom of its action view and choosing "Show action when run" checkbox...

MOST IMPORTANT: send feedback to the Firefox team that AppleScript support is something you want.

The article and comments point to some good references. The existence of Automator.us is curious. On the downside some of the most developed Automator websites have had very little activity in the past year.

Update 1/13/07: I'll see if anyone answers my Automator question ...!
Update 1/13/07b: Hmm. This might help ...

The OS X Address Book: Part of the dark side of Apple

I've a post pending on the dark side of Apple. I've been looking at that Darkseid recently, after configuring a Mac Mini for my mother, watching the Mac-free MacWorld and the iPhone, and, most recently, trying to do something real with the OS Mac OS X Address Book. First, the Address Book.

I've used the Address Book intermittently for years, and never thought much about how bad it really is. Then, a month ago, I configured a Mac Mini for my mother. I could tweak most of the key applications to be usable, but the Address Book was intractable. There's no configuration of the icon bar, it doesn't "remember" the single card UI preference, the Mail.app integration is memorably bad, and it basically fails every usability test one can imagine. It stinks. The best I could do was tweak the insanely complex and backwards default input template.

Then I bought a Motorola RAZR, implemented a brilliant hack that lets it work with iSync, and discovered it could hold a mere 500 addresses. I needed to do some major maintenance on the 1600 addresses I have in Address Book. It was horrible.

There's no way to bypass the 'are you sure' delete confirmation (option delete doesn't work). There are no sorts, no filters (unless you use Apple's almost undocumented Automator tool -- the one with the web page that says "an error occurred while processing this directive") -- precious few ways to help with selecting 500 rows of 1600. It's very easy to double click and open ten address views -- all of which must be closed. It's easy when command-clicking to accidentally lose all selections. It's not good for one's blood pressure.

Address Book is a flaming bucket of rank incompetence maddeningly obscure and undocumented, but since it's bundled with all machines, and deeply integrated into the OS (the information in the User address card tells Widgets what time zone to use), there are no real alternatives. That's part of the DarkSeid of Apple -- to produce a defective product that eliminates all alternatives, and then never to fix it.

More on the DarkSeid later, I have to see what I can do with Automator. I'll also be looking for alternative UI solutions that can work with the Address Book data structures. Updates pending.

Update 1/13/07: In all my research, amongst which I learned about Automator and did some more AppleScript work, I discovered the Address Book includes Smart Groups. Which goes some way to redeeming it.

Launchbar for Windows - not quite

Launchbar is one of my favorite OS X applications. (Quicksilver is an imitator that is free, and thus gets more attention, but LB came first.) I've long looked for a Windows equivalent. I registered AppRocket and used it for a while, but it was disappointing in the end.

I was surprised then, to learn there are so many XP apps that try to be Launchbar for Windows:
Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Replacing Start Run.

Vista has implemented a Launchbar like feature, so maybe others will work to bring Launchbar to XP. It would be most appreciated.

Update: Just noticed one of Scott's update comments: Ctrl-H in Google Desktop?! Wow, that's killer. I much prefer Yahoo Desktop Search to Google Desktop because GD doesn't grok folders, but this might switch me.