Okay, I admit it, yesterday’s entry was mostly a goof. The situation I cited — a friend wanting to fool the boss — was largely a product of my imagination. Said friend simply asked how it was to work at home and off I went inventing ways to slack off while on the clock.
I’m afraid that in all my goofing some of the power of this tip may have been lost. Allow me to make it clear now.
Using the basic technique I outlined yesterday — configuring iCAR to activate a chat window and then creating an iKey sequence to perform an action — could be useful for doing some very cool things if you’re hip to AppleScript. Both iCAR and iKey can trigger AppleScripts but iCAR isn’t discerning — it will play the script regardless of who initiates a chat. With iKey you can wait until the name of a particular person appears in the active window. Once that window appears, an AppleScript or Unix command intended for that person fires.
For example, you could create a sequence that emails a file to Person X when they initiate a chat. Or you could create a sequence that tells your work computer to back itself up.
Yes, there are other (and more secure) ways to control a Macintosh remotely. But many are beyond the ken of mere mortals. I offer this as a relatively easy alternative (and something fun to play with).