David Herrold

My essential (Mac) software

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Productivity, Software

I am always fascinated by the software that my friends and coworkers use to get things done on a daily basis.  I’m constantly wondering if there is a better tool out there to make my job easier or more efficient.

Below is a list of software I consider my “can’t live without” applications.  In order to qualify for this list, I have to use it routinely every day.

1. Adium (price = free) - http://www.adiumx.com/

Adium is possibly the best chat client around today.  It supports a ridiculous number of services (including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, etc.), OTR encryption, file transfer, etc.  The UI is extremely intuitive and contact management is a breeze.  I am shocked Adium is free.

2. Adobe Creative Suite (Price = $1,800) - http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

After getting over the fact that CS3 costs twice as much as my first car, it’s simply the best set of tools for design out there.  If you plan on designing websites or working with web designers, you should make the investment.  If you are a student (or know a student) you can purchase CS3 at a significant discount (around $500).

3. Coda (price = $99 [free 30-day trial]) - http://www.panic.com/coda/

Since the release of Coda 1.5 update last week, I can safely say that Coda is my web design tool of choice.  Coda combines several different applications necessary for web design into one user-friendly package.  Coda is a text editor, FTP client, SSH terminal, CSS editor, Subversion client and your new bicycle.  You can even kick the tires for free.

4. CyberDuck (price = free) - http://cyberduck.ch/

Cyberduck is a free open source FTP client that supports FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, remote editing, etc.  When I need to move a lot of files to or from a remote server I use Cyberduck.  It has Quicksilver hooks as well as Growl integration (so I am able to minimize Cyberduck and allow Growl to notify me when my transfers are completed).  Cyberduck also integrates Textmate for remote file editing live on the server (if you enjoy living dangerously).

5. DropBox (price = free for now) - http://www.getdropbox.com/

Dropbox is a remote backup service with version control.  I wrote about DropBox in a previous post and have been using it ever since.  I suspect there will eventually be tiered levels of service, but for now, I am using the free 2GB verion for free to back up this blog (as well as other important files).  Sign up for the beta release here.

6. FireFox (price = free) - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

According to my blog stats, there is a 50% chance that you are using some version of FireFox to read this post right now.  If so, you already know how useful FireFox is.  The latest version of FireFox includes some new functionality for the address bar (dubbed the “awesome bar”) as well as a new user interface.  I would have a very difficult time doing my job without this browser and it’s 3rd party add-ons.  If this list were ordered by importance, FireFox would be very near the top.

7. Growl (price = free) - http://growl.info/

Growl is a notification system that informs you when certain things happen on your computer.  For instance, you can configure Growl to alert you when you finish an upload or download, received mail, downloaded a podcast, etc.  There are numerous applications and system tools supported by Growl.  You’ll want to configure it to fit your needs.  When I first installed it, I got way too many notifications and almost uninstalled it.  However, after a quick configuration (reducing the number of alerts), I now really love it.

8. iStat Menus (price = free) - http://www.islayer.com/

iStat Menus is a monitoring application that lives in the menu bar at the top right corner of my screen. It allows me to monitor things like CPU action, RAM usage, temperature, fan speed, network usage, etc.  Great information at a glance.

9. iTerm (price = free) - http://iterm.sourceforge.net/

My use of he terminal is not nearly as thorough as my colleagues at chron.com.  However, when I need to ping, trace route, perform a “whois” search or a quick MySQL database search, nothing is faster than the terminal.  iTerm adds useful things like a bookmark tray and the ability to use multiple tabs.

10. Mail (price = free [comes standard on all Macs]) - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/mail.html

Mail is simple.  Mail works.  Use Mail.  Nuff said.

11. Quicksilver (price = free) - http://www.blacktree.com/

Saying Quicksilver is just an application launcher is like saying a Porsche is just a car.  Quicksilver can access a multitude of applications to perform some amazing feats (if you can remember the key combinations, which I usually don’t).  You can send mail, move files, take notes, delete things, play music, etc.  The list goes on.  By the way, Quicksilver is also a great application launcher.

12. Skitch (price = free) - http://skitch.com/

Skitch is the best screenshot application that I have found for the Mac.  Skitch allows you to capture an image of your screen and then crop, resize, create shapes and draw on top of the screenshot.  The most useful part of Skitch for me is the remote file sharing Skitch provides via your Skitch.com or Flickr account.  Great way to share a screenshot with friends and co-workers.

13. Superduper (price = $27.95) - http://www.shirt-pocket.com

We all know how important backups are, right?  Apple has made good progress with Leopard’s native Time Machine for incremental backups.  However, if something bad happens to your startup disk, Time Machine’s backup won’t save you.  You need a bootable backup.  That’s where SuperDuper steps in and saves the day.  If you ever need it, it will pay for itself many times over.  It’s already saved me once.

14. Textmate - (price = $58) - http://macromates.com/

Textmate is the mother of all text editors that offers some unique tools for people who edit code for a living.  With Textmate, it’s all about the “bundles”.  Bundles are the terminology Textmate uses for small macros that specialize in making tedious jobs a little easier.  I keep all my blog ideas in a Textmate project and edit the posts in Textmate before I post them.

15. Twitterific (price = free w/ads or $14.95 w/o ads) - http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific

Twitterific is a Mac OSX desktop application for Twitter.  It has a very simple user interface and (the free version I use) contains very unobtrusive ads.  I tried Twirl, but found the UI a little cluttered, so now I’m back to Twitterific.

16. iTunes (price = free [comes standard on all Macs]) - http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/

iTunes is a pretty good music player but a lousy pod-catcher.  With the recent upgrade to iTunes 8.0 the Genius sidebar makes suggestions for you based upon music in your library. Very cool.  I still don’t think iTunes is a great podcatcher, but I haven’t found anything better yet.

Honorable mention

(A list of applications I use on a weekly basis, but didn’t make the daily cut).

CocoaMySQL - (price = free) - http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/
Colloquy (price = free) - http://colloquy.info/
Flickr Uploader (price = free) - http://www.flickr.com/tools/uploadr/
Google Earth (price = free, plus = $20, Pro = $400) - http://earth.google.com/
iWork (Keynote, Pages, Numbers) - (price = $79) - http://www.apple.com/iwork/
Voodoo Pad (price = $29.95) - http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/
VMWare Fusion (price = $79.99) - http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
Minuteur (price = free) - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19356
iPhoto (price = free [comes standard on all Macs]) - http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/

What are your software tools of choice?  Let me know in the comments.

Tags: applications, essential, mac, OSX, Software

Mobile search

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Hardware, Mobile, Software, Usability

We’ve gotten very good at finding what we’re looking for online. Ever since the early days of AltaVista, Lycos and DogPile we’ve become experts at finding Thai restaurants in Hoboken, NJ and singing telegrams in Anchorage, AK. Just type a few keywords into the search box and click the go button. Your best result will be on the first page, right? Pretty easy.

Fast forward to 2008 - and the proliferation of mobile phones, PDAs and palmtop computers that can access the web. Things become much more interesting.

There is an increased sense of immediacy based upon our physical location and actions. In the old world, we designed sites for users who were typically sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse. Today we design sites for people who are surfing the internet while walking the dog, boarding a plane, driving to work and cheering for the home team during the playoffs.  Mobile devices are with us all the time.

Good-bye keyboard.  Good-bye mouse.  We’ll miss you.

We are using our thumbs to type now. We are scrolling down our tiny screens with trackballs, slide-wheels and pencil-thin styli. We are clicking with phone keys, tiny buttons, pens and our fingers. We need results need to be simple, easy to read, accurate and light weight. And we need it now.

Mobile platforms need to distill web content down to the bare essentials, trimming away unnecessary page clutter while pushing relevant content to the top of the page.

John Markoff’s New York Times article sums this up more eloquently than I.

“The small screen forces you to be even more ruthless and focus on usability almost like a haiku,” said Barney Pell, Powerset’s founder and chief executive. “That’s what happens with design for the small screen. You have to think about what the most important thing the user is doing is.”

There are currently only a few methods of searching the web on a mobile device (although, there SHOULD be more, in my opinion*.)

The first method is the one we’re most familiar with.  We type search terms into a little box and hit submit for results. As long as the web server produces valid XHTML and mobile friendly CSS, most phones will display results without too much trouble. Many mobile sites that offer search, offer this method.

Another method uses SMS and allows users to search via text message instead of using web forms. This can be a faster way of getting results in some cases if you have little or no access to a strong mobile signal for WAP searches. Depending upon your carrier’s packages, SMS can also be used without a data plan (which is usually much cheaper than a full data plan).

A good example of this is Google’s SMS service. If you happen to have a text message plan for your mobile device, try this. Send a text message to 466453 (GOOGLE) with the message of “pizza and [your zipcode]“. You should get a text message back from Google with 3-4 of the highest ranking listings along with click-to-call links to contact the restaurant.

You can also send links to your users within the text message. A good example of this is our own classified ad platform on the Houston Chronicle’s mobile site. For another interesting test, try sending a text message to 24766 (CHRON) with a message of “ford mustang”. You will get a text message back informing you how many results this search produced and a link to the mobile search results (if you have a WAP access).

This is pretty useful, but still not perfect.

Within the last year location-based services have grown quickly in popularity. Mobile platforms like Brightkite, Google Maps and Fire Eagle are gaining ground with many mobile users. Using a mobile device’s internal GPS (or triangulation from cell towers if your device doesn’t have a GPS), the device determines your location and allows you to simply search for the word “pizza” to produce local results for you (since it already knows your location).

We will begin to see more of these services over the next few years. However, I think we can do even better than that.

As I’ve said in the past, our mobile phones are audio devices first and foremost. Let’s put that audio technology to good use.

* Allow me to speak “Find Starbucks” into my phone to trigger a Google Maps search or speak “Browse CNN” to auto-dial a browser bookmark. Surfing the internet hands-free might be extremely useful if I were driving a car, walking the dog or even peddling a bicycle.

With devices like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s upcoming Android platform the possibilities are nearly endless.

Let’s push the limits.

————————

Some resources that can help you get started with mobile web development:

Dev.Mobi - A website dedicated to mobile web development
Blue Flavor’s web development guide is a good start - and they’re nice folks too.
Mobile Web Development - by Nirav Mehta a more in-depth look at mobile development
Mobile Web Design - by Cameron Moll - a great introduction to the mobile web

Tags: Google, iPhone, Mobile, search, sms

Dropbox - remote backup with version control

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Productivity, Software, Technology

Dropbox is a remote back-up service that provides a very simple way to store files in a version-controlled environment. I’ve been using Dropbox to synch and provide back-ups for some test files on several computers at home.

How does it work?

Click here to read more…

Tags: Apple, back-up, backup, dropbox, pc, remote, version, versioning

VMWare Fusion upgrade

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Software

I was thinking to myself just the other day “wouldn’t it be great if VMWare were smart enough to keep some key combinations standard across the virtual machine chasm.”

Well, they did it in the latest build of VMWare Fusion.  If you own VMW and got that little “new version available for download” alert window when you started the app, it’s well worth the download just for that fix alone.

Now I can actually copy paste from Mac to Windows by just using the command key + C and the command key + V.  No need to monkey around with that silly Control key when you are in the Windows virtual machine.

You know, it’s the little things in life, really.

-Dave

Tags: Apple, virtual machine, vmware fusion

Leopard help menu purrs

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Software

I just discovered how amazingly intuitive the new help menu is on the Leopard operating system.  I tested it out on FireFox, Mail, and iCal and it works like a charm.  You simply begin typing into the help search box and if the answer to your issue is located in another menu, it will open that menu and place a big blue pointer that moves ever-so-slightly to get your attention (just in case you missed the big blue arrow).

Very slick.

Tags: Apple, help, leopard, mac

Mac owners snobby? Of course not, please pass the brie darling.

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Humor

I found this interesting:

Based on a survey of 7,500 MacWorld attendees it looks like Mac fans tend to be immodest, open minded liberals who are assured of their superiority. To put it bluntly.

I don’t recall taking on an air of superiority when I purchased my Mac. In fact, I was completely lost for a couple months after I “made the switch,” wondering how to adjust preferences, change setting and become more comfortable with the new OS.

Actually, while I was writing a letter to Hillary Clinton regarding my MENSA membership and willingness to proofread all of her speeches while hanging out at a wine bar eating brie - I never once thought I was snobby or liberal.

Full article (via Geeks are Sexy)

Tags: Apple, Humor, mac, surveys

Quicksilver reference videos

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Productivity, Software

The Apple Blog has a great collection of Quicksilver reference videos that can help you get the most out of the application. Unfortunately, I still use it mainly as an application launcher (when I use it). I haven’t taken the time to really memorize all the key commands to do all of the wonderful things Quicksilver can do.

Speaking of application launchers, if you happen to be a Windows user, I think Launchy is probably one of the better launchers available.

I think as a rule, application launchers are much more useful for Windows than Mac.  I think the Apple Dock makes launching programs much faster on a Mac than the Start Menu on a PC.  There just seems to be more mousing necessary to use the Start Menu.

I suppose you could create a bunch of short cuts (or aliases) for your desktop on a PC if you used certain programs frequently.  But regardless, you don’t need to do that with an application launcher.

For some reason, I still find myself using the Apple Dock more than Quicksilver to launch programs.  It’s hard to beat one-click for speed.  I find myself using Quicksilver most frequently when I need to launch applications that are not in my dock.  I have around 25 apps in my dock and use about 20 of them each week.  I could probably remove 3-4 of them, but I would find myself needing to use a launcher more often if I did that.

And like I said earlier, it’s hard to beat one click for speed.

Regardless of my launcher hang-ups, Quicksilver is still a great application.

Link (via the weblist)

Tags: Apple, application launchers, launchy, quicksilver, Usability, windows

Top 10 Quicksilver plugins

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Productivity, Software

I’ve been using Quicksilver for a few months now.  It was one of the first applications I loaded onto my laptop when I first bought it.  I use Quicksilver as an application launcher mostly because I can’t remember all the key commands to execute the other amazing things it can do.

Lifehacker put together a list of the Top 10 plugins for Quicksilver.

I’ve started using QS to launch specific bookmarks with FireFox. This basically opens up FireFox and launches a bookmark at the same time.  Not staggeringly productive, but it probably shaves a few keystrokes from the whole mess.

I tried opening music with iTunes this way, but I think I like the process of browsing my playlists for whatever suits my mood.

Tags: Apple, mac, OSX, quicksilver, Software