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

Location-based preferences for Macs

Posted by Dave | Filed under Software, Usability

Dear Steve Jobs,

It would be really cool if I could make certain preferences location-based on my Mac just like my network settings. You see, Mr. Jobs, I use my laptop in two distinctly different ways.

• At home I use an external monitor to give myself a little more space to work.
• At work I do not use an external monitor.

I enjoy using Leopard’s Spaces to give me a bit more room to breath at work with several applications running at the same time. However, when I am at home, I don’t need to use Spaces because I have more screen space to work with.

I find myself changing my Spaces settings nearly every day when I get home. I put my email, iTunes, Adium, etc in my laptop’s screen and use my external window for FireFox, Coda, Photoshop, etc.

It would be fantastic for my Mac to “know” it was home, just like it does with my network settings, and change my Spaces to my preferred setting while at home. For that matter, it would be great if all my applications had location-based preferences.

iTunes at home uses Airtunes and some external speakers. iTunes at work uses the built-in speakers.

Mr. Jobs, you could make the world a better place and save thousands of man-hours by allowing preferences to be location based. Thank you, and good night.

Tags: Apple, mac, network settings, preferences, Spaces

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

Coda now Leopardized*

Posted by Dave | Filed under Software, Usability, Web design

Coda has released an update (v1.1) to further trick-out the Leopardization of the application. I’ve been using Coda for several months now to manage a few blogs and work on minor design projects. To make a long story short, Coda a fantastically intuitive web design & development application that manages to cram several tools (text editor, terminal window, FTP, CSS WYSIWYG) into one easy-to-use package.

I’ve been hesitant to update my Mac to OSX 1.5 (Leopard), until Coda has been updated to work smoothly on Leopard.

It looks like I’m officially cleared for take-off.

You can download Coda for a free 30-day test drive. Right now, it only works on Macs.

(FYI - I am not affiliated with the company in any way, I just think it’s a great product.)

* Yes, I made up this word, but it makes sense, doesn’t it?

Tags: Apple, coda, leopard, mac, Web design

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