tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post4296218099384441309..comments2024-02-21T06:59:26.840-05:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: Optimizing the dual monitor environment for the Mac ProDavid Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-20323833742915815022010-03-13T20:22:04.686-05:002010-03-13T20:22:04.686-05:00Hard to say if 1 large screen is better than dual ...Hard to say if 1 large screen is better than dual screen. If you are going to use 19" monitors than go with a 23" display instead. You'll get more lines of resolution while giving up very little desktop area in the bargain. I went with two 21.5" displays at 1080p. Best thing I ever did.Dual Screen Fanhttp://2monitors.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-71191246310954324152008-06-26T08:56:00.000-04:002008-06-26T08:56:00.000-04:00I think your best choice on VMWare Fusion is singl...I think your best choice on VMWare Fusion is single Window mode.<BR/>Try to use it in single window mode and stretch to both screen. Then you can use 3200*(1600-width of menu bar) screen.<BR/><A HREF="http://pighair.net/files/VMWare.png" REL="nofollow">Here's an example.</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-77152651376596671492008-04-30T13:43:00.000-04:002008-04-30T13:43:00.000-04:00Have you tried out Cha-Ching? I got it as part of ...Have you tried out Cha-Ching? I got it as part of a Mac Heist bundle, but haven't really played around with it. I actually just started it up, so let's see what it's like...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-50978952145501516632008-04-23T14:57:00.000-04:002008-04-23T14:57:00.000-04:00@Mike: Funny, I was talking to my friend Brad abou...@Mike: Funny, I was talking to my friend Brad about this last night as we were going through the financial applications, specifically Mint. Regardless of the privacy policy they have I'm just a little uncomfortable with a FREE online service that holds all of my transaction information. Brad and I both agreed that if they charged even $5 / month they would probably get more people to use it because then it feels real and they have some responsibility to the users.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the <A HREF="http://www.mvelopes.com/" REL="nofollow">mvelopes</A> tip!David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-55781258853071375802008-04-23T14:34:00.000-04:002008-04-23T14:34:00.000-04:00Quicken Online is not a bad tool but it has a long...Quicken Online is not a bad tool but it has a long way to go. It's really more of a reporting engine as opposed to true money management.<BR/><BR/>Mint is similar and a little more mature. My complaint with the online apps (Wasabe too) is that they are building up a nice little database of users, financial information and spending habits, and if I was a bank - and had any money left from bad mortgages - I'd be pretty interested in buying up Mint or Wasabe etc.<BR/><BR/>iBank really is the premier native application for money management. Do know that you have to be running Leopard in order to use the newest version. But as an owner from the 1.x days, I can attest that it's a very actively developed application - which is nice.<BR/><BR/>One other to consider - as an online application - Mvelopes. (mvelopes.com)<BR/><BR/>You pay for the service - and at first it seems a bit pricey - but it includes CheckFree online bill pay. <BR/><BR/>It's a flash app - that works off the envelope system. They say, (and I would agree) that you pay for the service in the money you "find" from understanding your expenses.<BR/><BR/>I'm a big believer - and since it's online, you can access it from work etc.M Roseliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05447989193524477962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-75506444816544179362008-04-22T23:57:00.000-04:002008-04-22T23:57:00.000-04:00Ausmith1 says:There is on online version of Quicke...Ausmith1 says:<BR/>There is on online version of Quicken now, there is a decent review of it at:<BR/>http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/01/08/an-introduction-to-quicken-online/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-67352267320808824012008-04-22T20:17:00.000-04:002008-04-22T20:17:00.000-04:00@asherman13: Yep, that's exactly how I use it. It'...@asherman13: Yep, that's exactly how I use it. It's really cool.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-38779536242489418332008-04-22T19:44:00.000-04:002008-04-22T19:44:00.000-04:00David,Have you tried using Fusion in full-screen, ...David,<BR/><BR/>Have you tried using Fusion in full-screen, or any other mode, in a separate Space, thus allowing you to effectively flip back and forth between what would appear to be a singularly Mac environment and a singularly Windows environment?<BR/><BR/>Love reading the blog, all the best.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01053252559564576227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-24332679182083269762008-04-22T19:18:00.000-04:002008-04-22T19:18:00.000-04:00@Aaron: iBank looks perfect. Native Mac applicatio...@Aaron: iBank looks perfect. Native Mac application (not Java VM) and can grab all the data my friend has from Quicken.<BR/><BR/>@Tzs: I did indeed notice that - very cool. Activating Expose while inside of Spaces is pretty slick. I did try using hot corners once but I kept activating it by accident (one of the reasons I struggled with Warp other than the bugginess). I think I'm a little too over-caffeinated to use mouse gestures.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-20684835632598380842008-04-22T15:34:00.000-04:002008-04-22T15:34:00.000-04:00Dougs Applescripts has many iTunes Applescripts th...Dougs Applescripts has many iTunes Applescripts that can perform many if not all of the functions of Tag and Rename within iTunes. Depending on the script and the action, they may take longer than Tag and Rename.Tarashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14984820858237567355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-82929198382841338582008-04-22T13:57:00.000-04:002008-04-22T13:57:00.000-04:00Something cool you may have not noticed yet: Space...Something cool you may have not noticed yet: Spaces and Expose are orthogonal. That is, if you bring up the Spaces view that shows all your Spaces, and then hit the key to tell Expose to show all windows, it will do that on all the Spaces spaces at once.<BR/><BR/>I've found it useful to set three hot corners. One set to Expose "show windows for this app", one set to Expose "show all windows", and one set to Spaces "show all spaces".<BR/><BR/>Switching between things on different Spaces and between different apps then becomes just a couple of quick flicks of the mouse. Flick to the Spaces corner to see the spaces, and maybe flick to the Expose "all windows" corner if I don't see the right window, and then a click to where I want to go.tzshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15146754296775505800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-90863429736544428272008-04-22T13:22:00.000-04:002008-04-22T13:22:00.000-04:00David, Your friend should check out "iBank" -- it ...David, <BR/>Your friend should check out "iBank" -- it is an excellent replacement to Quicken. <BR/><BR/>Like your friend, I was frustrated by Quicken for Mac and looked into several alternatives. I found iBank to be extremely simple to use, easy to manage, and looked great. They came out with a new version right after Leopard came out and it's even better, adding in downloading of your accounts from your bank and a couple other features. It uses CoreAnimation and all the fun jazz that Apple added in Leopard (it even won runner-up in the Apple Design Competition). I've been using it for about a year now to track all my finances and I find it works great. One of the best features is that you can create filters to automatically tag your finances as certain categories (for example, it will automatically tag anything from "Apple.com" as "Electronics" or "Safeway" as "Groceries", etc. With Quicken, I had to manually give a category for each transaction, every time.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03766875142205562260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-62690120579011959662008-04-22T11:15:00.000-04:002008-04-22T11:15:00.000-04:00@William: thanks for the FolioCalc link. Hadn't he...@William: thanks for the FolioCalc link. Hadn't heard of that one, though as you mention it's really for stocks, not the regular personal finance stuff. I think there may be an opportunity to get a series of applications for this space, not the big comprehensive one like Quicken represents. Portfolio management and personal finance really can be two separate applications that only need a couple of tie in points.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-66001797437989499082008-04-22T11:12:00.000-04:002008-04-22T11:12:00.000-04:00Moneydance looks pretty interesting Eric - I'll ch...Moneydance looks pretty interesting Eric - I'll check that out. JT - Mint looks pretty cool too, also on my short list to check out. For me personally I pay my bills online already and have that set up so Mint may actually be the answer for me.<BR/><BR/>@JT - thanks also for the nice comments man. I tried Warp out but experienced a couple of odd problems that went away when I stopped using it. Don't remember them specifically right now though...David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-32094507018277290552008-04-22T10:43:00.000-04:002008-04-22T10:43:00.000-04:00Same problem, I was stuck on Quicken for Windows b...Same problem, I was stuck on Quicken for Windows because they never kept the Mac version current, switched to Moneydance and never looked back. Worked fine with my banks/CC.EHM2000https://www.blogger.com/profile/15646878672269659244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-9477156778858578072008-04-22T09:58:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:58:00.000-04:00Hi David,I usually browse Apple's downloads page t...Hi David,<BR/><BR/>I usually browse Apple's <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/downloads/" REL="nofollow">downloads page</A> to find mac os x softwares.<BR/><BR/>And maybe here at <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/business_finance/" REL="nofollow">business and financial</A> is the software you need?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-51196177895842519622008-04-22T09:43:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:43:00.000-04:00I have a friend with the same problem. One sugges...I have a friend with the same problem. One suggestion I gave him was CrossOver Office to run Win Quicken without Windows. If it is just the stock stuff, I just saw FolioCalc reviewed here <BR/><BR/>http://macmegasite.com/node/4218<BR/><BR/>which might replace some of what is missing from Mac Quicken.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07734459097095037203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-87818723631152804992008-04-22T09:29:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:29:00.000-04:00Quicken works fine with CrossOver. I've been using...Quicken works fine with CrossOver. I've been using that for the last three months.<BR/><BR/>Probably works well with Fusion too.Mathieuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06868763699915500892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-27774944278242223882008-04-22T09:27:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:27:00.000-04:00@dimitrios - I had a few problems using both Fusio...@dimitrios - I had a few problems using both Fusion and Parallels on a Boot Camp partition, because Vista kept needing to be re-activated. Very annoying!Paul Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04130106865390601229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-27136267011400388362008-04-22T09:26:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:26:00.000-04:00Great blog! Keep up the great work. I'm a recent ...Great blog! Keep up the great work. I'm a recent die-hard Windows developer gone Mac as well. I love Spaces! Specifically the ability to anchor an application to a particular screen. The other shortcut I put into place was to tie the middle mouse button (Microsoft wireless 6000 setup) to display the Spaces "overview". Makes moving apps from one window to another much easier. Check out Warp (http://www.ksuther.com/warp) to modify some of the Spaces behavior. <BR/>Online banking is where it's at: mint.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-72859573925141259172008-04-22T09:22:00.000-04:002008-04-22T09:22:00.000-04:00With respect to financial software, you really don...With respect to financial software, you really don't have an alternative. I spent a long time trying out the various offerings on the Mac and found them lacking when compared to what is available on the PC. Now, folks have high hopes for what Quicken will release this year, but it is obvious that Intuit has let the Mac end of things languish over the past 5 years. <BR/><BR/>The only programs I couldn't find a Mac alternative for were Tag and Rename and Quicken. But who cares I use parallels for Quicken and usually wait till I have a good batch of mp3's before I use Tag and Rename on them. Not as convient as a native mac app, but it works and that is good enough for me.<BR/><BR/>I do have a question concerning virtualization software. Currently I have parallels accessing my boot camp partition and I am thinking of giving Fusion a try. Can I have both applications using the same boot camp partition? I won't be running Parallels and Fusion at the same time, but I will be using them both to access the same boot camp partition.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com