tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post4819539414659531962..comments2024-03-19T13:29:04.853-04:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: My critical applications 5 months after switchingDavid Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-34806054909730544052008-07-10T14:21:00.000-04:002008-07-10T14:21:00.000-04:00instead of using the Terminal , I think you can al...instead of using the Terminal , I think you can also try iTerm. <BR/><BR/>It is more user-friendly. It has keyboard shortcut for switching tab view, you can bookmark a connection and you can detach one of the tab into a new windows just simply drag it out. And it is also free and open source. It would be one of the best tool for the Rails developer<BR/><BR/>http://iterm.sourceforge.net/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-31013822828964302242008-07-06T20:14:00.000-04:002008-07-06T20:14:00.000-04:00I wouldn't mind del.icio.us support in Launchbar e...I wouldn't mind del.icio.us support in Launchbar either. Check out this thread for some options though. http://forums.obdev.at/viewtopic.php?t=291&highlight=del+icio<BR/><BR/>I'll repeat what Henderson said though. Launchbar does allow you to interact with your system like Quicksilver does. I found you don't need things like triggers in LB. It's so much smarter then Quicksilver at searching that you can just go directly to whatever you want to use rather then jumping through hoops. It's also smarter to train and seems to pick up your abbreviations easier.Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05541440256386713435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-3939856299727809672008-07-04T18:26:00.000-04:002008-07-04T18:26:00.000-04:00It's great to see a fellow switcher who likes the ...It's great to see a fellow switcher who likes the same apps as I do! Again, I am so impressed with your blog! Hope we can build a partnership in sharing Mac ideas and internet greatness! :)<BR/><BR/>I've yet to catch on to Quicksilver. I've tried it and just don't see what everyone else loves about it? So odd to me.<BR/><BR/>Ditto about the rest of your apps! Gotta love iStat as well and NetNewsWire is the best RSS yet.<BR/><BR/>Have you played around with Snackr? It's a beautiful Adobe Air interfaced RSS reader... check out my post:<BR/>http://www.jeffmccord.org/snackr-displaying-feeds-on-your-desktop/<BR/><BR/>JeffAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-21968662964760588132008-07-01T16:06:00.000-04:002008-07-01T16:06:00.000-04:00@Hedrick: Not sure what del.icio.us was doing for ...@Hedrick: Not sure what del.icio.us was doing for you. MobileMe might replace that but for $$$ vs free. Doing a search at <A HREF="http://www.macupdate.com/del.icio.us" REL="nofollow">macupdate.com</A> showed lots of hits on software for del.ici.ous.<BR/><BR/>No idea what triggers you had in mind. There are Folder Actions which are triggers on folders that run AppleScripts.<BR/><BR/>@David: There's a TON of power in Pages within the Inspectors. I like having multiple Inspectors open on my secondary display. Nisus writer is a good sidegrade from Pages if you need more power though it sounds like you won't need it.<BR/><BR/>And, as for your Spotlight troubles, it seems to me that Apple used the excuse of the iPhone to delay Leopard and should have pushed it later. Alas, It needed more time to bake. Tiger wasn't perfect on the initial release, but seemed to be more stable than Leo has been. With the <A HREF="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/7" REL="nofollow">underlying changes in Leo</A>, I would expect Leo's Spotlight to be more robust.<BR/><BR/>Apple had to touch tons of code for Leo when they moved/cloned everything to 64bit. For that alone, they needed more time.Pecos Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09469974574985555865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-67209006727596581592008-07-01T14:03:00.000-04:002008-07-01T14:03:00.000-04:00@Jon: Launchbar is not just a launcher/searcher ei...@Jon: Launchbar is not just a launcher/searcher either. While it certainly doesn't have as many features as Quicksilver it does have the most commonly used ones and makes them even quicker to access than QS. The only things I am really missing after switching are the del.icio.us integration and triggers.Hendrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00440554493209332488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-88988626126127472642008-07-01T12:44:00.000-04:002008-07-01T12:44:00.000-04:00@Pardo - The main thing that differentiates Quicks...@Pardo - The main thing that differentiates Quicksilver from Spotlight or apps like Launchbar is the fact that Quicksilver is not <I>just</I> a search/launcer app. It allows you to interact with the system and your apps in unusual and powerful ways. MacBreak has a nice introductory segment on Quicksilver done by Merlin Mann, GTD guru extraordinaire.<BR/><BR/>http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=119110543&s=143441<BR/><BR/>It shows you the sorts of things that can be done with QS, without bogging you down in minutiae. Hopes this gives you at least an understanding, if not an appreciation, for why so many love this application.CamperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10863440889456753061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-13593067821020299692008-06-30T18:56:00.000-04:002008-06-30T18:56:00.000-04:00Mr. Alison,I noted that you are starting to use Om...Mr. Alison,<BR/><BR/>I noted that you are starting to use Omnigraffle instead of visio for your flowcharting. I use Visio for electrical diagrams, but had difficulty in creating and modifying shapes. <BR/>How difficult is it to modify and/or create shapes in Omnigraffle?<BR/><BR/>Jim.Mad Russian the Natural Philosopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02079921563614293942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-59075970139192387992008-06-30T18:49:00.000-04:002008-06-30T18:49:00.000-04:00Nice post. Your list is extremely similar to my ow...Nice post. Your list is extremely similar to my own. Except, I actually switched from Quicksilver to Launchbar (because Quicksilver had been somewhat unstable for me since Leopard and I had a Launchbar license from a bundle deal) and I am using Lightroom instead of iPhoto.<BR/>The one additional application I can think of that I am using on a daily basis is <A HREF="http://www.culturedcode.com/things/" REL="nofollow">Things</A> for task management.Hendrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00440554493209332488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-22272365224561701922008-06-30T18:13:00.000-04:002008-06-30T18:13:00.000-04:00@Pardo: Like I said, it does take time to apprecia...@Pardo: Like I said, it does take time to appreciate Quicksilver. I lost a bit of confidence in Spotlight because I've had the index for it become <A HREF="http://www.davidalison.com/2008/04/when-spotlight-stops-spotting-files.html" REL="nofollow">corrupted on me a couple of times</A>. I've had no such issue with Quicksilver so far. It also seems considerably faster to me.<BR/><BR/>@Anon: Yep, I access my Newsgator account on my iPod Touch so everything remains in synch.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-26421816813524572642008-06-30T16:20:00.000-04:002008-06-30T16:20:00.000-04:00Hey David love your blog. Really great stuff. It f...Hey David love your blog. Really great stuff. It features prominently on NetNewsWire. Just wondering how do you sync NNW with your ipod touch? are you using News Gator to read it on the Touch?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-61127814116585995102008-06-30T16:07:00.000-04:002008-06-30T16:07:00.000-04:00Don't forget that iChat also has the incredibly ea...Don't forget that iChat also has the incredibly easy Screen Sharing with other Leopard users!<BR/><BR/>GypsyHeartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-26976791306732384942008-06-30T15:58:00.000-04:002008-06-30T15:58:00.000-04:00david - i am still not seeing the value to quicksi...david - i am still not seeing the value to quicksilver over spotlight. maybe i need another month....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-64490555859297382152008-06-30T15:48:00.000-04:002008-06-30T15:48:00.000-04:00@Ast: Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.@Stev...@Ast: Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.<BR/><BR/>@Stevebert: I have searched through the iChat logs to get at the past transcripts with people and while it is functional I really prefer the single click on the little clock icon in Adium to quickly get to a nicely structured history of my conversations. It really is a convenience issue more than anything else.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-71354128345546573562008-06-30T13:50:00.000-04:002008-06-30T13:50:00.000-04:00I know a few other folks who use Adium because the...I know a few other folks who use Adium because they like the way it displays chat history. But iChat also has an option to save all your coversations and if your using Leopard they can be found quickly with Spotlight and viewed just as quickly with Finder Quick Look. To save, open iChat prefs, enable Messages / Automatically save(...) and all your new chats are saved. You can browse them in the Finder and open them for viewing in iChat, but what's really cool is if you use Spotlight, search for "name:(name of other person) kind:Chat" in the search field and you'll get a list of all your saved conversations with that person. (You don't even need the full name of the other person, just a fragment that matches.) If you do the search from a Finder window, you can select a file and hit space bar (Quick Look) to see the whole saved chat without launching iChat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-4962216468169309922008-06-30T13:39:00.000-04:002008-06-30T13:39:00.000-04:00You might want to give Nisus Writer a shot:http://...You might want to give Nisus Writer a shot:<BR/><BR/>http://www.nisus.com/pro/<BR/><BR/>I'm a professional translator and have tried out numerous word processors. I can assure you that Nisus is the best product out there. Its "live thesaurus" feature alone is a killer one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-23324846401107717812008-06-30T13:15:00.000-04:002008-06-30T13:15:00.000-04:00QuickSilver makes the Mac experience! It should be...QuickSilver makes the Mac experience! It should be an integral part of the OS. <BR/><BR/>I have mine set to fire with a Fn key double tap. I also love using Command-G to grab the Finder selection.<BR/><BR/>Windows just feels so clunky anymore.Deanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823477216439224583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-51972454794190356182008-06-30T12:14:00.000-04:002008-06-30T12:14:00.000-04:00Chris: "and being able to Alt-Tab and mouse arrow ...Chris: "and being able to Alt-Tab and mouse arrow to the app I want"<BR/><BR/>I think you mean command-tab.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-86188518914077777122008-06-30T12:11:00.000-04:002008-06-30T12:11:00.000-04:00"The integration of the iTunes store into it is ni..."The integration of the iTunes store into it is nice and seamless, making the purchase experience about as easy as it gets."<BR/><BR/>Sometimes too easy. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-30775754017659394912008-06-30T11:37:00.000-04:002008-06-30T11:37:00.000-04:00Great list, David. Glad to see Quicksilver in its...Great list, David. Glad to see Quicksilver in its rightful place at the top of the list. When I'm in my "real job" - using a corporate-mandated Windows machine - I always find myself by habit hitting the key combo for Quicksilver. And getting nothing, of course. Depressing.<BR/><BR/>Quicksilver, Exposé, and being able to Alt-Tab and mouse arrow to the app I want (rather than cycle through them all) are perhaps the most frequently-encountered things (out of the hundreds) I miss about my Mac while I'm on the office Windows machine.<BR/><BR/>Bleh. I need a non-Windows-exclusive job.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com