Comments on David Alison's Blog: After three weeks, what's really being used?

My guess from the date of your purchase is that yo...

2008-03-18T09:26:00.000-04:00

My guess from the date of your purchase is that you've got a trial of Microsoft Office 2004. If this is the case, I'd strongly recommend downloading the Office 2008 trial instead. Office 2004 is written in PowerPC code so there is constant translation (Rosetta) going on under the hood for running it on your Intel MacBook.

Hi!To burn CDs, you should take a look at LiquidCD...

2008-03-17T17:54:00.000-04:00

Hi!

To burn CDs, you should take a look at LiquidCD here:

http://maconnect.ch/index.php?page=&lang=en

Donationware ... :o)

@austin: You read my mind man! As this blog starte...

2008-03-15T06:35:00.000-04:00

@austin: You read my mind man! As this blog started to go crazy from the Digg traffic I was writing a post about it! Should appear later today.

@chris: I downloaded and installed Coda but didn't care too much for it. Not sure why now - I've looked at so many applications over the last 2 months some are starting to run together. For many years I was a HomeSite user on Windows and lately I've been doing my HTML and CSS within my Visual Studio environment, though I'm not tuning my UI yet. When I reach that stage I'll need to find something else that is Mac based. Thanks for the comments Chris.

Hi David,Really interesting reading - I converted ...

2008-03-15T04:20:00.000-04:00

Hi David,

Really interesting reading - I converted quite a few years ago and have never looked back. My brother has now just decided to take the plunge so I'm sure this blog will be quite useful.

If you're creating CSS websites you maybe interested in Coda which is a very slick little app for editing HTML, CSS and all sorts of scripts within a single development environment with a stripped down version of their sister product Transmit built in to handle FTP. It's a real joy to use, especially for quick changes to a site.

David-- You mentioned that you're only using Mail....

2008-03-15T01:22:00.000-04:00

David--
You mentioned that you're only using Mail.app for new email notification and to use sendto: links? Try Google Notifier. It's lightweight and does exactly that, as well as pop up notifications from Google Calendar if you so choose. I used to use Mail.app for the same things you are, but I made the switch and have been perfectly delighted-- it basically acts as if the gmail web interface is your default email client, and will pull open a new window/tab in your default browser to work with. (You did mention that you like Mail.app for offline messaging, though, and that's the one thing Gmail Notifier can't do.)

Oh, random other apps you might want to look into:...

2008-03-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

Oh, random other apps you might want to look into:

This is what I use to unzip/rar/stuffit files. It's free, not annoying like Stuffit, and acts like the built in unzipper in 10.4/10.5.
Unarchiver:
http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

This is about the only video codec you need. Handles divx/xvid and tons others. Between this and the Flip4Mac, my Mini can play everything I need.
Perian:
http://perian.org/

Microsoft now provides Flip4Mac for WMV playback for free:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

Awesome DVD encoding program. Want to shrink a DVD down to an mpeg4 file for the PSP? No problem. Simple and easy, much better then the chain of programs normally needed on Windows to do the same.
Handbrake:
http://handbrake.m0k.org/

For quick crops, Apple's Preview.app works great!

2008-03-14T17:06:00.000-04:00

For quick crops, Apple's Preview.app works great!

A few comments:Take a look at the Omnigroup. Their...

2008-03-14T16:52:00.000-04:00

A few comments:

Take a look at the Omnigroup. Their Omnigraffle Pro reads/writes Visio files, and all their programs are first-rate.

I hear Google is working on a version of Picasa for the Mac, but I also recommend Adobe's Lightroom.

TextWrangler is a free version of BBEdit and doesn't have many of its features. I haven't used Text Mate enough, but I swear by BBEdit.

Ok, this is coming from a documentary photographer...

2008-03-14T15:52:00.000-04:00

Ok, this is coming from a documentary photographer, get lightroom from adobe. It is a photo archiver, raw developer, global toner, slide show/print/web page creator, library browser, and import program all in one. It has become the first step in my work flow. Most images don't need anything other than global color and exposure correction, and the develop tab in lightroom does that stuff really really well. If you need localized corrections load the image into your photo-editor of choice using the in-program export functionality, and burn dodge and clone to your hearts content. All the while the changes you made to the image are tracked by lightroom and a copy of the image is left untouched just in case you want to come back and reedit.

I think you might want to look at Aperture 2 for y...

2008-03-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

I think you might want to look at Aperture 2 for your photo needs!

For iChat/Adium, keep in mind you can set AIM to a...

2008-03-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

For iChat/Adium, keep in mind you can set AIM to allow multiple connections from the same account, allowing both to be open and on the same login. It's a little weird how messages are delivered in duplicate, but what I tend to do is just run Adium normally. If someone messages me wanting to voice or video chat, I pop open iChat without shutting down Adium, keeping me connected to MSN and the others as well while video chatting.

For iTunes, try using the sharing feature. Pick one of the machines to be your master box where you save all your music, then just stream it over the network. It's pretty seamless, but editing of the music can only be done on the machine doing the sharing.

If you want to continue down the Apple hardware chain, buying an Airport Express will allow you to stream your music from iTunes to any speakers in the house. It also does synchronized playback, so you can have the same music playing on both your computer speakers, and the Airport Express speakers.

I'll second what the other guy said about the old ...

2008-03-14T14:51:00.000-04:00

I'll second what the other guy said about the old version of iMovie. The newest version is, in fact, an entirely new program that has replaced the old iMovie. It's meant to be kinda dumbed down for the average person, but the old iMovie is much more powerful, and it's available free to anyone with iLife '08

My text editor of choice continues to be UltraEdit...

2008-03-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

My text editor of choice continues to be UltraEdit on Windows. I've still got the eval version of TextMate and will likely buy it when it runs out though.

I'm in the same boat as you -- developer moving fr...

2008-03-14T14:06:00.000-04:00

I'm in the same boat as you -- developer moving from Windows to Mac.

I've got to say, I've still yet to find an editor I like. Textmate just doesn't feel right to me for some reason. It's like I'm fighting it to get it to do what I want.

skEdit is OK for basic HTML.

TextWrangler seems to underpowered.

I used the GWD Editor or years on Windows, and it let me do so much that I've been hard pressed to find something in Mac that gives me the same flexibility.

If you want a text editor, definitely use BBEdit, ...

2008-03-14T13:51:00.000-04:00

If you want a text editor, definitely use BBEdit, it has tons of features for a text editor and does highlighting for like every different language.

You may want to download (free from Apple) the pre...

2008-03-14T13:27:00.000-04:00

You may want to download (free from Apple) the previous version of iMovie.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

Oh okay. Link seems find to me, but no matter, th...

2008-02-23T17:26:00.000-05:00

Oh okay. Link seems find to me, but no matter, the point is you got to the post!

I find it odd that Blogger leaves the comment with that dialogue, as opposed to just removing it completely....

Sorry man - my note was that your URL is incorrect...

2008-02-23T17:06:00.000-05:00

Sorry man - my note was that your URL is incorrect - a 404 came up. I figured out what it was though. Should be http://vitostechblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/piclens.html

This post has been removed by the author.insightfu...

2008-02-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

This post has been removed by the author.

insightful!

:)

Ha! I actually laughed out loud! Thats great. On Q...

2008-02-23T16:42:00.000-05:00

Ha! I actually laughed out loud! Thats great.

On Quicksilver- I would try it for at least a week, I have a feeling you will really love it. It makes doing any task so much easier.

P.S.- While we're on the topic of great software, check this out!

http://vitostechblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/piclens.html

Wow Vito! You read my mind! I had already download...

2008-02-23T16:35:00.001-05:00

Wow Vito! You read my mind! I had already downloaded Gimp. It's my graphical editor on Linux so I figured I'd give it a try on Mac. Then a buddy of mine pointed me towards Pixelmator. I installed that this morning. Really impressed! For my limited needs right now it may just be the answer.

I hadn't heard about Quicksilver - I'll check it out. Thanks man!

By the way-- Adium is a great client, but as of ye...

2008-02-23T16:35:00.000-05:00

By the way-- Adium is a great client, but as of yet, it does not support A/V chat. So if you want text/audio/video all in one, I'd stick to iChat.

A few suggestions-Photo Software:1. http://www.gi...

2008-02-23T16:32:00.000-05:00

A few suggestions-

Photo Software:

1. http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

free-many features-free-like a watered-down photoshop-FREE!

2. http://www.pixelmator.com/

$60 (substantially cheaper than Ps)-cleaner than gimp-very nice for touching up- some features gimp lacks

Check out the websites and see which one caters to your needs/budget.

Of course Photoshop is the eventual ultimatum, but these programs should start you off on the right foot.

I also suggest Quicksilver found here: http://www.blacktree.com/

It is a launcher at first glance, but in my opinion the best peice of software for OS X today. You have to try it to believe it.

(Sorry for such a long comment, and the fact that I cant embed hyperlinks)