Comments on: My Current Mac Applications http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/ The weblog of an IT pro specializing in virtualization, storage, and servers Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:13:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: slowe http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44035 slowe Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:12:28 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44035 Wow, that drive isn't cheap. Now I have to decide if I want to do that to my current MBP, or wait until I upgrade...decisions, decisions! Thanks for the link, Brad. Wow, that drive isn’t cheap. Now I have to decide if I want to do that to my current MBP, or wait until I upgrade…decisions, decisions!

Thanks for the link, Brad.

]]> By: Brad Hedlund http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44033 Brad Hedlund Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:06:21 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44033 Scott, http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_sata_ii_2_5-ssd Amazon has it in stock. Scott,

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

Amazon has it in stock.

]]> By: slowe http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44020 slowe Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:17:05 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44020 Andrew, Good list of your own--thanks for sharing it! I do use Perian and TinkerTool (forgot to mention those). Brad, Send me a link to that drive--I'm shopping for a new hard drive for my MBP and might want to go that route. Thanks! Tony, I love Handbrake! Forgot to mention that one, too. Roland, I tried iTerm but just couldn't get into it--it never seemed as comfortable as plain old Terminal. I'm not a big fan of tabs, anyway, so the idea of a tabbed terminal doesn't really do anything for me. I don't use tabs in NetNewsWire, or Camino, or Safari, or Adium. I prefer individual windows. Ernie, I'm not a huge user of torrents, so I've never had any great need for an advanced BitTorrent client. Quicksilver takes some time to get used to using--if you don't give yourself a couple of weeks with it, you'll just toss it aside. After a couple of weeks of really using it, though, I suspect you'll come to love it. Thanks for responding everyone! Keep the comments coming. Andrew,

Good list of your own–thanks for sharing it! I do use Perian and TinkerTool (forgot to mention those).

Brad,

Send me a link to that drive–I’m shopping for a new hard drive for my MBP and might want to go that route. Thanks!

Tony,

I love Handbrake! Forgot to mention that one, too.

Roland,

I tried iTerm but just couldn’t get into it–it never seemed as comfortable as plain old Terminal. I’m not a big fan of tabs, anyway, so the idea of a tabbed terminal doesn’t really do anything for me. I don’t use tabs in NetNewsWire, or Camino, or Safari, or Adium. I prefer individual windows.

Ernie,

I’m not a huge user of torrents, so I’ve never had any great need for an advanced BitTorrent client. Quicksilver takes some time to get used to using–if you don’t give yourself a couple of weeks with it, you’ll just toss it aside. After a couple of weeks of really using it, though, I suspect you’ll come to love it.

Thanks for responding everyone! Keep the comments coming.

]]> By: Ernie Oporto http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44018 Ernie Oporto Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:35:25 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44018 Great thread. I have love using the CLI on my Mac, but somehow I can't really get into Quicksilver. Chicken of the VNC is a must for managing my servers at home, although I recommend NX from nomachine.com for the same type of access through your firewalls. I agree that Microsoft Office is a must, although I've been hobbling on OpenOffice on my Mac Mini until I get my MacBook Pro in a few months. TextMate is a wonderful modular text editor. I really liked it when I demo'd it, but found that I had just as much functionality when I ssh'd from the Mac into my unix systems. I didn't really like Transmission since I come from the PC world, previously using uTorrent and thought it was missing a few features. The authors were pretty adamant about not ever wanting to add those, so I was pretty happy when uTorrent shipped a native client for Mac. My list: Adium Cyberduck Evernote Firefox Handbrake iTalk Sync Last.fm MacVim Mozy Tweetdeck NX OpenOffice Slingplayer uTorrent ZumoDrive Great thread.
I have love using the CLI on my Mac, but somehow I can’t really get into Quicksilver.
Chicken of the VNC is a must for managing my servers at home, although I recommend NX from nomachine.com for the same type of access through your firewalls.
I agree that Microsoft Office is a must, although I’ve been hobbling on OpenOffice on my Mac Mini until I get my MacBook Pro in a few months.
TextMate is a wonderful modular text editor. I really liked it when I demo’d it, but found that I had just as much functionality when I ssh’d from the Mac into my unix systems.
I didn’t really like Transmission since I come from the PC world, previously using uTorrent and thought it was missing a few features. The authors were pretty adamant about not ever wanting to add those, so I was pretty happy when uTorrent shipped a native client for Mac.

My list:
Adium
Cyberduck
Evernote
Firefox
Handbrake
iTalk Sync
Last.fm
MacVim
Mozy
Tweetdeck
NX
OpenOffice
Slingplayer
uTorrent
ZumoDrive

]]> By: Roland http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44016 Roland Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:31:29 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44016 What about iTerm? I really use it a lot! What about iTerm? I really use it a lot!

]]> By: Tony http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44007 Tony Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:14:52 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44007 DOH...someone beat me but Flip for Mac for any Windows convert and Handbrake as well. I've recently become a fan of XMind for mindmapping which seems to be a popular trend lately! DOH…someone beat me but Flip for Mac for any Windows convert and Handbrake as well. I’ve recently become a fan of XMind for mindmapping which seems to be a popular trend lately!

]]> By: Brad Hedlund http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44004 Brad Hedlund Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:09:52 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44004 Scott, On the topic of Mac's -- I just installed the new OCZ Vertex series 250GB SSD into my MacBook Pro. All I can say is WOW! My desktop and all the start-up apps (My Day etc.) fully load within 3 seconds, what used to take 20+ seconds. The Mac also shuts down very fast -- no more annoying hang. The battery life might be a little better, nothing extraordinary, but there is a noticeable reduction in the heat output --- not cooking my legs anymore when sitting in bed with the Mac on my lap. Scott,
On the topic of Mac’s — I just installed the new OCZ Vertex series 250GB SSD into my MacBook Pro. All I can say is WOW!
My desktop and all the start-up apps (My Day etc.) fully load within 3 seconds, what used to take 20+ seconds.
The Mac also shuts down very fast — no more annoying hang.
The battery life might be a little better, nothing extraordinary, but there is a noticeable reduction in the heat output — not cooking my legs anymore when sitting in bed with the Mac on my lap.

]]> By: Andrew Miller http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-44003 Andrew Miller Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:40:49 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/03/27/my-current-mac-applications/#comment-44003 Great list...if only because it overlaps a good bit with the one I've sent people at various times (which makes me feel good ;-). Some additional items I might stick in there would be... (stealing from my email) -TextWrangler - free and very good (little brother to BBEdit). Smultron is also free but I prefer TextWrangler (even after trying TextMate off and on). -Transmit - shareware (but worth it) - probably the best file transfer client on Mac (SCP, SFTP, FTP, S3) - CyberDuck is definitely nice for free but I've found I prefer Transmit over Interarcy. -SmartReporter - free - nice SMART status monitor that goes in your menubar -Menumeters - free - fantastic menubar item for bandwidth, cpu, disk and memory monitoring (donations requested) -Memory - go to 4 GB if not 6 GB (if you look, a quality 4 GB chip isn't too bad) -Perian - free - lets you place lots of video codecs inside QuickTime -Flip4Mac - free - lets you play M$ specific codecs inside quicktime -Unplugged - free - handy power notifications whenever plug/unplug + levels -MenuCalendarClock iCal - free (if disable extra features) - turn off the builtin menu clock and use this for a nice calendar dropdown -Shimo - free - clean VPN client frontend that's integrated into the menubar/Growl/etc. -Tinkertool - free - lets you tinker with lots of hidden settings (that you'd have to adjust using the Terminal otherwise) -SmartSleep (if using a laptop)  - lets you toggle the sleep modes depending on battery level - very important -ie4osx - nice lightweight way to run IE 6 on your machine (Intel only) for sites that require it Great list…if only because it overlaps a good bit with the one I’ve sent people at various times (which makes me feel good ;-) .

Some additional items I might stick in there would be… (stealing from my email)

-TextWrangler – free and very good (little brother to BBEdit). Smultron is also free but I prefer TextWrangler (even after trying TextMate off and on).
-Transmit – shareware (but worth it) – probably the best file transfer client on Mac (SCP, SFTP, FTP, S3) – CyberDuck is definitely nice for free but I’ve found I prefer Transmit over Interarcy.
-SmartReporter – free – nice SMART status monitor that goes in your menubar
-Menumeters – free – fantastic menubar item for bandwidth, cpu, disk and memory monitoring (donations requested)
-Memory – go to 4 GB if not 6 GB (if you look, a quality 4 GB chip isn’t too bad)
-Perian – free – lets you place lots of video codecs inside QuickTime
-Flip4Mac – free – lets you play M$ specific codecs inside quicktime
-Unplugged – free – handy power notifications whenever plug/unplug + levels
-MenuCalendarClock iCal – free (if disable extra features) – turn off the builtin menu clock and use this for a nice calendar dropdown
-Shimo – free – clean VPN client frontend that’s integrated into the menubar/Growl/etc.
-Tinkertool – free – lets you tinker with lots of hidden settings (that you’d have to adjust using the Terminal otherwise)
-SmartSleep (if using a laptop)  - lets you toggle the sleep modes depending on battery level – very important
-ie4osx – nice lightweight way to run IE 6 on your machine (Intel only) for sites that require it

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