Category: Software

A few useful sites and tips I’ve recently found:

Better Spelling Quicker [From:What Do I Know] : Press F5 or Option+Esc to bring up an inline menu of spelling suggestions while typing in OS X Cocoa apps. Many other OS X shortcuts here [Apple.com]. Even more here [Rixstep.com].

An Alternative Search Engine with Potential [From:Doc Searls] – I’ve tried every search engine I’ve seen and so far none have come close to Google. IceRocket may just come close if you’re comparing search results alone. The thumbnails and blog search are great, useful features and with everything else on their site designed so close to Google you can hardly tell them apart, it’s a pretty good engine.

New Design Playgrounds – In addition to CSSVault, there are now CSSBeauty and Stylegala. For Flash I use Favourite Website Awards and Internet Tiny Awards.

[update 10/20/04 – added a link to additional OS X shortcuts]

1. Quicksilver – Application launcher/switcher, copies and moves files, global hotkeys, multi-item clipboard, web searching, calculator, dock replacement, the kitchen sink. Free.

2. Desktop Manager – A desktop switcher that’s useful and has cool effects. This application is especially useful when I’m on a computer with only one monitor. Free.

3. Magic Number Machine – A calculator that does enough without doing too much and still manages to look great. This has replaced the default OS X calculator for me. Free.

4. Cyberduck – A pretty good FTP program. The interface is simple and the most important features are there. Not as good as Filezilla on Windows, but good nonetheless. Free.

5. Adium X – A great multi-protocol IM program based on Gaim that is still heavily in development but works good and looks good even in it’s pre-1.0 state. Free.

6. WindowShade X – There wasn’t a whole lot that I liked about OS9, but windoshading was one of the things that impressed me. This app from Unsanity brings back that functionality. Shareware.

7. MenuCalendarClock – A quick calendar that resides in the top bar. I just use the basic functionality so it’s free.

8. ChiliSafe – Customizable secure password manager and generator. Free.

9. Font Sampler – A great way to compare multiple fonts on text you choose at one time. I use this application every time I design anything. Free.

10. Smultron – An excellent text editor with ActionsScript (and many others) syntax highlighting. Free.

That took longer than I though. Ten for today and I’ll add more soon…

So far I’ve found two fairly good, free, password managers for OS X.
1. Pastor – Does the job, not very customizable (read: not customizable at all). Pastor allows you to easily use several databases for different categories of passwords.

2. Chilisafe – Chilisafe allows you to have categories with four customizable fields. It’s currently free, but I’m not counting on it staying that way. Of the two, Chilisafe is definitely more powerful. It even has a built in password generator and great search capabilities.

[update 10/18/04 – added The Vault]

3. The Vault – This is a freeform secure information storage solution. I like how you’re not restricted to the fields that come by default with most password managers. You get full text formatting options and from my quick tests there aren’t any arbitrary limits on the amount of text in the field. Categories might be nice, but for what it does, and the price (free) it’s not bad at all.

I have the OS X version of Firefox PR 1 installed on two seperate machines. At work I can hardly use Flash textboxes at all because every time I try to type in one the focus shifts from the text box to the automatic search feature. At home, I can fill type in Flash forms, but it still comes up with the find dialog and beeps every letter I type. I know I could disable that feature, but it seems like Firefox would be smarter than that at this point. If you’d like to try it, try typing in the Flash comments box on this entry (obviously don’t submit whatever random snippet of text you use to test).

I know what you’re thinking… bugzilla… I have tried that but it’s such a hassle to submit bugs there. Maybe I’ll go do the right thing anyway.

This is just a reminder to myself that to make the iTunes window smaller on OS X you click the “+” button. + == – . If you’re on a PC, press ctrl+m to make the window small.

I have used OS X for about a year… maybe I’m alone in this, but I can’t get used to pressing “+” to make something smaller. Not a big deal, but it’s kind of strange to me.

Until Maqx.com starts to get a little more noticed, I’ll cross link some articles here. This article goes over some of the features you can expect to see in the yet-to-be released Mozilla Firefox 1.0.

I like operating systems, but I never thought I would BE one. According to bbspot I’m OS X. Nice… I’ve known was destined to use a Mac since OS X was released.

I found the link on PocketPC Thoughts, my favorite PocketPC site. If you’re interested in Operating systems (or if you take the test and get labeled as an OS you’re unfamiliar with), check out OSNews (I’ve been published there several times). It’s a good blog for all things operating systems.

Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, did not use a the same file format for email between Outlook and Entourage (their Mac version of Outlook). The solution I’m using to get mail from Outlook to Entourage is to first upload the mail to an IMAP mail server in Outlook, then download it again in Entourage. Nothing is lost–attachments, formatting, everything is retained. I’m going from Outlook to Entourage, but I’d guess the process is the same both ways.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t have an IMAP server sitting in your closet. Luckily, there are alternatives. I found St. Georges International Email Service. They offer 3gb (yes, gigabytes) of free IMAP email. No ads, no crazy sign up process, nothing. How they do it, I have no idea, but I’m using it to transfer mail and it’s working fine.

Despite the title of this article, I love WindowShade X. It’s software for Mac OS X that brings back the functionality of rolling up windows to just the title bar that OS 9 had. Not only does it do that, but it also lets you shrink windows down to small boxes you can place anywhere on your screen.

What frustrates me is that when WindowShade X is running, windows get “stuck” behind other windows. I happens sometimes with pretty much every program I use, but it seems like Firefox and Dreamweaver are the biggest culprits. Even newly created windows will sometimes appear behind existing windows and they’re impossible to get at unless you minimize the windows in front of them. It’s frustrating.

Even more frustrating is that I emailed them a few months ago and they replied saying they’re aware of the problem but have still done nothing as fix it. It’s not so much that I’m frustrated at them, but more at the fact that a program that has almost eliminated my need for the dock (and that I paid for) is almost unusable because of this pretty major bug. I hope they work it out soon, or that someone comes up with some competition. The concept is excellent and overall, so is the implementation.

For Windows, Winroll does a great job of Window Shading.