Comments on: A Year In The Life Of A Secret Mac User http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/ Software and opinions roaming wild in China Tue, 13 May 2008 18:57:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: AAA Copywriter http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-48678 AAA Copywriter Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:29:23 +0000 http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-48678 Well, what can I say, being a Mac user (and lover) since 1987? Apple sure focused on excellent design, but often some of their machines are awkward to handle, and I still complain about silly and rally unpleasant bugs in Mac OS X. However, I wold not switch to Win for any reason. If even Macs' defects get on my nerves, I know they still are better suited to my that anything I can think of... ;) <i>Alex</i> Well, what can I say, being a Mac user (and lover) since 1987? Apple sure focused on excellent design, but often some of their machines are awkward to handle, and I still complain about silly and rally unpleasant bugs in Mac OS X. However, I wold not switch to Win for any reason. If even Macs' defects get on my nerves, I know they still are better suited to my that anything I can think of... ;)
Alex

]]> By: Beppone http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-39167 Beppone Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:26:35 +0000 http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-39167 Thank's from a switcher... nice post Thank's from a switcher... nice post

]]> By: Alec http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-37054 Alec Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:49:12 +0000 http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-37054 Interesting choice of apps. We came down almost always on the opposite side. Mail = Eudora Text = BBEdit Dashboard = none, with Art Director's Toolkit, XE.com, Menu Meters doing substitute duty Quicksilver = Butler Fusion = real PC under desk One thing to keep in mind is that if you ever activate dashboard, all those widgets suck up memory for the life of that boot. I've tried to disable all the dashboard hotkeys and corners to make sure that it doesn't jump into action. I have come around to the use of 1passwd which is very good in the latest versions. I think the difference in application choices goes back to being an OS 9 user. I already had quite a bit of time invested into BBEdit and Eudora before switching to OS X. Ultimately as a work environment, I still prefer OS 9. Of course, I don't miss the application crashes which would take down a system (worst with the web browsers). But for look and feel and speed and effiiciency, OS 9 set a standard which may never be surpassed. The only real long term hope is a flavour of Linux. Both Microsoft and Apple have much too high an investment in increasing hardware requirements and hence sloppy and inefficient coding. Interesting choice of apps. We came down almost always on the opposite side.

Mail = Eudora
Text = BBEdit
Dashboard = none, with Art Director's Toolkit, XE.com, Menu Meters doing substitute duty
Quicksilver = Butler
Fusion = real PC under desk

One thing to keep in mind is that if you ever activate dashboard, all those widgets suck up memory for the life of that boot. I've tried to disable all the dashboard hotkeys and corners to make sure that it doesn't jump into action.

I have come around to the use of 1passwd which is very good in the latest versions.

I think the difference in application choices goes back to being an OS 9 user. I already had quite a bit of time invested into BBEdit and Eudora before switching to OS X. Ultimately as a work environment, I still prefer OS 9. Of course, I don't miss the application crashes which would take down a system (worst with the web browsers). But for look and feel and speed and effiiciency, OS 9 set a standard which may never be surpassed.

The only real long term hope is a flavour of Linux. Both Microsoft and Apple have much too high an investment in increasing hardware requirements and hence sloppy and inefficient coding.

]]> By: John http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-36301 John Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:54:03 +0000 http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-36301 I've only had one problem with 1passwd so far, where it constantly forgets an SVN password on one particular site. No idea why, as it manages fine on others. The 1passwd team seem to be very active and hopefully it will get covered by a new release. I was using Mail Badger (similar to Dockstar, and free), but after months of it working perfectly it stopped one day and wouldn't allow me to select the Mail window (it would always hide behind everything else). I removed the plugin and everything returned to normal. A shame as I really liked the tool. I'll have to take a look at Dockstar as an alternative. The colour picker is <a href="http://colourmod.com/dashboard/" rel="nofollow">ColorMod</a>. It doesn't have an eyedropper, but it's otherwise a great little tool to have tucked away I've only had one problem with 1passwd so far, where it constantly forgets an SVN password on one particular site. No idea why, as it manages fine on others. The 1passwd team seem to be very active and hopefully it will get covered by a new release.

I was using Mail Badger (similar to Dockstar, and free), but after months of it working perfectly it stopped one day and wouldn't allow me to select the Mail window (it would always hide behind everything else). I removed the plugin and everything returned to normal. A shame as I really liked the tool. I'll have to take a look at Dockstar as an alternative.

The colour picker is ColorMod. It doesn't have an eyedropper, but it's otherwise a great little tool to have tucked away

]]> By: Rob http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-36280 Rob Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:12:55 +0000 http://urbangiraffe.com/2007/09/20/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-secret-mac-user/#comment-36280 Cool, always good to meet a fellow Mac person. It's funny how much similarity we have in this post. I bought a Mini almost a year ago and love it. Although I'd been using a G4 PowerMac for the last 6 years. I use my Mini as a media center, which is very fun. I use EyeTV for recording over-the-air HDTV. Apple's FrontRow gives a media-rich experience. And I use RemoteBuddy for a replacement Apple Remote utility. It's like Quicksilver for the remote. I use a lot of the apps you mentioned. 1passwd is really nice. Sadly, its success rate on the sites I use it most aren't quite as high as its competition in the Windows world: Roboform. But one can hope that it will improve over time. 1passwd is also still missing a portable version, which Roboform has. I really love carrying my Roboform passwords with me, as I have many, many forum and web login both at the office and and home. Mail Act-On. I love this little wonder app! The people who make it also make Mailtags, which is a full-blown productivity manager and hooks into iCal. Pretty nifty. Speaking of Mail addons, have you seen Dockstar? I love it. It's not free, but it's so neat, you'll want to own it too. I see you have iStatPro. Wow, this is a fantastic widget, isn't it?! What is your color picker widget? That looks nice, and I love the idea of that being a widget. I'm constantly needing a color picker but the utils I've tried are always in the way. Will yours allow you to pick color from anything on the desktop? What about TextWrangler? I like it a lot, although I'll have to try TextMate. Gotta love QuickSilver! Isn't iGTD fun? I just recently discovered the whole GTD craze. I will definitely look into the CocoaMySQL app. Looks promising. Cool, always good to meet a fellow Mac person. It's funny how much similarity we have in this post. I bought a Mini almost a year ago and love it. Although I'd been using a G4 PowerMac for the last 6 years. I use my Mini as a media center, which is very fun. I use EyeTV for recording over-the-air HDTV. Apple's FrontRow gives a media-rich experience. And I use RemoteBuddy for a replacement Apple Remote utility. It's like Quicksilver for the remote.

I use a lot of the apps you mentioned. 1passwd is really nice. Sadly, its success rate on the sites I use it most aren't quite as high as its competition in the Windows world: Roboform. But one can hope that it will improve over time. 1passwd is also still missing a portable version, which Roboform has. I really love carrying my Roboform passwords with me, as I have many, many forum and web login both at the office and and home.

Mail Act-On. I love this little wonder app! The people who make it also make Mailtags, which is a full-blown productivity manager and hooks into iCal. Pretty nifty. Speaking of Mail addons, have you seen Dockstar? I love it. It's not free, but it's so neat, you'll want to own it too.

I see you have iStatPro. Wow, this is a fantastic widget, isn't it?! What is your color picker widget? That looks nice, and I love the idea of that being a widget. I'm constantly needing a color picker but the utils I've tried are always in the way. Will yours allow you to pick color from anything on the desktop?

What about TextWrangler? I like it a lot, although I'll have to try TextMate.

Gotta love QuickSilver!

Isn't iGTD fun? I just recently discovered the whole GTD craze.

I will definitely look into the CocoaMySQL app. Looks promising.

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