Mac OS Goodies

Here are some of what I have found to be very useful, so far. Enjoy!

Essentials:

  • Adium: an IM client like no other. Powered by libgaim! (Free)
  • Aperture: Digital Asset Management for photos and more.
  • Transmission: Cross-platform BitTorrent Client (Free)
  • BluePhoneElite: Allows you to send and receive SMS (and calls) via your Mac.
  • Chmox: A Windows CHM (Compiled HTML Help file) Reader. (Free)
  • Firefox: Need I say more? (Free)
  • Growl: A notification system for Mac OS X. It allows applications (like Adium, Skype, iTerm, VirtueDesktops, FlickrBooth, etc) that support Growl to send you notifications. (Free)
  • HardwareGrowler: Its an application that sends Growl notifications when devices are connected or disconnected from your Mac. (Free)
  • Little Snitch: Personal Firewall which alerts you if an app is trying to make an outbound connection. Great for containing Trojans or simply knowing where your apps are connecting to. A Must-Have!
  • MacSaber: Turn your MacBook into a Light Saber! (Free)
  • Merlin: MS Project-compatible poject management app
  • OmniFocus: A professional-grade personal task management that supports GTD.
  • OmniGraffle: Visio-compatible Diagramming Tool
  • Senuti: Senuti is a simple application that allows you to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer. (Free)
  • SnapNDrag: Effortless Screen/Selection Capture (Free)
  • TextExpander: It saves you countless keystrokes with customized abbreviations for your frequently-used strings and images.
  • TNEF’s Enough: allows you to read and extract files from Microsoft TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format) stream files (win.dat, winmail.dat).
  • Twitteriffic: one of the best Twitter clients out there. (Free)
  • VLC: Multimedia Player (Free)
  • WriteRoom: distraction-free writing software.

For Power Users:

  • iTerm: Multi-tabbed terminal emulator ala-MultiGnomeTerminal (Free)
  • MemoryCell: See how much memory each running app is consuming. (Free)
  • Path Finder: A Finder replacement on steroids.
  • ServiceScrubber: restructures the services menu, changes service keyboard shortcuts, and disables services. (Free/Donationware)
  • Vim/Vi: The best Text Editor there is! (Free)
  • VMware: Run Windows, Linux, etc simultaneously on your Mac. No need for BootCamp.

Dashboard Widgets. Since I’m not much of a fan of Dashboard, I make sure only a minimal list of widgets are running at one time. Here are my mostly-used ones:

  • Calendar: The Built-in Calendar widget.
  • CurrencyConverter: Err, Foreign Exchange Rate app, with auto rates update.
  • Google Reader: displays the number of unread items in your feeds. (Free)
  • iStat Pro: a comprehensive system monitoring tool. (Free)
  • MailWidget: checks for new mail in the server without Apple Mail running. (Free)
  • Todo: a lightweight and fast widget to manage tasks. (Free/Donationware)
  • QuickCal: helps you create quick calendar events using natural language expressions (Free)
  • Weather: The Build-in Weather widget. Do make sure you search for “Manila, Philippines” if you are indeed in the PH. Yes, there are other Manilas out there.
Posted on 19 February 2007
Filed under: Tech





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Galleries

Photography

( list everything! )

Clouds Over The Makati City Hall (Time Lapse)

I was hoping the color of light would change dramatically but it didnt. However, subtle movement (cars, clouds) can be noticed if you look closely. :)


A Time Lapse Experiment

I’ve had my camera, a D300, for years now and it has this feature to shoot photos at pre-defined intervals. I’m practically hitting myself in the head for not trying this early on, but it’s never too late to give it a shot. So here’s my initial attempt at Time Lapse Photography. Camera was mounted on [...]


 


Black & White Film Processing At Home

With all the resources out there, this should quickly get you into film processing quickly. This is meant as a beginner’s How-To in developing/processing your Black and White film without the need of a darkroom. But, it should, by no means be considered as a one-top-shop for the topic. If you want to advance further or get more technical, tons of resources are available out there for googling.


Slowing Down and Reuniting with Film

One Way

In this day and age of digital cameras and warp-speed workflows, why would anyone want to go film? That’s a question that has been asked of me these past few weeks. I don’t know, maybe because after a stressful year at work and the associated warp-speed timelines,  I really DO want to SLOW down and [...]


Tech

( list everything! )

Top Reasons Why You Might Want To Get That Backup Harddisk Already

Regardless of the interests that you have, it’s most likely that you have already accumulated huge amounts of data across the years. However you put it, these data is a big part of your life already. From your college papers, your business presentations, to your accounting and tax sheets, from your technical whitepapers to personnel [...]


Deliciously del.icio.us!

For anyone who uses, at the least, two computers (e.g. a home PC and an office laptop), maintaining a common set of bookmarks can be very tedious. When a change is made on one computer, I used to export bookmarks from it and import into the other, and vice-versa, in an almost vicious cycle. It [...]


Elsewhere

( list everything! )

Reminiscing My Not-So-Indiana Jones Moments on the Roofs of Trains

A friend, Estan Cabigas recently shared an interesting story about the PNR (Philippine National Railways) Bicol Express that reminded me of a trip I have yet to make. I’ve been planning to do that some time next year. I’m still hoping there’s a cargo hold somewhere that would allow me to bring my Vespa with [...]


On The Importance of Hiring the Right People

It can never be underscored enough how important it is to get the right people for your organization and keep them there. This is an ongoing challenge that a lot of companies face regardless of industry. A lot are stuggling with it and a lot got burnt by it. A lot has already spoken and [...]