Entries Tagged 'tech' ↓

I was just reading Jake Billo’s post These are a few of my favourite apps, and I realized that I haven’t ever discussed the different applications that I work with on my Mac. Jake breaks it into the different applications he uses on both Windows and Mac, but I’m only going to be focusing on the Mac applications I use. Additionally, I’m not going to make the title of this post a play on The Sound of Music.

Productivity and Writing

• Email - Google Mail - I was using Mail.app for the longest time, but I grew tired of the terrible search features it has. Gmail has always had superior search compared to any email client.
• Calendar - Google Calendar - I like the fact that I can access it anywhere, and that it is easy to view and share calendars with friends.
• Web Browser - Firefox - I’ve used Firefox for many years now. It crashes sometimes, but it is a very secure browser, and I love all of the extensions available.
• News Reader - NewsFire - I got this program when I purchased the MacHeist bundle. It is very light-weight and I like the ability to make smart feeds.
• Writing - Journler - I use this application for all of my writing and blog posts. It allows me to have a nice clean interface whether I’m online or offline.
• Quicksilver - A great application launche. It also makes tasks a lot easier with triggers. I can create tons of keyboard shortcuts so that I can minimize my mouse usage.

Uploading / Downloading

• BitTorrent - Transmission - I don’t use BitTorrent much at all, but when I do I use Transmission. It is very light-weight.
• Newsgroups - Unison - I don’t use newsgroups much on my main workstation. Most of this is done directly on to my file server. A great application for grabbing files quickly is Unison. It also has NZB support, which is a must.
• FTP - Cyberduck - Not the best FTP client I’ve ever used, but I still continue to use it. It’s certainly better than Fetch, which is a really old client for Mac.

Communications

• Instant Messaging - Adium - I use Adium because it’s a very light-weight client that supports almost every instant messaging protocol. This is important for me because I use almost every protocol there is on a regular basis.
• Voice Conferencing - Skype - Still the best voice conferencing program I’ve ever used. It’s great because it’s cross platform. It now has video conferencing built in.
• IRC - Colloquy - One of the best looking IRC clients on the Mac. It has every piece of eye candy you could ever want in an IRC client. It also has great integration with Growl.
• Additionally, I use Facebook and Jaiku to keep my friends updated on what I’m doing.

Programming and Development

• Eclipse - I use Eclipse to develop Java and Python applications.
• TextMate - Some people use PHP Eclipse to develop in PHP, but I prefer to just use TextMate. It is a very powerful text editor, and has some very useful bundles. It now integrates well with PHPDoc.

DVD/CD Burning / Video / Music

• DVD Ripping - MacTheRipper - This application is great because you can easily get rid of the blocks that they put on DVD that prevent you from skipping FBI warnings.
• DVD Shrinking/Burning - DVD2OneX2 - I like this application because it both shrinks and burns the DVD. No need for two separate applications.
• Music - iTunes - The best music management application I’ve ever used. It has the typical extremely user-friendly Apple interface. iTunes doesn’t necessarily run very well on Windows, but it runs impeccably on the Mac. I also purchase a good amount of music from the iTunes music store.
• Video - QuickTime Pro - I try to use QuickTime as often as I can because of the integration with Apple’s FrontRow. When I can’t run something in QuickTime, I use VLC.

Photos / Graphics Editing

• Digital Camera - iPhoto - I use iPhoto to pull all of the photos from my digital camera and make simple adjustments such as brightness, contrast and red-eye. This application makes it very easy to distribue photos.
• To upload photos to my Flickr account I use Flickr Uploader. It is a very simple tool. It also will resize your images for you in order to save bandwidth.
• Graphic Editing - Photoshop CS2 - I use Photoshop at work because it’s the most advanced photo editing tool on the market. It also has great integration with Adobe GoLive CS2, which I also use at work for the website.

That just about covers all of the applications I currently use on my Mac. For a more indepth look you can go check out my Wakoopa feed. Wakoopa is a Web 2.0 website that tracks all of the applications you run on your computer.

What is your setup? Do you have any suggestions to my setup that would help make my life easier? I would also like to invite any readers to try Wakoopa out and post their feeds here. It’s very interesting to see how other utilize technology. It has certainly made me a more productive person.

Last night I was reading Business 2.0 magazine, and there was an article about an upcoming search engine called ChaCha. The idea of the search engine is that you type in what you’re looking for, and a live guide will do the search for you in order to get the best results. They said that eventually they wanted to enable you to phone a voice-automated system in order to conduct your searches, and that this would essentially replace 411.

I think that this idea is absolutely terrible. It’s one of those things that you try once or twice, but eventually they lose their novelty. I remember trying a similar phone service located in Toronto called VoiceGenie. I ended up just being on the phone yelling into it for 20 minutes to get one stock quote.

“N…..T…..”
“NC… is that right?”
“NO! N….T….”
“I think you said NC … is that right?”

The technology is just not advanced enough right now to make this idea useful. With pretty much every cell phone offering internet service right on the phone, this has become a better alternative.

In the article, it was mentioned that “This was going to be the next Google”, or something to that extent. Once again, this is false. Google is successful because it provides a useful service and makes it extremely easy to use. If you compare the Google and Yahoo websites, Google is 100 times more simple and clean cut. That is the sort of website you want to see when you open up your web browser. Not Yahoo, and definitely not ChaCha.

A friend of mine, Ben Steele, host of the late podcast SodOff Radio, contacted me yesterday inquiring about the best way to sell photos online. Initially, he was going to design a static HTML website and add the photos in manually when he uploads him. I was quick to mention that his probably wasn’t the best way to go about things.

Even with Dreamhost’s One-Click Installs, I was able to come up with a pretty decent solution. First, I installed Wordpress. This will allow him to interact with his customers through a blog, and show the latest photos. This will also provide him with the ability to make commentary on the photos. Additionally, I felt that a blog would be a good way for him to market his website. With all of the associations and networks available to bloggers, it is easy to get your blog noticed if you have the motivation to do so.

The next task was to get all of the photos into the same place. To accomplish this I deployed an install of Gallery 2.1, which was also available through the Dreamhost One-Click Installs. This is a very customizable piece of software that I’ve really enjoyed working with so far. It will allow Ben to organize all of his photos in to albums and then his customers can purchase single photos, or entire albums.

The final component was selling the photos. To achieve this I used a service called Digibug Pro. This is a service that will allow Ben to set the prices for his photos, and then they will print the and ship them to the customer. By using this service, Ben is able to keep 85% of the profit of the sale. The great thing about Digibug Pro is that it integrates right into Gallery 2.1, which means that Ben only has to upload his photos into one place.

Right now this seems to be a fairly good solutions. What do you use to sell photos online?

Do you often get very tired during work? Don’t think you can make it through your day? Well, if you live in New York, MetroNaps is the answer. This service is available to allow people to have a 20 minute nap for $14. The rooms are dimly lit, and the sounds and smells are kept constant. They are trying to create the best environment to take a nap. You are even provided with very your own napping pod.

Once you have awoken from your nap, they provide a wake-up station where you can freshen up and get ready to return to your work day.

They are currently leasing the pods to workplaces and universities. However, this is very costly and can set you back about $7000 per pod. I wish WLU bought some of these. I could use a nap from time to time.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI, in Berlin have developed a technology to allow shoe shoppers to see how they look without trying them on. The customer stand front of a virtual mirror and the shoes are super-imposed on to their feet. This is currently available in Paris on the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

I think that this technology is a great idea, and they’ve definitely decided to test it in a great area, one of the most prominent shopping districts int he world. I think that they’ve achieved a great marketing mix, and have determined the best target market for this product. Yes, some may make the argument that they only try on shoes to see how they fit, but a lot of consumers as of late are only concerned with the appearance. This expecially pertains to shoppers on the Avenue des Champs Elysée.