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Roundup of Useful Mac Applications

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Every few months I go through a phase of looking for new programs that improve my day to day work experience on the computer. Not sure why I do it in phases, but it always seems when I switch to one program I am getting 5 more. Some end up being really cool and I continue to use, and others are just a fad and I forget about them quickly. Below are quick reviews of the several new applications that are all around great apps!

Growl I something that I installed last year but stopped using it when I switched computers. I guess you can call it a unified application notification system. It gives you alerts and events from several apps as a single system. it can get annoying if you have it notify too much stuff, but once I tuned it I got it working great. I like that it tells me the itunes songs I just started playing, or that I have new email and gives a quick flash of who sent it and the subject.

Rapidweaver is a simple but feature filled web-page and site authoring program for the Mac. Since I started using the Mac I full time over Windows XP I have been lacking a good web editor. I used Dreamweaver for basic page edits, but I never liked it. I always ended up going back to my XP box for Frontpage to do web work. Now Frontpage isn’t that good either but I was used to it, and I didn’t find anything better. That was until I saw a review for RapidWeaver. It does have its limits, but for the home page I have, I was able to redo my entire site in RapidWeaver in a few hours. All 300 megs of photos and all. RapidWeaver is not perfect. I all but can’t use it on my Intel iMac (universal binary version coming soon or so they say), so I use it on my Powerbook. That being said this software was worth the money I spent on it!

HandBreak is a free utility that will take a DVD and convert it for use in iTunes or on your iPod (aka makes a Divix or H.264 format). It takes a while to run, but it works great! I can convert a bunch of DVD’s to my iPod and watch them on the way to and from work!

iSquint is another great program that lets me convert media into Divix and H.264 file formats for use in iTunes and my iPod. iSquint takes existing video files such as MPEG-2, or AVI’s and will convert them. iSquint is fast and easy to setup. With it I can take any TV show I record with my DVR and put it on my iPod to watch later or when I am traveling.

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Slow To Post

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I have been neglecting posting for a while. I keep writing up stuff and posting them way after events have happened. I am going to try and set more time aside to write. To me it is not a chore since I find it relaxing. my only issue is recently I have been stressed and busy, and also my hands hurt from working on the computer all day at work. All good excuses, but I still want to write more. All I can say is I am working on it.

Office Move

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Spent time at the new office today with Dan and our CEO. We went over details with the construction contractor. Not much for me to worry about. I thought that some stupid things where going to be done, but so far everything looks good. I am just eager to get the lease signed. It seems to be taking forever but I am told it should happen soon.

I had to deal with some intermittent site problems earlier in the day. Everyone was freaking about how this issue is a sign that some major issue is going on. It isn’t, but everyone likes to make a big deal about stuff like this so when they are asked why their didn’t meet their goals they can complain about technical issues. It is funny and sad at the same time. Sometimes they make a good spin, but others it is so transparent it is funny.

It is Quiet in Here, Except For The Construction

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My partner in crime is away for a few days on vacation, so my office is not as busy. Not sure why less people come by when Jayson is out. The people that do stop by usually are looking for me, so it is weird that it feels like less people stop by when he is out. It may just be me going crazy. With Jay out I sometimes get more done since there is less distraction. Of course the clanking of construction outside my window doesn’t help my concentration much. I guess I need to get used to sitting by myself since I will be all alone in the new space!

Cable Work

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Jayson and I went to the “proposed” new office with a cable contractor to see if there was cable to our floor from the basement. We need a clean run for our T-1 circuits going in. There looks like there is cable but we have issues with its age, and we cannot 100% confirm where it terminates on one end. on the other end it just doesn’t go where we wanted it to. Instead of extending what we have we may just run brand new cable to ensure it works right.

We did that in the morning and then I dealt with other issues throughout the day.

Drinks With Friends

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Gretchen came into the city today and Jayson and I had lunch with her, her cousin, and her cousin’s friend. We went to Old Town. It was good as usual. Dealt with the usual busy stuff at work, and then I got an IM from John wanting to know if I wanted drinks after work. I didn’t have much going on so I said why not. Jayson was out at the Nextel store getting some new Blackberry’s for work but wanted to go also. Man we should not have waited for him. It took him forever, then he needed to go get Gretchen a new phone at Cingular so that took a while also. John and I ended up waiting for them for like an hour.

We finally hit a nearby bar restaurant we like. I didn’t drink much and had some appetizers. John wanted me to go play poker with him but I had an early meeting on Tuesday so I passed.

As a side note Jay got a new Blackberry 7100, and a new guy got one also. We handed down Jayson’s old 7520 to someone who destroyed their old one. I like the size of the smaller 7100’s, and I know it is easy to learn the keypad setup, but I just can’t bring myself to get one. My 7520 is big, but I am sticking with it for now.

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Bad Headache Saturday

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I had a migraine on Saturday that came up on me so fast. I was glad I didn’t go out. I ended up sleeping in the afternoon and trying to rest in the evening. I was still out of it on Sunday. I had migraines like that. I was just glad it was the weekend and I didn’t have to deal with work and being out of it. Because of that I didn’t do much this weekend.

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Apple Has Got To Be Kidding!

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I am a fan of the Mac, but sometimes really stupid engineering is really stupid engineering. So I have a Mac Mini (PowerPC G4) and I just got an intel Mac Mini to test dual booting and virtual machines. All was fine for the first 2 days until I had to unplug both of the mini’s to move them around on my desk. Little did I know I mixed up the power adapters. If I noticed at the time I would say who cares. Identical power adapters in identical computers. No problem, right? Not really. Turns out the power bricks for the intel & powerPC mini’s are physically identical, but the voltage is totally different. To add insult to injury the plug is identical so you can plug in the wrong plug to the wrong mini. What does that yield? A mini or two that won’t power on.

According to apples support website they put up a KB article about the difference in power supplies. They show the nice difference in the power supplies. It is a light grey wording on the side of a white device that physically look the same. Yeah everyone will notice that difference! They say it is hard to confuse the two. BS!!! COME ON APPLE. DEC back in the mid 90’s had this issue with laptops we had at my old company. You plug the wrong one in and it fries the computer. Why make 2 devices physically identical when it can cause harm to your equipment if you use the wrong one? According to the same KB article, they say: “While using the incorrect power adapter won’t hurt your Mac mini, it could cause unexpected behavior, most notably an inability to turn the computer on!” Can someone tell me how that is NOT hurting the computer? I cannot believe a computer company that tries to be so consumer oriented like Apple can screw something up like this?

Screwing the adapters up was a stupid mistake, but one that should been made impossible by good design. I haven’t done more troubleshooting, but I am told that you can get the machine to recover from this. I just haven’t worked on it long enough. I really don’t want to have to call the unit in.

I am still like Apple hardware, but in my book they just dropped down a peg or three.

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Problem Resolution

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We had a demo of some really cool problem resolution software today. It can watch what goes on throughout all the servers and clients and correlates a problem for you. It does way more than that, but it is a difficult concept to write about. I am sold, but we need to evaluate it a bit more before we can make a decision.

Work was normal otherwise. Well normal except for the circuit failure we had in our call center computer room Thursday and again this morning. I don’t know who is stupid enough to close the door on a computer room that feels like it is 110 degrees inside while a fan is at the door blowing hot air out of it? Long story. We had some HVAC issues that caused other power related issues. The power issues caused some problems on thursday with our IPCC system. It was resolved by a reboot, but it was fun for a bit while we troubleshooted the issue. Otherwise I have been able to catch up on the backlog of issues this week since my boss was out sick.

Dinner & Drinks

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After work Jayson and I meet up with John at some dive bar on the west side by his office. I don’t mind dive places. Especially ones like this. It had a nice crowd and wasn’t too crowded. The best part was the happy hour till 8PM. We where able to get a round (including 2 mix drinks and beer) for $8. This is NYC and it was that cheap. By the second round and a nice tip the drinks where pretty strong.

After a few rounds we ended up in little italy for some good dinner. Jay and John got some cigars at this little place on Mulberry street. I was full and tired by the end of the late dinner so I passed on going out for more drinks at a nearby bar. It was a good night all in all.

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