My favorite Apps for OS X

Ok I’ve had my Black Macbook for about 2 months now, and I love it.  So here’s my list of my favorite apps other than the included apps from Apple.  They are in no particular order.  A lot of these are free, or shareware.

1. VMWare Fusion:  A great way to run your Windows apps on Mac.

VMWare Fusion, is similar to the Virtual Machines used in their VM’s on Linux and Windows.  What’s so special about Fusion?  You can enter “Unity” mode and the Windows of Linux Desktop is hidden, yet you can run the guest system’s apps with a native look!  For an example start up Internet Explorer, and it looks like any other window running on your Mac.

This is a nice alternative to Boot Camp… There’s no need to reboot!

Price: $79 (Search for the Beta Version and get it for free)

2. Anxiety: A quick and dirty “Getting Things Done” application.

If you are are fan of the GTD philosophy I find this to be a nice quick way to enter tasks.  Most of the other GTD apps I’ve tried are beyond bloated, or have a steep learning curve.  This one is simple and easy to use.

Price: Free

3. Quicksilver: Keyboard shortcuts; quick launch and so much more…  A must have app.  Will change your whole computer experience if you exploit all of its features.

This is my favorite piece of software, like I said before it changes the your whole experience using the computer.  What’s so great about it you say?  How about starting an app in a few swift keystrokes?  How about easily finding music in your iTunes library?  Looking up contacts in no time flat.  Sending off a quick email, I can go on and on and on….  Install it and play away, become one with your Mac.

Price: Free

4. DeliciousSafari:  A plugin for the Safari browser for the del.icio.us bookmark manager.  Not as nice as the Firefox extension, but if you prefer Safari it’s a must have.

Price: Nagware, $10 to get rid of the nag pop up…

5. MacVim:  A native Mac interface to my favorite editor ever.  Not for the faint at heart or highly impatient…  Once you become proficient at Vim it’s like a moment of Zen… I would say you will be at least 4 times as efficient…

Price: Free (open-source)

6. Transmit: A fabulous FTP client.

Price: $29.95 and well worth it.

7. Cyberduck: Another full featured FTP client, and unlike Transmit it’s free!

Price: Free

8. Senuti:  Import music off of your iPod to your Mac.  This should be a feature of iTunes but it’s not.  This is the best of the numerous import apps I tried.  Will also import from a Windows formated iPod.

Price: Free

9. Growl:  A notification manager.  Works with most apps.  Nice notifications when a file finishes uploading, or a new track starts on iTunes.

Price: Free

10. WebnoteHappy:  Ok the name is lame but it’s a cool app to cruise and edit del.icio.us tags.

Price: Free

11. Mythfrontend:  If you are running a MythTV server this is a must have, and it works with the Apple Remote.

Price: Free (open-source)

12. VLC

Price: Free

13. NetNewsWire:  Great RSS Reader.  The best RSS reader out there.  A must have.

Price: Free

14: Coda: HTML editor suite.  The most expensive app on the list but well worth it.  Everything is intergrated, editor, FTP client, Terminal.  For those of us you still love hand coding HTML, CSS, etc..

Price: $79

15. JollysFastVNC:  VNC viewer.  Leopard has one built in, but I prefer this for the amount of options.

Price: Free

16. Isolator:  Nice little app that blacks-out all other windows on your Desktop except the one in focus.  Great for trying to keep your focus on one task…

17. Insomniac: Run your Macbook with the Lid closed, without having a keyboard and mouse attached.  Great for running as a media server or connecting via VNC.

Price: Free

Missing in Action…

I haven’t posted anything here in quite a while… I know I promised a few tutorials, and now I will finally get around to it…

Mac Book

This weekend I picked up a new Black Mac Book from the Mac Store.  I have to say that I love it.  For multimedia nothing beats the Mac.

I haven’t owned a Mac since I had a PowerBook 540c Running OS 8 in college that I paid $5000 for.  Just a couple of months ago I bought a Mini just to try out, and consequently I was hooked.  I’ll still be running Slack on my servers but as far as the Desktop goes I’m sticking with Mac.

I can’t say enough for iPhoto, it so easy to manage your photos and there are a few plugins (some free, some shareware) where you can upload to Flickr.  Goggle offers a Picasa plugin for free, so far I haven’t mad a decision to go with either…  So we’ll see.

I installed the requisite Qucksilver and associated plugins and I don’t know how I’ve go along without.  For those of you who don’t know what it is, it lets you quickly launch programs, look up bookmarks, launch music and whole lot more.  There’s a GNOME project called launch-box that offers similar functionality but hasn’t matured to the level of Quicksilver but looks promising none the less.

I’ll continue posting on the Mac and offering Linux alternatives in the future.

Ubuntu (Hardy Heron)

Even though I’m not a  big Ubuntu fan, I have decided to try out the recently released Hardy Heron.  So far I’ve only installed the Desktop version, and the only trouble I ran into was the video driver not playing nicely with my Dell flat panel, but I rectified that by using safe mode in the initial boot installer options.

The real test is letting my kids (13, and 14) play with it… If anyone can break it they can.  I’ll see how many times they ask for help, and so forth…  Another great step is to let my wife play with it, she has tried Linux a time or two and hates it, so it will be interesting to see how she takes to it.

As the evaulation move along I’ll supply update…

Anytime I’ve tried a new Distro I’ve always returned to Slackware.  Maybe because I know it inside and out, or maybe because of its simplicity.

I still recommend it to any student that might be taking and OS course that involves UNIX, Linux.  There’s no better way to get your hands dirty than working with Slackware.  It will take you longer to get installed, configure X, etc, but I guarantee you will have learned a great deal in the process.  You don’t get that kind of hands on experience with other Distros.  If you need help see my Slackware install post.

Slackware 12.1 RC3

The slackware-current tree is now frozen, and now considered Release candidate 3. This is a good indication that 12.1 will be released real soon.

Go here to learn how to build a dvd from the slackware-current tree…

Slackware 12.1 Coming Soon!

Here’s an excerpt from the slackware-current changelog…

Mon Apr 21 16:47:32 CDT 2008
We have now reached the Slackware 12.1 RC2 milestone.     We're beyond
updating packages or fixing minor cosmetic bugs at this point (actually, we
had hoped to be past that with RC1, but there were still items in need of
attention).  What we have here now has proven to be stable for our testers,
so unless some real showstoppers are found we'll be releasing this as Slackware
12.1-final soon.

This announcement was a few days ago so expect to see the final release any day now…

With the arrival of the final release I will post a comprehensive tutorial for installing the latest MythTV release ( .021 ), on Slackware 12.1.  I also plan on hosting the binaries, and configuration files, and if I get the time and some help; possibly a light Slackware based distro, for those that prefer not to fiddle around…

Linux Desktop Distributions

Red Hat has bailed out of the market.

So I got to thinking about the state of Linux on the Desktop and if it will ever become a viable desktop for the average user.

I have Ubuntu setup at home for my kids and it works great. They have no problems using YouTube and doing the myspace thing. Yet out of the box it didn’t work. I had to do some fiddling to get the wireless functioning.

You can say the same for Vista. I recently “upgraded” my wife’s not so old Dell laptop and had a hell of a time getting drivers for it. I actually spent way more time than I did on the Ubuntu system.

So what is the average Joe to do though if he wants to “try out” Linux. There’s so many choices out there. Just try to put yourself in Joe’s shoes. Joe knows a little about computers, and he wants to give Linux a shot. Where does he start? It must be frustrating. There is so many choices, so many different distros, liveCD’s etc…

Ok, so I’m thinking I’d google it or go right to linux.com, which has a “what it is Linux” section, yet you go to downloads at there’s all kinds of choices. More confusion. The same goes with googling it.

I know it’s great to have choice, and that’s fine. All that I’m saying is as a community we should steer new users to one distribution. Even if it’s not your favorite, or lacks some app that you can get with this other distro… Swallow your distro pride and lets give users a standard to work from.

Let’s face it if all the desktop Linux developers focused all their energy on one distro, and one desktop (KDE, Gnome, XFCE…). I wouldn’t be writing this.

What is needed is unity for the Linux Desktop to be successful.

Now here’s the part where I change my mind…

Honesty I don’t know if I would really care for the desktop success. I like all the options I have available across the board; the tight community of users etc. I think I really don’t want Linux to go mainstream. I’m just a selfish bastard… and I’ll leave it at that.

So screw Joe.

Slackware 12.1 in release candidate status!

Can’t wait to get the official released version of 12.1? Here’s how you can make your own DVD from Slackware’s tree.

Download the slackware-current tree. You can exclude the sources, and the pasture directories to reduce your download time.

I use rsync, here’s an example:

• make a directory to hold the tree:

mkdir slackware_tree

• run rsync:

rsync -av rsync://carroll.cac.psu.edu/slackware/slackware-current/ slackware_tree

• use the “–exclude” switch to exclude directories that most won’t need to reduce download time; such as the source and pasture directories..

rsync -av –exclude=/source –exclude=/pasture rsync://carroll.cac.psu.edu/slackware/slackware-current/ slackware_tree

• build the iso image:

mkisofs -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.catalog -o slackware.iso slackware_tree

• now burn your image to disk using growisofs:

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=slackware.iso

• note: you may have to change “/dev/dvd” to fit your hardware setup… or use a graphical client such as k3b

To get an updated version just re-run the above rsync command to update to the latest tree…

Good luck!

MythTV 0.21 Released!

I can’t believe it! a new release of Myth? I thought it would never come…

If anyone is not familiar with myth it’s a PVR built on top of Linux. I have been using it for about 3 years now.

I plan on creating a Slackware binary build after a few days of testing. I’d appreciate some volunteers to help out with testing before I post it.

Speaking of which a few of my friends have requested a MythTV tutorial, I’ll assemble a one while building and testing the new release. I’ll include “tips and tricks” along with the requisite configuration files for a Slackware installation.

Check back in a few days…

Starbuck’s has no soul… Support your local cafe

There was a time when it did; say 15 years ago…

I remember I hung out at the one in Los Altos, CA and had my mocha with a chocolate chip bagel from the bagel shop down the street… (Can’t remember the name? Someone refresh my memory?). Anyhow now it feels like (and even smells like) walking into a fast food joint. I can’t bring myself to walk into one any longer. I guess synthetic is the word I’m looking for.

Ok so I’m making a point to find a good local cafe… I’m already feeling pessimistic about having any success, like finding a real bookstore, or a toy for my daughter that is not made in China.