Productivity

Switching to Macs after 22 years!

Stefanos Karagos | May 9, 2008

In my desk, I still keep the Windows 1.01 disks. I've been working with Microsoft's OS for over 22 years.

Occasional efforts to move to Linux came to nothing, mainly because I couldn't find [since they didn't exist] applications to do my work with, compatible with those used by my colleagues.

About a year ago I moved to Windows Vista, initially with a Toshiba R400 and later with a Fujitsu Siemens T4220 [btw, it's a great notebook!].

And this is the point at which the story begins.
Yes, I am literally a gadget maniac. Yes, I do tend to search every six months for the next notebook I'm going to work with. But I never had the same desire in relation with the OS.

I have to admit that Vista was not the OS that left the best impression on my, mainly because of its performance. As far as the interface is concerned, Vista is by far the best OS Microsoft have ever produced. But, as soon as you load it with a few applications, lots of fonts and some add-ons for the already memory-hungry Firefox, the system starts to show deplorable delays, even if it is equipped with a CPU, memory, hard disks and other subsystems of the latest generation.

For the last eight years, I have been working with a notebook and I didn't want to migrate to a desktop system.

For some months, I studied the user comments about Vista and Leopard in various international forums. And, finally, some weeks ago, I made the decision to try it. I started with the impressive MacBook Air but soon gave it up, because of it's low performance. [I cannot help being a power user :-P]

As soon as the new series of MacBook Pro was released, I ordered a system with a 2,6GHz Intel Core2, 2GB RAM and a 250GB HDD.

The project "Switching to Mac" just started.

Today, after less than two weeks of everyday use, I have to admit that I am IMPRESSED.

Impressed by the speed, the functionality, the stability and, above all, the result of all these for the final user: the PRODUCTIVITY.

Yes, Macs also crash, but not with the way and frequency I was used to :-P

After having used Windows for so many years, it's reasonable that even closing the windows in OSX puzzled me, but the decision to put my new possession on test in extreme conditions of work and productivity forced me to find solutions for [almost] everything.

First of all, in order for my notebook to match my iPhone , I bought a protective case for it from Vajacases.com [yes, I am also a super-consumer ;-P]. Furthermore, I bought the Apple's Bluetooth aluminum keyboard [btw, I hope Logitech and Microsoft will soon come up with something similar…]. Then, I connected the notebook to an 24'' Samsung monitor and I started…

Office:
I'm a fan of MS Office, so I installed its Home Edition for Mac , maintaining compatibility with older files. To be honest, I also installed iWorks , in order to explore a little bit the capabilities of Keynote [Apple's application for presentations]…

MindMaping:
Being a MindMaps evangelist for the last eight years, I use the best application around: MindManager . Luckily, there is also a Mac version of it, so the change was… no change and within an hour the publisher of the application, Mindjet , gave me the new serial number, so I was able to continue my work ;-)

Notetaking:
I had been using OneNote , but some months ago I migrated to the amazing Evernote that allows you to share your notes online. Of course, there is a Mac version of it too…

eMail:
I use only Gmail [I had also bought 150GB from Google], so there was no real change in sending/receiving emails.

GTDing:
In Windows, I used GTDInbox [a GREAT Firefox add-on] for managing my emails, and MyLifeOrganized for managing tasks and projects. Now, I kept, of course, the terrific GTDInbox and for the rest I "play" with OmniFocus .

IM/Voip:
Skype was always my choice regarding VoIP and it still is in Leopard. As far as instant messaging is concerned, the all-in-one solution I found is the very good Adium [that does not support video yet].

RSS Reading:
I stopped using Google Reader because I think it's at least intolerable for use with more than 10 feeds. Since my OPML contains over 800 feeds, I use the superb, cross-platform BlogBridge , the version 6.3 of which allows even Sentiment Analysis!

Since I apply a certain system in order to get informed and not lost among hundred of feeds, I now use the innovative [still in beta] reader Times for quick updates from my most important feeds.

Twittering:
The one and only and very good Twhirl , that plays on almost every platform because of Air, is still my gate to Twitterland...

Web browser:
Having used Firefox with lots of add-ons in the last years, the transition to Mac was easier than I expected. I just installed the Password Exporter add-on, with the help of which I transferred all my passwords to the new installation of FF.

Btw, the add-ons I use in FF are the following: ColorZilla, Diigo BookMarks, DownThemAll, FasterFox, Firebug, Gmarks, Google Notebook, Greek Spelling Dictionary, GTDInbox, MeasurIt, Speed Dial, Tab Mix Plus, Text Formatting Toolbar and the very good Web Developer Toolbar.

FTP client:
My personal search concluded that ForkLift is the best FTP client for Mac. It reminds my of the once unique Norton Commander [what came into my mind now...] and perfectly combines the file explorer with the FTP client.

Torrenting:
In Windows, I used the very good UTorrent , of which there is still no version for OSX. So, after testing Transmission and Azureus , I decided for the second one without thinking around a lot [it's faster and stabler].

Web developing:
There is a Mac version of Dreamweaver , and CSSEdit is much better than almost any of its competitors in Windows. TacoHTML and BBEdit can meet many html/php editing requirements. Finally, the superb Aptana Studio is cross-platform and works everywhere, for serious projects, from Ruby and PHP to Ajax and Air...

Apache, MySQL, PHP:
I have already installed the VERY good MAMP Pro in order to forget LAMP ;-)

Graphics/Photoshoping:
There are OSX versions of Photoshop and Illustrator , so the transition was way too easy. The surprise came from Pixelmator which is very fast and reminds of "Photoshop Light", with many capabilities and, above all, a lot faster than Photoshop ;-)
I miss FiltreForge but I'm sure I will find something similar.

Skitch is great for screen-capturing and uploading to Flickr and ScreenFlow is excellent for screencasting although it still has a long way to go before reaching Camtasia ;-) [BTW the Jing Project has a Mac version too]

Video/DVD:
iMovie , that comes with MBP, is the best tool for those who want to quickly and easily create their custom videos and its preview speed has no match in Windows...
BTW, if I need more capabilities, FinalCut Express brings to Mac almost all features of Premiere.

ImTooDVDRipper is the best application for transferring your movies to iPhone, iPod and so on, while MacTheRipper is a freeware DVD extractor with many capabilities.

Nero , that I used in Windows, has now been replaced by Roxio's Toast Platinum , that leaves nothing to be desired.

As far as the media player is concerned, Miro and VLC are the best solution after the pre-installed QuickTime/iTunes.
To also play MWV and other audio/video files that I already had, I installed Flip4Mac and Perian and now everything is played by the fast MBP ;-0

Audio/DJing:
iTunes [comes pre-installed] is the king of sound in Mac, but there are also other solutions like VLC , that I already used previously.

Once a year, I organize together with friends a super party, in which I play music [8-)]. For years I have been using VirtualDJ along with the Hercules DJ console MK2. Well, I installed the Mac version of VDJ and the Hercules' drivers and everything remained the same ;-)

Utilities:
I already use some utilities for various tasks and I promise to present them to you in an other post, because I want to test them extensively.
But two of them are worth of being mentioned today - iFreeMem does very well exactly what its name suggests [it frees up memory for better performance] and AppZapper is probably the best program for fully uninstall applications in OSX.

Games:
And yet, they exist! Many of them and of different kinds. WoW runs also on Mac, but there also some other Windows flagship-games, that offer OSX versions, like Need for Speed , Quake and Collin MacRay .

Fractals/Processing:
I have created hundred of fractals in the past, but unfortunately I have found no program for Mac, equal to UltraFractal and Apophysis . Luckily, Mojoworld and Processing run perfectly in Leopard, so I can continue with some of the projects I participate in.

The migration from Windows to Leopard is already done and all I mentioned above are only a part of the process. There are positive and negative points, as in every other change we undertake.

The thing is that the journey must be interesting and unexpected, to make the course more adventurous :-)

Don't you agree?

Top10 AIR applications for productivity

Stefanos Karagos | May 6, 2008

You probably already know, Adobe AIR — the runtime environment that lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems.

Many AIR applications show up the last months.

Some of them are really great. Great to make us more productive. So let's give these a try:

1. WebKut is an AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection. Useful.
2. The Google Analytics Reporting suite is an Adobe AIR application that brings Google Analytics to the desktop. It uses it’s own custom API to interact with Google and nearly implements all features of Google Analytics.
3. This is my favorite one! Twhirl supports Twitter and Friendfeed and also cross-post updates to Pownce and Jaiku. Twitpic is also integrated into Twhirl. This is the best and most popular Twitter client available till now.
4. Klok is a tool intended to be used by individuals, like myself, who have a need to track the time they spend on projects, tasks or anything else for that matter.
5. ShifD allows users to shift notes, links and addresses between desktops and mobile devices. You can access ShifD through web interface or through browser bookmarklet or using a desktop application.
6. AirTalkr is a multi platform IM client that connects to Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ as well as to Flickr and YouTube.
7. Snippage: Easily make desktop widgets out of any site! Wouldn't it be great if you could take pieces of your favorite web sites and put them on your desktop? Things like that auction you've got your eye on, your web mail's inbox, or even that search box you're always using. Well, Snippage lets you do just that.
8. AgileAgenda is a project scheduling utility which lets project managers enter data about tasks. The app, an Adobe AIR Derby Best in Show winner, dynamically adjusts to the changing conditions of a project. It knows today's date and it will automatically adjust tasks that are or aren't complete based on that. Tasks can be moved, extended, or split as needed. A light table lets you view the tasks, reassign them, change their priority, or change the durations. And like most project scheduling utilities, a GANTT view is available as well. Your data can either be stored locally, or even better, on AgileAgenda's web service. AgileAgenda supports data sharing via XML or PDF exports and/or a web-based view on their web service.
9. ORA Time and Expense is an application for tracking timesheet tasks and expenses. It can also generate and export reports such as timesheets, expense reports, and invoices. It uses the webcam APIs assist in the filing of expense reports by taking pictures of receipts and including them in the expense reports.
10. Doomi: Clear'n simple to-do's. Designed to stay out of your way, be easy to use, and look pretty.

Did I miss any other?

Tumblr: the best blogging tool for busy people

Stefanos Karagos | April 7, 2008

I discovered tumblelogs when I visited Tumblr.com before 5 months. I have to admit that I was not impressed at the beginning, because I didn't understood where could be useful for me.
I'm blogging the last 11 years using my Greek "fat" blog at karagos.com and always I wanted to find a tool to help me to blog more often.
I used Drupal the last 5 years [yes I'm a Drupal lover!] but the last year I'm so busy dealing with my daily duties, so I didn’t have time to update, maintenance and redesign it.
Before some days I took the decision to move to Tumblr.
Before this, I took a deep look into the Tumblr's alternative Soup.io but I discovered some lack of features in this solution.
At all this journey to find a tublelog platform I found also solutions like Gelato and Chypr. Both are PHP-MySQL solutions and you can easily install these into your web server.
I decided to select Tumblr and not a server based solution for all these reasons I mentioned for Drupal and because Tumblr give you the feature to create more tumblelogs and the same time you can invite your friends to post there, quick and easy!
So...
Into 1 day I created my Personal Start page at karagos.com and I moved my Greek blog at blog.karagos.com. Both based on Tumblr.

OK, OK Tumbler is not a panacea because is missing 2 important features [Comments and Tags*] BUT is the best of the rest!
Actually Tumblr is the best blogging system for the busy people like me. So simple…

* [comments are very easy to integrate using the Disqus commenting system and I hope that soon the Tumblr, guys, will put Tags under the hood].

Bubble it: Free Powerpoint template

Stefanos Karagos | February 24, 2008

Cloud computing mania for hosting

Stefanos Karagos | February 24, 2008

The art to see out of the feeds buzz.

Stefanos Karagos | February 3, 2008

Create and share stories that make your message stick

Stefanos Karagos | January 31, 2008

HelloTxt: Simultaneous microblogging!

Stefanos Karagos | January 29, 2008

The best processes handling for your PC. Free!

Stefanos Karagos | January 28, 2008

Enso is now FREE!

Stefanos Karagos | January 16, 2008