fuzzylizard

A coworker was asking me some questions about the Mac, he had just received his new ThoughtWorks MacBook Pro. As a partial answer, here is my list of must have applications for the Mac. I have divided them into two categories - free and not free.

Free Apps

• QuickSilver - the definitive time saving app getting things done without doing them
• Growl - displays messages directly on the screen in a little transparent window
• Adium - Instant Message app that works with just about every protocol out there today
• Chicken of the VNC - excellent VNC client
• iStumbler - for finding WiFi hotspots
• NeoOffice - OS X implementation of OpenOffice.org (a Microsoft Office replacement)
• xCode - Apple’s IDE, this gives you C compilers and other tools you will need for compiling things like Ruby gems
• SvnX - Subversion Client (if you don’t want to use the command line)
• iSquint - converts just about any video format into iTunes, Apple TV, and iPod compliant video
• MenuMeters - puts a set of graphs in the menu bar that show you what your CPU, Memory, Networks connections, Disks are doing
• Perian - added codecs for playing back non quicktime compliant audio and video files

Not Free

• TextMate - the only editor for the Mac
• Transmit - FTP/SFTP client
• Omnigraffle - Visio replacement for creating diagrams
• World of Warcraft - I think this one goes without saying

That is all I can think of right now, as more come to me, I will add them.

I recently upgraded my mac to OS X 10.5 and had some problems installing the Ruby gem Hpricot. This particular gem is compiled from source when it is installed (on a Mac at least, no idea about Windows or Linux). When I tried to install it, it kept throwing an error and failing. The problem was that I had forgotten to also upgrade Xcode, so it was being compiled with an old copy of gcc.

The subject line basically says it all; what web design application are people using for Ruby on Rails projects on OS X? My first guess is TextMate. Are there any apps out there that support Rails layouts and ERB?

I am currently taking a look at Panic’s Coda and am really impressed with what I am seeing. Anyone have any other suggestions?

One thing that OS X misses, in my opinion, is the ability to lock the computer when you walk away. I finally found an excellent tip on how to set this up using the screensaver and QuickSilver.

The guys at Parallels have put together four excellent Apple “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” like ads showing off the ability to run Windows and OS X side by side.

I am not sure what it is called, but the ability, on my Macbook Pro, to use two fingers on the touchpad to do things like scrolling just makes so much sense. The only problem I have with it is that when I start using a PC, I find myself trying to scroll with two fingers. It just makes so much sense and, in terms of muscle memory, is incredibly easy to pick up and remember. I also find that even when I have a mouse attached, I still end up scrolling with two fingers instead of using the mouse wheel. When it comes to design and usability, Apple gets it right.

The video below demonstrates the power of multi-touch, the technology that apple put into the iPhone, as it should be used. It is cool in a phone, but when used as the interface for an entire computer, it has the potential to change the way we interact with and think about computers. If you have ever seen Minority Report, this is it. This is the future.

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