2 posts tagged “osx”

I'm teaching myself to become more organized on my Macbook Pro (who's, I should mention, battery is slowly dying and Shooby is in need of a new one)!  As a student, I realize I should be more organized with my work.  But hey, screw organization, I've got Spotlight right?  Wrong.  Yes Spotlight is an amazing tool for searching through my computer to find files like notes I typed during class, but what about archiving and even easier access?  For that, I've developed a little system to keep me organized as a student.

1. Journler - Note taking for school (and maybe soon TWiT/Radio shownotes)

Journler uses, literally, a journal type interface that will organize everything by date and such.  Also, smart folders keep crap organized for me when I'm too lazy to tag things.  Oh it also has the ability to record video (using the built-in iSight) and also audio recording and easy integration with iLife content.  Yes that means I can put content that's on my computer into notes.  Awesome, just awesome.

2. QuickSilver - Quick streamlining of small tasks

At first I believed this application to be rather worthless and just another app launcher.  Finally, after a few moments of tinkering, I've realized it is quite a bit more.  There are all these plugins that will add application compatibility from which I can choose files or apps to open, then I can tab to the next area for what to do with it (ie. moving it, copying it, FTPing it, etc).  You can create a huge chain of events and commands, and with a simple hit of the return button, they'll all happen immediately.

3. Yojimbo - Quick notes/simple archiving

Hit F8, copy a link, serial #, quick note, etc, and it's automatically saved into Yojimbo.  Freaking awesome!  You can encrypt any data you wish.

4. Xpad - Shownotes taking
   

It has a neat drawer on the right in which I can label things (by color bubbles) by podcast.

5. Think - Focusing on work

This application will darken the entire background, and then you can choose an application that will be the single illuminated app.  I use this to do homework in Microsoft Word, and ANY window that pops up is hidden, or at least taken out of focus.  Incredibly useful to focus on the task at hand.

Now I used to use Schoolhouse to keep track of homework assignments.  However, if I don't do it right after it is assigned, I end up not doing it at all.  Besides, my school provides us with planners in which to write down homework in.  Bringing out the laptop isn't always practical in class.

Anyways, if you're interested a bit in how I work, there you go.  I'll probably make a screencast one day.

That one day there will be a completely working, non-buggy, fully featured web browser other than Safari that is built from the ground up for OSX.  See, I have this problem with Firefox and Flock for the Mac.  They're simply ports from the PC versions.  Currently, I'm using Camino mainly because of its ability to keep passwords in the OSX keychain.  However, it's got a few quirks that absolutely frustrate me.  First and foremost, when you try to view most embedded Quicktime content, it'll mess around with the formatting of the page itself.  I've attached a screenshot for you all to view.

Camino also has various other bugs regarding page formatting when AJAX content comes into play.  The two main reasons why I use Camino is because it uses the Mozilla base, but is built specifically for OSX (meaning it looks decent and has a lot of other integration with the OS like Keychain support).  I also use Camino because freaking Vox doesn't support the Webkit engine (used in Safari and Shiira) yet.

Speaking of Shiira, that's a great other alternative.  However, I think the 1.5 version sucks, but the 2.0 version is way too buggy.  I looked at Flock (which I used back in the Windows days) for OSX, and it's just like Firefox for OSX.  The interface looks almost nothing like an OSX app, and it has little to no integration with the variety of tools available.  I used Flock because of all the blogging and social networking capabilities.  Man, this frustrates me so much!

Why can't there be a larger and more dedicated team on something like Camino or Flock specifically for OSX?  I want a browser that uses the Mozilla engine (I like it the best), has extensions support, but also was built from the ground up specifically for OSX so it's not a simple port.  Yes I probably sound like a stickler, but it seriously frustrates me.

Oh here's another gripe, can Vox open the freakin API so I can post from a blogging tool, Digg, or even Flock?  It'd be much appreciated...seriously.  Wordpress is awesome, but I love the community aspect of Vox.  Currently, I'm mirroring this blog on my personal site mistershooby.com using iWeb which is simply for lazy asses who don't want to click the link to this blog from the main page.

Anyways, can someone PLEASE answer my call.  I'd love it if there was a stronger team for Camino mainly.  It's an awesome browser, but IMO is not bug free enough to be called a 1.0.3 product.

Thanks!
Shooby