sugarenia.com

After about a month working with my Macbook, I already got addicted to some applications, which always accompany my daily routine. These are:

• I have the black 2.0GHz Macbook, running MacOSX Tiger version 10.4.8.
• My tools of the trade are Firefox (I use Safari for light browsing, it’s so much faster), Adobe Dreamweaver 8 and Adobe Photoshop CS2. For text editing, I’ve tried both skEdit and BBEdit, but I was hooked with the latter.
• Apart from my all-time-fav Gmail, I use the handy Mail application for reading all my sugarenia.com and university e-mails (yes, I still got those).
• Since my laptop is mostly for browsing and doing work, the only extensions used in my Firefox are the Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug ones. For some reason, Colorzilla doesn’t work in my Firefox. Mac incompatibility I guess.
• iTunes is really a no-brainer for music. I also use VLC for videos, it can play .flv too, sweet!
• My favourite RSS reader: NetNewsWire. The free version has all you need, really. A refreshing change after my battle with Windows-based RSS readers.
• I used to use smcFanControl for keeping my hottie-hot machine cool, but the latest SMC firmware updates
  solved the problem.
• Acquisition and Azureus are more than enough for P2P and torrents.
• The Unarchiver takes care of my zipped files and Transmit covers my FTP needs.
• Adium is a great multiple-client chat application, as long as you turn off the notification sounds!
• I use Scrivener to write stuff and Quicksilver to find them.
• Finally, two apps to impress your friends with: iAlertU is a good freeware app in beta that can help you against thieves (especially with these tips provided by Lifehacker). Delicious Library is ..well.. delicious.

how I work, mac, apple, productivity

Quick tip: Apple has launched a new SMC firmware update that controls your Macbook fans.

The update is recommended for all users, either they received technical support for RS or not, and is supposed to fix the RS issues.

I’m sceptical: my RS strike in when the laptop is cold. Will it do anything for me?

(These last 3 or 4 times I’ve switched it on there were no hiccups, that’s refreshing.)

macbook, random shutdown, RSD

Just days after the official release of Internet Explorer 7 by Microsoft, Mozilla Foundation takes the leap and launches the new (and complete) Firefox 2!

It has a ton of new features, which include:

• Improved tab browsing with functionalities similar to Tab Mix Plus extension.
• A handy spell checker in english.
• Live update of suggested search terms in the Search box up to the right.
• Tab session save and restore.
• Improved feeds features.
• Live Titles (that sounds interesting).
• Various security holes fixes.

If you want to check the whole list of features, you can find it here. I am downloading it at the moment, both on PC and Mac. Let’s hope this overhaul is not for nothing for our trusted browser!

firefox 2, mozilla

I’m sorry for the abundance of Apple posts lately, people, but hey, I’m like a little kid. Playing with the brand new toy and discovering new things every day. And a little kid does what little kids do: making adults dizzy with their questions and little discoveries.

Another of my “discoveries” (not really, it’s widely spread and used by most MacOS users) is Quicksilver. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a “unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data”. In plain words, it’s a mini-search engine, that indexes your machine data (all of it, music, pictures, applications, contacts, you name it), making search in MacOS as easy as 1-2-3.

I really cannot explain any better. You have to use it to understand. Think Spotlight on steroids. Think Windows search on illegal drugs, untraceable meds and grog all at the same time.

At first, i though Quicksilver was just a fancy hype. I kept wondering why many Mac users swear by it, insisting that it played an important role in their everyday computer life.

…and that lasted till I tried to find an application (namely Download Accelerator) when I was working on my PC.

Tabs after tabs of applications. Cryptic company names behind which the real applications lie. You’ve all had the feeling, admit it. Finding stuff in Windows XP is more than a drag, it’s a hideously difficult task.

Life with Quicksilver: Hit Alt-Space. Type the first two or three letters of the file you’re looking for. You’re there.

And it’s not just that, lots of special functions lie in this nifty little thing. Alas, I don’t use them all, I’m no Mac power user - yet.

macOSX, apple, mac, quicksilver

For days now I explore the Mac applications world and I’m really glad that I found some gems (more on my favourite Mac applications in another blog post - isn’t a “fav Mac apps” post like, obligatory?).

One of the most shining gems that I discovered today is Scrivener. Scrivener is one of my dream apps, really. Essentially, it’s a writing helper, that can help you gather material and write stuff, from novels to blog posts. I can’t describe in words my adoration for this project… and yes, it’s freeware.

Let me explain to you what I wanted… I was looking for a writing application, that could hold any kind of material I’d toss into (pics, URLs, favorably whole web pages) and help me organize my PC magazine life. This dream app should have characters / word count capabilities (I always exceed my word limits), folder hierarchy, ability to hold much stuff and a nice and intuitive interface that would “bind” them all.

Scrivener in all of its glory

Scrivener offers me all that, and more. An overview of the features I love most:

• Full screen edit mode, plus 4 really helpful view modes: Binder, Compose, Draft and Storyboard.
• Simple versioning system through “snapshots”.
• Ability to hold anything in its material folders: pics, video, text, pdf files, even imported web pages.
• Every page has its outline card and notes page.
• Annotations and split-screen editing mode.
• Templates & tagging functionality, for the Web 2.0 afficionados.
• Split & merge documents.
• Full text editing tools, including link, lists and table insertion.
• Spotlight-like, speedy search.
• .scriv files are packages: you can always view your files stored in standard formats, even if the .scriv file is not recoverable.

…and it’s not all. I strongly recommend you to download this app and go through the tutorial, you’ll understand the capabilities of Scrivener better.

This blog post has been written in Scrivener, as you’ve already assumed. I decided to keep an archive of my blog posts in it and it goes well so far. The most dreamy of additions would be a “Export to blog…” functionality, but hey, I don’t complain.

Scrivener is a real gem, I assure you. If your writing requires much research and material gathering and draft revisions and you want a place that you’d store them in, you’ve come to the right place.

scrivener, literature and latte, writing