Being a Mac user means you have incredible flexibility with how you use your computer. Sometimes, that flexibility causes you issues as well. But armed with AppleScript, hopefully you can overcome.
I recently purchased a Henge dock, having had to wait quite a while for them to manufacture units that fit my white Macbook. It was a bit of a pain to set up, but I’ve been really pleased with how it cleaned up my desk. Instead of a mass of cables coming out the side of my Macbook sitting on a laptop stand, all the cables are hanging off the desk in a tidy twist-tied tangle.
Out of sight, out of mind, right?
On to the problem this caused. Now the audio jack is tucked away and the desktop speakers are plugged in to that 24/7. But what if I want to put on the old headphones? Luckily, the new Yeti microphone I purchased comes with a headphone jack. This makes sense for conversations and podcast recordings. Using this jack for your audio output is easily accessed in the Sound System Preferences pane.
One last issue: I don’t want to open Systems Preferences every time I switch between the two. No problem, I’m a Mac user. Surely AppleScript + FastScripts can solve this niggling, first world problem.
And a Google search brings a nice solution on the first try, courtesy of none other than Jesse Gardner (aka @plasticmind). Jesse had the same need and came up with a nice script that switches between two different audio outputs when invoked. A small tweak to include the proper name for my Yeti output + a key combination in FastScripts and I can now switch between the two on the fly.
Convoluted? Yes. Satisfying? Hell, yes.
It’s been interesting to see so many different approaches to improving Finder in OS X. There have been complete separate apps to give additional functionality, as well as utilities that add features to Finder itself. Nothing has ever stuck for me, and I’ve learned to live with a combination of Finder and LaunchBar to do most things.
Lately though, in the spirit of Minimal Mac, I’ve taken to using Transmit for a lot of file related activities. Because it has two panes, each of which can be used for local or remote locations, it’s perfect for moving files from one folder to another. This is certainly faster than using 2 Finder windows.
It’s an application that I almost always have open, I just had to stop thinking of it as a tool to use only for remote file management. It has a lot of the goodness of the Finder included, is lightning quick, and has the lovely breadcrumb trail along the top that gives you a nice visual indication of where you are in your file structure.
To make a short story long, it’s nice option for working with your files and folders.
The following was resurrected from my old blog (The Weekly Review). It was the first post I ever wrote and published for the internet. All in all, it wasn’t so bad of a start.
As a frequent user of two of the major computing platforms of the current day - Microsoft’s Windows XP and Apple’s OS X (10.5) - I feel I can speak with some authority on the differences between the two. Unlike some on either side of the fence who throw out their strong opinions without any actual experience using one of these operating systems, I can say I spend a good deal of my time on both.
And although I have a preference for one of these platforms over the other, I’ll do my best to be impartial here. Rather, I will rely on experience and the amount of pleasure I derive from using each.
It’s the People
For me, the biggest difference between the two is the community. It could be said that since Windows is the dominant platform in the industry, there is no community. Or rather, the community is so large and diversified that it is actually comprised of smaller, specialized communities. And perhaps I have not stumbled upon the good ones that are out there.
However, the Mac community flourishes. Especially in this decade as Apple has methodically returned to prominence. Apple has always had a passionate, dedicated core of users, but that core seems to being growing in recent times.
This community consists of different professional groups - bloggers, designers, educators and most importantly to me, software developers. This last group is where I personally see the big difference between the two platforms.
Indie Software
The enjoyment I get from when my Mac is in part due to the operating system - the ease of use, the intuitiveness and the look of OS X all add to the experience. But my enjoyment is enhanced greatly by the third party software that I use every day. At any time, one look at my dock shows that applications created by Apple are always outnumbered by those I have purchased from the Mac developer community. Applications such as NetNewsWire, Coda, Yojimbo and Things make the hours fly by.
Shawn Blanc recently expressed this enjoyment in one of his lengthy Mac software reviews:
“Furthermore, if an application can not only solve a problem, but help the user enjoy the process, it succeeds even more.”
I think Shawn nails it here - OS X can be described in this way, and the majority of the Mac developer community strives to ensure their applications extend that experience.
And there is an abundance of this type of software for OS X. This list I gave above is only a small representation of what is available to the end user.
My Problem
I work in IT in the healthcare industry and our organization is currently Windows only. If it were my preference, I would use OS X all day. But that choice is not yet mine and I must make the best of the situation.
So I use Windows and most days I can perform my job functions somewhat painlessly. But you know what - the pleasure, the enjoyment - it’s just not there. I don’t look forward to using my computer like I do at home.
And I know part of the problem is the lack of the ‘little applications’. All the one-purpose, $30 apps that I have on my Mac - I have not been able to find the equivalents for Windows. Monolithic, brooding, all-in-one applications? Yep, they’re here and they’re entrenched in corporate America (and they’ll take your lunch money too). But the fun applications are not to be found.
My problem started with GTD. I have spent the past year tweaking my system implementing GTD at work and at home. After trying out multiple setups for both, I can say I am very happy with my system at home. At work, not so much. I just cannot find a GTD based application for Windows that can match the ease-of-use and elegance of the options available for OS X.
Where art thou, Things for Windows? Omnifocus? Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places. Maybe Google is hiding things from me. If there is someone out there who can point me in the right direction, please drop me a line.
But I can say this - the Mac indie software community is alive and growing. From what I have seen, not so for Windows.
Shawn Blanc on Yojimbo ⇾
Shawn has written a lot of great in-depth interviews and reviews in the past (although I think, like John Gruber, I almost enjoy his short commentary on shared links more), but the Yojimbo review was probably my favorite.
Third paragraph in, you knew is was going to be a special read:
This is not the same as your tried and true System for saving and finding things. The System is for everything. Your Anything Bucket, however, is for everything else. And you need both.
This is the kind of article where I get so far, then stop. I archive the article and look forward to reading it later. Not at my desk, but in more comfortable confines, with less distractions, when the house is quiet and the day is almost complete.
Oh, and of course a good beverage is at hand (another strength of Shawn’s).
In order of revelation, here are a few of my first impressions of the Mac App Store:
The icon — I’m not one to rant on about app icons. If I don’t like one, I’ll change it. This one wasn’t too surprising as it resembles the iTunes icon. Like them or not, it makes sense for the two to be similar.
Flight Control? — I still find it weird to see iOS apps coming over to the Mac. I love Flight Control on my iPad, but can’t imagine playing it on my Mac. Curiosity has not won out on this one. Yet …
App Store Staffing — With two full stores now up and running with millions of apps to review and monitor, I feel a small sense of surprise that Apple has been willing to provide the staff for an effort like this.
Installed app recognition — I was pleased to see that several of the apps I already have installed were recognized by the App Store. However, some were not. Cabel Sasser and Daniel Jalkut shed light on that front [ via Shawn Blanc ].
Junky apps, in your face — The problem that plagues the current iOS app store is already in plain site on the Mac app store. There are a lot of low quality apps available and finding the good ones is simply not easy. Not from within the App Store anyways. Buying and updating apps in the app store is simple and good for the users. Finding apps in the app store is not. I’ll still be depending on tweets and posts to inform me of the best software available for my Apple devices.
Preferences — There are none for the App Store app. It would be nice to be able to turn off a preference to have newly installed apps placed permanently in the Dock.
iLife Apps — In a great move, the iLife apps are available as standalone purchases. No longer do I have to pay some $70 to have iWeb sit in my Applications folder.
The near arrival of the Mac app store has generated a lot of buzz, rightfully so. For this guy, software is where the action is, so today is a lot more exciting than a lot of Apple’s keynote events throughout the year (where hardware is often the focus).
Those familiar with my opinions may remember that I feared this moment however. The last couple of years were good for Apple and their customers though, so my fear about el Stevo turning my beloved Mac ecosystem into a walled garden has mostly abated. It was tempered a lot in 2010 where it appears that they’ve worked out a lot of the issues that were a large issue with the current app store.
So today, I’m not excited so much for the new Mac app store itself, but what may be available inside. I’m pretty set with my lineup of applications at this point. But the possibility of some new gem from the Panic team, maybe a little Tweetie for Mac 2, or anything from the wizards at Tapbots has me installing 10.6.6 as we speak and looking forward to seeing what’s to come.
Like many others, I’ve had some thoughts lately of moving from Tumblr. Not because of downtime so much, although I understand the frustration. For me, the biggest compliant I have is the implementation of the archives and the nearly unusable search.
Today I had a great example. After rebuilding my Macbook from scratch over the holidays, I’ve found myself missing a few keyboard shortcuts that had become habit. I would slowly add them back in necessary. Today it was mapping CMD+P to invoke the “Save as PDF” command in OS X’s print dialogue. But I couldn’t remember where I had read that tip.
After searching my two favorite Mac tip resources, I found it. And look at where the tip originated:
The problem: apart from my own poor short (and long) term memory, I would never look through the archives of my site on Tumblr. A long list of dated thumbnails simply takes too long to scroll through, and the contents of each post are not easily identifiable.
I’ve long had an interest in EE. I’ll be moving portions of my site their in 2011, but have been on the fence with the blog. Today’s experience pointedly reminded me of my main concern with my current setup.
Yojimbo, Dropbox and Symlinks ⇾
With the New Year approaching, I’ve been enjoying the process of a fresh install on my Macbook. In the spirit of Patrick Rhone, I’ve only been installing the apps, settings and preferences that I use regularly.
But I hit a snag when setting Yojimbo up. The app has long been sitting in my Dropbox account, but I completely forgot that a simple alias in the Application Support folder does not work in this scenario. You actually need to create a Symlink. Thanks be to my favorite Mac resource, Mr. Blanc for reminding me what was required.
Keyboard Shortcut to 'Save to PDF...' on OSX ⇾
I do a fair amount of saving to PDF for electronic receipts, designs, etc. and have disliked the extra clicks that it takes to save as PDF on Mac OSX. Here’s a great way to set up a keyboard shortcut to simplify the process.
Nice handy tip — getting rid of those few extra steps adds up.
Somewhere between a full fledged, multi-step project and your daily routines, lies an almost invisible line. On one side of this line lie tasks that need to be filed and organized. On the other, small reminders you need to recall at some point in the future. This line can be hard to see, especially since it can be in a different spot from person to person.
I’ve long been comfortable with processing tasks related to projects, but have been less satisfied with handling the smaller, less tangible, mini tasks that come up. No Mac based task management tool I’ve used seem to address this.
Backpack from 37 Signals comes close, with its excellent Reminders functionality. I have often wanted to see something similar in a desktop tool. But even it has drawbacks as your reminders are emailed to you, clogging up your communication tool with task related emails. That works if you live in your email, but that’s a habit I want to kill. You also have to open up the browser, or an instance of Fluid, to enter in your reminder.
When I heard about Alarms (via Patrick at Minimal Mac), it caught my attention. After two weeks of usage, it has my affection as well.
What a perfect tool. For assisting you with your project related tasks sure, but mostly for the little things. Like remembering to call the doctor, or watering the plants. It’s unobtrusive and frictionless to use and allows you dump those niggling details into a handy bucket immediately. If you’re like me, and spend most of your time at the desktop, check this utility out.
This is what is so great about using OS X. Eventually, someone, somewhere is going to scratch an itch you may not have realized you had. Kudos to Stefan Fürst for scratching this particular itch of mine.
