Month: October 2006

My Top Mac Applications

Om Malik has posted a list of his top 10 Mac applications. I use most of what he posted, but it started me thinking about my top apps. For anyone who cares, here they are:

  • Camino - I agree with Om on this one. Firefox was my favourite but I was becoming increasingly annoyed by its slow performance even in a 2GHz MacBook and Safari was not extensible. With the inclusion of some fantastic plugins from Pimp My Camino, I have all I need.
  • iChat - I have used the Jabber (XMPP) protocol to integrate my Google Talk, MSN, AIM, and Yahoo instant messenger accounts.
  • NetNewsWire - I fire this one for a daily dose of Google Reader, Web Worker Daily, and MacWorld.
  • Qumana - Simple, capable blogging application.
  • QuickSilver - I would not be as productive without this application launcher.
  • Parallels Desktop for Mac - This one makes my MacBook more valuable. I can run Windows XP, Vista and Ubuntu Linux all one machine (although not all at the same time).
  • CrossOver - For when I need to run Quicken for Windows (because Quicken for Mac SUCKS!!!)

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Bigger is sometimes better

Apple's announcement that their research indicates that computer users are more productive when they use larger monitor has spawned quite a bit of discussion on the web. Om Malik disagrees arguing that he finds a larger monitor detracts from his work due to his head shifting back and forth. I tend to agree with Dutch entrepreneur, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten. When developing web application I often wish I had a larger monitor so that I could see more of my code in the editor I develop web applications for the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl or PHP) stack and my IDE is normally Vi. I usually work with several Linux terminal windows open to maximum size. Recently I have using the Eclipse open-source IDE and with the various resource side bars open I have significantly reduce screen area devoted to the editing window. Thus I find myself scrolling back and forth a lot more often. A monitor larger than 17 would greatly increase my productivity. Ideally I would say 20-23 inches.

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Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Looks like the folks at Google have been very busy integrating Writely into their product offerings. The Google Docs & Spreadsheets was just launched.

I have been trying to convince my wife to use it for her home finance spreadsheets but she is concerned about privacy and security. I am quite hesitant to use Google Docs & Spreadsheets for anything more than simple decision matrices and articles.