Switching from the Mac to the PC – Why and How

As I recently mentioned in another post, I’ve just switched back to Windows as my primary operating system after years of using Mac OSX. The reason for this wasn’t because I chose it, but because my wonderful Macbook died after years of hard use and poor care. I loved it dearly, and I must say that it was the best machine I ever bought. I often took it with me when I left the house and I used it pretty much as my primary machine for years. At the same time, I also had this PC (the one I’m writing from) running a dual boot Hackintosh/Vista configuration. I only used Vista for gaming and the occasional Windows program, so most of my time was spent on the Hackintosh setup running OSX. I managed to mess this up recently and ended up having to rebuild the system. Rather than set it back up the way it was, I decided to give Windows 7 a try.

At first, I found switching quite painful, but after having several days to get used to it, I have to acknowledge that Microsoft has finally produced a decent OS again. I find the taskbar a huge improvement and the new window docking system is fantastic, especially coupled with use of the hotkeys. It goes a long way in making up for historical lacks in productivity features on Windows, and it makes switching applications, bringing them up side by side, maximizing and minimizing them all very intuitive and effective.

Added to that is the fact that the new look of Windows 7 with aero is quite beautiful in its own way, though I wouldn’t say it goes so far as to come close to OSX. Nevertheless, the themes feature is nice, as is the ability to dock items to the taskbar and control the colors/tints of the translucent areas of the aero interface.

However, there are certain features and programs which I still find lacking. One of these is stacks in OSX. Fortunately, there is something which comes close to dealing with this. Alastria Software has produced something called 7stacks which operates in much the same way as stacks. You essentially just create a shortcut with the software on your desktop, and then pin that shortcut onto your taskbar. What you get as a result which operates and looks very similar to the stacks you would get as part of OSX. At the moment, the software is free. It is in beta, however, and most of the other software on their site seems to involve charges so I wouldn’t be surprised if they went to a commercial system in the future.

Another feature I really missed from OSX was the popular free app, Quicksilver. While it was possible to get by without it by using Spotlight, it never worked as well and as intuitively as Quicksilver did, and didn’t have all of the extra plugins. The closest thing I’ve found to Quicksilver for Windows is an app called Launchy. It works in basically the same way as Quicksilver, and you can customize your hotkeys. Launchy also supports plugins and different skins, making it both a useful and beautiful app to use. It’s definitely a must have.

For the Spaces/Esposé experience, there are a few choices. Switcher and iEx are free apps which mimic these sorts of features, but there are also some commercial packages such as AnthaBounce (formerly Winplosion) which aren’t horribly expensive. Personally, I’d go with Switcher if you need this sort of functionality. You can change the behavior and style of windows, set different hotkeys or screen areas for activation, and it really does work very well.

For more must-have Windows apps to make your life more bearable, you should check out my post on My Top 25 Must-Have Free Windows Apps. I’ve written it from the standpoint of having just switched, so it should be useful for you. Other than that, stay tuned for more tips as they come to me.

3 reasons to use Firefox instead of Safari

When I first got a Mac, I was all for using Safari. I liked its integration with Keychain, the way it looked and the way it operated. Those things haven’t really changed, and in fact Safari has been getting better and better the longer I’ve used a Mac. I use 1Password now to manage my identities, passwords, forms, etc. and once I switched back to Firefox for a while, I started to notice that I had begun to use it differently than I had in the past because of some of the powerful tools available. That being said, Safari isn’t so far behind. There are really only a few reasons why I continue to use Firefox instead of Safari and I thought I’d share them with you.

1. The Awesome Bar

Mozilla likes to call the location/address bar the “Awesome Bar” and I’m not really going to argue with them, because I use it constantly and I do think it’s pretty awesome. When I do happen to find myself in another browser, I tend to try to use the address bar in the same way and inevitably end up annoyed. This is generally the first feature I miss. Basically, in Firefox the bar uses your browser history, sites you may have bookmarked with tags, etc. to autocomplete addresses. This means that I can often find things incredibly quickly just by typing in a series of very vague words into the bar. For example, when I’m sweating away at my keyboard and am contemplating taking action against the heat and want to remember that site I read about homebrew air conditioning, instead of looking it up on google or searching through my bookmarks, I just type in “homebrew ac” to my Awesome Bar and hit enter, and it brings up the site I want. On a similar note, it even seems to find things that aren’t in my history, I assume by using Google. I use this often when I know something’s not going to be hard to find, for example if I wanted to look for Robin Hobb’s Wikipedia entry, I don’t have to type it out or search for it on Wikipedia. I can just type “wiki Robin Hobb” into the Awesome Bar and Firefox brings me there.

2. Add-ons

With Safari, I just don’t have this option. There isn’t a huge group of people doing awesome things to add to the functionality of Safari, but with Firefox, that is all very easily accessed. Sometimes I just like to head over to the Add-ons page and see what is new or popular to try them out, but right now I’ve got around 10 installed. Most of them are tools for web development or productivity tools, but I’ve also got a couple in there for social networking/bookmarking as well.

3. Ubiquity

Technically, Ubiquity should be considered a subset of the Add-ons section, but it is so important to the way I choose to do things that I thought it made sense to have its own description. Ubiquity is something like Quicksilver for the Mac. If you’ve ever used it, you’ll start to get an idea of what I’m talking about here. Essentially, Ubiquity is a hotkey activated tool which performs actions within the browser in a quicker, more effective way. It’s hard to describe in exact terms what Ubiquity does, because it could potentially do anything with in the browser, given the chance. You can write your own commands and UI for it, but generally the idea is the same. It pops up quick activated, and awaits your input. You can use it do update statuses on social sites, translate chunks of pages, look up maps for selected addresses, look up wikipedia entries, do searches, perform mathematical calculations, get reviews, perform browser tab actions, format text, interact with webmail and calendars, check weather, and lots of other things. It is quick, uses fairly plain intuitive language, and is under active development and continues to improve. If there is one Firefox Add-on you should install, it is this one.

10 Mac software apps for increasing productivity

As the opening post in this blog, I’ve decided to write about something that may actually be useful to people instead of just rambling on about my intentions or grand plans. I hope you find it useful and I’d love to see some comments about the software you use to get things done.

1.WriteRoom – Demo
As soon as I heard about this program, I had to try it out. For me, working on a computer is both a blessing and a curse. Being connected to the internet means that I’ve always got access to unlimited information and it is tempting to stop what I’m writing and wander aimlessly across the web landscape, soaking in the atmosphere. WriteRoom is an app that has enabled me to get past some of this and get some writing done. WriteRoom blocks out all other content on your screen and creates a minimalist writing environment – a sort of virtual room for your writing. I use a black background with green text for an old school feel but if you’re doing a long session you may think about doing something a little kinder on your eyes. Luckily, you can customize all of that. If writing is important to you (it is to me) or your work and you’re easily distracted, give this or the free alternative JDarkRoom a try.

Other minimalist writing apps: JDarkRoom – Free

2. Evernote – Free
Evernote is something which is fairly new to me, but I’ve been seeing a lot of these apps springing up. I like the idea of being able to access my data even if I’m not at my computer. The cloud computing thing is a very good thing (I’m a big fan of the various Google apps) in my eyes, and I like that Evernote allows you to take a photo which includes some text and it will somehow mysteriously recognize this text and make it searchable. If you have problems remembering things, you’re tired of carrying around scraps of paper, always leave important info on your computer at home or you want a gigantic scrapbook for your life, Evernote is probably your thing. Have a look at the video on the site for a good idea of how things work.

Other human memory replacement apps: DEVONthink – Demo, SOHO Notes – Demo, Yojimbo – Demo, Notebook – Demo, Journler – Demo

3. Eventbox – Demo
Eventbox is a great application. Essentially, it combines all of my RSS feed reading needs with all of my social networking needs. Eventbox supports RSS, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Flickr, Facebook and Google Reader. With the upcoming release, it will also support Identi.ca. This means that when I want to get up to date with all of my news and social networks, I can go to one place and concentrate on plowing through it. I can see recently uploaded photos from my Flickr contacts, read news, update statuses, search, etc. Another great thing about Eventbox is that the developers are actively listening to the desires of the web community. A handful of us started out asking for Identi.ca support and 6 months later, they’ve put it in.

Other all-in-one feed and social media apps: skimmer – Free (Beta)

4. Think – Free
The concept behind Think is very similar to that of Writeroom. The whole purpose of the application is to get the user to focus on one window at a time instead of being distracted by things going on in the background. Think dims everything except for the current application and in order to switch to separate applications, you have to use the built-in application switcher. It would be nice if you could use the OSX switcher or something, but overall I find that Think helps me to concentrate on doing one thing at a time. It’s worth giving a try, at least. It is free, after all.

Other concentration by deprivation apps: Isolator – Free, Backdrop – Free

5. 1Password – Demo
I’ve been using 1Password for a while and I really like that I no longer have to waste my time and brain power remembering passwords. The problem with having a strong internet presence is that often we end up having many accounts on many different services and while it would be nice to have one universal login for everything, I can see how that would be a real bummer if it got hacked. The alternative is something like 1Password. It’s a pretty slick system with plugins for Safari and Firefox and it allows you to save all of your accounts, passwords and web forms in one central repository which is protected with encryption and a central password. It also included a feature which allows you to create extremely strong and complex passwords. Since you no longer have to remember them, it means that you can increase the security viability of each of your accounts. The only problem I’ve encountered is that if I forget to bring along a USB stick or a device with my exported password file, I end up not being able to get into my accounts from a public terminal.

Other password management apps: Wallet – Demo, Password Repository – Free

6. Quicksilver – Free
I’m sure most people have heard of or used Quicksilver if they own a Mac. It’s on so many of the “software you must have on a Mac” lists floating around on the internet that I’d be surprised to hear if someone hadn’t heard of it. Quicksilver is in its most basic form an application launcher. With a keyboard shortcut, you can bring up the menu and start typing whatever app you’re looking for. It finds the app, you hit Enter/Return, and you’re done. It pretty much does away with the need to keep lots of apps in your dock and it can also do a lot more than find apps. It will do a whole range of actions quickly and more productivity can be added with plugins. It really a must have if you want to do things quickly and you aren’t content with Spotlight.

Other quick launching apps: LaunchBar – Demo, Switchblade – Demo

7. OmniFocus – Demo
OmniFocus is a one stop shot for all things task and project related. The best way to get an idea of how it works is to watch the video on the site, but it’s basically a way of organizing your life as a series of projects, actions and contexts. You can drag, drop and quickly add new entries and organize tasks in extreme detail. If you’re having problems organizing your life this app seems like it could sort anything out. I’ve tried it out a little but I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone has had any luck with any free options that may be floating around. Comment and let me know if you have.

Other project/task management apps: Things – Demo

8. Sidenote – Free
I use Sidenote a lot of the time when I don’t want or need to save noted in Evernote or in a full fledged task manager. If I’m looking to just store something for a few minutes or a few hours, I’ll stick it in Sidenote. It’s handy and it works well and it doesn’t clutter my screen like stickies do, which is important for my mindset. I don’t know about you, but I hate having a cluttered workspace. It just makes me feel that the tasks are insurmountable and I’ll never get through all of them. Sidenote gets out of my way when I want it to and it’s there for me to dump and grab information when I need it.

Other minimal/lightweight note/task taking apps: SlidePad – Demo, Sketchbox – Free

9. iCal (comes with the OS) with Calaboration – Free
There are probably a lot of ways to keep track of events and appointments, but I like iCal. That being said, I don’t find it perfect. Sometimes I’m not at my Mac at home and I want someplace to store my events and appointments. That’s where Calaboration comes in. It lets me synchronize my iCal with my Google Calendar. That way if I made a change on my Google Calendar it will appear on my Mac later or if I make a change on my Mac then I’ll see them later on my Google Calendar when I’m at another computer. It works great and it keeps me organized.

Other desktop calendar apps: Lightning or Sunbird – Free

10. TaskMate – Free
TaskMate is pretty simple. It does tasks. That’s pretty much it. Sometimes you don’t want to have to use something big like OmniFocus just to make a quick To Do list. Sometimes you just want to make a quick list of things and check them off quickly when you’re done, without lots of fuss. TaskMate does this perfectly. It’s small, quick and does tasks perfectly.

Other lightweight outline/task management apps: DoIt – Free, Omni Outliner – Demo, TaskPaper – Demo

Other stuff you may like:

Nocturne – Free – Switches your color scheme around for a nicer night viewing environment
PTHPasteboard – Free – Buffs up your clipboard for when you wish you could copy multiple items
Text Expander – Demo – Creates custom keystroke sequences to automate your frequently used text and images
Flow – Demo – FTP client with awesome interface, QuickLook integration and much more. Supports a wide array of protocols.
Witch – Demo – Allows you to switch easily between specific windows which aren’t in the same application.
iMindMap – Demo – Mind mapping software. Very useful for studying and learning information for visual learners.
Synergy – Free – Allows you to share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display.

Extra stuff or developers:

Coda – Demo
I’ve got a license to this product. As I said before, it’s not common for me to buy software but in this case I got hooked. Using Coda is like web development as it should be. First of all, everything is cleanly presented in one window. A wide variety of programming languages are supported, there is a built-in tab system and reference books, shell and ssh access, and FTP/SFTP/WebDAV connectivity.

Other web development apps: Espresso – Demo, cssedit – Demo, textmate – Demo, BBEdit – Demo, TextWrangler – Free

Paparazzi – Free
Paparazzi is a small utility which makes screenshots of entire webpages, regardless of visible content. You can type in a url of any website, specify the resolution of the screenshot you’d like, etc. By default Paparazzi includes some resolutions but you can add your own if you’d like. This app is small and quick and does what it claims, which is why I like it. It also helps that it is free and that you can capture the content which runs off the page, like one of those huge blogs.

Cyberduck – Free
Cyberduck is an FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files & Amazon S3 Browser with seamless integration with external editors. I use this as my SFTP client 100% of the time and I have no complaints. Updates come quite often and you can easily enable or disable features to customize your experience. There are some other paid clients out there which some people may like better (Transmit is fairly popular) but for me there is no real reason to switch to anything else. I love that it has QuickLook integration and the ability to expand TAR and ZIP files remotely over SSH. Check out the site for more features and information.

That’s it for now, but if you have something to add, just add a comment. Thanks for taking a look at my first post and let me know if you have any suggestions for posts.