Some Mac stuff I like

I've been playing around with a bunch of Mac tools lately, so wanted to post them here.

Geek Tool. Geek Tool is not for the feint of heart. It basically displays the results of any Unix script on the desktop. Sounds easy, but you have to have the script first. I have it displaying the current date and time, and it works really well. Here's a link to more information at MacRumors.

Bowtie. Bowtie is a little utility that displays the current iTunes track on the desktop. It's also got a bunch of 'skins' with it so that you can change it's appearance. It's tres cool. Get it here. Oh, and it's free.

Evernote. This is a great application. It's a replacement for the note part of Apple's mail and the nice thing is that there's a matching iPhone application. Works super well and it's become a standard for me. Get it here, it's free too.

iStat Menus. Again, a great, free application. This one sits in the Menu bar of your Mac and displays all kinds of system information. I have mine set up to show me, CPU, active processes, hard drive space, temperatures and network activity along with the current date. I've been using this one for a while and it runs on all my Macs. Get it here.

Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is my choice du jour for Twitter client on the Mac. It's got a nice interface and you can do every kind of Twitter action from it. Unlike some other Twitter clients where you have to go to the Twitter site to say, unfollow someone. It's free (notice a common thread here? I'm cheap) and you can get it from here. There's also a matching iPhone app, get that from iTunes. It's free too.

One that's for the iPhone is called RunKeeper. I have the free version (surprise!) and got it from the iTunes store. It tracks your run, walk, bike ride and will tell you the distance travelled and your speed. It also displays a map based on Google maps when you're finished. You can have it automatically send your workout details straight to Twitter if you want to share them.

The last one for now is Tinkertool. It's free and you can get it here. Tinkertool lets you change all kinds of settings in Mac OSX. And it doesn't change anything permanently so you can experiment as much as you like without breaking anything. There's a single button to click if you want to restore everything.

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My own business

Hah! Is all I have to say. I don't know if it's me or the economy but the business has not taken off at all. It's as slow as molasses in the winter. So I'm back to trying to find a real job. I'm still trying to do my own thing but I have lots of time to find real employment.

Anyway, the location of this blog has changed. I've resurrected my original website at www.bailie.org. That URL used to redirect to this blog, but I've now put the site back up. It's basically a resume site and this blog is a link off it. I had some good luck with the resume site when I had it up before, and right now I could use all the luck I can get.

What else. Well since I posted last we got a puppy. She's part poodle and part cocker spaniel and is all cockapoo. Her name is Molly. She's very cute and is a lot of fun. We're just trying to get past the house and leash training.

I had a birthday a little while ago too. Ho hum. Started using Twitter, get me here if you like. House projects this summer are to reinforce the floor underneath the main level. It's become a little springy over the years.

I'm learning Objective-C and Cocoa programming on the Mac. I've always loved coding, it's something I've never tired of in all these years. So I might as well add another language to the list.

That's all for now.

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