Today marked the first day of my new career at Infrared5 – a rock-star software consulting company based in Boston. It is an awesome team, both in personality and ability – and I’m looking forward to doing some great projects with the guys there.
Sadly, it means my days at Mckinney, an Ad agency in North Carolina have come to an end. But, that means there is a brand new shiny position open to some ambitious Flasher out there. Check out their site at www.mckinney.com and apply. I swear on my life they have the greatest offices I’ve seen – and North Carolina is awesome too. A position for Technology Director is also available, if anyone is interested in that… just tell them I sent you 
. I had a great time working there and it was hard to leave, but hopefully it will work out the best for everyone.
Something else major to note, is that I am now the owner and operator of a brand new Mac Book Pro:
It arrived last Friday and I’ve been struggling to get my head around the UI. Overall, everything has gone smoothly – there are only a few major gripes:
- Dual Monitor support sucks… sure – it works, but having the menu bar for your app limited to one screen is a huge pain, as is having everything held in the Dock which is also limited to one screen. OSX needs something similar to Ultramon or Multimon. Dejamenu is okay, but I will never use it since its not constantly visible.
- Doesn’t work well with my routers. Yes, it worked about 10% of the time on my older D-link router (although working is a relative term). When it was “working” it took about 5 minutes to load anything unless it was cached. I played with every setting I could find online for both the router and the OS. It took me a while to figure out the router was the problem since it worked perfect on every PC I have owned. SO, I went ahead and upgraded my router to an awesome new Netgear (with 8 antennas!). This time browsing only took 10 minutes to get working, and only about an hour to get my chat client/socket apps working. PC worked perfect the second it was plugged in…
- VLC crashes whenever I try to open something…
- An application opening with no windows. It was fun trying to explain this logic to my wife on why nothing happens when she “opened” Firefox. The fun part not having anything to do with my wife (who is computer savvy), but trying to explain why a menu bar in the top left corner is actually the application, and windows don’t really have to exist for the app to have focus… I think having an application self-contained is much more intuitive.. but that could just be me. This also solves problem #1.
Other than that, things have gone great. Quicksilver and Spotlight are AWESOME. Networking, once it started working for some unknown reason, is doing great now. Quicklook is rock-star, and the mutli-touch pad is pretty slick. It is also really nice to have the computer wake up in about 5 seconds, as opposed to the 30 second wakeup on my old Dell.
So, overall, it has been a fun experience learning this new setup. If anyone knows some awesome apps I shouldn’t be without on the new Mac, let me know! I want to streamline my workflow as much as possible
11 Comments, Comment or Ping
Grab Perian, Flip4Mac and divx…with those three you’ll almost never have to use VLC. For vid conversion try VisualHub.
March 25th, 2008
Firefox – in the preferences you can set it up to show a home page each time it starts.
I agree with enz0, FLip4Mac quicktime plugin is worth having – otherwise perian plugin for quictime allows you to open just about anything. Also look for the AC3 plugin should give you nice surround sound if ever you need it.
I use a Macbook Pro and don’t have much trouble with VLC, maybe a reinstall might help?
I had the same problem with routers, funny thing was the problem disappeared when I ran windows natively on the thing. Apple needs to sort out some of those bugs in its wifi software me thinks
March 25th, 2008
awesome guys thanks – I just got perian, already had divx, and will be sure to check out Flip4Mac
March 25th, 2008
http://www.iusethis.com
This is a great resource to find out about all different kinds of programs for OSX.
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http://www.macapper.com
Another great resource to find out about all different kinds of programs for OSX.
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http://www.yousoftware.com/desktops/desktops.php
This is like spaces on crack. Imagine having a different desktops for every space. ($30)
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http://growl.info/
This little app gracefully sends alerts to your desktops when certain things happen. It might sound trivial, but it is great if you work with music on because you actually see alerts and you dont have to hear them. It is very unobtrusive as well. Highly recommended. (Free)
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http://www.mamooba.com/TrackTime
Great Time Tracking tool. It logs your minutes in every app or website and even iTunes songs. ($20)
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http://reduxcomputing.com/proximity.php
Proximity monitors the proximity of your mobile phone or other bluetooth device and executes custom AppleScripts when the device goes out of range or comes into range of your computer.
The strength of this program really lies in running useful AppleScripts.
Example: When your cell phone is out of range, a screen saver with a password comes on. When your cellphone is in range, the screen saver unlocks.
The above example is probably not ideal, but it is pretty cool.
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http://www.callwave.com/landing/widgets_Gadgets_L1.aspx
This is a widget that allows you to play your voicemail from your desktop. Also, receive email notifications of received message. Text messages will be emailed to you as well. This requires you to use CallWave for your voice mail, but (from what I can tell and what I have experienced) it is free.
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Hope this gets you started in the right direction!
March 25th, 2008
PathFinder to replace finder
Adium for all your im
Colloguy for irc
Cyberduck for ftp
Textmate for txt
Eclipse/FDT for as
smcFanControl to adjust fan speed (these suckers get hot)
TextExpander for snippets
CleanApp for uninstalling stuff
Floola for your ipod
SnapzPro for screen/vid capture
SuitcaseFusion for fonts
…others were mentioned already
Some of those are free some are not… but worth it
March 25th, 2008
Quicksilver is a must. Take the 10 minutes to read the install manual. It will save you massive amounts of time over a year.
http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver
March 25th, 2008
Welcome to IR5 Andy! This company just keeps getting better.
March 27th, 2008
Transmision for torrent
svnX for cvs
Skype for tchat with video or adium with the plugin
Eclipse with aptana for the ftp functionality.
Camino for internet
Terminal for all action you want.
OSCulator for use wiimote with lot of software, you can define action.
Enjoy the switch
March 27th, 2008
Hey Andy,
Sorry for the late comment on this! Anyway, welcome to the team. We are very glad to have you!
In terms of moving the menu bar in OSX with multiple monitors, that’s very easy. Just go your System Preferences Application, click on displays, then select the “Arrangement” tab. You will then be able to drag the little white rectangle around to where you want the menu to be. Hopefully that helps.
March 28th, 2008
so after 1 month, give us a post in how an all star company works, please….
April 27th, 2008
slt a tous le monde
January 3rd, 2009
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