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Going Offline in Maine

Troy (admin) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:57:55 +0000

We’re about to head North to my home state of Maine for a couple of weeks, a place I haven’t lived for 20 years. Over the past two decades, I’ve moved from Colorado, to Boston, to Guam, to Germany, back to Boston, to Germany again, to Hawaii, and (most recently) to Washington, DC. For work [...]

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Podcast Production Video

Troy (admin) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:12:34 +0000

As I mentioned in a previous post, part of my job is to produce a bi-weekly audio podcast (for the National Ocean Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Recently, I was asked to put together a presentation about what it takes to produce it. To that end, I made the following video [...]

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TheMacBundles.com

Troy (admin) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:34:13 +0000

It seems that all I’ve been posting about as of late are notifications of Mac software discounts, but there’s a new bundle deal on the street that I want to highlight for two reasons: (1) the business model is notably different from the rest; and (2) the first grouping of applications are quite good. You [...]

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Interesting stuff

Troy (admin) — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:29:08 +0000

A few notes of interest. 1. MacUpdate Spring Bundle: Yet another bundle for $49. Standout included applications are TechTool Pro, Parallels, Circus Ponies Notebook, and NetBarrier. 2. Google Wave: What would E-mail look like if it were invented today? Check out this video preview from the Google I/O developer conference. Pretty interesting and ambitious (and it’s open [...]

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Three Day Panic Sale

Troy (admin) — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:45:33 +0000

Just in case you haven’t heard, Panic software is offering all of their applications at a 50 percent discount through 11:59 Pacific, May 29th. The folks at Panic make some of the best software out there for the Mac, so it’s worth checking out. I’m a huge fan of Transmit, their FTP client. I think of [...]

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Audio editors for podcasting

Troy (admin) — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:02:50 +0000

In my work life, one of my tasks is to produce an audio podcast. I use Soundtrack Pro and GarageBand to do the job. However, I recently tried out a few audio editing alternatives. I evaluated Adobe Soundbooth, Adobe Audition, and Audacity. I thought I’d share my conclusions: - Adobe Soundbooth CS4 ($200). I found Soundbooth [...]

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SpaceTime3D Public Beta

Troy (admin) — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:44:55 +0000

When I first installed VMWare Fusion on my Mac last year, I was surfing around for some free and interesting applications to try out on Windows to test performance. One of the apps I came across was a desktop search alternative called SpaceTime3D. I was intrigued, and E-mailed the developer to ask if a Mac [...]

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MacHeist=Apple App Store? (+Twitter postscript)

Troy (admin) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:28:24 +0000

Earlier today, MacHeist sent out a blurb on Twitter with a link to a blog post from Fast Company. This article posited that the app-bundling phenomenon that is MacHeist could serve as a model for an Apple desktop App Store (similar to the iPhone App Store). I don’t see it. MacHeist is a lot [...]

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Yep, another MacHeist

Troy (admin) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:03:30 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, MacHeist 3 is here. There’s a lot of controversy about the pros and cons (for developers of Mac software) about steeply discounted bundles of Mac applications, and MacHeist is at the core of it. The controversy revolves around what these kind of steeply-discounted bundles portend for third-party Mac developers. Will [...]

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Mac Security

Troy (admin) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:33:53 +0000

Just came across an interesting article on MacWorld. Here’s an excerpt: Two well-known Mac hackers are updating a widely used hacking toolkit, making it easier to take control of a Macintosh computer…Although there are still many more exploits available for Windows software than for Macs, the new payload code means there is now “more or less [...]

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OmniWeb is now free

Troy (admin) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:17:07 +0000

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that OmniWeb is now a free browser. I’m a huge fan. I purchased OmniWeb long ago to take advantage of this browsers powerful features. It used to cost $15, but now cost nothing as of last Wednesday. There are many features of this browser that make it special. OmniWeb can [...]

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Xyle scope now free

Troy (admin) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:24:43 +0000

Cultured Code is now offering Xyle scope for free. Not sure when this happened. Used to cost $20. I’m guessing this choice has a lot to do with the great success of Things. I wrote about Xyle scope in Jan. 2008. My conclusion then: I almost bought this application but, in the end, I decided to [...]

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Hidden Opera

Troy (admin) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:56:00 +0000

This may be old news to many, but I just learned that Opera is installed by Adobe as part of the Creative Suite. Turns out Adobe has been using Opera for years as a rendering engine. I’ve read that it’s used in all kinds of places: to display Adobe Help files, in Device Central (to [...]

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Aviary: Worth a Test Flight

Troy (admin) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:42:58 +0000

Aviary, a collection of online design and editing tools, is an amazing technical feat. A couple of weeks ago, Aviary brought their online vector editor out of Beta. It’s called Raven, and it joins, well, an aviary of other online applications: Phoenix (image editor), Peacock (dubbed a ‘visual laboratory’), Toucan (color manager), and Phoenix (an image [...]

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A Greener Apple?

Troy (admin) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:42:27 +0000

I received my iPhone AppleCare warranty extension in the mail this week. Above, you can see the included shipping material and Apple packaging. The important part of this package is a registration number printed on one small card. This number must be entered on Apple’s Web site to activate the warranty. Let’s review this process: I [...]

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Entrain the brain

Troy (admin) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:03:26 +0000

Now for something completely different. Let’s talk about entrainment, the process by which wave frequencies in two or more interacting systems with different periods eventually lock into phase. You see it nature, for example, when fireflies start blinking together in unison. You hear it in music when different instruments in a jam session start to vibrate [...]

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Site hack recap

Troy (admin) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:26:12 +0000

So, the site is back to normal. The question is how did this happen? My passwords consist of 12 randomly-generated digits/symbols, I’m using the latest versions of WordPress and various plug ins. It could be that I was just one of the lucky first few to have their WP 2.7 installs compromised. It could also [...]

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Site will be back to normal soon

Troy (admin) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:45:11 +0000

Even though this site was running the latest version of WordPress (2.7) and the latest plug in versions, it was taken over sometime overnight and replaced with a site espousing an end to Palestinian violence. Thankfully, I had a good backup. I’m still in the process of restoring everything, changing and strengthening passwords, etc. Everything [...]

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Time to pay for Things

Troy (admin) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:18:56 +0000

Things from Cultured Code will be officially unveiled at Macworld Expo in one week. Today, Things 1.0 Release Candidate hit the streets. I’ve been using this app for a long time now. It feels like it’s been in Beta forever. I am grateful that I’ve had the chance to use it for free for so [...]

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Choose your browser

Troy (admin) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:40:38 +0000

I’ve long wished for a flexible, well-integrated tool that would give me complete control over browser choice when opening links. A couple of new applications now in public beta meet this need quite well. Choosy The first is a preference pane application called Choosy from developer George Brocklewurst. Once you make Choosy your default browser, you can [...]

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