zahnster

Last week I finally caved and bought a bigger hard drive for my laptop. I opted for the top of the line, 320 gigabyte Western Digital drive – at $109, I couldn’t refuse (it’s amazing how cheap these things are nowadays). Instead of doing the classic mac os migration, I decided that a fresh start with a clean os install would be the best avenue. It would allow me to really optimize my computer, utilizing all I’ve learned in the last year about optimizing a development environment.

I figured I’d document the apps, libraries, and utilities that I install, partly for self-reference, and hopefully for informing others of some of the essentials for professional web development (on a mac). I aim to be very specific about what I install, and oddly minimalistic considering all the space I’ve gained.

So, lets start with the main apps. There are a few must-haves, including the super powerful text-editor TextMate, s/ftp dream Transmit, hacker must-have Quicksilver, and who could forget the only svn gui worth mentioning, Versions. Last but not least, the essential web browser, Firefox and it’s various plugins (such as Firebug and the web developer toolbar). On the big expensive software side, it’s never a bad idea to have Adobe CS3 at your side.

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Ever since starting with Zenbe, I’ve found myself feeling refreshed and newly invested in the web community – so much to the point that I can’t pick a singular thing to blog about tonight.

So, I’ll mention them all. First up is a site called Mint, which is just brilliant. You sync up your bank account info with them and they put your finances together in a spectacular array of animated bar graphs and pie charts. It also helps you manage your budget and find ways to save expenses. It’s also full of cute little statistics like the Starbucks data to the left (which apparently helps you realize you went a little crazy with the lattes). I’m a total nerd for this stuff, and the app, which is built in Flex, is smooth and responsive in ways which almost make me feel like a fool for sticking with this javascript stuff.

Besides Mint, there’s also a lot of other applications of all types that have been coming around. First, Versions is finally out, and it’s quickly found it’s way into my ‘most used apps’ list. There’s also 280 slides, which does amazing things with web-based presentation tools; Fluid, which turns any website into a self-running webkit-based application; a youtube/last.fm mashup, and more. Much more.

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Adobe CS3 has been out for a little while now, and thanks to my new job, I’ve been able to get my hands dirty with it for the first time.

But, for the first time ever, I’m not thrilled with it. In fact, I’m quite mad about it.

The problem arises with the fact that Adobe took out the ImageReady program. Now, ImageReady was kind of a ‘niche market’ tool, but as a CSS-based web designer, it had become somewhat of a staple program to me because of it’s ability to allow you to ’slice’ a web photoshop comp. You could slice, name, and optimize layers right there on the screen, and most importantly – you could toggle these slices on and off, allowing you to make overlapping slices with no problems.

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