Bryan Strawser

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Software Essentials

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Update: This post is now out of date. The current version is here.

Mark Pilgrim has inspired me with a great post about the essential software that he uses day to day, so here’s my breakdown of the same:

  1. Text Editing: BBEdit. While it’s not cross platform, I’ve not found anything that worked as well for me as BBEdit – runs on top of Mac OS X. Handles PHP, HTML, and CSS flawlessly, has remote capabilities, and does alot of other things like slice my bread and make fresh cheese for me.
  2. Web Browsing: Apple’s Safari – I’ve been using it since some of the early beta versions. Includes tabbed browsing, which I now find that I can’t live without. Syncs bookmarks between the laptop and the desktop. Exceptionally fast. I will be testing Mozilla Firefox shortly though since it is getting great reviews. One annoying bug: why does it keep locking up on me from time to time in some applications? Ack!
  3. E-Mail: Microsoft Entourage. I’m not sure that I am going to continue using this since it doesn’t do everything that I need and Apple’s Mail.app seems to be catching up with functionality. Nothing that I am doing is tied directly to Entourage, so it’s likely I’ll be switching. Is there a Mail.app to Entourage tool?
  4. Remote Connections: SSH – is there any other tool? I think not. My servers allow access only via SSH. I have SSH setup to allow access into my home network from the outside – and no other path. I use SSH to tunnel POP, SMTP, and other tools across the internet. There’s no other way to do this the way that I want…
  5. PDA: Compaq iPaq 3850 – it’s nearly three years old now but does everything that I need. I’ve added Pocket Explorer and PhatNotes to the default applications and don’t need any others. I’d get a newer laptop but my employer still doesn’t support USB, so I can’t upgrade. Besides, I like what I have.
  6. Backup and Mirroring:rsync. I backup my servers to a Dell NAS on my local network. It also does MySQL replication. It’s a great tool.
  7. Web Server: Apache – usually with PHP and MySQL added on – as well as a few other goodies. There’s nothing else as robust or as simple to use.
  8. Server Operating System: Debian – a linux system with outstanding package support. It’s the only server OS that I use. Automatic upgrades, great security services, outstanding documentation.
  9. Desktop Operating System: Mac OS X – running this now on a laptop and a desktop. Allows me to work on sites and other code locally without any special add ons. Applications exist for almost everything that I need to do. Disappointed by the lack of support by some vendors for their products on this OS, but I’m confident that they’ll come around eventually!
  10. Instant Messanging: Proteus from Indigofield. Simple shareware that supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ all in one package with pretty icons and other notification options.
  11. IRC: ircle – I’m not often in IRC outside of tech conferences and the like – but when I am, I use this highly popular IRC tool. I’m also known to use BitchX from the command line – it takes me back to my hacker days.
  12. Weblog Publishing Tools: Movable Type – currently using v2.65, but will be switching to v3.0 as its released. A set of custom templates and a CSS based layout. I also use ecto for remote publishing and other weblog management tasks.
  13. News Aggregator: NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software. A Mac OS X based newsreader with support for all feed types and soon will sync news feeds across machines, which will be simply awesome for my desktop when I’m at home.
  14. Scripting Language: PHP – it’s the only scripting language that I code in – though alot of my server applications use Perl.

Those are the key applications that I use at home and with my own computers – I’ll skip talking about my real job and the applications that we’re required to use there – but they’re mostly from Microsoft….

Six Months with a Tablet PC

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Liz Lawley writes over at mamamusings about her six month experience using a tablet PC:

The tablet-specific features of the operating environment are really very slick. I particularly like the Zinio magazine reading software, which lets me read a variety of magazines (purchased one copy at a time, or via subscription) on the screen, and allows me to annotate the pages as I go. Very nice implementation, and ideal for reading on the go.

My primary machine is currently a 15″ Apple Powerbook – at work I use this as well as a Dell laptop that’s about five years old, a Compaq (HP) iPaq and alot of notebook paper.

Tablet PCs appeal to me – I’ve played with a few of them at the FranklinCovey store and some other retailers, but still haven’t found one that really works for me the way that I would want. Besides, I’m pretty attached now to my powerbook and love Mac OS X.

I see down the road though that Tablet PCs are going to outpace laptops in terms of usage — at least it’s my fervent hope that eventually I’ll be able to get rid of my piles of paper and be more electronic.

Fucking Safari

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Working on a complete rewrite of one of the websites that I own here at the bar near the ocean here in St. Croix.

The site is powered by an off-the-sheld script called vRating – which is a quality piece of software.

I’m using Safari to do the webbased administration – and the damn thing keeps pausing with the little spinning wheel – it’s driving me fucking crazy.

I’m gonna get a drink.