Inquisitor
Download Inquisitor | Previous recommendation that must be recommended again
Aside from far-faster page-loading performance, Inquisitor makes Safari the one-and-only browser choice on the Mac. (Don’t get me wrong: Firefox is fast, open source, and worth having on your machine. Safari’s just much, much faster, and better integrated into the Mac.) The plug-in, now financed by Yahoo!, modifies Safari’s top-right search box in the following ways:

• Change the default Search provider
• Adds auto-complete
• Adds search term suggestions
• Shows the first 3-5 results for your search in a bubble with a preview
• Allows you to add customizable links to alternate search engines (mine target my Delicious.com links, Amazon, Google Images, Flickr, Wikipedia, and Yahoo!’s intranet)

To top it off, it is super fast. It’s free, and very easy to install. Do not wait.

If you use a Mac, this should be the very first piece of software you install.

Quicksilver
Download Quicksilver | New to this list
I fought this for a long time, and I now regret doing so. Quicksilver is so many things, but at its basic core it provides a time-saving application and document launcher… via keystrokes. While the mouse and other inputs (like trackpads, Wacom tablets, etc.) provide precise pixel-level control over the cursor, the keyboard is undisputedly one of the fastest data entry devices for all things text. I mention this, only as I had previously argued it was faster for me to leave whatever I was doing, move the cursor down to the Dock, and click on an App I wanted to open. Unfortunately, I was wrong on two accounts:

1. Moving my mouse down to the OS X Dock, finding the App, clicking it, and then moving back up to the newly-launched App’s location takes a fair bit of time and thought.
2. Many times, the App I want isn’t in the Dock, so I either need to pollute my Dock with all App possibilities I may at some point want or invariably have to switch to the Finder, find the App by clicking through folders structures, double-click it, etc.

With Quicksilver, I simply hit Ctrl-Space, begin typing the App’s name I want, and hit Return as soon as I see it enter focus in the middle of my screen. My cursor stayed put, my fingers did what they were already doing, my Dock is now sparse and very easy to scan, and I can limitlessly access all Apps with roughly five keystrokes (3 of those being Control, Space, and Return).

Further, after seeing Mozilla Labs release Ubiquity for Firefox, I’m further convinced that these keystroke command lines are best suited for language-driven actions than cursor/touch interactions… and will hopefully become more commonplace.

1Password
Download 1Password | Replaces Pastor
1Password is a life-saver. While OS X has a built-in Keychain application which remembers OS-level passwords, 1Password reaches deep into all Web browser Apps (such as Safari, Firefox, Opera, WebKit, Fluid, etc.) to extend password (and contact info form) remembrance. What does that mean? Instead of collecting all your passwords on a piece of paper or an online notepad, 1Password automatically collects all the forms you fill out online and makes them one-click away from being resubmitted later on. These passwords then can be synced between multiple Macs (via their free my.1Password.com service) and iPhones (via their free 1Password iPhone App).

As added features, it can generate very secure passwords for you, remember multiple accounts (if you share the same computer with several people who use Yahoo! or Gmail), and can store and access non-Web site passwords (such as software serial numbers, frequent flier accounts, or frequent shopper perks).

Now, all you need to remember is the one password you use for 1Password.

Fluid
Download Fluid | New to this list
Fluid doesn’t make sense to most people I discuss it with, unfortunately, but it is among my favorite Apps. Fluid lets you take any Web page and turn it into its own App. “Why,” most of my friends ask, “would you want to do this?” Safari, Firefox, and other Web browsers all seem to get sluggish and/or crash right when you need to check email or perform a quick task. When that happens, everything you have open inside of them is frozen. This isn’t a big deal if you’re checking the New York Times or another news site. It is, however, a big deal when you use some Web pages like Apps themselves (think: Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Mint, WordPress, etc.).

Fluid, in essence, turns your favorite sites into standalone Apps. This gibes you some of the many benefits Apps have over Web pages in OS X (such as new message count for email or new items for RSS feeds). Each App created by Fluid runs in a protected instance of Safari, meaning that if Safari slows down, your App doesn’t (and vice versa). Lastly, you also get Growl notifications, Greasemonkey extensions, and much more.

WordService
Download | New to this list
I still am surprised that Apple supplies a built-in Dictionary and Thesaurus, but not these tools. And, further, that someone provides all of these free-of-charge. And, further, that no one seems to know about these.

DEVONtechnologies has made an OS X plugin (called a “Service”) that allows you to do the following to text you have selected in most Apps:

1. Convert to Initial caps of sentences
2. Convert to Initial caps of words
3. Convert to uppercase (all caps)
4. Convert to lowercase
5. Convert between straight quotes and smart quotes
6. Get statistics (letter, word, and line count)
7. Convert between Mac, Windows, and Unix line endings
8. Sort lines ascending/descending
9. Shift left or right
10. and plenty more…

Needless to say, if you ever deal with text (whether in email, Word docs, or browser form fields, this Service will be worth an installation. You can always access it then, too, by selecting text, opening your App’s menu (i.e. “Safari” menu in the Safari App), navigating to the Services item, and then opening Convert, Format, or Insert.

Adium
Download Adium | Replaces Proteus
Previously, I recommended Proteus for multi-service instant messaging; I’ve long since converted to Adium. First, Proteus is no longer under development. Second, Adium has been squashing bugs and adding features at an amazing clip. You can not only chat across the major services (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, GoogleTalk, etc.), but you can now chat with Facebook friends, too. It taps into OS X’s built-in Address Book for contacts, and is very customizable.

AppFresh
Download AppFresh | New to this list
Far from the last App to download is AppFresh. This software should be built into Apple’s Software Update mechanism, but until it is, there’s AppFresh. It scans your Mac, lists all the software you have, lets you know which are out-of-date, and (best yet) lets you update those you select without leaving this App. Keeping up-to-date was never so easy.

Other Recommendations
The following Apps have been useful to me, although they are far from the standard, daily-use fare of the aforementioned Apps:

• FFXporter
  Free, lightweight plugin for iPhoto which lets you upload your selected photos to Flickr. (This has been a long time coming.)
• Secrets
  Exposes numerous OS X software “hidden” preferences for quick manipulation. Many similar Apps charge $20 for this; Secrets is free, and allows users to quickly add other prefs to the system as they’re discovered.
• Punakea
  Tiny, lightweight App which lets you quickly tag files (ala Flickr and del.icio.us) in the Finder.
• RapidoWrite
  Create shorthand for text snippets, ala TextExpander… but $30 less (i.e. free).

Whenever I need to do a backup, I find myself repeating a pattern. I select a series of files and folders, and then check their total file size via the Finder’s Inspector palette (Cmd-Option-I) to see how close that is to the CD/DVD disc’s available space. Once I get just the right amount (i.e. 760MB, 4.3GB, or 8.1GB), I then want to isolate these files so as to remember which groups of files will make up their own disc.

The problem with this approach, is that the best way to do this (that I’d found to date) was to create a new folder, and move those files inside that folder. Unfortunately, I don’t always have a pile of empty folders waiting right along side these files ready to hold them. If I then create a new folder, it often loses the selection of the files I had (as the OS now focuses attention on the new folder, rather than the previous selection). As such, I then have to go through the same task I did before creating the folder (manually selecting and sizing different groups of files).

There has to be a better way. I tried a number of different 3rd-party add-ons and applications, but nothing quite did the trick. And, in the absence of all hope, I finally tried Apple’s Automator, which reminded me a bit of Yahoo!’s Pipes.

I first checked to see whether anyone else had solved this issue via Apple’s Automator Downloads and a 3rd-party Automator downloads site, but no go.

I then did what any grown man or woman would do… search for it on the Web. Still no luck.

Finally, I broke down, and tried to pipe a solution together in Automator.

It took hours. And several separate attempts.

Maybe you need a CS degree to figure out Automator? I’m not sure. But wiring together such a taskflow proved nearly impossible… at least, wiring together a graceful experience of such a taskflow proved impossible. Certain components in Automator allow variables, but I can’t define the output of one step as a variable that can then be used in another step. Unfortunate.

Eventually, and largely due to a mistake, I was able to get a solution in place by forcing a series of dialog boxes. It’s far from graceful, but now I can right/Control-click on items I’ve already selected, and then navigate a quick contextual menu tree (More » Automator » Move Selected Items to Folder). After several seconds, a pop-up dialog box then asks whether to save it to the Desktop. Instead, choose “Other…” from the “To:” drop-down menu, and then create a new folder wherever you desire in the resulting Open dialog box. Then press the Open button, followed by the Continue button, and voila: your selected files/folders move to their new folder.

You can download this ‘Move Selected Items to Folder’ Automator workflow, unzip the file, and install it on your Mac at “~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/“. If those folders don’t exist, I imagine you probably just need to create that folder structure to be in business.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy Automator exists. Obviously, without it, I’d still be stuck with my broken taskflow. Nonetheless, Automator could stand to leverage some of Pipes’ learnings (such as variable creation and concurrent task operations). (And, not to be partisan, Pipes, of course, could leverage some Automator’s beauty and Recording functionality… maybe via a Greasemonkey script?)

If you’ve had similar taskflow problems, download the workflow, and let me know your thoughts. Also, if you know of a more graceful solution (or can code a more seamless Finder experience), please let me know… I imagine I’m not the only one who’s faced this issue before.

This effort was soon copied by MacUpdate, who offered a MacUpdate Promo bundle which also provided some great apps. MacHeist, not to be outdone, hacked that promotion, and offered users the ability to get additional free apps by buying the MacUpdate Promo bundle through its hack.

Well, it’s back again.

The new MacHeist II effort offers 11 Mac apps for $49. That includes the following applications:

• 1password, $29.95
  All your confidential information, including passwords, identities, and credit cards, is kept in one secure place provided by Apple’s OS X Keychain. Sounds useful. Verdict: Keep.
• AppZapper, $12.95
  I’ve been looking to get this one for some time. Adding and removing apps on the Mac is pretty simple, but it can be difficult to know where all an app tucked away its associated files. AppZapper makes it a simple issue. Verdict: Keep.
• Awaken, $12.95
  Awaken allows you to set any song in your iTunes library (or a playlist) as the buzzer on multiple alarms. Sorry, but my Mac isn’t by my bedside. Verdict: Pass.
• Cha-Ching, $40.00
  Checkbook balancing, budgets, bills and expenses handled “iTunes-style.” Me? I need automatic synchronization with my online accounts… I like software to do the work, not me. Verdict: Pass.
• CoverSutra, $22.00
  A CD jewelcase interface for iTunes with cover art on your desktop with Last.fm integration, fully customizable keyboard shortcuts, and instant player controls. Honestly? CoverSutra needs iTunes open to play music… I think I’ll stick with one app rather than two to do such a simple task. iTunes is way too bloated as is; last thing I need taking more memory is another music player. Verdict: Pass.
• CSSEdit, $29.95
  This is considered the top-tier CSS editor on the Mac. Happy to now have a full license, as I do a considerable amount of CSS-based design work. Verdict: Keep.
• iStopMotion, $49.00
  Use your Mac’s iSight to streamline the process of capturing and processing stop motion film. Sounds cute, although probably will only use once. Verdict: Will Try.
• Pixelmator, $59.00
  A layer-based image editor that uses the Mac’s built-in iSight, graphics card, and a full-screen editing mode. I beta tested this app early on, and will be interested to see how it matures. Verdict: Keep.
• Snapz Pro X, $69.00
  This one’s huge. It’s been the de facto screenshot and screen capture (i.e. video) app on the Mac for years. Verdict: Keep.
• Speed Download, $25.00
  Downloads from your browser, FTP, iDisk, are handled and sorted by type– movies go into Front Row, music goes directly into iTunes, etc. Sounds interesting… and likely to annoy. Verdict: Will Try.
• TaskPaper, $18.95
  A bare-bones, text-based to-do list to keep you organized. While I like the ability to edit either in the app or any other text editor, I’ve begun to take a liking to Things. Verdict: Will Try.

To top it off, MacHeist II will again donate 25% of its proceeds to one (or all) of the non-profits listed below:

• Action Against Hunger
• AIDS Research Alliance
• Alliance for Climate Protection
• Direct Relief International
• Humane Society International
• The Nature Conservancy
• Save the Children
• Save Darfur
• Prevent Cancer Foundation
• World Wildlife Fund

As I write this, $71,491 has already been raised for these organizations. Not bad.

So, check it out. $49 for CSSEdit, Snapz Pro, Pixelmator and 1Password alone would be a good deal; the rest is gravy. And, you’ll be helping some good folks in the process.

Luckily, Yahoo! Developer Network co-worker JR Conlin stepped up and helped me fill in a couple blanks. As such, I present my revision to the O’Reilly Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide (by Mike Chambers, Daniel Dura, & Kevin Hoyt)… particularly pages 27 and 28, Setting Up the AIR SDK and Command-LineTools:

There are a number of ways to add the path to the AIR SDK to your system path, depending on which shell you are using, and how you specify user environment variables.

The instructions below show how to modify your path environment variable if you are using the bash shell.

1. Open the Terminal program (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
2. Make sure you’re in your home directory by typing

   cd

   and pressing enter.

3. We need to check to see if one of two files are present. Run the following command

   ls -la

4. Look for a file named either.profile or.bashrc.
5. If you have neither the .profile or .bashrc file, then create the .profile file with the following command:
   touch .profile
6. Open the .profile or .bashrc file with a text editor.
7. Look for a line that looks similar to this:

   export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

8. Add the path to the /bindirectory to the end of this line. For example, if /bin is at /airsdk/bin, the export path should look something like this:

   export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin;/airsdk/bin

   making sure to separate the entries with a colon.

9. If the file is empty, add the following line:

   export PATH=$PATH:/airsdk/bin

10. Save and close the file.

Insert: Quit Terminal (and other applications), and restart your Mac. (If you don’t restart your Mac, your Terminal application won’t recognize the changes.)

11. Run the following command to load the new settings source,

    .profile

    (or

    .bashrc

    , if that is the file you edited).

Revise item #11: Run the following command to load the new settings source,

. .profile

(or

. .bashrc

, if that is the file you edited).

12. You can confirm that the new settings have taken effect by typing

    echo $PATH

    and pressing Enter. Make sure that the

    /bin

    path is included in the output.

13. In order to test the installation, open a Terminal window and type

    adt

    .
    
    You should see output similar this:

    Too few arguments.
    Usage: adt -package air_file app_xml [ file_or_dir | -C dir file_or_dir ... ] ... 

    meaning that the tools are configured correctly.

If you get an error that the file cannot be found, then check the following things:

• Make sure the bin and runtime directories are included in the

  directory.

• Make sure you included the path to

  /bin

  correctly in the PATH environment variable.

• Make sure you either opened a new Terminal window, or ran source on your configuration file.

If this works for you, too (or, if it does not), drop me a line in the Comments section. I will try to keep this updated as I hear from folks. Having recently spoke at the Atlanta stop of the OnAir tour, I can attest that developers are building exciting things with AIR… hopefully this will help a few others join those legions.

In this here “Year of the Golden Pig,” its all about health, wealth, and knowledge of self at Laaker.com, and a smattering of self-help. As such, I am sharing said wealth and knoweldge (and no health) concerning all things Mac-software… and eliminating the need to write multiple emails this year.

Further, if you’re just generally curious as to what software I use, check out my software profile at iusethis. It’s a social repository for software usage of which I’ve become a fan. If you’d rather spend your time online here, though, feel free to peruse my choice picks below:

Utilities

Onyx
Unlock Debug menus for Safari, Disk Utility and other applications; perform system maintenance and optimization tasks; and configure the Finder and other system tools to behave as you wish.

Inquisitor
Totally pimp your Safari search box: add autocomplete, your favorite search engines (MyWeb, Wikipedia, Amazon, etc.), and see similar popular queries.

Stuffit Standard
StuffIt has been the industry standard for file decompression for years. There’s a new competitor out, the open-source The UnArchiver, which I’ve just begun to try… jury’s still out on whether it takes the cake.

Pastor
Simple-purposed application for storing passwords, logins, serial numbers, preferences, etc.

CDFinder
Great app for archiving your data, music, and video discs; it costs $30 after 30 days, but has served me very well over the years.

Delicious Library
One use of this media catalog program will have you gathering up anything with a UPC code on it. If you have a digital web cam, you can use DL to scan bar codes on your CDs, DVDs, books, etc., automatically grab info from Amazon, and catalog all the info on your machine. Perfect for insurance tracking, as well the ability to publish elsewhere if you want. ($40)
For those without Macs or $40 lying around, there’s also Library Thing, which fills a similar role without fulfilling the UI delight… nor the easy-entry barcode scanning.

Burn
Kind of like Toast/EZCDCreator, but free. For most needs, Apple’s built-in CD/DVD burning will suffice; however, Burn is faster, uses less disk space on your computer (as Apple makes a disc image first), and gives you more options (like VCDs and more).

Design

Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
OmniGraffle Professional

Internet

Cyberduck
Free FTP program that can sync your bookmarks with your .Mac account

Plaxo

Proteus
Instant Messenger application that handles AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GoogleTalk, Jabber, and more, while still using your OS X Address Book.

Smultron
What was hands-down the best (and free) code/text editor available on the Mac is now one of the ugliest. Featuring code snippets (think of it as a quick library of commonly-used text/code), .Mac preferences syncing (for multiple machines), and tabbed environments, Smultron is fast and often-updated. Repair the icons by applying a patch created by the original icon artist on the project.

Cocoalicious
Very useful for quickly managing your del.icio.us bookmarks.

delImport
If you use del.icio.us bookmarks, you need this application, too. Anytime you search in Apple’s Spotlight, your del.icio.us bookmarks will be included, too.

Adobe Reader
PDFs are everywhere, and the latest version of the Reader application is much, much speedier.

Macromedia Flash Player
Macs rarely come with the latest edition, and a large chunk of the Web requires the latest and greatest.

Macromedia Shockwave Player
Macs rarely come with the latest edition anymore. While seldom used anymore, you can save some pain later by downloading now.

Adobe SVG Viewer
This plugin lets you view the XML version of Flash on your Mac.

Firefox
(you know why)

Music

iLike Sidebar

PodWorks
This is what I use to copy music from iPod back to my Mac… it’s $8 well spent.

Video
Perian
This plugin allows DivX and other generally-PC-only formats to play just fine via QuickTime.

Flip4Mac WMV
Windows Media Player support comes to OS X in the guise of this plugin. It will let you play .wmv files directly in the QuickTime player.

VLC video player
This application plays a lot of movies Quicktime, WMP, and Real can’t play.

Niche

Tivo Decode Manager
$100 is too, too much to pay for what is already free; bypass TiVo’s overpriced TiVoToGo software and use this constantly-updated

XBox Browser
Have an old XBox (i.e. not an XBox 360)? Got it modded with XBox Media Center? If so, XB allows you to rip your games and save them on the XBox hard drive so that you won’t have to switch discs for games again.

.Mac

.Mac 1-year subscription
If they ask, tell them “mlaaker@mac.com” sent ya… beyond well worth the $99 a year… lets you sync your files between multiple computers, cell phone, iPod, palm pilot, etc.