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I tried, multiple times, to go electronic with my notebooks (I'm a grad student in astronomy.) It never panned out, mainly because paper and pen are just way more convenient and have that "scribble" factor: you can get things down without being quite sure what you're trying to say. Later, you can write things up in "proper" form (which for me is LaTeX.)

In my experience, having an additional layer between brain and note (the syntax of an electronic journal program, whether it's HTML or not) shorts out this process. (I'm reminded of the time I tried to use a tape recorder to record notes: I would just come up speechless.) Oh, and having your own clever electronic notetaking system really gets in the way when you meet your advisor and he wants to scribble herself.

But, if you don't want the benefit of my experience, here are the things I tried:

LaTeX. Easy, good looking output with simple math syntax (actually, I do something use LaTeX when I'm writing out complicated maths, instead of doing it by hand. Makes it easier to edit mistakes in a long formula.) My old college roommate does EVERYTHING in LaTeX (he's a mathematician now) -- all his notes, everything. He is also a little weird.

NoteTaker. Cute "metaphors" that seem to get in the way of actually doing anything.

omnigraffle. I thought I would use this to diagram various systems I was looking at. No go, too complicated to figure out.

In the end, I went with this. It's open source!

OmniGraffle, especially with its upcoming version 4 is evey bit as close to a killer of Visio as Pages is to Word. Of course that might not be saying much. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/

Dia is also available for OS X although an easier to use alternative would be http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ 4/.

Linux lacks a proper low latency audio framework like Core Audio http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreaudio/.

Tiger introduces Core Image http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreimage/ which makes image editors a breeze to create.

I like Linux as a server and I admit that it performs better than OS X as a server when running multi-threaded POSIX apps like MySQL but it is no competition for OS X on the desktop.

PS. iMovie HD is about the cheapest entry into HD video you will find in the market right now http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/.

I bet they didn't use Opera 3.x in their life.

When the genius (!) idea of popup based signing in etc popped up, you could HATE that browser.

Opening a popup as a tab is the ugliest thing ever.

Opera was pure MDI those times and they had to change a lot since people like me got mad. Even opening a new browser window for popup was better.

Oh the background tab etc. I bet they will put small rendered windows instead of tabs like this: http://www.omnigroup.com/images/images-5/features/ tabs.png

Everyone steals from Omniweb these days ;) Glad I licensed it in horrible beta test seeing "This is the future"

Give her, and the people of Washington State, some credit. WA state was one of the first to enact anti-spam legislation in the late '90s (rendered useless by the Republicans in DC). You may want to just write off everything tech related from WA state as brought to you by Redmond, but I'd credit the greater tech awareness of the area in general. Not every tech-head in Seattle submits to the deathstar (e.g. http://www.omnigroup.com/

In the olden days, a lot of browsers stole their ideas from this guy . Here's wondering if it'll happen again.

OmniWeb

Re: Cleanup tools.

"windirstat" is great for finding large files. http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/

It was based on kdirstat. http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/

Someone made a Mac app based on that, called Disk Inventory X, here: http://www.derlien.com/

For OS X there's also OmniDiskSweeper, but it's $15 and not graphical. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidiskswee per/

I have no problem finding a few gigs of old, forgotten files everytime I fire up one of those apps.

If you want help programming, plenty of people have given links. If you want help with the interface end of things, try using some of the best Apple applications and see how things "work"--iTunes, The Omni Group, Bare Bones Software, Lemkesoft's Graphic Converter, Rancho's NetNewsWire. There are many others, but trying these on should give you a feel for what makes a great Mac App. Also, it is a commonly-perceived problem that there is no great mac Word-processing software. There are acceptable entries, including MS Office, and several others, but this is one area where OS X is gravely deficient (if you want to write the best Mac WP ever, feel free! I'd even buy a copy).

Lots of people (i.e., Windows & Linux Fanpersons) will deride many interface trends as "fluff"; do not make this mistake. Apple is pretty careful about what stuff they include, and while there might be a few things in there for no real reason (animated screensavers as you desktop background?), most of the "fluff" has a damn good reason to be there.

OmniWeb does this. You can bring up a site-specific prefs pane in the browser window to turn all sorts of stuff on and off.

Other browsers need to start adopting site specific preferences, they really are a great feature. For example when the IDN problem was first mentioned I setup my main banking sites to use slightly bigger fonts. If I ever browse a spoofed version it will be immediately obvious since the fonts will be smaller again.

Check out this screenshot for a better idea of how these work. You mau also want to have a look at the Omniweb feature page.

Other browsers need to start adopting site specific preferences, they really are a great feature. For example when the IDN problem was first mentioned I setup my main banking sites to use slightly bigger fonts. If I ever browse a spoofed version it will be immediately obvious since the fonts will be smaller again.

Check out this screenshot for a better idea of how these work. You mau also want to have a look at the Omniweb feature page.

Omniweb does this. It's also does a lot of other cool stuff, like save your workspace - so it remembers what sites you had open when you close and reopen it.

It's Mac OS X only though.

Here's the full John Gruber review.

Like this?

A.) It may be cheap and sexy, but it's hard to find apps for. Best Buy, for example, carries no Mac software.

This has more to do with the software retail industry being a big racket than anything else. Small players, if they can get on the shelves at all, generally don't see a cent of the profits. The costs involved in getting it on the shelves (all that packaging, shipping, etc.) can overshadow what meager returns they see.

All of the large Mac software producers I can think of also produce Windows software. Adobe, Microsoft, Blizzard, etc.

On the web, it's a different story. Some of the most interesting new Mac software available is only available online. OmniOutliner, Delicious Library, NetNewsWire, SubEthaEdit, etc. I don't think that any of these producs are really losing out not being on the shelves at BestBuy.

Two former employees of developer The Omni Group have reportedly founded a new Mac OS X software company called Delicious Monster Software, and exciting products are in the works. The company was formed by Omni Group founder and former President Wil Shipley as well as interface designer Mike Matas, both of whom are said to have formed Omni's user interface team ....

I take it back, then. But in case you aren't aware, 80% of OS X is open source. Only the CoreServices are not; however, many of them are similar to their NeXT precursors and are thus compatible with implementations of the OpenStep standard such as GNUStep.

It would be nice if it was economically feasable for us as a society to get rid of closed source for good. However, along with the fat, sneveling VB 6 programmers raping the U.S. real estate industry (one example of many), there are many, many smaller independent developers who produce good closed-source products and don't deserve to be scorned with the likes of Microsoft. One good example: The Omni Group. Another: The Stanford Pande Group's Folding@Home project. Look at the FAQ page and their justification for being closed-source. I think it deserves some thought at the very least.

Here. 'nuff said.

is omniweb 5. It's got the best interface of any browser I've ever used, on any platform. I really enjoy it's easy to use site-preferences and it's tabbed browsing is quite useful.

I find that keeping outlines really helps. If I am using my TiBook then this is usually done in OmniOutliner, though I'm not averse to using Outline Mode in Emacs if I need to share these with others not using Mac OS X. For me being able to categorize my ideas in a hierarchical manner is a Good Thing. In times long gone I used to use Symantec's "MORE II", then UserLand's Frontier... outlines have been a consistent part of my design process.

You can also find good outliners for Palmtops as well, though it has been years since I installed one and I cannot remember the name of the one I used.

1. Workspaces with auto-save (my favorite)
2. Secure bookmark synchronization via webdav (indispensable)
3. per-site preferences, (makes the web easy)

Omniweb for OSX does this. Plus a whole bunch more (per-site preferences? very nice...)

Thumbnail tabs? Hm, sounds a lot like OmniWeb. :)

There is no Visio for the Mac.

Visio is a pale knock-off of a NeXTSTEP app called 'Diagram'. There is a much better app along those lines for Mac OS X, called Omni Graffle.

-jcr

You can get OmniGraffle, a diagramming tool like Visio but better. Like you've come to expect.

You can export/import Visio XML files in the Pro version.

I think there's a market for payware browsers. I myself paid for Omniweb, which is by far the best OS X browser. It uses the same core as Safari, Apple's Webcore, but has a much richer interface and a lot more options. I think developers will have to look for advanced users who will want more features and more control than the default "Free" browsers, but don't want to download numerous extensions.

I think these guys should really demand some kind of profit sharing or a percentage of each game's revenues. Of course this probably won't work for the average code-monkey, but at least the lead engineers and game designers should have enough sway to be able to get it. The big game companies are making millions off of their backs so they should at least get some of it.

I imagine that behemoths like EA wouldn't give their workers this, but some of the senior developers should demand it. I've always been impressed with the OmniGroup's policy: (though they're not a game company)

Bonuses: We pay bonuses when our revenues and profitability allow it. Some years, it's a lot of money, and when we have an unprofitable year, it's not.

They seem to be a company that recognizes that their developers are important.

--
Sounds like a scam, but it works.
Free Flat Screens | Free iPod Photo |

Port of webster.app:

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidictiona ry/

You want Firefox to become OmniWeb.

Apple has a long history of writing (or collaborating on) uber-cool System Software and abandoning it (anyone else remember PINK? or how about OpenDoc?).

It looks a bit different with Darwin for x86 though. As long as Apple keeps to its word and publishes changes to Darwin, the x86 version will track the cnages made to the PPC version (even if it is a bit behind sometimes).

If you head over to http://www.gnustep.org/ you will then find out about a very active GNU project to duplicate OpenStep 4.4 (the last version before the purchase by Apple). It is almost complete, and if you look through their roadmap, you will see that they plan to track the cnages forst to Rhapsody and then work toward the OSX changes.

What does all this really mean?

Well, right now, it is possible to load up Darwin (or linux) and make sure you have all the GNUstep libraries installed, then you would be able to head over to http://www.omnigroup.com/ or http://www.stone.com/ and grab the old versions of OmniWeb and Create for OpenStep x86 and you can compile them yourselves!

If you are interested in recreating the NeXT experience, why not go whole hog and load up the linux distro called Simply GNUstep (which only includes GNUstep tools and GUI stuffs wherever possible).

What would all this really give you?

Right now, all you would get is outdated versions of OpenStep applications (most /.ers would not be happy with that).

If Apple did a port of its own, you would probably be able to run all Cocoa apps but not apps that are Classic or Carbon (because those depend upon parts of Old MacOS.

In fact, that was the reason why I believed the x86 rumors back in the days of beta. Most apps were Carbon and Classic. An x86 version back then would have servered as an advertizement and not a complete threat to Apple's hardware business.

I would look to Apple playing with other more exotic chipsets and not x86. They need low power consumption, faster chips, not x86 compatibility. It's too bad that AMD Hammer Macs or SPARC Macs never materialized.

Something like them may happen (especially since projects like PearPC have gotten better at emulating the PPC chipset) but look to Apple to move up the food chain toward Workstation Hardware and across the chain toward advanced Embedded Chips (maybe adding Cell Phone or some such function to its iPod) and not down.

The eMac or something like it will continue to be the bottom of its line. At $699 including a well-built monitor, its a pretty good value actually.

on top of everybody saying OOo and AbiWord can save .doc (which is true), i have to mention that RTF is an MS Office format. perfectly decent one, too, at least unless you need to include graphics in your document, in which case the file sizes balloon horribly.

Misleading. When you ask Abiword to save a .doc file, it saves a file in RTF with a .doc extension. (I'm told MS Wordpad does this, too.) All versions of MS Word can read these just fine.

it seems nothing but Visio can read or write a Visio file

If you have a Mac, OmniGraffle 3 Professional can import and export Visio files.

If all you want is a Visio like app and you don't need to share it with Visio, have a look at OmniGraffle.

If you must use Visio I would suggest putting your Windows box in a closet someplace, only fire it up when you need it and use Remote Desktop to connect.

I use both methods only because VPC is easier with multiple OS installs and when I'm on the road I can still test. VPC is a dog, Remote Desktop is actually not bad if you don't mind having the extra box around.

Check out OmniGraffle from the OmniGroup. If you're looking for good Visio compatibility you'll probably want the pro version. I have the "regular" version (came with my PowerMac G5) and I think it's a great program.

Check out OmniGraffle from the OmniGroup. If you're looking for good Visio compatibility you'll probably want the pro version. I have the "regular" version (came with my PowerMac G5) and I think it's a great program.

Are you sure it's wise to point people to a browser that's A:) radically out of date B:) slow and C:) no longer supported in any way?

If you're looking for an alternate browser besides Mozilla, Opera, and Safari, there are plenty of better choices such as Konqueror or Omniweb.

OmniGraffle by the good folks at the OmniGroup Is the best diagramming software I have seen or used. Very slick interface, and easy to use but powerful at the same time. Can't export to PS, but you can always use pdf2ps to convert exported PDF's.

OmniGraffle by the good folks at the OmniGroup Is the best diagramming software I have seen or used. Very slick interface, and easy to use but powerful at the same time. Can't export to PS, but you can always use pdf2ps to convert exported PDF's.

This is one of the few perks of working for higher ed: good benefits. The pay sucks, but benefits like health care, retirement funds, dental care -- hell, even tuition remission -- are standard fare.

On the other hand, we don't get anything extravagant. (Thus, us tech folk look lovingly at benefits like the Omni Group, who get free lunch and dinner, and can bring their pets to work.)

On the OS X front, there's Omnigraffle. It exports to a wide variety of formats, PostScript included.
Also has the charting functions you'd be looking for.

OmniWeb 5.0 has an RSS reader built right into the bookmarks manager, which is really neat. If only they could let us change the length of the headlines that show up in the Dock menu to something greater than just 30 characters...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned OmniWeb. It's a lovely, very Mac-like, RSS-built-right-in browser for OS X. I use it exclusively. :D

OmniGroup

I've been waiting for searchable bookmarks for about a decade now and it is yet to appear in any web browser.

Your decade is at a close! As of version 5, available today, Omniweb has both searchable bookmarks and history, Launchbar (also available now) can search across all browser bookmarks simultaneouslt, and Safari 2.0 will have this kind of functionality as well next year in Mac OS X "Tiger".

~jeff

The three todo-list programs/methods that I really like are:

• Wiki
• OmniOutliner (MacOS X only)
• Leo -- hierarchical outlining editor for programmers

I love OmniOutliner for OS X. I also used hnb (Hierarchical Notebook) which is a commandline outliner, for awhile. Otherwise vi/emacs/notepad.exe/whatever is great.

For our development process, we manage all of our group to-do lists using SCARAB

This includes development, sales, business, and client stuff. Might be a bit overkill for a single user, but it's pretty handy for a web-based solution. You can also include attachments with the issues, and comments, so it's pretty good at electronically storing paperwork as well. We're actually using it to keep track of some of our corporate paperwork, etc., with offices in Boston, London, and Vancouver, without the need for expensive ERP or CRM software.

For now it does what we need it to do.

For other stuff, I use a personal WIKI, and/or the Omni Group's OmniOutliner. (Yes, I'm an OSX weenie ;)

OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle work pretty sweetly for me.

OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle work pretty sweetly for me.

I really dig Omni Outliner from The Omni Group. It is, of course, for OS X--My platform of choice.

They also have some teriffic charting software, OmniGraffle, that I use to do flowcharts for all of my coding. You guys all do flowcharts, right? :)

-S

I really dig Omni Outliner from The Omni Group. It is, of course, for OS X--My platform of choice.

They also have some teriffic charting software, OmniGraffle, that I use to do flowcharts for all of my coding. You guys all do flowcharts, right? :)

-S

I really dig Omni Outliner from The Omni Group. It is, of course, for OS X--My platform of choice.

They also have some teriffic charting software, OmniGraffle, that I use to do flowcharts for all of my coding. You guys all do flowcharts, right? :)

-S