For Your Mac

JohnnyCache

Jaap — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:07:44 +0000

This time not a complete app, but a Firefox addon. This is a very neat addon which allows you to tell Firefox which domains should never be cached.
This comes in really handy while testing Flash/XML applications since those XML files always tempt to get stuck in your cache.

TarPit

Jaap — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:19:32 +0000

Ever since I found out you can just upload .tar.gz files to a server and unpack them there I’ve been a great fan of these files. It saves you ages of uploading time.

TarPit creates Tar archives by drag-n-drop. Compression options include GZip BZip2, and Compress with adjustable compression levels. Also supports MacBinary and AppleDouble options for saving resource forks, as well a fully customizable omission-list that lets you easily exclude certain files from your Tar-archives (handy for filtering out those invisible files that appear on non-Macs). (source)

Before I used to create these files throughout terminal. I started looking for a better way. This is it! TarPit can automatically delete all the ._dstore files for you, create the zip with an easy drag and drop and you’re done!

A great time saver!

Dropbox

Jaap — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:06:24 +0000

Dropbox is the easiest way to share your files online. After downloading the app it takes you trough a few steps and registers your online account (takes about 30 seconds). You can either choose the free option (2gb online storage!) or the “pro” option for 9,99 USD/month (50 gb!!!).

Update: use my referral link and get 250 MB of extra storage (free)

Drop box gives you a local folder. Any file you drag in there will be send to their servers. You can choose between public and private files, so you know you’ll have those really awkward photo’s stored away safe!

Another thing I like about this little App is the ability to send people so called “public links”. This is a direct URL to the file you want. The URL can be generated by just right clicking on a file in your local folder. Imagine how quickly you can share big files now! One drag into your public folder, copy the URL and send it. Websites like YouSendIt can eat their hart out!

AppZapper

Jaap — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:20:21 +0000

A lot of people drag their application right on the bin to uninstall. Nothing wrong with that, although most people don’t realize your not removing everything. Most of the times the application settings and some more stuff is still stored in your library.

AppZapper is a small application which you drop your applications on and then searches for the stuff the app would otherwise leave behind in your library.

A quick punch on zapp is enough to delete your application with a little more power then just dropping it in the bin.

Very nifty for those “App Zappers” out there.

HandBrake

Boy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:22:14 +0000

Handbrake is a tool for DVD archiving that combines applications like “Mac the ripper” and “MPEG StreamClip” into one app. It uses a large set of opensource encoders that enable you to create MP4, MKV(with subs, multiple audio) AVI or OGM(also sub and audio tracks). The usage is very simple and it comes with allot of preset output configurations for popular devices (iPod, iPhone, appleTV, psp, ps3).

Caffeine

Jaap — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:54:49 +0000

The effects of caffeine finally on your screen.
Watching full-screen video’s via Quicktime, DVD player, VLC or what so ever doesn’t make your screen fall asleep. But whenever you start watching movies online (YouTube, Vimeo) your screen dims within a minute or so and finally bails out. Darkness is staring you right in the face. Eventually you decide to wake it all up again to start over in 1 minute.

Annoying. Very annoying! Caffeine to the rescue! It does nothing more then keeping your screen awake for the amount of minutes you tell it to.

Click the coffee cup in your menu-bar and the caffeine starts floating. Also great for all those other times you’re screen bails out on you (like keynote’s or Traktor)

Enjoy

CSSEdit

Jaap — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:00:56 +0000

CSSEdit rocked my world in CSS coding. Due to it’s live preview my coding time decreased dramatically. While you edit your website you see everything changing real-time. No need to save and refresh. The little downside about it is that the live preview only has Safari’s engine for rendering, so in the end you’ll probably do some fine tuning for Firefox and off course IE… But hey, forget about IE ;)

Back in the old days when I was building a dynamic website I had to save my CSS file on the host and then refresh. CSSEdit has a great solution for this. You can have any CSS file overrule any website. Local or online, doesn’t matter! Say for instance you’d like to restyle Facebook, just for kicks, you add a the simple command “/* @override http://www.facebook.com/style.css */” at the top of your CSS file and your done. When you open Facebook.com in your preview window you can go right ahead!

CSSEdit also comes with all major settings right from a visual editor. So setting borders or for instance those divs with 4 different margins and paddings never was this quick.

If you’re into front-end you’ll love it! Give it a shot!

Skitch

Jaap — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:06:14 +0000

Ever had to show somebody that little misplaced pixel? Or that line spacing on a specific element? You either had 2 choices; explain in about a thousand words, or make a screen-dump, open Photoshop, go ahead with some tools etc…

Anyhow… It sucked… And then there was Skitch, developed by Plasq (the same guys which made Comic Life). You can think of it as your own chalkboard/screenshot app. Whenever you make a screenshot you can make notes on it right away, resizing and cropping is as easy as resizing the window. Making screenshots was never this much fun and easy!

It keeps track of al your former screenshots, let’s you post directly online and, what I love most, saving is as easy as dragging. You set your quality/size and drag the screen-dump directly where you like it. (in a web post, an e-mail, Photoshop, whatever you like).

Although still in bèta I never noticed any bugs.

Check out this quick movie;

Colors

Jaap — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:44:08 +0000

As a front-end web developer I often have to figure out which colors are used and apply them into my css stylesheet. This is fine for some simple corporate sites which have one or two color tones. But sometimes you’ve got those neat designs which contain loads and loads of those annoying # codes.

Before I was always looking around in Photoshop or Illustrators but nowadays I use this great little nifty tool simply called “Colors”. All it does is get your color just by pointing (pixel precise since it zooms in).

Then you can just click on whatever format you would like to use and you’re done. It really saves me some time on those long colorfull days!

I suggest you check it out!

1Password

Jaap — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:26:21 +0000

Lots of you probably have a few different passwords and user-names spread over the WWW. Probably all the websites you visit on a regular basis are the ones which don’t cause you any problem. But there are lots of websites you visit once, maybe twice, a month. At these websites I’m guessing my user-name and pass a few times and finally will decide to let the page retrieve my password.

Since one month I’ve been using 1Password and love it ever since! This app integrates in all your browsers automatically. Whenever you fill in a login it’ll ask you to remember it. After using it for a few days you’re probably already getting addicted. Retrieving your passwords takes just one click!

Check out this video and enjoy!