• May 17, 2011

    Surviving the spring storm

    Yesterday, I was interviewed about the spring storm that was going to happen today. I found it pretty humorous that any storm in San Diego especially a spring "storm", makes the news. Today the "storm" hit and it dumped so much rain that by 4 pm, the ground was just about dry and it was sunny! I went for a run and mistakenly wore a long sleeved shirt; it was far too warm for it even though the spring storm was supposed to bring cold air.

    Why does weather in San Diego make news? People in other parts of the country laugh at us when we complain at the weather and the local news just make things worse by reporting ridiculous stories calling what we got a storm.

    While I do complain about the weather, I do it jokingly and have used it to gently poke fun at my co-workers in other parts of the country.

  • May 16, 2011

    My weather gripe has made me famous

    Back in January, I posted about being a weather wimp. Today I was contacted by the local CBS affiliate about the entry wanting to know if I'd be interviewed about the big storm coming. I didn't even know that a storm was coming, but I agreed to be interviewed. We did the interview over Skype as they wanted it for today's news. Unfortunately, the only piece of the interview that made the news was one quote on their website and a split second shot of my blog. I guess the people that lived on Rainswept Way were more interesting than my rant!

  • May 13, 2011

    Review: Alfred

    When I saw Alfred available in the Mac App Store, I grabbed a copy and was pretty impressed. I've used a number of launchers over the years including Quicksilver, LaunchBar, Google Quick Search Box, and Butler. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. The biggest downside I found to all of the launchers was the UI.

    Alfred does basically the same thing as the other launchers, but the UI I find to be quite elegant. The free version of Alfred has handled just about all my launching needs as I'm primarily a keyboard person and the less I have to use the trackpad, the better (with some limitations). Just yesterday, I saw a new version of Alfred had come out and the PowerPack (£12) had some features that I found cool including entering Terminal commands and file navigation. I plunked down my ~$20 and have been happily using Alfred all day.

    I really have no complaints about Alfred and find that it is easier to use and more visually appealing than its competitors.

    Pros

    • Easy to use.
    • Clean user interface.
    • Preferences are easy to understand.
    • Quick Terminal command entry is slick. (PowerPack Only)
    • File Navigation is a quick way to find files. (PowerPack Only)
    • Clipboard history eliminates need for a separate app. (PowerPack Only)

    Cons

    • Searching for files could use a bit more narrowing down. For instance, I want results from my home folder, but not in my Library folder.

    Summary

    Without buying the PowerPack, Alfred is well worth using. The user interface is clean and the application works well. Adding the PowerPack, if you need the extra features, is worth the small cost. I find that without a launcher of any kind, I spend far too much time looking for applications; I don't like a ton of applications on my dock, so a launcher is needed. Alfred, for me, is the best of the current crop of launchers.

    Everyone has a favorite launcher and switching launchers is much like the debate about which is better, Mac or Windows. Giving the free version of Alfred a try is a no brainer. If you don't like it, go back to using another launcher.

  • May 13, 2011

    Giving Spaces a try

    I've decided to give Spaces another try. Combined with BetterTouchTool, I can now switch spaces with a swipe of my trackpad. I've tried Spaces in the past, but really got annoyed when I had problems dragging between workspaces. I think one of the problems is that I had the Finder in a particular space instead of all spaces. We'll see how long this experiment lasts; sometimes I consider myself an old dog that can't learn new tricks! I've been using my computer in the same way for so long that even if something is going to make my life easier, I resist it!