Markdown-based Presentations

I’ve only spent a short amount of time with it so far but Deckset is impressing the hell out of me for creating Keynote-like presentations with Markdown syntax. I love creating minimalistic slides and I always feel like going from notes to slides loses something. Now I can create my notes with the slides being in-line with the content using a minimalistic design language in Markdown. ❤

It’s only available for Mac through the Apple Mac App Store at the moment.

Check it out: http://www.decksetapp.com

Remember Norton Commander?

If you’ve been around long enough to have used Microsoft DOS as your primary operating system, you might remember Norton Commander.

Norton Commander 5.51 running on MS-DOS 5

Managing files in DOS was a pain in the butt without something even remotely graphical. I loved the two panes and simplistic navigation in folders. In fact I think Norton Commander made me better at command line stuff after I got a visualization of the file structure.

After I got into Linux/Unix/Mac OS X I was so tickled when I found Midnight Commander. MC is a port (only visually) of the original Norton Commander. It’s awesome and I’ve used it for years.

Midnight Commander 4.8.13 running on Mac OS X 10.11.1

Recently I found a replacement for Finder on Mac OS X that looks shockingly similar. It’s called Commander One.

 

Midnight Commander is free and open source – which means you can dig into how it works and help fix bugs you might find. It’s a pretty stable product though and still actively worked on. Commander One is free but not open source. There are “Pro packs” you can purchase to add additional functionality.

Software I Use Every Day

In the spirit of yesterday’s post, I’m going to list out what I use every day in terms of software.  This isn’t exhaustive but it’s pretty darn close.

General Utilities

• 1Password – Probably the best password manager out there combined with mobile apps
• Cloudup – quick way to share images, videos, text (ask me for a referral code)
• Coffitivity – coffeehouse sounds to help boost productivity
• Cyberduck – SFTP client
• DaisyDisk – finding where all my space has gone
• Dropbox
• Evernote – where I keep my larger notes, graphics, PDF files
• Parallels Desktop – for the occasional booting of old Mac OS & Windows VMs
• Radium – menu bar radio streaming
• Rdio – monthly subscription-based song streaming
• RescueTime – track my app usage to determine if I’m distracted
• Simplenote – for my quick note taking needs
• Skype – sadly yes
• Slack – communication for our team – web socket-based system like HipChat but better

Graphics

• Adobe Photoshop CC – go-to app for image editing
• Aperture (more for personal use)
• Balsamiq Mockups – easy mockups
• Bartender – organize your menu bar extras area
• Camtasia 2 – screen casts
• Color Picker
• Join.me – easy screen sharing – I use it more for helping people fix computer problems remotely
• Pixelmator
• SnagIt

Development – General

• Base – for digging around SQLite files; especially handy debugging Core Data
• Charles – proxying application for testing remote calls
• HockeyApp – binary distribution for testing
• Kaleidoscope – arguably the most beautiful diff tool – ignore whitespace is still not a feature 😦
• PHPStorm – for when I have to get into WordPress and WordPress.com API coding
• TextMate – Still my favorite text editor
• Textual – Mac IRC client

Development – iOS

• AppCode – alternative IDE for Objective-C – I switch between Xcode and here for specific reasons (future post?)
• iExplorer – could not live without the ability to dig around device filesystems
• PaintCode – easiest way to get Core Graphics code from images or hand-drawn UI elements
• Reflector – transmit your iOS device screen to your computer for recording
• Spark Inspector – interactively debug your UIView layers & NSNotificationCenter calls
• Xcode
• xScope – helpful UI tools for your Mac

Development – Android

• Android Studio
• Genymotion – Android VM manager – lurv