Bookle - An ePub App for Mac OS X

Bookle is an ePub reader for OS X. I have a bunch of technical ebooks from O'Reilly in the epub format DRM free. So to read them I have used Adobe Digital Editions which is free and gets the job done but is a bit clunky.



Bookle is OS X native and seems to do the reading job quite well. So for $10, it it worth a look.

Bookle on Mac App Store

Coda and Diet Coda on Sale Today Only (5/25)

Are you a fan of HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP development on the Mac? If so then you are probably a fan of Coda, which is a Web Site development tool for OS X made by Panic Software.



New Version 2

Well the new version 2, is out this week. Panic is offering Coda at 50% off this week only for early purchasers Today, Friday 5/25, is the last day of the deal so if you are interested, head to the Mac app store and get code for $49.



Coda 2





Diet Coda

In addition to Coda 2, Panic is releasing a programming editor for the iPad called Diet Coda. I have always found the idea of programming on iPad type devices intriguing. So for $9.99, definitely give this app a look. It looks like it might make the whole coding thing work on a pad.



Diet Coda for the iPad.

Mac OS X Proxy Settings Do Not Work

Problem: You have just turned on proxy support for Mac OS X. However, even though your proxy settings are correct, Safari and Chrome cannot connect to any web site. In addition, no proxy settings work, Auto Proxy Discovery, Automatic Proxy Configuration, and Web Proxy (HTTP). The settings are correct, but the browser cannot connect.



When this happened to me, Firefox and SeaMonkey worked just fine. Bizarre and frustrating.



Solution: Reboot you system. Yep, that's it.



In my particular case, as soon as I rebooted with Auto Proxy Discovery checked, everything on my system began to work fine. I hope this post helps save the time of other poor soul who runs into this. lol. No idea why the reboot is required.

Cyberduck FTP/SFTP/DAV Client Now on Mac App Store

Cyberduck (by David Kocher) has been my favorite FTP/SFTP client for the Mac for a number of years. It essentially has a folder interface with which you can drag and drop files to or from your destination. It includes a bookmark system that is very easy to use. And most important, it supports SFTP, in addition to FTP, which is the defacto standard for copying files on the Internet. Recently I also discovered that Cyberduck has full DAV support which works great with the Oracle Beehive server at work.



Cyberduck is still available for free as an open source product. But it is also available on the Mac app store for $24.95. A great price considering what a great product this is.



Cyberduck - Mac App Store

Cyberduck Site

OS X: Organize Your Desktop by Hiding Apps

How do you declutter your Mac desktop of all those open applications? Well of course you can minimize them, like you would in Windows, but that adds them to the doc which just creates another clutter problem.



The Mac way to do this is to hide the applications. This works similar to the way Windows 7 minimizes apps when you click on an app on the taskbar. Hiding an app makes it disappear from the desktop, but it remains running in the dock. You can hide your current application or hide all the other running applications. This can be done from the menu, the keyboard, or with the mouse.



Menu Method

From the currently running application, click on the application name (e.g., if Chrome has the focus, "Chrome" will appear in the application menu). Half way down the menu, the following options are available.

• Hide AppNameHere


• Hide Others


• Show All

The options are pretty self explanatory.



Keyboard Method

Command-H - Hides the current app

Option-Command-H - Hide the other applications



Mouse Method

Option-Click Dock Icon - Hides the app selected by the click on the Dock.

Option-Command-Click Dock Icon - Hides the Other Apps and not the app just clicked on.



Note: Command = AppleKey on a Mac keyboard. (This is not the Control key.)

So Much for the NetBook Experiment

Well I have been playing around with a 10" HP Netbook for the last 6 months or so. I have taken it on business trips, vacations, and just around town. My goal was  to use it as much as possible and see how useful it is.



My conclusion.  Netbooks are just too damn small. lol. From a purely technical point of view, there is nothing to complain about. The Intel Atom CPU has plenty of power and Windows 7 is a pretty sweet OS. The HP has a great screen and really good battery life. Surfing the Web on Chrome or Firefox is good. And you can hardly feel it when you carry it around.



But have you ever tried to put the thing in your lap and work on it for more than 15 minutes?  Or actually do some writing or coding on the screen?  It just doesn't fit or work well. I feel like I have stolen a device from a gnome. lol.



Thus my enthusiasm for the iPad in a previous post. Instead of feeling small, it feels just about right. So its back to my 13" Macbook for actually getting something done and being portable.