The Geek joins the Cult of Mac

Lots of Fun w/ my MacBook Pro

2006-06-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all long time no speak, sorry for the delay since my last blog I have been really, really busy at the 9-5 job that pays the bills and even more busy at the sidegig of web design and learning about web design :)

All I can say is that there is a plethora of content to read / listen too about everything web design related and I am doing my best to get through it all. I have recently topped 190+ blogs that I subscribe to, and the books I buy are piling up faster then I can read them. For more info on my favorite blogs and books on web design please stop by my main blog over at RobbieTheGeek.Com. Some new software I have been testing out and playing with is :

RapidWeaver 3.5 beta : I am not a big fan of WYSIWYG editors so this one didn't go over well for me, I have a friend that swears by it and I can totally see using this as a framework / testing enviornment
CSSEdit : This is a cool and really functional little graphical CSS editior, with lots of built-in preview options. This gets a thumbs up from this geek.
CyberDuck : This little FTP program isn't the ansewer to all of my prayers but it is functional and is free.
GimpShop : A nice universal binary version of GIMP that I am very familiar with, and works very well in this iteration, Please if you are a GIMP user or looking for an alternative for PhotoShop grab this version quick it is great.

Well that is all for now I will get back to you soon...

Free website creation tools on the Mac

2006-05-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome back folks, since my previous blog posting I have been rather busy with tracking down solid applications to replace my freebies of choice from the Windows XP enviornment.

(x)HTML , CSS, ... Editor - I am still torn at this point I am replacing NotePad++ a great open source text editor with 2 applications at the moment: 1.) Text Wrangler and 2.)Taco HTML Edit. Both are free both are capable but neither is as robust at NotePad++. At this time my endorsement would have to go to Taco HTML Edit because it has a much more intuitive easy to use interface.

Image Editing - This was a little scary for a bit but then a little research and reading showed me that there was no need to look to a different program to edit photos/images. On the Windows platform I was an avid GIMP user. Well it turns out that the X11 version (GUI enviornment for Linux) works fantastically under Mac OS X even if it isn't natively compiled for the MacIntel platform.

Thumbnail Creation - I was lucky enough to come across a freebie called Easy Thumbnail under Windows and I again got lucky and found a nice little freebie called ImageWell

FTP program - I am having a hard time tracking down a good opensource FTP program available for the Mac OS, at the moment I am using an evaluation copy of CuteFTP for the Mac and it works great. I really wish I could get my hands on a freeware/opensource equivalant.

well that is a few of the tools this Mac-newbie / geek has found to complete common tasks on his new Mac...Please contact me with any applications that you have found or come across that you think is worth a mention or a try.

Thanks so much and keep that feedback coming in to : GeekVsMac@robbiethegeek.com

Geek Vs. Mac (Part 2)

2006-04-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hi folks and welcome to the first ever Geek Vs. Mac blog...

This is the 2nd part of a post from my main blog located at RobbieTheGeek.Com. I am writing this blog on my MacBook Pro this is a unique situation for me, this is my first Macintosh based computer and my first ever laptop. I am having fun getting used to having a laptop and not being tethered to my messy desk. So here I sit on my couch typing away while my wife is doing homework (she graduates in a little less then a month) not 2 feet from me.

So since I purchased my MacBook Pro the 17" was announced (two days after I bought mine) and my laptop is no longer top of the line. It is an amusing concept that I for years have tried to get across to none technical people, it is impossible to have the latest and greatest for very long when it comes to the world of computers. I am an aspiring web designer / developer, and I am trying to find replacement pieces of software for everything I was using on my windows box for working on web sites. So far it has been hit or miss trying to find exact replacements for those applications, one great application that I used heavily was GIMP so far there isn't an official MacIntel universal binary but the X11 version available directly from Apple seems to work fine. I am still searching for a html/css editor to replace my beloved NotePad++ but I playing with a few text editors at the moment...

Be back with everyone soon and Please pass any tips tbhis Mac Newbies way :)