Posts Tagged → mac

Scrivener Sale

Scrivener Screenshot

 

Edit: The sale is now over. To save 20% on the app (OS X and Windows), click here.

Over the weekend, I came across a great deal on Amazon. Scrivener, for both Mac and Windows, is on sale for 50% off retail price.

Some product features:

  • Corkboard – In Scrivener, every document is attached to a virtual index card onto which you can jot a synopsis; moving the cards on Scrivener’s corkboard rearranges their associated text in your draft.
  • Outliner – View and edit the synopses and meta-data of your documents in Scrivener’s powerful outliner. Organize your ideas using as many or few levels as you want and drag and drop to restructure your work.
  • Scrivenings – Scrivener’s innovative “Scrivenings” mode allows you to move smoothly between editing your document one piece at a time or together as a whole.
  • Statistics and Targets – A live word and character count of the current section is always in view at the bottom of the screen, and you can set a word or character count target for each section.
  • Full-Screen – Because sometimes you want to blank out the rest of the world while you write – or at least the rest of the screen. One click in Scrivener’s toolbar and you can leave the rest of your desktop behind and write distraction free.

If you’re looking for a great app to do any kind of writing, I highly recommend Scrivener. At 50% off retail, this is definitely a steal.

20 Years of Using A Mac: iMac

iMac

The original iMac, circa 1998

(Part 1: 20 Years of Using A Mac: Macintosh Performa 475)

I was sitting in the computer lab during study hall my junior year of high school, bored as usual because I finished all of my homework for the day. I contemplated taking a nap in study hall itself, but the last time I did that, I slept through the damn bell and well into the next class. What does one do when bored in a computer lab? Why, we mindlessly surf the internet of course.

Old fart alert: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr…they didn’t exist. At all. Let’s put it this way: I lived in a time where Netscape was an actual internet browser, and Yahoo! Chat was the best way to meet people from around the world.

Yeah, I’m that old.

Now that we’ve established my place in the timeline of history, let’s move on, shall we?

Well, it didn’t take long for me to head to the Yahoo! search page (dammit, I said I was old already, shut up), and what do I see? There’s Steve Jobs cradling this…this translucent, colored computer. The monitor was built into it, a whopping 15″ CRT screen that, at that time, was pretty big. Simply called ‘iMac’, it was obvious upon first gaze that a lot of care and thought went into designing and building it.

And I had to have it. First of all, our first computer was almost 5 years old at this point. It’s seen better days, and while it had a lot of memories attached to it, it was quickly losing it’s appeal in the house. Second, the iMac had a built-in modem. It was designed from the start to be an internet computer. And let’s face it, I was tired of walking to the library every day after school and on the weekends to connect to the world.

Well, it all sounded great in my head. You know how that goes–plan a conversation in your head with your defending arguments and walk away a winner. Yeah, that didn’t happen at all.

I pleaded my case for a good 2 hours that night at dinner with my parents. It was cool, it was new, it could get online, it was up to date with technology…all of my arguments shot down, one by one with the same phrase:

The computer we have still works. There’s no reason to get a new one.

Like a broken record, that’s the only answer I heard from my parents. That, and the word no. Lucky for me, the iMac wasn’t due to be released until the middle of August that year, so I had plenty of time to either convince my parents to see my points and give in, or get a summer job and save up the $1299 and buy it myself.

Every day it seemed, I would go to the library and torture myself with visiting Apple’s web page and reading about the iMac, looking at the pictures and amazed at how well it was put together. The curves were detailed, the translucent plastic appeared to be one giant shell, carved hollow and fitted with computer components, then painted this blue color known as Bondi Blue.

The whole summer was spent with me working, trying to save money for a computer since it was clear my parents weren’t giving in. Well, I also collected baseball cards as a teen, and so I could be found at the local card shop in town checking out the new products or just chatting with the owner and other fellow collectors.

Clearly, saving money wasn’t my top priority as it should have been.

August 15, 1998 came and went. The iMac was released to the world, and I didn’t have one. I was able to check out a demo model at Best Buy. I felt like I was walking into a gentleman’s club because everyone kept looking at me funny and I seemed to be embarrassed walking up to the computer alone. I was the only one in the store that checked out the iMac. Everyone else was looking at the Compaq and Acer brands, whispering among themselves presumably about how I was wasting my time with a dying brand.

It didn’t matter to me. I was used to Apple computers and I knew I wanted to keep using them. The only problem was, I was short on the cash needed to buy it. Well, that is until a few months later when I turned 18.

Ever apply for a loan, get accepted, make your purchase, then wait forever before it arrives? No? Then you’re spoiled. Even though it was just 5 years later, I still had to wait 2 weeks before the iMac would ship to my house. It would be deja vu for me, had it not happened when we were buying the Macintosh Performa 475.

When it finally did arrive, I was the happiest kid in the world. I rushed home from school that day so I could set up the computer and begin using it. I even went so far out of my way to sign up for internet access just so I could use the computer to its full potential. Dial up, mind you. Blazing-fast kbps internet.

I was the envy of my friends for the time being. Sure, they were die-hard PC users and didn’t like Apple. But even they admitted that the appearance alone of the iMac was enough to keep them from mocking my choice. It was a thing of beauty; the only object in my bedroom that had any fashion sense.

For the next few months, up until high school graduation, I would spend a lot of time after school on the computer, learning HTML, chatting with new people around the world, and even learning the ins and outs of Photoshop. I would even play SimCity 2000 and Diablo whenever I had the chance.

I was proud of everything the iMac brought to me because I bought it myself, paid for it, and even paid for my own internet service. I wasn’t rich at all, but I did have a part-time job after school and on weekends that allowed me to afford all of this. I learned so much more on my own with the iMac, more than what I was taught in school. That’s not to say the teachers didn’t do their job; rather, I was able to take my boredom at home and turn it into an all-night learning session.

I almost want to say that thanks to the iMac, I finally had a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life after high school. Before my senior year, I was at the point where a high school diploma was just good enough for me because I felt that I didn’t have any talent that would help me survive in the real world.

Next time: Fall From Grace

A Mac user’s view of the Chromebook Pixel

Great review of the Chromebook Pixel:

And in the past couple of years, anyone that follows me will know that I’ve also long been interested in the Google’s Chromebook concept. The idea of a machine which reflects how I actually work (mostly online) is attractive. It’s secure, fast enough, and I never have to worry about where any of my data lives. Almost all the software that I use on a day-to-day basis is web-based, and my browser is the application I use most often. Sometimes two of them.
 
Source: Technovia

I was able to test the CR-48 from Google 2 years ago when they randomly sent out test units, and while I was still too reliant on traditional hard drive space and locally-installed apps, I definitely saw the potential in Chrome OS.

And just 2 years later, I’m starting the process of replacing my MacBook Pro with an iPad mini.

20 Years of Using A Mac: Macintosh Performa 475

1. Introduction to the Mac

It was the fall of 1993. My parents took my sister and I out to dinner on a Friday night, which was common in our household. Our Friday nights usually consisted of going to dinner, talking about school, friends, and whatever else came up in conversation, as well as heading to the mall or back home to watch TGIF. It was pretty routine for us, but then again, at the age of 13, you don’t really have much of a choice unless one of your friends invited you over.

I fondly remember the drive to the mall after dinner, particularly heading to Sears. I figured my dad needed some new tools for his workshop, or we needed a new washer and dryer and were finally getting them replaced. No, instead we headed over to the computer section and started looking at different computers. I was excited; we were finally joining the modern-era and getting a computer. It seemed like everyone I knew had one already, and it was bad enough my parents were already behind the times in other things.

My sister and I were playing with the demo PCs on the floor. She was playing Solitaire while I was trying to figure out the specs of the machines. My parents were on the other side with a sales rep, looking at the different Apple computers on display. You see, my mom just finished her degree in teaching and at that time, Apple computers were in almost every classroom and so it was natural that she’d want one at home for compatibility reasons.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they decided on a computer/monitor/printer package to bring home: A Macintosh Performa 475 with an Apple Color Plus 14″ Display and a StyleWriter II printer. After paying for it all, we went home that night, talking about why we were getting one and what rules we would have once the computer arrived.

That’s right. Back then, we didn’t pay for a computer and walk out with it like we do now. No, Sears didn’t keep stock of computers so when you checked out. You actually had to wait a week for it to arrive before being able to take it home. And let me tell you, that was a long friggin’ week.

The day finally came, though. We went to dinner (I swear they wanted to torture me), then drove on over to Sears. I don’t remember who the first one was out of the car that night, but I do know I had a hard time waiting for my dad to park the damn thing. Once we met the sales rep and waited for them to load the boxes in the car, we were finally on our way home.

Macintosh Performa 475

Macintosh Performa 475

Specs of the computer:

  • 25MHz 68LC040 processor
  • 4MB RAM
  • 160MB hard drive

Blazing fast, I tell you.

Once the computer was finally setup and configured, along with the printer of course, I was sitting on the computer, torn between playing Super Munchers! or Pilgrim Quest. I know, I was a hard-core gamer back then. But considering that my parents wouldn’t allow me to have a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo, this was as close to gaming as I could get.

It didn’t matter, however. For the next 5 years, I would spend many weekends at the computer learning to type, playing a few games, and even dabbling into drawing. I had no idea at that time but indirectly, Steve Jobs had influenced me and opened up my creative side, even thought he wouldn’t return to Apple a few years after my parents bought our first Mac, and a few years before my next computer purchase for college.

Next time: Continuing Education.

Review: Postbox 3

Postbox Icon

Name: Postbox 3 (version 3.0.5 at the time of this review)
Developer: Postbox, Inc.
Price: 30-day free trial, $9.95 new licenses; $4.95 upgrade from v1.x and v2.x
Rating: 4.5/5
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, 10.8; Windows XP SP 2, Vista, 7

Back in July, Mozilla announced that Thunderbird would no longer be actively developed after this year. I will admit, being a Mac user, I wasn’t too fond of Thunderbird. While it was robust and handled pretty much any type of email account out there, it just didn’t feel like a Mac app.

Enter Postbox.

Continue reading →

Backups

I’ve been pretty fortunate in that all my years of using computers, I’ve never had any major data loss resulting from hard drive failure. Let’s face it; almost all of us store our lives on computers these days, and we usually don’t think about “what if” scenarios when it comes to protecting those items.

That’s not to say it can’t happen, because I’ve accidentally deleted files in a hurry one afternoon, resulting in the loss of my complete iTunes library. To some, 10GB isn’t much, but to me, not having a backup meant that I had to re-rip my entire music collection in iTunes again. Talk about time-consuming. I can’t imagine what would happen to my 30GB iPhoto library, or my documents folder which contains letters, resumes, you name it.

Continue reading →

On Writing

Scrivener

Earlier this year, I bought a 13″ MacBook Pro with the intention of finally sitting down and writing.I know what you’re thinking: Why buy a computer to do writing? And what exactly are you going to write about?

Good question.

To start, I love reading. Growing up, I always a book near me so that whenever I wasn’t out playing at the park or hanging out with friends, I had something to keep my mind active. I would read anything and everything, as long as the book was challenging enough. It didn’t matter what the subject was, either. I especially looked forward to the assigned reading in English class, no matter what the book was about.

It wasn’t until 8th grade that I became interested in the writing part, too. That year, one of my teachers introduced us to a contest of writing a book on any subject we wanted. There were no limits; just deadlines we had to follow to get our book completed. We did the whole process–from drafting the story, illustrating the pages if needed, and then “publishing” the book for submission. The publishing process consisted of putting the pages in order, binding the book, and even writing a little biography about ourselves.  The best part about this was the fact that once we were finished, our books were going to be sent to an actual publisher, along with thousands of other students across the nation, in hopes of getting published.

It didn’t get published.

It didn’t matter to me though, because I learned much more about the process of getting published than I could ever imagine. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and even a rejection or two before one can perfect the story that they wish to tell.

Which brings me to where I am today. I want to start that process again, and this time, actually get published. I think the hardest part for me now is being focused and finding the time to actually dedicate to writing. It can be done, and I’m even setting up weekly goals for myself, in hopes of pushing myself even further. I already have my copy of Scrivener downloaded and installed, waiting for me to start the first line.