Show HN: Push/Pull Factory. My Github Game Off game - <AUTHOR> http://pushpullfactory.gageh.us/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, developer here.

I wrote this in Haxe and compiled it to NME's HTML5 target. It turned out quite nicely.

The HTML5 target is unfortunately lacking some of the nice graphical features that other targets have. I couldn't do proper shadows and glows.

I thought I was going to have audio problems, but I just threw the sounds together last night and it all just worked.

I hope you enjoy the game. I know it's not perfect, but it's pretty fun. Wish me luck in the Game Off!

</comment><comment><USER2> Pretty fun to play! There is a slight typo in the instructions. You wrote "or" instead of "of" in "the upper corner or your area"</comment>


Encryption in the Balance: 2015 in Review - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/encryption-balance-2015-review <comment><USER2> I hate to write crappy comments, but my general reaction to this can be summed up with ":-("

There are terrible changes in the government that feel inevitable. Whenever these changes are beaten/voted down, we all celebrate that we've won, then just a couple years later, they are reintroduced. This seems to repeat until it passes. At this point it feels like our complete loss of privacy is inevitable, and that at once terrifies me and deeply depresses me. There's nothing that I can do to prevent this. Not in the long haul.

:-(

<comment><USER3> It's not inevitable. It will happen if we let it happen.

"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing." J.S. Mill

<comment><USER4> Further - I would say it needs to happen. Not because I'm excited about the loss of privacy - but because until we lose that privacy, encryption won't become something relevant to the average person. Encryption is a solution that expects "bad actors". When government succeeds in overtaking privacy, better encryption will prevail.

<comment><USER5> One could argue that the (U.S.) government has already succeeded in overtaking privacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You know what really grinds my gears?

Trotting out the old trope of a "security vs privacy" dichotomy. It's not true. It doesn't stand up to the most rudimentary analysis. But we hear it, unchallenged, all the time. What about security measures that increase privacy, like door locks, tall fences, or thick doors on airplane cockpits? Security and privacy are fundamentally aligned. That's why even in the US 4th "privacy" Amendment the wording is about the right of people to be SECURE in their person and belongings.

The truth is, what we're offered is reduced security AND privacy. I've never figured out what we're getting in exchange.

<comment><USER7> Your personal security is unrelated to the security in that argument. The idea is that the nation can't protect itself if there are secrets it lacks access to.

They want to spy on (potential) foreign forces within the country. To do so, the privacy of your home would be sacrificed in the name of the security of your country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Equating crypto with armaments does nobody any favors. If crypto is an armament, then the banks can be said to be wielding guns at the criminals who are forever stressing their networks and trying to get in, or even their customers, who require a more-than-mathematically strong peace of mind that their money is safe from theft.</comment>


Ask HN: Would you include your HN username on your resume? - <AUTHOR> Assuming it is for a technical role, would Karma be interesting for the person hiring? Would your comments be useful to know if you're a good fit? Or is it just too risky? <comment><USER2> If you're applying to YC backed start-up or to YC itself your HN username will have some weight, outside of that I would not bother.

</comment><comment><USER3> Github or Stackoverflow, why not? But HN? I don't think so, there is not really something to show here.

</comment><comment><USER4> HN is very well known to a subset of the high-tech community, not necessarily limited to the SF Bay Area by any means, but probably concentrated there. It is less well known outside of that region, and generally unheard of outside the tech industry.

I would not expect an HN username to do much good on a resume unless, as JM suggests, you are applying to a YC-backed company.

On the flipside, the kind of company that considers your HN username a compelling data point on your resume is probably a fun company to work for. :)

<comment><USER5> _On the flipside, the kind of company that considers your HN username a compelling data point on your resume is probably a fun company to work for._

This is exactly why it doesn't hurt to include it. I live and work in London and if someone applied for one of my jobs and had their HN username on their CV, I would check it out immediately. The fact is, it shows an active interest in the field outside of your day-to-day work. I can't think of any circumstance where it would have a negative impact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I doubt anyone would care about karma, but if you're in the habit of making thoughtful comments, it could help give the interviewer a sense of who you are, the depth of your thinking, the subjects that interest you, your writing skills, etc.

If you were to include your username in the "interests" section of your resume, I think it would do no harm if your comments are reasonable and could possibly help depending on the personality of the person who reads your resume.

</comment><comment><USER7> Only if 1) you are one of the top posters on HN, 2) you are sure the people reading your resume are avid HNers and would recognize your name. Otherwise it's more likely to hurt than help.

</comment><comment><USER8> Risky? Maybe for me. I make too many comments that go against the HN grain. For most people here it would probably be a good thing, though.

Association says something about interests and character, I believe.

</comment><comment><USER9> GitHub/StackOverflow, yes... HN karma isn't supposed to be something you aspire to or cultivate, it's more for you to know your self, relative to the community here.

<comment><USER10> Agree. This questiom makes me think again what and why do people post here

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Yes if you've been cultivating that user name with sharing it in mind from the get go. Otherwise no, there might be an incriminating little nugget of poop in there somewhere.

</comment><comment><USER12> Depends how bad you want the job, how worried are you about your privacy and what you are planning to do on HN which is more important than what you have done before.

</comment><comment><USER13> I don't think anyone would consider HN karma when making a hiring decision, so it's more like sharing your twitter handle than your github username.

The question is really, do you want potential employers to read the comments you've made on this site?

</comment><comment><USER14> I see no reason why HN karma should be relevant for technical roles. Well, maybe there were deep technical conversations which would really impress, but noone's gonna dig for that.

GitHub or SO would be interesting, though.

</comment><comment><USER15> hell no, here is why. I use a semi-anonymous username for a reason. I generally respond to most threads without properly thinking most responses out (after all, its a forum) and a lot of the time those responses are something I regret later on.

Nothing I post here I'm really embarrassed about, but nothing I'm really proud of.

</comment><comment><USER16> No, although I wouldn't care if a potential employer found it.

</comment><comment><USER17> Absolutely not.</comment>


Announcing Torque: BCG Digital Ventures' Entrepreneur Residency and Studio - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@tomserres/announcing-torque-bcg-digital-ventures-entrepreneur-residency-and-studio-241427e2ace9#.djt0y9451 <comment><USER2> That is one weird, buggy application. Maybe one of the EIR's can help redesign it.</comment>


Ask HN: Any great books on Sales and Marketing? - <AUTHOR>

Over the years, I've been lucky enough to find mentors in various fields, Warren Buffet and Joel Greenblatt for Stocks, 37 Signals for Company and App building, Michael Lewis for spending money (Money Ball). Zappos for Customer Service. I haven't found great books on Sales and Marketing, I was wondering if there are any great mentors out there that you guys know of or any great books? <comment><USER3> While it's broader in scope, I found the marketing lessons in _Walking the High-Tech High Wire: The Technical Entrepreneur's Guide to Running a Successful Enterprise_ to be very valuable: [http://www.amazon.com/Walking- High-Tech-High-Wire-Entreprene...](http://www.amazon.com/Walking-High-Tech- High-Wire-Entrepreneurs/dp/0070004684/)

By now they could well be subsumed in e.g. Steve Blank's work, but it's not a long read and the price is right. And they walked the walk: they developed a device that the could fabricate on a lab table top, but it required different thinking from hardware designers. That plus their quasi-pivot (actually just doing the numbers and figuring out which of the two businesses they were doing (selling parts and consulting) they should focus on) are also worthwhile, even or especially if you're in software.

</comment><comment><USER4> Influence by Cialdini

4 Steps to the Epiphany is a phenomenal book on selling new b2b IT products.

Secrets of Question-based Selling is the best consultative sales book

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is also quite good

Tested Advertising Methods and Scientific Advertising continue to be two of the best books on copywriting, despite being very old.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive : by Noah Goldstein & Robert Cialdini - Short Read.

Your Marketing Sucks - Mark Stevens - Short Read.

Persuasion Mastery: 500 Practical Lessons In The Psychology Of Sales - <USER2> Thieme - Long One:)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, any others?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Influence, the psychology of persuasion by Robert Cialdini. An oldie, but a goodie.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

</comment><comment><USER8> <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Torah></comment>


Firefox 71 and WebRender vs. Chrome 79 Browser Benchmarks on Ubuntu Linux - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-71-vs-Chrome-79-Bench <comment><USER2> Nice to see Firefox at least winning some, not that I've had any performance issues with it.

Would be nice to see the tests on Windows and Mac too. Though I do appreciate the small arrows indicating which is better: more or less. Overall a nice short read.</comment>


Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.windytan.com/2013/03/eavesdropping-on-wireless-keyboard.html <comment><USER2> Reminds me of an episode of Due South (the tv series about a Canadian mountie working as a detective in Chicago) in which he correctly works out a password from just the sound of someone typing it.

Turns out this is not so far-fetched after all:

"If you have an audio recording of somebody typing on an ordinary computer keyboard for fifteen minutes or so, you can figure out everything they typed."

[https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/acoustic- snooping-...](https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/acoustic-snooping- typed-information/)

<comment><USER3> There was a great talk at Defcon in 2009 about sniffing keystrokes with voltmeters and lasers. It's worth watching the video[1] if you're interested in this audio technique.

The first part of their presentation uses a novel method to pick up PS/2 keystrokes from a system's ground connection. This presentation was what lead me to design the PS/2 tap[2] to sniff keystrokes with my sound card.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zq9DQAbWmU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zq9DQAbWmU) [2] [https://github.com/dominicgs/PS2_tap](https://github.com/dominicgs/PS2_tap)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem is that the company who's saying "Trust us, we have 128 bit encryption in our product" isn't giving you enough information to make an informed decision about how secure the device really is.

Choosing a keyboard because the box says "128 bit encryption" doesn't help if the manufacturer bakes in the same key on every device. Or a predictable key. Or really, any static session key even if it varies by device serial number or something like that. And a marketing or advertising guy doesn't know this, they just see a checkbox they can stick on the artwork. "Just get that 128 bit stuff in there so we aren't lying" is the most likely scenario for something like a keyboard, where competition is tough and margins are wafer thin.

Personally I'd use copper if I was at all worried, because the likelihood of some random firmware engineer getting a security protocol right is pretty slim.

</comment><comment><USER5> > Some time ago, I needed to find a new wireless keyboard. With the level of > digital paranoia that I have, my main priority was security.

If _my main priority was security_ , then I would never even think about wireless (network, keyboard, etc.).

<comment><USER6> do you think a wired keyboard might emit tappable rf? Should users take care to not have coils in their wires? Do solenoided keyboards (with the flexy chord coils) also pose a transmission risk?

<comment><USER7> The cable is the _least_ likely part to be the source of the problem. The data lines are inside a shield, and in USB they are balanced ("D+" and "D-"). Both of these act to prevent radiation of the signals.

If a keyboard radiates it is likely to be either from the unshielded, unbalanced matrix wires going to the keyswitches, or leakage from the controller going onto the _outside_ of the shield. (I think the latter could be reduced by using (more/bigger) decoupling capacitors, i.e. shorting out the RF.)

Coiling a wire does not generally make it a more effective antenna; it may or may not make it _less_ effective depending on the circumstances. (The reason some antennas are coiled is to get the same length of conductor into a smaller space.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> So how far can you go and still eavesdrop on the signal? I haven't the first clue regarding signals, but I guess you'd have to plant a bug on the underside of the desk as opposed to a radar dish on the other side of the wall?

But yeah, another post from windytan that's left me amazed. If you're uninitiated, this is the same woman that figured out how to read from bus timetable display radio signals [1].

I'll stick to my USB wired keyboard for now, though, until encrypted wireless keyboards come down from £70-100.

[1]: [http://www.windytan.com/2013/11/decoding-radio-controlled- bu...](http://www.windytan.com/2013/11/decoding-radio-controlled-bus- stop.html)

<comment><USER9> … or get a wireless keyboard with Bluetooth – it should be safe _enough_.

<comment><USER10> If you get an Ubertooth [http://ubertooth.sourceforge.net/](http://ubertooth.sourceforge.net/) you can sniff bluetooth as well. If you use the default PIN (0000 or 1234) then it's possible to decrypt the signal. Here's an overview of how feasible decryption is: [http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2012/projects/echai- bendorff-...](http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2012/projects/echai-bendorff- cathywu.pdf)

Also, Bluetooth LE provides no eavesdropping protection. If an attacker can capture the pairing frames, they may be able to determine the "long-term key". Here's the NIST guidance paper on Bluetooth security: [http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911133](http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911133)

The attack surface can be minimized if the keyboard manufacturer implements crypto properly, requires encryption at the protocol level, uses a long and complex PIN, etc. The manufacturer with the best reputation right now is Microsoft. They got burned pretty hard when their propriety wireless encryption was hacked back in 2007, and it looks like their bluetooth keyboards are doing everything right.

<comment><USER3> > Also, Bluetooth LE provides no eavesdropping protection. If an attacker can > capture the pairing frames, they may be able to determine the "long-term > key"

There's a practical attack for that, and it's quick. It also uses Ubertooth[1].

For all Bluetooth keyboards that I've seen in the past ~5 years the pairing process uses one of the "Secure Simple Pairing" modes. none of these have been broken, although "Just Works" is probably vulnerable. The keyboard that I've see use the "enter a 6 digit number" mode, which is not susceptible to man in the middle attacks that have been used against Bluetooth keyboards before[2].

Disclosure: I work on the Ubertooth and related projects.

[1] [https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot13/workshop- program/pr...](https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot13/workshop- program/presentation/ryan)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0RUN6SB6c8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0RUN6SB6c8)

<comment><USER10> I haven't seen many keyboards that seemed secure, but now that you mention it, they are pretty old. Thanks for the update :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is why Apple's iBeacon was _never_ going to be a viable method of payment, unlike NFC. The range on Bluetooth is just too long to safely do something like payments with it.

<comment><USER12> The range of Internet is incomparably greater, but we still somehow manage to perform payments over that in a reasonably secure manner.

We just have to establish the secure channel and securely authenticate peers to each other. The medium over which this is made is mostly irrelevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you don't have consent, this would be one of the RARE instances of a Title I violation under the ECPA.</comment>


Beyond the Whiteboard: software engineering interviews at Zymergen - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@zymergen/beyond-the-whiteboard-software-engineering-interviews-at-zymergen-278b742ad310 <comment><AUTHOR> Curious about opinions about this model of interviewing?

I think a lot of software engineers are not good or simply afraid of presenting in front of others. It's one of the most common fears that people have. That doesn't mean they're not good team players and it most certainly doesn't mean that they are not good engineers.

One of the main goals of this interview process seems to be discovery of talent that doesn't do well on whiteboard interviews. I don't know if they have considered the amount of talent they won't be discovering, because these people are not good at presenting in front of strangers which are judging the quality of their presentation.</comment>


Apple's Hardware with T2 Security Chip Will Currently Block Linux from Booting - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Apple-T2-Blocks-Linux-UEFI <comment><USER2> This has been duped many times. And wrong. There is an option to entirely disable secure boot.

See this for accurate info: [https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/11/apple-t2-chip-cant- boot-...](https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/11/apple-t2-chip-cant-boot-linux)

Dupes:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18383250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18383250)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18396925](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18396925)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18383512](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18383512)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm a little bit disappointed that Phoronix is helping to spread this awful headline that has been bouncing around a few days.

Currently Linux does not support interfacing with Apple's new T2 chip to use the internal SSD. Other than that small detail, linux boots fine, linux can be installed and booted off of external media.

<comment><USER4> If I understand correctly, you don't even need to boot off an external hard drive. According [1], you only just need to disable their new 'secure booot' feature and you can install Linux on the internal hard disk.

[1] [https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/11/apple-t2-chip-cant- boot-...](https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/11/apple-t2-chip-cant-boot-linux)

_______________________________________________________

Edit: If I had read the original post, I'd see the link [2] at the bottom pointing to some people claiming this indeed does not work.

[2] [https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/463422/2018-macbook...](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/463422/2018-macbook- pro-tb-1tb-ssd)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Crypto is being used to keep owners from fully controlling their hardware. We see this with secure boot being totally under control of the manufacturers.

There is no reason except unwillingness not to allow the owner some way to control what keys are trusted for secure boot. Secure boot, in its essence, is a good security mechanism. Yet if we let them, companies will use it against us.

Something similar is happening with cert-pinned devices. For example amazon echo uses cert pinning. This means there is no way for a user to see what _their_ device is sending home. For many intents and purposes, this means they aren't the owner of the device. Instead, they have a license.

Why would ought it not be possible for a user to install their own root certificates on these devices?

</comment><comment><USER6> But what is the rationale for using apple hardware for linux? I can understand for laptops but for a little desktop computer, why pay the Apple premium, over say Intel's NUC if it is not to use the Apple ecosystem?

<comment><USER7> Besides lenovo there are no quality laptop PC vendors.

Every laptop besides Apple or Thinkpad is garbage.

<comment><USER5> Dell buisness laptops aren't horrible.

Recent Thinkpad laptops have moved away from good linux compatibility. My 2016 ThinkPad still doesn't have a functional linux fingerprint scanner.

<comment><USER8> Are you sure? I'm using a X1 Carbon Gen 5 (which I believe is 2016? maybe 2017), and I read that Linux 4.18 (which comes with Ubuntu 18.10) now has functional fingerprint support. I haven't tried it yet, not a fan of biometric authentication.

Either way, the laptop works great with Linux.

Edit: Looks like the fprint support is not quite there yet: [https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/issues/54](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/issues/54)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What was that about cryptographically secure boot chains being a good idea, again?

<comment><USER5> You need a secure OS to protect a TPM against brute force attacks. You need secure boot to get that.

Why do we want a TPM? Because it gives guaranteed secret private keys. This means the keys can never be stolen, not even from RAM.</comment></comment>


US university cancels subscription with Elsevier - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00758-x <comment><USER2> 230 comments: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19273955](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19273955)</comment>


Show HN: Extension that blurs YouTube thumbnail. Effectively removing clickbait - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-clickbait-blocker/hfmieanpcjmhneggofkdjhmlabjmbbaj?ref=hn <comment><AUTHOR> We built this chrome extension on the belief that "focus is superpower". We truly feel that this superpower is within all the individuals and we just have to help them with the right tools to make them realize the same.

With YouTube™ Clickbait Blocker, you can -

\- Blur Clickbait Thumbnails that distracts you by drawing attention

\- Block Ads that break your flow

\- Your Privacy is ensured. We do not capture your YouTube™ browsing data. We only capture user demography details.

Our extension is customizable for your needs. You can choose specific pages on which you want to blur thumbnails. You can also choose to enable/disable the "Skip Ads" option. Just click on the extension icon on the browser bar and apply your settings.

Next in plan is to also release a version for Firefox as well. What else can we do to make it more useful?</comment>


Ask HN: Best resource for collaboratively analyzing startup ideas? - <AUTHOR>

Is there a website where people go to research and share startup ideas and discuss market size, existing solutions by other companies, etc?<p>I'm not talking about articles written about startup ideas. I mean an active forum/portal designed for this purpose. <comment><USER2> Edit: Let's just call it investing in customer development rather than idea development.

Ask your target market. I used to brush this same advice off each of the millionth times I read it, but do this at your own peril.

Nobody is going to give you better advice than your customers, especially if they speak with their money.

Is the market viable? Ask the market. Will customers pay for this service. Ask the damned customers!

As someone who has shy'd away from asking people in real life, I must say it's quite a revelation.

</comment><comment><USER3> I agree that this'd be great to have. I'm not sure if people would take kindly to every HN article turning into "Review my Startup" (or, maybe they would?) I'm not aware of such a forum though yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> HN itself is great because it has constant attention from the right people, but the organization isn't there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> About a year ago I twittered about building something like this and tons of people freaked. They couldn't believe I would consider sharing my ideas with them and _more importantly_ would expect people to share their ideas.

I was simply knocked over and gave up.

I'd be very much down for working on a project that developed a platform for discussing markets and startup ideas. I don't think its really ideas that make money so much as execution - but ideas are fun!

</comment><comment><USER5> This isn't a generic solution, but we (my co-founder and I) actually put something together specifically for us. <http://untitledstartup.com/backstage/> \- right now it suffers from an abundance of Twitter ideas, primarily because I'm fairly active in that space and ideas in the system beget similar ideas.

The possibility exists for it to be abstracted.</comment>


JQuery Scroll Path - Scroll a page along a custom path - <AUTHOR> http://joelb.me/scrollpath/

<comment><USER2> I appreciate the beauty, but you are breaking the web when doing things like this.

Some breakages:

* PageUp and PageDown doesn't work.

* Home and End doesn't work.

* Long-clicking the scrollbar doesn't work A: Should react immediately, not on mouseup.

* Long-clicking the scrollbar doesn't work B: Should rapidfire (like with holding down PageDown).

* Middle-clicking the scroll wheel doesn't bring up the analog-ish scroller floater.

(Using Chrome on Win7)

<comment><USER3> This should a warning to all over-enthusiastic designers/developers on the Internet. Please stop creating custom scrollbars. Web browsers already provide wonderful scrollbars.

<comment><USER4> Do you really think _discouraging_ enthusiastic designers and developers from building innovative things that push the boundaries of what's possible with browsers is the way forward?

... for the sake of preserving the status quo of default scrollbars, no less?

Come on.

<comment><USER5> Yes. The same way I would discourage an enthusiastic designer from building a car with the brake pedal on the right and the gas on the left.

The idea might be good -- most people are right-handed and might have better response times with their right leg when it's straighter. But there's too much inertia in the current convention, and the change can't be made incrementally without creating serious risks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> <http://www.artofflightmovie.com/> uses a similar effect but uses a native scrollbar.

</comment><comment><USER7> I found this became even more awesome if you zoom out the max in your browser, turn on showing the scroll path and then go through the links. Try it!

<comment><USER8> That was my first thought too:

<http://c.wsld.me/1N0d1K1V2q1m2Z0R0F1C>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The demo needs a background with a clearer pattern so you can see the path actually being followed. With just text and the dark background it just seems like a slideshow with transitions.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good point, thanks!

At the moment, the background isn't actually being scrolled at all. If I were to apply a patterned background to the element that gets scrolled around, I'd have to increase its size so that the screen always stays inside of it. I'm also not sure how a background image would affect the performance of the rotations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My experience, in three parts:

1) JQuery scrolling this could be neat _opens web page_

2) OK, lets see this in action. _Hits page down_ That seemed normal. _Hits page down again_ Half the text of this part is outside the view port. _Page down again_ Oh, now its all in frame. I don't really see whats going on here though. _Hits page down again, nothing happens_ Well this is a bust. I can see you, little faux-scrollbar, why can't I go down and see the rest of the document. _Clicks on scrollbar to drag it, nothing happens_ What the fuck little scrollbar? _Refreshes page_ Hey, little scrollbar, you're working now!

3) _lynx<http://joelb.me/scrollpath/> _ Wow, much, much, better. Simple, and so much faster to read all the content (the entire page fits into an 80x26 terminal)!

<comment><USER11> Thanks for the heads up!

Note to self: highlight scroll path to alleviate user feeling of nausea.. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> _You can also be the 988th kind person to tweet this._

The use of the Tweet count to create the custom "tweet this" message is pretty cool.

<comment><USER13> Since I have the DNT+ extension installed on Chrome 17 / OS X, the message reads, "Feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can also be a kind person and tweet this."

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is oddly unsettling and a bit nauseating, at least scrolling through it with the trackpad. It's a cool effect, though.

<comment><USER15> Showing the path eases this feeling a lot, while accentuating the sensation of speed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Does not work at all on Chrome on OSX. I can only scroll with the arrow keys. It also disables the back/forward gestures.

<comment><USER17> Works great with Chrome 17 on Snow Leopard using my magic mouse, pc mouse with scroll wheel, magic track pad, and keyboard arrows.

The 2 fingered back/forward gestures are instead used for horizontal scrolling (right or down progress further down the page, left or up move back up the page)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> That is really neat! I would get motion sickness if this catches on though! Too many websites with this would ruin it.

</comment><comment><USER19> I think the effect on <http://www.marketo.com/> (no affiliation) works better. I get inertial scrolling for instance, just feels more natural.

</comment><comment><USER20> Very neat. Not at all iPad friendly. Jerky at best when you click the individual numbers and no scroll or gesture seems to get you going from one part to the next.

</comment><comment><USER21> Should fit in nicely with HTML5 slides and online Powerpoint replacement - very neat, great that you added the display path feature.

</comment><comment><USER22> <http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/aj2012/>

Best use I've seen.

<comment><USER23> another nice example: <http://beetle.com/>

<comment><USER24> Ugh, I think this site really gives credence to the top poster's concerns: it's whiz-bang cool at the expense of actual usability.

Chrome/Win7/Quad-Core i7 3.4GHz + 8GB DDR3 RAM

and the whole thing _chugs_ , to the point where the website is difficult to navigate and parse.

<comment><USER25> Huh, works pretty well for me. Chrome/Ubuntu 10.10/boring old Core Duo Mac Mini.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> this has interesting possiblities. but i consider it broken unless/until it supports scrolling with the spacebar, like ever other web page. fyi, i'm on firefox 11 osx.

<comment><AUTHOR> Spacebar scrolling is actually already implemented, not sure why it's not working for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> on FF and Chrome nightly (and possibly others), click-holding the wheel and dragging is pretty broken or doesn't work at all. it's cool but not very usable, IMO.

</comment><comment><USER28> Really cool how it wraps around from front to back!

</comment><comment><USER29> I got a bit nauseated from that.

</comment><comment> jan-hocevar Nice effect!

</comment><comment><USER30> it's neat you can do that, but, I mean, why would you ever want to?

maybe for art.

</comment><comment><USER31> This is like web 1.0 ported to 2.0

<comment><USER32> Yeah, this reminds me of the sort of thing you'd find on DHTML gallery sites in the mid-90s.</comment></comment>


Gay men meetup through Grindr iPhone app - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/18/DDHV1CD6E8.DTL

<comment><USER2> Very interesting - seems so obvious, but the article does a good job of explaining how it fills a social need. I see a bright future for this, subcultures are often good leading indicators.

Rather than separate applications for different groups, might it not be better to have a general one and set filters - you could use it for everything from a hookup to professional networking or connecting with fans of your favorite TV show etc. etc.</comment>


Show HN: Django Installer – Setup your Django project in one minute - <AUTHOR> https://django-installer.github.io/ <comment><USER2> What's the advantage of this over just using pip (other than this is has a GUI which I don't see as an advantage, but understand others might)? How do you handle updates to packages? I'm just really struggling to see why this would be useful.</comment>


Picplum launches Photo Printing API - <AUTHOR> https://www.picplum.com/developer

<comment><USER2> What do you think made Picplum go the route of the consumer needing an account?

As apposed to me just sending Picplum the customer's information, and having the hard work (printing, mailing, etc.) be handled for me.

<comment><USER3> You've upset my entire worldview by using the phrase "as apposed to". I started off planning to say that 'apposed' is not a word, and that you've made some sort of grievous error. I opened up multiple tabs, firing off google searches looking for a "common errors" page or at least a definition of "opposed" and the google page redirecting a search for "apposed" to it -- but then your counterstroke hit.

Google returned "apposed" just fine, and gave its definition as "Place (something) in proximity to or juxtaposition with something else."

Didn't faze me. "Google must just be reporting the error because it's crept into common usage", I told myself. I went deeper.

Brian's corner of common errors speaks to this briefly[1], but in the context of saying "I appose your decision", not in the context of the idiom. It also mentions "as a pose to" where "as opposed to" is intended, and assumes "opposed" instead of "apposed"[2].

I wandered into english-usage-debate forums and found that 'apposed' is disliked for being rare, but not disallowed[3], and an interesting bit of discussion came up about intentionally chosen differences[7] -- which do seem detectable in the modern definitions: "place beside", versus "place against". I also found discussion about british/american meanings for "as opposed to" [4].

The online etymology dictionary ([5] and [6]) says that since the 14th and 15th century, these have been marginally separately derived words of ... roughly identical meaning.

To sum up, through redundancy 'apposed' seems to have fallen out of favour in contemporary english and taken on a nuanced definition to some of those who still use it. If there were something for me to criticize about your usage it would be that you've chosen a sentence that leans more toward "place against" than "place beside", so the contemporary idiom to use "oppose" would likely apply. But I think you could justify it if you want to. :)

[1] <http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/appose.html>

[2] <http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html>

[3] [http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as- app...](http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as-apposed-as- apposed-19245/)

[4] [http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post....](http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post.htm)

[5] <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=oppose>

[6] <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=appose>

[7] [http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedT...](http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedTo/ncvpk/post.htm)

edit: I messed up the references pretty badly on my initial take.

<comment><USER2> Thank you for both pointing that out and doing so in such an a well researched way.

For the record, I would tend to agree with 'opposed', this was me just writing with my ears. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do people order prints anymore? Judging from various online services and service standsis at Costco, Walgteens, etc. they must be, but I don't see many recent phptos and photo albums is definitely a thing of the past. Maybe there's a small market fpr nicely produced photobooks. I haven't used my photo printer in ages.

Am I totally off?

<comment><USER5> _Do people order prints anymore?_

Ask a simple question, get a simple answer: YES. Walgreens and Wal-Mart don't have 40 square feet of prime retail space devoted to photo printing kiosks just so they don't have to sweep the marginal flooring.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice work, but I think that a white-label API like Pwinty.com would be more profitable.

</comment><comment><USER7> So my users have to get a Picplum account before they can print?

</comment><comment><USER8> Add an affiliate program, and then you have something.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's coming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great!! I've been googling for a printing api a couple months back. We're going to play with it as well!</comment>


What's Coming in Go 1.14 [slides] - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HfIwlVTmVWQk94OLKfTGvXpQxyp0U4ywG1u5j2tjiuE/mobilepresent?slide=id.g550f852d27_228_0 <comment><USER2> Go 1.13 has been by far the worse release in my memory. The go ecosystem and community was not ready nor prepared for modules.

Enabling by default the sum database broke a number of codebases that had altered the history of their codebases (either themselves or their dependencies). This should have been an opt in feature for this version.

Changing the way the pseudoversion behaves by expecting a correct date and specific sha length broke a larger number of codebases. This should have been a warning on this version and not cause the modules to fail.

There was one more change that I have wiped from my memory that broke athens. It has to do with how go now looks for a go.mod file in parent urls that caused athens to return a 500.

Overall spent about a week of swearing and trying to fix tools and deps. At the end gave up and moved back to 1.12.

<comment><USER3> This is in stark contrast to my experience, which was great.

Were you able to file any issues or explain to people what happened?

<comment><USER2> Hey kardianos, first of all thank you for all your hard work with getting the golang community a worthy dep manager.

\---

As for reporting the issues, it's something I assumed is common knowledge from the fact that any dep I had an issue with on the first day of 1.13 already had a bug filled.

Searching for `"invalid pseudo-version"` in github results in around 80 issues in different repositories that all have to do with go 1.13 and modules. [1]

Similarly a search for `golang "checksum mismatch"` will result in over 130 issues in regards to the sum db complaining about broken builds. [2]

There will be more that are not been correctly reported in github issues, and there will be false reports as well. But the repos that show up will have caused cascade issues.

We couldn't use golangci-lint for a couple of days before it was fixed. There is a limit to the amount of mod replaces I can live with before deciding it's not worth it.

Don't get me wrong. I do like mod, but I just think that for a language that prides itself on "backwards compatibility" it's doing a pretty poor job at keeping the same promise when mod is involved.

\---

[1] [https://github.com/search?q=%22invalid+pseudo- version%22+is%...](https://github.com/search?q=%22invalid+pseudo- version%22+is%3Aissue&type=Issues)

[2] [https://github.com/search?q=golang+%22checksum+mismatch%22+i...](https://github.com/search?q=golang+%22checksum+mismatch%22+is%3Aissue&type=Issues)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What happened to the try/check error-handling proposal? In June it was selected for inclusion in Go 1.14 [1], but then in the linked issue it seems to have been declined in July. Where did it go? Why the sudden change of heart?

[1]: [https://blog.golang.org/go2-next- steps#TOC_2](https://blog.golang.org/go2-next-steps#TOC_2).

<comment><USER5> Go continues to impress me with its levelheaded design decisions, sadly I don't really have a use for it in my work.

<comment><USER6> Since go makes it so easy to build a binary for most any platform, I think one area anyone could introduce is it into their toolkits is by building small, simple, purpose-built programs you can easily run on the command line to perform a repetitive task.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a bit confused by the new -static flag. I thought that by default go was statically linked, what am i missing?

<comment><USER8> It's not quite that simple unfortunately. If you build a Go package with CGO enabled then Go builds the binary dynamically linked to the system libc. (this can be especially surprising if you believe go is "statically linked") However when CGO is disabled it doesn't link against libc at all as Go has it's own syscall layer etc.

It's not clear what this new -static flag will do, likely automatically setup some of the linker static flags when compiling with CGO to statically link other dependencies and perhaps libc itself.

<comment><USER9> > It's not quite that simple unfortunately.

This has been my experience with Go. First a promise of everything being much simpler than the alternatives. Then, when we run into all sorts of confusion and caveats, an unapologetic disclaimer about _why_ it's not simple and can't be, with a long exposition about Go's own internal limitations and the trade- offs they had to make.

<comment><USER10> From my experience Go is simpler than other langs where it can be, and at worst equally 'difficult' than the others. On average it's simpler.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> dis-sys the most exciting one for me is definitely the new escape analysis.

<comment><USER11> Even more exciting, this is already present in go1.13. I believe the author of these slides made a mistake.

Here it is mentioned in go1.13 release notes: [https://golang.org/doc/go1.13#compiler](https://golang.org/doc/go1.13#compiler)

And GitHub says the commit is present in go1.13: [https://github.com/golang/go/commit/996a687ebbf81b26f81b41b8...](https://github.com/golang/go/commit/996a687ebbf81b26f81b41b8e62ef21d8b0826af)

<comment><USER12> Yeah it is slightly misleading. The escape analysis rewrite was done in 1.13. But work is now going on to remove the old escape analysis code.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> So there are no changes to address the privacy issues[1] introduced in Go 1.13. The issue raised[2] about this seems to be stalled as well.

[1][https://proxy.golang.org/privacy](https://proxy.golang.org/privacy) [2][https://github.com/golang/go/issues/33985](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/33985)

<comment><USER14> Are those two links even related?

One talks about the privacy policy and the other is about private repos.

<comment><USER15> Yes, and I think the OP would've been better served by linking to the proxy page rather than its privacy policy. I can understand why, however. Privacy, proxies, and private repos are all inter-related but it might not be obvious to people who don't use Go regularly or haven't followed the introduction of proxies.

The problem is that if you don't set up your environment, set it up partially, or set it up incorrectly, some information about private repositories will be sent to Google[1]. One solution is to use the envvar GONOSUMDB (either set from your shell's rc file or, preferably, from `go env`), thus instructing Go which domains it should not validate against the checksum database. Some individuals may not see this as an issue since private repos will fail to download via the default GOPROXY (`go get` should revert to "direct" mode) and nothing gets stored in the sumdb. However, Google does apparently log this information internally, and that's where the privacy issue arises.

For additional protection, you can set GOPROXY to your own self-hosted server, such as Athens, and configure it similarly so it'll reject such sumdb requests with a 403 to catch clients using only GOPROXY. But, you still have to remember to set GOPROXY (at a minimum), which means that if you or anyone in your organization forgets this bit, you're back where you started and you're _probably_ sending information about your private repos to Google. Again.

Since this relies on envvars or the Go env stored in ~/.config/go/env (as an example) to set the behavior globally, you have to assume developers will correctly configuring every system they use. The GitHub issue is mostly centered on having a way to do this per-repository, and I honestly think that would have been a better solution, even combined with the `go env` settings.

Personally, it doesn't bother me too much, because an external immutable append-only log of commits in upstream packages will catch nefarious changes, so I _think_ the benefits probably outweigh the privacy concerns until I see an adequate argument countering this. Regardless, I still have my `go env` set up to ignore my private repositories.

[1] The documentation says Google only logs the paths and doesn't publish them for private repositories their proxy fails to download. I thought I read somewhere that you can still use the sumdb for private repos, but it would instead send something like a SHA256 sum of the path for additional privacy. It might've been a proposal, and I can't find it now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Language changes

      0. allow embedding overlapping interfaces
      1. len, cap to return untyped ints if constant

[0] [https://golang.org/issue/6977](https://golang.org/issue/6977) [1] [https://github.com/golang/go/issues/31795](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/31795)

Major changes

      2. Remove SSLv3
      3. Make TLS 1.3 opt-out
      4. Automatically check and use vendored packages
      5. Low-cost defers via inline code
      6. Rewrite escape analysis
      7. Expose the runtime's hasher
      8. Add -static flag to go build
      9. Store package metadata in build cache

[2] [https://golang.org/issue/32716](https://golang.org/issue/32716) [3] [https://golang.org/issue/30055](https://golang.org/issue/30055) [4] [https://golang.org/issue/33848](https://golang.org/issue/33848) [5] [https://golang.org/issue/34481](https://golang.org/issue/34481) [6] [https://golang.org/issue/23109](https://golang.org/issue/23109) [7] [https://golang.org/issue/28322](https://golang.org/issue/28322) [8] [https://golang.org/issue/26492](https://golang.org/issue/26492) [9] [https://golang.org/issue/31417](https://golang.org/issue/31417)

Minor changes

      [a] use go.sum hashes from all downloaded modules
      [b] fail tests that run os.Exit(0)
      [c] add testing.T.Deadline
      [d] add regexp.SubexpIndex
      [e] report failing test after a panic
      [f] Rewrite the compiler's rulegen
      [g] Change js mimetype to text/javascript

[a] [https://golang.org/issue/28802](https://golang.org/issue/28802) [b] [https://golang.org/issue/29062](https://golang.org/issue/29062) [c] [https://golang.org/issue/28135](https://golang.org/issue/28135) [d] [https://golang.org/issue/32420](https://golang.org/issue/32420) [e] [https://golang.org/issue/32121](https://golang.org/issue/32121) [f] [https://golang.org/issue/30810](https://golang.org/issue/30810) [g] [https://golang.org/issue/32351](https://golang.org/issue/32351)

</comment><comment><USER17> Do vscode/gopls work fine with modules now? I was getting sluggish behaviour in the past.

<comment><USER2> They do work pretty nicely for the most part.

The only issue I'm still seeing is when having multiple go.mod files in the same workspace. I end up having to split projects with sub-modules in multiple workspaces in vscode and ignore the sub-modules on the main workspace. [https://github.com/golang/go/issues/32394](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/32394)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Did they add min(int32,int32) and max(int32,int32) yet?

</comment><comment><USER19> It could just as well be a bullet point list of urls.

What about providing a well thought out summary?

<comment><USER20> Heh, I wish everyone would adopt the gold standard in changelogs: Noriyoshi Shinoda's write-ups of changes in Postgres versions.

Example: [https://h50146.www5.hpe.com/products/software/oe/linux/mains...](https://h50146.www5.hpe.com/products/software/oe/linux/mainstream/support/lcc/pdf/PostgreSQL_12_Beta1_New_Features_en_20190524-1.pdf)

Clear scope, introduction of new features and demonstrations with examples (even of differences between versions)

<comment><USER21> Christ, this is on the exact opposite extreme. I'm not sure if this is what I would like to dig through for each big release; could be a _tad_ easier to digest.

<comment><USER20> I mean, I agree. But there's a toc and I usually skip to the sections relevant to my use cases. The only people who should maybe read the entire thing are (in this case) DBAs.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Just ordered my first Mac- what apps should I know about? - <AUTHOR> Getting my new Macbook Air on Wednesday.  I'll be using it for RoR and front end coding (not a dev but trying to move away from/add to the "Product Guy" label), VM (will run Ubuntu in a VM).
So far these are the apps I know about:
-Adium to combine all my chat accounts
-Growl for notifications
-iTerm2 seems to be an interesting terminal emulator
-Any Notepad++ equivalents on OSx? (I'll end up using Vim and some Notepad++ equivalent)
-Recommended email clients?
-Recommended media players? (I use VLC on Windows)
-Recommended calendar apps to sync with Google and Exchange calendars?
-CSS editors?
-Anything else that a Mac newbie should be told about?
Thanks. <comment><USER10> Have you seen these threads?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2147642>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2161855>

I found them pretty useful -- have a look!

Also have a look at this one: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3407705>

</comment><comment><USER11> Quicksilver <http://qsapp.com/> \- I never opened an application from Finder or Dock again.

From their site:

Quicksilver is a launcher utility app for Mac OS X which gives you the ability to perform common, every-day tasks rapidly and without thought. An introduction to Quicksilver's abilities include:

* Accessing applications, documents, contacts, music and much, much more.

* Browsing your Mac's filesystem elegantly using keywords and 'fuzzy' matching.

* Managing content through drag and drop, or grabbing selected content directly.

* Interacting with installed applications through plugins.

<comment><USER12> I thought Quicksilver was great until I realised Spotlight does the job just as well for app launching.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Colloquy[1] is a fantastic IRC client. TextWrangler[2] is one of my favorite text editors. If you're familiar with Linux, you'll want a package manager- popular options are MacPorts[3] or Fink[4]. As far as media players, VLC[5] has a very nice OSX port.

[1] <http://colloquy.info/> [2] <http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/> [3] <http://www.macports.org/> [4] <http://www.finkproject.org/> [5] <http://www.videolan.org/>

<comment><USER14> Linkinus is a pretty nice IRC client as well. I believe I got it on sale on the App Store for like $5. I'm sure it's more now though.

I definitely suggest HomeBrew over MacPorts and Fink. I've had much better luck with it.

TextWrangler is a great free editor. I use Sublime Text 2 for anything that I may need some standard editing. For more complex stuff or if I'm doing more than opening a single file, I prefer MacVim.

<comment><USER12> It depends on what you're editing. If I'm ever writing any C/C++/Objective-C I ALWAYS use XCode even if it's only as a text editor and not a project manager/compiler, due to its fantastic syntax highlighting. TextWrangler's great as a replacement for TextEdit, but it doesn't do syntax highlighting as well as it could.

<comment><USER14> Agreed. XCode is definitely the best for any Cocoa/Objective-C tool. Though I've heard good things about AppCode lately.

I do some Ruby coding and for that I tend to use MacVim with a few nice plugins.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The first things I install on any Mac (and goodness knows there have been lot of them):

      - Google Chrome (http://chrome.google.com)
      - iTerm2 (http://www.iterm2.com/)
      - Xcode (http://developer.apple.com/xcode/)
      - Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew)
        - For emacs-snapshot, zsh, git, gnupg, etc.
      - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com)
      - Flux (http://stereopsis.com/flux/)
      - TextMate (http://macromates.com/)
      - VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc)
      - Transmission (http://www.transmissionbt.com/)

Then, things like the Sonos controller, the Rdio and Spotify apps, Adobe Lightroom 4, Photoshop, etc.

But the above are the ones that seem to make it onto every new machine in the first day or two.

Enjoy!

</comment><comment><USER11> As a developer I very happy, that <http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/> exists. It's a package manager (#packages as of today: 2024), like apt or yum - with a very nice command line interface and a great community.

> Homebrew is the easiest and most flexible way to install the UNIX tools > Apple didn't include with OS X.

</comment><comment><USER16> If you don't like Quicksilver, Alfred is really good too (<http://www.alfredapp.com/>).

Sublime Text 2 is pretty great (<http://www.sublimetext.com/2>).

<comment><USER14> I say go for Launchbar. The clipboard history is pretty rockin in my opinion.

<comment><USER17> I love Launchbar. Still need to try Alfred out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Try standard terminal, I prefer it to item 2.

Home brew or mac ports help install unixy tools. Work on the assumption that whichever you install, at least once a year you will have to completely remove it and reinstall it, as sometimes they get in a mess.

Apple mail is OK, I prefer thunderbird, but it isn't very Macy.

VLC tends to play whatever you chuck at it.

General note - HFS tends to get unhappy (performance-wise) if your drive gets more than about 85% full.

When I first got a mac I was tempted to install lots of hacks to standard apps and the OS. These seem much less popular nowadays, but still try to resist any, at least for a while. Mac OS X is very hard to debug if it starts to misbehave.

finally, never install the .0 version of any new OS :)

</comment><comment><USER19> Sublime Text 2 (<http://www.sublimetext.com/>) and MacVim (<http://code.google.com/p/macvim/>) are my preferred text editors.

Sparrow (<http://sparrowmailapp.com/>) is my favorite email client.

I can't live without a window resizer on OS X. Use SizeUp (<http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/>) for easy window maximizing, half splits, and quadrant resizing.

</comment><comment><USER20> – MPlayerX (<http://mplayerx.org/>) Great standalone video player

\- Perian (<http://perian.org>) Perian lets quicktime run almost any video format. Unfortunately it's not under active development. Still useful to have installed regardless.

– Google Chrome (<http://www.google.com/chrome>) Don't install Flash unless you have to. Chrome has it built in. I use Safari for most of my browsing and switch to Chrome when I want to use flash.

– If you aren't going to install Flash, then install YouTube5 (<http://www.verticalforest.com/youtube5-extension/>) It's a Safari extension that lets you watch YouTube videos natively without Flash.

\- Day-O ([http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2011/10/20/day_o_mac_menu_...](http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2011/10/20/day_o_mac_menu_bar_clock)) Adds a drop down calendar to the menubar.

\- Alfred (<http://www.alfredapp.com/>) Another vote for Alfred. Much quicker and more powerful than Spotlight.

\- 1Password (<https://agilebits.com/onepassword>) Remembers passwords/logins and makes it super easy to auto login to sites.

</comment><comment><USER21> DragonDrop (shake the mouse drop stuff in an always on top window, then drag it back out when you find where you want to drop it and it disappears)

Divy (Lay out all your windows on a grid extremely quickly)

Skitch (quickly marking up screenshots, photos, etc)

WeatherHD (Lap warming tool, also renders beautiful full screen weather for what's happening where you are/where you set it to)

Visual JSON (JSON validator, builder)

Crash Plan Pro (a pretty reasonably non-invasive offsite backup program)

1Password (Cross platform/Smartphone password autofill manager)

Camouflage (Hides everything on the desktop when you present)

Caffeine (Keeps the laptop awake while you're presenting)

Daisy Disk (Finds the crap you can delete and clean off the hard drive, quickly beautifully, and makes cleanup a joy)

Screenflow (Excellent videocasting/webcasting/tutorial making software) (Currently on sale at <http://www.mupromo.com/> for half off its $99 pricetag with other stuff included)

Screenshots (Fantastic tool for taking a picture of exactly the section of the screen you want, and nothing more).

If you have iOS devices you like/use too, AirDisplay (makes an iPad or iPhone an extension of the mac desktop) and AirServer (makes the mac a mirror of the iOS screen using Airplay).

</comment><comment><USER22> Things I haven't seen here yet:

1\. Backblaze for off-site backups: <http://backblaze.com> 2\. Dash for access docs: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs- snippets/id45803487...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs- snippets/id458034879?mt=12) 3\. Solarized and ir_black themes for Terminal and all editors: <http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized> / <http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/13> (I use ir_black w/ Terminal.app, terminal Vim and the sidebar fork of Macvim: <https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots>) 4\. This fork of GitX: <http://gitx.laullon.com/> 5\. DTerm (pop-up terminal emulator for the occasional 'less README'): <http://decimus.net/DTerm> 6\. XScope (rulers and stuff for UI design): <http://xscopeapp.com/> 7\. LittleSnapper (tried everything, this is the fastest and cleanest way to collect UI inspiration – Skitch + Evernote would be my second choice): <http://www.realmacsoftware.com/littlesnapper/> 8\. Found (don't use this much, but it's awesome. Indexes Gmal, Dropbox and Google Drive and lets you search and launch files – a bit like Alfred): <https://www.foundapp.com/> 9\. DaisyDisk (essential harddrive file visualization): <http://www.daisydiskapp.com/>

And, another shoutout for Quicksilver – more powerful than Alfred.

<comment><USER22> 1\. Backblaze for off-site backups: <http://backblaze.com>

2\. Dash for access docs: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs- snippets/id45803487...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs- snippets/id45803487..).

3\. Solarized and ir_black themes for Terminal and all editors: <http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized> / <http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/13> (I use ir_black w/ Terminal.app, terminal Vim and the sidebar fork of Macvim: <https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots>)

4\. This fork of GitX: <http://gitx.laullon.com/>

5\. DTerm (pop-up terminal emulator for the occasional 'less README'): <http://decimus.net/DTerm>

6\. XScope (rulers and stuff for UI design): <http://xscopeapp.com/>

7\. LittleSnapper (tried everything, this is the fastest and cleanest way to collect UI inspiration – Skitch + Evernote would be my second choice): <http://www.realmacsoftware.com/littlesnapper/>

8\. Found (don't use this much, but it's awesome. Indexes Gmal, Dropbox and Google Drive and lets you search and launch files – a bit like Alfred): <https://www.foundapp.com/>

9\. DaisyDisk (essential harddrive file visualization): <http://www.daisydiskapp.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> These are the things I use daily (most are free!):

[Development] Spotlight - OSX built in app launcher etc SourceTree - <USER2> Git/Hg/SVN client. HomeBrew - like apt, yum package manager MacVim - <USER3> from the GUI world look at Janus iTerm2 (Zsh, OhMyZSH plugins) MAMP - Apache, MySQL etc dev env (like XAMPP) $ CSSEdit - GUI CSS editor, mainly use vim CyberDuck - (s)FTP Sequel Pro - MySQL GUI, SSH connection $ Parallels - <USER4>

[Calendars] - iCal or $ Busy Cal [Mail] - OSX Mail [Office] - $ iWork, LibreOffice [Feed Reader] - NetNewsWire [Torrent] - Transmission [Transcode] - Handbrake

[Utilities] $ little snitch - Network monitor MenuMeters - Free limited version of iStatMenus Flip4mac WMV in Quicktime Perian (Make QuickTime like VLC) TwoUp - free window basic management RightZoom - Maximise zoom button ClipMenu - Multi Copy, Paste board UnArchiver - File Decompression CleanArchiver - File compression (sans .DS_Store) NameChanger - GUI for mass renaming files Onyx - System maintenance and set extra OS defaults Click2Flash - Extension in Safari blocks flash defaults to HD mp4, right click to download video.

<comment><USER24> BusyCal looked good. Until I saw it was $50. Plus another $40 to allow syncing?!?

Sorry, I find it really hard to justify nearly $100 for a calendar app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Interesting - I haven't actually reviewed my Mac's config in a while - I might pick up a few goodies in those lists myself. For what it's worth, this is what I would automatically install on any new Mac:

\- iStat Menus: RAM, network and CPU usage right in your menu bar. Ridiculously useful.

\- Video player: VLC

\- FTP: CyberDuck. Desperately slow to launch and not a big fan of the UI but it's free, it works and I use FTP rarely enough to never have bothered looking for something better.

\- gfxCardStatus - not necessarily a must-have but quite handy to see which app is causing your Mac to switch to the battery-sucking discrete GPU.

\- Email: MailPlane (gmail / google apps only). I have to say that I've never found what I would consider to be a great email client for my taste on either Mac or Windows. So these days, I stick with Gmail's web interface (which I'm not a big fan of either but there's no native app that I find any better).

\- Text Editor: TextWrangler. I still prefer Notepad++ though (in part because TextWrangler, like so many apps on Mac OS X, is so slow to launch).

\- DaisyDisk - for later when you'll inevitably run out of disk space.

\- Parallels Desktop for Windows + Remote Desktop Connection to manage Windows servers. I wish there was a better RDP client and a decent SSMS-like SQL Server client.

\- Apps that used to be must-have but that I no longer use: HandBrake (DVD ripping), LiquidCD (CD / DVD burning), NetNewsWire (RSS)

That's about it. Random stuff that you might or might not need: Acorn (simple, cheap image editor), CoconutBattery, Hues (standalone color picker), iStumbler (Max OS X's NetStumbler), MacHg (Mercurial client). You can try Sparrow for email too.

That's it - have surprisingly few apps actually.

<comment><USER25> BTW, I hope that you upgraded the RAM in the Air to 8GB if you intend to run a VM on it. Trying to work on both Mac OS X and a VM on 4GB is quickly going to get very painful.

TBH, if I was going to buy a new Mac today, I'd go for the new MacBook Pro, purely for being able to have 16GB of RAM. Even with 8GB, my Mac still regularly struggles to keep going when I've got my VM up together with a web browser and XCode (and let's not even talk about Photoshop) on the Mac side.

<comment><USER26> I just bought a late 2011 15" MBP - stuck 16GB of RAM in it and it is so much smoother.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27>
      Try out ZSH if you want to try something slightly different to Bash
      Package Manager: Homebrew - https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew
      Terminal/Emulator: iTerm2 - http://www.iterm2.com/
      Vim running in iTerm2 via Homebrew
      Chat Client: Adium - http://adium.im/
      MySQL DB GUI: Sequel Pro - http://www.sequelpro.com/
      Mail: Sparrow - http://sparrowmailapp.com/
      Git GUI: GitX (L) - http://gitx.laullon.com/
      Window "manager" : Shiftit - https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt
      General productivity: I love QuickSilver, however it's been crashing
      quite frequently on me since I installed Lion, so I'm giving Alfred a try at the moment.

Note: all of the above are at least free (lite), if not completely free. I was thrown completely in the deep-end with terminal vim and just took to it as part of my "getting used to Mac" steps, which I think benefited me with respect to getting down with the nitty gritty of it and not complaining it was different to my Notepad++ experience prior on Windows.

</comment><comment><USER14> Apps that I install immediately upon re-installation or a new Mac:

* 1Password - Password facilitator (<http://www.agilebits.com>, buy the Mac App Store version)

* OmniFocus - GTD/Todo list (<http://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus>)

* OmniOutliner - Best list makinga pp ever (<http://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner>)

* OmniGraffle - Great for development purposes (<http://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle>)

* Acorn - Quick image editing (<http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn>)

* VoodooPad - Personal Wiki (<http://www.flyingmeat.com/voodoopad>)

* Byword - Markdown editor (<http://bywordapp.com/>)

* Dropbox - Duh (<http://www.dropbox.com>)

* Fantastical - Calendar app (<http://flexibits.com/>)

* Launchbar - Launcher (<http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/>)

* Reeder - Google Reader client (<http://reederapp.com/>)

* Transmit - SFTP (<http://panic.com/transmit/>)

* VLC - Video (<http://www.videolan.org>)

Along with iA Writer, Writeroom, Sublime Text, etc etc... there are a lot of great apps. The above is my favorites.

</comment><comment><USER28> * Witch (<http://manytricks.com/witch/>) - Gives you Alt-Tab (Window switching) alongside the default Cmd-Tab (Application Switching).

* Moom (<http://manytricks.com/moom/>) - allows you to move windows around a lot easier.

* TotalFinder (<http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/>) - Finder with tabs and other useful bits.

* CoRD (<http://cord.sourceforge.net/>) - Decent RDP client (better than the official Microsoft one).

* Caffeine (<http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/caffeine/id411246225>) - Stops the screensaver activating at the click of a button.

* CleanMyMac (<http://macpaw.com/cleanmymac>) - Can strip the unwanted language packs etc from applications saving you a significant amount of space.

* Enqueue (<http://www.enqueueapp.com/>) - Decent iTunes replacement, with FLAC support.

* Flu.x (<http://stereopsis.com/flux/>) - Warmer screen during dark hours, makes it easier to work in dim light.

* SourceTree (<http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/>) - Decent GUI Git/Hg/SVN client.

* GrabBox (<http://grabbox.devsoft.no/>) - Instantly throws screenshots into your Dropbox public folder.

* iStat Menus (<http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/>) - Memory and CPU utilisation in your menu bar.

* YoruFukurou (<http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yorufukurou/id428834068>) - Decent Twitter client with muting rules etc.

<comment><USER29> I used and loved TotalFinder, but it was _sooo_ buggy (specially when copying large files off external drives) that I ended up uninstalling it in disgust. I'm using vanilla Finder.app right now, and don't miss it terribly.

If you need a 'Finder Pro', I suggest PathFinder. version 6 looks promising. I might be tempted to buy it: <http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I don't know if many people agree with this, but I would also recommend you to give Apple's built-in OSX apps a try before installing replacements. I've used Mail, Calendar, Address Book and Terminal for many years without feeling a compelling need for alternatives. They usually work well if you're happy with the way they've been designed and don't try to bend them too much to your old habits.

Other apps that I always install on new Macs are Homebrew, VLC, Adium, MacIrssi and then the usual stuff that's on any PC (Spotify, Skype, Dropbox, Minecraft, F.lux).

And yeah it's important to install Xcode, otherwise your system doesn't have a C compiler so you can't do much. I think Git is also included with it.

</comment><comment><USER31> DVD Ripper is an excellent tool that I use often. If you deal with video you will want to install Handbrake, too (and of course vlc).

Geektool is an excellent tool that makes a lot of stats about your Mac on the desktop, it's infinitely customizable, but has a steep learning curve, maybe to be installed in the second batch.

I hate iCal, although it does integrate different calendars. I think it and Mail tool are some of the poorest designed Mac software (e.g. compared with Outlook) but what are you going to do.

Secrets is another advanced tool, that exposes _many_ hidden setting for the Mac.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm a big fan of Jumpcut (<http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/>), a dedicated clipboard manager. Several other tools that include clipboard management have been mentioned but if you don't want the rest of the functionality, this is great for it.

iCal and Mail do a fantastic job syncing with Google and Exchange, so I use those.

</comment><comment><USER33> * iWork - Cheaper than Office and better in my opinion

* Transmit - <USER5>

* Pixelmator - 90% of Photoshop without the high cost but still with a slick interface

* Cornerstone/Versions - <USER6>

* Textmate - Code editor

* Wunderlist - Todo list

* Fantastical - Easy way to access and add dates to your mac calendar

* Concentrate - Block HN and other stuff when you need to get things done

(Note: Most of these are not free and are between $10-$80 but well worth it in my opinion)

</comment><comment><USER34> I purchased two apps within the first few weeks after my switch to a MBP:

1) Moom (move/zoom windows) - <http://manytricks.com/moom/>

2) TotalFinder (enhances the finder) - <http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/>

Some other must haves for me:

* MacVim

* Alfred

* Cyberduck

* Homebrew

* VLC

</comment><comment><USER35> stuff I have installed

* rather than vanilla vim, try MacVim

* textmate is popular, though I don't use it

* tunnelblick for vpn management

* video: vlc, but mplayerx and MPlayer OSX Extended are popular options

* TotalTerminal (make terminal show/hide with a keystroke)

* cyberduck (ftp/s3/whatever file transfer client)

* keka as unarchiver

* xchat aqua as alternative irc client

</comment><comment><USER36> I don't really see the point in Growl, and it is now a payed app, so you could skip it, unless your workflow requires you to be notified of something immediately.

Media player: I prefer mplayerx to VLC. mplayerx is on the app store.

Text: macvim and sublime text 2.

<comment><USER37> The Growl developers really messed up on this. Growl is now actually something that developers include in their applications, you don't need to install it _at all_.

You only need to install the app for backwards compatibility with apps that haven't upgraded. Since it was open-source, there is a fork that you can install for free: <http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/41038/growl-fork>

<comment><USER36> Well, you may still want it if you want to build some custom scripts that need notification, so the fork is probably your best option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Can't recommend Sublime Text 2 enough.

Same with Sparrow for (non power use) GMail.

Currently enjoy Found (over Alfred and Quicksilver) as a Spotlight (native to OS X) replacement -- it's free in the "App Store"

</comment><comment><USER37> This is my current setup. The real _essentials_ are Dropbox, ST2 and Homebrew, but these are all amazing pieces of software:

\- Sublime Text 2 editor (even has a vim mode) (<http://www.sublimetext.com/2>)

\- Sparrow, but you might be happy with the native Mail app (<http://sparrowmailapp.com/>)

\- Media: iTunes and Quicktime do a good job, VLC occasionally.

\- Handbrake for encoding (<http://handbrake.fr>)

\- Transmission (<http://www.transmissionbt.com/>)

\- Dropbox (<http://getdropbox.com>)

\- Cloud app: instant, easy uploads (<http://getcloudapp.com>)

\- Twitter's official client (<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id409789998>)

\- CSS: uh? There is Coda/TopStyle/Espresso, but ST2 is enough

\- Github for Mac (<http://mac.github.com>)

\- Versions for SVN (<http://versionsapp.com>)

\- Sequel Pro (<http://www.sequelpro.com/>)

\- Homebrew package manager (<http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>)

\- ImageOptim (<http://imageoptim.com/>)

\- CodeKit or LESS.app for LESS/Coffee compiling (<http://incident57.com/codekit/>)

\- MS Office: yeah (it's much better than the windows version). Just hide the cruft away (MSN etc) after installing.

\- Wunderlist to-do app (<http://wunderlist.com>)

Nice to have / superfluous:

\- Mou markdown editor (<http://mouapp.com/>)

\- Cathode: vintage terminal emulator (<http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/>)

\- Lidpop: make noises when you close/open your lid (<https://shinyplasticbag.com/lidpop/>)

</comment><comment><USER39> For the last six years I used to sit down with my Mac newbie buddies helping them to get essential tools that make life on Mac productive. This culminated in a short list that I recently put on my blog. You might find it useful: [http://live.stanklimoff.com/post/22395549588/ten-first- thing...](http://live.stanklimoff.com/post/22395549588/ten-first-things-i- install-on-a-virgin-mac-os-x)

</comment><comment><USER40> For security:

PREY: <http://preyproject.com/> KNOX: <https://agilebits.com/knox>

Don't set your Mac to auto-login on your main account. I use an empty account that starts up automatically. It has no real data and Prey is installed on it. Set the screen to lock after 1 min of not using it. I keep important stuff in it's own Knox vault.

</comment><comment><USER41> As far as graphic editors go, my favorite is Pixelmator.

Most people don't need Photoshop but still want something that supports layers, does image manipulation basics and feels like a happy OS X citizen.

On the other hand, GraphicConverter is the Swiss army knife of image formats and is even more powerful. GC can read virtually any image file ever created. It's a little more buggy, and the UI is less modern/fancy, but oh so handy.

</comment><comment><USER42> Janus MacVim distribution - <USER7>

VLC - video player

iTunes - <USER8>

Alfred - <USER9>

Divvy - window management (can create hotkeys for resizing/positioning windows)

Kaleidoscope - great diff tool

I use the default Mail and Calendar apps

</comment><comment><USER43> I'm a big fan of fluid <http://fluidapp.com/> which lets you containerize web applications into a single app like thing. Also for mail, I'm a big sparrow fan.

If you need flowcharting/diagraming similar to Visio, Omnigraffle is great.

</comment><comment><USER44> 1\. For Notepad++: I use TextWrangler (decent syntax highlighting for PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, JS, C++, HTML)- for CSS see footnote.

2\. But you said you wanted to move away from coding? If you're into design, I recommend: InkScape and GIMP as must-haves on any fresh Mac install.

3\. For email, I stopped using email clients a long time ago, and this isn't really Mac specific, but I'd recommend OtherInbox to organize your mail in your browser, on an iPhone (if you're getting one of those), which leades me to...

4\. Google Chrome for your browser.

5\. (Apple's built-in) Spotlight's pretty good for searches (use command + space to access spotlight search), google desktop isn't required.

6\. VLC has a good Mac OS X port for video playback.

7\. The other stuff you need to know about, are screencaptures are done via Command (apple key) + Shift + 3 for the whole screen, or replace 3 with 4 for snipping part of the screen

8\. Since your new Macbook Air will come with Lion with the new scrolling paradigm, I would change the swipe under System Preferences > Trackpad options (you can find this via spotlight or the mac icon on the top left corner of your screen) and uncheck Scroll Direction: Natural, so you get back to your usual way of scrolling things. (First main annoyance with the new Macs).

P.S. vim is still available in Mac OS terminal.

.css files are by default loaded in (Apple's) Dashcode, which suffices for syntax highlighting and editing.

Links:

<http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/>

<http://inkscape.org/>

<http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/>

<http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html>

<http://www.otherinbox.com/>

[http://scottlinux.com/2011/07/20/os-x-lion-how-to-reverse- sc...](http://scottlinux.com/2011/07/20/os-x-lion-how-to-reverse-scroll- direction/)

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61544>

<http://www.google.com/chrome>

</comment><comment><USER29> (Haven't read other suggestions. Certainly all of these have been suggested before, in that case bump the vote count on those apps!)

\- _First thing_ you should do: Install Homebrew: <https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/>

\- IRC: Colloquy - <http://colloquy.info>

\- Editor: Sublime Text 2 - <http://www.sublimetext.com/2>

\- Launcher: QuickSilver or Alfred

\- Lion's Mail.app is great. I used to use Sparrow (<http://sparrowmailapp.com>) on Snow Leopard, but don't need it anymore. It's a little buggy and I like Mail.app's UI better.

\- IMPORTANT: Check <http://gpgtools.org> for a simple app that lets you manage PGP credentials and use them in Mail.app and elsewhere (don't miss this one)

\- RSS reader: Reeder - <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reeder/id439845554?mt=12>

\- You're new to Mac, so install CheatSheet (<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id529456740?mt=12>) to learn keyboard shortcuts by heart (press down CMD key for 2 seconds to get a list of all shortcuts)

\- Check this blog out - it has plenty of great stuff about OS X that even veteran OS X users don't know (trust me, I know a lot of them): <http://www.macyourself.com>

\- You'll inevitably wonder what 'ocspd' or 'mdworker' are, when using 'ps -Ac' or 'top' (spoiler: ocspd is for certifications, and mdworker, or _metadata-worker_ is a process that gathers information about files and feeds them to Spotlight for search), so install atMonitor (<http://www.atpurpose.com/atMonitor/>) instead of searching for process names on the Internet. It offers tons of other cool features.

\- Markdown Pro (<http://www.markdownpro.com>) and Mou (<http://mouapp.com>) for Markdown.

\- As much as I despise iTunes, nothing comes close to it (unfortunately) in terms of media management.

\- Bartender - tidies messy menu bars: <http://www.macbartender.com>

</comment><comment><USER45> If you do anything with a lot of private network web development Gasmask is a must. It is a great little host file switcher.

<http://code.google.com/p/gmask/>

</comment><comment><USER46> <http://sites.google.com/site/yorufukurou/home-en>

Yorufukurou - hardcore twitter client

</comment><comment><USER47> You might like Things, if you're into stuff like that:

<http://culturedcode.com/things/>

</comment><comment><USER48> thoughtbot laptop script <https://github.com/thoughtbot/laptop>

</comment><comment><USER49> Xcode -- don't you want to write iOS apps?

</comment><comment><USER50> once mountain lion releases, I don't think you need adium and growl

</comment><comment><USER51> * Adium is great.

* Growl works very well but the whole notification business (emails + builds + IM + song details…) can be counter productive. Use it lightly.

* iTerm2 is the most modern terminal emulator you'll find on Mac OS X. I use it only because I wanted 256 colors and I'm not on Lion. I've never used its more advanced features.

* I don't know Notepad++ but I would say Sublime Text 2 (<http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-2-beta>) and TextMate (<http://macromates.com/>) may do. You could also try a full blown IDE like Aptana (<http://aptana.com/>) or RubyMine (<http://www.jetbrains.com/ruby/>). If you already know Vim, MacVim (<https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim>) is the way to go for both the GUI and the CLI.

* Apple's own Mail.app works well. I've never felt the need to use another app. Microsoft's Outlook is pretty good, too.

* VLC is the obvious choice on Mac OS X too. You might want to install Perian (<http://perian.org/>) to add support for many exotic formats to Quicktime. For audio, Cog (<http://cogx.org/>) is nice.

* You don't need a CSS editor. Just use your code editor.

\---

You might be interested in a few other apps:

* ClipMenu (multiple clipboards) <http://www.clipmenu.com/>

* Burn (disc burning) <http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html>

* Charles (http debugging) <http://www.charlesproxy.com/>

* DejaMenu (access the menubar from a contextual menu) <http://homepage.mac.com/khsu/DejaMenu/DejaMenu.html>

* HTTP Client (http debugging) <http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/>

* Notational Velocity (the most elegant AND efficient note taking app ever) <http://notational.net/>

* Quicksilver (Quicksilver) <http://qsapp.com/>

* ShiftIt (window positioning) <https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt>

* The unarchiver (opens exotic archive formats) <http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>

* Yummy FTP (the best FTP client on Mac OS X) <http://www.yummysoftware.com/>

* VirtualBox (virtual machines) <https://www.virtualbox.org/>

* SourceTree (Git/Mercurial GUI) <http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/>

</comment><comment><USER52> bootcamp

</comment><comment><USER53> F.lux and Clipboard make my life better.

</comment><comment><USER54> I prefer Alfred (<http://www.alfredapp.com/>) over Quicksilver.

Recommending:

1\. <https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline>

2\. <https://github.com/revans/bash-it>

3\. <https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive>, <https://github.com/tpope/surround>

4\. The <https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree>

5\. <http://bywordapp.com/>

6\. <http://bbt2.drikin.com/>

7\. <http://willmore.eu/software/isolator/>

8\. <https://gist.github.com/2260182> (OS X for Hackers)

9\. Cathode (<http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/>, for shits and giggles)

10\. DiffMerge (<http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/>)

11\. Electric Sheep (<http://www.electricsheep.org/>)

12\. Gridwars (<http://gridwars.marune.de/>)

13\. Integrity (<http://peacockmedia.co.uk/integrity/>)

14\. httrack (<http://www.httrack.com/>)

15\. iSoul (<http://code.google.com/p/isoul/>)

16\. LittleIpsum (<http://littleipsum.com/>)

17\. KeyCastr (<https://github.com/sdeken/keycastr>, more shits)

18\. LiveReload (<http://livereload.com/>)

19\. Mactracker (<http://mactracker.ca/>)

20\. Onyx and/or Maintenance (<http://www.titanium.free.fr/>)

21\. MAMP (<http://www.mamp.info/>)

22\. MacVim (<http://code.google.com/p/macvim/>)

23\. Patterns ([http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterns-the-regex- app/id4294...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterns-the-regex- app/id429449079?mt=12))

24\. Mou (<http://mouapp.com/>)

25\. mutt (<http://www.mutt.org/>)

26\. Pixelmator (<http://www.pixelmator.com/>)

27\. ProCSSor (<http://procssor.com/>)

28\. Reeder (<http://reederapp.com/>)

29\. Skim (<http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/>)

30\. Slammer (<http://ringce.com/slammer>)

31\. Q (<http://www.kju-app.org/>)

32\. svnX ([http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/sv...](http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/features/))

33\. SSHTunnel (<https://github.com/primalmotion/sshtunnel>)

34\. localtunnel (<http://progrium.com/localtunnel/>)

35\. The Unarchiver (<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>)

36\. Homebrew (<http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>)

37\. VLC Player (<http://www.videolan.org>)

38\. Compass/SASS/LESS (<http://compass-style.org/install/>, <http://sass- lang.com/>, <http://lesscss.org/>)

39\. Pandoc (<http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/>)

40\. <http://code.google.com/p/zen-coding/>

<comment><USER37> Isn't Electric Sheep taxing on bandwidth? Running that + Cathode + Transmission should drain your battery in a couple hours...

<comment><USER54> Agreed. I rarely use Cathode. I played with it for a weekend, but the vintage floss is quite distracting and sensationalist. Depending on the settings you use, it can run the GPU like a mad horse. So you're right on that.

Electric Sheep is graphics intensive for sure. One can regulate Electric Sheep by many means, and the app allows for the prevention of downloads. It usually does 40MB/day after downloading the first flock.</comment></comment></comment>