Some of My New Favourite* Things

I’ve found myself using a lot of great new software and gadgets, especially since I started working from home. Here’s a list of what I’ve been using lately:

TextMate

TextMate is an extremely versatile text editor for OS X. I use it constantly for code editing (especially PHP), cutting/pasting text, text searching and for taking notes. It correctly colors all of the code I throw at it, and integrates really well with the command line. My favorite new command is “svn diff|mate” which opens a diff in TextMate in its easy-to-read diff formatting.

Chrome

I waved bye-bye to Firefox a few months ago and switched over to Chrome. It’s fast, can handle a bazillion open tabs, remembers your last tabs if you accidentally close one, and has a Firebug extension (and yes, there’s also built-in developer tools that work great as well)!

YoruFukurou

For a lightweight, reliable and free OS X Twitter client look no further than YoruFukurou. It has a nice tabbed layout, can auto-add your contacts to a tweet, and has built-in search for public tweets. I tried the official Twitter client, but it doesn’t play nice with multiple monitors and Spaces.

Rdio

The creators of Skype branched out into an online music service called Rdio. For $5 a month, you can listen to unlimited music online. It does a great job of importing your current iTunes library and provides recommendations based on what you listen to. I’ve been able to discover a lot of great new music through this service, especially really cool Scottish bands!

Sennheiser HD 595 Headphones

What good is the Rdio service if you don’t have decent way to hear the music? My birthday present last year was a pair of the Sennheiser HD 595 headphones, which I selected based on Matt’s recommendation. I wouldn’t categorize myself as an ‘audiophile’, but these have better sound than any other headphones I’ve ever heard. They are also extremely comfortable – no pinching or head squishing at all, quite remarkable.

Scotch Whiskey

Allright, so scotch isn’t really a ‘Gadget’ but this is my list and I can put what I want on it! It’s been fun to ask the locals about what scotch they drink, especially our taxi drivers who all have differing opinions on which is the best. So far I’ve purchased two really popular makes and I like Macallan the best so far. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but it becomes quite enjoyable once you know what flavors you are looking for. I will be exploring more of this in the future!

*or ‘Favorite’ depending on where you’re reading this post from :D

Dial-Up Sucks

Had a humorous finish to an email thread with my Grandpa today:

Grandpa:

Dan, how do I go about installing Abobe PDF install for Windows 7? I tried Googleling but no direct link. Love G’dad

Me:

Hi Grandpa,
Click the Download Adobe Reader button here: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

Grandpa:

Thank you Dan, will let you know if all is well in 11hrs 30min.

What a patient guy :) He’s getting DSL on Tuesday, which I’m pretty sure will blow him off his chair with the speed difference!

A Love-Hate Relationship

I finally got the 580EX II flash for my camera! I can already see an amazing difference in my indoor pictures. But even after getting my new flash Sadie still won’t let me take a decent picture of her. Actually, it’s probably just her pug face that’s messing up the shots :D

*zing* – good thing she can’t read English (or surf the internet, or have an RSS reader).

Ahhh… look at the nice even lighting… on a grumpy face!

The 5:20 Funny Podcast

podcast icon

Every day at 5:20pm on 103.7 The Mountain they play a comedy clip and they call it the ’5:20 Funny’. I always enjoy listening to it when I’m driving home from work. The other day Marty Riemer mentioned that he puts the mp3 of the clip up on their website for download. So I decided to scrape the site and make a podcast of the show! It’s working pretty great, if you subscribe to it and see anything weird or have any other ideas please feel free to let me know. The podcast feed can be found at:

http://danroundhill.com/520Funny.php

Enjoy!

*Update* – This stopped working and I don’t have time to fix it. Sorry. :|

New Horizons

Liftoff!

I missed this back in January, but the New Horizons Mission to Pluto was launched. There’s a CD on the spacecraft that has my name on it (along with thousands of other names, too)! NASA is really doing a great job of getting people more interested and involved with their missions these days. Check out this page that shows where it is in real time.