One Man's Blog

27 Mac OSX Freeware Applications I Use and Recommend

December 1, 2009 By John P. 4 Comments

A while back I chronicled my 51 Favorite Freeware Apps for Windows because it helps me keep a list of what I need to install when I’m trying to set up a new PC. And of course I also listed the 50 Free iPhone Apps I Love and Use, and even my Free Themes and Apps for Blackberry Curve. Well, it’s about time I do the same for my Mac downloads! So here is a list of all of the various Mac Freeware I install when setting up a new machine:

System Tools

GeekTool – A very powerful panel for your system preferences which adds all sorts of command line like functionality. This is for power users only.
Growl – This is a little add in that improves just about every other application by adding instant notifications to your Mac. Works with Adium, Firefox, Skype and many more. Get it!
Skype – The absolute standard for making calls through the Internet. I use it for communicating with my partners in Lebanon as well as for doing Podcasts and interviews with others around the country.
Carbon Copy Cloner – Useful for making copies of your hard drive to upgrade to a new computer, or even for automated backups to protect your data.
atMonitor – This is a critical application, as far as I’m concerned, to manage your computer’s overall health. I primarily use it to keep an eye on my CPU usage and ensure that I don’t have an application running away with all my processing power. That heats up your machine and wastes your battery. Another option is MenuMeters if for some reason you prefer it.
The Unarchiver – Software for uncompressing Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, RAR, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other formatted files, common when downloading from newsgroups or other online sources.
CrossLoop – Allows you to take over a computer remotely with permission from the other person to help with troubleshooting and things like that. Good for helping the family out… (My previous review.)

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Filed Under: Computing Tagged With: Adium, Apps, Computing, Dropbox, Free, freeware, Mac, Software

Add AVI Movie / Video Drivers to Your Mac with Perian

June 4, 2009 By John P. 3 Comments

If you ever try to play certain movies on your Mac without having the correct driver installed, you are going to get nothing more than a black screen. No fear! Perian is here to save you! Just download and install this little applet which adds itself to your System Preferences menu, and you can watch all those movies you weren’t previously able to view.

If that alone doesn’t do it for you, it’s possible you need to install the DivX codec and maybe even the XviD codec. If anyone knows of other drivers that help play media on the Mac, please drop a link in the comments!

Filed Under: Computing, Tutorials Tagged With: Computing, Mac, Software, Tutorials

Tutorial: How to Burn a VIDEO_TS Folder to DVD on a Mac

April 15, 2009 By John P. 11 Comments

Let’s say that for some reason you decide to make a copy of a DVD. Like you want it for backup purposes or whatever. If you’ve got a Mac, it’s your lucky day. Here is how to do it:

Use the Finder to copy the VIDEO_TS folder to your local hard drive.
Download the DVDImager application and install it.
Stick a blank DVD in your Mac.
Launch DVDImager and then drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder onto the DVDImager icon

The rest should be simple. Enjoy your new disc copy!

Filed Under: Computing, Tutorials Tagged With: Computing, freeware, Mac, Software, Tutorials

Free PDF Printer Driver

October 29, 2007 By John P. 13 Comments

Adobe PDF Folks, I just wanted to pass along a tip for a free PDF Printer Driver in case anyone was ever looking for one, or in case you don’t know what this even is!

A PDF Printer Driver is a little piece of software that installs just like a printer would, but instead of converting your printed output it saves the exact printed format as a PDF file. You might want to do this for any of the following reasons:

To e-mail a document in a universal format which preserves the exact page layout. For example, if you create a form using MS Word, you can convert it to PDF.
To preview exactly what a document is going to look like when printed before wasting paper and ink.
To post a printable version of a document on a Web site that people can access using any computing platform.
If you want to print something, but you aren’t near a printer you can print it to a PDF and then later print a hard copy. VERY useful for offline work on a laptop while traveling.

The only problem is that up until relatively recently the only way to accomplish this was to own a very expensive piece of Adobe software. But now there are a few free alternatives on the market, and I wanted to recommend Bullzip PDF Printer.
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Filed Under: Computing, Work Tagged With: adobe, Computing, freeware, PDF, Software, Work

How To Bootleg Movies, Music and Software Online

September 3, 2007 By John P. 8 Comments

Illegal Downloads I keep wondering two things, why does the RIAA continue to persecute people, and more importantly why do people do stupid enough things to keep getting prosecuted?

That organization exists for the sole purpose of suing the pants off of people, but they can only do so when people leave plenty of evidence about their activity – namely hosting content on their computers and allowing others to download it. Most of the time it seems these foolish people aren’t even aware that what they are doing by running Kazaa, eMule, Gnutella, or some other file sharing application puts them at risk.

But why in the world would anyone share their music, movie or software collections via open, anonymous connections? Especially when there are other virtually risk-free alternatives? (By the way, know your rights if RIAA comes calling.)
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Filed Under: Computing, Google Tools, Movies, Security, Tutorials Tagged With: Computing, Crime, Free, freeware, Google Tools, Movies, Music, RIAA, Security, Sex, Software, Theft, Tutorials, Videos

Lets Be Clear, Microsoft IS Predatory. Here’s the Proof

April 14, 2007 By John P. 1 Comment

Some people remember, and some seem to have forgotten, but Microsoft has driven many companies out of business. There are those who have argued that Microsoft did this simply because they were the better competitor, but that is not the only reason.

Microsoft gained an early monopoly in the PC operating system arena, then abused that monopoly to damage competitors ability to compete. The Netscape browser was a perfect example.

Anyway, here is a leaked document from a court case in which Bill Gates is suggesting that Microsoft manipulate an open industry standard in such a way as to hurt Linux. This kind of predatory practice is unbelievable – especially when aimed at a free software movement where all of the development has been voluntary!

Filed Under: Computing, News Tagged With: Computing, freeware, Microsoft, News, Software

No, I Don’t Recommend Microsoft Vista

March 29, 2007 By John P. 9 Comments

Being the resident tech geek, I have been asked by at least 10 people now if they should upgrade to the newest Microsoft Windows variant, Vista. Now, everyone is different so I can’t provide a blanket ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, but I will say that I don’t personally recommend it, I’m not using it, and I don’t plan on ever doing so in the future.

There is a great Web site called Bad Vista which can give you tons of reasons not to adopt this operating system, but I’m just going to stick to three primary ones for now:
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Filed Under: Computing, Security Tagged With: Computing, DRM, Microsoft, Security, Software, Vista, XP

Twingly the World’s Coolest Screen Saver

March 7, 2007 By John P. Leave a Comment

My buddy Hrafn over at Inkblot Earth found this incredibly cool screen saver called Twingly. In a nutshell it does the following things:

A visual representation shows blog postings from around the world in real time.
You can zoom in and out with your mouse’s scroll wheel, and you can rotate and spin the globe by clicking and dragging.
It’s possible to tell where the most articles are coming from because bars get taller as more posts come in from certain places.

Read on to see a video of it in action!
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Filed Under: Computing, Fun Stuff, Videos Tagged With: Blogging, Computing, Free, freeware, Fun Stuff, Newsfeeds, RSS, Screensaver, Software, Twingly, Videos

FREE Spam Protection for Outlook

September 12, 2006 By John P. 3 Comments

Have you noticed that Outlook’s native Spam protection is severely lacking? Well, there is a great little freeware application called SpamAware which will increase your Spam fighting abilities.

The software installs quickly and easily and works as advertised. It adds a number of new options and works with both Outlook and Outlook Express. The software is also written by a very nice guy, Joachim Marder, whom I remember helping beta test another program for many years ago called Treesize.
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Filed Under: Computing Tagged With: Computing, freeware, Outlook, Software, Spam