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democracy!
The one thing I really wanted out of this election was an end to Rick Santorum's Senate career, and apparently Christmas has come early for me!
And somewhere, Dan Savage is having a really good day.
I love voting!
I also love Xjournal, the awesome Mac livejournal client I'm using. It knows what's playing on iTunes. That is just cool.
And damn it, I made the mistake of downloading Adobe's Lightroom beta. It is apparently meant to compete with Apple's Aperture, which I'm not at all familiar with (though they are offering 30-day trials now, apparently) and the beta 4 version seems awfully close to finished-product material. It has an AWESOME interface. (See my screenshot here.) It's like a hybrid of iPhoto, with the organizational and mass-editing capabilities, and Photoshop, with the photo editing stuff, but without nearly as much of the Photoshop-intimidation factor for those of us who don't have the time or commitment to learn Photoshop, but enjoy messing about with our pictures to some extent.
The beta download is free - but it will expire. And the price tag for the official Lightroom release is totally unknown. Aperture is currently at $300, which is so far out of my price range it's hilarious, and if Photoshop is any example then Adobe criminally overprices its apps. So I'm getting all addicted to Lightroom but it will most likely be ripped from me mercilessly and then where will I be?
Bah!
But, other (free) applications for the Mac that I've grown to love:
VLC of course (I fell in love with this on Windows first, but it remains the only media viewer that plays ALL of those stubborn .avi files regardless of stupid codecs. If you download any .avi files via bittorrent VLC is a must.)
Quicksilver - I don't think I've even scratched the surface of its potential capabilities, but just in its most basic form, it's a great way to quickly access applications or files without having to go through Finder.
Cuppa - lets you know when your tea has finished steeping! So cute.
Shiira - the cut/paste bugs killed this as my main browser choice, but otherwise it takes all that is awesome about Safari and makes it even better. Someday Shiira will rule.
Yep - totally fun iPhoto-like organizational tool for pdf files and other documents. Currently free but probably won't be forever, but early versions don't expire. When I discovered the built-in pdf support of the Mac I nearly cried. Yep just makes the joy even more overwhelming.
Sidenote - so cool.
QuickAccess - contextual menu plug-in, very customizable.
Growl - not for everyone. But if you like quick little notifications, this is awesome. I especially like GrowlTunes - when iTunes is running in the background, it briefly shows the title/artist whenever a new song plays.
It's probably wrong to love a computer this much. But with Freyja it's so easy! Garghh! I never wanted to be one of those people!
And somewhere, Dan Savage is having a really good day.
I love voting!
I also love Xjournal, the awesome Mac livejournal client I'm using. It knows what's playing on iTunes. That is just cool.
And damn it, I made the mistake of downloading Adobe's Lightroom beta. It is apparently meant to compete with Apple's Aperture, which I'm not at all familiar with (though they are offering 30-day trials now, apparently) and the beta 4 version seems awfully close to finished-product material. It has an AWESOME interface. (See my screenshot here.) It's like a hybrid of iPhoto, with the organizational and mass-editing capabilities, and Photoshop, with the photo editing stuff, but without nearly as much of the Photoshop-intimidation factor for those of us who don't have the time or commitment to learn Photoshop, but enjoy messing about with our pictures to some extent.
The beta download is free - but it will expire. And the price tag for the official Lightroom release is totally unknown. Aperture is currently at $300, which is so far out of my price range it's hilarious, and if Photoshop is any example then Adobe criminally overprices its apps. So I'm getting all addicted to Lightroom but it will most likely be ripped from me mercilessly and then where will I be?
Bah!
But, other (free) applications for the Mac that I've grown to love:
VLC of course (I fell in love with this on Windows first, but it remains the only media viewer that plays ALL of those stubborn .avi files regardless of stupid codecs. If you download any .avi files via bittorrent VLC is a must.)
Quicksilver - I don't think I've even scratched the surface of its potential capabilities, but just in its most basic form, it's a great way to quickly access applications or files without having to go through Finder.
Cuppa - lets you know when your tea has finished steeping! So cute.
Shiira - the cut/paste bugs killed this as my main browser choice, but otherwise it takes all that is awesome about Safari and makes it even better. Someday Shiira will rule.
Yep - totally fun iPhoto-like organizational tool for pdf files and other documents. Currently free but probably won't be forever, but early versions don't expire. When I discovered the built-in pdf support of the Mac I nearly cried. Yep just makes the joy even more overwhelming.
Sidenote - so cool.
QuickAccess - contextual menu plug-in, very customizable.
Growl - not for everyone. But if you like quick little notifications, this is awesome. I especially like GrowlTunes - when iTunes is running in the background, it briefly shows the title/artist whenever a new song plays.
It's probably wrong to love a computer this much. But with Freyja it's so easy! Garghh! I never wanted to be one of those people!
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