A fast and clever open source hex editor
for Mac OS X.

Link to Dropbox. Write Markdown-formatted text. Use your favorite TextExpander snippets. Do quick research to find reference materials. Lookup or substitute words from Terminology app. Insert quotes and links into your documents. Upload images to CloudApp. Export your writings as Markdown or HTML files. Send them to Evernote, Facebook, Posterous, Tumblr and Twitter. Or use the generated HTML for your blog post. Your choice.

Tableau Public is a free service that lets you create and share data visualizations on the web. Thousands use it to share data on websites and blogs and through social media like Facebook and Twitter. Tableau Public allows you to see data efficiently and powerfully without any programming.

"“Gamification” is a word and concept invented by idiocrats who confuse humane with manipulative.

Theory about how the mistake gets made

Everybody sees the trend toward simpler, more-focused, better-designed software. Enterprise developers see the consumerization of IT.

You could look at this trend and say, “As software improves, it respects its users more. It works better and looks better, is easier to learn, and leaves out the things that waste a user’s time.”

Or you could look at this trend and say, “As software gets simpler, it gets dumbed-down — even toddlers can use iPads. Users are now on the mental level of children, and we should design accordingly. What do children like? Games.”

Respect

It should be obvious that one conclusion respects people and one doesn’t. It should also be obvious that the first conclusion is correct and the second is incorrect, cynical, and low."

If every additional user is putting money in the developers' pockets, then you're less likely to see the site disappear overnight. If every new user is costing the developers money, and the site is really taking off, then get ready to read about those synergies.

"Once you are Turing'd it is much easier to believe other occupations which we humans used to do uniquely, can be done by computers. You tend to be open to disruptive technology in all parts of your life."

Depending on the app, you can use OPML to create both formal outlines and less formal mind-maps. That makes it great for nimble planning: Using the OPML file format, I can let loose my inner-hippie, freely brainstorming to create mind-maps covering all aspects of a new project. Once I have a bunch of ideas down, I can then move that same OPML file to an outlining app and exercise my inner-CPA to organize those ideas into some kind of linear order.

Trello is probably the simplest thing in the world: it’s a web page where you make a bunch of lists. Each list contains cards. Each card is a thing that someone might want to work on.

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. It features a rule interface similar to that of Apple Mail so you should feel right at home. Have Hazel move files around based on name,

The review system is not for leaving bug or support related questions, for example, ‘How do I add a favourite?’ or ‘Your app just crashes’. Users are much better off emailing the developer in question so they can help resolve the problem. By all means if they don’t respond, tell people in reviews. All too often I see support issues in the review system. Developers have no way whatsoever to respond to these, both sides loose out when support problems end up as 1 star reviews. Dev’s get a bad rep & have no idea how to reproduce the problem and the user still has no way to resolve the issue.

Unusual software bugs are a class of software bugs that are considered exceptionally difficult to understand and repair. There are several kinds, mostly named after scientists who discovered counterintuitive things.

AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.

In December of 2009, after about 5 years of podcasting as a hobby, I took a leap of faith, launched 5by5 Studios, and started broadcasting and podcasting full-time. It's been an amazing ride so far, and I'm glad to be able to share what I've learned about podcasting, videocasting, and audio recording here, with the 2011 edition of the Hivelogic Podcasting Equipment Guide.

ClipCube is a tiny clipboard history tool under development for Windows: it sits in the system tray, recording copied text for later use. Allows viewing saved items and re-copying them to the clipboard. It has an easy interface, and fits in a pocket: a self-contained program that does not need installation.

It is undeniably true that many -- most? -- professional writers do only use Word, and it may well be true that my grouchy invented straw man does indeed only need Word and an idea, but does that make it an unbreakable rule? More importantly, does it follow, as is so often the implication, that a work written in software intended to make the writing process a little easier is therefore somehow worth less?

Word Counter is a Macintosh OS X application that performs a word count and a character count, but it can do much more. It can be used independently or in conjunction with other applications such as TextEdit, Microsoft Word, Pages, TextWrangler, and others.

Textmate-style editor for when I have to use Windows at work.

After getting the kinks ironed out of my workflow, I wanted to have the ability to simply drag a MultiMarkdown formatted text document to a Mac OS X application, and have it spit out a formatted document.

AIR, like the cross-platform widget toolkits and application frameworks that came before it, is the gray mystery meat of client-side software. It gets the job done, but it’s hard to stomach. For anyone who used a computer in the 1990s, AIR probably brings back scarring memories of Java apps: slow, ugly, inconsistent, awkward.

Plainview is a full-screen web browser.<br />
<br />
We Barbarians give a lot of presentations. A lot of speeches. A lot of Dog and Pony shows. People want to see our work. And the work we do is on the Internet. And, until now, we really had two options for showing our Internet work: we could capture it all to Quicktime, and throw it into Powerpoint or Keynote, so we could present in a nice full-screen mode that looked professional, or we could try to show it in the browser, and have all that ugly chrome distracting people from our beautiful sites. Both of these options had their pros and cons – full-screen looks sweet, but you lose the interactivity of the site, everything has to be canned. And showing things in a browser lets you show the site’s interactivity, but, again, that ugly chrome.So now we have a third option. Fire up your full-screen browser and let your audience focus on the work.

PCalc is ideal for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature-rich calculator for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

Among Johnson's recommendations is to update the the 17th-century practice of keeping a commonplace book. Back then, the books were akin to intellectual journals: You carried them around and copied down interesting passages, quotations and insights you came across in your daily travels. This, Johnson argues, provided a way to let slow hunches build over time. Keeping your old hunches and provocations accessible allowed you to complete them with new information and insights later, a crucial channel for innovation.

Notational Velocity ALT is a fork of the original Notational Velocity with some additional features and some interface modifications. It is a work in progress. I’m not listing it as a beta, as that would imply that it was on its way to being its own product. It’s an experiment, and I hope you enjoy it!

For Mac & iPhone users to make lists and stay organized. TaskPaper is a simple to-do list that’s surprisingly adept. Unlike standard organizers, TaskPaper gets out of your way so that you can get things done. Requires Mac OS X 10.5 or iPhone OS 3.1

Transform your notes into a simple task management system. NoteTask presents your text as tasks, completed tasks, and sections.

A follow on from my pie-chart making script for OmniGraffle, this one makes bar charts.
Really just quickly thrown together, but it produces the results I was hoping for. Obviously, use at your own risk, and maybe save any OmniGraffle documents you have open before you run it.

This project aims to offer a simple cross-platform application for cropping PDF files. A simple user interface lets you define exactly the crop-region by fitting a rectangle on the visually overlaid pages.

Creating a Projeqt is simple and intuitive. In fact, you have probably done most of the legwork already. We play nicely with the other social platforms out there so you can embed your videos from YouTube or Vimeo, post pictures from your Flickr account, include RSS feeds from your blog or even your Tweets. Through Projeqt, you can orchestrate all these integral pieces of content to form one coherent story. And then share that story with the world in exactly the way you want it to be heard.

Dropbox, the app we all (at least many of us) know and love, has a plethora of advanced uses to make life so much easier in managing data between multiple computers and online. We’ve posted several roundups of tips and tricks for Dropbox and now we present our ultimate toolkit and guide. We’ve pulled all our tips and tricks together and added quite a few more. Additionally, share your Dropbox tips and tricks and we’ll update the list to share the fun with everyone.

Git is a free & open source, distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Only Collect, and put things where they belong: http://tumblr.com/xrinekyso

Opacity is an easy to use program for drawing graphics for the screen. It's great for making resolution independent images and icons for applications and the web.

I'm Neven Mrgan, a designer at Panic Inc. I design whatever needs designing.

The key to good writing is not that magical glass of Bordeaux, the right kind of tobacco or that groovy background music. The key is focus. What you need to write well is a spartan setting that allows you to fully concentrate on your text and nothing but your text. Many professional writers use SimpleText or Textedit because these are the only writing programs that are totally distraction free. But text editors are not perfect. That’s why we made Writer.

What would be your dream setup?

I have it. One powerful, portable, fast, machine with a high-rez screen and a clean desktop. I don't really believe in dreams when it comes to hardware. These are the tools you use to do your job - you should have the best you can afford. Luckily, we're in the computer business, not the Formula One business. The best computers are affordable, all things considered.

With iOS 4′s launch only days away, we thought it would be interesting to provide a complete walkthrough of the new operating system. iOS 4.1 will be a free upgrade to all iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2G, and iPod touch 3G users. It will also come standard on Apple’s newly announced 4th generation iPod touch.

Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them.
Holding a finished book with your name on the cover is a truly amazing feeling; it’s one of those experiences everyone should have. As software people, designers, and publishing professionals at the top of our game, we realized something both incredible and obvious:
there’s no good reason why it should take tons of time, technical skills, big bucks, or friends in high places to publish a book. Or a zillion books, for that matter.

text editor | file transfer | svn | css | terminal | books | more = whoah.

This is how to talk to your customers about product development: What You Won’t Find in Scrivener 2.0 http://j.mp/alld70

Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8 is the leading photo-editing software for Mac, combining power and simplicity so you can easily go beyond the basics to tell great stories with your photos. Make your photos look extraordinary, share your life stories in creative ways, and easily manage all your photos. Works great with iPhoto!

Disc Cover is a slick and intuitive Mac OS X software for creating CD/DVD labels, cover art and more. A variety of professionally made designs give you a quick start. This program imports data and images from iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, iDVD and many other sources. You can easily experiment with styles and graphic tools. Disc Cover will serve to bring you more and more design ideas.

The internet is a big place with lots of interesting corners. It can be difficult to find the time to consume the steady flow of new information as quickly as it is produced and found. If you've ever found yourself after several days of browsing with dozens of open tabs in Safari that you really do mean to get around to, but which you have difficulty balancing against the competing pressures of keeping up to date, Sessions is here to help.

Our applications help you take control of your inbox.

Turn Apple’s Mail into a powerful email organization system

Mail Act-On fills in crucial gaps in Mail’s feature set, making it a must-have plug-in for anyone who deals with copious emails.

Smush.it uses optimization techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a "lossless" tool, which means it optimizes the images without changing their look or visual quality. After Smush.it runs on a web page it reports how many bytes would be saved by optimizing the page's images and provides a downloadable zip file with the minimized image files.

RT @flimgoblin: Wonderful retrospective on Sensible Soccer by @kierongillen http://bit.ly/9S8DK1 (nostalgia attack!)

"THE FIRST SURPRISING thing about the worm that landed in Philip Porras’s digital petri dish 18 months ago was how fast it grew."

John Gruber's Mac and iPhone setup.

"Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won't try to tell you how to write - it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application."

Fantastic all-purpose bookmarklet. "Like a command line for your browser!"

"app.itize.us is a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store."

"Go has fast builds, clean syntax, garbage collection, methods for any type, and run-time reflection. It feels like a dynamic language but has the speed and safety of a static language. It's a joy to use."

Great alternative to OneNote - excellent for ubiquitous capture, as it runs on Mac, PC, iPhone, Blackberry etc.

Nice piece from a series on open-source in The Economist. More companies are embracing open-source software. Their motives may vary - 'open' as in gratis, or 'open' as in extensible/flexible? - but it is clear that the take up versus proprietary software is increasing. The next danger, according to the authors? Getting locked into the cloud.