FluxHQ - Rambings of Beings from a Parallel Universe

I thought it would be a nice idea to list some of the apps for Tiger that I find useful, perhaps others can benefit from them.

AppZapper - Great little app for uninstalling apps, it finds all the related config files and other garbage and the interface is awesome.

TextMate - What all the other text editors want to be.

MarsEdit - Blogging tool, the latest version is super nice, but I’m told version 2 thats coming out soon is supposed to be a lot better.

ByteController - A little menubar app to control your iTunes, it’s not fancy but very functional.

Cue-Splitter - An app to split up all those long mp3’s you have, with the help of a cue file. Works for most of the files I’ve tried it on. Look at Cuesheet Heaven for creating cue cheets.

Awaken - An alarm app for Tiger, nice interface and good alarm options.

CompressFiles - A compression app which enables you to leave out mac specific system files during compression, that way when you send the compressed archive over to your Windoze brethren they don’t have all the HFS silliness.

Delibar - Access to your del.icio.us bookmarks from your menubar.

KisMAC - Cool tool for checking out the wifi world around you, with some expertise you might even be able to crack a few networks. Sadly this project has been temporarily halted due to some new laws in Germany.

UnRARX - A RAR application for OS X.

memtest - Command-line application that allows you to comprehensively test your memory chips.

Adium - IM client, supports pretty much any IM with a unified interface.

iScrobbler - Sends out your iTunes now playing track info over to Last.fm

Transmission - A really good BitTorrent client.

Transmit - The best FTP client I have come across, across platforms. I’m glad it’s a Tiger app and that I have a Mac.

Billings - A quote, invoicing and time tracking application. Very cool interface and generates some of the most beautiful invoices/quotes I have seen. Well worth the money spent.

Cha-Ching - A personal finance manager, sorta like Money or Quicken but a lot more intuitive and pretty.

VLC Player - an alternative to quicktime, and it’s free.

Yep - An iPhoto like organizer for PDFs. Nice concept if you have a lot of paper in your life, you can get rid of all the paper and just Yep the whole thing.

Yojimbo - Yep, but for all kinds of files. Maybe a little overkill, but it’s on my wishlist.

XSlimmer - This app analyses your system and gets rid of all the unnecessary source code, application localizations and other bloat.

That’s the list! If anyone out there has any suggestions or would like to add to this list, please use the comments to let me know.

Share This

I caught a snippet the other day about a Silicon Valley startup, Data Robotics, on the BBC, and upon further investigation, I came across their product, Drobo. It’s essentially an external disk storage system, which makes all the configuration of multiple disk systems completely trivial to the user. All the user has to do is plug in Drobo to the USB port and plug some disks into the system. Disk removal and upgrades are also made completely trivial. I absolutely love the concept of not having to fuss with RAID settings, stripe size etc. Some of the other factors I like are the fact that there is no need for homogenity in disk sizes, mixing & matching is ok. Add to that the fact that there is no client software required to run this device makes it a win. Real-time swapping of disks without causing any downtime is also a cool feature. Data Robotics has a demo of the entire working of the Drobo on their website and for more in depth information check out the Arstechnica review.

One of the downsides is the relatively high price, $500 for just the unit sans any drives makes it a little out of the average consumer’s reach. I would also like to see other interfaces such as Firewire or eSata be an option. USB2.0 does not really make me want to run out and get one. But future iterations of the product are something I will look forward to.

Share This

Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered. TV has come to my screen… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you too should check out Joost. I’ll let you guys watch their cool intro video. I like that old guy and the whole setup is very Matrix-y. I will report back once more TV has been watched and I can form a sufficiently coherent opinion, which is based more on facts and less on exhilaration.

In other news, this blog has finally caught up to WP updates and is sporting teh latest bling. Along the blogging lines, I have also finally started using a third party blog tool, MarsEdit, which I seem to like so far.

I’ve also got some Django-isms to report, but those will have to wait a little longer.

Share This

It’s been 5 days, 12 hours and 23 minutes since I began my wait, and here I am lying in wait for the FedEx truck to show up. In the span of the last few hours I’ve chased down two FedEx trucks and had a bunch of near misses with other couriers. All this because my blessed door buzzer system decided to take the day off on this very day, of course. Why all this ruckus for a simple courier delivery you ask, well it because I’m awaiting my new Mac which is on that delivery truck. Yes, a machine some chips and a PCB is getting my panties all in a twist. The FedEx website doesn’t give you an approximate time of delivery, all it says is, “On Delivery Truck”, great… You would think that since delivery truck routes are pre-determined, they should at least be able to give me a time window during which the delivery could occur.

Furthermore, all this is after I had called FedEx to request that my package not be put on a truck but instead be held at their location, so that I could go pick it up myself. My request was acknowledged and confirmed but not executed, clearly, since the tracking info shows otherwise.

Wait, do I see a FedEx truck…

Share This

Two of my favorite grocers announced today that they will become one. Whole Foods Markets (NASDAQ: WFMI) has is acquiring Wild Oats Markets (NASDAQ: OATS) for about $700 million including debt. The stocks for both companies have been on a tear since the initial announcement, the deal is expected to close in April. Life has been tough lately for natural food grocers like these two, faced with increasing competition from the likes of Trader Joe’s, conventional supermarket chains like Safeway and Kroger, and even Walmart. This is an interesting market consolidation, it gives Whole Foods a better presence in the South-East, Rocky Mountain Area and the Pacific Northwest. Whole Foods also has an impressive track record for the acquisition & turnaround of smaller non-profitable natural foods retailers, though Wild Oats will be it’s largest acquisition to date. Another issue, which I believe is significant, is the large duplication of overhead and management. Store closures and brand consolidation (Wild Oats operates under Wild Oats Marketplace, Henry’s Farmers Market, Sun Harvest, and Capers Community in 24 states & Canada) are bound to happen.

From a consumer standpoint, I would be interested to see what brands would be retained on the shelf from Wild Oats and whether the shopping experience would be altered. From an investor standpoint, would earnings for Wild Oats stores benefit from Whole Foods management, and how will Whole Foods deal with the acquisition of debt and several under-performing stores in markets they don’t have much experience in? If I may speculate here for an instant, based on Whole Foods track record, I’m feeling very positive about the whole situation. There are large pitfalls to navigate through, but in the end I believe that with ever increasing demand for natural & organic food, diet crazes, international cuisines and commercial farmer’s markets (for the lack of a better term), Whole Foods, under its current CEO John Mackey, will prevail.

Well it’s time to go grocery shopping. ta-ta.

Share This

I’m probably a bit late to the party but here goes. The saga that was JetBlue operations last week just goes to show you running an airline is not an easy business. Kudos to JetBlue though for coming out and admitting their mistakes and trying aggressively to patch up their relationships with customers, employees and investors. I like the way CEO David G. Neeleman took the whole thing so personally and was very vocal about it. They also released a pretty nice “Passenger Bill of Rights” for future events and all those affected by the delays, which has spurred activity on the Hill about the passenger rights bill, which had been struggling to gain much traction in Congress. Interestingly, Wall Street initially did not look too kindly upon any of JetBlue’s reparation efforts, plunging the stock a few points, but it’s back to prior levels as of today (NASDAQ:JBLU).

Of course, JetBlue failed quite spectacularly, but it’s from this failure that we have to learn and grow. Prior to last week, the consensus was that JetBlue was the best run airline in the industry. If this could happen to them, why couldn’t it to the others. I don’t think it’s that much of a threat to airlines like United and American, since they have a bigger operations setup and have enough staff bases to counter such an emergency. But that’s not to say they are immune to this, all the airlines need to sit up and reconsider their strategies to counter different situations. The industry as a whole is just recovering from a long history of bankruptcy and monetary losses, and unless they tighten the reins and be on the ball, the vapor thin veil of profitability from last quarter they are hiding behind, will vanish just as quickly as it came.

Being an American Airlines frequent flyer, I shudder to think what if what happened to JetBlue befell AA. There would have been bloodshed in the terminals, for sure.

Or it could all be sogrady’s fault for being in the area.

Share This