LiveCode Community Edition Overview | RunRev. Yep, it's out. GPL3 version of LiveCode. And yes, all target systems are included - OSX, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. And they've streamlined it too, the DMG is significantly smaller than the one from the last release (ok, many of the missing things are things that belong to the commercial parts, but still). And it really looks nice, sure, the language is wild, but hey, it's a much better GUI Builder than anything currently delivered with Android tools.
osx
Use Your iPhone, Android, Or Windows Phone To Lock And Unlock Your Mac Using Bluetooth | Redmond Pie. Nice little hack - only needs a small open source program and two Apple scripts and you can trigger actions when, for example, a smartphone comes close to a computer or moves away from a computer - here using the example of the screen lock.
uliwitness/Stacksmith. And since we're talking about HyperCard again - Stacksmith wants to build a clone for OSX. Although I wonder why they exactly follow the (pure black-and-white) original in the graphical representation.
Postbox — Awesome Email. I was never really enthusiastic about Thunderbird, so the announcement that it would no longer be developed didn't bother me much. But the fact that Sparrow now belongs to Google and, according to the announcements, nothing more is to be expected from it, really annoyed me - it was one of the faster clients for gmail and also had usable feature support for it. The Apple Mail client is rather stiff in comparison. Postbox claims to support gmail features, so it might be worth a try if Sparrow can no longer be used reliably due to bit rot.
Lion: Mobile Backup Turn off local Time Machine | Jan-Kaspar MĂĽnnich. No idea if I already had this, too lazy to search, but if the local Time Machine backups are annoying (e.g. with smaller SSDs, this is anything but practical, especially if you occasionally perform larger file operations), you can turn them off with tmutil disablelocal and turn them on with tmutil enablelocal. For example, when performing larger cleanup tasks, it makes sense to turn them off, even if you activate them later to have the additional work safety. Or you simply archive everything on the notebook in git or mercurial, then you naturally don't need local backups either.
Soulvers Features | Acqualia. "Calculator" rethought. I wonder why so many desktop computer calculators desperately try to replicate the UI of old pocket calculators. On mobile devices, it makes sense - the pocket calculator UI with multi-function keys is quite efficient for such small form factors - but on the computer, I much more often simply use a Python shell or an iPython notebook. Soulver is a bit like that, only focused on classic calculations and with linking of lines, so that you can build spreadsheet-like solution sheets. Quite clever.
Fuse4X – The Easiest and Fastest Way to Create File Systems for Mac OS X. MacFuse is currently going the way of the dodo, so there's a need for an alternative if you want to load userspace filesystems (e.g., if you want to mount an SSH server). This version also looks more interesting than OSXFuse, because OSXFuse primarily aims for compatibility with the old MacFuse, while Fuse4X primarily aims for compatibility with the Linux reference and should make porting userspace filesystems easier.
Xcode 4.3 MacRuby compatible problem workaround - ćť± . Blog. Annoying, but necessary - the AppStore migration of XCode has broken the template installation of MacRuby, so that even with the new MacRuby (0.11 with support for XCode 4.2 and 4.3 is out) the templates do not work right away and the integration with Interfacebuilder does not work. With the instructions here it works again.
Embedding Python in Objective-C: Part 2. An interesting project that embeds Python in Objective-C projects and allows direct connections between Python and Objective-C code via automatically generated bridge modules. I might check this out at some point, I still have a game project that could benefit from this.
Amazon.com: Send to Kindle for Mac. Could be quite nice to easily "print" the various online documentations to the Kindle and read them comfortably there. In addition, they might also end up on the iPhone for on the go ...
German Keyboard Layout under Parallels, VMWare, BootCamp and VirtualBox - Info - Schirmacher. Because I needed it just now - this moves the special characters that you do need occasionally when programming to keys that are more Mac-like. Not perfect, but much better than the standard PC layout, as the MacBook usually doesn't have any markings for these special characters, so you would otherwise search for them in vain.
Mac Developer Tips » How to Uninstall Xcode. There is also an official way to get rid of XCode. Just linking to it, because unfortunately XCode can dynamically load what you need from the internet, but not get rid of it - for this you are allowed to delete the XCode stuff and then reinstall it (smaller). Just the iOS stuff alone takes up 6G, so you can save a lot if you don't plan to program the iPhone.
Xcode, GCC, and Homebrew. Looks good - Apple provides a bare-bones GCC package with all frameworks, so you no longer need to load the monster installer from the AppStore, but can make do with a 170 MB package and still use Homebrew to compile open source OSX programs (at least as long as they don't use explicit XCode features). Especially if your own programming takes place in other IDEs and with other languages, it's quite nice to be able to do without the 8 GB that an installed XCode occupies. I'm seriously considering whether I should also give my Air this slimming cure.
CoRD: Remote Desktop for Mac OS X. Hmm, let's take a look, it should be good - better than Microsoft's client.
Pixelmator 2 Sneak Preview. Hmm. Sounds like it could be a good alternative to Photoshop Express - the Healing Tool and content-aware Fill would be exactly the two features I use in PSE (and which are not provided by LR or other tools). I really should try it out - the over 1G disk space usage just for PSE is somehow quite annoying ...
AirPrint Activator v2.0 « Netputing. Bookmarked for later - this allows you to share your network printers and the PDF converter on the Mac as AirPrint printers, so you can print from the iPad on the couch (and since you can also print to a PDF converter, you don't even have to waste paper).
trunkdesk - Mac desktop companion for Trunk Notes - Google Project Hosting. Since I keep playing around with desktop wikis and generally have the problem that I also want to access data on the go - and not just for viewing, but also for making changes, and with comparable features and not just limited (which unfortunately rules out VoodooPad because the iOS version only supports plain text versions and these are not rendered properly on the desktop, but are also only displayed in plain text there), this could be interesting - it's a simple desktop client for TrunkNotes. Basically, I'm doing this right now with VimWiki, but I wouldn't mind having somewhat more complete support for TrunkNotes features on the desktop.
Firewire Attacks Against Mac OS Lion FileVault 2 Encryption » frameloss. Apple must have made a huge mistake here. Because via Firewire DMA, one can access the password for full-disk encryption stored in main memory. Even if you have disabled auto-login and there is actually no reason to have the password in memory. Ouch.
Launchpad-Control | chaosspace.de. Poorly blogged, because the Launchpad's auto-layout sometimes annoys me and a bit more control would be good. With this, you can at least influence the Launchpad a bit, filter out icons, etc.
Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 30. What are Local Snapshots?. Not a bad idea what Apple came up with. The first rumors about local snapshots sounded rather strange, but what has become of it - automatic snapshots for on the go, when you don't have your backup drive plugged in, are quite practical. Not for real recovery in the sense of a disk crash, but for the usual "oops, I'm stupid, I didn't want to delete that yet" situations. However, I would like it if there were a GUI in Time Machine for this, where you can turn local snapshots on and off - yes, I know, you can do it from the command line, but I'm not an Apple user for nothing, I want pretty graphical buttons to press!
Sankra Software: Disable OS X Lion Resume per application. Since Apple implemented this feature a bit "aggressively" (it is also activated for apps that do not explicitly say "turn this on, I can handle it"), it can sometimes be quite annoying - some apps then perform both their own "new program start" action and then the system's action afterwards - for example, some editors open two windows on the same file if both the editor and the OSX say "Restore Window". Therefore, it is not impractical to be able to disable this feature per application. Although, of course, this will be forgotten at the latest when the application is updated, and you wonder why the windows no longer open automatically because the application has switched from its own control to system control. But hey, software is the last remaining adventure ...
TL Omnis. And another RAD old-timer - Omnis was one of the first RAD environments I played with and it was quite unusual for its time. No "real" programming back then, just GUI tools for wiring and connecting in combination with calculated fields, but these were very powerful. Very strong focus on graphical tools for various purposes (DB design, relationship management, reports, forms, etc.). It's quite amazing what you can find when you dig a bit. By the way, there is a free standard version of the environment, so you can just take a look at what it can do today.
EL34 - The home of Eddie - About. Hmm, I should check that out too - the MPW-inherited Worksheets sound interesting, the ones from BBEdit are unfortunately always more clunky than really smooth. Maybe Eddie is better equipped there. But "SVN Integration" as the only version control? Ouch. Come into the current millennium, people! (found on the shockwave, the link)
SuperCard on Lion. And since I just wrote about HyperCard, its spiritual successor - SuperCard - still exists and has been made fit for Lion again. But it's still a Carbon application, so its days are probably counted (or it will become increasingly difficult to integrate SuperCard into current developments if a switch to Cocoa does not take place). And I'm still tempted to buy it, even if it's just for nostalgia. The hacking feeling of HyperCard I only experienced again later in Smalltalk environments (and they are unfortunately also rather dead under OSX).
The Pragmatic Bookshelf | Core Data. The book sounds quite interesting, Core Data is also fully supported in MacRuby, so it might be interesting to get and read it.
Scripts Tagged fluid - Userscripts.org. Badly linked, as Fluid is a really cool site-specific browser for OSX and, for example, the Google+ Dock Badget is really practical. And with the separate cookie storage of Fluid, you can also keep multiple Google+ profiles open (or other sites that use cookies).
MilkPack - Edgar Gonçalves. Interesting project that implements a task list that communicates with Remember the Milk on the Internet. The interesting thing about it: it is written in Common Lisp and intensively uses the Objective-C Bridge for OpenMCL.
Strange Phenomena in iPhoto
I only use it as an image storage for creating books and syncing to my iPhone and iPad, so my iPhoto is rather unimportant for photo management. But at the moment, I have a phenomenon that is driving me crazy: I imported a CD of normal Jpegs. Then I created an album and put the pictures in it. And now iTunes always claims that this album is empty during sync. The import is also listed as a separate event in iPhoto. iTunes also claims in the sync panel that this event is empty (0 pictures). Accordingly, when syncing "All Pictures," all pictures are transferred - including these pictures. Only the albums and events that consist only of these pictures are not there. Because iTunes thinks they are empty.
What's the point of this? Does anyone out there have an idea? Googling hasn't brought up anything useful, and I've already tried various things (deleting and recreating albums, different ways of creating albums, etc.). The whole thing is quite strange. iLife is quite nice as long as it works, but when problems arise, the whole thing is nearly completely undiagnosable. Which wouldn't matter much to me if I didn't stupidly need it for syncing with my iPhone and iPad...
One reason why I prefer to stick with Lightroom, because I know where the pictures are and the databases are normal sqlite, so I can get my hands on them if necessary. And if they are in the trash, I can reconstruct everything from the pictures and sidecar files. I'll also cross Aperture off the list, its picture management sounds too much like that of iPhoto...
It's quite embarrassing when a tool from Adobe is more reliable and trustworthy than what Apple delivers. Especially since iLife is supposed to be foolproof - when problems arise and necessary troubleshooting is required, it's more of a case of "no user-serviceable parts inside".
SourceTree | Mercurial and Git GUI for Mac OS X. Hmm - it's not exactly cheap at 45 Euros in the AppStore. But sometimes I would already have a GUI for working with Mercurial, especially when I work with foreign repositories and possibly have local changes. Maybe I'll play around with the trial sometime.
JSTalk is a JavaScript editor with an integrated runtime and preprocessor to give JavaScript an Objective-C-like syntax for accessing Objective-C classes and a bridge to Objective-C underneath. Basically, something like FScript, but with JavaScript. Can also be used to script applications instead of AppleScript. Or just for playing around with Cocoa APIs. Somehow pretty cool, even if it initially seems quite inconspicuous.
F-Script Home Oldy but Good! is still actively developed. I still wish for a native class browser with editing capabilities to turn F-Script into a "real" Smalltalk for OSX, but it also serves as a replacement for AppleScript (with drastically more extensive capabilities, as it supports not only the Scripting Bridge but all Objective-C frameworks). And for many purposes, it's close enough to Smalltalk.
CoRD: Remote Desktop for Mac OS X. Open Source and more Mac-like than the Microsoft version.
MonoMac - Mono. Let's take a closer look, it now has a more up-to-date packager that includes all the Mono stuff directly into the application. On the one hand, you can then upload apps to the AppStore, on the other hand, it's simply easier to install the applications. And since I have to deal with all the .NET stuff anyway, I can also put it to good use.
Ok, I've decided to use MacVim as my default editor because I don't have to retrain my fingers every time I switch to Linux, but Kod looks really interesting. It's a real OSX editor with good integration into system standards, and as a scripting environment, it's simply Node.js and JavaScript. Surface styling with CSS3. And the entire interface is multithreaded, so more complex actions don't block the editor. It could almost make you weak. Plus, it's Open Source and free to tinker with - unlike TextMate, which had a very nice approach, but then more or less fell asleep because the programmer has been tinkering with version 2 for years and hasn't released it.
The coolest part: if you look in the discussion forum, you read a comment: "Because this app has received such uptake, I would encourage the open-sourcing of it to get a jump start on features. There are a boatload of developers who are really tired of waiting for a specific feature in TextMate (split windows, etc.) and they are smart cookies. If you put the source on GitHub you can pull the stuff you like and leave the rest." - well, the developer just went ahead and implemented it directly.
Sparrow - The New Mail for Mac. Looks really good and is the first mail client that makes me consider switching from MailPlane. Because MailPlane does support - necessarily - all GMail features, but also looks exactly like what it is: a website. If Sparrow also implemented a "universal inbox" like iPhone/iPad, it would be pretty perfect.
Mac OS X Automation: Services. An example of how to build an integrated HUD browser for Twitter with Automator and OSX Services. Not bad at all.
Homebrew — MacPorts driving you to drink? Try Homebrew!. I can only support the call. After using MacPorts for years, I have now switched to Homebrew on the Air, and it is much slimmer. And since it doesn't want to install half of the internet for every little package, you even have a realistic chance of installing the tools on the smaller disk of the Air. It's also nice that you can intervene in many places if you want to (since I am a programmer after all, it is quite a natural desire to sometimes do the configure yourself or something similar). By the way, the recipes are quite up-to-date, for example, Node.js is in the latest version, pypy is also, as well as Scala and Clojure. Fits well with my currently planned experiments.
Download Qt for Open Source C++ development on Mac OS X — Qt - A cross-platform application and UI framework. Blogged because the direct paths from Nokia or Trolltech end up with 1G large packages that want to install all sorts of junk (and especially the debug libraries are supposedly gigantic), which you don't need at all if you just want to install pyqt4.
Build a Bootable Rescue SD Card For Your Mac | Mac|Life. I didn't know that Macs can also boot from SD cards.
F# cross-platform packages and samples - just look for the Mac Installer packages there (as of November 2010 Update) or above under "Download" (the link probably changes often when new releases come out). It's a simple Mac Installer, after which you have F# (OCaml for .Net) installed.
MonoMac - Mono. Ha ha, devil's tool and sell my soul and all that, but since I need C# for work anyway, I might as well take a look at MonoDevelop and its OSX integration - if I build small tools with it, I practice C# and can use it directly at the same time.
Printopia turns printers connected to a Mac into a virtual AirPrint-compatible printer. Does Apple actually realize how ridiculous the restriction to just a few HP printers with AirPrint is? They act as if printing is incredibly complicated. Why do you need third-party software if you don't want to be forced by HP to buy another disposable printer?