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One of the things I really love about my Mac is all of the really great software available for it. It’s kinda of ironic that before I moved to the Mac platform I had the impression that there wasn’t as much software for the Mac. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. There are many small and mid-sized Mac software development shops that really seem to get it – producing highly polished, usable software at an affordable price.

One of the ways that I have discovered many great Mac software applications has been by purchasing software bundles. Recently I purchased the MacHeist software bundle that included 14 great applications for $49 – what a deal. There were many great applications in the bundle, some in fact that I already owned (fortunately with MacHeist you can gift the license if you already own it – which is what I did). When I purchase software bundles I typically find that there are a couple applications that I really want and others that I know little or nothing about. In the case of the recent MacHeist bundle it was SnapZ Pro, AppZapper and ChaChing that really motivated me to buy the bundle. I already owned CSSEdit and Pixelmator, which are both fantastic. However sometimes it is the hidden gems that turn out to be really exciting.

Last week I was staying at a hotel while attending a training class. It seemed like a good opportunity to try out one of the other applications that came with the MacHeist bundle – Awaken 4.0. Awaken is basically an alarm clock for your Mac. I never really thought about wanting to turn my Mac into a fancy alarm clock, but suddenly it seemed like a good time to try it out. You know what? It is very useful and worked quite well. The program allows you to set multiple alarms and wake up to your choice of music or sounds. It also has a simple egg timer and sleep timer as well. The program will first wake your computer, then launch iTunes and then slowly start the music and wake you up. It is simple and works flawlessly. Anyway if you find you need to turn your Mac into an alarm clock check out Awaken 4.0.

This week I am off to Virginia to take a four day class on Model-Glue, a popular ColdFusion framework. The class is being conducted by Doug Hughes president of Alagad, a member of the Model-Glue team, a contributor to the Model-Glue framework as well as the author of the Reactor framework. We are currently on the second day of a four day class and I have already benefited significantly from the class. Doug is a really good instructor and offers a nice mix of lecture and hands-on activities.

We have covered a lot of ground in the first two days and laid a solid foundation for some of the more advanced topics coming up tomorrow and Thursday. I am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of ColdSpring and actionpacks – should be interesting. Anyway I’ll try to post my overall impression of the course once it is completed.

Well well well it has been some time since my last blog entry. Why you might ask? Well no good excuse other than I have been very busy over the course of the last several months. In November I got involved with a large project for a nationally known American magazine. Not a project that I can discuss at the moment, but something that could be very interesting. Of course the holiday season is always busy as well. I also was working on preparing the curriculum for a class that began teaching in January (more details coming soon on that one). So now that I have given a few excuses the truth is that sometimes blogging is just too hard….it takes time and when one gets busy it is sometimes one of the first things on the chopping block.

What if blogging could be easier? Well thanks to some software from Red Sweater Software it might become a little easier. Red Sweater makes a piece of software called Mars Edit. Mars Edit is basically a desktop application that lets you write and post blog entries. Why would you need that – not like it is difficult to get online and use WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type, etc… That is true, in fact I have a couple blogs running on WordPress and it is a pretty nice system. The advantage of something like Mars Edit is that you can manage many blogs from one desktop interface. Rather than having to log on to each of my blogs individually I can set them up in Mars Edit and quickly post to any and all of them. The interface is nice and fairly intuitive – and of course it feels like a desktop application (as it should). If you are not connected to the Internet – you can still write, although of course you can’t post until you are back online. It also makes it very easy add media from iPhoto or even Flickr. We commonly use Flickr to post to our son’s blog, but it is not the best process posting from Flickr. I often find that postings from Flickr need some pretty significant editing. Anyway Mars Edit looks like an interesting option, one I am sure will be especially interesting to those that post to more than one blog on a regular basis.

At this point I have downloaded a free trial to give it a spin. If it proves to be worthwhile I will certainly purchase a license. How will I determine if it is worthwhile? See if it gets me to blog more! Anyway it looks promising – check it out!