My name is Jonathan Christopher, and I’m a Web developer/designer from Albany, NY. I currently spend my days filling the role of Development Director, surrounding myself with writing code, discussing design, site evaluations, and a bit of managerial material along the way.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself at some point reading Monday By Noon, my weekly publication focusing on Web design and development? If not, we’ll need to have a talk.

I try to take photos as much as possible and I’ve got an obsessively long wish list full of gear I’ll never be able to afford, but enjoy thinking and talking about.

I’m recently married and loving every minute of it so far. I’m completely thrilled to be stepping into the next phase of life with my wife. I still get a kick out of saying ‘my wife’ — you can understand.

I also watch at least one episode of Seinfeld per day. Almost.

What is your current setup?

I’m currently using a 15″ unibody 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM. At home I’m externally connected to a Samsung SyncMaster 205BW, but I wouldn’t mind a 27″ Apple Cinema Display.

• I key with a full-sized wired Apple aluminum keyboard
• I mouse with a Logitech MX Revolution
• I back up to a series of 2TB Western Digital My Book Elites (photos and videos) and 640GB Western Digital Elements (Time Machine)
• I shoot with a Canon 7D (50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2, 17-85mm f/4-5.6)

Why this rig?

My first Mac was a black MacBook sometime around 2006, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve chosen strictly notebooks since then simply because I work in an office and I truly prefer to be in the same environment both at work and at home. I use external peripherals at both desks which I prefer, but having the ability to go mobile has come in handy on more than one occasion.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

• Mail.app for all things email.
• iTunes all day every day.
• OmniFocus (and on iPhone) for task management and getting things done.
• 1Password for password management.
• TextMate for every bit of text, code, markup, style, and script I write. I’m even writing this very content in it. I’ve tried everything and always come back to TextMate.
• Fireworks CS5 when designing my own stuff, Photoshop when cutting up everyone else’s. Acorn when I don’t want to wait for Photoshop to start up.
• Yummy FTP when moving sites and assets. Seriously great app; fastest FTP available. Promise.
• ExpanDrive for wonderful network mounted TextMate projects.
• Safari
• Versions for SVN (source control)
• XAMPP for my local development environment.
• Skitch for taking and annotating screenshots. There are lots of apps but Skitch fits my workflow the best.
• Aperture for photo management and post processing. FlickrExport for publishing straight to Flickr.

There’s a bit more but I’m honestly shuffling through these applications every day of my life.

How does this setup help you do your best creative work?

With the combination of mobile hardware along with a tried and tested arsenal of chosen applications, I’m able to focus on the work itself instead of figuring out how I’m going to do it. Not having to worry about software or hardware problems alone helps me get things done, and that can be attributed to being on a Mac running OS X and the software built for it.

The software environment itself also caters to a creative mind. The attention to detail Apple puts forth (as well as software developers) is truly inspirational and sets the bar quite high out of the box. When you’re staring at that in everything you do, you’re inspired subconsciously all day long.

I also try to keep my work environment inspirational as much as I know how. The referenced photo includes a shot of my home office, which I try to keep organized and a bit private. There’s always music playing and it’s always better when heard over speakers instead of headphones. There are two book cases flanking the desk full of not only Web related books but also other books great for leafing through from time to time. Banksy’s Wall and Piece for example is a great piece to revisit from time to time for me. The posters in the background are prints from Joshua Davis, an artist I’ve followed and looked up to for quite some time.

I hope to spend more time on the home office, specifically with my wife as she also has her workstation on the other side of the room. It’ll be a great project for the both of us as time goes on.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

My ideal setup would definitely be in my current home office space, but include a few more details I haven’t had the time (or finances) to pull off quite yet. My wife and I moved into the house (our first home) about a year ago and the office is the last to get attention. It was recently painted Elephant Skin gray and I really like the color, but if I were to change one thing about it I would have to start with the lighting. Lighting is a big deal in an office environment and I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for a set of lamps to replace the extras I’m currently using.

On a technical level, my ideal setup would include a 27″ LED Apple Cinema Display, completely wireless connections for everything, and wireless electricity. I don’t like wires. I’m supremely happy with my current MacBook Pro and wouldn’t trade that in, but I’d love to see it house a speedy SSD drive should the option come up.

Last, I’d love to have a new series of applications in which to work. Don’t get me wrong, aside from all the quirks here and there I totally love working in Fireworks and TextMate. If I absolutely had to choose two applications to use while stranded on a desert island, they would be it. The issue though, is that the industry has outpaced their development.

TextMate is an open and shut case. The application is truly fantastic but it’s now the job of another publisher to take the torch and continue on. So far, no one has stepped up to the plate as a major player; I’m anxiously awaiting that.

Design software, though, is a different story altogether. Beyond the heated battles surrounding which existing app is better than another, the truth is that no application in existence has been designed to meet the needs of modern Web design. Without getting too philosophical, I’m hoping over the next number of years we see a change in the thought process behind facilitating Web design from the ground up.

More Sweet Setups

Jonathan’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

I’m Leo Babauta, author of Zen Habits, mnmlist.com, and The Power of Less. I write about simplicity.

What is your current setup?

For a couple years, I’ve been using a combination of a 20″ iMac and a first-generation MacBook Air (yes, the ones with heat problems). Since our move to S.F. last month, I’ve been going with just the MacBook Air — I gave the iMac to my wife Eva.

I love using the MacBook Air as my full-time machine — it’s light, simple, and meets all my needs.

I don’t have an iPhone or an iPad, though both are drool-worthy.

Why this rig?

I’m a bit of a minimalist. I like to keep things as simple as possible, without sacrificing the essential functions.

I’m a writer, and all I really need is a browser and a text editor. The MacBook Air does those two things perfectly.

I don’t need a big monitor, as cool as they are. I don’t need a powerful CPU. I like lightness and simplicity and portability and focus.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

I’m currently using Chrome and Notational Velocity, but sometimes I switch to TextMate or TextEdit or Omm Writer, depending on my mood or need.

Notational Velocity is lightweight, simple, fast. I’ve been doing all my writing in it — from todo lists to notes to full articles and blog posts. This way everything I have is instantly findable, it’s all stored in text (simple and accessible), and backed up via DropBox.

Chrome is lightning fast with a minimalist interface. I’ve tried all the other browsers but they just seem slow and clunky next to Chrome.

Other things I use regularly: LaunchBar for everything, 1Password, Transmit for FTP. Sometimes I also use WriteRoom, Scrivener, and MarsEdit for different writing needs.

How does this setup help you do your best creative work?

I like focus — simple software that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles helps me find that focus. I like things that do very little, very well. I try to cut out distractions — Tweetdeck or Tweetie, iChat or Skype, these things distract me.

Notational Velocity is the perfect writing app. All it does is write text, and it stores everything in text files, and you can find them instantly. You don’t need to file, and you don’t need to look for things.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

I’m content with what I have. I love the simplicity of the MacBook Air — when I have to use someone else’s MacBook Pro, it feels heavy and clunky. Don’t get me started on how it feels to use someone else’s Window machine. It would be nice if my Air lasted for 20 years.

My only improvement would be to have the perfection of Mac OS combined with the openness of Linux.

More Sweet Setups

Leo’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

My name is John Carey. I am a photographer moonlighting as a live audio engineer or the other way around depending on what day you ask me. I also run the website fiftyfootshadows.net on which I provide many images from my photographic work as wallpaper imagery for my readers. I have done this for somewhere around seven or eight years now and I feel it is just starting to pick up momentum. There is a significant update to the site currently under construction which I hope will help it grow beyond where I have taken it to this point, but more on that when the time comes…

I started out with drive to become a designer, but over time my desires shifted toward photography. I love the honest nature of it, the compromises within it, and the fact that I can bridge a very tangible art form using traditional film cameras with a highly digital one using digital cameras and computers to create images and share the world as I see it with others. I have grown very passionate for the art of photography and the places it takes me, and I am anxious to see where I end up with it next.

My secret double life as a live audio engineer is equally fulfilling and rewards me with the same sort of satisfaction photography does in the way that I am using both analog tools as well as digital ones to get the job done.

I love my work and often wonder if I could live without either of these sides of my professional life because they fulfill my lust for adventure in such unique ways.


What is your current setup?

I have been a Mac user my entire life. Honestly, I have been using them since the Apple II days and every iteration they have come out with along the way. I remember shooting with an old Apple Quicktake digital camera along side an old film Canon when I was just starting to get into photography and design. I followed the digital photography revolution very closely as it crept into the minds of skeptical photographers.

My current set up is simple and built from a combination of necessity, luck, and (like any self-respecting geek) an unhealthy desire for new tech.

That said I currently have an old black MacBook which at home is paired with a Cinema Display, bluetooth keyboard, Magic Mouse, Griffin laptop stand, 8 or more hard drives, and a pair of powered studio monitors because I simply need a nice pair of speakers around for my sanity. I also use a 64GB Wi-Fi iPad, and a 32GB iPhone 4.

If anyone is interested in what I shoot with, I use a Canon 5D paired simply with a 35mm f/1.4L lens, a Hasselblad 501cm with its standard 80mm lens, and a Voigtlander R3M 35mm rangefinder with a 40mm f/1.4 Nokton Lens.


Why this rig?

The core of what I use revolves around the MacBook, the last generation of the black plastic bodied ones. At the time it was the top of the line and it has proven itself to be more than capable through its years of use and certainly the most stable and dependable Mac I have ever owned. I will admit that it’s probably seeing its last good year in use and may need to be replaced sooner or later simply to keep up with newer tech and the demands of the work I do.

But the question is WHY. Yes… well, the true nature of my life is pretty nomadic as I am constantly on the move either traveling for work or traveling for pleasure around the world whenever possible. My office is anywhere and everywhere it needs to be so my portable tools are as important to me as the modest space I have at home for computing. 

My real office is carried in bags with me wherever I go, at times two or three even. I always have my cameras with me, if not all of them at least one, and I usually carry my laptop for work but also simply out of necessity because much of my blogging and internet life I squeeze into down time at work or while traveling and so I often need to have these key things with me wherever I go.

Also I have a small bunch of tools that I always carry for work, as well as a blank notebook or two and a couple nice pens (because nothing beats pen and paper for sketching out ideas, no matter how many apps you have for it) and other sorts of little things depending on what I need on any given day.

My bags of choice are made by an amazing bag company called Spire. I swear by them and their amazing customer service — you really can’t go wrong with those guys. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with next, their bags have traveled the world with me. 


When I do set up office away from home I have my iPad to handle more and more of my day-to-day internet shuffle, and I will have to admit at this point the 3G option sure would have been nice at times. It has allowed me to leave the laptop at home more often which is nice. I use a wonderful little stand, the Compass, and it has been more than helpful in giving my iPad a home while out on the job or in a coffee shop working on ideas.

To protect the iPad while out I use a simple fabric sleeve I had a friend make for me to my specifications including a thin piece of wood to protect the screen which was sewn into the fabric and padding. (I actually do this to my laptop bag as well, a worthwhile customization for anyone wanting to really protect their screen.) I also have a Speck candyshell case for it which I use while I am on job sites to keep it safe.

The last piece of the puzzle is my iPhone 4 which I admit I bought into because of the camera and display. Its a wonderful device and the controversy surrounding is just way out of control. It’s a brilliant phone plain and simple, and it holds all the little things in my life together.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

My favorite applications on the Mac which I use most often are:


• Aperture: I love Adobe’s take on raw photo management as well as Lightroom being faster overall in its performance, but I greatly prefer the workflow of Aperture — both in file management and editing. I find it is easily worth the compromise.


• Photoshop: It’s just unavoidable in my photo and occasional design work really. I have been using it since version 3, just before layers came on board and changed everything. My use of the program is admittedly very minimal as I have long since moved beyond my days of over manipulating images (it just got old after a while).


• Illustrator: I have been using Illustrator for what seems like forever as well. I remember messing about with it when I was very young, making overly complex blends between objects that the poor old computer running it at the time took forever to render. I use it for layout mostly — this and many other design needs. It’s just as relevant to me as Photoshop really.


• CSSEdit: I love working with websites. I have been making them since the late ’90s to share my design and photography, but the problem is I never REALLY learned how to do it. My knowledge of making websites has been pieced together out of necessity. And I learn as I go, so an application like CSSEdit that helps me simplify editing style sheets is a wonderful thing indeed.


• Espresso: Any HTML or PHP editing I have to do I reach for Espresso simply because I love its approach to interface design. Simply brilliant.



• Things: Again with the interface design. I looked for years to find an elegant solution to handle my task list and notes, and this hit the nail on the head. It’s the glue that holds my ideas and projects and jobs together. Now if they would just hurry up and get cloud syncing in there!


• MarsEdit: The newest member of the family. MacJournal was my go-to, local blogging tool for a long time, but it started to get frustrating with its half-way support for uploading. So I made the switch that was a long time coming.


• The rest: Then there are all the other in-betweens. iTunes, CoverSutra, DropBox, DeskShade, Safari, Mail, Transmit, and not to mention the iPad and iPhone apps that have made their way into key parts of my workflow. I also create electronic-fueled music with a good friend of mine and have for years. And for that I use Reason and Ableton Live, whereas he uses countless other applications as he is more the musician that lives and breathes electronic music.

How does this setup help you do your best creative work?


 Well, as I mentioned, my life is always on the move and these tools allow me to easily and elegantly glide between tools needed to accomplish the many projects I juggle at any given moment. It can be stressful trying to do so much at once and being able to quickly and confidently jump between tasks allows me to focus less on messing about with my computer and focus more on simply getting things done. For me the tech I use should actually make my life easier to manage, not get in the way of the process. I am not a super geek by any stretch of the imagination, I just learn the tools I need to know to accomplish what I want to.

It’s amazing the amount of mileage I have gotten out of this simple old MacBook over the years. It’s not always necessary to constantly have the latest and greatest unless you really have a need to. I do my best to stay relevant in this unbelievably demanding world we live in, but most of the time less is defiantly more.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

My money-is-no-object, ideal setup would be a large 27” iMac at home for all my heavy lifting and data management, then a MacBook Air for travel. Only I want one that Apple has yet to make — one slightly more capable, and who knows if that will ever see the light of day. This paired with an iPad for presentations and casual use and my iPhone simply because it easily syncs information together with the rest of Apple’s universe.

The last addition would be a hefty RAID Server for hard drive/data management. It’s exhausting having to juggle all of these hard drives!

Also, an oversized desk with plenty of workspace would be nice. One that I could build a light table into. I like the idea of having a lot of extra space… breathing room for my mind.

More Sweet Setups

John’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

My name is Phil Coffman and I am an Art Director at Springbox, an interactive marketing agency in Austin, TX. In addition to my day job I write about whatever inspires me at my personal site philcoffman.com and take the occasional photo. I’m also currently developing a new site called Method & Craft that will focus on the creative mind and beauty found within each pixel. You can follow @methodandcraft for the latest on its progress and plans for launch. I’m married to my beautiful wife Cynthia and have a 2yr old son, Ethan.

What is your current setup?

At work I use a Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM and dual-monitor setup comprised of a 23″ Cinema Display and 20″ Dell something. The Cinema Display is my main screen where I run Photoshop, Illustrator, and Safari. The Dell is dedicated to email, Adium, Tweetie, and Bowtie, my iTunes controller. A few months back I started using a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium tablet and have never looked back. I forced myself to use it for a week solid and now use the pen for everything from Photoshop to browsing the web.

Listening to music while I work is vital to my productivity. I have a pair of Sony MDR-V300s that, despite their long cord which gets tangled around my chair, provide adequate audio clarity and help block outside noise when I need to focus.

At home I use a 15″ MacBook Pro (pre-unibody model) with 2GB of RAM, which is not nearly enough. Sometimes I bring my Intuos home if I need it’s flexibility on a project, but otherwise I use an old Dell optical mouse.

At the office we work off servers that are backed up daily. At home I use Time Machine to back-up to an external FW hard drive. That entire setup is then mirrored online using Crashplan.

Why this rig?

I use a Mac Pro at work because I’m often dealing with heavy Photoshop files and need the horsepower. The 5GB of RAM helps keep everything running quickly. The dual-monitor setup is a must for me as I prefer to work fullscreen in Photoshop and want as much screen real-estate as possible. While I use the 2nd monitor mostly for secondary applications like IM, email, etc., I often use it to display documents related to what I’m working on such as a copy deck or IA.

The Intuos has dramatically changed how I interact with Photoshop. My design style lays heavy on the fine details, and the fluidity that a pen provides over a mouse is simply unmatched. Being able to add the element of “pressure” has come in handy more times than I can count. On the very rare occasion I’ll use the Wacom mouse to get uniformity with the Photoshop brush tool, but most of the time it just sits there collecting dust.

I’m very picky when it comes to which wallpaper I use on my machines. At home I sometimes don’t have as much of a say , but at work I use a dark wood panelling photo. Having a dark, B&W image alleviates distractions and makes it easy to find things on my desktop, although I try to keep things orderly as much as possible.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

• Adobe Photoshop: all of my comps and design work including wireframes
• Adobe Illustrator: logo work or the occasional vector asset
• Safari: web browsing
• Tweetie: to stay in the loop
• Adium: to connect with my coworkers and friends with various IM accounts
• iTunes: music
• Bowtie: to control iTunes via the keyboard
• Entourage: email
• Quicksilver: custom keyboard triggers for screen captures and quick launch of apps
• Cyberduck: FTP (although I have Transmit at home and will probably transition at work as well)
• Dropbox: for file sharing between home and work

Do you have any other gadgets?

I use my 16GB iPhone 4 all day. I commute to work via lightrail and use that time to listen to podcasts, read, check my RSS feeds & twitter, and play games like Angry Birds and Words With Friends. The evolution of the iPhone 4 from the 3GS is amazing. I love the retina display, and the 5MP camera is just remarkable. When not taking photos with my iPhone I use a Nikon D80 paired with a 50mm 1.8 and 28mm 2.8.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

I’m happy with my work setup, so my ideal setup pertains to home. I don’t take my MacBook Pro anywhere to get work done, so ideally I’d upgrade to an i5 27″ iMac so I could take advantage of the larger screen, horsepower, RAM, and storage. I’d also pick up an Intuos to go with the iMac since I’ve grown so accustomed to using a pen over a mouse.

More Sweet Setups

Phil’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Johnny’s Setup

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

My current Mac setup consists of a 24″ 2.33GHz Core 2 iMac with a second Gateway 24″ display desktop and a 2.4GHz black MacBook. The iMac has 3GB of RAM and the MacBook has 4.

I store all of our iTunes media on a 1TB external Firewire 800 drive (seen on the right of the iMac). This and the rest of the iMac’s data are backed up to a 1.5TB Time Capsule (I replaced the 1TB drive with a 1.5TB when we started running out of disk space). My Macbook and my wife’s Macbook are backed up to a 500GB external drive attached to the Time Capsule (seen just behind the Gateway monitor).

On the iPod/iPhone front I have a black 16GB iPhone 3G and a first-gen iPod Nano / Nike+ kit that I use for running.

My keyboard is from the Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop package and the mouse is a standard Apple wireless Mighty Mouse. I also have two HR824 Mackie speakers that I previously used for amateur music production in Pro Tools, but I kept them around because they make iTunes BUMP!

Located just to the right of the iMac in front of the iTunes drive is a Belkin FSU233 4-port USB hub that I chose initially because it matched the iMac but fell in love with when I started using the top USB slot for Skype headsets, media card readers, and just about every other sort of temporary USB connection (I tried to find a link to this, but Belkin’s site doesn’t seem to have it anymore).

Not shown is an Airport Extreme that I use for a dual-band radio (keep 802.11n and 802.11g on their own respective routers), an HP all-in-one, and two Apple TVs: one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I use this setup for all sorts of different things, from software development to playing in Pro Tools. And the desktop/laptop combination fits me pretty well.

I initially thought I might be able to get away with dumping the iMac and just having a MacBook, but I like the breathing room the two, 24″ displays gives me and finding a good backup/sharing solution for all the media and other data we have that doesn’t involve a desktop computer was a challenge.

This setup gives me a good dose of both worlds and allows sharing everything on the iMac with our MacBooks, the Apple TVs around the house, and just about anything else we might want to stream data to.

I keep the iMac and MacBook in sync using MobileMe and a central Git repository on the iMac that I have exposed with SSH for keeping code for various projects in sync.

The only thing I’d change is perhaps a new iMac some time in the near future. The 2.33GHz is starting to show its age and having a 3GB memory limitation makes virtualization a bit of a chore.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

On a daily basis, I use Mail.app, iTunes, Safari, NetNewsWire, Adium, CoverSutra, Twitterrific, and iCal (these are open just about all the time).

On a (mostly) daily basis, I use IntelliJ for Java development, TextMate for Grails/Groovy development (and just about any other text related task), XCode for iPhone/Mac development, Photoshop CS4 for image/icon manipulations and some UI prototyping, Firefox for web debugging, Taskpaper as a simple GTD app, and iPhoto to, uh, look at photos.

I also make extensive use of the Terminal (so much so that I rarely use Finder) and use VMWare Fusion fairly often for IE testing and .NET development when necessary. Occasionally, I also use Skype.

I thought it might be interesting to list some of my favorite iPhone apps: I love the combination of iFitness and Lose It! for meeting my workout goals; Twitterrific; DVR Remote for TIVO control (works better than the TIVO remote, IMO); Guitar Toolkit as a tuner; Jaadu VNC and iSSH for remote desktop/terminal into my home desktop; Pandora; NetNewsWire mobile; the Facebook app; and BeatMaker for making the beatz. (I use a lot more apps, but these stand out to me the most.)

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

My wife has a white MacBook and we have a couple Apple TVs around the house (as I mentioned above). She also has a 30GB iPod Classic (great for road trips!) and a white 16GB iPhone 3G. Finally, we also have a now-discontinued Apple Hi-Fi in our bedroom which we use daily. In the past, we’ve owned two iPod Minis and an iPod Touch.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

As I mentioned above, the iMac is starting to show its age. I’d like to get a new iMac or maybe even a Mac Pro and buy a second 24″ display or sell the 24″ Gateway and get a single 30″ … not sure what’s best between dual 24″ and a single 30″ though. Other than that, I’ve been eying the iPhone 3GS… We’ll see.

More Sweet Setups

Johnny’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Sean’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

At work I use a 15-inch MacBook Pro (mid-2008), outfitted with 4GB of RAM and a matte screen. I use the Griffen iCurve and plug into a 23-inch Cinema Display. I also use the Mighty Mouse, and despite its reputation, really like its design.

At home and on the go I use my personal 13-inch MacBook Pro (unibody, SD card slot), also equipped with 4GB of RAM. I don’t have a desk at home (yet) so I usually setup wherever I can find a flat surface — which is sometimes just my lap.

I carry the Magic Mouse with me, and use it whenever the MacBook Pro’s trackpad isn’t enough.

For backup I have a Drobo with two drives in it, as well as an external (bus-powered) hard drive that I carry with me. I plug into the Drobo at least once a week, and run Time Machine. The external drive serves as my photo library vault, and duplicates my iPhoto library.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I used my work laptop as my primary computer until purchasing the 13-inch MacBook Pro last fall as my personal computer. The 15-inch is heavier and bigger, and I found that carrying it in my bag caused back pain and fatigue. When the need arose for me to have my own, personal computer, I opted for the smaller laptop over, say, an iMac, because I wanted to remain mobile. My job requires a level of flexibility in that regard.

I don’t yet have a desk to work from at home because I haven’t found the perfect one.

I keep both Macs in perfect synchronization with Dropbox. I’m even able to run local development environments on both computers with the same files using MAMP and VirtualHostX.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

• Safari — my web browser of choice
• Adobe Photoshop — graphics creation
• FontExplorer X Pro — font management
• Dropbox — file synchronization and backup
• Things — task management
• TextMate — development, text editing
• Coda — quick development and file transfer
• Mail — email
• Tweetie — Twitter
• iTunes — music, podcasts
• MAMP — development environment

Honorable mentions (not daily uses, but still valuable in my workflow):

• Droplr — quick file/link/photo sharing
• Transmit — heavy-duty file transfer
• VMWare Fusion — Windows emulation
• Fission — audio editing
• HandBrake — video conversion/transcoding

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

My 32GB iPhone 3GS is always with me. I also have an older AirPort Extreme and carry an AirPort Express in my bag.

Also in my bag and worth mentioning:

• A Nintendo DS (which I hardly ever play anymore)
• A Canon SD450 point-and-shoot camera
• A couple AppBooks from Vol5, and .38mm Pilot G-2 pens
• Starbucks VIA

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

A few extra drives to keep the Drobo fat and happy.

More Sweet Setups

Sean’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Tyler’s Setup

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

I am the owner of a unibody 15″ Macbook Pro (2.93GHz, 4gb RAM, 320gb HD) which recently replaced my aging Macbook Pro from 2006. I have it hooked up to a 24″ LED Cinema Display which was also recently purchased in June. To control all of this, I use an Apple Wired Keyboard and a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse. For my music and sound, I have a Logitech Z-5500 system which provides 5.1 Dolby Digital goodness to my MBP, my desktop PC (browser testing + gaming), and my PS3.

For my backup and storage needs, I rely on a G-Drive Q 500gb HD as well as a LaCie d2 Quadra 320gb HD – both connected over blazingly fast FireWire 800 connections.

My iPhone 3G connects to my Macbook Pro through an Apple iPhone Dock, and my Cannon MP180 printer plugs right into the Cinema Display for quick document printing.

Last but definitely not least, a constant staple on my desk: a Field Notes memo book. While my expertise lies with all things digital, there is simply no replacement for a good ol’ fashioned brainstorming session with some pen and paper. I try to carry one around with me at all times, so no inspirational idea goes unwritten.

3. Why are you using this setup?

A couple months ago, before I purchased my current Macbook Pro, I was still seriously considering purchasing a Mac Pro. What I came to realize after extensive research and comparisons, was that a faster laptop would be more practical for my current needs and lifestyle. Because I’m constantly traveling between Toronto and my school located a few hours away (not to mention the times I go to various places to do design work), it made more sense to upgrade my laptop from my old Macbook Pro (which wasn’t keeping up with my processing demands) to a new one. Paired with the improved battery life, LED screen, sturdier construction, and ability to change the selected video card on-the-fly made this purchase well worth it. Also, Windows for web design and development wasn’t even a question.

My iPhone also provides me with on-the-go life management. I use it for making calls (yes, really), checking email, Twitter, to-do management, inspiration-writing (if I don’t have my Field Notes on me), and the occasional game or two (recovering Tris addict).

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

I use the following apps on a regular/daily basis:

• Safari – My browser of choice. It is fast, lightweight, and has a UI that I fell in love with years ago.

• Mail – While I use GMail for my main email accounts, Mail is still used daily to manage my school email account as well as a few other small accounts.

• Photoshop CS3 – For all my design needs and website mocks – the best product available for the tasks I need to do.

• Microsoft Word – Most people I receive files from use PCs, so it’s sometimes easier (shudder) to deal with external documents in Word.

• AdiumX – Used for the odd-time that I need to chat with someone on MSN/AIM.

• Acquisition X – For media downloading and keeping it legal.

• xScope – Probably one of the niftiest tools a designer could have – it is used for automatic measurements, an overlay ruler, a color identifier, and more.

• LittleSnapper – Capturing and tagging all of the inspirational bits I find on a daily basis; certainly one of my most justified purchases.

• iCal – Scheduling school-time, meetings, appointments, commitments.

• Things – To-Do manager which basically serves as my memory. Also syncs with my iPhone Things.app which is very handy.

• Tweetie – After using countless Twitter clients, this is my go-to app for posting and reading the latest and greatest.

• Espresso – For web development. I never got into Coda or Dreamweaver so this app fills this void nicely (paired with CSS Edit).

• iTunes – Quite obviously, it manages my music library (6,700 songs and counting) and syncs all my iPods.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

In my university house I use a trusty Airport Wireless N router which makes network management a breeze.

I own 4 iPods which have their own uses: a 2nd-Gen iPod 20gb (with the 4 touchscreen buttons – it still works!), an iPod Video 60gb (used to store my music library in my car, and is hooked up to my stereo), a 2nd-Gen iPod Nano (used for some tunes while running), and a 1st-Gen iPod Touch (actually doesn’t ever get used).

As I mentioned earlier, I have an old Macbook Pro (2.15GHz, 3gb RAM, 320gb HD) which is now used as a torrent/fileserver/media hub.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I have purchased the new Macbook Pro and Cinema Display all within the past 2 months, so I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be dropping more money on a computer or display anytime soon. However, I have plans to replace the Mighty Mouse with my mouse of preference: a Razer Pro|Click v1.6.

More Sweet Setups

Tyler’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Sherród’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. Current Mac Setup

I have a 15″ 2.4GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM and a paltry 200GB hard drive, 30GB of which runs Windows XP in Parallels. I have a 1TB Western Digital My Book Studio Edition as a backup drive, and a 24″ Westinghouse LN2410NM LCD.

The desk itself is from IKEA. It is a VIKA GRUVAN desk which is glass topped, and uses VIKA FAGERLID legs which have two levels of storage.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I converted to a Mac about six years ago with the PowerMac G5. I converted simply because I found I needed to get stuff done. That was when I was a senior in High School, and it’s even more true today. I use a MacBook Pro as my sole machine because it’s portable without sacrificing power. I got the WD drive when my old 15″ MBP’s 320GB drive filled up completely in the middle of the day, and it’s been my savior ever since.

The desk is just as important as the machines on top of it. I chose this desk set because it’s very easy on the eyes, enormous in size (it will easily seat 2-4 people), easy to maintain (the top is a single sheet of glass), and has lots of storage space (note the stuff on the other side of the space under the desk) without feeling closed. Underneath, in the legs, I keep all of my technical, design and leisure books.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis and for what do you use it?

• Apple Mail: I have tens of thousands of emails and Mail gets through it all pretty ably.
• NetNewsWire: I have to stay on top of what’s going on in the tech, design, food and photography worlds.
• Safari: Battle-tested, standards-compliant, blazing fast and ahead of the game.
• iChat: I work with people around the world and video chatting makes everyone feel a little bit closer together.
• iTunes: Music is essential to concentration for me.
• TextMate: My text editor of choice, it is fast, unobtrusive and simple.
• TextEdit: I use TextEdit to jot down longer notes or as an extended clipboard. I prefer it over TextMate for simpler things because it autosaves and handles rich text and HTML.
• The Hit List: I’m a lister, and THL really gets out of my way and lets me get my tasks in and manage them intuitively.
• Photoshop CS3: It’s the gold standard for anything image-related. I use it for web and graphic design.
• Tweetie: Again, I try to stay on top of things and tweetie is a great portal into the twitterverse.
• Cornerstone: I prefer Subversion for version control and Cornerstone is easy to use but really powerful. And it’s diff features are unparalleled.
• Querious: Querious is hands-down the best MySQL GUI available for the Mac. It’s extremely fast, rich and, most importantly, stable.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I have a 1st-generation, 4GB (You know, the one discontinued mere months after its debut?) iPhone which I also use for development.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I plan to upgrade to a 15″ MacBook Pro with the matte screen, and at least 500GB of storage. I’ll probably get another identical display.

More Sweet Setups

Sherród’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

John’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

I’m using a mid-2007 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with an anti-glare screen. I have a 20″ Apple Cinema Display (the old aluminum kind) plugged into the MacBook Pro whenever I’m at my desk. I’ve got both a wired and a wireless Apple keyboard (the aluminum type), which I switch between depending on what I’m doing and my mood at the time. I consider my Magic Mouse to be the most amazing Apple product released in the last year.

Next to my computer are three WD My Book drives providing me with 2TB of total storage for photos and videos. I’ve also got a set of small speakers also on my desk; I don’t particularly care about the quality of them because I usually have my music playing pretty quietly in the background.

There is also an old eMac lying around somewhere which I use occasionally as a local web server. The problem with my setup, in a nutshell, is that I juggle hats so often that I’m constantly adjusting my setup to better fit what I’m doing.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I bought the MacBook Pro so I could have a computer that did everything I needed it to do — from video editing to document editing — and still be portable enough to take almost everywhere. It’s certainly not as powerful as a Mac Pro, and its limitations are more than obvious at times.

Even though it’s the smallest model, the Cinema Display is pretty much all I need now in terms of screen space. Sure, editing in Final Cut Pro is more fun with a bigger screen, but it’s not necessary (and it won’t fit on my desk very well). I can’t live without FireWire 400, and the hub on the back of the monitor is wonderful when I need it.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

I use a lot of software, and I’m usually testing and playing with new releases to see if I like them. Overall, my most-used apps are iTunes, Mail, Skype, iChat, Tweetie, Fever, and Safari, like pretty much everyone else who reads this site.

Besides that, my most-used apps would be:

• The Hit List. I keep switching between The Hit List and Things, but The Hit List is usually my favorite. Hopefully there’ll be an iPhone version of it at some point in the near future.

• Photoshop CS4. I upgraded from the original Photoshop CS, and the upgrade was definitely worth it. I can’t say anything glorious about an Adobe product, but it is what I use for photo editing, design work, mockups, and essentially anything having to do with image manipulation.

• Final Cut Studio 3. I’m in a love/hate relationship with the applications in this suite. They’re incredibly powerful and functional, and do everything I could ever need to do in terms of video editing. Yet the work I do in them tends to slow my computer to a crawl, and I really wish the interface would get a facelift.

• Espresso and CSSEdit. Basically everything web-related goes through these applications. I absolutely love the live preview feature of CSSEdit, and I enjoy tweaking stuff on my site (and other sites) with it.

• Aperture. I completely fell in love with this application the first time I saw it in use, and I never could go back and use iPhoto. All my images (besides my LittleSnapper library) are cataloged in aperture, and in my opinion it has set a standard for how user interfaces should be designed.

• MarsEdit. Because writing and editing blog posts in the WordPress admin area just isn’t fun.

• TextWrangler. You can’t beat the price of this application. It’s everything I need in a text editor and more; I prefer it to Pages a good bit of the time. In fact, I am writing everything in this interview in it.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I own a white 16GB iPhone 3G (the Evil Empire won’t let me upgrade to a 3GS), and the Apple Bluetooth Headset which I use in the car. I have an AirPort Express that tends to bounce around the house depending on where it’s most needed at the time.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I’m in need of a new computer at some point in the future, but I don’t know what to get. A MacBook Air is almost necessary for college (I’ve strained my shoulders enough carrying around a MacBook Pro and lots of textbooks), but incredibly limiting for everything else. A 27″ iMac would be great for everything except for school. I’ll probably just settle with a high-end MacBook Pro and hope I don’t have to deal with files from a RED camera anytime soon.

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John’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

ADRIAN’S SETUP:

1. WHAT DOES YOUR Desk LOOK LIKE?

One is my setup at work, the other is at home.

2. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT MAC SETUP?

At home I use a 17″ MacBook Pro which is almost always connected to my Sennheiser headphones. For digital photography I love my Panasonic Lumix LX3 with an Eye-Fi card that sends photos to my computer wirelessly. I just bought a 500gb external Western Digital drive that is powered by Firewire 800. As you can see, my home setup also includes a ping-pong table and a cat. At work I am on a Mac Pro (2x Dual Core 2.66Ghz). Possibly the most important technology in my toolbox is a sketchbook.

3. WHY ARE YOU USING THIS SETUP?

I try to never be too far from objects that keep my mind at play. You can see the toys above my desk at work, the wall of artwork at home, the headphones, and the ping pong table. I try to balance the utmost simplicity in my work space without losing the inspiration that I find from posters, artwork, toys, and games.

4. WHAT SOFTWARE DO YOU USE ON A DAILY BASIS, AND FOR WHAT DO YOU USE IT?

• I use TextMate, Transmit, and CSSEdit for web development
• There aren’t many days when I don’t open Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Adium for instant messaging
• Google Search Box recently replaced QuickSilver for shortcuts
• Fever for RSS feeds
• MarsEdit for blogging on all my WordPress powered sites
• Transmission is typically going in the background

5. DO YOU OWN ANY OTHER MAC GEAR?

I have an iPhone and an aging PowerMac G4. I still use an old 3rd Generation iPod for audio books on my commute. The internet reaches me through my Airport Express Base Station.

6. DO YOU HAVE ANY FUTURE UPGRADES PLANNED?

I am holding my breath for the rumored Mac netbook. If that doesn’t come into existence I might just try installing OSX on a netbook to create a hackintosh. I have to resist the urge to upgrade constantly. I would love a new unibody MacBook Pro and an iPhone upgrade, but realistically those purchases are at least a year away. I have had my eye on a 30″ Apple Cinema display for a while.

More Sweet Setups

Adrian’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Justin’s Setup

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current mac setup?

There are three different setups pictured … work, home, and a second desk at home.

My work setup has a Dual Quad-Core Nehalem Mac Pro with three 24″ Dell G2410 monitors, 12GB of RAM, 1.28TB internal disk space, 1.5TB external disk space (backup), Bose Companion 2 Speakers, Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones, a Logitech MX 1100 mouse, and a Fujitsu S500 document scanner.

The main home desk holds my 15″ unibody MacBook Pro (when I’m at home that is) and a 20″ Apple Cinema Display. The second desk has a 20″ white Intel iMac with three G-tech external hard drives (totaling 1.57TB), a Logitech DiNovo Edge keyboard, a Logitech MX Revolution Mouse, Bose Companion 5 speakers, and a 32″ Samsung TV connected to it for Hulu, movies, etc.

3. Why are you using this setup?

My work setup is about two months old at the time of writing. It was a gift from my boss for my two year-anniversary at this company. I develop web applications to extend our windows only ERP which means I need a Windows XP virtual machine running the ERP client and SQL Management Studio and a Server 2003 virtual machine running development databases. The screens are perfect for me as I’m most concerned with resolution and not accurate color.

My home setup is used for those late-night coding sessions to meet a deadline and some freelance projects. The desk with the cinema display is perfect for me as I prefer to work from my laptop at home and it allows me to just plug in and get the benefits of a desktop without having to transfer files over, get MAMP going, etc. The second desk is used mainly just to keep iTunes up all the time (see other Mac gear section for an explanation) and occasionally for my wife or I just to get on the internet real quick when our laptops are downstairs or in the car. She will usually use whatever desk I’m not at if she is on the computer while I’m in there (thus the reason for two desks instead of one big one).

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

• Dropbox – This made the top of the list because it is the best syncing utility on the market. Changes to your files are instantly synchronized across all of your connected computers on any platform (Mac, Linux, or Windows). This is critical for anyone with multiple computers. It is free for up to 2GB or $100/year for 50GB. (I’m not affiliated with them, just love their service)
• Evernote – This is similar to Dropbox, but for notes. It instantly syncs across computers and handhelds. I can take notes in a meeting on my laptop and then just close my laptop and they are instantly available on my desktop when I get back to my office.
• Mail – This is pretty self explanatory. I used to have the GrowlMail extension for this but it broke with Snow Leopard and I haven’t checked for an update since.
• iTunes – I listen to music throughout the day, some on Sirius some from my library.
• Safari – This is my web-browser of choice for everything but the initial testing of web applications I develop.
• Firefox (w/ Firebug & Web Developer) – Firebug is a fantastic javascript debugger, and web developer allows you to see the HTML generated after the page load (injected with AJAX, etc.). I use Prism for the web-app platform for my users so I test early versions of the web-apps in Firefox (prism is based off firefox) so that I can be sure I have a working version first and then take care of the cross browser idiosyncrasies that pop up later.
• Adium – Connected to my internal Jabber server, AIM, and MSN. To be honest though, lately I have been using iChat for AIM as file transfers seem more reliable in it and I haven’t taken the time to figure out what is wrong with Adium.
• Things – This is the best task manager I have yet to find. It has WiFi syncing with iPhone and I sync the database up over Dropbox. The latter isn’t perfect but as long as I remember to only have one copy open at a time it works great (which is fine for me as I typically only need Things on my laptop when out of town).
• Textmate – Best editor out there, hands down. I used to use Coda but recently switched to Textmate, CSSEdit, and Firefox/Firebug after I realized I was just using code/css editor in Coda and everything else outside of it.
• CSSEdit – My favorite CSS editor.
• Parallels – I have to run XP and Server 2003 and after several VMware / Parallels comparisons Parallels came out on top.
• Apple Remote Desktop – It is a little more versatile than the basic screen sharing tool plus allows me to add normal VNC clients to the list.
• Microsoft Remote Desktop – Used for server administration, all the servers at my primary job run Windows so this is critical.
• Toast – Burning CDs and DVDs, however I don’t do too much of this anymore. The only time is to give a copy of a finished product to someone or to burn a lot of data that would be too large to efficiently send over the internet (15GB+).
• Transmission – Favorite BT client.
• Transmit – Favorite FTP client, offers MobileMe sync which is pretty convenient.
• Visual Hub – They stopped development on this program and it will eventually become obsolete but it is still the best media convertor in my opinion.
• VLC – Plays just about anything you throw at it.
• Tweetie – My favorite Twitter app.
• Terminal – Doing normal linux server administration stuff for freelance projects.
• Pages – Better than MS Word.
• Excel – Better than Numbers.
• Fireworks / Photoshop – I switch between the two for image editing and layouts.
• Pulsar – Excellent Sirius/XM internet radio tool. The web version at sirius.com (aside from having Snow Leopard problems) would prompt for a password each time, ask every hour if I was still listening, and had a very outdated interface. Pulsar is perfect, click the station, it plays, and that’s it (that is all it should do).
• Balsamiq Mockups – I use this for quick web-app and web-site mockups. It has a lot of great built-in shapes and the sketch looking results promotes people to make changes in the initial design meeting (vs. 90% through development or during implementation).
• Teleport – Great mac port/frontend of Synergy (and updated for Snow Leopard) that allows me to use one mouse/keyboard for multiple macs. This is most beneficial with my laptop on my desk, I can just move the mouse from the desktop to the laptop like it was just another monitor.
• Fever – This is fantastic, self-hosted RSS aggregator that I actually found out about from another setup on this site. I use Fluid to keep this as a separate application in my dock.
• Adobe ConnectNow – This is a great tool for online meeting. I checked out other alternatives like DimDim but found that ConnectNow was the easier for the participants and myself.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

My wife and I both have iPhones, her’s a 3G and mine a 3G S. Also, my wife has a 13″ unibody MacBook.

I have a 1TB Time Capsule for wireless backups. The Time Capsule and Airport Extremes are fantastic wireless routers as they have dual band G and N plus guest networking built in. They lack some of the options and flexibility offered by some others but when I’m at home the last thing I want to worry is tweaking a router for QoS, etc. … I spend enough time doing that at work.

We have four Airport Expresses and two Apple TVs that I have picked up over the years. The Airport Expresses are solely used for airtunes (and one as a bridge for a wired printer). With Apple’s remote iPhone app we can be in any room and play any music from the iMac library (which is why it is always on) to any main room in the house (living room, kitchen, my room (office), wife’s room (scrapbooking), or master bedroom) with the flick of a finger.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I would like to get a 24″ LED Cinema Display to replace the 20″ Cinema display at home. That being said it isn’t a priority since I try not to work too much from home and I already have the 20″.

I would like to get a Macbook Air again. I bought the first generation one on launch day and it was so horrifically slow for what I did it just sat around until I eventually sold it. I have read the new model is significantly better and want to try it out again. My job entails that I always have a computer with me when I travel (granted, I wouldn’t travel without a computer anyway) and sometimes the MacBook Pro is a bit of a bear to lug around when the only thing I plan on using it for is to check email and post some pictures. If Apple releases a tablet I will certainly get one of those.

I’d really like to pick up a pair of the Dr. Dre Beats (studio) headphones, they sound fantastic. I need to find out if they have a rechargeable battery though. My Bose ones do and there is no worse feeling than getting a dead battery mid-day because I forgot to charge them all week. I would gladly go through a AAA every week or two not to have to worry about recharging the battery every couple days (and not having to bring the recharger with me when I travel).

More Sweet Setups

Justin’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Stephen’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

For my day job, I carry a 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is pretty much the perfect notebook. It’s small, light and very powerful.

At home, I use a 24-inch iMac powered by a 2.93Ghz processor and 4 GB of RAM.

To house my massive iTunes and Aperture libraries, I have a 1TB RAID housed in a Guardian MAXimus box hooked up to the iMac via FireWire 800. I also have a set of Western Digital 750GB ‘My Book’ drives that are used for rotating backups. When one is at home, the other is locked up at work.

I type on an Apple Extended II keyboard hooked to the iMac via a Griffin iMate ADB-USB adaptor. The Extended II is the best keyboard Apple ever shipped, and with a little utility called Keyboard Maestro, I have the function keys mapped like on Apple’s new chiclet keyboards.

My wife hates that keyboard.

The SoundSticks were a gift from a client, and while they’re old (and take up a USB port), the sound is fantastic — way better than the built-in speakers on the iMac. And boy, can that sub rumble.

The desk was a gift from my wife’s uncle. It weighs like 200 pounds and is ugly as sin, but I love it. Interestingly, it has an AT&T inventory tag on it, dated 1991. It’s probably stolen property.

3. Why are you using this setup?

The MacBook Pro is just perfect for what I do for a living. In any given day, I’m sitting at my desk, slaving over the repair bench or stuffed into someone’s server closet fixing a sick Xserve ‚Äî usually all three by lunchtime. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is small and powerful, and the battery life is fantastic. And with FireWire 800, it really is a professional machine. You can’t get a better notebook for $1200. Period.

On the home front, I opted the 24-inch iMac for a couple of reasons. I wanted a powerful machine without having to spend the money for a Mac Pro. With it’s 2.93Ghz Core2Duo processor and NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, this machine cuts through Aperture and the CS 4 apps like butter. I never find myself wishing I had opted for the tower.

My wife and I don’t own a television, but with the 24-inch model, we can watch anything we want to on the iMac easily. Between Hulu, Netflix and iTunes, anyone can go without a television. Try it. Your brain will thank you later.

The RAID allows me to store my iTunes and Aperture libraries in a way I know they are safe (even though that box is backed up offsite as well). I also use the RAID to store all of the various software installers and images I’ve collected over my years as a Mac technician. I mean, I never know when I’ll need to burn a copy of the OS 8.5 install disc.

I’ve got the army of backup hard drives because you can’t be too careful with data. Especially if that data includes baby photos.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

Here’s a brief list, excluding the built-in apps like Mail, iChat and Safari:

• Lightspeed to track service tickets and repairs at work.
• MarsEdit for blogging, as it’s far superior in every way than WordPress’ web interface. Likewise, I am in love with Tweetie.
• Aperture for my photography work. I tried Lightroom, and just couldn’t get used to it.
• Adobe CS4, Transmit and CSSEdit for any freelance design projects.
• I use MobileMe to keep data between the two machines and my iPhone in sync. After trying to live without it, I simply can’t. I use Dropbox instead of MobileMe’s iDisk, however, because it’s more reliable and much faster.

Under it all, I’m running Snow Leopard. I live on the edge because my customers do.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I have a 16 GB white iPhone 3GS, a 2nd generation iPod Shuffle and a 3rd generation 40GB iPod. The 3GS is the best iPhone yet, and I went with white this time around just to mix it up, and man, it looks good. I rock the old iPod in my truck. I don’t need videos while driving, so why have a newer model? Plus, carrying an old iPod has done great things for my street cred. I think.

I’ve got an Airport Extreme – the first box-style one, before the Gigabit Ethernet model – and an Airport Express hooked up at home. They’re great, and have never given me any trouble.

I’ve got a pile of old machines as well: a couple of Mac SEs, an iMac G3, a Clamshell iBook and a Pismo. The Pismo is my favorite of my older machines. It was a great notebook and runs Tiger pretty well.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

At this point, I’m running current hardware all over the place. Due to my ever-expanding media collection, that 1TB RAID is going to be full by the end of the year, so I’ll need to address that soon — probably in the form of a Christmas present to myself.

More Sweet Setups

Stephen’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Patrick’s Setup:

1. What does your setup look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

My main machine is a “Blackbook” 2.0GHz 13-inch that I have upgraded with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB, 7200 RPM hard drive. I rarely come close to using all that that power and space. In fact, I currently have 240GB available.

I don’t have any music or movies or such (we will get to that later). I really do try to keep my own computing world as stripped down to the basics as possible. As a tech consultant, I do need to have it available if the need arises for a client. For instance, there are times when I may need to recover a couple of hundred gigs of data from a dying machine. Having more hard disk space than I need for myself allows me to avoid having to carry an external drive.

While at my desk, I use an Apple Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard (the tiny, sexy one) and a Logitech VX Revolution mouse.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I am a big fan of portability and, at the time I bought it, this was the most portable of Apple’s lineup. Previous to this, I had a Powerbook G4 12-inch which is my favorite Mac of all time. When the second one of those died on me Apple no longer made them. This was the best choice available (and it was Black). My business requires me to be out of the office on a regular basis at client locations. Therefore, I really need to have a good machine with me for information retrieval and troubleshooting purposes.

If I had my druthers I would have a Macbook Air but it lacks the ports and space I need to get my job done most days.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

It may be boring to some but Safari, Mail and TextEdit are actually the most used programs on my Mac. If I have to write anything it usually begins in TextEdit and moves along from there. I think it is the most underrated program on the Mac.

I am also a big fan of Fluid.app, which allows you to make site specific browsers. I have one for Helvetireader. I have one for the 37 Signals suite of apps, because I use those for my business. There are a few more for other projects too. It is a great way to reduce distraction and focus in on just one website or a small group. It even has a full screen mode (and I love me some full screen mode).

Beyond that, the list is varied. I use BusyCal for my calendar, Notational Velocity for quick notes, Yojimbo for longer and graphic heavy stuff (PDFs, Websites, RTF, etc.), Tweetie for Twitter, and Concentrate for, well, concentrating.

Of course, my Mac life would not even be complete without Quicksilver.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

This is where it gets fun…

I still have a Powerbook G4 12-inch, which I keep on my workbench. I currently have it set up as a “Writing Mac“. If I really need to get some writing work done I have been doing it there lately. My workbench also always has miscellaneous client machines and projects strewn about.

I have an old Mac Mini G4 that is the nerve center for my backup (using CrashPlan Pro) and media center setup. It sits headless and runs a copy of Mac OS Server 10.5. I remote into it when I need to configure anything but that is rare. I have it connected to a Drobo that is currently providing 2 Terabytes of storage space. Not only does this allow me to provide backup to my family and my clients, I also have a ton of (legally purchased) movies and music being served up to…

My iMac 20-inch, which acts as a media center for the house. My wife and I do not watch enough TV to justify having cable. Instead, we use this. It runs Plex which is a fantastic media center interface. Not only does it allow access to the media on the Drobo, it also has plugins for Hulu, Netflix, BBC, and much, much more. If it is available as an internet stream you can watch it through Plex. It also has an Elgato EyeTV hooked up for watching and recording over the air DTV.

One of the beautiful things about the setup above is that I can stream music and watch movies on any of the other machines in the house as well. This alleviates the need to keep it locally on any of the other machines.

I also have an Airport Extreme for the wireless router with an Airport Express to stream music to our office/bedroom/loft space and provide ample coverage (we have a 2800 sq ft home).

I also have an iPhone 3G, a 5G 80gb iPod (both of which sync to the iMac for the music, movies, etc.), and lots of other miscellaneous pieces and parts because it’s an occupational hazard.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I think this setup will serve me well for a long time to come. I can’t imagine needing anything else, unless Apple serves up the iTablet anytime soon of course.

More Sweet Setups

Patrick’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

In his spare time, he pretends to write, takes photos, and makes the occasional video.

Grant’s Setup:

1. What does your desk(s) look like?

2. What is your current setup?

In the few years I’ve now been working for myself, one thing I’ve come to realize is that space is important. My workspace, whether it be digital (on the computer) or physical (where I’m sitting at a given moment) has a huge influence on both my creativity and productivity at any given moment in time. I’ve also come to recognize that I work best in focused chunks of time, and that changing my work venue throughout the day is simply more enjoyable than working from one place for 8-12 hours straight.

The Rotation

I rotate my work day between several different work spaces. I usually start the day at Trident, my favorite coffee shop in Boulder. It’s about a 5 minute walk from my apartment, in the heart of town, on the west end of Pearl Street. I like the mix of people, and, after showing up at relatively the same time every day for a couple years, the community. For whatever reason, it’s one of the most creatively stimulating places for me. If I need to sketch some logos or mull over a creative problem, it’s often the space I turn to.

I show up, get a pot of green tea, and crack open the 15″ MacBook Pro. I’ve got one of the weird 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo versions that can only address 3gb of RAM—even though it has 4gb installed—but it gets the job done. Mornings are usually spent catching up on email, perusing blogs, and maybe getting one significant chunk of work done on what’s left of the battery.

The office is usually the next stop in my day. I’m lucky enough to share some office space with skinnyCorp Boulder, the fantastic folks behind Threadless. Their building is another 5 minutes walk from Trident, to the other end of Pearl Street. I love being able to walk everywhere, and the breaks in my day create nice distractions or impromptu meetings with others from around town. My own office is hard to miss as you come up the stairs. Former officemate, Andrew Hyde, and I decided to deck it out as a legit mountain log cabin. We even grabbed some pine boards from a sawmill and hung them on the wall. Let’s just say I have a permanent pine air freshener.

In the office, I network my laptop with my Mac Pro via firewire. Projects I’m currently working on always reside on the MacBook Pro for mobility, but in the office I take advantage of the 2 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon chips and 7gb of RAM in the Mac Pro. I love Apple’s aesthetic, but I couldn’t beat Dell’s prices when it came to 24″ and 20″ monitors. I also use Teleport. to control the laptop that sits beside my desk with the keyboard and mouse from the desktop.

Some days I play ping-pong work late into the night at the office, others I head back home to my apartment home office—the third of my primary work spaces. I use the MacBook Pro at home, and also keep an old HP ScanJet scanner handy for pulling in sketches and other stuff. My apartment is small, but I love the flexibility of being able to work from home so it is still important to me to dedicate space in the apartment for work. I use MobileMe to get back into the office virtually if I need to.

3. Why are you using this setup?

Your mileage may very, but for me, it’s important to mix the day up. I work a lot of hours, and the little breaks and transitions between places help keep me going. I also love having the ability to choose a different work location based on a whim—what kind of mood I’m in, or what kind of creative space I am looking for. The MacBook Pro and MobileMe keep me, well, mobile, but I love the power of the Mac Pro and large screens for heavy lifting. Having an office outside of my home, with other amazingly creative people, also allows me to set a personal/work boundary when I need too and not feel like I should be working whenever I’m at home. When I first went out on my own, I worked exclusively from my house and this became a problem.

On the more technical side, the Mac Pro has 4 500gb drives in it. One is for active projects, a second is for archival. Both of those back up to the other two internal drives on a nightly basis via SuperDuper. The laptop is backed up automatically when I’m home via a 500gb Time Capsule. I also use 2 sets of 500gb Lacie Drives in rotation for offsite backups. Once you lose work due to a hard drive failure like I did years ago, you take backups very seriously. There is also the expectation in the design industry that former clients could come back even years later and ask for access to files they assume you still have.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

Desktop Apps

• Mail – I also use it for my RSS reader (please don’t hold that against me)
• iCal – I love how MobileMe synchs calendars/contacts between my two computers and phone. It’s rather seamless.
• Tweetie – I can’t imagine why someone would use another Twitter client. There, I said it.
• Adium – I’m not available to chat much because I find it distracting, but when I am, it’s nice to be able to combine AIM, MSN, Google Talk, etc., all in one place
• Safari (well, really Webkit) – daily surfing and development
• Firefox – for development (although Webkit’s Web Inspector is weaning me off Firebug)
• Photoshop – I mainly use this app to view the Spinning Beach Ball of Death, and sometimes for designing.
• Illustrator – I love me some logo work and vector goodness.
• iWork – the only Mac MS software on my computer is Sliverlight (*cough*, ahem, Netflix).
• Textmate – frontend HTML/CSS coding is a joy with Textmate, but I really love how well it handles full Rails projects.
• Terminal
• Transmit – I’ve used it for years and just don’t think anyone can beat this multi-talented file transfer tool.
• Navicat – for managing databases (what can I say, I’d rather not write SQL queries).
• Parallels Desktop – for browser testing on the Windows side – the Mac Pro has 3 different WinXP images depending on what versions of browsers I need to test.
• SuperDuper – King of Backups.

Web Apps

• Basecamp – project management & client communications.
• Blinksale – invoice management.
• SliceManager – for managing my Slicehost servers. I do most of my hosting through them.
• Backstage Mixing Board – Custom-built app for checking Backstage sales/download stats & customer service.
• Google Apps – mail for all my different ventures (and clients’ mail).
• Brightkite – I track everywhere I go so it’s easier for people to stalk me.

Server Software

• nginx – seriously, I love this little web server.
• Phusion Passenger – I’ve just started using Passenger and it makes Rails hosting ridiculously easy. Just add water.
• Mongrel – I run Mongrel on top of nginx for the sites that I haven’t transitioned over to Passenger yet.
• MySQL – you know, for keepin’ the datas.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

• Wireless Mighty Mouse that travels with my laptop. Apple Wireless Keyboard that stays at the home office to help save my wrists. Use lithium batteries and you get ridiculous battery life. Not kidding.
• 500gb Time Capsule – great for automatic backups of the laptop
• iPhone 3G, of course.
• iPod Shuffle – I do a lot of trail running and find the iPhone too bulky to run with.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I just ordered the Mac Box Set with Snow Leopard. Eventually I’m guessing a 3GS will find its way into may hands, and I’m actually having to come up with good reasons not to buy a new MacBook Pro, because I really don’t need one. I’m also hoping to do some sort of Mac Mini / Flat-screen TV combo in the not-too-distant future.

7. More Photos

• Mining Cabin Office
• Trident

More Sweet Setups

Grant’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Michael’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

All of my work for Schematic is done on a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 3 GB of RAM. My personal machine is a quad-core 2.5 GHz PowerMac G5 loaded with 6.5 GB of RAM and a Terabyte of internal drive space. It doesn’t get nearly enough use these days to justify all that computing power.

An IOGear Micro DVI KVM switch connects both machines to a single keyboard, a 23″ aluminum Apple Cinema HD Display and an old Wacom Intuos 9×12 tablet, which I use for all my mousing needs. A Drobo loaded with a pair of 500GB WD Caviar drives stores all my photos, video and music. A set of Bose Companion 2 speakers rounds out the setup.

3. Why are you using this setup?

In the case of my personal machine, I tend to get the most powerful system I can, as I typically go a long time between upgrades. For example, before my quad-core G5, I had one of the first G4 desktops ever made. It lasted me 6 years.

The iMac is Schematic-issue, and is a recent upgrade from a white 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook (which simply crumbled under the weight of running things like Photoshop, Firefox and VMware simultaneously). As a web development workstation, the iMac gets the job done with aplomb.

The last mouse I used with any regularity was the hockey puck that came with my aforementioned G4. The experience left my forearm so sore that it soured me on using a mouse at all. It was then that I purchased the Wacom tablet. I’ve never looked back since.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

• Quicksilver — primarily as an application launcher, but occasionally to control iTunes or open files in a certain app.
• Safari — because it’s fast and because its text rendering kicks ass.
• TextMate — because I think there is no better editor in the world for most of my coding needs. The only thing I don’t code in TextMate is CSS. For that I use…
• CSSEdit — because its code hinting and live preview are invaluable for authoring CSS.
• xScope — is’s the toolbox for picking colors on screen, magnifying details or quickly measuring things in comps.
• Default Folder X — because it adds much-needed functionality to OS X’s save dialogues.
• Tweetie — because Twitter has supplanted RSS for me, and there is no finer Twitter client than this.
• Adium — to keep tabs on my friends, colleagues and coworkers. Being a telecommuter, this is an especially important tool.
• Photoshop CS4 — mostly to tear apart comps I get from designers.
• Em Calculator — because I’m a sucker for vertical rhythm in my layouts and this AIR app from James Whittaker makes the math easy.
• Apple Mail — to handle my IMAP and Exchange accounts in one place.
• Terminal — for mucking around on remote servers and dealing with Subversion.
• Spirited Away — to keep window clutter down and help maintain focus on the task at hand.
• Preview — the unsung hero of OS X. Not simply for PDFs and images, I regularly open Photoshop files in it simply to avoid the spinning beach ball of death.
• iTunes — Because most days, I work more efficiently with a soundtrack.

Some things I don’t use daily, but are still essential:

• Firefox 3.5 running Firebug — because developing Javascript applications without this combo is sheer lunacy.
• VMware Fusion — because I occasionally have to check my work on that other operating system.
• Aperture 2 — to manage my rapidly growing photo library. It has all the tools I need to post-process and organize my photos.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I’ve got a few iPods lying around, including a 3rd generation 15 GB model — the last one with a monochrome screen (what a relic!) — as well as a previous generation 1 GB iPod Shuffle. I also borrow my wife’s 2.16 MHz Core Duo 2 MacBook with 2 GB RAM on the rare occasion that I have to take a computer with me somewhere.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

Not in the immediate future, but when the time comes to upgrade the G5, I may transition it to a MacBook Pro. I’ve been skeptical in the past about using a laptop as my main machine because of the limited upgradability and generally slower performance when compared to a tower. However, I think recent generations of the MacBook Pro are bridging that gap.

More Sweet Setups

Michael’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.