Thomas Brand:
I like to think of Pixelmator as the version of Photoshop Adobe would have made if they still cared about designing great creative software for the Mac.
Month: November 2011
The Knife Maker →
The latest Made By Hand video is so good:
Writer turned knife maker Joel Bukiewicz of Cut Brooklyn talks about the human element of craft, and the potential for a skill to mature into an art.
A Show →
On this week’s episode of The B&B Podcast Ben and I talk about the new site design of The Verge, iPhone battery chargers, and other mysteries.
Sandwich Interview →
Dan Frommer’s latest in his “Creators” series of interviews is with the sharply-dressed Adam Lisagor.
Andrew Pepperrell’s Sweet Mac Setup
Who are you, what do you do, etc…?
My name is Andrew Pepperrell, and I created Alfred, a productivity and launcher app for OS X. I live and work near Cambridge in the UK.
Previously, I was a Enterprise Java software engineer and believe it or not, Alfred was the first Objective C / Cocoa project I worked on — primarily to learn something new. Luckily, my foundation in enterprise development helped me nail the architecture and performance of Alfred from the word go. Developing for Mac very quickly became a passion of mine and I have been lucky enough to jump to full-time Mac development around 6 months ago.
In my spare time I love models and radio-controlled stuff, spending time fiddling with a few Tamiya cars which are either working really really well or in complete pieces being rebuilt. I also have a radio-controlled helicopter and plane but generally prefer cars as they crash much less catastrophically.
I am on Twitter as @preppeller and look after the Alfred users at @alfredapp.
What is your current setup?
I currently run a 24″ iMac 2.93 Ghz Core 2 Duo running Snow Leopard as my main development machine with 8GB RAM, which seems essential since Xcode 4 and Safari 5 seem to consume most of this during the course of the day. I have a 20″ Apple Cinema Display attached to the iMac, a wireless Mac keyboard and Magic Mouse plus some Creative GigaWorks T3 speakers which sound much larger than they look! I find the stock iMac too tall for comfort, so have it on an Ergotron MX arm which allows me to lower the iMac screen to a very comfortable height.
I also have a MacBook Air 2.13 Ghz Core 2 Duo 256GB SSD with 4GB RAM running Lion. I should have really waited for the i5 but I am still surprised how incredibly snappy the Air is. Battery life and portability are pretty incredible too.
For Alfred’s build server, I have a Mac Mini (Server) with 2 internal 500GB drives in mirrored RAID running Lion. This is protected by some Mr. Potato Heads which I have found significantly more effective than a firewall.
It goes without saying that I also have an iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
Why this rig?
For a while, I developed primarily on a Black MacBook and while I loved it, the difference when moving to a proper desktop machine with a 24″ screen was amazing. Xcode 4 uses a huge amount of screen real estate, especially with the built-in Interface Builder. I use the external 20″ Cinema Display for everything other than Xcode. I am also really used to the Cinema Display’s colour balance so it helps me know what to expect when deploying anything which isn’t black or white.
The MacBook Air allows me to work on the go and, as everything I do is version controlled, my development environment is comfortably mirrored between the two machines. I have found it to be so light that on one occasion, I left the house thinking that I had it in my bag but realized later I had left it at home — d’oh!
The build server could be seen as unnecessary as I could deploy from my iMac, however I feel I have a responsibility to Alfred’s users to build and deploy something that I can happily know is free from any potential nasties. As such, the Mac Mini server has absolutely nothing installed on it other than what is necessary to build and deploy Alfred, and is only used for this purpose.
What software do you use and for what do you use it?
On Mac:
- Xcode is the main piece of software I use, and use it every single day… Naturally I use this to develop Alfred and a few other secret projects I am currently working on.
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Fireworks CS5 for screen mockups and general design work. I love the vector as bitmap non-destructive workflow which feels very natural to me. I don’t like how sluggish it feels compared to more native Mac apps.
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Pixelmator for photo editing, however I am really looking forward to the vector tools in Pixelmator 2 and part of me hopes this will allow it to replace Fireworks CS5.
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ColorSnapper for quick and easy colour capture and copy colours with a hotkey – perfect for my workflow.
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Coda for web development. Oddly, before I downloaded ColorSnapper I would open Coda just to access the OS X colour picker panel — weird workflow.
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TextMate for quick and dirty text and code editing… sometimes vi too depending on where my fingers lead me.
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Twitter for Mac… no need to explain this one, I spend way too much time watching the Alfred stream.
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Safari for the majority of my surfing. However, I am trying to go “Flash free” so sometimes I have to revert to Chrome if I am watching YouTube.
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Evernote because it’s like my secondary brain.
On iOS:
- Reeder as it’s the nicest way I have found to read my RSS feeds.
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Calcbot for a calculator as the iPad doesn’t have one. Also use this on my iPhone for consistency.
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Evernote because I generally need to carry my secondary brain around with me.
How does this setup help you do your best creative work?
For starters, using a Mac gives me the reliability I couldn’t dream of during my past of using Windows machines… Being a Mac developer means I naturally have to use Mac, so this is definitely a good thing. Having my main iMac display dedicated to Xcode alone allows me focus much more easily.
Having a tidy desk and a distant view outside my window along with BassDrive internet radio playing really helps me remain creative during the day.
How would your ideal setup look and function?
I would quite like a bit more space in my office… I work from home and therefore am confined to the smallest back bedroom for my permanent office. A larger room for my office would allow me to have all of my radio controlled hobby stuff permanently set up for working on. I could also fit my Yamaha CP300 stage piano in too, which would remind me to practice more.
From a technical point of view, I would love a faster main machine, however, I am reluctant to upgrade at the moment as the current iMacs and Mac Pros all feel a bit mid-to-end cycle… Ideally I would love a 27″ iMac 8 core without a chin (looking more like the current Cinema Displays) and a 15″ MacBook Air… Did you hear me Apple?? I would like those… asap! chop chop.
More Sweet Setups
Andrew’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.
Daylight Saving Time Explained →
One thing I do know about Daylight Saving Time is that in the Fall, when I get an extra hour of sleep, I am a happy camper.
Thoughts on Apple’s Cards App and Service
At first glance, Apple’s Cards app seemed a little dorky and silly to me. But, as I thought about it for a few minutes, I began to like the idea.
So, when iOS 5 shipped I ordered a card and had it sent to my wife. Here is what stuck out to me:
- The iPhone app is pretty tiny to navigate. I don’t understand why it’s not a Universal app. With Photo Stream, the pictures I take on my iPhone are being downloaded to my iPad anyway, and so why not have an iPad version so I can order cards on my iPad instead? The larger screen would serve this app much better.
The flip side of this argument is that nobody should be making cards using the photos taken with their iPad. Maybe Apple is saving potential card recipients from receiving a card that has a horrible image on the front which was taken with an iPad’s camera. Perhaps the iPad 3 will have a significant camera update, and around that time the Cards App will get an update to be Universal.
- The card arrived with an actual postage stamp. Not bulk mail, or business class.
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The card is printed on thick, quality cardstock. It feels like 110# cover, or so.
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The print quality of the picture on the front is fairly good. It’s not photo quality, but it’s not poor. It looks like a high-quality ink jet printer.
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There was not a lick of Apple advertising anywhere to be found. I thought for sure there would be a little Apple logo on the back of the card, where a Hallmark logo would have been, but nope. Nothing.
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I always try to buy “blank inside” cards because I much prefer to write my own thing than to write “Dear So-and-so,” before the inspirational, pre-written poem. And so being able to write the words I want on the inside is very convenient for me.
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$2.99 is a steal — you can hardly buy a card and a stamp at Walmart for that price. And with the card at Walmart you certainly aren’t going to be able to customize it and send it from your couch.
In short, I’m impressed with everything about the Cards app except for the app itself. But that’s a minor issue. With a kid on the way whose grandparents live in another state, the Cards app will be getting regular use from the Blanc household.
UP by Jawbone →
Jawbone’s contribution to the “personal health tracking device” market is now officially on sale. I have had my eye on the UP ever since it was announced months and months ago.
On last week’s episode of The B&B Podcast, Ben and I talked about the UP and the Fitbit (which I have heard amazing things about). Personally, I like the idea of having a device that helps me track and evaluate my activity throughout the day and my sleep patters at night.
It’s the whole idea that hindsight is 20/20. To me, that means the more I can learn about myself the better I can improve my lifestyle. For someone who sits at a desk for hours a day, that sort of thing is even more important.
A friend of mine has an extra WakeMate they are sending me. The WakeMate only does sleep monitoring, but that is what I am most interested in. If the data the WakeMate provides me proves to be helpful then I will most likely get an UP or a Fitbit and because of the wider range of information they track.
Side by Side Screenshots: Gmail App for iPhone vs Gmail’s Mobile Site →
A substantial reason why the native iOS Gmail app is so poor is that it’s just a web view of their mobile friendly Gmail site wrapped in a native app.
Google Releases Gmail App for iOS →
So I go upstairs to make some eggs and by the time I come back to my computer the Gmail app had been released and nearly the whole Internet has already determined it’s a piece of junk. That was anticlimactic.
How Much Does The Internet Weigh? →
Your nerd trivia lesson for the day.
Billings Pro [Sponsor] →
Billings Pro is a multi-user time tracking and invoicing solution for the Mac and iPhone, that includes a Web app for timekeepers.
With Marketcircle Cloud you get the Mac and iPhone experience with the convenience of the Web. Let us worry about all the setup, hosting, and backup of your data, while you focus on your business.
We host it, you access it — from anywhere, anytime.
One Hundred and Forty Characters →
A Twitter / photography project by Chris Floyd, One Hundred & Forty Characters is 140 portraits of folks that Chris follows on Twitter and the folks that they follow.
You can read more about the project on Floyd’s interview with Phil Coomes on the BBC site.
iOS as Anti-Distraction Software →
Something Ryan Cumley mentioned in the aforelinked article about using his iPad as his work setup was not just that he was able to get most tasks done on his iPad, but that working from the iPad was noticeably less distracting for him. Cumley said:
I find myself markedly more deliberate in my actions, focused on completing the short list of productive things I have to do, and less prone to distraction.
This is something that I’ve found true of working on my iPad as well. Last summer I touted iOS as the best piece of anti-distraction software I own.