For the Mac: Little Snitch

For Windows: Netlimiter (Register and get the Monitor app for free)

password management and security is like flossing before sleep. It’s a pain but you know you have to do it.

this is an opportune moment for me to point to my fellow nerds that i recently started a new blog called K’s Coding Corner where i dish my learnings on programming. i recently wrote a post on how to store passwords in a web application correctly and would like to smugly shamelessly state that Gawker should have read my post (muhaha).

i mean seriously, this is Gawker! the same people who run Lifehacker, not to mention sites like gizmodo. they should know better than to have such a half assed method of storing passwords.

for the normal ones that want to know why this post is on my personal blog, here’s my recommendations that even Jeff Atwood misses on an otherwise clear and detailed post:

• Do NOT keep the same password for all sites
• Use a password manager like KeePass (what i used in my PC days), LastPass (what i currently use after moving to a Mac) or 1Password.
• Keep one super strong Master password for the above mentioned services and let them worry about your passwords

i cannot possibly stress these points enough. a post on Quora ( slamming the use of OpenID-different topic though) suggests otherwise i.e. using same username/password for multiple sites. this is simply bollocks. when you have such awesome password management services like LastPass which are absolutely free, you shouldn’t do such crazy things and the Gawker password incident is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t.

so gentlings learnings for the day:

• DO NOT use same username/password for all sites
• Use LastPass (or KeePass or 1Password) instead to manage them for you
• if you’re into programming/coding read my other blog – K’s Coding Corner

Peace.

• Dropbox
• Instapaper
• Facebook
• VLC Media player
• Twitter
• Fring
• Skype

• Shazam

• Kindle

• Remote

• ALS Counter
• Free Torch App

Music Apps

• Gibson Tuner App – Has a metronome with many features, chromatic tuner, simple guitar tuner… this is a no-brainer download if you’re into music/sound recording.
• KS Chord Pitch Pipe
• Digidrummer Lite
• uDrummer Lite

Paid Apps

• AirSharing Pro – Great app for storing files on the iPhone. This bridges the gap with Android phones imho. check out USB Disk if you want a free alternative. *Canned – Quick tool for sending Canned or template SMS, also useful for Bulk Messaging.
• Battery Doctor Pro
• LastPass – I love the online web sync feature that’s built in.

Nice apps, but i don’t use them currently

• myPhoneDesktop
• [Amazon App] – ( “In particular the Amazon Remembers App”)
• USB Disk – this is like Air Sharing Pro and free (woh) but only works with USB
• Google Mobile App : Has some Google related features like the Google Googles app but this is not for your regular Google Calendar+Note Syncing.
• TouchMouse

click here to get PhoneDisk for Free (offer valid till 1st December)

this is brilliant if you want to transfer music, videos, photos, and audiobooks from an iPod/iPhone/iPad to a Mac without getting bogged down by iTunes and it’s twisted synchronizing ways…

I love the elegance of the new Macbook Air lineup and all but why wouldn’t i just get an iPad if i wanted something more portable than the existing 13″ Macbook Pro?

1. are you a coding monkey?
2. do you like to blog?
3. do you have an ocr disorder for keeping things organized?
4. do you swear by simplicity and all that zen

answering yes to any of the above means you most definitely have to check Markdown by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. markdown is basically a method of writing text or what geeks like to call a markup language. writing in markup becomes almost natural once you get used to the syntax. the advantage here is even if you have to pass this text to someone who has no clue about markdown, he can easily understand the text. the biggest feature though is instant conversion to html.

i’m writing all my .txt files now completely in the markdown script. should i want to convert any of my random notes to a blog post, simply use the converter and i have ready-made html for my blog. HUGE amount of time saved in pesky html tags and formatting. yeah!

There’s a ton of resources and tips on improving your Wifi Connection. Here’s a consolidated list of links on the must dos for setting up Wifi. I’ve put them down here sequentially, so follow them in this order:

Essential guides for your Wifi router:

1. Upgrade your Wifi Router Firmware to dd-wrt or Tomato (check if your router is supported).
2. For security, make sure you change these 4 settings as recommended by Lifehacker.
3. Improve your Wifi signal by choosing a free-er Wifi channel for your router.

For the Wifi Ninjas:

• Turn your second Wifi Router into a Repeater
• Protect yourself when connecting to an outside Wifi network
• If you have the time, go through this comprehensive guide by labnol’s Amit on securing your Wireless Home Network. It also lists tools that can be used to hack Wifi connections.

Solution: The Auto-Type feature takes in wild cards :D. So instead of:

• Auto-Type-Window: Twitter
• Auto-Type-Window: Twitter – Google Chrome

I can just have:

• Auto-Type-Window: Twitter*

So I recently made the move to a Mac. While I’ll follow with a first impressions post, I thought i’ll make my customary recommended list of software. [Update: Cleaned this post after using the mac for 4 full months. Only the golden stuff recommended now]

Basic Utilities (Free)

• Google Chrome I keep two browsers, Safari (comes default) and Google Chrome (which happens to be my primary browser). I remain a Google junkie.
• Dropbox Online File Syncing. Actually Dropbox is so much more. Detailed post on this later.
• AppCleaner Really good application for doing clean uninstalls.
• Utorrent For all your torrent downloading needs. I’ve heard a lot about Transmission, but sticking with familiar territory for now.
• VLC media player – One Stop solution for Playing all your videos. Recently though, i’ve discovered Perian and flip4mac which are basically plugins for Quicktime that allow it to play almost all the most famous videos. while i “love” VLC and find it indispensable in Windows, I think i’d rather have just one software (QuickTime comes installed by default and unlike in Windows, it performs flawlessly. One additional advantage, is you can get the video formats to also play in the Quick Preview mode which is something that can’t be done with the VLC alternative).
• ComicBookLover- Don’t let the shady stock photography on their website fool you, this is the best Comic Book reader for the Mac.
• NameChanger Like Renamer for windows this is a great tool for bulk file-renaming and organizing.
• Carbon Copy Cloner This is a cloning tool (little different from backup). Assuming you want to install a SSD on your Macbook, and move your OS to this drive, you would need a tool to make an exact copy or clone of your existing HDD (as against restoring data from a backup).
• Unarchiver WinZip/Winrar/7Zip equivalent for the Mac. Apparently supports more number of formats than the native BOMArchiveHelper app of the Mac.
• Flickr Uploadr If you use Flickr extensivley, this tool comes in Handy for mass uploading and tagging.
• Notational Velocity This is an awesome tool to quickly take down notes. While Textmate is awesome, NV excels at simplicity and just jotting down notes super-fast.

Conversion Software (Free)

• All2Mp3- Great tool to convert all forms of audio to MP3.
• Max If you want a more advanced audio convertor that also produces extremely high quality rips from CDs & DVDs, this is the app you’re looking for. It’s almost like EAC for windows but is better cause it handles quite a few audio conversions.
• Handbrake- Most useful video conversion tool. This is all you require for Video Conversion
• ImageOptim A free tool that quickly and intuitively shrinks your images for online web usage.

System Customization (Free)

• Monolingual This Software helps delete unused language packs on your Mac. Removing the unwanted languages apparently can save up to 2 GB. Make sure you read the README and know what you’re doing.You can mess things up if you’re not too sure.
• Coconut Battery Gives you all the information you need on your Macbook battery :- maximium capacity, original capacity, battery-loadcycles etc.
• Tinker Tool Provides additional customization for Mac.
• IceClean Like CCleaner of Windows, this is a good System Maintenance tool.

Software worth paying for

• Textmate This is hands down the best text-editor/coding tool for the Mac. I’m a coder who also likes a mean and light-weight text editor. Textmate is exactly that and so much more.
• Microsoft Office 2011 Yes iLife is great and all, but if you need to share documents with a colleague, this makes life easier and the 2011 update is fantastic.
• Apple Logic Studio This is the main reason I shifted to the Mac. For superior Sound Engineering/Recording etc. Nobody does it better than Apple. I’m moving from Adobe Audition to Logic Pro and so far LOVING the experience. I would buy this software even if they doubled the price (ok maybe not double, but you get how much i like this software).
• Adobe Lightroom I tried iPhoto, but after using Lightroom, there’s no comparison. The whole photo post-processing is so much more easier and powerful with Lightroom. Strangely, since the results are much better with Lightroom processing, I find myself taking more photos now. Definitely worth the exorbidant 299 USD.
• TextExpander Saves huge amounts of time while typing. A paid equivalent for my Autohotkey usage.

Notable ones that didn’t make the absolute essentials

• AudioMonitor If you’re into Recording and Sound Engineering, this is a handy tool for simplifying monitoring an Audio Input Source. I find this really useful.
• Growl Mac users seem to rave about this tool. Installing this to see what all the fuss is about.
• Google Notifier Half my existance depends on Google. It pays to have convenient alerts. The Google+Growl Plugin comes in handy as well, if you’re particular about maintaining consistency.
• ExifRenamer All those pesky DSCXXXX, IMGXXXXX, PIC0000 can now be sensibly renamed.
• Burn- This is the one-stop solution for all your DVD Burning needs. Nero/ImgBurn equivalent for the Mac.

Development Tools

• Sequel Pro Great client for accessing MySql Databases.
• Cyberduck FTP The mother of all FTP software.
• cd to path Fast mini application that opens a Terminal.app window cd’d to the front most finder window. This app is designed to be placed in the finder window’s toolbar.

The beauty with Apple’s OS X is that by default it comes with some really good utilities. Head on to this link to check out some of the awesome apps that come default with the Mac. Check out the incredible Time Machine in particular for Backups (not to be confused with Carbon Copy Cloner’s cloning function).

The trusty IBM thinkpad T41 I used to own is now ancient. After having served me relentlessly through college (4 unforgiving years) and 4 more after that, it’s now time to finally put her to rest. After years of having been a loyal right-clicka, I’ve succumb and made the move. Treating myself to the new 15″ Macbook pro (referred just as Mac for the rest of this post).

Without too much drama, my reasons for shifting to a Mac:

• Superior build : Apple takes special care to see these babies are built with utmost care. Hardware is of the spank-me-silly quality.
• Sound-Engineering/Sound-Recording: A Windows 7 powered laptop just doesn’t have the juice to function as a DAW without alarming amounts of lag and crashing. Every time I had to record for small gigs, I had to chug my whole freaking desktop. I’ve read Macbook Pros can handle this. This single reason was almost enough for me to make the change. Here’s another link.
• Security: Owing to loyal fanboys and generally lesser hatred, Apple isn’t plagued with as many threats and virus attacks as the PC. Even Google seems to think so.
• UX or User Experience Design: Apple is the undisputed king of UI. I accepted this even when I was loyal to my PC ways. These guys simply get it. When you’re a designer these things seem to suddenly matter a whole lot.
• The Pros use a Mac: Check The Setup, a cool site that catalogues the setups which most pros/programmers/geeks/nerds etc. use. Almost all of them swear by their Macs. You can also check the links at the bottom of this post.

Basic Requirements for any new laptop purchase:

• Mobile Workstation: I intend to travel a lot more in the future. I can no longer depend on a clunky desktop as a workstation. That being said, I need something powerful enough to handle my needs. The new 15inch Macbook pro seems like the perfect balance between portability and power.
• Ports : The more the merrier, always. The cool thing is that the Mac has an in-built firewire port (think external sound-card support). This made up for the fact that it has only 2 usb ports (both USB 2.0 thankfully). Always make sure you have the RJ45 LAN port, and an external video port (like the new HDMI or the older VGA port). The Mac comes with a “Mini DisplayPort” that has appropriate convertors to all other forms.
• Battery Life: No worries here. Macbook Pros advertise 8-9 hours. That is WAY WAY more than any laptop i have ever owned has given me.
• Wifi: I wanted to make sure my new laptop has the latest protocol specification for Wifi (802.11n).
• Decent Sound Card: Macs are said to have the best on-board soundcards.
• Hard disk: I wanted to go for the new Solid State Drives (SSD Hardisks). They dramatically boost performance but unfortunately come with heavy price tags. Will wait for sometime and then upgrade. I hear it’s definitely worth it.

Intersting Mac Users and Stories

You just have to see this list to get converted:

• A.R.Rahman- My favorite Music Composer uses a Mac
• The Dalai Lama uses a Mac!
• Hans Zimmer -Legendary Hollywood Music Composer uses a Mac
• Joel and Ethan Coen – My favorite Hollywood Directors use a Mac
• Stephen Fry and Mac love – My favorite Brit uses a Mac
• Pearl Jam uses Mac
• TV show Scrubs is made with Macs
• WWE (World Wresting Entertainment)
• SouthPark goes Apple :P
• Mark Cuban – Once you go Mac
• David Alison- Nice blog tracing the conversion of a devout PC user to Mac

I’ve managed to convert both my Brother and Dad to the Androidian ways. Only Mom left now :) . Mobile apps are quite selective and would differ based on your needs and customizations. So I’ve tried to cook up an exhaustive list of awesome apps for the Android Mobile platform. You will most definitely benefit from these apps, whatever your required level of customization.

To help quickly install all your apps at one go, take a look at the Android app “AppBrain Market Sync”.

I’m a strong believer in the DRY/DIE/reuse concept. To summarize:

In the Software Industry, Code reuse is the idea that a partial or complete computer program written at one time can be, should be, or is being used in another program written at a later time. The reuse of programming code is a common technique which attempts to save time and energy by reducing redundant work.

Ok so the real truth is it’s becoming a major pain maintaining my apps here (thanks to the ever-growing Android App Market).

I’m posting up my apps directly using AppBrain now. Do what the others have done better!

If you took my advice from the recommended windows software list and installed Google Chrome, you’ll find this list of Google Chrome Extensions really useful. Just click the extensions name here, when you reach the chrome extensions page, hit install. If you have Google chrome’s latest dev version, Syncing Extensions across computers is also supported. Wicked!

• Freshstart session saver – You have a bunch of tabs open after researching gardening tools (for lack of a more obscure topic), but have to get back and finish up that office presentation. Save the session with this extension so you can get back to it later.
• Chrome Currency Converter – If you’re like me and frequently require things that are available only in the US (damn you Amazon delivery), you’ll find this extension helpful.
• Copy without Formatting – Copy text without those blasted new line, tab, li and p tags. Smile plagiarists smile….
• Webpage Screenshot – This is a blessing for webdesigners. Gives you the option of a “Full Page” screenshot.If you want an offline alternative, check out previously mentioned FastStone. Once Aviary ramps up their screen capture extension, i’ll probably switch entirely to that.
• Woot! Watcher – Woot fans, a concise quick informative plugin for you. Here’s to 80$ Ipods!
• ChromeToPhone Extension – This is awesome if you have an Android phone. Directly send links from your Browser to the Android phone.
• Instachrome – The ultimate Read me later tool. Uses service from Instapaper.com.
• Subscribe to reader – I hope you’re a feed reader, if you’re aren’t, you’re missing a lot. Shoot me a mail/comment and i’ll help you setup your feed system for free.This extension automatically detects feeds and puts them into your feed reader. Install this extension and click that icon you see to the right of my blog-title ;).
• goo.gl shortener + share on twitter – Use Google’s very own URL shortener and directly send a Tweet update.

I believe in keeping it clean and don’t like bloating my system by installing junk. Each extension you install, apart from reducing the space on your address bar, also takes up a certain amount of memory. So more number of extensions implies more memory usage. Take a look at your Task Manager if you don’t believe me.

I find these extensions to be the best for my working. If there’s an additional extension you would like to find, you can do a search for google chrome extensions directly at this

2008-2010 saw quite a few changes. I’m now with the Nexus one and quite happy. I still think the Hero Sense UI kicked some serious butt, but the Nexus one’s processor, gorgeous screen … I could go on. Here’s my cellphone timeline from 2003-2008.