Seeing as this is the first blog post I've written in quite some time, it's needless to say that I'm now depressed, as the numbers I'm seeing are very sad. :( Not that I'm making excuses, but this site has definitely taken a back seat to my daughter and my full time job at Google. Hopefully in the near future, I'll be able to show some dedication to this site, and start writing again. In the meantime, go download this app. Regardless of the numbers you see, it's worth the $1.99.

I will say, that recently, after attending SxSW, I figured out the value of Twitter. Before arriving in Austin, I cleaned out my friends list, and now only follow people I know, especially those that attended SxSW. This made it easy to figure out where people were, and how to meet up with them. So, it's no longer a mystery to me, however, I still don't spend much time with it either.

• Wi-Fi access
• Direct access to iTunes
• The App Store
• Video playback: I can now carry this on a plane to watch movies on as opposed to lugging around my laptop all the time
  Music library
• Touch screen: this thing is phenomenal. I thought the typing on it would be difficult, but to my pleasant surprise, it's very easy to get used to. In fact, I'm writing this entire post with it right now.
• My favorite part, however, is the personalized engraving that my wife had put on the back.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend an iPod Touch to anyone. It has nearly everything the iPhone has, except for the phone service, and the constant Internet access. Personally, I can do without this. That is what my Blackberry is for. ;)

What is Fluid
Fluid is an application that allows you to create SSBs for the sites you frequent. What is an SSB? According to Wikipedia, "A Si te Specific Browser (SSB) is a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single source (site) on a computer network such as the Internet or a private intranet. SSBs typically simplify the more complex functions of a web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome associated with functions that are external to the workings of a single site."

How Does it Work?
In this example, I'm going to show you how to make Gmail a stand-alone application. First, download the free application at fluidapp.com and add it to your applications directory. Once you've done this, open it.

Fluid default view

In the "URL" field, type in the URL you would go to to manage your application. In this case, I would type in "http://www.gmail.com". In the "Name" field, give this application a meaningful name, as this will be the name you'll see in the dock, finder, etc. You can choose a location you'd like for this new application to sit, however, "Applications" is selected by default. This seems like the most logical spot for it, but feel free to put it wherever you like. Now, the "Icon" field is a great feature. You can, by default, select the "Use Website Favicon" option, but I'd recommend against it. Why? Well, favicons are very small (16 x 16 px), and scale terribly in the Dock, Expose, and Finder. So, select the "Other..." feature which will allow you to pick an icon from your computer.

"That's no good" you may say. "I don't have icons an icon for this application." Never fear, Flickr is here. There is a special fluid group on Flickr that will allow you to view and download icon sets specifically made for Fluid. From this group you should be able to find the icon for which you are looking. Once found, save it to your computer, and then go back to Fluid, choose "Other...", find the icon you've just saved, and click "Open". Your done, click "Create", and you've just created a stand alone application that was once a website you had to visit in your browser. You'll get a confirmation message that let's you know you've successfully created a new application, and from here you can either "Reveal in Finder", do nothing by clicking "OK", or launch the application ("Launch Now").

What I like about having my Gmail as a stand alone application is the fact that I am now notified when I have new email. I'm not annoyed with some crazy pop-up every time someone sends me an email. It's subtle and perfect, and functions just like OS X Mail: through the Dock, or when cmd-tab-ing through your open applications (below).

Look! I have 2 new emails!

Since installing Fluid, I've added 5 additional stand-alone applications that would normally be an extra tab in my browser. These apps get used everyday, and are now a permanent part of my dock. Thanks to Fluid, getting stuff done on my Mac got much, much easier.

This is why I'm not an early adapter, and like to wait a few months before I buy any new technology.

On another note, my CrapBook is on the fritz AGAIN!!!

• Reason for first visit: The hard drive couldn't be found.
• Solution: Entirely new MacBook
• Reason for second visit: OS wouldn't boot
• Solution: Archive and install
• Reason for third and most recent visit: Initially lost my iPhoto Library, and after some self-tinkering, OS wouldn't boot. Please know that the tinkering I had done in no way possible should have resulted in this sort of problem.
• Solution: Back-up user files, archive and install, create new user & copy old files to new user directories.

I purchased this computer in August of 2008. That's 3 visits to the Apple store in 9 months. Not good. After my most recent visit, my wife said something with which I couldn't disagree. She said "Apple is so arrogant." She's right. They have been touting their superiority over PC for quite a while now, however, I've had 3 too many problems with my very first Mac. So, to all the fanboys out there, let me let you in on a little secret. Apple is not perfect.

UPDATE (8/26/2008) 4 Times!!! This time I got an entirely new hard drive.

Thanks to a great article by Paul Stamatiou, and some research I did on tons of other sites, I was able to find some really great applications. Here is a list of some of applications I've downloaded since last week:

• Adium A chat program that allows you to use your AIM, MSN IM, yahoo IM, Google IM and much more all in one slick application. It also comes with a cool little software package called "Growl", which is a notification system that can be used with many other software apps.
• Cyberduck A great FTP application that integrates nicely with many file editors, including TextWrangler.
• Quicksilver This application is SWEET. Talk about Getting Things Done. This application makes doing anything on your Mac a piece of cake. I can't do it justice, but a ton of other people have already tried, so I'll let you take t heir word for it.
• Twitteri fic Clever little app that lets you send twits, and receive the latest twits from all your friends.
• TextWrangler Relatively simple text editor that does just what I need it to do when I'm writing any PHP, xhtml, or CSS code.
• Firefox This should come as no surprise to anyone. Great browser.
• mySQL Although somewhat of a PITA to install and get working, this is a great free database software that allows me to create sample databases for all my projects.
• CocoaMySQL This is nice GUI front-end for mySQL. It allows you to connect to a database, and via a GUI, easily run queries and manipulate data however you see fit.

I've only had my Mac for about a week now, so I'm still getting accustomed to it. However, I am enjoying every minute of it, and can't wait to learn more! If you have any suggestions as to other applications I should be using, I'd love to hear from you.

Great work Mr. Mann.