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SizeUp – The Handiest Little Utility

Today I was knuckling down to get a couple of irritating tasks done and I was struck by how easy it was to manhandle my apps to do by bidding. I grabbed mail.app and with a simple keyboard shortcut threw it to the right side of my screen and then I threw a browser window to the left side. It’s one of those moments where you suddenly focus on something that you usually take for granted and notice just how magical it is.

The software utility that allows me to work this “magic” is called SizeUp by Irradiated Software. It’s only $13 and it’s a game changer when it comes to window management. Whenever I want to move a window to a certain quadrant on my screen I simply hit Command Key + cmd + opt and an arrow key to move it where I want it.

All throughout my day, I’m able to move windows around my desktop with the greatest of ease and all without removing my hands from the keyboard. The keyboard shortcuts are programmed into my muscle memory so that I perform the actions without even thinking about it. It’s only when I’m on someone else’s machine that I’m reminded how much I love this little app.

Irradiated Software makes a similar app called Cinch for those that prefer to use their mouse over their keyboard. So wether you prefer the mouse or the keyboard, Irradiated Software has the perfect utility for managing all the windows on your desktop.

666 days ago • software • Tags: , ,

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Looking For A Lean & Mean Browser

There’s this little routine that my business partner and I go through every time he comes into my office. He walks in and asks me to pull up a web site. I open a new tab, or page and lo and behold I get the spinning beachball of death. Without fail, this happens nearly every time. Normally I dismiss this problem to having to much open — which is usually true — but today I didn’t have that much open, so I resolved to see what was causing this holdup.

The reason for the beachball of death is that my computer’s system resources are maxed out, so I fired up “Activity Monitor” to see what was happening under the hood. Looking closely, the offending application was Safari. My browser was gobbling up the majority of my resources and by creating another tab, or window, I was simply adding to the load.

So that got me to thinking… “what is the best lean and mean browser for Mac OS?”

From just the nominal searching that I did, there seem to be people lamenting the bloat of both Safari and Firefox. Opera might be a contender, but since it doesn’t work with 1Password, it’s a non-starter. The only other browser I came across that seemed to fit the bill is Camino (think Firefox engine with a true Mac OS UI).

So I’m playing with Camino for the time being, but what do you think? Is there a browser out there that you’d recommend?

1333 days ago • technology • Tags: , ,

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