As most know I’m a web developer/ Graphic designer, that uses a Mac and PC to design on. Hopefully one day I can finally fully switch to a mac and leave the pc in the dust, but the PC will have to do for now…. Anyhow, A couple of months ago I decided to take a challenge from a friend to see if I could solely use my Mac desktop and laptop to code, and design on for a month. In stead of a month I stayed on my mac for almost three months designing and coding. Unfortunately, I had to switch back to my PC since most of all my programs I use everyday are on the pc. Why the switch? I just have not found the time nor money to go out and buy Adobe CS3 for the mac yet. One day will surely come…. I know…

I know what you’re thinking get to the point right? Ok! I will….. While taking the Mac challenge I found a couple of Mac Gems(software) that are a must for web designers/developers.

For CSS coding, I found that Mac Rabbit’s CSSEdit works quite well, and I love the X-ray Inspector. The X-ray Inspector shows you what styles are applied to a web page.

For text or coding by hand and not by WYSIWYG I’ve found using Macro Mates: TextMate is nice. It’s basically an all around multi-text editor, which is always nice to have lying around. One thing I did find that it lacks is Code Completion and Hinting, which I’ve found other ways around that by using the shortcut keys. Unfortunately, I’m one who tends to forget all those keyboard commands, which is why I like to stick to simple things.

Another great text editor for the web is skEdit. I liked it better than Texmate just because it does have code completion and hinting, and is a text editor just for web design and development.

Another program I found was an all in one solution calledCoda, It’s by Panic, the same team that puts out the cool FTP Program Transmit. Coda’s tag line is an all in one web development solution. It has ftp, a visual design area, text editor, and that’s just to name a few features that the software has.

I’ve found that Transmit and Cyberduck are the best Mac apps for ftping. Transmit, is by Panic software and is a full featured ftp client. I really liked using it, but really prefer CyberDuck just because it is freeware and open source. CyberDuck is a simple FTP client that has worked well for me during my stay on the Mac.

I know, I did not mention Adobe’s software, which most all of their software will run on a mac too. For me I was more looking for independent software. All the of the software I mentioned had trials you can download to try the software out as well costs less than $100.00. I definitely recommend all the software I mentioned and hopefully when I return to the mac full time all of these titles will become part of my software library.

Just created another desktop today. I’ve actually had this one laying around, but decided to finish it up today. This desktop is about what my ideal tropical paradise would be. As always if you want a copy of this desktop, let me know.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of music lately which has always helped me when something is bothering me. I’m on last.fm and I’ve almost listened to 30,000 songs, since singing up in May of last year. To me that’s a lot of songs, but I do listen to music all the time when I’m home and even sleep to music as well, so it does add up in time. I’ve also found another station via iTunes that I’ve been listening too. Alice, is actually a local station in San Francisco, California and you can listen to them live on dial ( if your a local) at 97.3 or online via their website. What I like most about this station is they play all the music I like listening too like Amy Winehouse, Maroon 5, Peter Bjorn and John, Death Cab for Cutie, etc. Unfortunately, around here in NC near me, they don’t have any stations that play music like that and that’s a reason why I listen to mostly Internet stations or my music collection.