Mac: what I actually need (cloud computing)

This whole crashing hard drive/using the Mini while the laptop is fixed has been educational for me. I like having a desktop computer so much that I may just keep right on using it. The hard drive is much smaller on the Mini, so I had to do battle with an external hard drive for my iTunes library. I can’t even really duplicate how I finally got it to work. It involved a hellish sequence of consolidating the library and copying things to and fro. I had to restore my entire library and the library database files a number of times, but it finally works. iTunes is a great way to manage a media library, but it’s overly paternalistic, I think. I’d really like to manage things myself a bit from time to time.

Anyway, I obviously didn’t want to copy over absolutely everything to a computer I’d be using only for a few days, and 5 days later I’m finding that I’ve got all I need and don’t miss the oodles of other stuff I had on my laptop. I thought I’d make a list of stuff I just can’t live without.

• NetNewsWire. It syncs with their Web site and my BlackBerry, but I still like the desktop client with the unread dock indicator.
• PandoraJam. Need I say more? Pandora rocks.
• Photonic. I spend a lot of time perusing photos, and Flickr’s pages are hard on the old eyes after just a bit of paging. This is actually a really fabulous program for heavy Flickr users; it’s worth the registration fee compared with the free Flickr Finder.
• Quick Tag. I’m obsessive about my music collection. This donationware app allows tagging so tracks can be grouped with auto playlists into tag collections: fabulous!
• AutoRate. See above regarding obsession. This free program analyzes listening patterns to add track ratings; it works really well.
• Skype. I use this to save on daytime cell phone minutes.
• Mail Act-On. This a free Mail.app add-on that facilitates wheeling and dealing with e-mail.
• Adium. Best IM client out there for the Mac, IMHO.
• Office 2004. I don’t plan on upgrading to 2008; I am attached to my macros.
• Photoshop Elements. I just like to mess around with photos. I actually use iPhoto for most of my photo fixes, and Flickr is now integrated with Piknik, which does a surprisingly good job with quick fixes. But sometimes I just wanna get fancy.
• SuperDuper. This saved my @ss with my hard drive crash and is worth every penny! If you have a Mac, get this app. For real.

Everything else, weirdly, that I thought I just couldn’t live without it turns out I can duplicate with free Firefox extensions or just do without. I should pause to say that the new Firefox is utterly excellent: it’s notably, wickedly, faster and slicker. Most extensions have already been updated to work with it. I have been using TwitterFox for Twitter (replaces twhirl) and FoxyTunes (replaces Cover Sutra).

I installed The Missing Sync for Blackberry, but I hardly ever use it because I use Milk Sync for my task lists and Google Sync for my calendar, and they both sync over the air. I need a wired sync only for contacts, which don’t change all that often.

So there you have it. I hadn’t realized how computing “in the cloud” has changed my digital life. I’ve had a number of hard drive crashes in my lifetime of geekery, and this is the first one that slowed me down not at all, largely because I had everything but my music library somewhere on an online server. E-mail? Settings synced with dotmac. Fired up Apple Mail (with Mail Act-On downloaded) and everything was sucked onto the new computer exactly as I left it. Pics? I copied my iPhoto library, but even without that I had access to all of my pics, AND in an iPhoto-ish interface, through Photonic. RSS feeds? I just synced with the Newsgator Web site and was again left exactly the way I started. I have also now discovered Foxmarks, which lets you sync Firefox bookmarks without dotmac.

Jeez…now that I read all of this it sounds rather complicated, but trust me, this Mini is damn near empty compared with my laptop that died.