User Profile for adam.d.jacobs

User Name adam.d.jacobs

Member Since 2007-04-03

Total number of Feedback Posts: 6

Total number of comments: 1

Last 10 Feedback Posts by adam.d.jacobs [ Search for All ]

TextWrangler 2.2.1 (Mac OS X)

Amazingly good all-purpose text editor

I've tried a number of text editors for OS X, including Smultron, Taco Edit, Aquamacs, and the built-in TextEdit. All of them are pretty good, but TextWrangler has made them all obsolete on my machine. This is an astoundingly full-featured program with uses in many different environments. I have several different requirements for a text editor, including CSS editing, HTML blog posts, and writing command and dictionary files for Stata (a statistics package). I used to use different programs for each: Aquamacs for statistics, Smultron for CSS, Taco for HTML things. Textwrangler now handles all of those duties. Compared to other free editors, Textwrangler offers much more in the way of preferences, options, keyboard shortcuts and menus. It also has good help, and an excellent built-in tutorial. These are the sorts of things that don't always make it into one-person open-source software programs, and as much as I love those freeware endeavors this program just has a fuller feature set. As far as performance, it's very light on the memory, using barely more than finder in my 10.4 PPC setup. My summary is: all the benefits of commercial software at the freeware price. I really can't believe how good this program is, no complaints so far. [alert admin]

Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful

Thursday, November 15 2007 @ 09:50 AM PST

Stata 10 (Mac OS X)

Stata: Best choice for Mac data analysis software

I'm completing my PhD in sociology and I've had occasion to use the major statistical packages: SPSS, SAS, R and Stata. Stata is unquestionably the best of the bunch, and for Mac users there is really not even any competition. Some people love R but it's really designed for programmers more than for data analysts. I recently decided to buy a statistical package for my old Mac Powerbook, and Stata was the clear choice for the following three reasons: 1) Mac friendliness. Look on the SPSS website: you'll be able to buy an out-dated version of the software several versions behind that has been ported to Mac. SAS doesn't offer Mac software at all. R is cross-platform, of course, but I've found the learning curve to be quite steep. 2) Fair price for a VERY complete package. Not only is SPSS expensive, you need to buy extra modules to perform fairly basic analysis like binary logistic regression. I bought intercooled stata for $155 US at a student discount. You can get a one-year license for under $100 dollars. This includes the entire full-featured package with all basic statistics (descriptives, graphics, linear/poisson/logisitic/probit/multinomial regressions) plus modules for time-series, event history, data reduction, panel data, survey statistics, pretty much everything. There are four different types of stata - Small, Intercooled, SE, and MP - but unless you're dealing with datasets with more than 2,000 variables, intercooled is a good affordable option. 3) Quasi-open-source structure. You can search for user-created add-on modules within the program and install them automatically. Suppose you need to simulate data for a Box-Jenkins ARIMA model - just search and you'll find someone has added a module to do just that, so you don't need to write it yourself. The help is also excellent, although as some people have noted the large and expensive manuals would sometimes be nice to have. However, the program comes with a 150-page "getting started in Stata" book that is excellent and mac-specific. As far as I can tell, Stata 10 is quite a bit better than 9. The improvements in graphics editing alone are really noteworthy. Side note: Stata integrates very nicely with TextWrangler and Smultron; both feature text highlighting for stata .do files. Very highly recommended for anyone needing a complete statistical package. [alert admin]

Minuteur 4.7.2 (Mac OS X)

Good but with a small bug in the new one

When I was using 10.3, I discovered this product and loved it. It's minimal, reliable and has a nice clean design with just enough customizability. However, there's a problem in the newer version: when you have the volume turned off and the timer counts down, the program prompts you to locate growlhelper.app. Instead of flashing or turning the screen dark, that's all it does. When the volume is on, this problem goes away and the alarm rings and flashes as usual. So I always use it with the sound on. If that small problem could be fixed, 5 stars! [alert admin]

Read Comments (1) | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful

Tuesday, May 22 2007 @ 01:26 PM PDT

Site Studio 1.1.1 (Mac OS X)

Wonderful, now free

This is a fantastic product for beginning web design. I second all of the positive feedback here, I don't know much about webside design and it just took a few hours to get things together with this product. SiteStudio is no longer being developed, so it has become freeware instead of shareware. The drawbacks are that it only has a few templates, and it doesn't support SFTP uploading, which my server now requires. Still a great product and highly recommended for the beginner. [alert admin]

Deep Notes 2.0 (Mac OS X)

Great small app

This is a perfectly simple and wonderful app. I agree with the reviewer below, it does deserve an award. I use a different app for list management/GTD, but this app is perfect for a range of tasks - outlining papers, comprehensive grocery lists, brainstorming ideas. The keyboard shortcuts are great. I _like_ the lack of customizability - you can spend too much time deciding how far you want indents to be, whether you want dots or numbers for sub-items, etc. No decisions here, and that's great. Export to text works well in my limited experience. [alert admin]

iGTD 1.4.0.1 (Mac OS X)

It is powerful

This is an amazing bit of freeware. Frequently updated, nice interface, tons of keyboard shortcuts, and good documentation. I shopped around for list manager/GTD programs and I haven't found anything better than this. The menubar icon is excellent, and there are several other options for quickly adding tasks or pieces of information (quicksilver integration, keyboard shortcuts for safari, mail, finder). I haven't used the growl support, but that seems like a nice touch too. Recommended all the way. [alert admin]

Post a comment | More Info | 3 of 3 users found this helpful

Thursday, May 17 2007 @ 09:03 AM PDT

Last 10 Comments by adam.d.jacobs [ Search for All ]

Very impressive!

I had that extra "new task" problem too - it's not a bug, though. You've accidentally turned on "quick entry mode" by hitting apple-\. Look in the edit menu and turn off quick entry mode, and this will go away. Took me a while to figure that out but I'm pretty sure that's where your problem comes from.

Original feedback item : Read More

Saturday, December 22 2007 @ 03:29 PM PST