This is the approach I took when I started my job a few months ago. Laughing at perfection is all well and good, but so far it has mostly resulted in having to do more to make up for it. I prefer to qualify it as an asymptote: you can get infinitely close but never reach it, but you need to get close enough that it…

VOTE: FastMail.fm file storage.

I set one of these up at work using Yawcam. It works pretty well, but it's not a perfect solution. We ultimately decided to get a Logitech IP cam, too. It's not cheap (~$200) but for protecting your computers, TV, and other valuables it's a worthwhile investment. It's a quality camera with 2-way audio and a movable…

As with most pieces of software like this, it's something you can definitely do without. Of course, Blast is focused on doing one thing well and might be the right tool for someone else's workflow.

I've tried all of the above and settled on LaunchBar. Since LaunchBar doesn't fit with Lifehacker's (usually) free approach, I'd recommend Alfred instead. It's much easier to get started with than anything of similar power and scales very well as you get more experienced. The devs are also dedicated and reliable, and…

Thanks. Turns out you're right (unfortunately). Oh well—thank goodness for a good return policy.

I've decided to wait on upgrading for the time being. I'm using a 2008 model MacBook with 2GB RAM, and it has to work hard just to handle 10.6. While I've tried to find fresh RAM, the stuff I bought from Amazon has turned out to be incompatible (Kingston 1066 DDR3 SDIMM 2x2GB—the notch in the edge is in the wrong…

VOTE: Google Calendar

I'm about to move out of my college housing and into a new apartment in the city. It's unfurnished, so I'll be shopping for myself for the first time. I've learned from experience that a good bed is the most important single piece of furniture, but I'm not sure how/where to find a good one. How do you shop for beds?…

My experience exactly. I'm currently trying the latest upgrade to Alfred, but I think I'm headed back to Launchbar soon for the better clipboard history and actions. It takes some time, but I think it's worth the investment (and the money, too, though I bought it half off from MacUpdate Promo).

I recently switched to Safari from Firefox as an experiment. Odd thing is, I seem to have two installs of LastPass (which I'm deleting in favor of 1Password). One shows up in the extensions menu, and I have disabled it. The other doesn't appear anywhere and won't go away, even if I remove the item or customize the…

My internship placement's computers couldn't do Ctrl-C or Ctrl-V, so I did it out of necessity for a while (not clear why).

Non-scientifically I'll say it's a good idea to keep it as head on as possible. I have a laptop on a stand at a slight angle and an external monitor that I keep dead center because of its great screen real estate, and looking at the laptop for any length of time is a pain. You may not feel it in your neck, though—I…

I switch between Launchbar and Alfred on a pretty regular basis. Launchbar's complexity tends to be its downfall, and I like Alfred's clean interface. The Powerpack is a must for Alfred, especially for the improved iTunes integration and clipboard history. While not as powerful as Launchbar's ability to work with…

The TARDIS USB hub from ThinkGeek makes an excellent desktop addition :D

You can also show a Scripts item in your menu bar. Just open up the AppleScript Editor and hit AppleScript Editor > Preferences > Show script item in menu bar. It gives you dropdown access to all your scripts. Then just link your scripts up with your launcher of choice to fast, easy script launching with your scripts…

This works pretty well for students, too. Many, like me, find themselves forming campus groups and heading up large projects. Focusing on individual tasks for each project is a good start. Filtering your obligations and making sure you don't lead the Campus Democrats, Society of Women Engineers, Sci-Fi Club, and…

I'm not sure how Renzo's comment is a reply to mine, but Adam is right on.

Kiwi is a good Twitter app I heard about from Whitson, I believe. The price recently dropped to $0.99, but there's also a free, ad-supported version. Kiwi's themes and tearable tabs/windows are pretty nice and quite handy for getting a look at what's going on in the Twitter world. My only complaint is that lists…

"but it does give you a vit more vertical space" that should probably be "bit." #corrections