Stuff 'n Junk, 2011
Some cool things I discovered this year…
For the past three years or so, I'd been working off a 15" MacBook Pro, and it was an absolute work-horse of a machine. With the introduction of Lion, and Xcode 4.x, the MBP started to become a little sluggish and couldn't keep up with the demands of my daily development duties (alliteration FTW).
I'd spent a lot of time researching which Mac to buy next and had originally planned to pick up an iMac for the extra horsepower and use my iPad as a travel "computer". However, once Apple released the i7 MacBook Air, a lot of other developers made the switch and were singing its praises. The allure of an ultra-portable Mac, with SSD, and an extremely powerful CPU were just too much to resist. I picked up the maxed out 13" i7 model and can confidently say that it is the best machine I have ever owned.
A simple-yet-powerful framework that makes it easy for web-luddites like myself to build web services. I learned the basics using this ebook and some online video tutorials. Thanks to RoR, I no longer have to pay licensing fees for Windows Server (it can run on Linux, Mac, or Windows), and I can quickly prototype and test services directly on my Mac. (I actually started with RoR last year, but built my first full-scale service this year - Muud.io).
Cloud-based VPS provider with a large number of Linux images to choose from. Pricing is good, uptime is great, and the community/documentation is fantastic. Linode also provide load-balancing services, called NodeBalancers, as well as an iPhone app to manage your servers and DNS entries.
I've only had this for a few days, but it's a service that I've been wanting Apple to provide for years. I no longer have to carry around an external USB drive containing my music library - it's all in the cloud, saving over 50GB on my MacBook Air's SSD. I can stream music to my MBP, and download on-the-fly to all of my iOS 5 devices.
I may have actually discovered 5by5 last year, but it became an integral part of my daily routine over the past year. The shows are great, Dan Benjamin is an excellent host - some of my favourite shows are: The Talk Show, Back to Work, Build and Analyze, The Critical Path, Founders Talk.
The Verge, The Vergecast, On The Verge
Everything I loved about Engadget - in-depth reviews and editorials, quirky sense of humour, and an hilarious podcast - combined with a new sense of style and some excellent video segments.
I use Gmail a lot and had previously plugged my accounts into Apple's Mail app. Sparrow brings some of Gmail's best features to a native client. The UI is somewhat of an acquired taste, but it works well for me.
A much simpler way to enter data into iCal. Just type plain text and Fantastical will parse it into a meaningful iCal event.
Use a single password to manage random passwords for every site that you sign up for. Very clever, if a little awkward sometimes. Still, much easier than resetting forgotten passwords…
Online accounting software that allows me to input transaction data and forget about the rest. If you're running a small business, definitely give it a try.
Film & TV
Disclaimer: I missed a lot of big movies this year!
The Guard - Comical caricature of Irish mentality.
Super 8 - Nostalgic, creature movie.
Attack the Block - Like Shaun of the Dead, but with aliens.
The Walking Dead - Zombies! Horror! Intense!
Boardwalk Empire - The Sopranos, set in Atlantic City during the prohibition era.
Community - Hilarious, geeky comedy, set in a community college.
Various new music
Another disclaimer: I didn't get to try out a lot of new music this year either.
Death Cab for Cutie- Codes and Keys
The Decemberists- The King is Dead
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
Pretty much everything Apple did this year
iOS 5, iCloud, Siri - too much awesome for one year! Except for Lion; let's not open that can of worms right now ;)