RipIt By Monte FergusonI have always been an admirer of the Keep It Simple Stupid, or KISS,
method of design. It demands a very focused approach to design. It also
forces the designer, or in this case developer, to focus on exactly what
task the product is designed to do. Once that has been decided, only
those features that accomplish the desired task are necessary. There are
few programs that live up to that ideal. But I have found one. It is
called RipIT.
Parallels Desktop 5 By Monte FergusonMacs in the enterprise world today are a very small percentage of the
computers used in business. A growing, but a minor player in the
enterprise world to be sure. That means, at some point, a business Mac
user will have to deal with a Microsoft dominated infrastructure. Most
of the Microsoft/Windows enterprise tools, such as print servers, file
servers or network authentication servers , do not support Mac clients.
To get along, you have to play along. For many that means having to run
Windows.
Dr. Seuss's ABC's By Monte FergusonI had a dilemma. My oldest child, bright and observant, had the attention span of a butterfly when it came to memorization. The more mundane the task the shorter she would participate in the activity. This was particularly true when it came to the alphabet. She knows the alphabet, at least orally. She can sing the “alphabet song” to you. The problem was getting her to understand the written letters. I knew she comprehended them. She just lost interest so quickly that we both got frustrated rapidly.
Bento 3 By Monte FergusonBento by FileMaker is designed to be a database for the organizer buried within us all. This means that the complexity of database design and creation has been eliminated, so as not to intimidate novices.
MacOS X, Snow Leopard, 10.6 By Monte FergusonSnow Leopard’s introduction was pretty low key for an Apple release. Apple introduced Snow Leopard as a “better Leopard”. Their purpose was to convey that this was not another major release with tons of new features, and potentially a bunch of new bugs. Instead this was a time for Apple to improve upon an already good foundation, in Leopard, and provide a foundation for further innovation in the future. To encourage adoption Apple also reduced the price for the upgrade to an unheard of $29.
Garage Band 09 By Monte FergusonThe iLife suite as a whole is a very approachable package. Credit for
this comes from the ease of use of the programs. It also helps that the
tasks they perform fall under a general skill set. An abundance of
natural talent is not required to make a slick DVD or web site. The
programs do much of the work for you. Not so with Garage Band. Garage
Band is the one program in the set that requires some skill or talent.
GarageBand Artist Lessons are sold separately and are available directly through the GarageBand Lesson Store in select countries.
