Why Can't Growl Actually Work?

So there's this great application for the Mac called Growl.  In my opinion this is a must have for all mac users.  It adds great functionality to nearly all applications either through built-in support or through outside plugins and applications.  Growl itself mimics the built in feature of outlook to pop a notification (on the right I believe) when an email is received through Microsoft Exchange email.  The difference is that this service works for EVERYTHING you can think of.

Pretty much every application out there has a plugin of some sort to function with growl.  For fb it can tell you when someone writes on your wall or sends you a message or whatever, for gmail it tells you when you receive an email.  With iChat or Adium, when someone IM's you and when someone signs online.  There's a plugin for iTunes to display a popup with the song info when you're playing a new song.

Essentially Growl is really handy for notifications.  However, unfortunately, it isn't perfect.  Growl freezes constantly for me (sometimes every hour, and when this happens it hogs my computer's CPU).  This is a major problem.

While I do love Growl, I wish it worked better so that I could actually rely on it successfully.

Caffeine: Your Mac Needs Some Too

So pretty much all of us watch TV and movies on our computer or make presentations in front of large groups using a projector.  It's happened to all of us: your computer goes to sleep at precisely the wrong moment and screws everything up.

That's why you use caffeine.  It's a small application that essentially consists of a cup of coffee on the menu bar.  You click it, and your computer won't go to sleep.  Click it again and you turn it off.

The application even has a couple cool ways to customize how your computer goes to sleep so that it's perfect.

With caffeine, you'll never have your computer go to sleep at the wrong time.

What's Your Mac Missing?

So after a bunch of people have asked me what apps they should get for their (usually new) macs and such, I decided I should probably start actually recording this information rather than just tell everyone verbally.  That way I don't have to keep telling everyone the same information and I can avoid forgetting awesome apps.

Therefore I'm gonna be starting a new line of posts with the label "Mac Must Have" signifying it's an awesome app you should probably set up for your application.  I'll also comment Mac related informational posts with this tag when relevant (such as a post on how to get your google voice number ringing on your mac).

So here's the important aspect:
Click here to see all posts on this topic.

Coming up: Caffeine.

Stack Master for iPhone Review

So I was lucky enough to get a promo code from zinc Roe, Inc.'s twitter to test out one of their newest iPhone games, Stack Master, over the weekend.  Obviously I've been playing it non-stop all weekend, and truthfully I've been loving it.


The game has a pretty simple premise:
You have crazy mind-control powers, and you can balance objects in the air.  Your goal is to stack as many objects on top of your platter without having them fall.  The catch, you lose your mental power over time, and you gotta keep the stacks balanced too.  Just to make things worse, they have a spiral-thingy that makes you lose your powers even faster, and a crazy huge black cat that's meant to distract you like crazy.

I really enjoyed the game, and found that it was fairly reasonable since you could get to around 8 or 9 objects within your first few tries.  It was a challenge, though possible (as you can see from my awesome high score!).  I personally am not one to just sit around and play video games or games on my iPhone on a regular basis since I am not obsessed with them, and I'm not really too good at them (this is part of why I'm shocked at how I'm so high in the world standings and don't really believe it).

Pretty much all video games I play on my phone fall into two categories.  1) Commute games: games that I can play on the train or bus and do not need extreme precision/balance.  This includes 1to30, Flood-It!, Hangman, etc.  2) Waiting Games: games that are fun and don't take too long to play since I often have to end them really quickly or suddenly.  This includes BikeOrDie, Labyrinth, MazeFinger, Archers, etc.  Stack Master definitely falls into the "Waiting Games" category although that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I just sadly cannot play it while on transit.

This isn't a bad thing, it's really important to have good games to play while you're waiting for your really late or irresponsible friends.

I just had two complaints.  A lot of the control buttons (such as the ones on the leader board) were two small for my fingers.  Also, in the beginning there were a ton of energy boosters (many more than I needed), but I found that at a certain point my problem was just that the replenishers just didn't come often enough, no matter how high my stack was, and I constantly died at around the same time-point which was fairly annoying.

I've attached my high score just to prove I was number two in the world!!!

My analysis:  totally buy this game, it's a bunch of fun, and I would recommend everyone buy it!