I’m always interested in seeing other people’s setups and workflows. I almost always learn about a new piece of software or different way of doing things. So, inspired by a recent series of posts on waferbaby.com called THE SETUP, I decided to present my own.

Hardware:

I use a 20″ 2GHz iMac (aluminum) with 3GB RAM running 10.5.6, an external 22″ monitor, a Logitech MX Revolution mouse and a Apple aluminum keyboard. Modest hardware, but plenty of power for web development.

Software:

I’ve never been a fan of virtual workspaces until Leopard came out with Spaces, and even then, the kinks didn’t really get worked out until about 10.5.3. But now they’re an integral part of my daily workflow. I rarely have to minimize windows to try to find what I’m looking for, I can just switch spaces. With 2 monitors and 4 spaces, I usually have enough room to keep everything open at the same time without overlapping. I highly recommend taking another look at Spaces if you’ve avoided virtual workspaces in the past. I use Spaces mainly to partition apps into different tasks, so I’ll breakdown software I use by task.

Space 1: Administrative

In this space, I keep iChat, Mail, Gmail (in a Fluid SSB) and Safari with Basecamp and Harvest open in tabs. These are basically all the apps I use for basic communication and administrative tasks.

Space 2: Development

I’m a developer, so this by far where I spend most of my time. The most important here is TextMate, which is where most of my day is spent. By far the best and most customizable text editor I ever found. I use TextMate with the Railscasts theme since I much prefer light text on dark background when coding all day. Next is Firefox with Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar extensions. My workflow is a lot of switching between TextMate and Firefox, coding and debugging. Firebug alone is why I use Firefox over another browser since it makes debugging web apps so much easier. I’m constantly outputting things to the console, viewing ajax requests, and checking how css styles are being applied.

I usually always have Terminal with a few tabs open for ssh’ing into a server, using subversion, or tailing some rails logs, and I use Transmit when I need to work off a remote server. I also use Sequel Pro for connecting to MySQL when possible.

Space 3: Design/Virtual Machines

I don’t spend a lot of time in this space, except for getting images from a design. For that I use Fireworks CS3 which I’m not a big fan off, but I hear CS4 is much improved. Also, in this space, I use VirtualBox with a Windows XP virtual machine for testing in IE6 and other windows browsers. VirtualBox may not be as full featured as Parallels or VMWare Fusion, but it’s free, open source, and so far I haven’t had any issues. It’s been working like a champ.

Space 4: Misc

In this space I keep iTunes, NetNewsWire, and Twitterific open. These are mostly some random apps that don’t fit anywhere else, but seem to go together.

Other

There are also some utility apps that I don’t use in a particular space, but can’t live without like QuickSilver and Growl. I also use The Unarchiver which is a great utitlity for uncompressing just about any type of file.

I think that about covers it for me. What does your setup look like?

I was fortunate (or lucky) enough to sit down via Skype with the charming hosts of Lucky Startups the other day (Aronando Placencia and Dennis Lankes), and chat about Fly-Post. Fly-Post is a project that started over a year ago, born out of a conversation about missing the “good old days” of looking at telephone poles to find out what was going on in the hood, via the flyer. It just kept nagging at us, the flyer, how the flyer wasn’t being accurately represented anywhere online, it needed a place to love and cherish it. Enter Fly-Post.com.

We worked on this site for about a year and finally launched it in beta a few weeks ago. We now look forward to seeing it grow and flourish and help promote the art and utility of the flyer, hopefully for your home town. Enough from me, check out the interview, and go post a flyer!

Cutting it close

The nail clipper, a highly specialized grooming utensil, is the would-be epitome of efficiency in design. It’s compact, efficient, and boasts impressive Swiss Army Knife-like transformation abilities, but the very attributes that should make it perfectly suited to its purpose are the ones that ultimately stand out as its flaws.

The Cutting Edge

The clipper part of the nail clipper is basically a small curve. While the human finger- or toenail has a natural curvature, it is the relative size of the blade to the nail that makes it impossible to cut all but the smallest nail in a single, clean clip. Larger nails end up butchered by the need to double and sometimes triple clip to correct uneven cuts and points.

The only real way to avoid mangling a nail is to slowly clip across with great precision, but nail maintenance is a chore — not a delight to be savored. Nobody wants to spend a prolonged period of time hunched over one’s feet, crunched up in that strange fetal position. (The one where your leg is crushing into your chest and your knee is cutting off your air supply as you’re forced to push it into your neck to see what you’re doing.)

The Nail File

Cleverly tucked away beneath the clippers is a small tool that barely passes as a nail file; its intersecting lines scored into metal cannot produce the texture or grit to actually accomplish the task of filing a human nail. The curved protrusion at the end of the file intended for cleaning under the surface of the nail is at best intimidating; shoving a sharp object underneath a nail sounds more like torture than grooming. No wonder they break them off at airport security.

With the help of a thoughtful designer, we might see a more effective tool that’s a great deal closer to what cutting a nail should be: quick and painless.

How would you change the flawed nail clipper into a sleek grooming tool?

In response to Garret Ohm’s blog post on Orange Element’s blog, in response to being tagged by Darryl Ohrt in his “7 Things” meme, my challenge is to share 7 things about me that I feel you should know, and then choose 7 people to go and do the same. Here we go:

1. My religion is painting. I have a BFA and MFA in painting, and have been at it since I was 15 years old. Without painting, I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am today, and if I don’t carve out adequate time to make art, I turn into a boring, cranky, uninspired person. When I graduated in 1993, I was awarded the Agnes Gund Award, the top honor from my undergrad, Cleveland Institute of Art, so I feel a bit of an obligation to one day leave an impact on the art world in some manner.

2. I hate talk with no action, conclusion or outcome. If it’s not worth doing or figuring out, it’s not worth talking about. Nothing irritates me more than aimless conversation with no real purpose.

3. I have had to work hard to learn to say “No”. As a natural people pleaser, I have gotten stuck being pulled in too many directions, and not having time for things that are important to me. Saying “no” is the best remedy.

4. In contrast to the above point, I hate having idle time unless its a weekend or I am on vacation. When I am working (that can mean business, studio, any number of things), I find that if I have 3 things to get done, I will get 2 done. If I have 10 things to get done, I will get 7 done. Getting 7 things done feels better than getting 2 things done, so I like to stay busy.

5. I believe in good karma, and while I am an extremely competitive person, I also believe how you treat others and conduct yourself in business and in life matters greatly in the big scheme of things.

6. If I hadn’t decided to pursue art for my undergraduate studies, I would have pursued a pre-law program or a writing program, and ultimately would have hoped to become a prosecuting attorney for civil rights injustices, or written fiction novels.

7. Having started my own business, stress has been a constant companion over the years. I have learned to combat that stress by compartmentalizing work issues, so I leave them at the office, and I always remind myself, while it is very satisfying, fun and important work that we do here, it’s not brain surgery. If something goes wrong, we can correct it. In fact, with the Internet, it’s never really finished anyhow!

7 People I would like to know 7 things about that I don’t already know:

Susan Anthony
Hollis Thomases
Brad Johnson
Guy Kawasaki
Malcolm Gladwell
Julie Rubin
Aaron Moore

BALTIMORE, Md. (January 5, 2009) — Fastspot, an interactive agency headquartered in Baltimore, Md., has launched a second awards Web site that features social media tools, according to Tracey Halvorsen, creative director and principal.

The Baker Artists Awards, a competition established in 2008 by the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, is open to artists working in a variety of disciplines and media such as painters, writers, musicians and sculptors and who reside in the city of Baltimore as well as the five surrounding counties.

In addition to social media tools such as online voting, a comment area for each nominated artist, and e-mail alerts, the site features a gallery format similar to that found in a museum.

The artists are vying for several cash prizes of at least $20,000 each as the result of a private juried process. Additionally the general public is voting on the Baker Artists Award site for their favorite artists to receive one of two Baltimore Choice awards with cash prizes totaling $5,000.

“We designed the site to make it easy for artists to nominate themselves,” Halvorsen said. “They simply hit a button and upload their portfolio along with descriptions of their work and their bios. They can also add new work to their online portfolio. And we made voting just as easy.”

For example, people can vote for more than one artist as well as track votes. Additionally, they can receive e-mail alerts when artists have added new work to their online portfolio.

“An exciting by-product of the concept and design of the site is the exposure that the general public and the artists have to the amazing talent we are fortunate to have in the greater Baltimore area,”Halvorsen said.

Nominations continue to be accepted until February 1 and winners will be announced in March.

In 2006, Fastspot pioneered the use of social media tools for awards programs when it conceived, designed and programmed the Web site for the People’s Design Award for the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City.

Early in the first year of this award, the site was mentioned on the home page of Yahoo.com resulting in 4 million unique visitors in a single day. Now in its third year, the site continues to receive thousands of nominations and tens of thousands of votes.

About Fastspot
Fastspot is a premiere interactive agency, widely recognized for its strategic award-winning work, collaborative approach with its clients and its ability to deliver successful, long-lasting solutions. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm works with clients across the country who seek to develop highly creative and complex marketing, advertising or business solutions. The firm has a particular expertise working with associations, colleges and universities, museums and cultural organizations, architectural and technology firms. For more information, visit http://www.fastspot.com.