Acorn image editor

Acorn is a simple image editor for Macintosh that I've been using for the last year or so. When my old version of Photoshop stopped working in Mac OS X Lion, I went looking for an alternative to upgrading the expensive and complex Adobe Photoshop.

Acorn fits the bill nicely. Even with my very modest Photoshop skills, I was able to get up to speed quickly. It supports the key features I rely on like layers, filters, masking, and the ability to scale and manipulate images. So far, I haven't found anything I've wanted to do that I couldn't do in Acorn.

At $49, its tough to beat the price.

--John Newhoff

The IT Crowd

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” 

Each time I hear this famous tagline from the British TV series, the IT crowd, it makes me laugh. The IT Crowd is a witty comedy set in the IT department of a London corporation. Moss and Roy are your “standard nerds”, answering support calls from their office in the basement of the building. They are portrayed as outcasts, shunned by the rest of the company for their nerdiness. Resentful at their lack of recognition but proud of their intellectual skill set, their world is thrown into a tailspin when Jen comes along.  She is hired as the IT manager but knows nothing about computers, not even what IT stands for (See season 3, episode 3)!  The hijinks that follow make this situational comedy where two worlds collide a complete joy to watch.  For a laugh and a look into the life of nerds, check it out streaming on Netflix or here for free.

- Kate Wheeler

Check out this clip from the first episode to see what I mean!

Puttanesca

Nothing remotely technical about this post. Below is my Puttanesca recipe, pretty much my favorite pasta dish, which I just made for dinner. I like it spicy, so cut down on the red pepper if you like things mild. Don't leave out or cut down on the anchovy, you can't really taste it, but it adds a great flavor. If you want some extra entertainment, do a web search on the origins of this dish.

-- John Newhoff

Puttanesca

1 Can Anchovies, mashed
1/4 cup OliveOil
1 Med Onion
1.5  tsp Crushed Chili Pepper
3 cloves garlic, green,crushed
28 oz can of crushed tomato
1/2 cup olives (any kind, but I like a mix of green, greek, kalamata, etc…)
2 tbsp capers
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/8 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp dried basil

 Brown onions in olive oil, add garlic and mashed anchovies, stir until dissolved.

 Stir in capers, red pepper, olives, cook 1 minute

 Add basil, oregano, and tomatoes. Bring to slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes.

 Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Serve with pasta of your choice and parmesan cheese.

FeedMyInbox.com

I've used Google Reader for some time to read RSS feeds and while it is perfectly adequate for this task, I wanted something that would send me the data via email as soon as it was posted, rather than having to open up Google Reader periodically to see new posts or monitor the feed in my Mac OS X Mail client.

After looking all over I couldn't find any option for this in Google Reader and finally ended up with a web site called FeedMyInbox.com. It does the very simple task of monitoring the RSS feeds I give it and emailing me when a new post appears. You can have it send you each new post as it appears, or a daily summary. FeedMyInbox lets you monitor up to 5 RSS feeds for free, after that they start charging for the service at varying rates. I find this service especially useful for monitoring items for sale on craigslist. It lets me quickly respond to new posts.

I’m actually picking up a small utility trailer today that I found via FeedMyInbox and Craigslist.

--John Newhoff