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A few weeks ago, I reinstalled Mac OS X Leopard after one year of experiencing my first non-Windows environment. Not that I needed to fix something, but simply I wanted to set the optimal environment which I’ve learned by trials.

So far, it has been very satisfying, and owning a machine which allows me to have both Mac and Windows worlds for development is purely exhilarating.

To be honest, I don’t have anything against Windows environment. Rather, it’s because I still can have Windows in a Mac machine, I decided to get one, so I can obtain the privilege to use Mac OS X(Unix) and Windows together. For acquiring this environment, I figured Mac could be the only machine, unless I hack something.

It has been great joy to find more about Mac and useful equipments for the developers and to train myself to become better at them.

This is the list of applications I was recommended by great blog posts, and would strongly recommend to other Mac users, especially to the new developers who has experienced Mac for no more than a year like myself. I personally use these, some are available also in Windows, and of course, they are free.

Xcode:

There is no other IDE for developing an application for Mac OS and iPhone. Unlike Microsoft’s expensive Visual Studio, you can get it for free, as included in Mac machine you purchased. You may have to pay for iPhone Developer’s Program if you want to use an actual device for testing and deployment, but to use only simulator you can get Xcode with iPhone SDK for free. Currently, I am enjoying so much time to master this great tool.

Eclipse:

I cannot say much about this, but it seems like this IDE is a must for Java or other popular language developers, almost in every environment. Though I’ve been using it less then I expected because of using Xcode and Aptana more, I think nobody can ignore the importance of its presence in a developer’s machine.

Aptana:

Using almost identical user interface as Eclipse, this tool is specialized in web development. Whenever I need to write a web program, rather than using Eclipse, I use Aptana. So I designated Aptana for web development, and Eclipse for Java.

TextWrangler:

I just can’t find any other editor better than this for Mac environment. This one has almost every feature a developer can ask for. My use of an editor is to modify codes already written, while IDEs are for writing new codes, because they provide code suggestions while typing. Together with TextWrangler, I can have a mini and quick IDE for anything.

DropBox:

If you are in the situation of using more than one computer in many places, DropBox folder is a must. Though it gives only 2GB to be used for free, it’s sufficient to synchronize your working files to be shared among your office computer and home computer. This synchronization is very powerful if you save your workspace of Eclipse or Aptana in DropBox folder, you can have same coding environment shared among the computers accessing the same DropBox folder.

FileZilla:

So far I’ve been using only this one, because it seems to be the simplest and the fastest. I strongly recommend this for its bookmark and folder synchronization features.

XMind:

This is a great tool for building a beautiful mind map of your own. To me, the user interface and icon are simple and pretty.

NTFS-3G for Mac:

Since I use Windows also, it’s necessary to be able to access NTFS-3G formatted disk. You may use FAT32 format to be used in both Mac OS X and Windows, but it’s doesn’t allow a single file to be bigger than 4GB. Using this, you can stay in Mac OS X mainly while accessing Windows file system freely.

SynergyKM:

I use more than one computers. If I want to use all of them on the same desk, it’s necessary to use only one keyboard and mouse to be free from annoyance of interchanging between different keyboards and mouses. This app allows to share keyboard and mouse with multiple computers using different OSes. As long as the computers are in the same network, knowing the IP address or the computer name of the main(server) computer which will share its keyboard and mouse is suffice.

Can anyone recommend more apps, or the better alternatives to these, especially for the developers using Mac? I would love to get some comment. Thank you!

My last post was published on August 29th, re-posting other blogger’s post. It was difficulty to balance working for others(company) and working for myself. (if they can be distinguished.)

I’ve been busy working for the company, learning and trying fundamentally important subjects. Learning new things, often with so little resources, without a personal assistance or a dedicated mentor, I’m humbled and grateful that my working environment does not simply consume my talent, but rather trains me to become more knowledgeable and pragmatically skillful.

Initially, my team was focused on iPhone development, following the latest craze, but unfortunately due to lack of preparation, the project is now canceled. It’s hard to ignore the importance of knowing exactly what to do before trying anything.

Currently, I’m actively leading an open source project, in the category of ECMS, using the famous Alfresco. For now, only I can do is utilizing it with addition of Korean language, but I hope sometime sooner my team and I can commit some meaningful contribution to the source.

Tried to blog, saved some drafts with the interesting ideas, but being not so confident enough to write without full knowledge about the subjects, prevented me from publishing. Maybe I am being too careful, or being simply procrastinating. Well, in a good way, Twitter being the useful micro blogging can be the understandable excuse.

As I got used to the professional work environment and pace, I think now I can find the time to blog more regularly, possibly at least once a week. What I strive to get is to be efficient in managing time economically for working for other and myself.

Though it has been too busy and difficult to make time for myself, I am glad that my professional experience has been enriching, meaningful enough to share with others.

Melted Ice Cream from DisplayFakeFoods

For many days, I had been seriously considering to register a domain for my web development. Finally, after many days of speculation, I had come up with almost perfect domain name. It was about two weeks ago. At the time, registration for one year was priced about $7.99. However, because of my personal reason, I hesitated to obtain it thinking there might be better options. I was wrong. And now it costs about $59.99 for one year.

I couldn’t understand what happened to me. The price that I saw about two weeks ago was sale price and I didn’t know well about the price difference in registering .at, an Austrian domain. In other words, I wasn’t fully informed about domain pricing and business. I can’t help but still thinking what if I didn’t hesitate to register the domain at the moment of conceiving the domain name.

Another lesson I learned is about the danger of procrastination. My hosting company sent me an email about its affiliate program offering $10 for putting the banner linked to its website. Not reading the details of the email, I thought about doing it a few days later. But the email offer was valid only for 3 days. Noticing how easy it was like notifying the hosting company that I put the banner in my website, I was embarrassed to ignore the value of $10 which can be used for supporting my hosting charges. Lost the easy money.

Here I would like to stress the reasons why hesitation or procrastination is ALWAYS BAD:

It happens because one is not informed enough.

Due to having narrow viewpoint or stereotypical idea, one cannot act even though the decision to do it needs to be made as soon as possible to progress the task.

It cannot be replaced by better activities.

To be honest, I cannot confidently say I always did something better or meaningful things while in the state of hesitation of procrastination.

You cannot expect the future.

Accidents happen and the remaining time becomes so much shorter than anticipated.Often it’s caused by other factors, but blaming them is not the right excuse for lack of preparing for accidents.

It leads to abandoning the initial plan.

Unless I had the strong need and will to obtain the domain name before it was too late, I would’ve abandoned my plan for developing a web service. It frightens me how shameful and regretful it could be.

It is not a good thing to talk about.

Almost nobody wants to hear about the reasons or excuses for hesitation or procrastination state. The professionals working together will definitely think negatively about the one who is mindlessly talking about what he or she could do if he or she had enough time but didn’t.

Does anyone think differently? What’s differences between hesitation and procrastination? What are your experiences? Can anyone likes to suggest links?

Picture: "Keep Thinking" from thinkinTub

Examining myself very closely, my recent difficulty in blogging is not because I am a total recluse who doesn’t like to share with anyone about anything. Or I can make it worse by labeling myself as a lazy person, but it’s not actually true considering what’s going on in my mind. I do have some topics in mind, but somehow it’s just not as easy to share them with the public as I thought it would. It seems to be a methodical, or a situational problem which I must learn to deal with using the solutions from the experienced bloggers and developers. There are what I suspect to be reasons or excuses for my lack of blogging.

Preoccupied in doing a project. But it’s not ready to be opened and shared yet.

• Because I want to keep it as a secret.
• Still the project in the conceptualizing phase which is still too abstract even to myself.
• Waiting for internal and external encouragement on this, to solidify confidence in the project.

I guess this waiting is the major cause preventing me from actual progression. Also, without opening the minimum information about the project, how can I expect to learn anything from the experienced developers whom I can meet and interact through blogging? I must learn to present and communicate well with the experienced developers.

I am not tuned to the current events.

• Not because I intentionally ignore them, but simply I just want to distinguish facts from opinions and it’s taking some time.
• Due to my lack of professional insight, what I can blog about current events is only the repetition of what’s already there with a little bit of my simple thoughts. It’s not a real contribution in my measure.

To gain more professional and unique insight, it would take a lot of reading and speculating, challenging me to build and re-build knowledge basis. This task must be taken quite seriously and I need find the right way to do it.

I need to have more reading and watching to expand my knowledge and imaginations, which cannot be limited in web browsing.

• Embarrassingly, I began to understand the need to have more various activities including something entirely different from or even against one’s field of study, in my case it’s Computer Science.
• Narrowed perspective, intentionally or unintentionally gained prevent one from developing and sharing his or her experiences or thoughts with others.

I am thinking about having more knowledge in film making, English learning, Bible study, social servitude, and unknown other possibilities. The additional solution is to meet more people from various interests. Though I don’t neglect the value of socializing, it’s been hard for me to be more proactive.

Not utilizing the notes in my journal.

• As a proof for not being lazy, I’ve been keeping journals. However, almost none of the notes are used in blogging. Because of excessive filtering not to jeopardize my private notes, my record keeping has contributed so little for my blogging.
• But most of all, I think it’s lack of confidence in my notes that prevented me to review them more carefully to find the value.

The worst thing that I found while writing this blog, blogging infrequency is the consequence of not following the plan as it is scheduled. Procrastination is the worst kind of enemy for developers and bloggers like myself. It’s not only about unable to do something, but also about taking away the opportunity to do something else, possibly better and more important thing.

And I must free myself from fear of not becoming a responsible contributor. Accepting my current status of being a student of life and knowledge without any set date for graduation, must not be ashamed of utilizing the resources from others especially the open information and I must understand that mature blogging experience require so many trials and error.

In conclusion, not only for my blogging but also for other activities, I must embrace beauty of making mistakes and learning from these valuable experiences.

UPDATE(2009/08/04 16:31) Found a good article related to this blogging problem. [CopyBlogger] The Most Horrible Blog Post Ever

I’ve been always so grateful for my parents.

Unusually, my Dad and I share so much. Not only we share the almost identical appearance, but also the characters and the principles too. I thank for his active influence on me even after entering my adulthood, which is often the phase that most dads stop dealing with their children.

Together we coined a new term: A Techno-Servant. Since I proposed my value, my reason in pursuing the career in technology to be helping those in need, using latest Free-Open-Easy technology, my dad encouraged me to develop a term, some kind of an acronym which will concisely deliver the value of my goal. It came to me so suddenly and I was so happy to share it with him for the first time.

No matter how long or redundant, having conversation with one’s parents is always precious. I just begun to enjoy it with some productive outcome like the new term we developed today. But I will keep enjoying it simply because they are my parent.

I just installed WordPress locally. I will set up a hosted place and synchronize the contents.

I will keep the track of my personal development in the area of programming and productivity skills. Stay sharp and focused.

This project must start by specifically set the goals and execute the necessary processes.

Both setting the goals and executing is quite difficult for me. I feel so embarrassed to myself. Can’t focus on one thing and feel some satisfaction at the beginning. I guess it’s wrong to expect some satisfaction first.

Maybe I can open up my room to bring people in here. While we are playing for the night, I can still show them what I am working on. That’s the reason why I have this big room. To fill it with people.
Never be afraid to ask for help, especially to those in church and academia. This project is worth by its attempt, process, not by its end result only. This will be a good story we can tell to anyone who is interested in hiring us. Challenging ourselves with the limited resouces, time, personnel, and yet proving that this project can be done, it will be a good story people will want to follow and imitate. The project done not by the professionals, but by a group of volunteers. Our working will surely be rewarded. Please help us.

Rewriting what I might have already written in my journal in this blog is not as fun as it sounded to be. But if I can type at the speed of thought without any hesitation, not wasting any second, it will be a good practice to develop my skills in communication. If it cannot be oral conversation face to face, I pray that it will be my writing that can be noticed, appreciated, and admired, even from the native English speakers.

So, I’m hyped up to write more. The paragraph which is like the above one can help me to warm up the motivation for writing, loosen the strained fingers for rapid typing. Anyway… I am just grateful that I’m granted to be have this talent. Help me to use it for good of the people and You.

Considering the late persecution toward us Christians, I suspect it’s because of our mistakes that were intentionally or unintentionally committed against our fellow Christians and even the other non-believers. Maybe this era of veracity, truth-revealing is for commanding us to beg forgiveness from You and from other fellow human beings. This is the opportunity to serve the others to prove our belief in You, amend the mistakes, and spread Your word through our contribution. We may fight against those who attack Your Law, but only using the means of words, discussion, examples, practices, and patience. Using the physical, vehement force will harm us worse than we worried it to be. Please help us.

I am assigned to share a room with a stranger. It was something I wanted to avoid, but I must not forget some financial, psychological benefit. I can save about $200 a month, and being with someone can help me not to do anything wrong or shameful. But I must pray for meeting the person with good character, whom can be trusted easily, and will not frustrate me when I want to be Your people. Before making hasty judgment to the person I never met, I know I must evaluate my true characteristics. But at least, I don’t want to define him to be a stumbling block. On the other hand, I may have to look for other place to set the optimal environment to finish college without making any mistakes. Time and space is scarce, and I need to solve the efficiency and the economical problems during my stay in Stillwater. Strengthen me to accept, adapt to any kind of environment or limitation.

Having a heavily raining day, everything seems to be dampened, and my skin is itchy; irritating. Hate this kind of weather which prevents me many activities.

Adhering to the schedule in my calendar is not as easy as I though it would be. Living too freely, I often change the plan too easily. Google Calendar is not a bad scheduling utility, however, it should be more flexible, responsive to the imperfection of human behaviors. Making the system that expects to be modified frequently is the key factor to be considered by schedule programs. Easy postponing the events to next day is much needed.

Set up the bookkeeping in Google Docs Spreadsheet. It was first time using it, and the existence of the essential functions did satisfy my needs. Having the advanced experience with the Excel, it was easy to judge the usability of Google Spreadsheet. I liked the simple standardized formula writing, which weren’t too much different from the popular Excel way. Most of all, it’s online and I can access anywhere with the internet connection.

Started detailed bookkeeping. Currently my balance is negative and there is no expectation for any kind of income. But the main purpose of bookkeeping is to track every detail of my expenditure, thus tracking my life. Finding the mistakes, and the pattern can help me to make economic decisions more quickly and righteously. No more regretful way of living. Later, this habit of bookkeeping will guide me, challenge me to earn more money and grow my wealth.

Being talented is more important than being rich, but wealth is something sharable that is tangible, instantaneous, which can be useful to others. Optimal shameless effective life I am striving for.