It has come to my attention that some of my dear friends are still using MacPorts or (shudder) Fink to install UNIX packages on OS X.

Please. Stop that.

It’s hard to admit that I’m jealous of anything Windows. But I’ve been jealous of the subscreen partitioning feature in Windows 7. It’s really cool.

Apple’s built-in screenshot app is pretty okay, but it’s not quite seamless enough. When I want to file a bug report, or post a humorous screenshot to Flickr, or snap a screenshot to post on Technophobe, I turn to Skitch.

Don’t get me wrong, I still use Skitch for quick and dirty screenshots and annotations. In fact, I use it more than Layers. But Layers gets my vote for coolest screenshot app of all time.

I’d tip that.

Most geeks are enthralled by Swiss Army knives. “Look at all these features!” they say, “It even has a spoon!” … But the Swiss Army knife is, by definition, a compromise. When compared to actual silverware, a Swiss Army spoon falls far short of the mark. Fanboys and apologists accept this “Swiss Army” compromise because of the convenience offered. They no longer have to carry the right tool for every job, because they have one tool that’s good enough for most jobs. In the limited capacity of pants pockets, convenience wins over suitability almost every time.

This game far Superer than regular Monkey Ball. This game is addictive, and a ton of fun :)

Better than DDR. Better than Guitar Hero for Nintendo DS. Tap Tap Revenge is even two player so you can challenge your friends!

Galcon is fast-paced and fun little space shooter type galaxy conquest game. Check it out.

Of all the sudoku apps in the App Store, this is my favorite. It’s quick, attractive, and easy to use. It has really cute themes, too. It’s the perfect subway app. Pull it out, play for a minute or two between stops, then quit or lock your phone. Your game will be right there when you get back.

You should keep an eye on the [iPhone app reviews][reviews] over at Tech.nopho.be.

This game is amazing. It wasn’t even possible to make a puzzle game this sweet until the iPhone/iTouch. I can play it when I have a minute, or I can waste hours at a time. Trism:iTouch::Tetris:arcades.

This is definitely one of the best free apps in the iTunes App Store: Apple’s remote lets you take control of your entire iTunes library so you never have to get out of your LoveSac. The latest version even has full Genius Playlist support. :)

If you ever use more than one computer on the same desk, you need Synergy. Synergy is a protocol that allows several computers to seamlessly share the same keyboard and mouse. It’s cross platform: I use it to control my Mac laptop, a desktop PC running Windows and a Linux box. I plop my laptop down on the desk, it automatically connects to my desktop computer, and I can use it just as easily as I would a second monitor.

Caffeine is a menu extra that does one thing, and does it well: it keeps your computer from going to sleep.

Do you get tired of wiggling your mouse to keep the screen from dimming while you’re watching a YouTube video? Do you ever wish you could close the lid of your MacBook without it falling asleep immediately? Wouldn’t it be great if you could keep your computer awake for an hour or two before power management kicked in? Want to easily disable or enable your screen saver? Check out Caffeine to turn your Mac into an insomniac.

Today my moving truck came, and I tracked it the whole way with Mike Piontek’s Delivery Status Dashboard widget.

This is one of the few widgets that I actually keep using. Maybe because it’s better than refreshing the UPS tracking page every five minutes. Maybe it’s because this widget updates me through Growl so I don’t even have to pull up my Dashboard. Yeah, that’s probably it. It’s slick, easy to use, and indispensable.

If there’s one utility that should be installed on every Mac, it is Growl. Growl provides a unified system notification interface. By itself, it does nothing. But it allows all other apps to interact with the user in a clean and consistent manner. Growl is inherently Maclike, as it creates a consistent, attractive and unobtrusive way to let you know what’s going on with your whole system.

Every once in a while someone asks me what cool software they should install on their computer. Invariably, I say something like “check out [the OS X tag][osx] on my blog.”

One of my biggest problems with the “clipboard” paradigm is that it only holds on to the last thing I clipped. I’m forever forgetting that I just clipped something I wanted, and haphazardly replacing it by copying something new.