I just recently (and legally) upgraded to OS 10.6, more commonly referred to as “Snow Leopard.”  Yes, I’m aware that I’m behind the software times, and yes, you can stuff it.  Up until now, I wasn’t convinced that this proud jungle cat could support, and enhance, all of my existing programs.  If I were speaking, my inflection would indicate that I am now convinced.  There are some serious advantages to the Snow Leopard…makes me feel like I was living in the stone ages with my pitiful little Tiger.  To highlight some of my favys:

1) Stacks.  Stacks are seriously bananas.  I’m not sure how I lived without them, actually.  I’d estimate that stacks alone have upped my productivity by about 2%, as I can “stack” my most commonly used folders right there in the dock.  Plus, so long as you have few enough folders or items in there, the display from the stack is extremely elegant.  Nay, boner elegant.  When you get too many the window navigation is a bit janky, but atleast I don’t have to open a finder window–and that my friends, is the bomb-dot-com.

2) Time Machine.  Time machine is probably going to save my life/academic career much more soon than I’d care to admit.  Anything that allows you to visually navigate your backup system is a fairly amazing concept.  Of course, it’s “apple simple” in its execution, which is a big plus.  But the biggest advantage of the Time Machine is its integration with Migration Assistant.  If you ever have to format your OS, or if you buy a new mac to which you want to transfer your existing files, settings, preferences, etc., Migration Assistant can access your time machine files and transfer them in about half an hour (depending how many files you’re transferring).  If that doesn’t jack your shit up, you clearly haven’t had the pleasure of manually restoring your files and system after an OS install.

3) OmmWriter.  Holy Shit OmmWriter.  In fact, I’m writing this post in OmmWriter because its the best thing ever.  Sure, when I had Tiger I used WriteRoom, but lets count the ways in which OmmWriter makes WriteRoom look like a fool with its pants on the ground.

#1 OmmWriter is five-finger discount FREE.  WriteRoom is all up in my biz telling me I gots to pay 30 bones for a distraction free writing environment? Please.

#2 WriteRoom is nothing BUT a distraction free writing enviroment.  A blacked out screen with type.  To be fair, you can change the color of the type.  OmmWriter is not just distraction free, it keeps all your senses distraction free.  You can choose between the default snowy landscape background, the sensible linen-patterened off-white, and a whited-out screen. Is whited-out proper English?  It is now.

#3 Averting my eyes is childs-play.  This thing has soothing music that is conveniently lyric free.  I know everyone thinks they work better when they’re listening to music, but you’re wrong.  Your music slows you down when you’re writing.  THIS music provides a background.  A soothing one.  Even more awesome, you have like 8 different soothing options to choose from (including a mute).  On top of that, you get to cycle through a bunch of different noises that the program makes as you type, which may sound annoying, but is in practice extremely gratifying.  I know I’m not the only one of us out there who didn’t begin his word-processing on a computer.  I often think many of today’s youth would write much more methodically (and gooder) if they busted out the typewriters in grade school.  But I digress, you can hear your progress, and it reminds me of a simpler time.

SCREENSHOT FTW!

Seriously guys, not to wax poetic on you, but if you’re in any kind of writing biz, if you have trouble writing efficiently, go and get this program.  This of course, is only possible if you’ve got yourself this Kitty-Cat OS upgrade. Check the vid kids.

OmmWriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.