MacHesit 2 is a deal, but hurry!

I don't know how many of you who read this are Mac users (a few, at least), but if you and you haven't checked out this year's MacHeist bundle, you really should. To sum it up, it's a bundle of 14 apps that you can pick up for the very (crazy) reasonable price of $49. A full 25% of that money goes to charity (they have 10 to choose from, or you can have yours split evenly among them). This is totally legit (at least in so far as you get what you pay for and I haven't found anything about the money not reaching the charities), and a fantastic deal. I missed out on last year's MacHeist bundle, which I regret, so I snatched this one up pretty quickly, once I realized it was available, I almost missed it again.

You have until about 11pm, EST today (January 23) to pick this up. So far it's raised over $400,000 for charity with 37,000+ bundles sold. It'd be awesome if it could top half a million before it's done.

Here's a breakdown of what you get, and my honest opinion of each:

• Pixelmator (normally $59.00) - A fine inexpensive alternative to Photoshop, and worth the price of this bundle by itself. It doesn't support plugins, and there are still some things like guides and rulers that are either absent or too well hidden for me to find, but overall it works well and is much faster that Photoshop.
• CSSEdit (normally $29.95) - Brilliant, can't-live-without-it app for editing CSS. Seriously, if you're still editing CSS by hand, give this a shot, it's a miracle app if there ever was one for web designers.
• Snapz Pro X (normally $69.00) - You can take screen movies with this app, with all kinds of options to play with. I've already used this to report a bug in another app that I couldn't adequately explain but could easily demonstrate. Very nice.
• VectorDesigner (normally $69.95) - This is a very new but promising vector app (this sort of is to Illustrator what Pixelmator is to Photoshop). It's got some bugs, and some rough patches, but the developer is very responsive (I reported a layers bug and got a response within a few hours), and it does some really nifty things like integrating with iPhoto and even Flickr. Looks to become a great overall design app in addition to being a vector app (thus the clever name).
• 1password (normally $29.95) - A password manager that integrates with your browsers. It'll generate random passwords and remember yours, so all you have to do is remember one master password (it's a good idea to back it up every so often though, just in case).
• AppZapper (normally $12.95) - An uninstall app that makes getting rid of applications far easier than doing it manually. Sure, you could leave all of the little files and whatnot in place, or use Spotlight, but this app makes it absolutely painless and kind of fun.
• Cha-Ching (normally $40.00) - A nice looking and easy to use banking app. I recently dumped my copy in favor of iBank, since Cha-Ching won't import the files my bank lets me download. If your bank gives you Quicken files you should be all set (try out the demo if there's any doubt, of course).
• Awaken (normally $12.95) - If I had a Mac in my bedroom, and if my wife would go for it, I'd totally use this in place of an alarm clock. Alas.
• Speed Download (normally $25.00) - I'm not sure I really get this one yet. So far it sorts downloads by type, and it gives you an iTunes like interface for all types of file transfers, including FTP and even iDisk. But I don't know that it's better than even the free alternatives. I'll have to look into it a bit more.
• iStopMotion (normally $49.00) - I haven't taken the time to get into this one, but it looks cool. If only I had the time (and patience) to do animation.
• CoverSutra (normally $22.00) - This is an iTunes controller that does things like display the cover of the current album on your desktop, and integrates with Last.FM, among other things. I really want to like it, but the free "GimmeSomeTune" does more of what I want (downloads cover art and lyrics), and it's free and uses less memory. CoverSutra is better looking though.
• TaskPaper (normally $18.95) - A small todo program, very appealing in its simplicity and ease of use. It doesn't integrate with iCal though, which means it doesn't work with my Palm Pilot, so it's of no use to me really.
• Tiki Magic Mini Golf (normally $29.95) - A lively little game. The control leaves something to be desired, but it works well enough and is fun to mess around with.
• Wingnuts 2 (normally $29.95) - A game. I haven't tried it yet but it looks interesting. It's a huge download though.

Notice that the original prices add up to nearly $500. Even if I only count the apps that I think I'll really use (Pixelmator, CSSEdit, Snapz Pro X, VectorDesigner, 1password, and AppZapper) it still adds up to $270.80. Leaving only the ones I didn't already have (Pixelmator, Snapz Pro X, and VectorDesigner) still leaves the total at $197.95, making this a deal and a half even for those three apps.

I know I'm cutting it awfully close to the wire here, but if anyone out there thinks this looks like a great deal and feels like snatching it up in the next 10 hours, it'd be great if you would use my referral link below to sign up and make the purchase. It nets me one more app (two, really, but I already have one of them), and that'd be cool. If not, that's cool too, I'm plenty satisfied with what I've gotten already.

https://www.macheist.com/buy/invite/2025

You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Wow... Almost three months. Yeesh.

Sorry about that, to anyone who's still paying attention. I got really busy for a bit there. Along with everyone else at that time of the year, of course, so that's not much of an excuse. Then again, I really have had some big things going on recently.

Biggest of all is that I'm now self-employed. For those who don't know (probably most of you), I'm a drafter. For a few years now I've been working for a structural engineer, mostly doing bridge and marine structure designs. Well, now I work for myself, and with any luck it will lead to a more varied and profitable situation for me.

I've always wanted to work for myself, but it just kept not happening. It's a big thing, and I guess I was waiting for "the right time", whatever that means. So now I've basically stumbled into it sideways. My employer was going through some changes, and I had a couple of options. After looking at everything and thinking it over, I decided that my best option — also the most interesting one — would be go out on my own. As of January 1, I have been on my own.

My former boss still has need for drafting (though not as much as before, which is what prompted this), so I already have one steady client. That's good, because some things aren't official yet. I figured that if I'm going to do this, I should do it right, so I'm forming a Limited Liability Company, or LLC. Unfortunately, the paperwork moves at the speed of government, so it'll be a few more weeks before that's official. Once that happens, I can open a business checking account, get a phone number in the business name, etc. Until then, I'm going to have to make do with the casual setup we have going.

I'm really excited about this, and more than a little scared. This is a risk, but it opens up some wonderful new possibilities. For one thing, I've been thinking about going back to school starting this fall. If I'm able to make this work, then I will have the flexible schedule I need to make that work. It's also a relatively safe way to try out being my own boss. Drafting is something I'm good at, and I already have one client, and several potential clients through him.

I don't want to be a drafter forever, but this gives me a relatively easy way to own my first company. After a year or two of this, I'll hopefully be in a position to do something I'll enjoy even more (something involving art, possibly photography, would be great), and I'll have this experience to guide me when I do it "for real."

So yeah, that's what I've been up to recently. There's a lot to this stuff, so it's been taking up most of my creative energy as of late (what little there was to begin with). As soon as things are finalized I'll post a link to the web site I'm setting up and all of the final information, for those who want to know.

By the by, if anyone reading this needs some professional quality plans or blueprints drawn up, I'll be more than happy to work with people from just about anywhere once I'm fully up and running. I figure that's one way in which I have a leg up on most of the drafters I've known: I'm fully comfortable in the digital age.

Woot!



PS: The cake is a lie.