My name is Ron McElfresh. I’m a Mac user.
A few of my friends would say that sounds like an introduction at a 12 step program for some sort of addiction. There are similarities. Mac users love their Macs, Mac applications, Mac utilities, and pretty much all things Apple.
McSolo is a site about me on my Mac, with links to news items of interest, tips and tricks, reviews, and a few opinions on whatever interests me at the moment. Though my experience with computers dates back to the days of CP/M, Unix, and DOS, I’m at home on one of many Macs.
McSolo. Me on my Mac.
What I Use
My current day-to-day machine is an iMac; 16 gigs RAM, multiple two terabyte hard drives, 27-inch screen. This Mac is loaded with software that I use to build the content management systems used in web sites.
- Coda – code editor (even though version 2.x sucks)
- CSSEdit – CSS editor (which hasn’t been updated in ages)
- BBEdit – code editor
- Photoshop – for images (one of two remaining Adobe apps)
- Fireworks – for graphics (a favorite graphic app)
- Final Cut Pro X – for audio/video (is there anything better?)
- ChronoSync – for file syncs between Macs
- SuperDuper! – for perfect backup clones
- Safari – for web browsing
- Firefox – for development
- Aperture – for photographs
What I Don’t Use
Microsoft Office – please, don’t get me started. My home is Microsoft free. No Office in this home office.
News Links
My interests are varied, so I’ll dig up news items to match.
These will include photography, videography, music, books, media, entertainment, religion, and, of course all things Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod and now, iPad.
The Site
Syndicated feeds are available for both RSS 2.0 and Atom. I use mostly valid XHTML and CSS to construct the site’s web pages.
That means McSolo looks best when viewed in Apple’s Safari web browser, Mac or PC, or Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Mac or PC, or Google’s Chrome browser. If you’re using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to view McSolo’s web pages, then switch to one of the aforementioned browsers.
You’ll be glad you did.
Inspiration
McSolo is inspired by John Gruber’s Daring Fireball. The pithy writing style, articulate analysis of products and events, and choice opinions are a delightful break from mainstream media and their canned weblogs. Daring Fireball’s elegant, no nonsense design sits in stark contrast to the cluttered web sites which dominate the internet.
The McSolo design is inspired, in part, by Daring Fireball, and by NoodleMac, a site I built a few years ago to track and highlight software I use or would use on my Mac. My two sites share code, layout, and color scheme– and author.