Wishlist

Christmas is been and gone, tomorrow is, in fact septuagesima,* but over the last few weeks I have been coming across various things I want, so, in lieu of buying them, I will rant about them. (A perfect solution). While I am at it, how about a full blown wish list?

Shareware
Firstly, I am seriously tempted by Scrivener. I need it because I want to be able to run all my notes, and a document in several parts, under a co-ordinated umbrella. I don't need it, because Pages does most of what I could possibly want to do, in fact my main gripe is the absence of a keyboard shortcut for footnoting.

Secondly, I have been using a trial of Mailplane, for a while. This is an application that runs Google Mail, outside the browser. (It is, essentially, a mini browser, dedicated to Google Mail) I need it, because it allows me to have multiple Google Mail accounts open. e.g. mine, Natasha's, and our joint account (which we have mainly used for wedding stuff so far) It streamlines attachments slightly, and runs a little menu to the left of my clock which tell me when I have mail. I don't need it because Google Notifier will run the little menu, and I don't often need to be switching between accounts, not now Natasha has a MacBook. (We used to share a lot). This is a maybe for me, it wouldn't set me back much, and I have gotten into good habits using it.

Thirdly, I have been gawping at .mac again. It isn't cheap (£120 for the family pack, £69 for the single user), but my isn't it good. I need it because being able to publish stuff to Natasha and back would be great, because the remote backup would be brilliant, and the "back to my mac" feature might unchain me from my box a little. (Because I could sync an account on other computers, for instance, and just carry essential docs on my USB stick, or leave them on the storage). I don't need it, because, well, I don't need to make a website. If I wanted one, and I can see reasons why I might, I think I would take the plunge, and then take advantage of all the other features as added bonuses.

Lastly, the soon to be released BusySync is a mighty interesting proposition. I use both iCal, and Google Calendar. iCal is nice and usable, but I can share Google Calendar with Natasha, and it works with Google Mail and Google Docs very neatly indeed. I need BusySync because it claims to sync iCal to Google Calendar, and to share your Calendar over the internet. If I had this I might actually start using these applications again. Which would be no bad thing at all. I don't need it because it would be spending money for a utility for an application I use very badly indeed, and it would be a waste of money if it failed to turn me into an organisation machine.

Hardware
(or the stuff I am only considering in a fantastic manner)

A 30" HD External Monitor, or to be frank, any external monitor. There is no way I can justify it, but it is the one thing I find myself screaming out for. On my screen I can fit a pages document, and the inspector. Nothing else. What I want, is the document I am working on, and several text documents. (General notes, notes from the books (etc) that I am using, citations to copy out, a plan). That is why Spaces was great. It meant I wasn't messing around with several layers of stuff, nor was I squinting at miniscule dock icons. I keep the document I am working on in one Space, notes in another, Firefox in a third, and I have a space with iTunes, iChat, Transmission, and other applications. But Spaces only gives the illusion of space. It is like the difference between looking at one page of written notes at a time, and being able to pace around a dining table with them all laid out.

* If you count the lovely, if archaic, rose coloured 'gesima's then this year there is no ordinary time at all between Christmas and Lent. How very odd.