Next to Apple’s unique and fascinating operating system it’s the variety of stylish student applications that makes studying on a mac so efficient while at the same time being so much fun (and yes, those variables do correlate). 

Finding the right tools tailored to your academic needs will take some time and extensive online research. There is no fixed list of “the” best study tools for all students. It depends on your chosen subject area as well as your own level of technological understanding.

Unfortunately the most effective tools are mostly the hardest to learn and only really start to shine after you invested considerable time in tutorials or related forums (and you are strongly advised to do so). Take a widely known application like Photoshop as an example. If you intensively study this application for a number of weeks you will without a doubt produce astonishing results. Nevertheless a few hours may be sufficient enough to use Photoshop satisfactory for your needs. Not every mac user will end up in the creative branch after all and in the past few years many universities have started to recognize the mac as a universal interdisciplinary student tool.

So, since this list can’t provide “the” best tools for your subject, I will not try to do so. Instead you will get an overview of the best tools that aid studying in general. Although if you ask me as a social scientist about “the” one tool I couldn’t do without, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick Scrivener. Yes, it’s that good and you’ll also find it on this list. Not because of it’s qualities for the social sciences but for it’s value as a universal creative writing tool. I would even go so far to say that you’d have an unfair advantage over any student on a windows pc when it comes to essay planning (more about that later).

Ladies & gents, I’m pleased to introduce you to Macology’s very own mini series about a few handpicked tools that I consider the best of the trade.

Part I
Keep your stuff SAFE

The first priority for any student should be a safe work environment. On a mac your files are already pretty much immune to viruses, trojans and most other nasty malware that plague most windows users. That leaves us mac users with just general concerns about data security, such as accidental file deletion, application failure and worst of all hard disk errors.

While Time Machine (included tool in Leopard) is already a very good back up solution (that is if you have a second hard drive available) most students prefer to have their files on the go with (not less important) cross-platform compatibility. That leaves us with only one logic solution, files & folders on a usb-stick. Gigs on a stick come cheap these days and for most students a few gigabyte are more than enough to survive a whole semester (or even the whole way).

The application that does the job best and which is also super-easy to handle is called LifeBoat by Martian Technology (around $14). All you need to do is to select the files & folders you intend to backup. From then on every time you plug your usb-stick into your mac, folders you pre-selected on your mac will automatically update your stick content. And that’s all it takes. Once configured it’s just plug & go. No opening of the app and no extra clicks. It really is that simple.

Voila, data safety & mobility in one easy & cheap application.

………to be continued in “Best Mac Study Tools Part II” (coming this weekend)

I’m still drunk of joy to finally get my hands on this game (and they are still shaking). This is not just another release from some game developer, this is the result of 7 years continued devotion by some exceptional talented individuals. Branded as just a fan project this is not an official sequel but looking at the final product I can’t imagine who else could have done a better job. This game is filled with heart & soul and a clever story-line that was carefully fine tuned over years.

Although the guys involved work as pros in the game business, this project was not about profit. This was about reviving forgotten principles and combining it with today’s technology.

Up to 25 people were involved at some stages during the process, while only 10 had the stomach to stay in the game until the final release. My deepest & sincerest kudos to all of those involved. Thank you so much, you have truly made a dream come true.

Before I get too sentimental here are some screenshots to speed up your heart rate.

Some shots of the fantastic intro movie that doesn’t need to hide behind any commercial production.

Although only 2D the same goes for the in-game graphics

So, it’s about time to cancel all of next week’s appointments, take annual leave or just call in sick because if there is any game that can make a grown man wet his pans then it’s this.

Link to developers website & download mirrors (freeware): http://www.zak2.org/

Direct rapidshare links (freeware): http://rapidshare.com/users/R93IRY

A detailed review with more in-game screenshots should follow in the next few days

Enough ranking keywords spilled, let’s have a look of what awaits you inside this little self-help book.

Geek Logik was written by Garth Sundem, a mathematician who’s married to a woman with a PhD in particle physics. If you think that’s not one hell of a geeky relationship then what’s yours like? 

Anyway, if two half geniuses express their love to each other it may end up in dirty equation talk. If that’s not your thing here are some real life issues even regular folk like me can relate to.

Just to remind you his book offers 50 equations, here’s just three to get you started:

What are the chances my marriage will last?

A= Her age at time of marriage
E=Current combined years of post-high-school education
K= Number of kids from this marriage
R= How religious is the couple (1-10 with 10 being “the Pope”)
D= Combined number of divorces of couple’s parents
P= Combined previous marriages
T= Years at which you are computing the chances

H.e.a. stands for “Happily Ever After” and is the percent chance you will still be married at time “T”

Should we get married??

T= How many years have you been dating?
L= The number of times per day that something makes you think of this person
C= If your families got together for a holiday dinner, the estimated number of times there would be uncomfortable friction
S= How many shared interests and/or goals do you two have?
A= How many individual or conflicting interests and/or goals do you two have?
D= The average number of disagreements you have with this person in a month

If Ttk is above one, you should tie the knot.

How many kids should you have?

S= Your combined household salary
K= Combined, how many brothers and sisters do you and your spouse have (include yourselves in this number)
T= Combined hours per week you and your significant other work outside the house
A= On a scale from 1-10, the highest level of aversion you have to any of the following: Changing diapers, sleep deprivation, visiting in-laws, tantrums
E= On a scale from 1-10, how concerned are you about global overpopulation

Kids, of course, is the number of kids that your lifestyle supports.

These equations do really work out but were never intended to be taken seriously. The author used gross stereotypes (especially on the female side) to get his humor across. So if you don’t get it, you’re probably not really geeky enough or simply a bad ass feminist.

One “funny” gimmick that comes free with the book is a tiny calculator, so you can try out your equations on the spot. That would have been a really good idea if the publishers would have included a calculator with an exponent button. Since they didn’t, this gimmick is just fracking useless. But who knows, maybe that was another hidden geek joke my mediocre educated self-image just didn’t get.

The (until now) relatively unknown designer Erik De Nijs calls his latest jeans creation the “Beauty & the Geek”.

As you can see it looks as if you can comfortably write and stimulate your “space bar” at the same time.

From the distance you might mistake it for just a rubber mat keyboard. Technically it is just that, but sewed into a pair of regular jeans. 

A close up reveals some bulky areas right beneath the otherwise nicely done keyholes. This doesn’t look too comfortable and might produce utterly painful compressions of various precious organic parts underneath. 

In the upper right picture you can see a speaker sticking out right above the knee (same on the other side) and a mouse compartment in the butt pocket.

Even though it’s supposed to feature bluetooth and is 100% mac compatible I wouldn’t take this pair of pants as a gift. Take it for what it is, a nicely done designer joke to receive some attention.

Congratulations, you did it Mr. De Nijs. If not in the real world then at least around the blogosphere. This thing is all over the net.

If you feel the need to feed your geek, rest assured chinese copy cats are already all over Ebay buying left over sewing machines. If you have the balls to show up in public with this thing, then they are surely sore to the bone and street rep should be the last of your worries.

Did you notice that every time you stress out or you just feel tense your tongue automatically pushes against your upper palate? I guess most people never noticed that before.

Well, here’s the trick. Let your tongue relax and let it fall back in it’s usual resting position. In doing so you signal the rest of your body that tension time is over. You should notice that your whole body will start to relax immediately and a certain calmness settles in.

This has also been a proven technique to battle stage fright just before a speech.

Well, at least until you see the price tag of $10.000 & up in shops around the net.

Got ten large for a bookshelf? Then visit japanese Designer Sakura Adachi at her website http://www.sakurah.net/collections/cave.htm

This app helps young minds from as young as 3 years and onwards to explore their creativity on a mac and it does so in a beautiful and strikingly easy way. 

First of course it’s up to the parents to get this app running and to set some basic rules.

This program is nearly completely child safe and lets you set restrictions to prevent your children from unnecessary printing and sneaking out of the program. Once started in full screen mode a very simple to use desktop is presented to the child and the time has come for you to sit back & relax and let your kids get to work.

As you can see above there are only four categories to choose from

• free hand drawing (just a blank screen with several painting tools at the bottom)
• coloring in (some very nice pics here which are also nice to color in as print outs with crayons)
• drawing on the included backgrounds (which are beautifully designed)
• and finally webcam drawing, which lets you take a picture via webcam which is then used as a background picture