your favorite little computer program hoonja-doonja (mac version)

you can use itunes to convert to mp3 fwiw (without using itunes for your library)

I use itunes for my library. itunes is set to copy everything to the library, so I like to be able to make mp3s of wav files quickly before copying them into itunes. I have other tools that do this, this one is just the best.

makes sense. my workflow is to import the wav into itunes, convert to mp3 (or whatever), and then option-delete the wav file's entry in itunes (which deletes the referenced wav file too). but fission is a non-sketchy tool if you want something separate.

Max is great for mac

X Lossless Decoder will do this too: http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

I know all the tools! I have fission and max. All2mp3 is the easiest and fastest.

no tool is worth all those hoops; stick with Max or XLD

yeah fuck them for going that route

https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/cert/2014/07/-bundled-software-and-attack-surface.html

XLD is easy as hell, the only bad side being if you open a file for encoding it just uses your last setting, iirc

I can see how it can do a lot of things, but if you haven't used all2mp3, it's totally different. It's drag and drop. Set it once. Drag a FLAC/WAV/AIFF etc onto the window, it makes the mp3 and deletes the WAV. Done. you can have it not delete the original as well but I like killing the original. XLD looks like Max and lacks the simplicity and speed of all2mp3

$ lame *.wav *.mp3

yeah if you could make an applescript that basically does that plus deletes the wav then you'd have it right?

yeah if you could make an applescript that basically does that plus deletes the wav then you'd have it right?

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=convertandreplace

thats neat but I'd rather have a freestanding app to be able to do it before iTunes.

if you're willing to install lame you can set up an action with automator, e.g. start from this and add a delete file step http://music.digitalhobbit.com/post/13666964867/easily-convert-audio-files-to-mp3-on-mac-osx

Not so little a hoonja-doonja, but: best free or cheap photo-organizing apps that outperform Photo (not hard, I guess)?

http://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-photo-management-solution/ has some ideas

but i use a mixture of lightroom and just the finder, which is fine for certain defns of "organizing"

Interested in how you mix using Lightroom and the Finder: I find that once you use LR you really need to avoid doing anything to do with photo management in Finder.

yeah, they are independent "libraries". family photos goes in LR, specific projects go in directories (but that's only because i do more post stuff on family photos etc. than on work projects). i should probably just use LR for everything.

but don't underestimate the finder. for smallish libraries and with big preview icons it can do the job.

caek... praising finder... ?

I like Lyn a lot for picture organizing - http://www.lynapp.com

ban the finder

thanks Elvis!

I am looking for some kind of collaborative mind-mapping / information-sharing / learning type tool, not quite sure what I would like it to do but I like Mindlyapp for Ios a lot, and imagine something like that but web based and more for collaborations or a small group of people to share. Any particular recommendations for something like this?

Mindlyapp is out for Mac now, I hadn't realised that. No collaboration stuff that I can see, unfortunately

What are people doing for to-do lists/task managers etc? Once Wunderlist added sub-tasks I was really happy with it and it was the only one I liked. Now it's being killed so I'm looking at alternatives. Test-driving Todoist, Things 3 and Any.do and pretty much hate them all.

I used Trello for a short while. It's good, but I found that I generally don't have big TODO-lists (except at work, where we use Jira and Youtrack. I greatly prefer the latter) so now I simply use a piece of paper...

what's happening to wunderlist?

nm found it
https://www.wunderlist.com/blog/your-preview-of-microsoft-to-do/

I got into OmniFocus for some time, but now I just use macOS' own Reminders app and a sheet of paper.

Stuff like trello is too project management task oriented

I may try building my own in Airtable. If you haves used Airtable it's the diy database spreadsheet we've been waiting for.

i use omnifocus. i love it

I'll check that out again. I remember thinking it was more than I needed.

it's carefully put together as a product, not bloatware like evernote or something, but it is "professional" software so it may be. it also forces you to manage your todo lists in a certain way, which may not be your cup of tea. also it's $$$. it's the best though imo.

i use things 3 for basic daily to-dos like chores and stuff

i use omnifocus for tracking complicated work projects

the one task manager i tried but didn't like was todo

i wonder what you don't like about things 3, dan.

i will say that omnifocus is definitely the most intuitive in terms of just entering things and moving them around, but it has a lot of options. too many options.

I use a notebook and the "bullet journal" method and it definitely works for me

something about the way Things 3 depends on "lists" and tags bugs me, kind of similar complaint re todoist. looking again, I can get Things to work pretty much like Wunderlist but not completely. It was really perfect. Each list in wunderlist has multiple To-Dos. Each To-Do has subtasks, notes, files, comments due date etc.

So for me lists were things like Work, and the to-dos were specific projects, and the subtasks were the details and also a place to keep notes and attachments.

In things The todos can have notes and checklists, which is kind of like a subtask I guess.

I just downloaded omnifocus and I think it's probably way more than I need but I'm curious so I'll check it out.

just when I get excited to give Things another go it keeps crashing.

I replaced Wunderlist with Remember The Milk, after a while with Todoist. They're pretty close, but if I wasn't also using Windows suspect I'd be with Things

I use 5iler. It's basically just a text editor, in your browser, or as a Mac app. It's customisable and syncs cross-platform through Dropbox. It's not snazzy in the least but that's why I like it.

my work group was doing well with project tracking until we all nearly completely stopped using it after our last project cycle ended. I've created maybe a couple work items, but that's about it

this isn't a mac question but while we're on the tracking topic, does anything really integrate with Jira or should I just get better at creating my own views?

5Iler looks cool, not what I need though. Similarly, used to have Notational Velocity which is great, but got confusing when an alt version was made.

nv hasn't been updated for like 6 years, so it's no longer confusing.

(although i am a bit nervous at the slow pace of updates on nvalt. i think they had trouble making it work for the last macos release.)

i'm glad I didn't stick with it then!

wasn't omnifocus bundled with OSX back in the powerPC days?

apple bundled a bunch of omni apps with the more pro models (powerbook, not ibook) but I think it would have been omnioutliner because omnifocus maybe came later

the omni guys had some of the better os x apps in the early days because they had written software for nextstep

I still use omnigraffle as my main drawing program---it's good for the kind of math figures I need

Not Mac specific, but if we're talking about to-do lists and gtd (ugh) apps, I like https://ticktick.com enough to pay for it.