I switched to BBEdit as an editor. It has a lot of nice features, like collapsing of subroutines or XML trees when writing code. Also, it can be used as editor for remote files when using cyberduck a free (i.e. donation-supported) ftp/sftp/ftps client for the Mac.
Smultron: Unfortunately, no longer actively developed. But so far (OS X 10.6) still working, and a great and simple editor, with nice syntax highlighting. Like BBEdit, can be used with cyberduck for remote-editing.
Obviously, OmniOutliner. It lets you jot down your thoughts in collapsible hierarchical lists like the one you’re looking at right now (which was exported to HTML from the pro version of this application, helped by the free exports plugin). Highly AppleScript-able, by the way.
OmniFocus: The ‘getting things done’ companion to OmniOutliner, with built-in database and sophisticated project organization features. Most importantly, there is an iPhone (or iPad, for people who use that thing) counterpart which is really the best idea- and todo-capture app I have found thus far.
Reading tools
Papers: An integrated pdf management and bibliography tool. Integrated search engines, generation of bibliography files (bibtex etc). Best of all, there’s an iPhone app to sync with. (Thanks to Kris for recommending.)
‘Social’ stuff
Nambu is my current twitter client – it’s free, has growl notifications and seems very reliable compared to many others I have tried (plus it’s OS-X native). The Twitter plugin for Adium has gone together with its host application (iChat has just become too versatile again to ignore its advantages), and the Tweet script for Quicksilver, while certainly useful, suffers a little under Quicksilver’s general crash-proneness on my computer.
Linux / X11
Editors
I like using NEdit much better than vim or emacs. As opposed to vim (for whose key combos my memory is simply too bad), it’s a windowed X11 editor with menus, and as opposed to emacs, it has a much smaller footprint and is reasonably responsive over remote connections.
Papers for iPhone: the app that Papers for the Mac syncs with, so you can have some (or all… they require fairly little memory) of your scientific papers with you at all times. Reading on the iPhone works well, and you can also add papers or references on the iPhone and sync them reversely to your Mac.
ShapeWriter, a super-cool editor that makes writing longer texts on the iPhone doable. (I don’t think it’s available for languages other than English so far, though.)
iSSH, a quite usable ssh client for those urgent cases when you absolutely have to log into a remote computer from your iphone.
The Naked Scientists. Maybe the only podcast. Pepped-up science from all corners of the world, broadcast from Cambridge, UK.
Savage Love: Sex advice and conservative-bashing. Entertaining.
The Moth Podcast: “The moth features true stories told live without notes.”
Radiolab: A podcast about most anything, postmodernly deconstructed (and with cool sound design).
Science Friday: The other science podcast, hosted by the other Ira.
Outdoors equipment
Food
Mountain House Hands down the best freeze-dried meals I have tried. No comparison to any of the other stuff. Their Veggie Lasagna would make me happy in any average Italian restaurant…
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