Stelian Firez

I am a web designer with a degree in engineering and I truly believe that "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Antwerp, Belgium

May 7, 2013

Setting S3 headers in Transmit for better website performance

If you haven't used S3 yet, there's a good chance you've at least heard about it. Amazon's data storage service is one of the most popular of its kind and with the recent price slashing, it makes a very attractive option for storing static files. But soon after you'll start using it you might notice that it doesn't behave like regular hosting. For example, if you want to enable caching on your files, it's just not possible to put an .htaccess file in a bucket and finish the job. The cache option must be set for each file individually.

If you're a Transmit user like myself, this is how you add the Cache-Control header to your files:

Transmit S3 Cache-Control header

So, go to Transmit -› Preferences -› Cloud and click on the add button with an arrow on it. By the way, if anyone's wondering, 15778463 is what 6 months looks like in seconds.

For those who managed to move away from Google Reader, here's the RSS feed. Comments and questions on Hacker News.

Apr 7, 2013

How I like my Finder

When it comes to file browsers, my favorite setup is a side-by-side mode(source and destination). Something like this:

Midnight Commander

Unfortunately, Finder doesn't have this option and although there are apps that offer this feature(Path Finder, TotalFinder, Xtrafinder), the way they're designed doesn't work for me.

One good thing that came from testing these apps is realizing that two Finder windows next to each other seemed to be exactly what I was looking for all along.

Better Finder

The problem is, Finder doesn't do a great job at remembering window states. So a window manager(Divvy, Moom, Spectacle) would come in handy. Unless you really want to fine tune margins and window sizes. For that and more a little AppleScript will do the trick:

For comments or questions you can use Hacker News.

Dec 28, 2012

Mac apps I’ve used most this year

Mailplane

Mailplane

My favorite Gmail client. Although you basically get the Gmail interface inside a desktop app, Mailplane has some great features like multiple accounts, Growl integration and badge notifications. To be honest, I never got on the Sparrow train, but that's OK because, as you probably know, it's been discontinued.

Yorufukurou

Yorufukurou

It should probably be the first on the list. It's the reason why I stopped writing my own Twitter client. Lots of great features which, combined, help you separate the signal from the noise. For sure, this paragraph is not enough to tell you how great is, that's why I'll probably make a video for it. But in the meantime you can give it a try; it's native and, surprisingly, free.

1Password

1Password

Definitely, the password manager. Helps me store all the different and complicated passwords I have. No to mention, with the help of it's browser extensions, logging in to your accounts becomes hassle-free. Working on multiple computers is not a problem either, since you can sync the library with Dropbox. And there's also an iPhone app. More win!

Evernote

Evernote

For me, it's a multi-purpose app. I use it from making shopping lists to bookmarking websites to taking notes at conferences. Heck, I'm using it right now to write this blog post. You can say it's cross platform since, as long as you have a browser and an internet connection, you can access your notes everywhere.

LittleSnapper

Littlesnapper

Besides being a designer, I'm also a collector. Now, I don't collect stamps or expensive cars, but different pieces of graphic design I find online. And LittleSnapper is great for that. It lets me store and manage everything I gather and, best of all, it syncs my library with Dropbox.

Sublime Text 2

Sublime Text 2

It has become my default text editor since I've attended the Fronteers conference this year. I've noticed that most of the speakers were using it, so I decided to finally make the switch. Surely, its greatest feature is being cross platform and, to tell you the truth, that's how I actually started using it - on my Linux machine it was the text editor that resembled Textmate most.

Textmate

Textmate

I don't think I'll stop using this one any time soon. Although it's not my default text editor anymore, it's still great for testing small bits of python scripts without having to save a file first. At the moment, Sublime Text 2 can't do this, so I'll stick with Texmate for writing python.

Transmit

Transmit

My ftp weapon of choice. Very easy to use, but powerful at the same time - a true mac app. One of its amazing features is the support for Amazon's S3. So if you're into the whole CDN thing, Transmit can be very helpful.

Dropbox

Dropbox

Almost forgot about it. But that's a good thing. It syncs your files on various computer without getting in the way. Without a doubt, it has become an integrated part of my OS.

Skype

Skype

A pretty rock solid app. I mostly use it to talk to my folks which kind of makes it an important application for me. It works on any major platform, so my parents have no problem running it on their Linux computer.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim

This is a wonderful application. Wheater you're a webdeveloper or a blogger you should definitely use it. Without losing any quality, it will try to compress your images, thus, making your website faster. Very easy to use - just drag and drop and you'll be amazed with the results.

Keka

Keka

It has a bit of a weird name, but it does a great job at compressing/decompressing archives. With a wide support for various formats from 7z to rar, it also has the ability to password protect zip files. I always use this option whenever I have to send larger files through WeTransfer.

In closing, I have to say that I skipped mentioning the browsers(Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and the apps I have to use, but don't enjoy(Photoshop).

Nov 8, 2010

Duplicate group shortcut in Photoshop

As you may noticed, PS does not have a shortcut set for duplicating a Layer or Group. But, that's OK, cause almost everybody uses Cmd+J when in need to create a copy of the current layer. That's the thing - it only works for layers. When you need to duplicate a group you have to drag the damn thing to the new icon in the Layers palette or go to the Layer menu… whatever.

Well, let's assign then the Cmd+J to the "Duplicate Group…" item in the Layers menu. Photoshop can do that - set custom shortcuts. But here's the the nasty part: now, when you press Cmd+J a very annoying dialog will show up and you have to hit at least Enter to get rid of it.

Is there an easier way? Well, it's a bit of a tradeoff. Apparently PS can bypass some dialogs by pressing the Option(alt) key. So by assigning Cmd+J to "Duplicate Group…" and by pressing Cmd+Opt+J you can duplicate now layers or groups.

Recap:

  1. Remove the Cmd+J shortcut from Layer via Copy
  2. Assign the Cmd+J to Duplicate Layer (Group)...
  3. Use Cmd+Alt+J to duplicate layer or group

Duplicate group shortcut in Photoshop

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