Lisa Weitekamp

Before buying the current cute little 12″ G4 powerpc I have toted all over the world, I was known between friends to be the one who thought that Macs were BS. I ended up buying it because it was the right price, lightweight, and small–ideal for carrying along traveling.

At first a bit nervous about all the programs I thought I would be unable to use, I have to say that I fell in love with it within 20 minutes and forgot completely about my mis-informed perception that development for mac is behind that for PC. In fact, I have found every program I need and more… some programs that I use ONLY run on macs simply because the developers refuse to use the inferior Windows OS to develop.

To help people that are just beginning their life-long Mac love affair here’s a list of programs I use–most of which are open source, and thus free:

Firefox–Internet Browser–This is a MUST HAVE for every computer Mac and PC alike… DOWN WITH IE! For a list of good plug-ins see this post on Brendan Nee’s blog. Replaces Internet Explorer.
Jungledisk–Automatic backup–an easy-to-use interface that works with Amazon S3. Replaces CDs and the built-in “Time Machine” which takes hard drive space.
KeePass–Password Database–have 45907 passwords to remember? KeePass keeps them in a secure database. Replaces scraps of paper and dusty corners of your memory.
Adobe Suite CS3–Graphics Tool–this is not open source, and not easy to use unless you know how, but its a must-have for web development and complex photo editing. Also offered on PC.
Skype–VOIP Internet Phone Service–call your friends around the world for cheap over the internet. Replaces the device known as a “telephone”.
Transmission–BitTorrent Client–simple interface and easy to use. Replaces Microtorrent.

Web Development Tools:

TextMate–Text Editing Tool–the best text editing tool I’ve used, free 30 day trial then 39euro, but worth paying for and only for use on macs! Replaces Aptana or notepad.
Transmit–FTP Client–also not free, but worth the $30 for excellent, light-weight UI. Replaces Filezilla.
Xamp–Offline Webdev Tool–this is the same as the PC version. No replacement.

Free and Open Source Substitutes for above programs you have to pay for:
Aptana–Text Editing/FTP–replaces TextMate but is a bit bloated and crashes from time to time.  (Edit:  Aptana Studio is freely available (and open source) for the Mac (Universal Binary) as well as Windows and Linux.. Thanks Paul)
Filezilla–FTP–replaces Transmit, but is not as lightweight or intuitive
Gimp–Photo Editing–replaces Adobe Photoshop, but I have not fully tested its capability

That about concludes my list. I haven’t included a replacement for things like Quicken because I don’t use it, but Buxfer.com and mint.com have features that track personal finances (Quicken does not run on MacOSx). To avoid having to pay for Microsoft Office, you can use Google Docs which has spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation capabilities. Here’s a list of other mac open source programs that is comprehensive but concise.

Filed under: Uncategorized on April 27th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

While setting up the travel site (3 months ago..) I have neglected this site. To see what my boyfriend and I have been up to the last 4 months, visit our website.. mostexcellentjourney.com which I am proud to say I programmed (with a bit of help from Brendan of course). We have photos, maps, and a blog.. and you can even subscribe to get emails of our new posts! Happy reading.

Filed under: Uncategorized on April 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

I know I promised a blog right when we left for our trip.. well…. it has been a bit harder to get internet than we expected, and I had some problems finding a working computer before I left. BUT I promise that it is on its way!! I am being taught web design as I make this blog, so it is taking a bit longer, but it will be worth it! I will send an email with the URL as soon as its ready.. Hopefully within the next week. =) Hope you all are doing well.

p.s. if you read this and would like to be subscribed to a shortened edition of the travel blog, post a comment here with your email address.

Filed under: Procrastination, Travel on January 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I have only 10 days left of my college career as I know it! I can’t believe this semester has flown by so quickly. It has been a whirlwind of classes, tests, and papers, but it is finally coming to a close.

And what shall start the next chapter of my life? I am planning a long trip with Brendan, my boyfriend. We will start off on December 27th by flying out to San Fran and then Tahoe for New Year’s to visit San Fran friends and people Brendan went to school with at Berkeley. From there we will go to Washington D.C. with his family for a few days and on January 8th, we will leave from NYC to Santiago, Chile where the fun really starts. From there we will travel over land to Buenos Aires and north to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with small stops in between. We will be in Rio for Carnival and then leave on February 6th for the next leg of our adventure.

We fly to Tokyo next for 18 hours then on to Singapore. From here we will be traveling over land through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam to China where we intend to take a train through the country and end up in Beijing. From there we will hop on the Trans-Siberian railway and venture through Mongolia and Russia ending up in Moscow. From here, we’re not quite sure where to go.. It depends on how much money we have left and where we have friends/ cheap places to stay. Click here for a map of SE Asia..

SO if you have any suggestions or contacts for me I would love to hear from you!

Filed under: Travel on November 27th, 2007 | No Comments »

Three years ago Frank Warren started a community art project for those who had secrets to tell. He asked people to send their secret on a postcard. To his amazement, he received thousands of responses–some beautiful, some sorrowful, and some inspiring. He began to post the cards online each Sunday, and published his first book–Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives in November of 2005.

Since that time, he has received over 150,000 postcards from anonymous people around the world and he has published three more books. The website has received numerous awards, and he has been recognized by the National Mental Health Association for raising funds and awareness about suicide.

The postcards are moving, and you might even find something that you can relate to in them.. check out this website, and if you are so compelled, send him your own secret!

Filed under: Exploring, Procrastination on October 21st, 2007 | No Comments »

Here in Minneapolis every first Saturday of October all the zombies come out of their cracks, suit up, and come together for the annual zombie pub crawl. The event commences in Gold Medal Park at 3PM and from there craziness ensues! This year there were an estimated 600-700 zombies, but only 2 arrests! Among the crowd were 2 Abe Lincolns, a couple of ninja zombies, a girl who died on a Disney ride, 2 postal workers, 1 Borat, and 1 drowned man (unfortunately, he was not a victim of the river killer.. or at least he “couldn’t remember what the killer looked like..” whatever that means).

As if that is not enough to make you fall immediately in love with this event, there is a Pirate Pub crawl (much smaller.. and ahem lamer..) that takes place on the same day every year in the same general area. Imagine.. a neighborhood inundated with pirates and zombies. Heaven.

In the end, my roommates and I ended up making the front page of the Pioneer Press as we has our photo shot with a lucky wedding party that had decided to show up.

Filed under: Minneapolis, Wacky on October 9th, 2007 | No Comments »

I LOVE the German pretzel. It may possibly be one of the best parts about the food here.. especially when hot out of the oven. YUM.

The other food here is very heavy–usually consisting of some large cut or portion of meat with gravy and some sort of potatoes. It is good, but wow.. its a lot! Luckily we’ve eaten a lot of Italian food which is absolutely amazing here! (and of course lots of bretzels)

For breakfast, we have soft boiled eggs each day with bretzels and rolls (that are also to die for) and salami. Usually we don’t eat lunch.. perhaps an espresso or an eis (ice cream). Then we eat dinner around 8 or 9pm and enjoy another espresso and some “Schnapps” which is what they call almost all kinds of liquor here.

Filed under: Travel on August 20th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

So I wrote earlier about my wine tasting experience in SF, but this was COMPLETELY different! We drove about 2 hrs to the western part of Germany and stayed in a quaint little village. By quaint I mean quaint.. Mikey and I went to “explore the town” and got about 2 blocks before we found ourselves in the middle of a field. It was very cute though, and fit every picture you might have of a small town in Germany with the white houses and dark trim, bright flower boxes and terra-cotta roofs.

Anyway! We went to a small winery where we sat at our own table and proceeded to taste 12 different types of German wine. Who knew they had so many different types! There was champagne and liqueur, white wine and red, sweet and dry. After the 5th wine, they brought out a spread of food… which included 6 different types of sausage-like meats that were very interesting-looking.. slabs of ham.. and finally raw beef to be spread on bread. This was by far the most interesting flavor I have ever tasted. Apparently there are some in the western part of Wisconsin that also eat such things, but it was shocking to me! As unappetizing as it may sound however, it was delicious and I elected to have more! We ended the night by taking two bottles of wine back to our hotel and drinking on the roof patio.

Filed under: Travel on August 16th, 2007 | No Comments »

I have arrived after almost 24 hours of travel.. although not with my luggage! In Amsterdam, I had to RUN through the airport as they were calling my name over the loudspeaker and informing me that my luggage was being offloaded. Exciting times.

Friedburg is a small city of about 28,000 (which is like a little village here..), but it is beautiful and has both a castle and an old city wall. Apparently it was built to protect Augsburg (a neighboring city) which was established in 15 BC as the Roman capital of the region.

Anyway.. we’ll be deciding on our travels tomorrow! Hopefully Austria or Italy!

Filed under: Travel on August 13th, 2007 | No Comments »

Well.. it seems as though my summer in SF is coming to an end. I have been SOO busy at work the last few weeks… I had 2 big projects to finish for my department and then I was working hard on wrapping up our final group project for our internship program. I think overall it was a very good experience.. Our group project was a lot of work but overall VERY rewarding. We gave our presentation on the 7th, and it was a hit! We did some good work.

The next leg of my summer (or what’s left of it) will be a family trip in Germany. I leave on Sunday (the 12th). We’ll be staying with a family that my brother did an exchange with 2 years ago in the southern part of Germany called Bavaria.. The city we’re staying in is called Friedburg, and its about an hour south of Munich. Hopefully we’ll have time to travel a bit around the country!

Filed under: San Francisco on August 9th, 2007 | No Comments »