What Hardware/Software Como Do You Use?

danW — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:57:07 +0000

Wondering what everyone else is using Software/Hardware wise to run your business?

I’ll go first!

Computers:

17” Intel Imacs 1.83GHz Core Duo/512MB RAM/160GB HD
Extra 17” Dell Flat Screen Monitors(Dual Monitors)
OSX Tiger 10.4.9
Emachines/XP computer for shipping purposes. Runs headless(No monitor,keyboard,mouse) Connect using VNC.

Printers/Fax:

HP PSC 2410 Photosmart All-in-One(printer/scanner/fax)
Brother QL500 Label Maker for Paypal Shipping Labels

Email:

Google gmail for domain names
Apple Mail connected to google gmail for backups

Phone:

Grandstream GXP2000 VOIP Phone
Teliax VOIP service for Toll Free – Pay as You Go Plan – $5.00 month + $0.03 a minute!

Accounting Software:

Parallels Desktop to run Windows 2000 for Quickbooks Pro 2005
Looking into Litespeed and/or MYOB AccountEdge Combo

Paul D. Ouderkirk commented

Paul D. Ouderkirk — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:19:37 +0000

Weapons of choice:

Laptop: Macbook Core Duo 2GHz/2GB RAM
Monitor: Dell 2005WFP 20” widescreen LCD
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Elite
Mouse: Kensington Expert Mouse (actually an optical trackball, despite the name)

danW commented

danW — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:38:50 +0000

Sweet setup Paul.

For personal use..

Laptop: 15” Macbook Pro 1.83GHz Core Duo/1GB RAM/100GB HD
Monitor: None yet
Keyboard: Apple wireless
Mouse: Kensington PilotMouse Mini Wireless

This was my first Mac and I haven’t looked back!

ken_coventry commented

ken_coventry — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 04:28:41 +0000

Interesting looking mouse there, Paul. My brother has a Logitech Trackball on his system, and I’d rather use a regular mouse while wearing a boxing glove than use that trackball! They just aren’t user friendly with me.

I started out on my system, a Dell 8300, using a wireless optical mouse. When Logitech came out with the MS-1000 Lasermouse, I gave that a try, and really enjoy it. Lots of extra programmable buttons on it to create functions from the mouse that you’d otherwise do by moving back and forth to the keyboard.

I teamed up that mouse with a portable Kensington Calculator/Keypad, set on the left side of the keyboard. It makes it a lot easier to deal with number inputs having the mouse under the right hand and the keypad at the left.

Like Dan, I’ve got a Brother QL-500 label maker. They work great.

ThatGuy commented

ThatGuy — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 06:31:20 +0000

Here’s my lineup:

Computers:

15” Powerbook G4 1GHz Titanium (just upgraded the HD to 120GB, and it’s still surprisingly fast. I’ll keep it at least until Adobe CS3 is out and stable)
OSX Tiger 10.4.9
Wacom Intuos3 6×8 tablet & Apple Pro Keyboard

Printers/Fax:

Xerox Phaser 7300C (color laser – use it to print everything from comps to labels to invoices)
Epson Perfection 1670 scanner
eFax

Labels/Postage:

Endicia for Mac
(Which is a stumbling block for making the switch to Shopify – with my current cart, I had my developer code an XML export function that allows me to specify the options I need for postage, download the XML file, and drop it right into Endicia, which automatically prints the USPS labels. It saves me hours of time – otherwise I’d be cutting and pasting all day…)

Email:

Apple Mail for multiple POP emails (including personal & shop-related)
‘Spam@_’ account for domain names, etc

Phone:

SkypeIn (Cost-effective, works great)

Accounting Software:

MYOB AccountEdge. Great program (I’d highly recommend it, Dan). Much more full-featured than Quickbooks Pro for Mac when it comes to inventory – supports build items, etc.
(This is actually the other big remaining stumbling block keeping me from making the switch to Shopify – in order to import orders into MYOB, you need to first import the contact info from a delimited text file, then import the orders themselves from another file. Not sure of how to accomplish this with Shopify’s CSV export function…yet)

Mascot:

- Mima – Ninja Kitty/Guardian-of-the-House/Grouchy Ball-of-Fur

tobi commented

tobi — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:09:50 +0000

I bring to the battlefield:

Laptop: Apple Macbook Pro 1.6GHz/2GB RAM
Monitor: Apple Cinema 23”
Keyboard: McAlley IceKey (totally great)
Mouse: Apple MightyMouse
Headphones: Sennheiser HD-570

Software:

Textmate, Safari, AdiumX, Quicksilver, CocoaMysql, iTerm

danW commented

danW — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:08:24 +0000

@That Guy – Its great to see that you are using MYOB for your accounting. I downloaded the 30 day trial of both quickbooks for mac, and MYOB Account Edge and have to say that quickbooks for mac sucks! I really liked MYOB and that is what we plan on going with. Just need to find time to make the switch. What a pain accounting is.

@Tobi – I am envious of your 23” Cinema!! I am looking for a new keyboard. I really like the looks of the IceKey. Seems like you like it.

tobi commented

tobi — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:48:22 +0000

Everyone in the office got the IceKey. I even have it on my PC at home. which is somewhat dorky but whatever.

Rick commented

Rick — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:51:51 +0000

Laptop: Dell 620 Core Duo 2.0GHz/2GB RAM
Keyboard: cheap Microsoft board
Mouse: Logitech wireless
Music: 30GB Video iPod with standard ear phones
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 710N
Software: Firefox (w/ FireBug), MS Office XP + Google apps, EmEditor, MS Exchange + Gmail

Casimir commented

Casimir — Sun, 20 May 2007 18:45:55 +0000

I travel light…

Laptop: Apple Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz
Mouse: IntelliMouse Optical
Music: 4G iPod Nano with standard ear phones

Software: Coda, Firefox, Photoshop, Gmail

DamienBuckley commented

DamienBuckley — Mon, 21 May 2007 05:04:06 +0000

Two of us here at Propeller – and we’re packin’;

Me – web side of life;

Powerbook G4 1.33GHz, 2Gb RAM - sits on iCurve laptop stand
23” Apple display
Apple bluetooth kb & mouse

ancient Packard Bell P11-450 for IE6/FF etc testing

Software: OSX10.4.9, Studio 8, Textmate, Safari, Firefox, Virtual PC, Office Mac 2004, Mac Mail, Digital Color Meter, Onyx, Carbon Copy Cloner

(desperately waiting for new iMacs (& perhaps Leopard) so I can upgrade and shift to Parralells desktop).

Renee – graphic design & print

iMac G5 2Ghz, 2Gb RAM
Apple kb & mouse (wired)

Software: OSX10.4.9, CS3 Design Premium (runs spectacularly badly on the Powerbook to the point I’m not using it at all), Office Mac 2004, Safari, Mac Mail

Shared:

Epson 2100 A3 printer for proofing.
Canon MP830 - workhorse for letters/invoicing/fax/scanning
LaCie 250Gb firewire drive for cloning each machine weekly
Uniden cordless phone & answering system + bluetooth headset
Several Belkin surge pro’s – lots of brown/black outs here for some reason.
Sennheiser HDR110 wireless cans & Sennheiser PXC150 noise cancelling cans for on the plane.

Sticking around because we like it:

iMac G4 15” – currently justifying its existence running as a server for MYOB

Accounting

MYOB AccountEdge – with MYOB M-powered invoicing. (DanW – switching to this in July last year is probably one of the smartest things we ever did – we get 90%+ of our payments in by either credit card or BPay via M-powered now – taking a BIG load off – cant recommend it enough)

Other great apps / software I think deserve a plug

Campaign Monitor / MailBuild (we specialise in using these apps and are getting great results for our clients – check out most of our sites and you’ll see the subscribe forms and newsletter displays.

Slideshow Pro / Slideshow Pro Director – offensively good value for money for what they do – again employed heavily in some of our stores.

ingvi commented

ingvi — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:20:29 +0000

I’ll keep it simple and just post a picture of my setup.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ingvi/384904398/

software: adobe cs3, skEdit, Aptana.

tobi commented

tobi — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:44:53 +0000

Nice, this is the exact same hardware i run on :)

Paul D. Ouderkirk commented

Paul D. Ouderkirk — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:28:27 +0000

Damien: I’ve got an iCurve too. The only way it could be improved is if they made it out of aluminum or something else that would conduct heat.

DamienBuckley commented

DamienBuckley — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:40:15 +0000

Patiently waiting for new iMacs and Lepard, the G4 powerbook has done its tie and is getting a tad slow now. The iCurve is a great piece of kit. Does your MDP get hot when its on the ic? I’ve never really noticed it with my PB.

Paul D. Ouderkirk commented

Paul D. Ouderkirk — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:36:21 +0000

Hey Damien:

No, it doesn’t really get hot on the iCurve, but I’ve also got a Koolsink which is made of aluminum, and the Macbook is noticeably cooler when it’s on that.

DamienBuckley commented

DamienBuckley — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:16:19 +0000

Hey, how’s everyone going with their MacBook Pro’s? I had the new iMacs picked to replace my 3yo Powerbook G4 but whats with those glossy screens? I’m sat right opposite a BIG full height window and have a 23” (matt) apple display so the gloss just aint gonna fly. You reckon this is a hint from Apple that previous iMacs have cost them too many Mac pro sales?

HunkyBill commented

HunkyBill — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:03:44 +0000

Core2Duo Fujitsu Lifebook running Compiz Fusion desktop using latest Linux kernel. Nothing Microsoft has ever made comes close, and I am happy to report that it works better than anything I have ever seen or used. The new McBook OS X ‘howanycatnameshaveweusedsofar’ may be able to come close when it eventually gets released and debugged in 2008, but for now, this is THE desktop.. just my off-topic .02…

Nenitiko commented

Nenitiko — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:57:12 +0000

Haha here I come…

Intel P4 HT Prescott 3GHz, 2GB DDR 3200
74GB WD Raptor, Soyo 865 Mobo (zux)
20.1” Dell Widescreen

andddd

Vista Ultimate, with VPC for:
-Safari
-IE5, IE5.5, IE6
-Opera 6,7,8,9
-Firefox 1,2
-Konqueror (Fedora)

And yes, I love Microsoft