Archive for the ‘mac osx’ Category

MacBook Pro Diaries #006: Restarting conflicts

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

Restarting

One benefit Mac users will often tout over Windows users is that of restarting after software updates. I thought his was true but frankly my Mac restarts after software updates about as much as my Windows installation did. Here you can see some basic bits getting updated and I have to restart afterwards. So don’t think there are no more restarts in OS X, there are plenty. However the restarts are a damned sight faster than Windows XP at least.

Also I thought I’d point out that all is solved by OS X, even world conflicts:

Picture 1

Posted in Mac, Mac Diary, OS X, OSX, mac osx | Comments

MacBook Pro Diaries #005: Chimingly stupid

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

I’ve just encountered the first utterly daft Mac OS X feature. You cannot easily turn off the start-up chime/sound. In Windows it is simple to do but in OS X you have to use shell scripts, 3rd party apps or remember to mute your audio before you shut-down.

I don’t know about you but having your Mac chime in the middle of a quiet room is not pleasant.

Posted in AAA, Daft, Mac, Mac Diary, OSX, audio, chime, mac osx, mute, sound | Comments

MacBook Pro Diaries #004: Pimp my Mac

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

Quicksilver

The Mac JoyTM continues as I spend a few hours pimping my Mac.

Spotlight is very useful but it takes one more key-stroke to launch an app than you’d want. First I tried LaunchBar which worked pretty well and then I tried Quicksilver which took it to another level. At its most basic it works like Spotlight but cuts out the extra key-press. But it does so much more. The Google plugin lets you search Google through Quicksilver, super fast. The clipboard plugin lets you record and manipulate the clipboard, through Quicksilver. You can quicksilver your entire iTunes database, copy files, append text to files and, well, pretty much anything all through the keyboard. It is the type of app. you have to try to really grok and then you’ll see how fast and efficient it makes everything you do. Quicksilver is free (albeit in beta with a future option to charge) unlike Launchbar. Spotlight is still useful for finding documents as it tends to index new files faster than Quicksilver.

Hardware wise the double-finger scrolling of the trackpad works really well. All trackpads need to do this.

Pimping further you’ll want Menufela which simply hides the main OSX menu, freeing up some space, and assigns a shortcut for showing and hiding it. Simple and handy. Then get Cleardock which removes the dock’s background making for a cleaner dock.

I am impressed with the quality of 3rd party apps out there. There are probably many other apps. I’ll be giving a try. One I did try that hasn’t survived is Growl. Good idea but it didn’t work seamlessly. Perhaps it is something to be integrated into OSX itself?

Posted in AAA, Mac, Mac Diary, OSX, cleardock, mac osx, menufela, pimp | Comments

MacBook Pro Diaries #003: Hash

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

Since I do a lot of Ruby and CSS coding I need the # character a rather lot. It took me a few minutes to figure it out as it is not marked on the keyboard at all. All the chatter on the web says to use Alt+3 but that produces a £ character for me.

Shift+3 does the trick. Long live hash!

Posted in AAA, Mac, Mac Diary, OSX, character, diary, hash, key, keyboard, mac osx, pound | Comments

MacBook Pro Diaries #002: Spotlight, Terminals and Photoshop

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

A second day with the MacBook Pro and OSX.

Spotlight is very good. Apple+space-bar, type, key down and enter. I’ve been using it all day not just to find documents but to launch applications. It is a good deal faster than mousing down to the dock. Spotlight is also updated very quickly. Install an app and you can find it via Spotlight within a few seconds. Windows Desktop search is slower, harder to get at with the keyboard and doesn’t have the application finding capabilities of Spotlight.

Terminal windows are so much better on OSX. It helps a lot that this is all BSD/NEXT based but even so it just works. Apple + the number of the terminal window focuses it. Copy and paste works well, good line lengths and wrapping. With built-in SSH it makes development on remote Linux boxes pretty slick.

Photoshop on the other hand is going to take some getting used to. I have to figure out how to quickly preview hundreds of RAW files (the built in previewer is too slow). Finder doesn’t show thumbnails of the files like Windows does (admitedly with an extra plugin.) If anyone knows of good way to browse through RAW files and send them to Photoshop then speak up please. Inside Photoshop my normal way of working in full-screen mode with no file menu doesn’t work as well on OSX. I just need to find out the keyboard shortcuts but right now it isn’t what I am used to. Installing Photoshop was quick and easy though, better than on Windows.

Posted in AAA, Mac Diary, OSX, Photoshop, Spotlight, Terminals, diary, mac osx | Comments

Internet Explorer on Mac OSX

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

CrossOver Mac is an impressive and useful piece of software. It lets you run Windows applications on Mac OSX without the need for virtual machines (e.g. Parallels). The app runs in what looks like a native OSX window and even allows you to access your OSX files from within the Windows app.

I was most impressed with the installation process. CodeWeavers has a repository of applications on their server that you can select to install on your Mac. No need for your own CDs (obviously this doesn’t get around licensing, you still need to own these apps or they have to be free e.g. Internet Explorer.) The installation process is very slick and dead easy, I can see non-technical users using this without much hassle.

In the above image you can see Internet Explorer 6.0 runnin on my Mac OSX desktop. Brilliant for testing websites. I’ll give Visual Studio 2005 a try next, a challenge if there is one.

Posted in AAA, Application, CodeWeavers, CrossOver, Parallels, Software, Windows, app, mac osx | Comments

MacBook Pro Diaries #001: It begins

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

My MacBook Pro arrived a few hours ago and I have been bumbling along since. Mac OSX is a strange beast when you have spent 16 years using DOS/Windows systems. Thankfully I have a good friend on IM stepping me through bits of it. So far I have manged to freeze OSX twice (thanks to Front Row) and it has had to restart twice after downloading a bunch of updates. Strangely like Windows that. Haven’t had any virus or spyware installing itself though, refreshing after the terror that is connecting a fresh Windows XP install to the net. No maximised windows is very, very weird.

Mac OSX is super slick though. Expose has that refined edge the Windows Vista clone doesn’t. The way Front Row zooms in and out is something to behold. Super, super smooth on this hardware (2gig RAM, 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo etc. etc.) Love the little remote, hilarious controlling iTunes from across the room.

The whole DMG, installing applications thing was confusing at first but I’ve got the hang of it now. Leave my desktop alone damnit!

And the hardware. Oh man, the hardware. Even the packaging is beautiful. I don’t want to throw away the egg shell styrofoam or tuck the black box away in a cupboard next to my boring, carboard HP laptop box. The magnetic power connector is… you have to try it to believe it. Fiona let out a delighted laugh when she tried it and she isn’t even a nerd like me. Such a beautiful screen too, bright and clear, full of colour (not the glossy option). Keyboard works like a charm, typing away as if I’d been using it for years.

I did have hassles connecting to the office network over ethernet. My Windows HP laptop connects fine to it without any setup but the MacBook Pro refuses even when I enter in details manually. The IT guys say they have to allow it into the network but that seems strange to me when the HP laptop has no hassles. It is a Linux network by the way, not Windows.

Connecting to the net at home over WiFi was a doddle though.

Now onto getting Mac equivalent apps that I need, setting up Firefox with extensions, trying out TextMate and getting Ruby on Rails up and running along with Subversion and all that. Then I’ll give bootcamp and parallels a try as well as that new Windows-window-app thingy.

Should be a blast.

Photobabe

Oh, and Photobooth with the iSight is hilarious.

Posted in AAA, Apple, Laptop, Mac, Mac Diary, MacBook Pro, OSX, diary, mac osx | Comments