I’m posting this from my Dell Optiplex 755 running Mac OS X 10.5.1. Awwwww yeeeaaahhhh.
Tag Archive for 'Macintosh'
In my continuing trend of hacking OSX to behave the way I want am accustomed to, I spent Monday night reclaiming my home and end keys. I knew I had seen this hack somewhere before, I just had to find it again. This comes courtesy of Aaron Adams, via The Tao of Mac:
To change the Mac’s home and end keys to behave like Windows, create a text file named /Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict (if the folder doesn’t exist, go ahead and create it) and add these lines:
/* Home/End keys like Windows */ { "\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; "\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; "$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; "$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; }Logout and login, and the home and end keys will work like Windows.
No more command-left. Oh frabjous day.
I finally got fed up with the way OSX handles application switching. Quite frankly, I missed the Alt-Tab ways of Windows, and set my mind to making that work on my Powerbook. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone in my desires, as someone has already written the exact program I need to do this. Please follow along…
- Download and install Witch.
This will give you window-switching ala Microsoft via the alt-tab key. The Dock’s application switcher will still reside on command-tab. If you’re happy with this, then you’re done. If you’re like me, you’re going to want Witch to use command-tab, but this isn’t going to work without a bit of trickery. - Download and install the Unsanity Application Enhancer.
This will give you a nice framework for other hacks and such. For our purposes, this will allow us to continue on to step 3… - Download and install Pulltab. Log out and back in.
At this point, command-tab no longer belongs to the Dock. You are now free to go back into the Witch control pane and assign the “All applications” cycle keys to command-tab and shift-command-tab.
Sit back and enjoy Windows-style application switching…
Long time no blog…
I’ve noticed over the last week that every Apple-related news website in my RSS reader has made mention of an Apple Store in Rome slated for 2006. I don’t understand why this is such a big deal. I don’t see postings on CNet every time CompUSA or Fry’s opens a new store. Then I realized it’s just Apple’s groupie phenom.
Apple has a following like none other in the computer sector. If you think Linux had fanboys, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Mac-addicts gush about Apple. I haven’t really pruned out any of the pre-loaded Apple news feeds that come with NetNewsWire, but now I’m thinking it’s time. Every time Apple makes even a hint at a move, the RSS feeds lite up with the same thing. Hell, even iPod accessories from third-party manufacturers rate a story among even the larger Apple news sites. The Rome Apple Store (no, not a store for Rome apples) has finally done me in. I can’t take it anymore. Please, for the love of God, stop covering every time Steve Jobs sneezes.
I picked up a Mighty Mouse today, all psyched to have matching gear (laptop, monitor, keyboard) and those cool buttons to bring up Exposé. A few minutes use makes it clear: I hate this mouse.
While Apple pitches it as a two button mouse, it is in fact still the traditional one-button, front-end smasher mouse with new sensors to detect which finger actually caused the aforementioned front-end smash down. To say the feel of this mouse is awkward is an understatement. My instinct with this mouse is to always use my whole hand to press down the mouse. Any attempt to use it in a mouse-button type of way proves uncomfortable. The mouse is also very light-weight, which makes it feel cheap. The textile feedback of the scroll-dot feels like nails on a chalkboard, and the mouse is too small for my hands. That’s saying something, because I have really small hands for a man. Finally, the side-buttons are so hard to press they’re useless.
In short (too late), this mouse is going back to the store. Avoid it.
PS - Title reference
I might as well join in with the rest of the interweb and bitch about the Mighty Mouse. Apple finally releases a multi-button mouse, and it’s corded? Come ON. Touch-sensitive buttons, aural feedback? This is a mouse, not an iPod. I want real buttons, dammit!
Okay, back to grown-up land. I don’t think it’s all bad, as this Ars Technica review highlights. It’s still corded, but it’s only a matter of time before they release a bluetooth version.
Now, I’m in the market for a bluetooth mouse for my Powerbook setup at home. The question is, do I wait for a bluetooth Mighty Mouse, or purchase a Microsoft bluetooth mouse. It all comes down to style vs. availability. The MS mouse does just about everything the Mighty Mouse does, but it doesn’t do it with Apple’s flair.
Apple announced updated iBooks today, basically beefed up versions of the previous ones. More standard memory, faster processors and video, yada yada. (No, I mentioned the bisque…)
Most of the interweb seems rather surprised that Apple didn’t announce a widescreen model. Frankly, I’m not at all surprised. A widescreen iBook would close the gap between iBooks and Powerbooks enough to cannibalize sales of the later, something the PowerMac line already experiences thanks to uber-fast iMacs. My guess is that many people buy a 15″ Powerbook just for the widescreen. Features like more RAM, a PC card slot, and faster video really don’t make that much of a difference to your average consumer. For Joe Blow, its all about that widescreen, and maybe a little about the Aluminum casing.
In any case, I don’t think we’ll see a major revision to any of Apple’s portables until the x86 transition. Rumor has it that the inability of IBM to produce a G5 for notebooks was a major factor in the Intel switch, and that’s where my money is too.
As alluded to in my post from a few weeks ago, I have indeed upgraded to a 15″ Powerbook. I’m just now getting my stuff moved over to it, and it is so choice. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up.
I’m a little distressed, however, as Sidetrack doesn’t work with these newer Powerbooks. For me, Sidetrack is a necessity; I must have my right-click tap! Is there any other tool that will give me a right-click by tapping the touchpad?
I’ve been using Entourage 2004 to connect to my Exchange 2003 server at work for about a week now. Some observations…
- The Send / Receive schedule needs more flexibility. The only true way to force a sync with the Exchange server is to quit and restart the program. However, that leads me to my next complaint…
- The initial sync after startup takes forever. Once Entourage realizes it can connect to the Exchange server, it first syncs up the calendar and my contacts before moving on to my inbox. Why can’t it do my inbox first, since that’s what I really want to see ASAP?
- Nothing seems to come down with categories in tact. If I categorize contacts or calendar items in Outlook on my PC, the categories don’t show up in Entourage. This presents a problem if I want to sync certain categories of contacts to my cell phone through iSync.
- Entourage only wants to sync my primary contacts folder. I have other contacts folders below the primary one, and they don’t come down at all.
- When I reply to a message, it quotes the message in bottom-post style, but then places the cursor at the top of the quoted text. I can’t seem to make it place the cursor at the bottom.
To be fair, there are a couple of things about Entourage that are quite nice, and quite frankly I think Entourage would kick Outlook’s butt in a standalone setting. Particularly…
- The project management features are fantastic. The ability to link emails, appointments, tasks, and contacts to particular projects are really cool.
- Entourage can be easily configured to group and sort messages in many different ways, easily besting Outlook 2003’s pathetic grouping options. I can finally read my mailing lists as proper threads now.
- The overall look and feel of the program is much nicer than Outlook, and Microsoft really did a good job of making the program feel like a Mac program, far more so than any other Office 2004 application.
I hope MS doesn’t drop the product until the next release. I’d really like to see some improved Exchange sync’ing in future service packs. I think a full featured Exchange client for the Mac would really help Apple’s success in the workplace.
I’m writing this entry from my Powerbook. Yeah, that’s write, I’m giving my Mac another shot.
A few months ago I wrote about my frustrations with the great “switch” experiment. I had experienced productivity issues and incompatibilities that were, in my mind, insurmountable. I had almost written the Mac off, but for some reason, I still hadn’t sold the Powerbook on eBay. It may have been because part of me didn’t want to let it go, but it was more likely due to procrastination. In any event, I’m glad I still have it, because now I’m getting a chance to try the switch again, and this time I think it’s going to stick.
I’m running Tiger now, and it’s very nice. Seems to be a bit more refined, and a bit faster on my machine. I’ve also got Entourage playing nice with my Exchange server through a VPN link, and Virtual PC 7 is running XP in case I might need it. All in all, I’m making the machine very functional for my daily needs. I picked up a good piece of advice from a comment over at jwz’s blog: Don’t expect / try to make it work like what you’re used and you’ll get along pretty well. I find that if I adapt my work habits to the machine, it’s a much better fit.
I’m at NECC right now, so in my free time I’ll be blogging about some of the hacks and tools I’ve found to make things a little easier to use. Oh, and I’m definitely moving up to a 15″ Powerbook as soon as I get back…