A Yankee in Texas

Still not a lot of keyboard time on the Mac today, but I did find a program TivoDecode Manager that will transfer and decode my Tivo recordings to watch on my Nano. Which is super cool! Now I can watch my tv shows on the Mac.

– Jeremy

Ok so it’s been about a week with the Macbook so I figured I would mention few things I love and a few things I don’t like very much:

My likes:

1. Boot time or I should say what boot time. I could honestly boot the mac up 4-5 times before my XP machine booted.
2. It’s beautiful. Both the OS and the Macbook form factor. This is basically expected from Apple, but that doesn’t mean it should be over looked.
3. The fact that you can basically choose which programs remain running in the background. On a Mac when you open a program and then close the window it doesn’t quit the program like in Windows the program is still running which can be nice. It can be a pain to go back and quit any programs you only closed. It because of this that I am listing this as a like and a dislike.
4. The community. There is a fire and excitement for the Mac that just doesn’t exist for Windows machines. People are passionate about their Macs and by owning one you get to be part of the club.

My Dislikes:

1. Keyboard shortcuts use the command key not the control key and it’s in an awkward place for a transitioning Windows user. Several times I have instinctively hit fn+c for cut since the fn key is where control would be on a PC. This is something I need to adapt to, but it’s a little annoying.
2. Close vs. Quitting a program (see #3 in Likes)
3. The matte black finish makes even slightly greasy hands look like you’ve just man handled a bucket of KFC chicken. I knew about this before I ordered the black Macbook, but it’s still annoying.

That’s all I can think of for week 1. I didn’t get to spend much time on the Mac today, but I did go to the Apple store. I drooled over iPhones, iMacs and Mac accessories. I need to get a keyboard, a mini-dvi to DVI dongle and a USB hub since USB ports are very precious.

– Jeremy

Well with all the packing going on I really haven’t had a chance to use the Macbook too much the past few days. Tonight I did sit down to do a little programming. I was working on something that needs an .htaccess file which is, in this case, a way to tell the web server what to do before it looks for the actual files or location you’ve requested. Like in the case of say web program that allows you to do a search for books a nasty URL might look like: /search.php?autherLastName=King&catagory=horror&year=1987 if you create some htaccess rules you can make the same url look like /search/king/horror/1987 and the rule will tell the web server to pass the variables king, horror, 1987 to the search.php script. I am over simplifying since I am guess most of you could careless.

Anyway Mac’s hide all files that start with a ‘.’ since these are usually system files. So I did some searching and found a way to show the hidden files, but it was a pain. Then I found a site that shows you how to automate the exact same actions using the Automator application that comes with OS X. Now it’s a snap to show or hide hidden files. It was very cool to learn something new.

– Jeremy

I ended up working ate tonight so I didn’t have much time to mess with the Macbook. At lunch I did download a new FTP program I want to play with. It looks very promising.

I tried to install the new RAM in the Macbook, but apparently I don’t own a Phillips 00 size screw driver. I am going to try to get up early, go to Home Depot and pick one up.

– Jeremy

Ok so I’ve had the Macbook for 4 full days and this evening I finally got down to business. Beyond the normal surf the internet, check my mail, and listen to music stuff the main thing I do with a computer is build websites. It’s not only my job, but also my hobby. So I found a program called Coda that I thought would be a great coding environment. It’s a little pricey at $79, but they offer a 2 week trial. So I figured  I would give it a try before I plunked down my $79.

Tonight I decided to do some work on some tools I have been building for my next project. I fired up Coda and started hacking. Coda is nice since it has an FTP program built right in to the program. That being said however I found it a little tricky to use. I had a decent first experience with Coda, but I might look else where for my needs. I have some other suggestions that at least need to try since they are free.

– Jeremy

I ordered some more RAM for the Macbook. It cam with 1 gig of RAM and my plan all along was to upgrade it to 2 gigs. These days 1 gig of RAM is acceptable 2 gigs is preferable. At least on a windows machine. It only cost me about $80 and since I am fairly comfortable working on computers I will install the RAM myself.

– Jeremy

I was the weekend so you’d think I would of spent a lot of time on the Mac however this weekend was fairly busy. I downloaded the trial version of Coda and I started learning how to use the software. I have 2 weeks to try the software and  plan on making the the best use of that time to decide if in fact Coda is the application I want to use to do my coding.

I have been using the Macbook exclusively since I set it up so I am getting used to how everything works and while that sounds boring it is an extremely important process.

– Jeremy

So today was my first full day with the new Macbook. I’ve gotten a lot accomplished today:

I moved all my music and videos over.

I installed a bunch of software:

• Firefox
• Opera
• Camino
• Adium – For chatting.
• Flickr Uploadr
• Amazon MP3 Downloader
• Neo Office
• Handbreak

I think the switch is going fairly smooth. For me it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with how things work. I use Gmail so I have no need for an email client. Most of what I use a computer for is to get to the internet. Tomorrow I plan to make a list of tasks I need to do on the Mac and then make a list of software I need to do those tasks. If it’s stuff I have then great if not then I need to find something to fill those needs.

I might also try making a DVD of digital video from our video camera. We’ve had it since Christmas and it’s seen very little action since we never really figured out a good way to edit and burn the video.

– Jeremy