Juniorbird.com — Mac Archives

Give Me Your Tried, Your Ports, Your Mac Apps

Dec 7, 2007 in Mac, Switch, Tech

OK, I've been fooling around on my new PowerBook -- I mean, MacBook -- now for a couple weeks, and I've achieved a moderate level of productivity. But what are the great apps out there that I'm missing? What small developer should get my $30 for the magic they'll put in my Applications folder? Tell me your favorites so that I can try them out! Read on... (plus 3 Comments)

Back in Mac

Dec 1, 2007 in Mac, Reviews, Switch

Well, I went and did it. I got a 15" MacBook Pro to replace my Dell. The new Mac was supposed to come in more of the April/May timeframe, but then the Dell had a little explosion -- a flash of light, an overpowering smell of ozone, and then it wouldn't turn on for two days (remarkably, after a weekend turned off, the Dell worked fine). That put a crimp in my plans for productivity and whatnot, and I couldn't quite trust a sparky laptop, so MacBook Pro time it was. And it's wonderful. It's beautiful. It feels great, and I love it. Read on... (plus 3 Comments)

90 Days With Mac OS X

Sep 13, 2003 in Mac

After much trepidation, I upgraded to OS X a little more than three months ago. An expert user of the Classic Mac OS, I braced myself for more than ten years of detailed knowledge about that OS to become immediately obsolete, and for various problems to become difficult and even unsolvable. I worked up my nerve to rely on a command-line interface, to keep track of obscure file locations and decode one XML-based preference file after the other. In return, I expected to get a moderately stable OS that gave me Bluetooth, hot new games and software and a built-in Web development environment. Turns out almost nothing I expected about OS X was right. I didn't have to delve into its UNIX underpinnings to get the darned thing to work; the system wasn't moderately stable, it was rock-solid; fixing problems was easy; and I've only just now begun to touch the Web development features. Where do I start with this review? Well, first let's look at the things I loved, hated and didn't know what I thought about when I first installed X. Things I Thought I Loved Bluetooth: Yeah, this is great. What I said before. New Apple And Application Menus: Ditto. The Look: Ditto Ditto ODBC: One of those things I expected I'd love, I haven't touched this. Probably a side effect of not using the Web development features. Terminal: Also barely touched this. Things I Wasn't Sure I Liked Safari: OK, I've changed entirely on this. I love Safari! It's got all the features I need in a Web browser. Fast, stable, pop-up blocking, and I love tabs. I'd like better compatibility with some banking Web sites, and the whole ability to work with the window behind the active one is annoying, but it's a great app. Those Buttons In Finder Windows: Oddly, I think I use the Finder less now, so I rarely notice the buttons. Not useful items. More on the Finder later. iApps: I tolerate iCal, which has the disastrous interface flaw that you need to tab from a field before it will keep the value you just entered in it. This means, for instance, that if you enter the starting time for an event and don't tab away, the time will be reset to the time at which you entered the event. Since the single most important thing a calendar has to do is get the time and date of an event right, this is entirely unacceptable. iTunes is, of course, wonderful. Address Book and Mail are minimal and thus minimally acceptable, if at least free. iPhoto is a lot of fun but needs an "export" command badly so that you can adjust a photo in iPhoto and then save it to the Web or e-mail it to a friend. Things I Knew I'd Dislike The Dock: I knew I'd dislike it, but I've tamed it to my needs. It's actually not bad for switching apps and I like that apps in the dock (like my memory monitor) can show data and others (like Mail) can show state. I've abandoned it for application launching, and am happy enough. Those Flat Microsoft-Style Buttons: What I said before. Buttons Without Tooltips: These are awful and have caused me to make serious errors in the past.... Read on... (plus 2 Comments)

Seven Things I Find Annoying About You, Or Whatever That TV Show Was Called

May 25, 2003 in Mac

So I've configured and set up and used OS X for a day, and I'm starting to develop an opinion. There's a bunch of things I love, and a bunch of things I don't love at all, and a bunch of things I just have to get used to.

Things I Love

Bluetooth
One of the main reasons I upgraded to X was to make my address book talk to my cell phone. Success! While my Nokia 3650 is not compatible with iSync, using SmartVCard, I was able to export all of my contacts from Address Book and import them in my phone. Bluetooth file exchange has been fun fun fun - it's easy to send files to my phone and recieve them from my phone. Only problem is, I can only send one file at a time - it would be nice if OS X would let me queue files for transfer, rather than making me wait for the completion of each transfer.

The new Apple and Application menus
I realize I'm the only person in the world who likes these, but they sure work with the way I work. I always loaded up my Apple menu with stuff, but I stopped using it for everyday tasks like application launching when I discovered DragThing. Having system controls in the Apple menu is convenient and similar to the way I had my system set up before.

Having application control options in the Application menu is also convenient. And I like that you have the name of the app you're in right in front of you! Better than searching for Preferences everywhere.

The Look
Yeah, everybody said "lickable" three years ago. But you know, it just looks like the OS of the future. I like to sit there and say "this is me, using the OS of the future."

ODBC ODBC ODBC ODBC
I haven't used it yet, but about a quarter of my job involves fooling directly with databases. ODBC support lets me do that easily on my Mac. I love that! Databases are good for most everything.

Terminal
I don't like having to use the command line, but I sure like being able to do all those things that UNIX lets you do.

Things I'm Not Sure About

Safari

... in which I'm writing this entry. Fast? Yeah, and I like that. Pop-up blocking? Glad it's easy to turn on and off. The famed bookmark management? Well, seems like what you could do in IE 5, if you knew what you were doing and how to use your tool. A lot of people turned off those side panes in IE, but that's exactly the functionality they provided.

Those Buttons In Finder Windows
I like that they get you places quick and easy. I'm not sure that I like that they're necessary.

i Apps
OK, I've loved iTunes for years. I've already organized my photos in iPhoto, and I'm a most happy boy! But iCal, Address Book, Mail? Seem like good apps. Not that many features. The look just isn't as nice as Entourage. We'll see how they feel when I've set them up fully. I do know that I like that you can show and hide classes of events in iCal - that's a great addition already.

Things I Know I Dislike, And Am Pretty Sure I Won't Start Liking

The Dock
Several complaints:

1. Clutter. Boy this gets full fast! Just a few commonly-used apps and a few system utilities open and yer entire screen is full.

2. Every app is in there. Even the ones I don't want, and never plan to manipulate, like DragThing. This used to be ok in OS 9, because the list of apps wasn't out in front of you there. Now it is, so it needs to be possible to exclude certain applications from the Dock.

3. Why's the Trash in the Dock?

4. I have an extended keyboard. Why can't I map some single key, like F15, to show/hide the Dock, rather than using command-shift-D?

I've solved most of these by also using DragThing, an application and file launching bar with tabs and all sorts of customization that I've had installed since about 1997.

Those Flat Microsoft-Style Buttons
A few years back, Microsoft decided that it didn't need to put buttons in button bars on beveled buttons; these buttons could just be icons on flat backgrounds. For some reason, this has been imitated in OS X. Why not just make buttons look like buttons?

Buttons Without Labels
In the Dock and elsewhere, there are buttons with no labels at all. Sometimes you get a tooltip if you mouse over a button. Guess what, I want to know what buttons do. Give me a label.

Brushed Metal Interface
I'd always hoped this would make more sense in OS X. You know what, it does, at least for a few apps. It's great in the iLife apps, which all use a single-window interface. It's suboptimal here in Safari with a multi-window interface.

It'll be fun to see how I feel about these in a month.

Read on...

X Marks The Spot