September 10, 2008 – 1:05 pm
With the presence of highly robust web applications such as Joomla, and WordPress (powering this very blog) making a real case for the power of PHP, I’ve decided to take the plunge and learn it. This means three things: I have to figure out how to get it running on my Mac OS X Leopard machine, I have to figure out a good editor with which to write code, and, of course, I have to learn to write PHP. Fortunately, I’ve begun to tackle each of these steps.
All the links I mention are listed at the end. So, if you like, you can skip my long-winded yet clever and witty editorial, and just get right to all the links.
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September 9, 2008 – 7:24 pm
As reported by Apple blogs and news sites such as Macworld and TUAW, Apple unveiled new iPod Touches, new iPod Nanos, and new iTunes 8.0, along with the new Genius Recommended tracks and playlists, HD content to watch on your computer, as well as the return of NBC programming. New toys, new shows, new games, bla bla bla. Yay for Apple.
Whoop-de-crap.
What’s the one feature I’ve been waiting for since I got my Mac two years ago? What’s the one feature people had been predicting with more certainty than ever? What’s the one feature that didn’t get unveiled today?
That would be the iTunes Unlimited Subscription service. That was a no-show today, leaving my hopes dashed and my Parallels-Windows-Rhapsody setup firmly in place, and not going anywhere. I would love to go “all Apple”, but I remain enamored enough with the concept of subscription music that I won’t get a shiny new iPod until they decide to try subscriptions. And no, I don’t think the new Genius feature is any sort of substitute.
Oh well.
September 7, 2008 – 4:35 pm
Among other things predicted by this post, TUAW is suggesting that on September 9, Apple may introduce a subscription model to their iTunes software. I’ve posted plenty of times about what I think of the idea of subscription music (see the Related Posts below if you want to see for yourself), and any of you who have read any of them know that I think the concept is a great idea. I still use Rhapsody, and I still complain about having to boot up Windows on my Mac through Parallels so I can sync music to my non iPod media player.
Rumors like this have been circulating for years, but this time around there seems to be definite evidence that Apple has actually been negotiating with record labels for such a service. If this rumor proves true, here’s one guy that will be running out to buy an iPod as soon as he can afford one!
Anybody else heard anything about this? Do you have any opinions about subscription music?
I came across an article at TUAW that has a link to a great tutorial, and a couple freeware tools, for slimming down Windows installs in order to make them open faster and run applications more efficiently within the context of a virtual machine. Specific examples that come to mind include someone like me, who runs Windows XP both via Boot Camp and Parallels on my Mac, someone who uses VMWare, or even someone with a PC who just wants a more efficient, lighter weight Windows.
A day will come soon when I won’t have to develop with Windows anymore, and won’t be buried under schoolwork. When that happens, I’ll have both the reasons and the time to try this, and I’ll be coming back to this article for the tips and tools.
If any of you have had any experience with this in the meantime, let me know if you’ve seen significant performance gains after going through this. Is it worth it?
The article can be found here.
A while back, I posted a few links to some Automator and AppleScript tutorials for users of Mac OS X. While I continue to think these tools are pretty neat, I have yet to really come across a need that makes me sit back, sweat on my brow, and think to myself, “Why can’t I write an Automator workflow to do this?” I have created one lone workflow that I actually use quite a bit, which opens a bunch of Word files, along with Firefox and my school’s VPN program, all with one click, thus cutting down the time it takes to prepare the workspace for my research project from endless minutes to a few seconds. Neat.
There are cooler things to do with Automator and AppleScript. I came across an article at TUAW by the same guy who wrote the previous tutorials, which shows you how to control your computer by sending it an email. This article assumes, of course, that you have a Mac at home that is currently on, you use Apple’s Mail application – and it’s running, you’re sitting someplace else that gives you access to email, and that you suddenly decide that you just can’t wait to turn your home Mac off right now. I’m only half kidding. There are probably people out there that have that problem. If you’re one of them, this post is just what you’ve been waiting for.
If nothing else, it’s definitely a creative use for Mac OS X’s built-in automating tools. The article can be found here.
December 29, 2007 – 11:55 am
How many Mac users find themselves doing the same task over and over in apps like iPhoto, Mail, or Finder and has thought to themselves, “I wish I could just tell the Mac how to do this, and let it do it”? For anyone who has thought that, the good news is that Mac OS X comes with AppleScript and Automator, a built-in automation language and visual automation tool, respectively.
Over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, a guy by the name of Cory Bohon has started posting very simple tutorials on learning AppleScript, and the Automator, sort of a drag-and-drop analogy to AppleScript. For anyone interested in beginning to automate their Mac, here is a list of some of his most recent posts on the subject:
December 19, 2007 – 1:12 pm
The sister of a friend of mine recently bought a MacBook – her first Mac after years of toiling on a PC. As a fellow recent Mac convert, my congratulations goes out to her. My congratulations, and also my most sincere dumbfounded shock and irritation. I still shake my head in awe, and curse under my breath every time I think about what she did next.
She plunked down $399 for a copy of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. $399! I tried to stop her. I pleaded with her not to do it.
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December 16, 2007 – 6:15 pm
UPDATE December 16: I noticed the link in this article was broken and fixed it. Oops!
As an occasional programmer, one of the most irritating things to discover is that a function that I’ve spent days on, and ended up with 250 lines of code to perform, could have been done in five minutes with 3 lines of code. I hate discovering that! Nevertheless, I begrudgingly accept that it was a good learning experience, and at least I’ll know in the future.
Such was the case with a post that I had been writing on and off for the last couple of weeks concerning making a bakup of your Boot Camp Windows XP installation on your Mac. I had an entire tutorial typed up, lots of cool pictures to add, and just had to make a few more additions before it was ready to publish.
Then I came across a short discussion that explained a much simpler way to do the same thing.
ARGH! So much easier! No screwing around in Windows, itself! Why didn’t I find this before?!? I spent two weeks working on a complicated post, and put off writing any more Geek Doses until I was done (which I’m sure all of my faithful readers [both of them] missed terribly), and I could have spent five minutes linking to that article.
Hmmph. Oh well. At least I’ll know in the future…
So, without further ado (or whining and moaning), here is a very useful discussion that explains how to back up an image of your Boot Camp Windows partition all from the comfort and safety of Mac OS X.
Hopefully someone besides me (and the folks in the discussion) get some use out of this. I wish I had found this before I had to reinstall Windows XP from scratch again.
September 6, 2007 – 6:28 pm
I found this post that lists the 35 essential applications for any Mac user from the Freelance Switch blog.
(Apologies to all my Windows using friends. You may not be able to use most of these apps, but at least you can browse and dream of what it might be like to own a Mac.)
After glancing through the list, I recognize at least a few applications that I either use (Quicksilver, Skype, TextMate, for example), or would like to try (such as Ecto and Spanning Sync, among others).
Has any of my faithful readers (either of them) tried using any of this software? Any favorites of yours on this list?
September 2, 2007 – 3:59 pm
I saw this link to a post from a guy who recently bought a manual from the original Mac manual.
Besides the obvious questions such as “Who would search out an old manual and buy it on eBay?”, the photos are interesting, as well as the author’s thoughts on The Way Things Were back in 1984.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I could see paying for something like this. You’re not so much buying a 23 year old computer manual as you are buying a window of history. Besides the state of computers, there’s an interesting look into the culture back then, as well.
Anyway, enjoy the link.