August 31st, 2007
You can argue whether you find these applications essential, but because my employer has an island in Second Life and because the number of KML files online is growing rapidly, I use Second Life and Google Earth a lot.
Second Life
Second Life is notorious for its instability and frequent crashes on my work laptop. Luckily it runs stable on the Macbook. Because the graphics cards lacks power you can’t enable all the advanced graphics options. But voice is also available on the Macbook.
Using Second Life on the Macbook took a bit getting used to because on XP I knew how to use a lot of the keys to fly etc. and since here also the Ctrl and Command keys got switched I look a bit like a noob from time to time when I use Second Life on the Macbook.
Google Earth
Great application to display geotagged pictures on, display GPS tracks on, or Wikipedia articles. And now you can even fly using a plane (try Command+Option+A).
Stellarium
Stellarium was around before Google added the stars in the sky to Google Earth and even though I know little or nothing about stars, it is really cool to just select a position on the earth, set a date and time (or just use the current date/time) and see how all those small bright spots in the sky are called.
Stellarium is available for Windows and Linux also, so even without a Macbook you can enjoy this great free application.
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August 30th, 2007
If you remember the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials (if not go here and watch them now!), you know that a PC is dull and boring and a Mac is funny and cool. That probably is the reason why there are tools like CyberDuck, Chicken of the VNC, Smultron (named after a strawberry) and Seashore.
But forget about the funny icons for a second and download and install them, because you’ll need them. At least I did.
CyberDuck + Smultron
I need to be able to connect to my FTP server to upload files, screencasts, podcasts etc.
CyberDuck does just that. It support sFTP so that you’re not sending stuff like username and password in clear text over the Internet. To edit (text-)files directly from within the FTP folder view, you need to add an external editor. I choose Smultron, a free editor that works fine.
With those two combined I just click on a PHP file in CyberDuck, select to edit it and CyberDuck downloads the file, opens the editor and re-uploads it afterwards.
Chicken of the VNC
As you might expected from the name, Chicken of the VNC is a VNC client. I use VNC a lot to connect to my servers at home. Those are stowed away in a closet without screen.
Chicken of the VNC works, but not as fast as the TightVNC viewer on my XP box does. Biggest difference I think is that in TightVNC viewer I’ve got the option Track remote cursor locally. In Chicken of the VNC the server mouse lags behind often and can’t keep up with my mouse movements.
Seashore
It took me a long time to find an image editor that I found actually useful. The major requirement was that it had to be able to blur out parts of an image. I needed that to be able to create screenshots like above for CyberDuck. Seashore does all that. But it is strange that a lot of the others that I tested (including Image Well which was recommended to me) either not provide that option or hide it too well for me to find.
Posted in Software, Tips | 1 Comment »
August 29th, 2007
Setting up a printer for a Macbook can be easy. Just connect it using USB and you can use one of the available drivers go start using it. I’ve got a HP PSC 2175 multifunctional at home and as expected from HP, they have drivers and support applications on their website.
Shared Printer
But, the easy setup only applies when you connect it directly to the Macbook, trouble starts if you’re foolish enough to share the printer from a Windows XP computer and want to connect to it from your Macbook!
I’ve got the multifunctional running in my study which is way up in the attic while I like to use the Wifi down in the living room. Of course even on a Windows XP laptop I can’t do scans from down there, but printing is not much of a problem.
I just created a printer share (called printer home to keep it apart from the printers that I connect to at work) on the Windows XP PC that the multifunctional is connected to and connect to that share from the laptop. The drivers that come with my laptop don’t care if the multifunctional is connected to the USB port or over the network.
No Spaces!
Not so on OS X. The first and biggest problem, and the reason why this post is tagged frustrations is the fact that at first the printer share on the XP PC wasn’t displayed on the Macbook. I couldn’t understand why, I followed all the steps I thought were needed: goto Applications then to the Utilities folder. There I started up the Printer Setup Utility. Then I clicked on the Add Printer button, selected IP printer and clicked on the More Printers… button. In the Printer Browser popup I selected Windows Printing and then the PC that the printer was connected to and which had the printer share setup.
Don’t ask me why but a some point I had another look at the printer share and decided to change the name to PrinterHome without a space in the share name!
And that made the difference. The share now showed up on the Macbook. Duh!
Extra driver
But just being able to see the share wasn’t enough. The drivers on the Macbook that could handle printing to the USB port, can’t handle printing over the network. The detailed setup page that I’d been using for the first part of the setup also pointed that out and directed me to the hpijs page.
There I had to download 3 different dmg files that I then had to install to get a huge list of HP printers that I could choose from when connecting over the network to setup my printer.
So in the end, after way to much time, it worked.
Posted in Frustrations | 2 Comments »
August 28th, 2007
Sharing files between Windows XP and Mac OS X isn’t hard if you know what to do.
Connect to Windows share
If you’ve shared a folder on Windows XP you connect to it from the Macbook by using Go > Connect to Server in de Finder. Then type smb://yourip/sharename to connect to the share on XP
If the share is password protected then you’ll be asked to enter a username and password before you can connect to the share.
Create a share on the Macbook
You can also allow XP users to connect to the Macbook. Like in XP you need to enable file sharing. To do that you need to go to the System Preferences and select Sharing.
Check the box in front of Windows Sharing.
You also need to assign an account that is used to allow access to the shared folders. The account name is what also sets the share name that XP users need to use to connect to the Macbook.
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August 28th, 2007
Probably not essential to most people, but when you’re sharing your Macbook or like me expect to be using it only for a while, it is useful to create a second user. That second user will have all the same applications available, but will have its own settings, user-names etc.
Because I didn’t do that right away, I had to redo some of the settings that I did for the first account. But now it is less a problem when I have to hand in the Macbook again. Without my password they can’t log-in using my user and my settings and stored user-names etc. are safe.
To create a new account goto System Preferences > Accounts
You’ll probably first have to unlock the Accounts screen by clicking on the lock in the lower left corner.
After that click on the + about the lock to add a new user.
I gave my user administrator rights so that I could still do everything that I wanted.
If you’re going to share your folders with XP users, you also need an user account which determines the username and password that XP users need to answer to get access. It is best to not use an administrator account for that purpose.
Just like XP you have a number of options for user accounts. You can for example determine which account is used to automatically log-on when the Macbook is started. The account names can be displayed next to the clock in the upper right corner of the screen enabling easy switching between users while staying logged in.
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August 27th, 2007
Besides Office Communicator there are a couple of other rather essential tools you just need to have to stay connected to the world.
Both of them are available for the Mac:
Skype
Even though Skype still uses a closed proprietary protocol for its communication, I find it an easy way to keep in tough with people both in the Netherlands and abroad. I sometimes use the Unyte Application Sharing plugin to give some remote support. The plugin itself isn’t available for Max OS X though.
But still it an essential application to have installed.
Twitterific
OK, I admit it, this shouldn’t be one of the first tools to install on a new Macbook, but it is. Even though I’m not a hardcore Twitter addict, I went looking for a Twitter tool right away.
I hadn’t used it before, because there isn’t a Windows version for this particular tool, but I liked Twitterific right away. It is hidden when there are no new tweets, and pops up when needed.
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August 26th, 2007
Another essential tool is of course a feed reader. The first one I’ve tried is one that made me jealous about the fact that it is only available for OS X. The tool is called Vienna.
It has of course all the basic features, but also has more advanced things like smart folders. Those work like the smart playlists in iTunes. You just enter a set of criteria and that folder will only display articles that fit those criteria. You can select on text, date, read etc.
Default smart folders are “Marked articles”, “Unread articles” and “Articles posted today”.
Another thing I really like and is lacking in Sharpreader on Windows XP is the ability to have links opened in a new window, but on the background. In Sharpreader opening a link in the external browser always makes that window come to the foreground, while I often just want to open a bunch of them there first while scanning my feeds. Really nice tool.
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August 26th, 2007
The Macbook came delivered with a 30 day trial of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X and a 30 day trial of iWork ‘06. I probably would have tried the full iWork ‘06 version if it had been available through SURFspot, the online store with educational software licenses for students, teachers and staff working at universities and higher education institutions here in the Netherlands. But there I could only buy a very cheap license (about 14 euros) for Microsoft Office 2004 while iWork still costs 71 euros in the Educational store of Apple.
The fact that Office 2004 looks a lot like Office 2003 on Windows XP wasn’t the most important reason to choose it. But it turned out that the fact that Microsoft builds it, has some advantages.
Messenger
The university that I work for (and that bought the Macbook) uses Live Communicator as a tool for chat and videoconferencing between staff. Everyone has an account and the Communicator is installed and started by default .
The Messenger application that is part of Office 2004 can, unlike its cousin on Windows XP, connect to both the MSN messenger network and the Live Communicator network.
Microsoft Entourage
Another bonus of the Office 2004 package is Microsoft Entourage. Now I understand that a lot of Mac users don’t like the application, but for me it provided vital connectivity with our Exchange mail system. The included Mail application isn’t able to connect to our server.
Finding the correct settings for the account of course wasn’t easy since the university doesn’t provide that info for Mac OS X users (not supported). The screenshot on the left shows the settings for our server, it might also work for others.
I also connected my Google Mail account to Entourage, that worked ok also. Only problem there is that after either the Macbook or my Windows XP system retrieves a message, it is archived. So only one of the two machines can collect the message.
No tasks or notes
Entourage was able to get notes and tasks from the Exchange server, even though it does have support for notes and tasks, that is kind of a pitty.
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August 25th, 2007
Though I had never used a Macbook before this week, I remembered that the Dock usually had some kind of animation when you move the mouse over it. That apparently isn’t the default setting and I was kind of disappointed that it didn’t change or move.
You can find the settings for the Dock by clicking on the Apple symbol in the top left side of the screen:
By switching the Turn Magnification On/Off you can switch the effect On of Off. Choose Dock Preferences to change the size of the magnification. If you want the dock to disappear when you’re not using it, you can change that there also.
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August 24th, 2007
One thing that helped a lot while I was trying to figure out how the Macbook worked was connecting a mouse with two buttons.
OS X does have “right-click” functionality and when your mouse has two buttons, life for an XP uses becomes much easier.
If you’re not using a mouse but the tough pad, you can do a right-click by pressing the Ctrl-button when you click.
(update) What I didn’t know was that the mouse that is provided with the Macbook is a Mighty Mouse. And a Mighty Mouse does have right click functionality (even though it doesn’t have buttons), but it is disabled by default.
You can enable it by going into the System Preferences and then choose Keyboard & Mouse.
Here you can set the right click to Secondary Button and change other mouse related settings.
(update) It is good to see I’m not alone in missing that right click option.
Posted in Tips | 3 Comments »
