Tag: Mac

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Musings on Mac

I’ve had my Mac for a few weeks now, giving me a chance to think about what I like and dislike since converting over from my longtime staple, Windows. And although I am overall really happy and excited about the switch, there are still a few things I miss about Windows XP.


  • A built-in dual button touchpad – seriously, Mac, why DON’T you do this? It makes life so much easier.

  • The Windows Clipboard (Copy / Paste Functionality) – every day at work I take advantage of the ability to simply click the little button and paste as text, paste with formatting, match destination formatting, etc. This truly is fantastic and I haven’t seen it built in to the Mac OS natively, at least not yet.

  • Windows Media Player – Quicktime, for actually playing video, is one of the worst out there in my experience. I personally miss VLC player, which is what I used on the PC for most of my video watching, but Quicktime is terrible. No free full screen mode? And why does clicking on the screen cause the video to pause? And the Flip4Mac plugin to stream Windows Media streams is a joke. I’ve tried using it a few times and have given up entirely – I now switch to Parallels and use Windows Media Player through there to watch live streaming video.

I recognize there are those out there who will disagree with my characterizations, but these are the areas where my Mac experience falls down. They seem minor, but they definitely affect my overall experience in a direct, tangible way. And while I am very happy to have my Macbook, even Steve Jobs has some room to improve.

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Personal

Change

This PC to Mac change is big. It’s not necessarily good or bad yet, just big. I will say, though, the dual monitor setup is nice. But the jury’s really out until I get MS Office and a few other programs up and running. Only then will I really be able to judge.

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Personal

The Macbook is in the Building

Ok, I’m officially excited. The new Macbook is downstairs at the mailroom. I’ve made up a list of initial software to get installed to get it up and running.

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Reader
  • BitTorrent
  • Bloglines Notifier
  • FileZilla
  • FireFox
  • Gmail Notifier
  • Intego VirusBarrier X5
  • JBuilder
  • Mac MP3 Gain
  • MS Office 2008
  • OpenOffice
  • Perian
  • SlingPlayer
  • Stuffit Expander
  • TiVo Desktop

Anything else I should add?

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Personal

MacBook on the Way!

I did it. I bit the bullet and order a MacBook. After a few months of recognizing that I need a new laptop, combined with some financial number crunching and analysis, I’ve settled on the 13.3″ Macbook. Now I get to enjoy that sense of anticipation while I wait for the big box to appear on my doorstep.

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Personal Uncategorized

PC or Mac (continued)?

Bryan and I had an e-mail exchange last week on the topic of whether I should get a PC or a Mac as my next laptop. Here’s a brief summary of what I learned.

  • Macs work well “straight out of the box”
  • Macs handle video / DVD editing without adding any software
  • Friends of Bryan attest to Parallels runs Windows better on a Mac than Windows on a PC
  • I can still sync up Smartphones like the Blackberry courtesy of 3rd party software
  • MS Office runs fairly well on Macs
  • I also get the use of TextEdit, iTunes, iMovie and Quicktime with Perian
  • JBuilder, myEclipse, and mySQL are also available
  • My printer (HP PhotoSmart 3210) is compatible
  • My Maxtor Shared Storage drive is compatible as well
  • BookEndz does make a MacBook “docking station”

Looks like I’m going to have a tough decision on my hands soon (very soon, given my keyboard is starting to break).

Categories
Personal

PC or Mac?

After realizing a two weeks ago just how old my laptop is, I decided the need to find a replacement was a much higher priority than it was. I know that I’m looking for a dual processor with a 13.3″ screen, and built-in optical drive. However, with the converison of Macs to Intel processors, the whole OS X thing, and two solid programs in Parallels and VMWare Fusion, I’m in something of a bind.

Do I go PC or Mac this time around? Does anyone have any experienced they would like to share to try to sway me one way or another?