Merry Christmas!!! I'm down in SoCal back at home visiting family...trying to get back and up to speed with updates. Seems a little hopeless but I'll persevere.
After having my MBP (MacBook Pro for those not in the know...hey that rhymes!) for a few weeks now, I have a few thoughts...
- Open Source Torrent Clients are nowhere near the ones for Windows. I've tried Tomato Torrent and Bitrocket and now am on Transmission...the lack of setting priority is galling. I'm not going the Azeurus route either. Java? Are you kidding me?
- I've tried the Gnutella clients, Cabos and Acqlite...uuurgh. Acquisition is pretty good (although it's shareware)...I'm going to try Limeware next.
- I finally burned my first homemade DVD from the trip to the East Coast using iMovie HD -> iDVD. iMovie is a joy to use (although I needed to find a trick to get a theme clip to play the background audio) but iDVD takes FOREVER to encode. My movie was about 2 hours long with video menus so the total process was only completed after I left it on overnight. I was able to Deep Sleep (Mac's version of Hibernate) in the middle of it though so kudos to the OSX crew for programming it to work this well.
- In the absense of a key-sequence to Deep Sleep, I have a widget in my dashboard that does just that. Very cool. I wonder why it's not an option directly accessible from the Shut Down menu though. I haven't tried out Final Cut Pro yet.
- I can't seem to get Parallels to work with my wireless network interface (what Apple calls the Airport) but it communicates fine with the ethernet interface.
- Eric recommended a bunch of software to me...Adium is a great one but it's not as good as Trillian...simple things like dock hiding is in the beta and its buggy. Still I like the interface and the message window is cool. No video though. This list I found has other great software at http://www.opensourcemac.org.
- Quake 4 runs much better than Doom 3 on this particular laptop (MBP 2.33 Ghz C2D, 2GB RAM, 256MB RadeonX1600) probably beacause Quake 4 has been turned into a Universal Binary (no Rosetta required which means that Mac code doesn't need to translate Mac instruction sets to Intel ones). It's a joy to be finally able to play these kind of games...
- After an EXTENSIVE search and testing period, I've decided to continue to run OneNote in Parallels...I'm so used to the OneNote and Visio interface that it's too awkward to change to anything else. I am using OmniOutliner for creating outlines...it came pre-installed on the laptop. Perhaps when Crossover is able to get Visio running well, I'll transfer to running OneNote that way instead.
- I tried out Aperture and it looks promising for managing my photos. Time will tell. I can't believe Xee (a free photo viewer) doesn't auto-rotate images...I thought that was feature everyone implemented last year!
- VLC is buggier for the OSX compared to MPlayer OSX...sometimes it refuses to open a video which MPlayer will open no problem.
- I love the protective film (from http://www.applepeelz.com/)that I bought to cover the laptop in...I bought the full set so probably 90% of the laptop is covered in it...the only palces are the screen, the speakers, and the side edges. It leaves a shiny sheen that's pretty neat. Putting it on was pretty difficult though especially the cover piece. If you get it, definitely use soap in the mixture. Also don't worry about small bubbles or soap streaks...after a week or so, they come out (somehow). I was worried there for awhile but now it's crystal clear! Now I don't have to worry about paint chipping or oily trackpads. :-D
I really should have a page detailing what I've installed on my machine. Everything is grouped together quite nicely in my applications folder so it wouldn't be too difficult.
Played Flag Football with Chris and Jessie for the first time since I played in a parking lot back in freshman year at Cal. That was a looooong time ago. I ended up seriously messing myself up and being pretty much unable to walk for a few days afterwards. At one point, I had to decide how to maximize benefits from walking (more like shuffling really) around. Should I go to the medicine cabinet first or take a shower first? It wasn't so much being out of shape but being knocked around so much...sore everywhere. I don't know how I got picked to be one of the offensive lineman. The guy that I was matched up against outweighed me by at least 70 lbs. Clashing with him was like hitting a freight train again and again. I think I did pretty well though and never let him into the pocket. When I went on offense though, I did manage to pull a couple QB sacks by faking him out. This was also the first time I used my 70-200mm in a sport setting...it was fun. While I played though, Lori was the one taking the pictures. :-D
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Some thoughts about my MBP...I've did a little homework beforehand so after I got it, I went ahead and installed a bunch of things I had written down. Here's a list and what I think about them...
- Shadowbook - as opposed to Smackbook, this allows me to switch desktops by merely passing my hand in front of the light sensor...the Smackbook (where you hit the computer...was just too violent)
- VirtueDesktop - not the best multidesktop implementation but it works...the current ver implements using the light sensor but I didn't get it working as well as when Smackbook does it.
- Boot Camp - what can I say? I'm still a Windows-dependent. Things like OneNote/Visio/Half Life 2 don't have Mac implementations. There are some problems with standby/hibernation/keyboard layout/clock but I'm sure they will be fixed in time when Leopard rolls out.
- Parallels Desktop - allows me to run virtual OSs like Win XP...the beta ver floating around supposedly allows me to boot up the Boot Camp partition. I haven't tried it out...I've read some scary things about messing up the partition so I'm going to hold back on that before I try it. I did test the drap and drop functionality on another Win image that I installed and that worked great. If you don't know already, Macs don't have a stable way of writing onto a NTFS partition. I could have made the Win partition use FAT instead but that just seemed so old school. Besides, I ended up hearing that this new version of Parallels works ONLY with a NTFS partition and not so well with a FAT partition. We shall see...
- Chicken of the VNC - I can't live without some kind of remote desktop solution...My Debian install has a tool to use Windows' RDC service but I haven't looked for an OSX counterpart. I really wanted to get Vine Viewer (the feature list is much better) but you have to pay for that one.
- iAlertU - this software allows you to lock your computer in such a way that any movement of the laptop causes an alarm to sound. It uses the SMS (sudden motion sensor) of the hard drive to work. It's very neat and it sounds like I'm locking/unlocking my car when i use it.
- Tomato Torrent - Is this really the best torrent app for OSX? uTorrent, please port a UB!
That's it for the nifty utilities...I installed Firefox, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, VLC on it of course however I didn't install Office on it...It just doesn't seem right...I'll probably go with OpenOffice or something instead. If anyone knows of good applications I should get (text/code editors, note takers), give me a shout. I found some interesting HDR stuff and I'll need to see how fast Aperture is compared to ACDSee (no Mac version). What I really want is a fast JPG/RAW image browser...the faster the better. I'm also pretty excited about the Theme stuff in iDVD...it's perfect to create a DVD of our trip to Washington DC in. I wonder if there are themes in Final Cut Pro. I don't think I have all the time to learn Final Cut though...something easy seems better for me.
Oh and the MBP isn't my first Apple computer. In fact, my first computer was an Apple IIc. We had the color monitor actually.
My next Apple was the Apple eMate...it was a laptop made for students that used the Newton operating system...it still works! Actually, this started the whole iMac translucent stuff.
Just wanted to put a couple thoughts down...
I'm not afraid to admit it...I do some racial profiling...ask any Asian you're close to and they'll say the same thing, trust me. Here's an example...on the way back home from SF (where I work), I take the rapid rail around here called BART. There's always a line when I get there which queues up in front of the doors of each section of the train. I tend to look for lines with more white people. Why? Because the city that I live in now has a huge Indian-subcontinent population. I find that I have a better chance of moving up in the line if there are white people in it since white people tend to take other trains. Call it what you want but this tactic helps me get a seat on BART during rush hour.
As a matter of rule, women shouldn't use their Victoria Secret shopping bags as lunch bags. They may be pink and all, but goodness sakes, it's totally inappropriate. If you're Gisele or Adriana (see how I'm on a first name basis here?) though, by all means, carry the bag. If not, don't. See how I made it simple? I don't seem to mind when I see old people in VS...when they make purchases, that's fine too...the bag is merely a means of conveying the goods from store to home. But when you start using them as lunch bags (AND BRING THEM TO WORK), that's another statement entirely.
I take off my watch when I use my new laptop...the protective film I ordered hasn't come in yet either.
My Fantasy Football season has fallen apart due to the injuries to Hasselbeck and Colston. Barber's less than steller numbers have really hurt this year too. You know what makes LT great? The fact that he doesn't get injured. AND he has great hands, but mainly that.
I heard a story about pigeons on NPR and now have a newfound respect for those birds. Love NPR.
That was the longest break from blogging I've had for awhile now...sorry about that! Anyways, we've been back from DC for a week now. Had a lot of fun AND took TONS of pics...no album yet but to try and make up for it, here's a link to my ultra-secret rss staging area where I put all my albums before I put captions on them...enjoy!
RSS Gallery Link...coded it per my needs for this website...works pretty well actually since I added some neat features...
Anyways, I also got myself a Powerbook Pro...or as Mac-philes would know it, a 15" MBP 2.33 C2D 160GB/2GB/256MB...this should last me for at least as long as my trusty Vaio (2nd one) did -> 2 yrs. It wasn't as trusty anymore due to a failing battery and crashing OS.
