Thursday, May 21, 2009

MacAttack

So, I broke down and decided to try Mac again - plus I needed to spend my academic account money or lose it in June - so I got me a 17" MacBook Pro. Tricked it out as best I could to eat up the dough.

So.

Which apps should I get to have the best Mac experience? I may even need to get the Ages of Empire for the Mac now so I can practice for my next trip home.

Ideas?

How do I set it up as a windows box too?
Posted by AI-BU9

9 comments:

Mr. Pony said...

I think I may have given this speech before, so feel free to skim. At some point, after endless tinkering and messing around with third part extensions, apps, and solutions, I decided that I was spending too much of my time computing, and not enough time working, communicating, and creating. So I decided that I would just use Apple's applications unless absolutely necessary. This, dudes, was a good choice for me. Not just because these apps are easy to use, but because they integrate well with each other, in some pretty sophisticated ways. You can make iCal appointments by clicking on phrases like "May 21", and words like "Saturday" and "Tomorrow" in an email message. Mail filters based on Address Book groups. iMovie has easy access to your iTunes library for soundtracks. And so on. I've heard PC folks scoff at this because it sounds vaguely Power Rangery, and in a lot of ways, it's true. It IS nerdy and culty, but it also does turn your computer into a great big ass-kicking Megazord of productivity. Or whatever it is those things combine to form.

So yeah. Spend some time with default apps before you go trying out third-party thingers that offer more features. The integration is nothing to sneeze at.

May 21, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Mr. Pony said...

Of course, I still use Adobe apps and Flash (which is now an Adobe app) for graphics stuff. And while iChat is a great program, the lack of support for MSN makes it no good for work. I use Adium, which is free and awesome (although no video chat support yet). Things is a great task manager, though I've heard good things about OmniFocus. I use Fusion to run Windows, although I do it so infrequently, I could probably have just stuck with the free Boot Camp from Apple.

I could mention some good launchers, but they may be unnecessary at this point. Just put a folder of aliases in your dock.

May 21, 2009 at 9:31 PM
Mr. Pony said...

Blah blah blah blah

May 21, 2009 at 9:31 PM
Fugu said...

To continue the blah...

I'm not entirely sure what you want to do with your new computer. Me, I spend at least an hour a day looking at my desktop backgrounds. I then spend the remainder of the day on Safari.

Now, I know there's Chrome for the pc (someday for the mac) and that Firefox thing. I've used both but I'm still using Safari as it does everything I want and as far as I can tell it's the most efficient and fastest of all three. While Safari 4 is still in beta, I friggin love it. You can have the tabs at the top (0.5cm of extra vertical real estate!) or conventionally lower like Firefox. You can have the Top Sites thing like Chrome (but customizable, unlike Chrome). While there aren't the bazillions of addons like there are for Firefox, there's a bunch, and I think just enough. If you're going to use Safari, here's what I would add:

1. Keywurl @ http://alexstaubo.github.com/keywurl/
It's simple and a complete necessity: you can use use the address bar to do any search you want, super easy like. E.g.: "g radiologists who smoke" will do a google search, "img radiology pron" searches images, "w interventional radiology" is wikipedia, I've got "ut" to search youtube, am for amazon, flkr, imdb, etc--the best part is how easy it is to make your own searches. Just right click (two fingers on the trackpad and click, as I'm sure you know) in a search box and enter a keyphrase, and yer done (just added "wa" for wolframalpha).

2. Glims @ http://www.machangout.com/
A multipurpose addon, basically gives you more options for browsing like using "," and "." to quickly switch between tabs, thumbnails to google searches, autocomplete google, etc...

3. cooliris @ http://www.cooliris.com/
I looooove this addon, but it's been borked with Safari 4 and crashes it too often. Looks like they've got a new beta out so I'll try it...

If there's things you're specifically looking for, check here: http://pimpmysafari.com/


For shareware, try either versiontracker.com or macupdate.com

May 21, 2009 at 11:12 PM
Galspanic said...

Cooliris though awesome makes me nauseous. But probably won't do that to anyone who can handle FPS.

I'm sad my virtual inner ear can't handle the smoothness of that program.

May 21, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Fugu said...

As for random apps that you might appreciate:

Perian @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22923/perian
I've had it installed for so long I'm not sure if it's necessary but I'm pretty sure it still is. Basically it lets you view movies of various formats in quicktime, like the .flv files in youtube. Which, btw, you can easily download in Safari with no trouble: Window>Activity --> in the window that pops up just look for the largest file, which is probably the movie, and double click on it. [Note: A little more hacking-ish, but you can also watch the .flv files in Quicklook (select a file, hit spacebar) if you download this: http://groups.google.com/group/pieces-of-things/web/for%20flv%20files....zip ]

iAlertU is one I've been using a lot 2/2 studying in cafes/libraries so much: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21282
It uses the IR remote that comes with the computer to arm/disarm an alarm for the lappy--you can have it set off with the motion detector, if someone unplugs it, closes the monitor, etc. It'll also take a snapshot and email a pic of the ninja who tried to steal it! Unless of course they closed it.

Appcleaner @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25276/appcleaner
Drag something into the window and it attempts to delete every associated file. Great for uninstalling crap that you've installed.

Grandperspective @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19515/grandperspective
SUPER useful since I've got a relatively small drive half filled with music. It graphically represents all the files on your drive so you know what's taking up the most space.

Calaboration @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/29881/calaboration
Dunno if you use google calendar, but if so this will sync with iCal.

comic viewer: comicbooklover @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19914/comicbooklover

Widgets: istatpro @ http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

Wallsaver @ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24497/wallsaver
It slaps your screensaver down as your desktop. I use it with this: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20604/neko.saver

For games... consider this. Hmm. DL keeps stalling, I'll try and get it up though.

Anyway... if you have specifics you're interested in, I can probably help you out.



Note: just as importantly here's what you don't need to install: virus protection, worm prophylaxis, tinfoil hats for keyloggers and all that stuff.

May 22, 2009 at 12:04 AM
Mr. Pony said...

Nice! Perian is in my emergency reinstall folder. Another winner is OpenOffice, which does everything Microsoft Office does, for free. Of course, there's also iWork from Apple, which does everything Office does without being a fucking douchebag. It's your call!

Fugu brings up an interesting point--this OS is not exactly the OS you're used to. Mac OS X can do a lot of stuff you're going to be surprised by, even/especially as a previous user. Ignore John's varying levels of earnestness, and watch this demo.

May 22, 2009 at 12:46 AM
Fugu said...

Googledocs, for me.

John previous job was as a flight attendant in an airline safety video.

May 22, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Fugu said...

Oh ho ho! I did not know that about using Timemachine with spotlight and applications! Gadayum!

May 22, 2009 at 10:19 AM

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