Arty's Mac Week

[arty]

A while ago I decided to replace an ageing Shuttle HTPC with a brand spanking new Mac Mini w/ Core Duo 1.66 - you probably remember my thread. Well, it's had a lot of use as an HTPC machine and I've fallen in love with Front Row, but as I have to use a Windows machine for 8 hours a day every day at work I've decided to spend a week using only my Mac at home to see how I get on, and for a bit of a change.

So far I'm enjoying the experience. I'm using my emails through webmail (which isn't great, but that's hardly the Mac's fault) and I've found a great IRC client in Colloquy. NeoOffice is pretty good, though seems to be a bit un-native in its glitchy redrawing and kind of un-OS X-like in its interface. Still, it appears to display large bodies of text more 'nicely' somehow than my PC; I think the anti-aliasing algorithms in OS X are different.

One problem I am having regularly is to do with browsing Windows XP shares on other computers on my network. They seem to regularly crash the network connection on my Mac, which in turn crashes the Finder. I've tried using Apple-Option-Escape and 're-launching' Finder, but it doesn't appear to actually do anything. Right now, for instance, Finder is dead on here. I can still use Safari and other apps OK. When this happened last night I ended up having to restart to fix it. Any suggestions for how to avoid or resolve this are welcome

A good music player would also be nice. At the moment I'm using Cog, but it's a bit too basic for what I'd really like: preferably something close to foobar2000 on Windows.

I'm using my Logitech MX1000 mouse and it's working fairly well except for the forward / back buttons. Can I get these working without installing drivers? They work fine in XP without any additional drivers so I assume they are fairly 'standard'. I'd also like to disable the mouse acceleration if possible.

How do I type a hash symbol? Also, is there a simple way to re-map keys in OS X? I'd be quite handy to be able to re-map to a British keyboard (which I have).

In the long run I'm thinking of permanently switching to my Mac for everything except games. I've tried using Vista at work and don't really get on with it, so a long-term alternative to Windows is what I could do with.

Any help / suggestions to the above will be gratefully received - I'd already searched Google for most of them but not really got anywhere useful, so apologies if any are really common questions that are answered 100s of times

arty

 

[Matt]

# - alt+3

I actually like the layout of the keyboard It makes a lot of sense to have the " on the ' key!

Have you downloaded Adium yet for IM? and try out Mail for your email, you could always set it to not delete from the server if you want to get the email on your PC as well.

 

[arty]

# - alt+3

I actually like the layout of the keyboard It makes a lot of sense to have the " on the ' key!

I'm too much of a touch-typist to change unfortunately. British all the way

Have you downloaded Adium yet for IM? and try out Mail for your email, you could always set it to not delete from the server if you want to get the email on your PC as well.

I had a look at Adium, but it doesn't seem to support IRC for some reason, and I'm not particularly interested in ICQ or MSN any more so can live without those. I could certainly set up Mail, but any emails I send will end up on my Mac and not stored in my 'sent items' folder on my PC, which isn't ideal as I send quite a few 'important' emails that I'd like to keep records of in one place.

As I use Thunderbird on my PC, and I assume that it's available for the Mac, does anyone have any experience of moving its mail profiles between Windows and OS X? If that works it'd be ideal

Thanks for the reply mate.

arty

 

[Beepcake]

Can't you just use IMAP in Mail for your email? Colloquy is by far the best OSX IRC client though, so you'd done well to start there

 

[arty]

Can't you just use IMAP in Mail for your email? Colloquy is by far the best OSX IRC client though, so you'd done well to start there

I don't believe my web hosting supports IMAP unfortunately. Colloquy: yeah, it's great - I really like the program, though it's a bit heavy on the buttons interface-wise. Once I've tweaked it to be a bit more minimalist I think it will be perfect; the Control-Up / Down to switch tabs is particularly good

arty

 

[Doug]

From what I remember of doing it myself, Thunderbird's data folders are drag and drop between systems. So, you can just copy them across the network and drop them where ever they go (been so long since I've used it that I've forgot ), which is probably somewhere in ~/Library/Application Support.

 

[Matt]

I don't believe my web hosting supports IMAP unfortunately. Colloquy: yeah, it's great - I really like the program, though it's a bit heavy on the buttons interface-wise. Once I've tweaked it to be a bit more minimalist I think it will be perfect; the Control-Up / Down to switch tabs is particularly good

arty

See the little button on the top right of the window? that hides the toolbar It's the same for a lot of windows in OS X and tidys things up very well!

 

[Hate]

I'm too much of a touch-typist to change unfortunately. British all the way

I'm a coder and I think it took me about a day to switch

 

[lemonkettaz]

Nice one...

You say you have the 1.66 mini? what memory have you in this, did you keep it basic with the 512 or have you juiced it up with 1gb/2gb?

Whats the general performance of it, i.e. application running/multi tasking etc.

As i am very interested in getting myself a mini, if i were to get one it would be the 1.66Ghz with 1Gb memory... As i couldnt afford the 1.83Ghz with 1gb ram, surely 1.66 with 1Gb would perform better than 1.83 with 512mb...

I will be running a 19" widescreen with it so it would look pretty awesome. I just hope it can run ok. I will be using it for general use plus media, programming and occasionally flash/dreamweaver.

I am a little concerned though as i have read that its near the end of the current product cycle from apple... so assuming they will be updating the mini to Core 2 Duo probably along with leopard...?

Thing is i can get the mini next week

 

[Beepcake]

Nice one...

You say you have the 1.66 mini? what memory have you in this, did you keep it basic with the 512 or have you juiced it up with 1gb/2gb?

Whats the general performance of it, i.e. application running/multi tasking etc.

As i am very interested in getting myself a mini, if i were to get one it would be the 1.66Ghz with 1Gb memory... As i couldnt afford the 1.83Ghz with 1gb ram, surely 1.66 with 1Gb would perform better than 1.83 with 512mb...

I will be running a 19" widescreen with it so it would look pretty awesome. I just hope it can run ok. I will be using it for general use plus media, programming and occasionally flash/dreamweaver.

I am a little concerned though as i have read that its near the end of the current product cycle from apple... so assuming they will be updating the mini to Core 2 Duo probably along with leopard...?

Thing is i can get the mini next week

Both of my minis are the 1.66 CoreDuo and there's plenty of power there to do everything other than gaming really. The only thing I would say is try and get 2 gig of RAM, espeically if you intend to use flash/dreamweaver. Neither of them are universal binaries, and neither of them are particularly well written so they eat ram like it's going ouf of fashion.

As for the Core2 update, I'm not convinced it will happen any time soon, and I've not noticed a massive performance difference between the two anyway. Apple residuals are generally strong though, even on old models, so you could always chop it in at a later date if you feel the upgrade would be worth it.

 

[Will_3rd]

One problem I am having regularly is to do with browsing Windows XP shares on other computers on my network. They seem to regularly crash the network connection on my Mac, which in turn crashes the Finder. I've tried using Apple-Option-Escape and 're-launching' Finder, but it doesn't appear to actually do anything. Right now, for instance, Finder is dead on here. I can still use Safari and other apps OK. When this happened last night I ended up having to restart to fix it. Any suggestions for how to avoid or resolve this are welcome

Even though Tiger introduced better Windows Shares compatibility it still proves hazardous, try changing settings at both ends.

A good music player would also be nice. At the moment I'm using Cog, but it's a bit too basic for what I'd really like: preferably something close to foobar2000 on Windows.

You've got Mac OSX and iTunes, why not use that? Far superior to the latest version on Windows.

I'm using my Logitech MX1000 mouse and it's working fairly well except for the forward / back buttons. Can I get these working without installing drivers? They work fine in XP without any additional drivers so I assume they are fairly 'standard'. I'd also like to disable the mouse acceleration if possible.

I use Steermouse with my iBook and Logitech MX610, it is very good. You can even reduce the mouse acceleration. Plus it has a 14 day trial.

 

[OspreyO]

...and iTunes, why not use that? Far superior to the latest version on Windows...

I don't use it, and don't like it. But whats the difference between iTunes on OSX and Windows?

 

[Will_3rd]

I don't use it, and don't like it. But what's the difference between iTunes on OSX and Windows?

Naturally OSX it is a native application and not ported, I find a noticeable performance improvement when using it on my Macintosh.

Besides I have an iPod and it seamlessly works, why use anything else?

 

[MagicBoy]

Naturally OSX it is a native application and not ported, I find a noticeable performance improvement when using it on my Macintosh.

Besides I have an iPod and it seamlessly works, why use anything else?

Plus a widget it has got... None of this fannying around changing applications, press F12 and you're in...

 

[arty]

From what I remember of doing it myself, Thunderbird's data folders are drag and drop between systems. So, you can just copy them across the network and drop them where ever they go (been so long since I've used it that I've forgot ), which is probably somewhere in ~/Library/Application Support.

Cool. I'll have to give that a go, thanks for the tip.

See the little button on the top right of the window? that hides the toolbar It's the same for a lot of windows in OS X and tidys things up very well!

Aah, I thought that minimised it for some reason. I'll have a play, thanks.

Nice one...

You say you have the 1.66 mini? what memory have you in this, did you keep it basic with the 512 or have you juiced it up with 1gb/2gb?

Whats the general performance of it, i.e. application running/multi tasking etc.

I had it upgraded to 1GB RAM. Performance-wise it can be a tad unresponsive but on the whole it's fine. I haven't found any normal application with which it really crawls; Halo was unplayable, Civ4 didn't even work, and Quake 4 was best not mentioned, so on the modernish games front it's not really usable unfortunately.

Even though Tiger introduced better Windows Shares compatibility it still proves hazardous, try changing settings at both ends.

I *think* I've partially resolved it by tweaking the network authentication on my other computers.

You've got Mac OSX and iTunes, why not use that? Far superior to the latest version on Windows.

iTunes is rather too basic for what I want, and it doesn't support most file formats that I use (Musepack, FLAC, APE etc.).

I use Steermouse with my iBook and Logitech MX610, it is very good. You can even reduce the mouse acceleration. Plus it has a 14 day trial.

I don't think changing mouse settings really warrants buying software - it should be either driver settings (and the Logitech drivers don't appear to pick up the mouse / keyboard for some reason) or built into the OS.

The best thing about this computer is probably its relative quietness. Listening to music with virtually no background noise is excellent

arty

 

[Beepcake]

I don't think changing mouse settings really warrants buying software - it should be either driver settings (and the Logitech drivers don't appear to pick up the mouse / keyboard for some reason) or built into the OS.

Unfortunately that's OS X software for you. Coming from Windows you kind of expect small utilities and things to be free, but the equivilent on OS X tend to be chargeable. I don't have a major problem with it, because most utilities are $10-20, which isn't much, but it can come as a bit of a 'shock' if you are used to the wealth of Windows freebies

I'm not saying there isn't good free software on OS X though, before the rose tinted knights of justice come and flame me www.freemacware.com is a nice site, and it has a widget to show you the latest free stuff.

 

[Will_3rd]

iTunes is rather too basic for what I want, and it doesn't support most file formats that I use (Musepack, FLAC, APE etc.).

Aha non mainstream uncompressed audio formats, I see...

 

[arty]

Unfortunately that's OS X software for you. Coming from Windows you kind of expect small utilities and things to be free, but the equivilent on OS X tend to be chargeable. I don't have a major problem with it, because most utilities are $10-20, which isn't much, but it can come as a bit of a 'shock' if you are used to the wealth of Windows freebies

I'm not saying there isn't good free software on OS X though, before the rose tinted knights of justice come and flame me www.freemacware.com is a nice site, and it has a widget to show you the latest free stuff.

I'll take a look at that site, thanks. I don't think I've come across any small bits of software which cost that I really can't do without, so it's not too annoying for the moment.

Aha non mainstream uncompressed audio formats, I see...

Musepack is a bit obscure, but I'd say both FLAC and APE are pretty mainstream. All three are compressed, too. I'll carry on having a look around for a better music player

I'm off the Mac for the moment (away for a week) but I plan to be back on it when I get back, whereupon I shall try to post a slightly more interesting update. Thanks for all the responses and comments and suggestions so far.

arty

 

[Will_3rd]

Musepack is a bit obscure, but I'd say both FLAC and APE are pretty mainstream. All three are compressed, too. I'll carry on having a look around for a better music player

Haven't had much experience with any of the above part from FLAC, some head scratching was required to convert some files I had to AIFF.

 

[Doug]

xACT is pretty good for FLAC -> AIFF conversion, or vice versa.