Monkeys and Dragons

If you believe all the hype then I must be the only person in the world to not own an iPod yet. I do have a multi-purpose mp3 player, but it’s not an ‘iPod’ of course. I’ll admit that I’ve always wanted one. They are slick looking, very clean design (it’s from Apple, what do you expect), but there’s that whole ‘tied to iTunes’ thing that some people aren’t fans of.  (I’ve always liked iTunes and have used it, so perhaps I’m biased.)
Now though, my wife has beaten me to something technical: I bought her the iPod shuffle she wanted for her birthday. Her birthday isn’t until tomorrow, so I’m announcing this a little early. However I can assure you with complete certainty that there’s no way she’ll ever bother reading this in the near future, let alone tonight. Hell, let me just state I’m amazed that you are reading this.

So this makes my second Apple purchase. I think. Hold on, let me think about that again. Yes, I believe that’s an accurate statement. If you somehow missed it, my first purchase was just for my birthday and was a Macbook Pro which you can read all about below. (It kicks ass. That’s from the spec page.) I’m trying to avoid full-on Apple-man-love but as happy as I am with them so far, it’s hard to avoid.

Unfortunately real-life always gets in the way of my digital fun, so I don’t have a chance to try all the things I read about on the web. However I do find myself thoroughly happy with my Macbook Pro in those things I’ve been able to do.

First off, I purchased a Logitech V220 for myself, and I’m quite satisfied with it so far. Initially there seemed to be an ever so slight delay when I would move the mouse after a few moments of inactivity. I attributed it to some strange Bluetooth or Mac sleep mode that it was entering. When I begin typing (e.g. like I am now) the mouse pointer is hidden by OS X, but as soon as I make a motion of the touch pad the cursor appears and is following my finger without delay. The mouse though takes a hair longer to wake up before it begins following my motions. My guess is that it’s attempting to jump to a lower powered/sleep mode to save battery life. I’ve adjusted at this point, but it’s annoying when you focus on it.

Speaking about the touch pad, I’ve almost adapted to it too well. After hanging out with the friendly people over at Mac-Forums I pretty much knew that one of the first things I needed to do was turn on the two-finger right-click. But I also inadvertently found the two-finger scroll feature. Now, perhaps I’m a clueless user in general and PCs have that as well, but I’ve never discovered it previously. However now I can’t stop attempting to use two-fingers with any laptop I sit down at. (Ok, yes, I’m aware that what I just said sounds vaguely dirty, but I’m really not concerned. Pervert.)

I’m trying to think of any particularly great software that I’ve played with that I can tell you about, however the most I can note is that I removed Mac Office immediately after discovering its inability to print. Then I promptly installed NeoOffice and never looked back. Not to mention, with Sun’s recent support of porting Open Office to OS X I have less of an urge to purchase MS Office. I’ve done without it for a while now on my home PC and even my work laptop (although I do cheat a bit: I do have Outlook installed).

I’m probably too much of a geek, but I really enjoy learning about all the new software I have available to me. Yes, to some extent that’s because what I’m used to isn’t available on OS X. But there’s some damn nice software from Apple not to mention many other developers out there. However the main reason I’ve always held off (gaming) from converting, still hasn’t been a problem at all. I even just downloaded the Burning Crusade for WoW, installed it, and have been playing it with no problems whatsoever. Soon though, I’ll give Boot Camp a try, just so I can, and we’ll see how that goes.

Given that whole ‘real life’ thing, I haven’t had nearly as much time to play with my MBP as I would like.  Given my ADD nature, that’s actually fairly surprising since I have a tendency to obsess over new and fun things (e.g. Everquest, WoW, etc).  My wife though is happy that I’m not hugging my MBP everyday (she accused me of it when I was very carefully transporting it down the stairs, clearly a safety precaution, not ‘hugging’).

At this point I’m actually able to do most things that I want, and have begun to compare various features.  For example, Firefox lets me do more of the ‘fancy’ UI things in Gmail, whereas Safari doesn’t.  Possibly a detection/javascript problem, I’m not sure.  My iTunes files have all been copied over, so music is once again flowing when desired.  And I even installed the Citrix client for Mac, although some problem with porting it to the Intel architecture left it unable to use the RC5 encryption module for now.  However I’m able to use it to connect to the office so no worries there (Edit: Citrix seems to also have a problem reconnecting after the system goes to sleep).
I could just list all the various things I’ve installed, but that really doesn’t do much for you.  Suffice it to say that I’ve been playing with all the software apps that seem to be suggested by all Mac enthusiasts (Adium, Stuffit, my OfficeJet, and various widgets).  My biggest sticking point so far is the lack of a mouse, and this has limited any game playing so far.

Logitech has a few bluetooth mice that apparently no one actually carries.  At least that is the impression I’m given by all the local stores who seem to be secretly pushing an agenda of 2.4 GHz devices only.  I could just give in and procure one through the internet as they seem to want, but I refuse to give in so quickly.  I shall be returning to the King of Prussia and demanding a bluetooth mouse for my own.  The Apple store’s proximity to Best Buy seems like it should make for a confluence of technological accessories, as opposed to the vacuum that exists within the 10 miles of my home.

I’m still in need of the proper protection for my most lovely Macbook Pro as well.  If Trojan made laptop cases I would indeed purchase one as it’s really that important. One cannot expect to protect such a device through sheer willpower no matter how much one practices.  No doubt I will have to settle for something a little more sedate (yet trendy) from the said pool of resources in KoP.  This is in keeping with the story (that seems to keep being retold) of said purchase of my beloved MBP.  Apparently there was a sudden upwelling of anti-consumerism via the combination of Apple, Gap, and Starbucks that was focused on my person.  I will suggest that this did border a bit on the cliché.

I still have yet to buy a mouse for my Macbook Pro, and part of me still wants to get the Might Mouse to stick with my new Apple motif.  However being a Logitech fan I keep thinking that I’ll just run somewhere a nice bluetooth mouse.  But in the course of using my touch pad, I’ve learned a few of the tricks.  The famed two-finger-right-click technique which involves placing two fingers on the touch pad and then clicking to bring up what Windows users would recognize as the right-click context menu.  (That one I knew from reading the forums over at Mac-Forums.)  And then completely by accident I found that sliding down the touch pad with two fingers on it allowed me to scroll up and down windows/pages.  I have no idea if Windows based systems can learn to do that, but damn I find it handy.  It’s much nicer than trying to navigate over to the tiny arrows or scroll bar that I seem to have no ability to hit easily (thus again why I want a mouse).

I also still cannot stop myself from having to close the window of my application first, before then realizing that ‘No, I still have to go up to the menubar and quit’.  Yes, yes, I know on some fundamental level that the Apple-Q key combo (how the hell do I even get the Apple-key-button-logo to show up here?) will just quit, but I haven’t been much for learning keyboard shortcuts since Warcraft 2 (select Peon, build, barracks, go!).

Being a big fan of style and form, as well as function, my Macbook has not disappointed. The sleek, silver case showcases a very nice design on the outside, and OS X certainly has a very slick and polished feel to it. Certainly two days of ownership leaves me inside that care-free, go-lucky, wow-I-have-a-brand-new-system-damn-I’m-a-geek window that may be clouding my judgement, but time will tell.

I have discovered the Software Update button which seems to be ubiquitous these days, and there were a few updates to be downloaded and installed. With a broadband connection, it only took a few minutes to download them all, with a reboot or two to get them installed. Definitely a little easier than Windows XP (We have to install updates before you can check for updates that you need to install!), although Vista’s update feature now mirrors the OS X process a lot more closely, disguising most of what is happening on the back end.

Installing applications has gone two routes so far: as expected, and ‘what?’. World of Warcraft did exactly what I expected it to. I put in a CD, a window came up, I started to install. CD 2, CD3, etc. There’s a shortcut on my desktop now too. And as expected, dragging it to the Dock put the shortcut there as well, leaving me to delete the desktop one. (Update: Apparently I actually made a shortcut to the shortcut, I figured that out eventually.) Firefox on the other hand was unusual.

Visiting the Firefox site let me easily download the OS X version, and put the .dmg file right on my desktop. However opening it left me with a strange little window that only had graphics on it, arrows pointing at various grayed out graphics, and me saying things like ‘Wow, I have no f’in clue what is going on’. At this point, distant memories came back to me, recalling experienced Mac users talking about how new users always liked to run things from the installer. So when I clicked on the Firefox logo and it just loaded, I realized that was what I was doing. Time passes, and at some point I realized that the grayed out graphics were trying to show me that I needed to drag the Firefox logo to my Applications folder, and yes as soon as I did that I saw the expected ‘Copying Files…’ window. It was quite easy, but there’s no way a normal user would know to do that. Umm… unless they read the install notes I guess.

w00t! I’m sitting here in front of my new MBP writing this, and it was pretty easy to get here. From a geek point of view the install was a breeze, but I think that even a novice would have a simple time with it. The initial install questions were the basics: name, username, location, time/date, etc.

Perhaps the only confusing point would be the network choices, however the options were straightforward I think (Cable Modem, DSL, etc). Unfortnately my wireless settings were on my USB stick, so I couldn’t get to them during the initial setup. However after booting up, I was able to click on the wireless icon at the top of the screen and set up my network (no broadcast of my SSID, 128 bit WEP key) now that I had access to the text file on the USB stick. There was a bit of cheating there though, since I recently had to poke around on a clients Mac to find the wireless settings. Regardless, once that was done I was up and online.

I’m also already installing World of Warcraft, which it turns out includes the Mac install on the normal Windows CDs. Or perhaps I should be more politically correct and say that the CDs are multi-OS. I am, after all, a Mac user now.

It’s late, and I’m tired so most of my exuberance will have to wait until morning to find an outlet. I already found that the documentation/install notes on the WoW CD wouldn’t open, not to mention I have a host of icons down in my um… tray? taskbar? shortcut thinger? that I have no clue what they do. We’ll explore those tomorrow and take a look at installing NeoOffice, Firefox, etc to get my system more where I want it.

I will say that I enjoy watching the dragon bounce up and down during the prompt for the next WoW CD though. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Sheesh, I did mention it’s late didn’t I?

I should counter that title with a quick “well I don’t have it yet” note. However, at this point my expectation is that I will be buying one for myself in just a few days (for my birthday). I turns out that I have neglected to upgrade my PC for a few years now, and I’m realizing that a new PCI-Express video card would be nice, but that means I’ll need a new motherboard, which means that I’ll need a new processor as well as new memory. And my 76 lbs 21″ monitor could use replacing. (You can see where this is going.)

That thought actually occurred to me last year when I was on the verge of actually upgrading, but then is what made me hold off. So for my birthday this year, Jill wanted to surprise me and get me a new system. She actually wanted to take me into the Apple store and go ‘Buy what you want! Surprise!’, but much to her dismay she let the cat out of the bag a little early. However the benefit of that is she won’t have the sticker shock that she otherwise would have (we geeks can never do anything cheaply).

So, sometime in the near future I will be posting my experiences as I convert almost completely from Windows to OS X in one swift move. I say ‘almost’ because I anticipate setting up Boot Camp for the purposes of 1) Gaming and 2) Programming. However, I do anticipate playing around with gaming and coding in OS X, so I’m going to try and keep my Windows usage down to a minimal amount while using my Macbook. In fact, the number of Mac games, while less than that of Windows, does include a good number of games that I actually want to play or already have. It’ll be an interesting experience for someone who last used a Mac in 8th grade or so.

Here are the specs of what I’m planning on purchasing: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

Specifically the 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 w/ 256MB.

Ok this is my required ‘Holy shit! I have a website? I have a blog?!’ post. I have no idea why some days I feel this overwhelming need to post things vs not posting them, but here I am. I suppose if I did more of ’something’ that was interesting to post I would. I don’t think anyone wants to know about me mowing the lawn. Anyways, there is quite a bit going on that is noteworthy, so I’m simply warming you all up for my new posts.

I don’t know why some weeks I can’t stop blabbing on here, and why then other times months seem to flow by before I even think of writing anything.  Clearly I’m not one of those reporter types who have those ‘a-ha’ moments when they realize they have something worthwhile.

It turns out that one of the guys at kickboxing (thanks Jonathan) happens to have Lost Season 1 and 2 on DVD.  It also happens that I’ve been dying to watch it like a voyeur with a blindfold on.  Thankfully that has begun to progress, and I’ve been able to watch the first 6 or so episodes.  Most of those in one day.  I’d have watched more, but time was relentlessly marching on and my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer.  So now I’m currently trying to schedule as many episodes per day as possible with the intention of trying to catch up with Season 3 (currently airing).

Oh and since I’m here, let me just say that NCAA 07 is a pretty good game.  Mr. LDUBB41 has explained a few of the ideas of the game to me, although I still tend to pass just about all the time.  However, it would seem that after our last game that ended in double overtime with him winning 84-82 (we’re not so good on that ‘defense’ thing) that he clearly feels that the time is at hand to continually whoop my ass.  However, my current plan is to hide dog treats in the couch so that Loki just stares at him the entire time.  It’s on Mr. LDUBB baby, it’s on!  ;-)

This falls into a strange category of WTF and.. well.. mostly into WTF, but with a dash of that’s strangely cool.

Apparently someone decided that they were comfortable enough with hollowing out a rat to try wiring said rat up with some lovely Halloween-esque LED eyes. It’s the type of thing you’d find at Spencer’s or maybe a Halloween store and probably completely ignore. But of course this one is/was a real rat.

Here are the complete instructions on how to make one yourself. And yes, there are pictures: http://www.instructables.com/id/E7Y1MAP6SOET2JXPD2/?ALLSTEPS