Comments on: New MacBook owner progress/frustration report and keyboard rant http://chrisg.org/new-macbook-owner-progressfrustration-report-and-keyboard-rant/ Chris Garrett's Personal Blog Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:40:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Chris Garrett http://chrisg.org/new-macbook-owner-progressfrustration-report-and-keyboard-rant/#comment-104 Chris Garrett Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:51:29 +0000 http://www.chrisg.org/2006/12/19/new-macbook-owner-progressfrustration-report-and-keyboard-rant/#comment-104 Thanks that explanation helped a lot, now I think of it as unmounting it makes sense. Thankfully I am getting used to my mac and actually enjoying it a lot. Got used to mail.app now, esp since I have the letterbox three column view working. Thanks that explanation helped a lot, now I think of it as unmounting it makes sense. Thankfully I am getting used to my mac and actually enjoying it a lot. Got used to mail.app now, esp since I have the letterbox three column view working.

]]> By: tom http://chrisg.org/new-macbook-owner-progressfrustration-report-and-keyboard-rant/#comment-103 tom Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:41:43 +0000 http://www.chrisg.org/2006/12/19/new-macbook-owner-progressfrustration-report-and-keyboard-rant/#comment-103 So: you're not "ejecting" applications. You're unmounting disk images. Most Mac software is available as .dmg files, which are disk images - exact images of a certain size of disk. So, when you double-click a .dmg, you're <i>mounting</i> it. The application itself is inside the dmg, usually as a package (which looks like a single executable but is really a "magic" folder - right click and choose "view package contents" if you're curious). Once you've copied the application itself, you're not "ejecting the application" - you're <i>unmounting a disk image</i>, which is a relatively *nix-like concept. Mac OS uses "eject" as a synonym for "unmount" throughout, mainly because "mount" is a very foreign word to most users. Unmounting a DMG really <i>is</i> ejecting a virtual disk. Your confusion is that it's not an application - it's a virtual disk an app is distributed on. Other confusion: you don't need .mac for iChat - it's a standard AIM client. I use the same AIM account I've used for six years on it. Obviously, if your friends aren't on it, that's a moot point. Monitor port: it has, they just don't ship the cable by default on the Macbook (they did on the Powerbook and Macbook Pro). The funny port with the monitor logo above it is mini-DVI. £15 gets you an adapter for VGA; alternatively, you can buy a DVI one. It's not full size because there's not bloody room. CF PCMCIA or Expresscard. You want Expresscard, go Pro. Decent email client that doesn't require office: Mail.app, which comes with your Mac and has worked fine for me for many years. Alternatively, Mozilla Thunderbird. Apache 1.3 is already installed, though you might want to ram 2.0 on. As far as PHP IDEs go... I really don't use IDEs for scripting languages; TextMate is the best text editor I've ever used (in that it's a fully extensible and scriptable graphical editor, making it basically Emacs, with windows, and with Perl/Python/Ruby/bash instead of Lisp for scripting). It's €39. I think the problem stems from a what of PC users - especially skilled PC users - have: your understanding of "intuitive" is skewed. Yes, Finder isn't as good as OS9 era, but there's lots of stuff that's different for a reason, and what seems "intuitive" to one user may not be to another. Similarly "I was lied to: it crashes!" - well, buh. It's a computer, it's going to go wrong. Still, I can count the number of kernel panics I've had on 3.5 years on one hand, ther number of reinstalls on one finger, and my computer's currently been "on" for 113 days. Its record is about 295. I cannot honestly say that of any of the Windows machines I've used. And force-quit (or kill -9ing) applications keeps the rest of the OS up. That said, I've been very pleased with Windows XP's stability, which is almost as good these days. I do think people need to take obviously fanciful quotations with a pinch of salt, though... (As for the keyboard: yeah, that's a bummer. It's semi-American - tilde in the UK place, quotes in the US place, no hash key. All I can say is I got used to it, but can entirely appreciate that frustration!) So: you’re not “ejecting” applications. You’re unmounting disk images. Most Mac software is available as .dmg files, which are disk images – exact images of a certain size of disk. So, when you double-click a .dmg, you’re mounting it. The application itself is inside the dmg, usually as a package (which looks like a single executable but is really a “magic” folder – right click and choose “view package contents” if you’re curious). Once you’ve copied the application itself, you’re not “ejecting the application” – you’re unmounting a disk image, which is a relatively *nix-like concept. Mac OS uses “eject” as a synonym for “unmount” throughout, mainly because “mount” is a very foreign word to most users. Unmounting a DMG really is ejecting a virtual disk. Your confusion is that it’s not an application – it’s a virtual disk an app is distributed on.

Other confusion: you don’t need .mac for iChat – it’s a standard AIM client. I use the same AIM account I’ve used for six years on it. Obviously, if your friends aren’t on it, that’s a moot point.

Monitor port: it has, they just don’t ship the cable by default on the Macbook (they did on the Powerbook and Macbook Pro). The funny port with the monitor logo above it is mini-DVI. £15 gets you an adapter for VGA; alternatively, you can buy a DVI one. It’s not full size because there’s not bloody room. CF PCMCIA or Expresscard. You want Expresscard, go Pro.

Decent email client that doesn’t require office: Mail.app, which comes with your Mac and has worked fine for me for many years. Alternatively, Mozilla Thunderbird.

Apache 1.3 is already installed, though you might want to ram 2.0 on. As far as PHP IDEs go… I really don’t use IDEs for scripting languages; TextMate is the best text editor I’ve ever used (in that it’s a fully extensible and scriptable graphical editor, making it basically Emacs, with windows, and with Perl/Python/Ruby/bash instead of Lisp for scripting). It’s €39.

I think the problem stems from a what of PC users – especially skilled PC users – have: your understanding of “intuitive” is skewed. Yes, Finder isn’t as good as OS9 era, but there’s lots of stuff that’s different for a reason, and what seems “intuitive” to one user may not be to another. Similarly “I was lied to: it crashes!” – well, buh. It’s a computer, it’s going to go wrong. Still, I can count the number of kernel panics I’ve had on 3.5 years on one hand, ther number of reinstalls on one finger, and my computer’s currently been “on” for 113 days. Its record is about 295. I cannot honestly say that of any of the Windows machines I’ve used. And force-quit (or kill -9ing) applications keeps the rest of the OS up. That said, I’ve been very pleased with Windows XP’s stability, which is almost as good these days. I do think people need to take obviously fanciful quotations with a pinch of salt, though…

(As for the keyboard: yeah, that’s a bummer. It’s semi-American – tilde in the UK place, quotes in the US place, no hash key. All I can say is I got used to it, but can entirely appreciate that frustration!)

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