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The Mac Thread - New Laptops and an Overpriced Cinema Display

dodosdodos Registered User regular
edited October 2008 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
It's the Mac Thread - Fan the fanboy flames

Calvin and Jobs
calvinjobszj7.jpg

1023.gif

When should I buy my Mac?
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com will let you know the lowdown on when to pull the trigger. Students get 10% off at the Apple Store for Education.

What upgrades do I need?
You need as much RAM as you can afford. But don't buy it from Apple, go to http://crucial.com and buy it there, it's orders of magnitude cheaper.

I have my Mac, I need sexy applications!
You can Google for all of these. If you ever need applications for other needs, head over to http://macupdate.com . Satan got all the clicky-linkys. Isn't he nice?

CHAT
Adium - The only chat client you need...
Colloquy - ...unless you IRC, in which case you need this too

RSS
NetNewsWire - The best RSS client
NewsFire - The second best RSS client, if you don't like NNW

TEXT EDITING
TextMate - A text editor for programmers, amazing functionality, well worth the handful of euros.
Smultron - A great free alternative to TextMate
TeXShop - If you write papers using LaTeX, this is the best editor to get the job done on Mac OS X. You should also look into BibDesk for your BibTeX repository.

CSS
CSSEdit - The best CSS editor money can buy, on any platform. Saves me hours of time scanning CSS files daily.

WEB BROWSING
There's more than Safari (but Safari is arguably best).
Camino - If you like the way Firefox renders, Camino is the Mac-native browser that uses Firefox's rendering engine, Gecko.
Firefox - If you can't live without FF, it's OK on Mac, but not native. So you lose niceties like the Cocoa window widgets, and keychain access.

MEDIA
VLC - Plays pretty much any format on Earth.
Mplayer - Popular rival to VLC.
Perian - Popular codecs like Xvid packaged as Quicktime components, so you can watch these videos in any Quicktime-enabled program.
Audio Hijack - Record the sound output from any program on your Mac.
Airfoil - Divert any audio you want to your Airport Express.
Handbrake - Handbrake is your one-stop DVD rip shop.

KEYBOARD NAVIGATION
Yes, you can do better than Spotlight for application launching.
Quicksilver (info / direct download) - The benchmark keyboard navigation program. Free and open-source, heavily customisable.
LaunchBar - A lightweight alternative to Quicksilver. Less features, but noticeably faster.

BITTORRENT
Transmission - Transmission is hands-down the best Mac native BitTorrent app. Download the nightly build, and you'll get blocklist functionality as well.
Azureus - Azureus runs pretty well on Mac OS X, but it's Java code-base does mean it is slow, and just a little bit ugly. The plugins help a lot.

OFFICE
Microsoft Office - Still the best option, but the current version is really expensive. Get a second-hand copy of Office X 2004 off eBay. If you absolutely need VBA support, you have to use the 2004 version -- support has been removed in 2008.
NeoOffice - A Mac wrapper for OpenOffice. Much better than wrestling with X11.
iWork '08 - The office suite developed by Apple. Keynote is a PowerPoint killer, Pages is perfectly capable as a Word replacement and Numbers is a good (basic) spreadsheet editor (note that I didn't say Excel replacement)

TWITTER
Twitterific - If Twitter is the crack, Twitterific is the dealer.

MOUNTING FILESYSTEMS
MacFuse - MacFuse allows all sort of fancy disk mounting, including drives connected via SSH. Really nifty.

WEB SERVER
MAMP - You could use the built-in server, or you could get MAMP and have an Apache/MySQL/PHP install out of the box.
CocoaMySQL - A great GUI to manage MySQL databases.

I could keep going, but I'm tired now.

dodos on
«13456763

Posts

  • contrabandcontraband Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I, too, marvel at my 2nd gen iPod nano! It has saved my ass many a boring day at work this summer.

    contraband on
    sigxw0.jpg
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I didn't end up qualifying with my contract for a cheap iPhone upgrade, so I will have to wait until December to get the good price.


    Though I have been fighting with myself, trying to avoid buying a Touch to hold me over.

    I really could care less about the music features.

    I want something handheld that gets on the interweb and lets me use the App store.

    I think I would prefer to have it double as a phone as well.

    Jasconius on
    this is a discord of mostly PA people interested in fighting games: https://discord.gg/DZWa97d5rz

    we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited July 2008
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Echo on
  • KimFidlerKimFidler Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Picked up my G3 yesterday, and since it's my first internet-enabled device, I'm impressed. Having Internet in the palm of my hand, anytime I want, is something I've been wanting since 1998.

    What other apps should a person grab? I already grabbed the news reader, Shazam, and the IGN review one.

    KimFidler on
  • The Reverend Dr GalactusThe Reverend Dr Galactus Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    KimFidler wrote: »
    Picked up my G3 yesterday, and since it's my first internet-enabled device, I'm impressed. Having Internet in the palm of my hand, anytime I want, is something I've been wanting since 1998.

    So you're carrying around one of these?

    The Reverend Dr Galactus on
    valar-moreshellus.png
    PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/Steam
  • RonenRonen Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Be prepared to spend an afternoon taking every single thing you own off your shelves/floor/wherever you keep them and scanning them. It takes a while, but once it's done it's so useful.

    Ronen on
    Go play MOTHER3

    or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
  • KimFidlerKimFidler Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    KimFidler wrote: »
    Picked up my G3 yesterday, and since it's my first internet-enabled device, I'm impressed. Having Internet in the palm of my hand, anytime I want, is something I've been wanting since 1998.

    So you're carrying around one of these?

    Haha oops!

    KimFidler on
  • dodosdodos Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    contraband wrote: »
    I, too, marvel at my 2nd gen iPod nano! It has saved my ass many a boring day at work this summer.

    Haha, that's exactly when I was checkin' it out. Cool thing is though that I have this molded soft plastic cover with a hard plastic top that covers the screen and the iPod could still pass off as brand new after a year - although I hate the case itself. Makes me feel like I'm crushing my iPod in my pocket even though the case is preventing that.

    dodos on
  • ronzoronzo Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    So this may be a bit of a odd question, and my googling has not helped as much as I hoped it would. At one point i used monolingual to get rid of a decent block of languages i would never use. One of these languages was icelandic, and after getting some Sigur Ros albums, the titles for songs and album will not always have the correct characters. Is there any way to reinstall languages with doing a complete reinstall?
    If I have to do a reinstall of leopard, will doing an archive and install basically leave me exactly where I was before in terms of program and settings? Most of the stuff on the web is AaI from tiger to leopard, and that says to reinstall programs. But if I'm going from Leopard to Leopard, will that logic still hold?

    ronzo on
  • dodosdodos Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Does anyone with an iPod touch (with 2.0) know if you can use the Pandora application over WiFi or whatever other method the iPod touch has of accessing the internet?

    dodos on
  • jarekjarek Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    dodos wrote: »
    Does anyone with an iPod touch (with 2.0) know if you can use the Pandora application over WiFi or whatever other method the iPod touch has of accessing the internet?

    Yes, Pandora works just dandy over wifi. I spent most of this afternoon listening to some Pandora stations on my iPod Touch, mostly through a public access point which often has serious bandwith issues. Never so much as a hiccup.

    Now if only you could actually manage/modify stations through the app...

    jarek on
  • contrabandcontraband Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Ronen wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Be prepared to spend an afternoon taking every single thing you own off your shelves/floor/wherever you keep them and scanning them. It takes a while, but once it's done it's so useful.

    How is it useful, exactly?

    contraband on
    sigxw0.jpg
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Can you put the old OP back please?

    Satan and I did take some time on it.

    Ta.

    Lewisham on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Its not very much fun with a working isight either. I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize the barcode on a lot of my stuff. So much so that I wound up entering in the items manually.

    Then I realized I had just wasted a couple hours of my life I'll never get back since there really was no reason to make a database of my games and dvds.

    Epyon9283 on
  • ben0207ben0207 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Its not very much fun with a working isight either. I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize the barcode on a lot of my stuff. So much so that I wound up entering in the items manually.

    Then I realized I had just wasted a couple hours of my life I'll never get back since there really was no reason to make a database of my games and dvds.
    Ditto. The app is lovely, but pointless.

    ben0207 on
  • SzechuanosaurusSzechuanosaurus Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2008
    ben0207 wrote: »
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Its not very much fun with a working isight either. I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize the barcode on a lot of my stuff. So much so that I wound up entering in the items manually.

    Then I realized I had just wasted a couple hours of my life I'll never get back since there really was no reason to make a database of my games and dvds.
    Ditto. The app is lovely, but pointless.

    Seemingly, the only real use I can see for it is if your crap gets stolen then you've got a handy list for the insurance company.

    Or for valuing your first edition Harry Potters and other ancient, lost civilisation manuscripts.

    I guess for some, it's invaluable. For others, feh.

    Szechuanosaurus on
  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I've always wanted to play Super Monkey Ball, so I bought it from the App Store.

    Accelerometer controls are hard. :(

    Mahnmut on
    Steam/LoL: Jericho89
  • darkenedwingdarkenedwing Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Question, I cant figure out how to make it so the screen on my macbook pro doesnt auto-dim after 15-20 seconds of non-use.

    also how do I make the computer not go into sleep mode when I close the lid?

    and a statement; God this thing gets hot sometimes, but I wouldnt trade it for the world. I love my new macbook pro so much, and it works so well.

    darkenedwing on
    image.php?type=sigpic&userid=29216&dateline=1296970870
  • Monolithic_DomeMonolithic_Dome Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    just googled this.

    want.

    anything like this for pea seas?

    Monolithic_Dome on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Tw4winTw4win Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    ben0207 wrote: »
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Its not very much fun with a working isight either. I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize the barcode on a lot of my stuff. So much so that I wound up entering in the items manually.

    Then I realized I had just wasted a couple hours of my life I'll never get back since there really was no reason to make a database of my games and dvds.
    Ditto. The app is lovely, but pointless.

    Seemingly, the only real use I can see for it is if your crap gets stolen then you've got a handy list for the insurance company.

    Or for valuing your first edition Harry Potters and other ancient, lost civilisation manuscripts.

    I guess for some, it's invaluable. For others, feh.

    Once you've entered stuff into the "Library" what can you do with it? Does it provide the ability to link to the web like the "Currently Reading" sections of Myspace and Facebook?

    I can see where it would be great for tackling large media collections and I can also see where my girlfriend would love this since she's been talking about cataloging the stuff that we have.

    Any other useful "mac only" applications out there that I should know about? Stuff that really doesn't have a counterpart on the PC?

    ***EDIT***

    Also, what is macheist?

    Tw4win on
    steam_sig.png
  • SzechuanosaurusSzechuanosaurus Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2008
    Tw4win wrote: »
    ben0207 wrote: »
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    Its not very much fun with a working isight either. I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize the barcode on a lot of my stuff. So much so that I wound up entering in the items manually.

    Then I realized I had just wasted a couple hours of my life I'll never get back since there really was no reason to make a database of my games and dvds.
    Ditto. The app is lovely, but pointless.

    Seemingly, the only real use I can see for it is if your crap gets stolen then you've got a handy list for the insurance company.

    Or for valuing your first edition Harry Potters and other ancient, lost civilisation manuscripts.

    I guess for some, it's invaluable. For others, feh.

    Once you've entered stuff into the "Library" what can you do with it? Does it provide the ability to link to the web like the "Currently Reading" sections of Myspace and Facebook?

    I can see where it would be great for tackling large media collections and I can also see where my girlfriend would love this since she's been talking about cataloging the stuff that we have.

    It doesn't seem to do that, although you can publish your libraries to websites. I guess you could maybe cutsomise the template so you could tag which book you're reading and then monkey around with the style sheets so that that book is plucked from the shelf and then displayed somewhere seperately. Or even make your own 'Currently reading...' PHP-image-generating signature app. Assuming you know how to do all that.

    If you do need to catalogue media, it does seem like a good app. to do that. It'll automagically acquire book/DVD/Videogame covers so you don't have to laboriously scan everything in and get all the other pertinent data from the ISBN number or whatever. SO I guess if that's something you want to do, Delicious Library looks like it does it pretty well. Not sure I'm anal enough to even do that though, never mind spend $40 on software that does it well.

    You can read all about what it does at their website - http://www.delicious-monster.com/

    Szechuanosaurus on
  • Durandal InfinityDurandal Infinity Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I just got done with my second day selling the iPhone at the Apple store. It is amazing how many people ask us for Just the phone when every piece of media and everything we say when they are online is contrary

    and dont even get me started with company discounts... Apple store cannot process them, they have to go to AT&T BUT as many times as we say it people try to coerce us into doing stuff we cannot do.

    If anything this baby makes me want to buy one, I even have to go to the AT&T store to do it.

    Durandal Infinity on
  • Tw4winTw4win Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I think I'm going to download it and fool around with it a bit.

    Any other software I should look at?

    Tw4win on
    steam_sig.png
  • iTunesIsEviliTunesIsEvil Cornfield? Cornfield.Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Lewisham wrote: »
    Can you put the old OP back please?

    Satan and I did take some time on it.

    Ta.
    Please?

    iTunesIsEvil on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Question, I cant figure out how to make it so the screen on my macbook pro doesnt auto-dim after 15-20 seconds of non-use.

    also how do I make the computer not go into sleep mode when I close the lid?

    and a statement; God this thing gets hot sometimes, but I wouldnt trade it for the world. I love my new macbook pro so much, and it works so well.

    There should be a setting in the energy saver prefs that says something like dim display before sleep (can't remember... on my mac pro atm). Uncheck it. I have had terrible luck with this actually accomplishing anything on my MBP.

    For the times I want the display to stay on I use http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/

    You can't make it not go to sleep when you close the lid AFAIK. You have to wake it up using a usb mouse or keyboard. I never use mine with the lid closed though since I'm afraid heat buildup will damage the screen.

    Epyon9283 on
  • JimJimBinksJimJimBinks Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    just googled this.

    want.

    anything like this for pea seas?


    I use DVD Profiler, which is free (With extra features added if you pay.) but it only works for DVD's.
    It'll automatically put up a list of all the DVD's you own if you want it to.
    http://www.invelos.com/dvdcollection.aspx/JimJimBinks

    My favrorite feature allows you to input someone's name and Email address and check off their name next to any DVD they borrowed. Then you can set it up so it'll Email them automatically after a few weeks and remind them that they have it.

    JimJimBinks on
    steam_sig.png
  • dodosdodos Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Do iPod touches only connect to the internet through WiFi or does AT&T provide some type of connection that is always available for free?

    dodos on
  • JimJimBinksJimJimBinks Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    dodos wrote: »
    Do iPod touches only connect to the internet through WiFi or does AT&T provide some type of connection that is always available for free?

    They only connect through WiFi

    JimJimBinks on
    steam_sig.png
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited July 2008
    Old OP go
    Echo wrote: »
    I randomly decided to buy Delicious Library.

    It's not nearly as fun with a broken iSight.

    Yes, calling Apple tomorrow.

    just googled this.

    want.

    anything like this for pea seas?

    Only a ripoff that's nowhere near as good. Can't remember its name right now, I'll get back to you.

    Echo on
  • iTunesIsEviliTunesIsEvil Cornfield? Cornfield.Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Old OP go
    Thank you Echo.

    iTunesIsEvil on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited July 2008
    So I've been thinking about getting a new router. If I get an Airport Extreme basestation and hook up an USB disk to it, can I use that as a Time Machine disk?

    Echo on
  • DeathPrawnDeathPrawn Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    also how do I make the computer not go into sleep mode when I close the lid?
    You can't make it not go to sleep when you close the lid AFAIK. You have to wake it up using a usb mouse or keyboard. I never use mine with the lid closed though since I'm afraid heat buildup will damage the screen.

    AFAIK that's only a problem with the regular MacBooks, not the Pro.

    DeathPrawn on
    Signature not found.
  • Durandal InfinityDurandal Infinity Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    dodos wrote: »
    Do iPod touches only connect to the internet through WiFi or does AT&T provide some type of connection that is always available for free?

    Wifi only, AT&T has nothing to do with any Product save iPhone service in the US

    Durandal Infinity on
  • Durandal InfinityDurandal Infinity Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    So I've been thinking about getting a new router. If I get an Airport Extreme basestation and hook up an USB disk to it, can I use that as a Time Machine disk?

    No, Networked Time Machine backups have to be done via Time Capsule. People have cracked time machine to work on networked drives on an airport and the problem is there are too many bottlenecks that take forever. This may be alleviated in the future if the put esata drives on Airports but as of now only the internal SATA drive on the Time capsule is fast enough to do networked backups like this.

    Durandal Infinity on
  • ShogunShogun Hair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get along Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Can anyone help me out with this completely useless AIM app? I typod the last letter in my screen name and for whatever ridiculous reason the app refuses to allow me to select the screen name to change it. No amount of clicking, restarting the app, or restarting my phone allows me to change the screen name. Incredibly frustrated right now.

    edit: never mind

    Shogun on
  • GdiguyGdiguy San Diego, CARegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    so I saw this (http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/08/07/13/1727211.shtml) on slashdot (summary spoilered), which gives you a way to avoid sms fees between iphone users by using the aim client... I've been apparently not playing good enough attention, does this mean that the new AIM client uses your data plan and doesn't run up SMS charges now? (I thought the original one did, which made it a reasonably useless AIM client when you had an unlimited data plan)
    "Jeff Carlson has discovered that you can bypass the 20 cent per message or $5 to $20 per month fees for SMS (text messaging) with the iPhone 3G and AT&T by using AOL's downloadable instant message client for iPhone 2.0, which is free. Just like the full-blown AOL IM system, you can add buddies that are the phone numbers of cell phones you want to send SMS to, and you establish a two-way conduit. The recipient still pays for SMS (if they have a fee) on their end, but if it's another iPhone user, you could coordinate with them via SMS to use instant messaging instead."

    Gdiguy on
  • TalkaTalka Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Are there still massive lines and delays at Apple stores? When will I be able to buy an iPhone and not have it be an ordeal?

    Talka on
  • Woot427Woot427 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Talka wrote: »
    Are there still massive lines and delays at Apple stores? When will I be able to buy an iPhone and not have it be an ordeal?

    I just came from the Apple store at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL (one of their busier stores) to get my laptop battery replaced and it was pretty dead, considering the 3G came out on Friday. I'd say you should be pretty good if you went today or this week.

    Woot427 on
  • corcorigancorcorigan Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    When I was in the O2 store here in the UK (only guys with the iPhone in the UK), there were more staff than customers, and none of the customers were actually buying the iPhone. They were just playing on them and wishing they weren't tied into long but cheaper contracts with other phones. *sigh*

    corcorigan on
    Ad Astra Per Aspera
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I'm considering dropping my bellsouth e-mail account altogether. It's a pain in the ass to get duplicate mail on both my computer and my iPod. I just added the account to my iPod and it says I have 400 unread messages.

    Sigh.

    maximumzero on
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This discussion has been closed.