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The Mac Thread - Steve Jobs steps down, Safari is sick also
ZackSchilling
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It's the Mac Thread - Fan the fanboy flames
Thread Title News Ticker
Steve Jobs steps down, Safari is sick also
Jobs steps down, citing further health complications. He will likely need the rest of his pancreas removed. Tim Cook has taken over as CEO. Tim Cook will be a great replacement for Jobs.
"[In] one meeting of his team to talk over a [manufacturing] problem in China ... Cook told the group, "This is really bad. Someone should be in China driving this." Thirty minutes later, he glanced at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, “and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, ‘Why are you still here?’"
Fantastic.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12941058
Safari is sick also
Safari's RSS handler has a bug in it that can expose any info on your machine to hackers. The fix is to use RCDefaultApp (link below under System functionality) to disable RSS (or set it to a different app).
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/13/security_flaw_in_safaris_rss_feeds_reported.html
New 17" Macbook has 1080p, non-removable 8 hour battery.
Annc: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/06/apple_unveils_17_inch_macbook_pro_with_8_hour_battery.html
Pics: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/06/first_look_unibody_17_macbook_pro_with_photos_and_video.html
Macworld on its last legs, bloggers suspect Jobs is also
Apple is pulling out of expos and trade shows left and right. Macworld is dead after this year, as is Apple Expo in Paris. Phil Schiller is giving this year's Macworld Keynote. Is Jobs preparing the company for his own retirement by lowering its press profile?
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/16/apple-announces-2009-will-be-its-last-macworld-expo-schiller-to/
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/17/apple_expo_canceled_following_apples_macworld_pullout.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/17/piper_believes_leadership_shift_at_apple_is_underway.html
Apple assures, Mac Mini update "no later than mid-1998"
Apple calls back a concerned customer, lets him know that the Mac Mini line has not been discontinued.
(It's a Duke Nukem Forever joke, look it up.)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/05/apple_tells_mac_mini_fan_to_hang_in_there.html
Support gay marriage: Buy a Mac
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1853805,00.html
6,892,000 iPhones sold in Q4, Jobs swims in vault
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/21/notes_of_interest_for_apples_q4_2008_results_call.html
Blue-balls are nothing but a big sack of hurt
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace." - Jobs (Engadget)
Calvin and Jobs
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.
Apple's upgrades are expensive. Can I upgrade myself?
Yes! You will not void your warranty or anything silly like that. For RAM, check out http://crucial.com. For hard drives, just go with standard SATA from http://newegg.com. There are always more than a few Mac users in the reviews to let you know if the drive will fit in/work with your Mac. Hint: it almost always will.
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?
ESSENTIALS
These apps can be found in their own categories but are worth placing here at the beginning too so you know just how worthless your Mac is unless you have all of them installed.
VLC - Plays pretty much any format on Earth.
Quicksilver (info / direct download) - The benchmark keyboard navigation program. Free and open-source, heavily customisable.
INTERNET
Safari - It's on your hard drive and it's pretty good guys.
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.
NetNewsWire - The best RSS client
NewsFire - The second best RSS client, if you don't like NNW
Twitterific - If Twitter is the crack, Twitterific is the dealer.
Adium - The only chat client you need...
Colloquy - ...unless you IRC, in which case you need this too
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.
MEDIA / CODECS
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.
Windows Media Components of Quicktime - A set of free Quicktime components to play all non-DRM'd Windows Media formats, including streaming a/v on web pages.
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.
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. Solver is back in 2008's Excel but VBA support is still missing. Supposedly VBA is coming back for the next major edition. 2004 has both these features.
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)
SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY
MacFuse - MacFuse allows all sort of fancy disk mounting, including drives connected via SSH. Really nifty.
SMCFanControl - A temperature monitor and fan control program that sits in your menu bar. Cool that blistering Macbook Pro. Settings stick after a restart, so it's good for boot camp gaming.
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.
RCDefaultApp - A Preference Pane for setting default apps (browsers, email, etc), Media actions, URL handlers, hardware actions, and file type associations (extensions, MIME types, and OS 9 resource codes). An indispensable tool. Use it to disable Safari's exploitable RSS reader.
TEXT EDITING
TextMate - A text editor for programmers, amazing functionality, well worth the handful of euros.
Smultron - A great free alternative to TextMate
TextWrangler - A freeware cousin of BBEdit, supports markup and Unixy stuff
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.
VIRTUALIZATION
VMWare Fusion - Arguably (not really) the best virtualization software for Mac OS X. Faster, more stable, and better integration than the alternatives. Costs $79 monies.
Parallels Desktop - Actually the new Parallels beta (4.0) is WAY faster than VMWare, AND it integrates with Boot Camp MUCH better. Competition = good. Also $79 monies.
VirtualBox - A free, multiplatform virtualization product. Works very well but slower and with fewer features than commercial alternatives. (No bootcamp partition support)
WEB DEVELOPMENT
CSSEdit - The best CSS editor money can buy, on any platform. Saves me hours of time scanning CSS files daily.
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.
OP stolen from dodos in the last Mac thread. Will be updated as suggestions are made.
Thread Title News Ticker
Steve Jobs steps down, Safari is sick also
Jobs steps down, citing further health complications. He will likely need the rest of his pancreas removed. Tim Cook has taken over as CEO. Tim Cook will be a great replacement for Jobs.
"[In] one meeting of his team to talk over a [manufacturing] problem in China ... Cook told the group, "This is really bad. Someone should be in China driving this." Thirty minutes later, he glanced at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, “and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, ‘Why are you still here?’"
Fantastic.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12941058
Safari is sick also
Safari's RSS handler has a bug in it that can expose any info on your machine to hackers. The fix is to use RCDefaultApp (link below under System functionality) to disable RSS (or set it to a different app).
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/13/security_flaw_in_safaris_rss_feeds_reported.html
New 17" Macbook has 1080p, non-removable 8 hour battery.
Annc: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/06/apple_unveils_17_inch_macbook_pro_with_8_hour_battery.html
Pics: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/06/first_look_unibody_17_macbook_pro_with_photos_and_video.html
Macworld on its last legs, bloggers suspect Jobs is also
Apple is pulling out of expos and trade shows left and right. Macworld is dead after this year, as is Apple Expo in Paris. Phil Schiller is giving this year's Macworld Keynote. Is Jobs preparing the company for his own retirement by lowering its press profile?
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/16/apple-announces-2009-will-be-its-last-macworld-expo-schiller-to/
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/17/apple_expo_canceled_following_apples_macworld_pullout.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/17/piper_believes_leadership_shift_at_apple_is_underway.html
Apple assures, Mac Mini update "no later than mid-1998"
Apple calls back a concerned customer, lets him know that the Mac Mini line has not been discontinued.
(It's a Duke Nukem Forever joke, look it up.)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/05/apple_tells_mac_mini_fan_to_hang_in_there.html
Support gay marriage: Buy a Mac
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1853805,00.html
6,892,000 iPhones sold in Q4, Jobs swims in vault
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/21/notes_of_interest_for_apples_q4_2008_results_call.html
Blue-balls are nothing but a big sack of hurt
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace." - Jobs (Engadget)
Calvin and Jobs
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.
Apple's upgrades are expensive. Can I upgrade myself?
Yes! You will not void your warranty or anything silly like that. For RAM, check out http://crucial.com. For hard drives, just go with standard SATA from http://newegg.com. There are always more than a few Mac users in the reviews to let you know if the drive will fit in/work with your Mac. Hint: it almost always will.
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?
ESSENTIALS
These apps can be found in their own categories but are worth placing here at the beginning too so you know just how worthless your Mac is unless you have all of them installed.
VLC - Plays pretty much any format on Earth.
Quicksilver (info / direct download) - The benchmark keyboard navigation program. Free and open-source, heavily customisable.
INTERNET
Safari - It's on your hard drive and it's pretty good guys.
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.
NetNewsWire - The best RSS client
NewsFire - The second best RSS client, if you don't like NNW
Twitterific - If Twitter is the crack, Twitterific is the dealer.
Adium - The only chat client you need...
Colloquy - ...unless you IRC, in which case you need this too
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.
MEDIA / CODECS
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.
Windows Media Components of Quicktime - A set of free Quicktime components to play all non-DRM'd Windows Media formats, including streaming a/v on web pages.
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.
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. Solver is back in 2008's Excel but VBA support is still missing. Supposedly VBA is coming back for the next major edition. 2004 has both these features.
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)
SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY
MacFuse - MacFuse allows all sort of fancy disk mounting, including drives connected via SSH. Really nifty.
SMCFanControl - A temperature monitor and fan control program that sits in your menu bar. Cool that blistering Macbook Pro. Settings stick after a restart, so it's good for boot camp gaming.
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.
RCDefaultApp - A Preference Pane for setting default apps (browsers, email, etc), Media actions, URL handlers, hardware actions, and file type associations (extensions, MIME types, and OS 9 resource codes). An indispensable tool. Use it to disable Safari's exploitable RSS reader.
TEXT EDITING
TextMate - A text editor for programmers, amazing functionality, well worth the handful of euros.
Smultron - A great free alternative to TextMate
TextWrangler - A freeware cousin of BBEdit, supports markup and Unixy stuff
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.
VIRTUALIZATION
VMWare Fusion - Arguably (not really) the best virtualization software for Mac OS X. Faster, more stable, and better integration than the alternatives. Costs $79 monies.
Parallels Desktop - Actually the new Parallels beta (4.0) is WAY faster than VMWare, AND it integrates with Boot Camp MUCH better. Competition = good. Also $79 monies.
VirtualBox - A free, multiplatform virtualization product. Works very well but slower and with fewer features than commercial alternatives. (No bootcamp partition support)
WEB DEVELOPMENT
CSSEdit - The best CSS editor money can buy, on any platform. Saves me hours of time scanning CSS files daily.
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.
OP stolen from dodos in the last Mac thread. Will be updated as suggestions are made.
ZackSchilling on
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Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Or so you think. I'm sure the next mac rumour will be next week.
Joke's on him though as VBA is in the next Office again, and Exchange support in the next OS X.
is there any way to reverse the behaviour of adium's menu bar contact list? i'd prefer it to show the contact list with left click, and set status with right click.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Any ideas what could be going on?
It wouldn't been too much work to port the code from PPC to x86. In other words, MS was lazy. It's sad that I can run Office 2007 (and 2003 for that matter) in a VM and get better performance and features than the native OSX version of Office. Hell, they even start up faster (and that includes time needed to restore the VM from a suspended state).
STOP GIVING THEM IDEAS.
It was bad enough with Spore.
yeah it's probably because the part is not an apple part. I have a collection of adaptors that while they work don't work in certain combinations. Can you not plug in some other way?
And the most processor intensive stuff I do now is compile shit.
Which I do just fine on my 1.25 Ghz Company-Issued Powerbook, and should certainly do on a 2.1 Ghz Macbook.
If you want a desktop replacement that's brand new and those features in the Macbook are worth $300 for you (yet you still need mobility as well), I would get the new Macbook.
Doesn't feel native, still ugly as hell. (As is the default document style.)
As much as I hate those peeing things, the Calvin and Jobs strips are really great. They're funny and capture the spirit of the strip without cheapening it.
Steve Jobs says all HD camcorders in the past 2 years have had a USB interface.
I'm hoping there will be a B revision of the new Macbooks by February. I want one, but I guess I do have a little concern about the loss of Fw.
In general it seems like they're trying to appeal to mass market and bait more people into Apple's market by just giving a general laptop instead of a traditional apple user laptop.
It's fucking absurd
My system slows down to the point where its hard to even navigate from window to window until i can manage to Quit / Force Quit safari
I downloaded Flash 10 to see if that would fix it, but no
Haven't had the problem with Firefox, I think I'm gonna switch back to firefox
anyone experience the same?
Now I'm going to have to spend the next couple of months on chicken and pasta, but this was overdue.
Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Chicken and pasta aint half bad either.
Also, I was thinking about jumping on the Launcher app bandwagon. Im not much of a power user, mostly doing work, which involves alot of surfing and reading research articles, and occasionally gaming and drawing.
Looking at quicksilver, it looks kinda hardcore. Is it too much, or should I just use one tiny part of its potential? Spotlight has failed me quite a few times.... not a fan of trawling through the results to find what I need. Also, It doesn't seem to search the desktop.... I re-did half an assignment cause i lost it among the stuff on my desktop, and spotlight couldn't find it even though I gave it 90% of the file name.
EDIT:
While Im tuning my iMac and Air, is there a program that makes sure that there are no orphan files after I drag and drop an .app into the bin? Is it needed? Im just used the PC method.
Also, while im loving Safari, is there stuff out there better than it? I hear rumblings about firefox etc. I just love that safari is navigate-able via gestures on the multi-touch on the air. That and the live spell checking. Is there anything better is what im asking.
Quicksilver is very easy to use, it has features for the power user but for the general search and find functionality you don't get much better than it.
I use Firefox because it's incredibly customizable. While I'm at my desk I use an external keyboard and mouse, so I don't care much for multitouch gestures (even though I don't have any). Speed really isn't that far off from Safari so it's no biggie but I do have a question for other users of Firefox.
Whenever I quit it doesn't prompt me to save my tabs or not anymore. How can I reset it so it gives me that prompt? I guess I accidentally clicked the "Don't ask again" thing.
If that's not enough to convince you, Quicksilver has more of a loyal following despite having the author abandon the project than LaunchBar.
I just downloaded this one to see. Worked for me.
If you're really interested read this blog post by Erik Schwiebert. He's the lead for Office at Microsoft's MacBU. The executive summary: Office for the Mac has a lot of PowerPC/CFM specific bits that are extremely difficult to port to x86/Mach-O. Even the basic C++ code base required a massive porting effort to move from CodeWarrior to Xcode. Metrowerks C++ compiler was awesome, G++ less so and far less forgiving with many things.
Also VBA is slated to return in the next version of Office for the Mac. Now that they've got the time and resources to do VB correctly they're going to add it back in. For their part they really increased the capability of AppleScript in Office which was already pretty damned good.