Weblog of a “Switcher”

Since I switched to OS X and the Macintosh, I have looked over a bunch of freeware and shareware applications for OS X. I have accumulated quite a bit, but there are a few applications that I feel are must haves for any OS X user, especially switchers.

General Applications

KeyCue (approx. $31.08): For folks that have just switched to Macintosh, this is a utility that displays all the keyboard shortcuts for an active application. By just holding down the Command key for a short time, KeyCue will display a screen that shows all the available keyboard shortcuts and their names.

KeyCue was a great tool to help me get started learning keyboard shortcuts. I don't really use it now so I can't really say it's a true "must have" application, but it's a great help.

TextMate ($63.00): Ask any Mac user what application they use for editing text and 99% of them will say TextMate. TextMate is about the most flexible text editor I have ever seen. It supports a ton of file types all with color syntax highlighting. It also has something called Bundles that allow you to script the editor to do just about anything you can do with text. There is a repository of hundreds of bundles that have already been written.

There are other good text editors out there, even a few free ones, but if you are going to do anything at all serious with text, TextMate is the way to go.

GeekTool (free): GeekTool is a general purpose utility that allows you to display just about any data on your desktop. You can display text, graphics, and even run shell commands. I use it to display my systems Uptime, a list of the top CPU intensive processes and all mounted drives with space used, free, % capacity, etc...

This tool is not for everyone, but if you like the idea of displaying status info, it's worth a look.

SoundSource (free): This little MenuExtra gives you convenient access to all your sound options and volume controls. You can change where Output, Input, and System sound settings all from a menu in the menubar. A really useful free MenuExtra utility.

Cents ($4.99): I only recently came across this little gem. If you tend to buy a lot of shareware, this little MenuExtra will help you keep track of how much you have spent. Thanks to Cents, I am keeping my shareware spending in budget instead of going crazy as I have in the past.

TextExpander ($29.95): When I first heard about TextExpander, I didn't think much of it. When I first checked it out, all I saw was that it expanded typing macros. So if I typed ssig, it would type a letter signature in for me. Ehh.

Well, it didn't take me long to realize just how powerful this type of utility is. I use it all the time now. I have quite a few macros that I use all the time to enter email addresses or my website address. All I do is type "wweb" and it types in 'http://www.metzener.com/switcherblog/' for me. Plus you can download snippet groups that help you correct common typing mistakes, HTML and CSS snippets and many others that TextExpander users have contributed.

TextExpander is the second application I install on new OS X installations.

Default Folder X ($34.95): This utility extends standard file open and file save dialogs by giving you access to a bunch of features that you will find you can't live without. You can setup folders with shortcut keys like OS X's Command-D for the Desktop folder. You can create a list of favorite folders. You have access to Spotlight comments when you save a file so you don't have to switch to the Finder to add Spotlight comments. There is a preview pane so you can see what the file you are about to open looks like, again without having to switch to Finder.

Application Cleanup Tool

This is a tool that isn't absolutely necessary, but if you are a neat freak like I am, when I delete an application from my Applications folder, I like to make sure that I get rid of all the support files that are associated with it. You only need one of these applications:

• AppZapper - $12.95
• CleanApp - $10.00
• AppCleaner - Free

Launcher Application

Trying to find an application in the Applications folder can get very daunting when you have hundreds of applications in that folder. You can use Spotlight to launch applications, but there are other programs that make looking for applications and other files easy and fun:

• Quicksilver - Free
• LaunchBar - $19.95

Quicksilver is an amazing launcher program, but it's also pretty complicated and rather daunting. If your the kind of person that likes to learn programs like Quicksilver, then more power to you. I personally couldn't wrap my head around it and LaunchBar has a lot of power yet it's much easier to figure out.

Windows Virtualization

If you are switching from Windows, you will probably want a way to run your favorite Windows applications on your new Macintosh. You could use Boot Camp and install Windows in a secondary drive or partition. However, if you don't need the speed that running Windows natively just like in your old Windows box, there is a choice where you can run your Windows applications along side OS X applications by using Virtualization. There are two popular choices when it comes to Windows Virtualization:

• Parallels - $79.99
• VMWare Fusion - $79.99

Both Parallels and VMWare Fusion are pretty similar. Each has advantages and disadvantages. However, it appears that VMWare are coming up with newer features more frequently than Parallels and are a little better than Parallels. For instance, VMWare Fusion supports more than one processor in the virtualization and it also supports multiple monitors; Parallels currently doesn't.

Security Tools

1Password: 1Password ($34.95) is a program that allows you to store sensitive data like Credit Card numbers and Social Security Numbers on your computer without having to worry about someone gaining access to that data. Better still, if you have an iPhone or Palm device, you can sync all that information to those devices and have access to your sensitive data anywhere.

1Password works with pretty much every browser on the Mac so that you don't have to type that information in by hand. You can use 1Password's wallets to auto enter Credit Card info or 1Password's Identities to auto enter name and address info. You can also use 1Password to remember website passwords.

System Monitoring Tools

iStat (free) and iStat Menus (free): iStat and iStat Menus are great system monitoring utilities. iStat has a great look and is very configurable and iStat Menus allows you to put specific monitoring items in your menubar where they are readily visible. The best part is that they are free.

GrandPerspective (free): This is a utility to visualize the space used on your hard drives. At first, I wasn't a big fan of this type of disk space utility. However, I applied it to my Time Machine drive and was able to locate a couple of folders that I could exclude that otherwise take up way too much space. I really don't need to back them up so I wind up saving a ton of space in my Time Machine backup drive for more important files.

Net Monitor ($12.00): I always like to see what is going on with my internet connection as far as download and upload speeds. This little utility allows you to visualize the network traffic to and from your computer very nicely. Its very configurable and is nicely affordable.

Growl (free): Growl is a notification utility that pretty much every Mac application supports. It pops up a configurable window when ever an application finishes a task and reports it to Growl. Downloading or uploading files in CyberDuck or when NetNewsWire adds new articles after scanning the feeds or when a file finishes being saved. Growl is one of those utilities that should be installed right after you install OS X. Actually, it should be incorporated into OS X, but so far Apple hasn't done this.

Internet Tools

Firefox (free): Safari is a great browser and I use it pretty much all of the time now. I keep Firefox around for when there is a site that doesn't support Safari, there are still sites that don't support Safari I'm afraid. I keep Firefox extensions down to a minimum. I use AdBlock Plus and NoScript and thats about it. The more you add, the slower Firefox will get.

CyberDuck (free): I have used other FTP clients, but CyberDuck 3.0 has got to be the best "free" FTP client I have seen. CyberDuck has support for Amazon's S3, WebDAV, FTP and SFTP. Actually, I have a license to Panic's Transmit, but I still use CyberDuck.

Chicken of the VNC (free): There are a couple of decent VNC clients out there, but Chicken of the VNC is still my favorite. It has a goofy name, but it's a strong VNC client. You can use Chicken of the VNC to access your older Windows boxes or even access Mac's, but with iChat's screen sharing features and .Mac's "Back To My Mac", using VNC with Mac's really isn't necessary unless you want your Windows box to be able to access your Mac.

NetNewsWire (free): I have used a bunch of RSS feed readers in my days on this Earth. I rarely used a desktop client until I took a second look at NetNewsWire. I mostly used web based readers like Google's Reader client. Once I got my iPhone, I found Google's reader was a little too cumbersome. So I took a second look at NetNewsWire and NewsGator (NetNewsWire's web based client). NewsGator's iPhone interface is pretty solid and easy to work with and it sync's perfectly with NetNewsWire so you don't wind up reading the same article more than once.

P2P Client

Everyone using a computer will need a BitTorrent client at one point in time or another. There are plenty of legal BitTorrent downloads out there and a good P2P client is important to make sure you can download those files easily.

I have two suggestions:

• Xtorrent (free / Pro version $25.00)
• Vuze [was Azureus] (free)

Xtorrent not free, but I really have fallen in love with it. Xtorrent has a free version which limits bandwidth, has a limited feature set and some nags, so it's probably not a great free BitTorrent client. I personally like it because its interface is a little simpler and configuring it is a bit easier.

One of my favoriate features of Xtorrent is it's ability to search for torrents from within the client. It does a great job of finding torrents too.

Vuze is a very powerful free BitTorrent client. Tons of configuration options and ways to watch torrent downloads and is cross-platform. Pretty much the de-facto standard of BitTorrent clients. If you don't want to pay for a client, Muze is the one to use.

Video Tools

VLC (free): Is an all-purpose media player that handles just about every format out there. There isn't much more to say about VLC other than it's a must for anyone who likes to watch videos on their computer.

HandBrake (free): HandBrake is a great tool to convert video formats to other devices like the iPod, iPhone or even an XBox 360. Just point a ripped DVD as the source and HandBrake does the rest.

MacTheRipper (free): Speaking of ripped DVD's... MacTheRipper does just that. Take any DVD, and MacTheRipper will remove the encryption and Region code and store the results to your hard drive. You will then be able to use HandBrake to convert the video to any device you want.

Perian (free): This is a must for anyone wanting to use their Mac, be it a Mac Mini or MacBook/MacBook Pro as a media center computer. Perian allows you to play videos of just about any format with ease and using QuickTime. You will be able to use Front Row to watch videos just like you can with any video purchased from iTunes.

Games

Klondike Forever (free): I would be remise if I didn't mention at least one game. Klondike Forever is a great freeware solitaire game. Fantastic graphics and enough options to fit anyones preferences.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

I was listening to This Week in Tech this morning and aside from some other rather weird discussions that had little to do with technology (in my opinion) they talked about the Internet Archive and more specifically the World Wide Web Wayback Machine. So I did a little digging and found my original first post as a blogger.

07-30-2000 - First Day!

The Wayback Machine has links to all my older web pages, or at least a lot of them. I actually thought that I had started posting blog posts earlier than 2000, but since the post "First Day!" has that title, I pretty much have to assume that the post was, in fact, the first one I had ever made.

Over time, as I switched to many different blogging software programs, I lost a lot of my older posts. This archive makes me wonder if I could recover most of my older posts. I'll have to research this some and see. If I do try to recover them, they will have to go to a different blog since they don't have a lot of posts about switching to a Mac in my past blogging.

Still, quite fun to look back.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: archive, machine, wayback, web

I know this has nothing to do with Switching to a Mac or such, but sometimes it's almost like we live in a science fiction show...

This is the first picture ever taken from a man made satellite of another man made craft landing on the surface of an alien world!

This coverage reminds me a lot of the Voyager craft passing by Uranus back in 86. Waiting for the first pictures to arrive from the spacecraft.

Truly awesome stuff!

written by Dave M. \\ tags: decending, lander, mars, phoenix

This is a continuation of my sad, sad story of the demise of the boot drive on my Mac Pro and the process of recovery. This chapter finds the rather stupid Mac Pro owner looking to recover all the purchased media from Apple and iTunes.

Monday morning at around 8am, I sent off a letter to Apple asking them if they would allow me to download all my purchased media and games from iTunes since I lost all the data on the drive the media was on. I told them that I normally backup my data, but my backup drive had recently crapped out and that I was waiting for my new drive to arrive when the drive holding the media died. Not entirely the truth, but pretty close.

I did have a Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo 1TB RAID drive which contained 2 500GB SATA drives and a very small RAID controller. The drive worked great for about a year, but then started acting strange. Turns out that the fan used to cool the box seized up due to dust and stopped spinning. I was unaware of this fact until the drive completely shot craps. From what I can tell, one of the 500GB drives is dead and the other may still work. I'm testing that fact now and was ultimately the reason why I accidentally wiped the boot drive. I want to use it for a Boot Camp drive for Windows.

My new 1TB My Book Studio Edition II drive is a single 1TB SATA drive. No weird built-in RAID controller, no need for a fan to help cool the unit down. Just 1TB's of pure backup storage for Time Machine to do it's thing with. In fact, it's finished the full system backup now so I am back to being safe once again.

Anyway, I got an email from Apple at 5:30pm the same day telling me that they have decided to allow me to download the tracks I lost. Now, from what I have heard from Leo Laporte and TWiT, Apple allows it's customers 1 of these "get out of jail free" cards (as it were) per year. I shouldn't need more than just this one since I will be not only backing up to the external drive, but also backing up my purchases to DVD later. I'm not going to allow myself to lose my media again, period!

So, now I'm downloaded the thousands of files that make up all the music, movies, and games I purchased over the years. There is quite a lot. It's interesting to see that iTunes is smart about this and is not downloading tracks that I recovered off my iPod earlier. This saves a little time and confusion when it comes to dealing with duplicate files.

So, once again, Apple support shines bright and true. It sure is nice to know you can count on them when you need them. Pity other computer manufacturers can't seem to get their acts together.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple, customer support, iTunes

I have been asked by a few people now how I get the screen shots I use in these posts. There is nothing really magical here, I just use a program to capture the images and let WordPress take care of changing their size to fit within the width of my blog. I use a small JavaScript program I found to display the full size images when someone clicks on the thumbnails. That's pretty much it.

For the screen shots I put on the site, I use a program called Snapz Pro X by Ambrosia Software. It may not be the very best program out there, but it's one I purchased a long time ago and have enjoyed it use for quite some time.

The screen shot images are stored in PNG format with a DPI of 72 dots per inch. That's done by Snapz Pro X and I don't have any control over the DPI at all.

Once, I get the screen shots I need, I use WordPress' ability to add media to a blog post to take care of creating thumbnails and smaller sizes so that the images will fit inside the content column of the blog. So if an image is 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall, WordPress will shrink the image to 500x375. It also creates an image that is 150x150 cropping it if necessary.

I then place the image also using WordPress to get my initial HTML data. I then remove a part of that data since I don't use WordPress' WYSIWYG editor when writing my posts. I style some of the images so that there is a small transparent border on the side of the image where the text will run up to it. This is done with CSS inside the IMG tag.

The images that are not screen shots that I use in the top right corner of my posts and sometimes sprinkled throughout the post are usually pictures I find on either flickr.com or image.google.com. I try flickr.com first and make sure the image is under Creative Commons before I use it. If I get the image from image.google.com, I'm just hoping that the owner is OK with it. I'm not a huge site like Digg.com or C|Net, so I don't present as big a threat as a larger site would. If I get asked to take down an image, I'll be more than happy to.

If the image I find is too big for what I am going to use it for, I will use Preview (an application that comes with OS X on the Mac) to reduce the size of the image to the correct size. I usually don't make these images bigger than 120 pixels wide. So I try to find an image that will scale to that size nicely.

Also, I never hotlink or "inline link" an image from another site. This is not an ethical practice and most importantly I would have no control over the image being displayed. The problem here is that the image comes from a different site and so the bandwidth it takes to display that image is being charged by that different site. It's well within the rights of the site owner of the hotlinked image to do whatever they want with the image. I have heard some interesting stories of hotlinked images being changed to rather rude images due to this practice. So the person hotlinking the image will now be displaying an image of something rather rude on their site instead of what they had originally intended.

Sometimes the smaller images are screen shots of application icons. They also might be edited with a program called Acorn by Flying Meat Inc. so that I can merge more than one icon together or do some other simple editing. I also use Pixelmator to do some of that editing. I'm no artist, so I don't use Photoshop.

That's pretty much it. I hope that answers the questions I have been asked. If not, please feel free to leave a comment with more questions. I have no problem at all answering questions about the site or the Mac and OS X. It's one of the main reasons for the site in fact.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: screen, Screenshot, shot

Backup your computer! Seriously. At least, backup your data files. Why write a post about something so obvious with such a strange headline? Let me explain...

Basically, I wiped out my Mac Pro's boot drive with the OS and all my data files including media I purchased from Apple in iTunes. Did I backup the drive or data before doing this incredibly stupid act? No. Why? I wanted to install Windows using Boot Camp. I'll explain that part soon.

So why didn't I backup the drive before attempting to install Windows? I didn't have the space to backup all that data. Even though I had just the day prior ordered a 1TB external Hard Drive for just such purposes which will be arriving Monday. Your probably asking why didn't I just wait until the drive came and I had backed up my system before doing this? A total lack of patients.

OK, here's the scoop on my stupidity. I have 3 HDD's in my Mac Pro. 1 750GB and 2 500GB drives. The 750GB drive is where I store things like movies, source code and other larger data files. Why I didn't store my music on this drive is a mystery to me, but I didn't. One of the 500GB drives is the original drive that came with the Mac Pro and had the OS my home folder, music, etc... The other 500GB drive came out of an older 1TB external HDD from Maxtor that died because the fan in the box stopped spinning and overheated the drives. One of the two drives in in this thing from Maxtor seems to be OK and the other drive is toast. So, I thought I would put Windows on the possibly good drive since if it wasn't, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it dying.

So, I got out my Windows XP Pro SP2 CD and started the process of installing Windows with Boot Camp. I selected the drive to put Windows on and the machine rebooted with the Windows CD and the Windows setup started. I got to the point in the setup where it asks which drive/partition I want to put Windows on. This is where the problem was. All three drives were listed in the screen as the same physical drive location.

I had to resort to looking at what was on the drives in order to determine which drive to select. The 750GB drive was easy enough to spot, but the two 500GB drives were not so easy. One had 2 partitions and the other had 1. This seemed odd to me since neither drive should have had more than one partition.

So I stopped the setup, rebooted back into OS X and started Disk Utility. I went into the drive I wanted to install Windows on and set it to have 3 partitions of equal size. I figured, I would be able to tell which was which then, and would be able to start. I restarted Boot Camp, and found myself in the same location when I was presented with the exact same list. Now this is strange since the drive to have Windows on it was setup to have 3 partitions.

This is where I should have simply stopped and waited until Tuesday after getting my backup drive and had fully backed up my system. Nope, I didn't though, and I selected the drive with 1 partition. I made this decision because I was guessing that Boot Camp was wiping out any partitions I had setup when I selected the drive to be a Windows drive. There are 3 options in that Dialog, one is to use a specific partition, the second is to use the entire drive and the third I can't remember now.

I was assuming (remember was assuming does? Makes an ASS out of U and ME.) that Boot Camp was wiping out the 3 partitions and making one for the process of installing Windows on it and that the drive with 2 partitions was something that OS X had done when installing Leopard on it.

I formatted the drive and put NTFS on it and installed Windows on the drive. This took quite some time since the format had to use the slow method. I wonder if that was a clue too. As soon as I started the format, I felt like I was making a mistake. However, by this point, it was way too late.

So now I was ready to setup Parallels to see the newly created Windows install. I rebooted and held the option key to switch back to OS X. When the system came up to the drive selection prompt, all I saw was the Windows drive. At this point, I knew I was in for a looooong weekend.

I have been recovering ever since. All my software registration is stored in both Mail.app (which is gone now) and Gmail (thank goodness!) so I at least have all my registration codes.

I don't have all the data I have collected over the course of almost two years and in some cases more like 10 years. I was able to pull most of my music off my iPod thanks to a program called Senuti (iTunes spelled backwards) since all iTunes does is pull purchased (non iTunes-Plus tracks) from the iPod. I have to write to Apple and beg them to let me redownload the rest of my purchases since I didn't have any video files on it.

All my documents are gone, pictures I have collected over quite some time, data from programs I have been collecting, icons I have been collecting in CandyBar (I had over 20,000), on and on and on...

All because I wasn't patient enough to wait a few days. I'm still kicking myself for this. I keep remembering things that I don't have anymore because I was so stupid.

Lesson learned

Backup your computer! No matter what the reason, your data is not safe unless you back it up. Time Machine is really a great way to do this. Sure you won't be able to boot the Time Machine backup drive to aid in recovering your lost data like you would if you used a program like SuperDuper! You need backup data that contains more than one version of your files. Why? Corrupt files.

I remember reading about someone who lost their iTunes data (not the music, just their ratings and other meta data. Why, because the file that stored that data had somehow become corrupted. Backing up your data with a program like SuperDuper! would protect you only if you discovered the corruption before the next backup started. If a second, say daily, backup was performed, the corrupted file would be backed up and your data would still be lost even with a backup!

Incremental backups like those done with Time Machine will allow you to pull a file that is clean even if incremental backups occur after the corruption. You simply have to find the file before it was corrupted. Easy to do with something like Time Machine.

I have looked all over for other backup programs that would perform incremental backups, but have not found any other programs. Retrospect for the Mac does support incremental backups, but I just don't like the program. Especially now that I have tasted Time Machine. If that Maxtor drive hadn't died, I would still have a backup I could have used to restore my mistake.

Small side benefit

At least I now have a chance to clean up my system. I had way too many programs installed and this gives me the chance to clean that up. I just wish I hadn't lost all my data. Ah well, back to the recovery process...

written by Dave M. \\ tags: backup, stupidity

Sounds absurd right? You would think so, but a Vancouver paper is claiming that if a student had not been listening to his iPod on the way to pick up his mail, he would still be living and breathing today.

Now, I'm all for making sure that you don't play music to loud when listening with in-ear headphones or earbuds, but seriously, so say that due to the volume of his iPod, he had no idea that a helicopter was about to crash on him is really pushing it.

globeandmail.com: Death spurs headphone debate:
VANCOUVER -- The death of a pedestrian in Cranbrook, B.C., on Tuesday has raised the question of how loud is too loud when it comes to listening to iPods and other personal music players.

Isaiah Otieno, a 23-year-old student, was killed when he was struck and dragged by a helicopter that crashed to the ground as he was walking to the mailbox.

Eyewitnesses reported that Mr. Otieno seemed completely unaware that he was in danger and a friend told reporters that he often listened to music through earbuds (in-ear headphones) with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his head.

By the way, the above story goes on for quite a few more paragraphs, but this is the only part of the story that talks specifically about the helicopter crash and iPods.

I'm surprised that they are not complaining that hoodies (sweatshirts with hoods that can be cinched tight around the head) are dangerous as well. It's certainly as much to blame for this kids death as the iPod is.

Getting back to the point of this story... Yes it's important that people listening to music via headphones or earbuds should be careful to not play them too loud so they don't damage their hearing. Is it really the government's business to regulate how loud a portable media device can be played and enforce it? When are we going to stop blaming everybody and thing other than ourselves for our own stupidity?

Putting limits on the maximum volume a portable media player can be set to is really not the answer here. Have you ever tried to listen to a podcast that had not been recorded with correct level before being published? Or audiobooks for that matter. If there were limits enforced on my iPod, I would not be able to listen to those items at all. The way Apple implemented volume limiting actually is pretty darn good. A parent could set the limit so that their child can't adjust it later unless they know the code set by the parent. This puts the responsibility squarely on the parent and not Apple.

Now I suppose that if you look at this from a medical/insurance standpoint, a person who plays his portable media player too loud to the point of damaging his/her hearing will later probably be needing medical attention when they start complaining that they can't hear. Which would possibly lead to needing a hearing aid to help them hear. Which costs all insured citizens since the claim would inevitability result in rate increases.

So I suppose, to protect our insurance rates, we need some form of control from idiots that play portable media players too loud. However, there are lots of other ways humans can destroy their hearing than listening to a portable media player too loud.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple, death, helicopter, iPod, media, mp3, player, portable

If you are actually switching to a Macintosh and OS X from a Windows computer, there are some differences between the two OS's that might make you wish you hadn't made the switch. However, if you are patient and stick with the Macintosh, overcoming these differences are pretty easy and most are for the better.

Before I begin, I feel that I must point out that I am not the first to ever write about these differences and will probably not be the last. In fact, the idea to write about the differences came to me from a fellow "switcher" who has been writing about his experiences in his own personal blog.

I have been following David Alison's progress for quite some time now and his insights on switching to the Macintosh have been quite interesting. His history with Windows sounds similar to mine. He just started the switch later than I did. I would definitely suggest checking out his site for more info on switching to a Macintosh.

The differences:

Applications

Typically, applications in Windows and other OS's are a collection of files including the actual executable file, images, data, libraries (DLL's in Windows), localization files, etc... Even before OS X, OS 9 and earlier Mac OS's had these collections. Usually stored in a single folder on the hard drive, or spread throughout the hard drive to aid in sharing resources.

With OS X, Apple took an idea used by NeXTSTEP (an OS from NeXT computers) and put all the files that make up an application into a folder. Doesn't sound all that different does it? Well, in this case, the folder has an extension of ".app" and looks and acts like the application. So instead of opening a folder when double-clicked, double clicking this .app folder actually launches the application that is stored in this folder.

By putting all the resources into a folder that looks like an application, moving the application to a new location on your hard drive, installing or uninstalling the application is just a simple file operation. No need for bulky install applications and you are free to move the application around as you see fit. Don't try this in Windows, you will royally screw up the application and have to re-install it.

DMG files

DMG files are basically the floppy disks of the Macintosh world. In fact, they act just like a mini-hard drive. Their icon is a document icon with the image of a hard drive printed on the paper and when you double-click or open a DMG file, the icon typically looks like a disk drive of some kind.

Actually, a DMG file is nothing more than an advanced ZIP file. They contain files and applications that are compressed just like a ZIP file, and you can copy files off of DMG files by opening the DMG and dragging the files off the DMG to your hard drive.

DMG files are mostly used to distribute applications to the Macintosh. When you find a shareware program that you would like to try out, you will either be downloading a DMG file, or a ZIP file that contains a DMG file. (I've never quite understood why this is until I read that some web servers don't handle the DMG type correctly, so putting the DMG in a ZIP file makes it easier for visitors to download the file.)

Installing Applications

Installing applications on a Mac can be quite confusing if you are new to OS X and have used nothing but Windows before. If so, you are used to running a "setup" program to install an application to your computer. It was quite rare to find applications that would run after expanding a recently downloaded ZIP file, though not unheard of.

With OS X, there are two common ways to install applications. The first is the familiar installation application way. The other common way is to simply copy the application to either your Applications folder or a separate folder you have created for putting applications that only your login account can run.

A disk image that contains an installer will look similar to this:

The install program is an icon that represents a cardboard box like you would see when moving or receiving a package from Amazon.com. Simply double-clicking on this icon will start the install process.

Applications sometimes use installer programs because they need to put files into folders other than in the application's folder and sometimes even modify the OS is a small way. The installation program will usually let you know that this is happening and often requires a reboot after completion.

If the application doesn't need to do anything fancy, they will look more like this:

In this case, you simply copy the application file to your Applications folder.

99% of the time, the DMG file will have a background image that instructs the user what to do to install the application. In the above screen shots you can see this by the instructions in text at the bottom of the windows and in the case of Picturesque, they also include a graphic arrow and an "alias" to the Applications folder on your computer to making copying the file to the Applications folder a simple matter of dragging the application icon to that alias.

There are some exceptions. These are usually Plug-ins, Preference Panes, Fonts, Dashboard widgets and some others. These DMG's might have instructions as a background image to the DMG window, or more likely, they will contain instructions on how to install them in a README file:

Most cases like this, if you double-click the file you are trying to install, the file will be placed in the correct location. The Witch Preference Pane in the screen shot above can be installed by double-clicking the Witch.prefPane file. It's usually a good idea to open the README file or QuickLook the file if you are using Leopard (10.5.x) and follow the instructions provided.

Uninstalling Applications

If you can install applications, then you should be able to uninstall them to. With OS X, this is typically a very easy task. Just drag the application to the trash can. That's it. Done. No fancy application designed to remove files that if you are not careful will corrupt your OS (I'm referring to Windows DLL files here).

As with installing applications, there are exceptions to uninstalling them too. With Preference Panes, you have to hold down the Control key and click on the Preference Pane icon you wish to uninstall. In the Dashboard, you need to click the circle with the plus sign inside, then click "Manage Widgets..." to open a widget that allows you to remove unwanted widgets.

There are even cases where you will need to run an uninstaller. Those cases are ones that install files into the OS itself. Parallels, a program that lets you run Windows applications in OS X is a good example of an application that needs an uninstaller. These cases are the rarest but they do exist.

If you are a neat freak like myself, dragging an application to the trash isn't quite good enough for uninstalling an application. If you have run the application you are uninstalling, it will have left some small text files laying around in different folders on your hard drive. They are quite small and don't affect the performance of the OS at all, but I like to get rid of them if I am truly uninstalling an application.

AppZapper

CleanApp

AppCleaner

There are a bunch of really cheap or even free tools that help with this task. AppZapper ($12.95), CleanApp ($10) or the free program AppCleaner (free). Each of those programs help you uninstall applications or remove Preference Panes as well as other files that you may not need to help you recover space on a Hard Drive. I personally use CleanApp, I found it to have more features than AppZapper and it's a little cheaper. I have not looked at AppCleaner, I wasn't aware of a free Application Uninstaller like AppCleaner until after I had purchased CleanApp. However, I don't mind paying the $10 for a program.

Copying and Moving files

There is a pretty big difference here that can possibly bite you big if you are unaware of the difference. It's a little hard to describe in text, but I'll try my best.

Say you have a folder on your hard drive called "Vacation" with the files:

• Pictures
• Vacation
• pic1.jpg
• pic2.jpg
• pic3.jpg
• pic4.jpg

You have a CD you got from your family that contains a folder with the same name "Vacation" and the files:

• CD Disc
• Vacation
• pic5.jpg
• pic6.jpg
• pic7.jpg
• pic8.jpg

In Windows, if you drag the "Vacation" folder on the CD to the folder containing the folder "Vacation" on your hard drive, Windows will "merge" the two folders together and the result on your hard drive will contain the files:

• Pictures
• Vacation
• pic1.jpg
• pic2.jpg
• pic3.jpg
• pic4.jpg
• pic5.jpg
• pic6.jpg
• pic7.jpg
• pic8.jpg

On the Mac, the same operation will "replace" the contents of the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive with the contents of the "Vacation" folder on the CD yielding a completely different result:

• Pictures
• Vacation
• pic5.jpg
• pic6.jpg
• pic7.jpg
• pic8.jpg

The first 4 pictures will be destroyed. This is because OS X and older Mac OS versions took a different approach to what it meant to copy a folder from one location to another.

If you look at updating an application in OS X this will make more sense. Say you have a new version of TextEdit. Copying the TextEdit application from a DMG file to your Applications folder appears to just be copying a single file from the DMG file to the Applications folder. In fact, OS X is copying a bunch of files stored in a folder called TextEdit.app. If it were to "merge" the files like Windows does, then its possible that there would be extra files in the updated version on your hard drive that were to the older version. There could also be folders that were not needed in the new version that would stick around.

Since OS X "replaces" the contents of folders completely, all the files from the older version of TextEdit will be destroyed before the newer files are copied over. When the copy is finished, you have an exact copy of the new version of TextEdit just like the DMG.

In order to copy the pictures from the CD to the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive without losing older pictures, you will want to open the "Vacation" folder on the CD and drag the image files into the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive. You don't have to open the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive to do this, if you hold the files being dragged over the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive for a short time, the folder will "spring" open for you and you can let go then. Or you can just let go of the files with the cursor over the folder "Vacation" and the files will be copied into the folder just like Windows would do.

Just remember to be very careful when copying files from one location to another and you will never have to suffer the loss of files.

Changing the size of Windows

This is a difference that will probably frustrate you for quite some time after switching to Macintosh.

In Windows, you can change the size of most windows by moving the mouse cursor to any edge of the window until the cursor changes its shape to arrows pointing in opposite directions. You can then click and drag to adjust the size of the window.

On the Mac in OS X, if the window can be resized, there is only one way to do it. The lower right corner of the window will have a graphic that looks like a gripping texture. Moving the cursor to that corner of the window will allow you to change the size of the window.

Fortunately, there are some shareware programs that make it a little easier to move and change the size of windows on the Mac. One such program is Zooom/2. This program lets you move a window no matter where your mouse is by holding down some user configurable keys. You can also change the size of the window in the same way.

Keyboard and shortcut keys

You will probably stumble quite a bit on this change. There are differences with the keyboard itself:

Windows Keyboard

Macintosh Keyboard

The biggest difference between Windows and Mac keyboards are the "Windows" and "Alt" keys on the Windows keyboard and the "Option/Alt" and "Command" keys on the Mac keyboard. These are the two keys on either side of the space bar.

With Mac's, Cut, Copy and Paste are Command-X, Command-C and Command-V respectively. You will find yourself trying to use Control-X, Control-C and Control-V to work with the clipboard. However, I personally found that my brain was able to rewire itself fairly quickly so that I use my thumb on the command key instead of my pinky finder on the control key. Once I got used to that, keyboard shortcuts in menus became second nature.

Some other differences are that the Home and End keys don't work quite the same way between Windows and OS X. The Function keys, F1-F12, on Macintosh keyboards default to modifying attributes of your computer instead of typing an Fkey value. You can type an Fkey instead of modifying an attribute by holding down the "fn" key or modifying the Keyboard preferences to default to using Fkeys as standard function keys.

No backspace key

On Macintosh keyboards, the key where the Backspace key normally is on Windows keyboards is "delete". There is also a "delete" key in the cluster of keys above the arrow keys. Although the name of the key is "delete", the key functions as the backspace key does on Windows keyboards. Typing the "delete" key will remove the character to the left of the text caret and move the caret one character to the left.

The delete key over the arrow keys works the same as the delete key in Windows.

No Start menu or Windows task bar

Thankfully, there is no Start menu on OS X. I say this because if you have ever installed hundreds of programs in Windows, you could have several columns of items in the "All Programs" menu. Vista made an attempt at fixing this with the search box in the Start menu (or what's it called now? The Windows menu?). However, OS X Tiger (released back in 2005) had Spotlight which is what a lot of people think Windows Vista got it's inspiration from.

OS X uses something called the Dock which holds icons of applications that are currently running as well as applications that can be launched by clicking on the icon. On the right side of the Dock you can put folders so that you can see a list of the files inside that folder. Minimized application windows appear on the right side too and finally the trash can.

Only one menu bar

I have seen a lot of complaints about the fact that Apple only has one Menu bar at the top of the desktop window. However, try telling someone to look at the Edit menu of a program that hasn't used a computer before and you might see where a Windows user could get confused over "which" Edit menu to look at. Where on the Mac, no matter what, there is only one location for the edit menu. Of course they would need to have the application they want to work in the Edit menu as the active application, which is true for Windows too.

So, it's probably one of those 6 of one, half a dozen of the other type of things.

I suppose you could say that the Apple menu bar item (the item in the menu bar that looks like the Apple logo) is the equivalent of the Start Menu in Windows. The Apple menu is where you find items like System Update, System Preferences, Shutdown, Restart, and Logout as well as a few other items. Very similar to the Windows Start Menu.

In Windows, there is a section of the Taskbar called the System Tray that contains little programs that display status info and such. With the Mac, there is a type of program called Menu Extra's that allow you to put status info in the Menu Bar on the right side. This is where the magnifying glass sits for Spotlight and the time display is located.

The close button on a window doesn't always close an application

Another difference you will find yourself annoyed with until you get used to it is the Close, Minimize and Maximize buttons in OS X windows. They are on the opposite side of the window for OS X and they function a little differently than the equivalent buttons in Windows.

The yellow minimize button works pretty much the same as minimize in Windows. The maximize will toggle the window size between as big as it can, to the size it was before being pressed once.

A big difference is the close button. Yes, it will close the application window as one would expect, but under OS X, there is a good chance that the application will stay open after closing the window. There are some applications that will close when you close out the window like the Dictionary application. However, a program like System Preferences or Safari, when you close out will not close out the application.

I actually like this behavior because I can leave Mail running without having to have it's window open or minimized on the dock.

There is another little button in the windows title bar on the right side of the title bar. Clicking this button will toggle the toolbar display in most cases. In the Finder, it will also turn off the sidebar as well as the toolbar.

Terminating programs that hang or become non-responsive

One nice thing about running an OS on top of Unix is that when a program hangs up or becomes non-responsive, you can kill the application without fail. Windows may allow you to kill a hung application. I have had some problems killing hung apps in Windows.

By typing Command-Option-Esc, you will get a Force Quit Applications window to appear. Select an application that is red (which means it's non-responsive or hung) or just select an application on the list and press the Force Quit button. This will do a Unix "kill" command and cause the application to go away. If you select the Finder application, the button will change to "Relaunch" since the Finder should always be running.

You could also run an application called "Activity Monitor" to see a list of every process running in OS X including stuff that isn't visible in the Force Quit Applications window. You can then select a process and either tell it to Quit or Force Quit. Be careful there though, it could be as dangerous to kill processes running there as it is to kill a process listed in the Task Manager Processes tab.

Using the Tab key doesn't always take you to every control

By default, when dialog boxes are open in OS X, you can only tab to different text edit boxes. If you want to be able to select a checkbox or radio button with the keyboard, you need to open System Preferences, select the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Near the bottom of the window is something called: "Full keyboard access:". You will want to change the selected radio button from "Text boxes and lists only" to "All controls". You will then be able to tab to any control in a dialog box.

With Safari, it's a little more complicated. Both the Keyboard preferences and an option is Safari preferences will allow you to access several levels of tabbing access. From just text fields, to buttons and text fields, to buttons, text fields and links.

In conclusion

There are more differences than the ones mentioned above, but most are pretty minor and only Windows power users might be the only folks that notice them.

Again, thanks to David Alison for posting basically the same topic before I thought of it. It's a very important topic for folks that are either considering switching to a Mac or already have.

In the next installment, I'll go over a few applications that I personally feel every Macintosh owner should have.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

NBC-Vista copy-protection snafu reminds us why DRM stinks:
Handfuls of Windows Vista Media Center users found themselves blocked from making recordings of their favorite TV shows this week when a broadcast flag triggered the software's built-in copy protection measures. The flag affected users trying to record prime-time NBC shows on Monday evening, using both over-the-air broadcasts and cable. Although the problem is being 'looked into' by both NBC and Microsoft, the incident serves as another reminder that DRM gives content providers full control, even if by accident.

This is exactly the kind of thing that made me switch to Macintosh. Mind you, I don't use any of my Mac's to record television shows. In fact, the only device doing this at the moment is a Series 3 TiVo. However, if I were going to use a computer to record television, it would definitely be a Macintosh with Elgato's EyeTV systems.

I get the impression that this was a mixup and it wasn't meant to happen. I mean really, of all the shows to protect, American Gladiators? Clearly a fowl-up somewhere. However, it's a strong reminder, as Ars Technica says, that DRM is just not a good idea.

Actually, this story is more centered around DRM than it is about Microsoft Windows Vista. However since Microsoft is one of the leaders in screwing over it's customers by capitulating to the demands of IP holders like the MPAA and RIAA, it's more than related to me.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: broadcast flag, Drm, Vista, Windows

Apple includes quite a bit of software with each computer they sell, desktop and notebook alike. I would like to spend this article going over what comes with your brand new Macintosh computer software wise.

iLife ’08 suite

All the following programs come free with your new Apple Macintosh computer. The value of the software that comes in iLife is hard to calculate, but I would have to say that when you look at comparable Windows software, we could be talking in the $400-$500 range. As an example, GarageBand reminds me of a program I used to play around with back in my Windows days called Cakewalk. Back in those days, Cakewalk used to cost over $200.

iPhoto:

This is a great application for dealing with photos and supports pretty much every digital camera out there. It’s pretty darn fast as well. I have over 4,200 pictures and videos in it now and it updates pretty smoothly. I have heard that with photo libraries of 20,000 it has issues. I can’t verify this so I can’t say one way or the other. I do know that it works great for my needs.

iMovie:

iMovie is not a tool for professional video editing, but for a family recording their kids and such, this thing is just amazing. A lot of time was put into making iMovie as easy to use as possible.

I really don't feel like I should say more about it than that since I don't usually work with iMovie. So, make sure to check out Apple's web pages about iMovie to get the full picture of what all it can do.

GarageBand:

GarageBand is really an amazing program. Sort of a jack of all trades. You can use it to put together music that you record yourself, or use existing loops to piece together a great piece of music, or even use it to create a podcast or a ringtone for an iPhone or other type of cell phone.

You can use GarageBand supports Midi so that you can hook up a Midi keyboard to help enter music directly from that keyboard. There are a ton of effects you can add to really take your work to another level.

The best feature is called Magic GarageBand where you can jam with GarageBand to record your instrument with the rest of a band already recorded in many genre's.

iWeb:

Have you ever wanted to setup a website, but just didn't have a clue on how to setup a domain or how to use tools like DreamWeaver (not to mention the cost of DreamWeaver). Even if were able to use a tool like DreamWeaver, getting the web pages you created sent up to your website might be a mystery to you.

Well, iWeb takes the hard work out of creating and uploading your website. If you opt for a .Mac account, you can use iWeb to create a web based photo gallery, or a simple website for announcing a new arrival to your family. With the templates provided with iWeb and photos you take from iPhoto, you can setup such a site in a matter of minutes.

iDVD:

Last, but not least, iDVD rounds out a great suite of programs with a tool to help you put all your work together. Take a slideshow created in iPhoto or home movies from your last vacation created in iMovie with music you created in GarageBand. Put them all together with a professional looking DVD menu to create a great DVD to send to your family and friends.

iDVD makes creating DVD menus a breeze so that DVD's you create look as if they were made by a big movie studio thanks to a bunch of great DVD menu templates that come with iDVD.

iTunes:

Even if you don't own an iPod or iPhone, iTunes is a great way to control your digital entertainment library. It supports music, movies, TV Shows, and even podcasts. All from one program. For someone who just bought a MacBook or MacBook Pro for college or business, you can use iTunes to entertain yourself in your dorm room or on that boring business trip across the country.

.Mac:

.Mac has a lot of benefits for Macintosh owners with more than one Mac in their house or someone who wants to setup a website but doesn't really know all the tools or tricks to setting up a web host, domain, etc... Maybe you want to centralize your family's calendar so that you can keep track of what everyone in your household is doing no matter where you are.

For $99 a year, .Mac give you:

• A web based photo gallery connected to iPhoto
• Space to create a website
• An IMAP based email account
• Back to My Mac: securely connect to your desktop Macintosh with your notebook Mac no matter where you are in the world
• Sync bookmarks, calendar events and data between your desktop and notebook Macs
• Share and access files from anywhere with iDisk
• Keep your team, club or family up to date with what is going on
• Use iChat to not only talk to but see your friends and family
• All the above shares 10GB's of storage or purchase more if needed

.Mac is not for everyone. I personally use Back to My Mac and Sync. If I didn't have this web domain, I would probably be using much more of .Mac. However, I can emulate a lot of .Mac's features with my web host.

iWork:

iWork is not free but a trial version is installed on your new Macintosh computer. When you purchase a new Windows based computer, the manufacturer installs a bunch of software known as Crapware to help bring the cost of the computer down some. Some folks argue that the Trail version of iWork installed on every new Macintosh is also Crapware.

The major difference between trial software installed on a Mac and the crapware installed on Windows based computers is that to get rid of the trial software on a Mac, simply drag the iWork folder to the trash and empty the trash. Done! Plus, there is usually only one or two trial programs installed on a Mac and nothing else.

iWork is a great suite of software for folks that want to do more with their Mac. It comes with:

• Pages: a great word processor / page layout program
• Numbers: a spreadsheet program designed for small business and home user
• Keynote: the best presentation software I have ever seen

For $79, you really can't go wrong. All the programs in iWork can load and save files in their counterpart's Microsoft Office format so that you can still work in a Windows world.

If you really need to, you can get Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. It's more expensive, but if you need to be compatible with the rest of the business world, this would be the way to go.

Utilities:

Every Mac comes with a vast array of utility programs to help you get your new Mac working just the way you want it to as well as diagnose possible problems and even help you install Windows with Boot Camp.

Some notable applications here are:

• Activity Monitor: shows CPU usage, hard drive activity and memory usage and lets you see what each application is doing
• Boot Camp Assistant: Walks you through setting up and installing Windows on your Mac
• Console: Shows log data that you can filter to locate why a program crashes or doesn't work the way you expect
• Disk Utility: Diagnose and maintain hard drives. Also allows you to create partitions without loosing data
• Grab: Take screen shots of your desktop or active applications
• Migration Assistant: Helps you move your data from an older Macintosh to a new Mac
• RAID Utility: Create a software based RAID with two or more hard drives, you can create Mirror or Strip RAID disks
• System Profiler: Tells you every little detail about your Macintosh and OS X
• Terminal: Access to the command-line world of OS X

Miscellaneous Applications:

I found a few other free programs that Apple didn't tell me about when I looked at my Applications folder. I personally found:

• OmniOutliner
• OmniDiskSweeper

Also, Apple puts a bunch of other programs on your computer. Mail, Dictionary, TextEdit, Address Book, iCal, and many more

In the next installment, I will go over the differences between Windows and OS X that a "Switcher" might get caught up in.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher