You're a smart guy, figure it out!

Firefox Vs VMware Fusion: CPU

mikeg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:29:51 +0000

I probably don’t understand something, but it just doesn’t sound right:

VMware Fusion which is running WinXP/IE6 takes up consistently less CPU than Firefox. It seems to me that “virtualization” is somewhat more complex than HTML parsing… but that’s probably just me.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac is reporting strange system specs

mikeg — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:50:17 +0000

I am pretty impressed with Microsoft Remote Desktop client, but it still crashes (not very often). When looking through the error report I noticed strange values.

Specifically RAM looks very much off.

Switching to Mac: General Annoyances

mikeg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:47:26 +0000

This post will probably be updated pretty frequently as I run into issues and hopefully find solutions

(very high) No Alt+ accelerators which makes navigating dialogs using keyboard impossible. Very frustrating as I try to use keyboard as much as possible. This is spell check dialog and on Windows I can completely control it using keyboard

(low) I really like the idea of applications being packaged up as a single file, but the process of installation is not very clear (until you do it a few times). You usually download a DMG file (think of it as a “virtual hard drive” that Mac OS will mount). In most cases you will see something like this and you have to figure out that you need to drag Skype icon onto Application icon.

These applications are handling this process much better than many others:

(low) No hibernate support — I found hibernate very useful when traveling and wanting to preserve all my open apps, but at the same time not waste battery in “sleep mode”

(very high) Completely insane selection mechanism using Shift key. Watch this first. Here is what you are seeing: I have selected “Picture 8″ and while holding down Shift Key, I use Down-Arrow key to select files below (9, 10, 11). Then I realize that I don’t need number 11 and I press Up-Arrow, but instead of deselecting 11, it selects 6. Bizarre… being a software developer things like this always make me wonder what business case they were trying to solve by implementing this behavior…

(very high) Delete behavior in Finder: let’s say you are looking through pictures using Quick View (Command+Y) and decide to delete one of them. Instead of jumping to the next picture (which sounds very logical to me), it jumps to the top of the folder and I have to find my place again. Very frustrating

(medium) Application centric window switching — probably the first “computer productivity” habit that people learn on Windows is Alt+Tab. On Mac you also have to master Command + ~ which will switch windows within the application. I am pretty good with the keyboard and I still have to remind myself that I need to use different keys, can’t imagine that this is a very clear concept for regular users.
- Lennart Regebro spent significant time looking into resolving this and recommends the following:
Finally I then discovered Witch, a utility to set up window switching in a quite flexible way. Currently I retain the Mac style application switching on Cmd+Tab, and have Witch set up to switch the windows within an application with Alt+Tab. If you want to remap Cmd+Tab to switch between all windows, then haha, you can’t, OS X doesn’t allow that, unlesss, you use another tool, called PullTab, which in turn requires a framework called APE to be installed. With this Cmd+Tab gets available for remapping by Witch as well.

Switching to Mac: Mac, BlackBerry, Verizon, Tethered Modem

mikeg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:19:21 +0000

I pay Verizon for an option to use my BlackBerry as a modem and was very surprised that a brief google search and a phone call to Verizon data support lead me to belief that I will not be able to use this option with my new MacBook Pro. Verizon support told me that only Motorola Q is supported on Mac

At the same time I was pretty sure that I would be able to figure out as Windows uses BlackBerry as a modem by sending certain codes/strings to it. Turned out that it is easier than was expected.

After a few hours of searching forums and discussion boards there was a recommendation to install “Verizon Access Manager” that you can download for Motorola Q. That worked out great.

Here are the steps:

Not sure if this is necessary for VZAM to work, but I installed PocketMac to charge my BlackBerry from USB port (explained here)
Install VZAM
Connect your BlackBerry
Connect through VZAM

I am getting very good speeds — Skype voice calls work great and I can watch most of the videos on the web without buffering.

Switching to Mac: Charging BlackBerry through USB port (PocketMac)

mikeg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:16:07 +0000

When I travel I usually bring my laptop and with my Dell D830 I only had to bring a USB cable in order to charge my BlackBerry. I expected to do the same with with my MBP, but BlackBerry complained about “insufficient voltage”.

Turned out a pretty easy fix: download and install PocketMac. It automatically detects that BlackBerry is connected and adjust voltage on the USB port.

A few notes:

Think of PocketMac a Mac version of Desktop Manager
If you are using Exchange and over-the-air synchronization you will most likely want to disable all the synchronization features of PocketMac
- I turned off all syncs excepts Photos and Music
At one point you had to pay for it, but it is free these days — looks like RIM is either sponsoring it or purchased the rights

IE6 “tax” — interesting point of view

mikeg — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:26:34 +0000

http://pingv.com/blog/laura/2008/internet-explorer-6-tax

…when you’re spending 35-50% of your theming time just trying to get a cool new design to work on one rather archaic browser, it’s no small matter.

It’s a ≈40% tax on web theming

Switching to Mac: Tips and Tricks

mikeg — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:48:34 +0000

The following links are from Alvin:

The Ultimate Guide for switching from a PC to a Mac only has one chapter so far, but it looks like it will be great source of basic and essential info for anyone switching to Mac from PC.
Another even more comprehensive switcher web site is My First Mac. The name sounds rudimentary and pre-school, but don’t let that put you off. This site has tons of useful information for switchers and Mac lovers alike. Their tag line is: “Help Buying and Getting Started With Your New Mac”, but this site has so much more. Everything from basics to tweaks, tips to testimonials, even an analysis of the newest Mac news in very everyday language makes this a comfortable site for the not-so-technical. It’s also full of pictures and has an eye-catching style that makes it a fun site to check out. (If you know how, you can even subscribe to its RSS feed).
lifehacker.com

Switching to Mac: Strategy

mikeg — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:43:28 +0000

As I alluded to in my previous post: my goal for this migration is to minimize the downtime in my productivity. I am responsible for a number of projects and cannot afford to be “exploring/learning” for 2 weeks.

My plan is the following: use VMWare Fusion to run Windows XP with all my current software/utilities and then slowly find alternatives on Mac and leave Fusion only for Visual Studio related projects.

VMware Converter Starter Edition, available as a free download, lets you migrate existing Windows machines into virtual machines for your Mac. Will probably use that to bring my current Windows XP into MBP

I’ll let you know how this works out

Taking the plunge: got a MacBook Pro

mikeg — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:35 +0000

This has been long time in the making: a number of friends/colleagues I respect have been suggesting (rather strongly :)) that I move over to Mac. These friends come from a long history of Windows background so their experience is very relevant. I’ve hesitated for quite a bit – I am very, very productive on Windows. It took me years to perfect my software/hardware setup and it works very well for me. At the same time I am pretty sure it will be a good experience to learn OS X due to its Unix internals.

I was reluctant for a number of reasons:

Hardware: I am currently using Del D830, have a docking station at home and in the office. Dual-monitor setup in both location. At home I share my dual monitors with a home PC (pictures, videos, etc). Same keyboard (Microsoft Natural 4000), same mouse in both places. All I have to do when I get to the office/home is plug in my laptop into the docking station and (90% of the time :)) I am up and running.

It took me a long time to get this setup working the way I like and after doing a bit of research it looks like reproducing the same with MacBook Pro (MBP from here on) will either be a challenge or impossible.

The other “hardware” issue is related to the keyboard: I rely a lot on keyboard shortcuts and I am somewhat “scared” of the time it will take me to be as productive as I am on Windows. The big issue with the keyboard is also the fact that Fn key is in the bottom left corner, where I expect Ctrl key to be. Mac users tell me is it less of an issue because Ctlr key is used a lot less often on Mac. (Btw, this issue with Fn key is specifically why I never purchase a ThinkPad)

From my limited research it doesn’t look like there a lot of options for ergonomic keyboards/mice and that might be an issue as I’ve been having issues with my right wrist for some time now.

Software: It took me years to collect/setup my utilities and I am very productive with them. Probably the biggest concern right now is either finding an alternative to Outlook/X1 setup or find a way to run those on Mac (I’ll post separately about this). There are a number of online discussions around Mac email clients and it looks like Entourage is the only one that supports Exchange. At the same time people are complaining about Entourage’s stability.

As you can see I gave it quite a bit of thought but at the end it was a friend/colleague that gave it the final push: we needed to get a Mac for the office anyway, so he got me an MBP for my birthday. It arrived 2 days ago, but my project load is pretty heavy these days so it will take me some time to migrate. For the time being I am just doing research online, which also takes up quite a bit of time.

My other friend keeps reminding me that I will most likely hate it for 3-4 weeks, but then will not be able to go back. We’ll see.

Cool things from Nov 2008 PCWORD magazine

mikeg — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:09:55 +0000

OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator – controlling video games by wearing a headband that detects electrical biosignals in the body (By on Amazon: OCZ OCZMSNIA NIA - Neural Impulse Actuator)

Intel’s X25-M (80G) solid-state drive outperforms by a big margin 4200/7200rpm and even Ridata NSSD-S25 SSD

www.greensherpa.com – cash flow projections. in addition to tracking your spending also allows you to forecast how the purchase of a new tv will affect your budget

www.isearch.com – people-search engine that helps you reunite with long lost friends

www.tableau.com – visualize your data better than Excel

Black Friday deals:

Top Sites for Bargain finders: http://www.pcworld.com/article/141808/top_sites_for_bargain_hunters.html

www.topica.com – recommended email marketing service

www.pidgin.im – multiprotocol IM client

www.syncplicity.com – sync multiple computers

Billing/Invoicing – Zoho launched that service but only supports paypal for online payments. www.freshbooks.com supports more online options and offers to send invoices by mail (extra cost)

Password utilities

www.roboform.com – I am a long time user, very happy with it
www.passpack.com – didn’t sound interesting/secure
PwdHash – Firefox AddIn, based on you single password, it generates different “hashes” for each site. Sounds interesting and convenient
www.guardid.com – sounds like RoboFormToGo

http://www.pcworld.com/article/123728/top_10_external_hard_drives.html

MP3 Manager – MediaMonkey

HDTV on USB: Pinnacle’s PCTV HD Por Stick outperforms Hauppauge’s WinTV-HDR-950Q

External Video Card: http://www.evga.com/uvplus/, 2 versions: 1440×900 and 1600×1200. (20% discount UV16PWNOV)

Cannon Pixma MX700 – Best Buy Multi Function Printer, $200

SlideSlide – app launcher

Lists:

Employee Monitoring:

www.ascentive.com/pcw3 — BeAware

www.VirusTotal.com – allows you to upload a file and site runs it against 35 different anti-virus tools

Online virus/malware cleaning tools

BitDefender
ESET
F-Secure
Trend Micro

www.adtunes.com – helps you identify tunes used in ads and other tv content