I can help you with some of this right away Best bittorrent client is USUALLY Transmission. Sometimes it gets banned from private trackers from previously having problems OS X has a built in VNC client you can access using the Connect To Server feature in the menu of Finder. I find its the best. (I forget which menu unfortunatly) TextWrangler is your best bet for free text editor if you don't use Vi. Smultron is probably better but is basically unsupported by its developer now (then again it's a text editor, so go for it anyway) Spaces are great if you don't have a large monitor, but that's sort of obvious I like Tweetie as a twitter client.
Just got back from a week in the wilds deer hunting... I'll dig it up and re-post it. Not sure if it's on my laptop, so I may have to wait until I get back to Vancouver next week. EDIT: Found it.
Mac Suggestions NB: This doc is a bit old (6 months?) so some things may no longer be up-to-date... I'll go through it when I get a chance. Background: I'm a technical architect that does 90% of my development on a Mac platform. 80% of my target systems are *nix, 15% Macs, and 5% Windows, but I do it all of that development on my MacBook Pro. I'm also old, and not into all sorts of flashy shit... I tend to stick to the basic, utilitarian application set that will get the job done. I may not be up on all the latest stuff, but what I use gets the job done. Apple Software Apple's iLife Suite :: I quite like just about everything in the iLife suite of applications, and will HIGHLY recommend them, without getting into the particulars. It is SO worth the cash. MobileMe :: A fantastic way to keep emails, contacts, calendars, and a bunch of other stuff on multiple Mac's synched. It's a must-have if you have a desktop and a laptop, or require remote/web access to your contact data. FireFox and Plug-ins Firefox :: Web Browsers are like religions... everyone has their preference for different reasons. I prefer this one. There are others that are as good (Opera being at the top of that list), but this one has a lot of options available through their plug-ins. Firefox Plug-ins Can be found HERE Adblock Plus :: Awesome customizable ad blocking plug-in. Canadian English Dictionary :: Yes, I spell "colour" with a "u". And I have good teeth. So I want my own dictionary. CLPicView :: I cruise CraigsList for stuff a fair bit, and hate having to open up each thread to see the pics that are attached. This helps by showing the pics in-line on the main page. Kind of rough, but it works fairly well. Download Statusbar :: A smarter download status than the default. Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer :: Keeps my FireFox bookmarks on all of my machines synchronized, regardless of OS. Google Toolbar :: Enhanced Google functionality. Web Developmer :: Invaluable plug-in for any web developer. Web Apps Adium :: A multi-protocol chat client that is easily customizable. Nice and low impact, with a clean interface. Transmission :: A nice, easy-to-use BitTorrent client for the Mac. Audio/Visual Apps VLC :: THE ONLY VIDEO PLAYER YOU WILL EVER NEED. I have yet to find a valid video file that wouldn't play on it, regardless of codec. You can also do some very cool streaming stuff with it. Handbrake :: A fantastic, free DVD to MPEG-4 converter. Ideal for ripping your DVD's to whatever other format you want to play them in. This is ideal for ripping videos to your iPod. MPEG Streamclip :: MPEG Streamclip is an awesome, free video conversion application for Mac (or Windows). It's ideal for converting just about ANY input video to a format that is iPod or XBox compatible. Atomic Parsley :: A fantastic tool for tagging MP4 videos once they've been ripped. (This is what determines how iTunes categorizes and organizes your multimedia assets). It includes the required iTunes tags, and is easily scriptable from the command line to facilitate unsupervised batch processing. Rivet :: AWESOME software that turns your Mac into a multimedia server for your XBox or PS3. It's under $20 and is worth every penny, IMO. professional / Office Apps OMNI GROUP APPS :: I don't like paying for software, but I paid for EVERY one of their apps 9as listed below), without qualms. These guys are Mac App Gods in my book. OmniGraffle :: The Mac equivalent of Visio. Doesn't have a lot of the funky, professional "network discovery" stuff that the super-pro versions of Visio have, but it reads/writes Visio XML files, and is what I use for all of my network/application diagramming. Indispensable. OmniOutliner :: A very, very cool outlining tool. It's what I use to quickly take organized notes in meetings, or any other scenario when you have to, well, outline stuff. Very customizable output capabilities as well. OmniPlan :: The Mac equivalent of Microsoft Project. This was the missing app that finally allowed me to cut all ties with MS when doing application development and project management. Not as complete or sophisticated as Project, but it does the job I need very well. Microsoft Office for Mac :: They call it Mactopia. Their Office for Mac 2008 is very well done. I reluctantly spent the money for this software, and have not been disappointed. You can mess around with other open source options as much as you want, but the Mac team at MS really nailed this suite. When dealing with Windows/Office-based clients (like governments, etc), it really makes things absolutely painless and transparent. None of them have any idea I use a Mac until I show up with it on site. Application Development TextMate :: THE definitive text editor for the Mac. There is NOTHING close. The included bundles are fantastic, and it's easy to write your own. If you need a new bundle, somebody, somewhere has probably already written it. Very powerful macro set. Oracle JDeveloper :: A lot of "Java guys" use Eclipse, but I never got into it. I do a TON of database design and troubleshooting, mostly Oracle, and this is a fantastic tool to do all of that, including database diagramming, reverse-engineering, documentation, etc., that other IDE's just don't do. And it's free. And I helped write parts of it, so I may be a little biased. IntelliJ IDEA :: My Java IDE of choice. It costs money, and I've always found it to be worth every penny. JProfiler :: A really solid and fairly inexpensive Java Profiler for the Mac. Works great, and integrates nicely with IDEA. Again, costs money, but worth it. install4j :: A fairly good and inexpensive multi-platform Java installer builder. System Utilities Parallels Desktop :: This is what I use to run Windows and *nix virtual machines on my Mac, at the same time as I'm running OS X. For instance, I use TOAD development tools for Oracle development, but they are Windows-only. Running a bare-bones XP VM on the Mac allows me to use those tools without any performance degradation or loss of functionality. I also use it to run a Linux box in the background for development. I can easily copy this Linux VM between my laptop and desktop so it's easy to keep synched up, etc. This means that I can run various MySQL, Postgresql, Apache, RoR, etc., services in the Linux VM and easily develop against them from the Mac. It also allows me to work out deployment scripts, etc., on my laptop. I cannot speak highly enough about this software, and it's ability to seamlessly integrate with OS X. ExpanDrive :: Absolutely amazing software that makes remote administration and development stupidly easy. It basically performs remote FTP or SFTP connections and makes it accessible via a local Mac drive reference. Transmit :: A pretty good FTP/SFTP client for Mac. Does reasonable synching, etc. pocketMac Synch Manager :: Synching software for the Blackberry, freely available from Blackberry. Does a fairly reasonable job of synching contacts, email, iTunes, etc., to my Storm. Can get "confused" with some contact info and phone numbers occasionally, but overall works pretty well. Snapz ProX :: Really, really good screen capture and video capture for the Mac. It does a great job of letting you create simplistic quicktime videos of what you're doing on the computer, both screen capture video and audio. LaunchBar :: It was around before "SpotLight", and is a hell of a lot better/faster to boot. I leave SpotLight turned off and use this instead. Simply awesome. Probably the biggest "holy crap what did you just do there" comment-inducing application on my Mac, especially from Windows users. Peripherals HP Multifunction Printers have reasonable driver support, even for scanning, faxing, etc. One of the few companies that seem to take OS X support seriously.
For anyone looking at setting up a new computer with windows, go to http://ninite.com/ and check the boxes for the programs you want, download the installer program and run it. The program goes and downloads the latest version of the programs you choose, and installs them in the default locations, minus all the crapwear such as toolbars. Should help with anyone doing the win7 updgrade. Best part is, I have not run Internet Explorer on either of my computers.
Someone mind informing me if I can reduce my packet sizes with Vista? Even if it's just outbound, I know there's a way to do it, I don't know how though.
So I just picked up a Tablet off Craigslist this weekend. It currently has a 40 or 60 gig hd, with Vista Business. I want to upgrade to Win7, and use my 80 gig drive, which is freshly formatted. I'm a student, and can download the Win7 upgrade for $30. But I can't figure out how to install that to my new hd. I've read up on getting an actual .iso from the download, and making a bootable dvd from this. I'm not sure if this will work with a blank hd though. Any suggestions? I can provide more info too, just let me know.
Speaking of tablets, I'm in the market for one. I have not finished my search, but my #1 choice right now is: http://www.amazon.com/TouchSmart-TX2-13 ... WVWONDLT9U based on the features and reviews. Is there any other model I should look at? Is there a "must have" make/model? Thanks, NumbNuts.
For all of you Mac users, MacHeist is at it again. http://www.macheist.com If you're not familiar with them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macheist
I need a powerpoint type program preferably free, but cheap is okay too, just something I can add pictures and music to and will cycle through on its own... Yea I know how to use google but last time I did that was for an antivirus program and I downloaded a virus instead... Thanks in advance and thanks to the guys who helped me with my Ipod.
Look at OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/ Its free and work really nice, although I must admit I have not used their presentation package, just their word processor & spreadsheet, so it may not support everything you want. It is a quasi open source equivalent to Microsoft Office.
Yeah, burn a DVD from the Windows 7 .iso, install the new harddrive to the machine. Pop in the disk (make sure to set it to boot from DVD), and away you go.
For anyone else doing something like this... That would work fine, IF I wasn't installing on a new hard drive. The product key wouldn't work. This is meant to prevent people from buying the "upgrade" but doing a total new install, without having a previous version of windows. Stupid, but I guess I can see their point. Of course, it took me a couple hours of messing around, trying to install xp on my new drive, realizing I don't have the sata drivers, kicking myself, etc. before finding a solution this morning. When installing, uncheck the "activate automatically" and don't enter your product key. Proceed to the desktop. Now, go to the setup.exe from your dvd, and rerun the installation. Now it thinks you are "upgrading" and should accept your product key. Note: if you use this method without replacing a previous version of windows, you are breaking copyright law. Though I believe the wording of the upgrade offer is "any" previous version of windows. So as long as you've got a win98 floating around somewhere that you aren't using, I think you're legit. ianal and all that Also, some handy links for making a bootable dvd, or flash drive. Specific to the Windows 7 upgrade. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html?filter[2]=General Tips and an even easier method, using a free utility: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/32055-bootable-iso-create-installation-files.html hope this saves some people the headaches I had
This is probably the strangest computer-related advice I've ever asked for. For some reason unknown to me, when I was playing an old copy of GTA earlier today, the disc started skipping and stalling and generally fucking up, which wasn't new. However, when I shut the game down, for some reason my screen went sideways. I mean that literally. I have my head at a 90 degree angle to read this right now, hte taskbar is on the right side, the mouse isn't moving where I'm moving it, and I've already restarted the damn thing twice. I have absolutely no idea what's going on, and if anyone has heard of anything like this before, shoot me a pm and I'll see if anything works. I didn't even know this kind of thing could actually happen to a computer.
As far as I know, this should work: Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media Now I have a question: I just installed my copy of 7, and God Bless Microsoft, it came with every driver my (Acer Aspire) laptop needed, right out of the box. Should I reinstall any of the drivers that Acer supplied? Specifically, does installing the "Acer E-Power Management" software do anything except take up precious memory?
Adobe flash seems to be crashing both firefox and safari on my mac. Is anyone else having this problem? I have uninstalled and reinstalled, even tried to install v. 9 and still just a spinning rainbow wheel, it is annoying the fuck out of me to not be able to view any flash apps. Any ideas?
Try ctrl+alt+up (I think) I know on Dell's you can move the screen using ctrl+alt+the arrow keys and rotate the screen 90 degrees. Give that a shot.
Same type of problem here. I have a PC and run Windows Vista. I just installed Firefox but every time I try to view a movie it says I need to install the new Flash updates. When I try, it opens up the Download Manager but the rest of the window is blank - no downloading/installing happening. Any suggestions?
I had a nasty little virus get on my computer last week. You know the one that pops up fake ads and/or Security Pro somethingorother. I got Walwarebytes' to take the trojans off and everything worked fine. Then I fired the comp up again and the virus had disabled malwarebytes. I figured out how to re-install it and run it again. However, the damn virus seems to keep coming back on re-boot. Has anybody had a problem like this? And if so, how the hell do I get this thing off of my computer, short of throwing it out the window?
I've had the Security Pro virus twice in the past month, and what seemed to work even better than "restore last session" is when Windows was doing updates, it found the virus and cleaned it up. I'm sure there's a way to make Windows do it, but in my case it was just part of it's scheduled whatever it does (yes, laugh at me - I deserve it). The problem I have that doesn't go away at all is search engine redirects.