I grew up with PCs. My first PC was an actual, original IBM PC model 5150 (which still lives, dormant for decades now, in my garage). Along the way, I worked on Commodores (VIC-20 and C-64), an Osborne, a Sinclair ZX-80, and there must have been an Apple ][ in there somewhere. But the PC [...]

I grew up with PCs. My first PC was an actual, original IBM PC model 5150 (which still lives, dormant for decades now, in my garage). Along the way, I worked on Commodores (VIC-20 and C-64), an Osborne, a Sinclair ZX-80, and there must have been an Apple ][ in there somewhere. But the PC standard won out and by the late 80s that was all I used. I went through a series of ever-more-powerful PCs, mostly home-built but some mass-market branded, for a number of years. I got to the point where I knew Windows, up through XP, like the back of the proverbial hand.

Meanwhile, Apple was evolving the Mac OS and finally released OS X, a true Unix-class OS with no legacy baggage. I watched from afar but as the OS and machines got better and better, I thought that I might be interested in making a switch–especially when Apple moved to Intel processors and it became possible to easily run Windows on Macs. Finally, I decided that when my then-current PC (a Dell Inspiron laptop) died, I'd buy a Mac notebook to replace it. Perversely, the Dell hung on for a year or two past its expected lifetime, but finally gave up the ghost when I (accidentally, I swear!) spilled most of a bowl of soup into it while working at home one day.

So I bought a MacBook Pro. I acclimated myself to OS X very quickly and was able to keep my Windows applications and workflows mostly intact with VMWare, running Windows side-by-side on OS X. But then a strange thing happened: I found I really didn't need Windows on my Mac after all. I tried keeping VMWare turned off for a week, then for a month, and then I just didn't turn it back on again and finally uninstalled it. There isn't anything that I could do on my Dell on Windows XP Pro that I can't do on my Mac, but (in my experience, as always) OS X beats Windows in the usability and stability department by a mile. And it's trite and over-used, but the Mac does indeed "just work". Things I want to do are right where I subconsciously expect them to be and work the way I instinctively want them to. There's tons of power under the hood, since OS X is a true Unix, but I don't need to deal with it unless I have to, or want to.

So yes, after years and years of being a PC, I'm a Mac.

This is part three of a theoretically infinite series. It’s been roughly five months since I brought home the MacBook Pro and almost that long since my last update to this series. I’ve become incredibly comfortable in the OS X environment and, with a very few exceptions, can do anything I ever did in Windows. [...]

This is part three of a theoretically infinite series.

It’s been roughly five months since I brought home the MacBook Pro and almost that long since my last update to this series. I’ve become incredibly comfortable in the OS X environment and, with a very few exceptions, can do anything I ever did in Windows. In the event I do need Windows, I can use VMWare Fusion to boot Windows XP from a Boot Camp partition with seamless desktop integration. Just today I found a solution to one of the last Windows requirements — syncing my HTC Mogul phone, a Windows Mobile device. Normally one would use ActiveSync to sync a Windows Mobile device, or pay $30 for Missing Sync. I’ve found a free product that does exactly what I need and no more: Eltima Software’s SyncMate. It syncs my contacts and calendars to the Mac’s Address Book and iCal, respectively, and can mount the WinMo file system as an external volume on the Mac for file transfer.

Here’s a current list of third-party software I’m using.

• Angry IP Scanner — the built-in Network Utility has most of this application’s functionality; I use either or both depending on what exactly I’m trying to do.
• Book Collector
• ChronoSync — I haven’t actually started using this yet, but I’ve installed the trial and am checking it out.
• CrossOver Office — supposed to allow (some) Windows applications to install and run directly in OS X, but I’ve had little success as of yet.
• Fetch — seems to be the best ftp client for OS X.
• Google Earth
• Jolly’s Fast VNC — even in public Alpha, this is the best VNC client I’ve found for OS X, and (apprehensive of using an Alpha) I tried quite a few before this one. Does what it says on the tin.
• Logitech Harmony Remote software — Web-based programming tool for my Harmony 880 and 670 universal remotes.
• Movie Collector
• NetNewsWire — my choice for RSS newsreader. I started with the built-in Mail application, but it couldn’t handle 200+ feeds with any stability; I tried Endo and gave it a couple of months, but eventually gave up on it after one too many crashes and system resource grabs — plus, its UI is a nightmare. NNW does what I want and does it well.
• OpenOffice.org — the excellent free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office I’ve been using for years, now in a spiffy new OS X-native version.
• Opera — if you’ve been reading Project Insomnia for lo, these many years, you know I’ve been an Opera fan for quite a long time. Since switching to Mac I’ve converted almost completely to Safari. I keep Opera around for alternate-browser testing and also use it when I need to have more than one Google Account session open simultaneously, but it’s pretty much fallen off my radar in general.
• Remote Desktop Connection — the only Microsoft software on my OS X partition is a fine port of the standard RDC client.
• SketchUp — nifty 3-D sketching tool which I have so far been completely unable to learn. I’d like to use it to model the cabinet wall we want to build in the living room.
• SplashID — password vault, works with the Mogul to keep all my many and varied passwords safe. Syncing SplashID between the Mac and the Mogul is one of the very few remaining tasks for which I still need Windows; the Mac version doesn’t sync directly but only imports saved files.
• SyncMate — see above.
• TextWrangler — this is a terrific text editor that handles code of all kinds, from PHP to HTML to Java.
• TinkerTool — essentially the OS X equivalent to TweakUI.
• Transmission — BitTorrent client.
• VLC Player — for the rare filetype that QuickTime + Flip4Mac can’t handle.
• VMWare Fusion — see above.

I’m assembling a list of useful tips and tricks, things I’ve learned by trial and error or lucky Googling. That will probably be the subject of part four of this series.

09:02 Thursday = work from home. Laundry, errands, misc housework and a bit of actual work as well. # 15:14 Feeling sick. F**king Taco Bell substituted steak for chicken & I didn’t notice until I’d already taken a bite or two. # 15:38 VMWare Fusion 2.0 free update for 1.x users: www.vmware.com/download/fusion/ # 17:37 Um, [...]

09:02 Thursday = work from home. Laundry, errands, misc housework and a bit of actual work as well. #

15:14 Feeling sick. F**king Taco Bell substituted steak for chicken & I didn’t notice until I’d already taken a bite or two. #

15:38 VMWare Fusion 2.0 free update for 1.x users: www.vmware.com/download/fusion/ #

17:37 Um, okay. #

19:28 Trapped in Costco. Save me! #

20:32 Legal question: Isn’t refusing to comply with a subpoena considered "contempt of court" and subject to imprisonment? #

21:30 Trying out Twidget, a Twitter widget for OS X Dashboard. #

21:44 The winner seems to be "Twitgit", confusingly similar spelling but better interface. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

This is part 2 in a theoretically infinite series. Two weeks in and I am finding myself really happy with the Mac, with OS X and with life in general. OS X’s Unix-y roots means it’s very hackable and its popularity means there is lots of good open-source or otherwise community-supported software out there, plus [...]

This is part 2 in a theoretically infinite series.

Two weeks in and I am finding myself really happy with the Mac, with OS X and with life in general. OS X’s Unix-y roots means it’s very hackable and its popularity means there is lots of good open-source or otherwise community-supported software out there, plus it seems most of the software I used in Windows has Mac versions. Just a short list of the third-party (i.e. not Apple) software I’m using so far:
(“w” means used on Windows, otherwise it’s new to me)

• Angry IP Scanner (w)
• Book Collector (w)
• DING! (w)
• Google Notifier (w)
• Logitech Harmony Remote (w)
• Movie Collector (w)
• Opera (w)
• PRX Audio Encoder (w)
• Psi (Windows counterpart was Trillian; I actually only used Psi to set up a Jabber connection for Yahoo IM in iChat.)
• RBrowser (Windows counterpart was SmartFTP; free for ftp but costs money for additional features, jury still out.)
• Remote Desktop Connection (w; this is the only Microsoft software on the OS X partition.)
• SplashID (this is an artifact of my earlier move from a PalmOS device to the HTC Mogul Windows Mobile device; it securely stores the many, many passwords I use on a regular basis and syncs them to my phone; it replaces STRIP and the Palm Desktop, sort of.)
• Stuffit (Windows counterpart was WinZip, WinRAR and various other compression/decompression utilities.)
• TinkerTool (Windows counterpart was TweakUI.)
• Transmission (Windows counterpart was uTorrent.)
• VLC Player (w)
• VMWare Fusion (see below)

I’ve just installed and am trying out VMWare Fusion, which pulls the Boot Camp Windows XP partition into a virtual instance running inside OS X. It seems that the only way to install some software onto the Windows Mobile device is by running an installer in Windows, and I don’t want to have to reboot into XP via Boot Camp just to do that.

Flexbeta today has a nice comparison of the top two privacy utilities: Ad-aware vs Spybot S&D;. I installed Windows 2000 on VMWare Workstation, installed the 28 applications and other plug-in, then I created a snapshot of the current virtual pc state (similar to creating a system restore point found in Windows). I then installed Ad [...]

Flexbeta today has a nice comparison of the top two privacy utilities: Ad-aware vs Spybot S&D;.

I installed Windows 2000 on VMWare Workstation, installed the 28 applications and other plug-in, then I created a snapshot of the current virtual pc state (similar to creating a system restore point found in Windows). I then installed Ad Aware, ran an update to have the latest fixes, and scanned the infected virtual computer as many times possible until Ad Aware stated that all infected files were fixed. Afterwards, I ran Spybot S&D; to see how many files Ad Aware had failed to detect. After recording all the information, I reverted the virtual drive back to the original state (before I installed Ad Aware) and did the same except this time I installed and scanned with Spybot S&D; first and ran Ad Aware second to determine which files Spybot S&D; failed to identify.

Pretty interesting, and good testing methodology.