Posted by Trey Connell
on February 04, 2009
I wanted to put Windows XP on my mac so that I could test out sites we build in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari on PC. I was pretty apprehensive about tainting my mac with an operating system like Winblows – even if it does run in a virtual server. But I digress…
After asking the opinions of several co-workers and doing a bit of searching, I settled on Sun’s VirtualBox software for virtualization. The interface and setup is a bit clunky and not exactly intuitive, but it’s free so who am I to complain? I should note that almost everyone told me to use VMware Fusion because it’s so slick, but I’m cheap and didn’t feel like forking over the $79.
In VirtualBox, I created a new 32 GB partition on my mac and then mounted my Windows XP installation CD. The CD then “booted” when I started the new Virtual Server and the XP installation began. The install went flawlessly, and I had Windows XP running on my mac in a virtual server window in about 45 minutes. The network was even automatically configured so I could reach the Internet in Windows from the time I started.
The only thing I’ve found that I don’t like is that the Virtual Server window is very small, and it causes me to have to scroll around a lot in Internet Explorer. I guess that’s a small price to pay for free virtualization software and easy access to Windows on my mac.
Posted by Trey Connell
on January 31, 2009
TextMate is a very popular text editor with a lot of features and “bundles” (think “plugins”) that runs on Mac OS X. TextMate contains an often overlooked feature for creating nice html versions of your code for display on your site. In order to do this, follow these steps:
1. In TextMate, go to Bundles -> TextMate -> Create HTML from Document. You can also Create HTML from Document with Line Numbers.
click to enlarge
2. You’ll see a new file appear. This is a normal HTML file that contains all the CSS needed to duplicate the color scheme and styling of your TextMate theme. (I’m using the “All Hallow’s Eve” theme)
click to enlarge
3. You can copy and paste the CSS code into a new css file that you include in your site or blog. Then simply copy and paste the source of the code itself (everything between the beginning and ending <body> tags) into your page or post. Try not to pay too much attention to the HTML that’s generated – it’s definitely messy but it does work.
If all goes well, you can display your code online on your web site or blog with great syntax highlighting that matches the language you’re using.
Example:
class Poll < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :poll_answers
NUM_WEEKLY_QUESTION_ANSWERS = 5
validates_presence_of :question
validates_presence_of :go_live_on
def self.current_poll
Poll.last(:conditions => [ "go_live_on <= ?",
Time.now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:00") ])
end
end
By including the new CSS in your site instead of pasting it into your page or post, you can take advantage of TextMate’s ability to create only the CSS for your theme. So if you change your blog design and color scheme or your TextMate theme in the future, all you have to do is regenerate the CSS and overwrite the file containing the old theme’s CSS.
click to enlarge
Posted by Trey Connell
on January 30, 2009
I read maclife.com and yesterday’s story titled “One Multi-Touch Screen to Rule Them All” caught my eye. I immediately began thinking I was going to see real evidence of Apple’s version of the tablet PC. After creating the iPhone and iTouch, it would seem the next logical step would be to create what mac rumor sites have been talking about for years – the MacTablet (also called the MacBook Touch).
But instead, the maclife.com story was about the awarding of the patent that Apple filed for back in 2007 for the multi-touch screen. I was sorely disappointed.
For years I’ve watched some of my friends who never converted to Mac (why???) use various PC laptops, and the tablet PC always intrigued me. I don’t understand why Apple didn’t jump on that bandwagon given all the technology, creativity, and innovation they obviously hold. They didn’t have to be the first to market with it, but at least make a mac version that we all know is going to be better.
Other laptop makers are continuing to innovate the Tablet PC approach, and now we’re seeing touchscreen laptops with even more capabilities. While these laptops are certainly not the norm, I believe they’ll catch on more and more as features and usability improve.
I love mac laptops – in fact, I just bought a brand new MacBook. And while there have been improvements in the line of mac laptops (unibody construction, glossy displays, multi-touch button-less trackpack), even I can’t point to something that makes me say “Damn! Look at that!”.
I thought the MacBook Air was going to change all the rules when it arrived on the scene, but I quickly realized a few things:
- The specifications aren’t anything to brag about (1.6 Ghz processor!!)
- It has no internal superdrive so I have to buy it SEPARATELY and then keep up with it
- It only has one USB port
And to top it off the MacBook Air costs $2499 for the “better” version.
Apple should continue to improve their MacBooks just as they have – because those make sense for most of us, and we love them. But I’d like to see some new laptop products start to make a splash and show that Apple innovation that we’ve all loved from the beginning.
Posted by Trey Connell
on January 30, 2009
Update: I’ve now decided that Firefox 3 is not reliable enough to use as my default browser so I’ve switched back to Safari. It’s extremely slow to connect to most sites, and sometimes it won’t connect at all while Safari connects and renders the page extremely quickly.
Update: I am still using Firefox as my default browser. Version 3.0.5 seems to run very stable although slower than Safari. However, the plethora (learned that word in college) of plugins and add-ons for Firefox keeps me using it. My favorite plugin so far is Site Launcher.
I just spent 20 minutes writing a message to a customer in our Basecamp site only to have Firefox crash about 30 second before the post was complete. I lost every bit of that work and now have to start over. The frequency of the crashes is starting to get a bit ridiculous. If this keeps up and no patches or updates are issued then I’m going to have to switch back to Safari – or (gasp!) Google Chrome.
Posted by Trey Connell
on January 26, 2009
If you spend a lot of time on sites like Twitter, you have seen how URL compression is used to shorten very long URLs into smaller, more user-friendly URLs. I had been using a few web sites to shorten URLs, and it dawned on me that I really needed a slick Mac widget. That’s so much more convenient than going to a web page.
I did a quick look around and found the tr.im.it widget from Andrew Hedges. This widget uses the tr.im API to shorten URLs. It can even grab the URL from your active browser window and make the shortened URL available on your clipboard immediately after you submit.
If you’re looking for a great widget to compress URLs, check out tr.im.it and tell Andrew that Trey sent you. (I’m just kidding. Andrew has no clue who I am.)
Posted by Trey Connell
on July 17, 2008
Mail.appetizer has been around for some time, and I find it to be invaluable for dealing with email more efficiently. How many times have you been working in another application only to see the little red indicator show up on the Mail.app icon? In order to see if what you received is worthy of your attention, you have to switch over to Mail and click on the new message. That’s just too much effort to find out if you need to deal with a new message immediately.
Mail.appetizer will display a transparent window that displays the message no matter what application you’re in. You can configure the window to disappear after a certain number of seconds. I use 2 seconds which is long enough to see what’s up and short enough to disappear quickly and not be annoying. You can also customize the information displayed from the message, the level of window transparency, and other details illustrated below.
I highly recommend this little app as it’s a major time saver and providese a ton of convenience over chasing your email down blindly.
Mail.appetizer Preferences
Mail.appetizer Sample Popup Window
Posted by Trey Connell
on March 22, 2008
I’ve been looking for a really good RSS reader for Leopard lately. I’m just not crazy about the built-in RSS support in Mail. I wanted something simple but that allowed me to group posts by category or topic. Sometimes I just want to read over technology posts and ignore what’s going on in the world according to Fox News.
I installed NewsFire – a free RSS reader for OS X – and so far it’s working really well. It’s simple and allows a bit of customization such as display colors and font size. NewsFire also lets you group the feeds and posts by topic so you can organize content how you want to read it. Unless I run across something better, I think I’ll be using NewsFire for some time.
Posted by Trey Connell
on March 18, 2008
If you own GarageBand 4 then you can use it to create your iPhone ringtones. The latest version – at the time of this writing it’s 4.1.2 – lets you drag and drop any song into the GarageBand 4 window. The problem is that GarageBand won’t import protected songs from iTunes that you have purchased from the iTunes store. That’s right – you paid for the song, you paid for GarageBand 4, but you can’t create a ringtone for your iPhone from the two. Well, for those of you who have songs from other…ahem…sources, here’s how you create an iPhone ringtone in GarageBand.
After dragging a song onto the GarageBand interface, click the Cycle Region button.
You’ll see a yellow bar appear at the top. That bar can be dragged left and right as well as made larger or smaller. You can then select the area of the song you want to create a ringtone from. Be sure to select 40 seconds or less.
Once you’re ready, click the Share menu and select Send Ringtone to iTunes. That’s it!
Posted by Trey Connell
on March 11, 2008
You may have seen this post where I talk about the yuckiness that was my old keyboard and my thoughts on buying a new apple wireless keyboard. I went ahead and decided to buy one as I just couldn’t stand looking at the old one any longer. I searched eBay for a few days and finally found what looked like a good deal. Someone had purchased the keyboard but didn’t realize it wouldn’t work with his mac. It was a race to the finish, but I won the auction and only had to pay $60 (including shipping) for a brand new apple wireless keyboard. I love eBay…
The keyboard arrived a few days later. I sat it in front of my computer and turned it on. Then I went to my bluetooth settings and told my MacBook Pro to add a new keyboard device. It found the keyboard and then prompted me to enter a sequence of numbers on the keyboard and press return. I then received a success message, and I was done. It’s just that easy.
I’ve been using the new apple wireless keyboard for about 5 days now, and I’m really pleased so far. The keys are responsive, the footprint is TINY compared to a full size keyboard and takes up less room on my desk. Some people might not like the small size. If you’re accustomed to using a full-size keyboard for 100% of your work then you might fat-finger a few keys from time to time. If, like me, you use a laptop keyboard during 50% of your day, then you won’t find any issues at all. The apple wireless keyboard powers down when I haven’t used it for a long time in order to conserve battery power. It also has a couple of handy keys at the top that give me instant access to my widgets and all my application windows.
So far so good. I think this keyboard is going to to well for me for a long time to come. And since they’re no casing around it, I can simply wipe it off when something gets on it. It’s the small things in life folks – literally and figuratively.
My Old Apple Keyboard
My New Apple Wireless Keyboard
Posted by Trey Connell
on February 28, 2008
I’m considering spending $80 on a new apple wireless keyboard. I’ve had the same old school, clear case keyboard for about 5 years now. Let me put it this way – it’s seen better, and cleaner days.
I’ve thought about taking my keyboard apart and cleaning it, but I can’t seem to find a tool small enough to take out the screws on the back. The chances of me making it “like new” again are probably pretty slim anyway. There’s coffee and soda stains all throughout the front, and it looks like a small bird has built a nest from the hairs on my head when I turn it over. I couldn’t bear to take a close up picture and expose you to that kind of horror so I snapped one from a few feet away.
I really like the form factor of the new wireless keyboards although I do find it a bit strange they’re only available in a mini version. The fully keyboard is not wireless. But with limited desk space and the fact that I use a laptop 90% of the day, small keyboards don’t really bother me. I am a little curious about the keys and the responsiveness while typing. Everyone knows good keypress feedback usually helps you type quickly and correctly. The extremely short keys on the Apple wireless keyboard give me the impression they would barely move. Does anyone know if that’s a problem? Any other problems you’ve experienced?
Photo from AppleInsider.com
Posted by Trey Connell
on February 16, 2008
If you own a Mac running OS X and want to keep up with your friends on Xbox live without actually having to sign it, go check out http://1337pwn.com. You can download and install a widget that allows you to enter in all your friends’ gamertags and then displays their gamercards.
It would be really cool if you could simply enter your gamertag and have the widget pull all your friends list in automatically, but I think you have to be an approved Xbox live developer to get access to that kind of API. Does anyone know if that’s the case?
Posted by Trey Connell
on February 15, 2008
A buddy of mine pointed me to Newegg.com where they have a 2 Gigabyte memory chip that fits many laptops including my MacBook Pro for a mere $38.99. I ordered it immediately, and it came in today. I’ve now boosted my laptop memory from 1 Gigabyte to 3 Gigabytes for a grand total of $43.98 (including shipping). Gotta love that!
