I Switched to a Mac

Got it on Wednesday!

2011-03-13T21:30:00.003-05:00

I got it last Wednesday - it came a day earlier! My wife went to go pick it up for with my daughter while I was at karate with my son. Woohoo!

I've been having so much fun with it since I got it, I haven't had time to post. It's crazy fast! I've never had an Apple laptop before. The build quality and overall feel is out of this world.

I've been loading up my usual set of apps, including Parallels this time. I went out and got a copy of Windows 7 and it's working great.

I'll post pictures soon.

New MacBook Pro

2011-03-08T18:25:00.001-06:00

It made it to Memphis so far and might be here by Thursday!

Ordered new MacBook Pro!!!

2011-03-06T11:22:00.002-06:00

Woohoo! I ordered a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro today! I opted for the 15" with the upgraded 2.3GHz quad processor, antiglare screen, and the 7200 RPM drive. Should be a screamer!

Now the anxious waiting begins...

Probably getting new MacBook Pro and Go Away Monster

2011-02-26T21:07:00.002-06:00

It's been a looooong while since I posted here. I'm looking into the new MacBook Pros and I'm wrestling with what to get.
One side of me wants to get the 13" model and a new iPad 2 next week, and another part of my wants to get the higher end 15" model and no iPad.
I really like discrete graphics, but the higher end 13" model has a higher clock frequency but is dual core. For the types of things I do, the 13" might be OK, but I think I'd want to keep this laptop for a while.

Any suggestions?

Also, a friend of mine from work and I created an iPhone app: Go Away Monster 3000

Gobble, Gobble

2010-11-24T18:28:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a while. Happy Thanksgiving!

New Template

2009-04-25T11:06:00.003-05:00

I had to upgrade something here and had to choose a template. Looks OK, I guess.

I want a new Mac

2008-08-23T10:57:00.002-05:00

I'm thinking a laptop this round. I hear something new is coming in the fall.

Got my RocketFM - it rocks!

2008-07-18T19:01:00.002-05:00

I got my RocketFM in the mail today and it works great! I can broadcast my iTunes over the radio to a boombox and control it with my iPod Touch using the new Remote app. It's going to be great to sit on the deck with a cold homebrew listening to say, Bad Brains. Too bad the RocketFM is a discontinued product. Maybe with the launch of the iPod Touch/iPhone firmware upgrade, there will be more FM transmitter solutions. I'm glad this worked. I was ready to drill holes into the walls to mount some outdoor speakers. Thanks Apple!!!

Let's update the blog

2008-07-17T20:36:00.002-05:00

I know, I know, it's been a while again. What can I say? It's been busy.
I got the iPod Touch 2.0 firmware upgrade - it rocks! There's a cool free remote contral app for iTunes that let's you control iTunes through the wireless network. I'll be getting an FM transmitter so I can sit on the deck and listen to my iTunes music through a boombox. Stay tuned on how this works out.

Yep, still here - got an iPod Touch

2007-12-19T22:32:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a while! Maybe I should have a New Year's resolution to update this more often.

I got an iPod Touch - love it! I use it to surf and check email on the road. The wireless and Safari is surprisingly usable.

Happy Holidays!

Backup Drive working, Summarize service

2007-03-03T11:32:00.000-06:00

My backup drive now works. I had to buy a new Acomdata case since the problem was caused by my old case. I'm not sure what happened - either the case blew out and took my USB hub with it or vice versa. I now have an external FireWire case with my 250GB drive. Works like a champ.
I also came across a post explaining the Summarize service in Mac OSX. If you haven't seen it, check it out here - it's really cool. From the blog, "What it does is it takes an selection of text and generates a very precise summary of the text." Where was the Summarize service when I was in school? Very cool.

Backup drive failure?

2007-02-09T20:30:00.000-06:00

My USB hub for my iPod Shuffle blew out. I think it may have taken the external drive I was using as backup with it. I may buy a copy of SpinRite and see if I can repair it. If it doesn't help, at least I would have contributed to Steve Gibson's excellent Security Now podcast.

New Blogger

2007-02-09T20:26:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a while. It's been so long that there's a new version of Blogger that requires a Google account. So I created one and added this post.
Hope it works.

MacMAME and SNES9X

2006-07-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

I've got my 5 year old hooked on Super Mario Brothers(and now I can't get that tune out of my head!).

We've been playing it on an old iMac G3 233MHz. Works amazingly great! I recently got him a USB PS2 type controller. I got it working perfectly in SNES9X but I cant seem to get it to work in MacMAME.

MacMAME is giving us a little problem. One of the ROMs plays upside down unless you use software rendering. Then it runs slow. Hopefully there's a better version out there for OS9.

Or, I could find an old machine that's fast enough for OSX and give it a try. I know, I know, it should work on this machine - and in fact, I had it working on this machine. It was just really slow.

There's a computer show later this week. Maybe someone's got an old iMac G4 for sale.

In the meantime, I'll keep trying to get the controller to work in MacMAME. And SNES9X is perfect!

What's your favorite SNES game?

10.4.5 Rocks!

2006-02-23T20:14:00.000-06:00

Either this last batch of homemade beer is getting to me or the last update to 10.4.5 put a kick in my system! Seems like things are running even better than before. There's just an overall sense of speed and stability.

I'm in the process of ripping some movies to XVID to a new XP Media Center PC I put together using my $99 Fry's Electronic PC. I'm using Handbrake and the resultant XVID AVI files look great and are 700MB in size. I'd like to try and rip all of the kid's movies and have them available on demand.

BTW, for some reason the download area of the XVID home site doesn't seem to work. I downloaded the XVID codec from somewhere else(don't remember where), but I'd like to get it from the official site. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

New Post!

2006-02-11T09:30:00.000-06:00

I was looking at the blog and saw that I haven't updated since last year.

Happy New Year!

Alot has happened in the last month and a half or so. I also noticed that more people are coming here to read this blog. Cool!

So let's see...I started using an external drive for backup. I found this nice free backup app called SilverKeeper. Works really well and you can auto schedule backups. The nice thing is that it's not an app on the dock and truly runs in the background. Set it and forget it.

Things continue to work well...more soon...

Almost forgot how to post and Comic Life

2005-12-16T21:57:00.000-06:00

It's been so long I almost forgot how to post something! Sorry about that folks.

Things continue to run pretty well on my iMac. I keep bouncing back and forth between Safari and Firefox(now that I have 1.5). The system still doesn't seem as snappy as a PC, but maybe over time I'll get used to it. Or buy an Intel version next year...

I've been playing with this really cool program called Comic Life. I created a short comic with pictures of the kids from the zoo - came out really well. I'll have to figure out how to print it so it can be bound properly. Maybe I can print at 11x17 and stitch down the middle. I think this program is just the coolest thing and a good example of a good solid Mac app.

I've also been playing wit Linux distros. I've got a stack of 20 or so CDs with various distros, live cds, etc. So far Ubuntu seems to be standing out. I'll be running it on my $99 PC that I got from Fry's during their doorbuster(yeah, that's right, $99!). It's amazing what kind of horsepower $99 can buy these days.

In case I don't post again soon - Happy Holidays!

Been a while...

2005-09-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since the last post. Things have been running pretty well on my iMac. I still can't get used to the function(or lack thereof) of the End and Home keys. I hear that Command-Left and Command-Right do the same thing.

I've abandoned using labels for DVDs. They cause too many problems including skips, pauses, and general jitters. I now use a Casio CW-75. I used it today to create a DVD for the kids and the DVD came out perfect. I have a bunch of blank labels that I now need to use up somehow. Maybe some nice labels for CDs. I also spent a bunch of time looking for a decent label printing program. I guess I won't need it as much as I thought.

I also picked up the new Transpod for iPod Shuffle from DLO. Initial use made my iPod Shuffle flip out, but now it seems OK. The real test will be later this week during the commute.

I think that's all for now.

Mighty Mouse

2005-08-02T19:32:00.000-05:00

Apple released the Mighty Mouse today. It looks pretty cool, but I want a Bluetooth version.

You know, now that I think about it, I probably should have saved a few bucks and just got a wired keyboard and mouse. I was dreaming of a completely wireless desktop(except for power of course), but I find that I have to plug things in anyway.

My printer, Shuffle, and UPS are all plugged in, so a keyboard and mouse probably wouldn't have made a big difference.

Oh well, lesson learned.

NASLite+ and OS X

2005-07-11T19:51:00.000-05:00

I think this is just the coolest thing:

http://www.serverelements.com/

It allows you to create a Network Attached Storage appliance using just about any old PC. There's only one little thing you have to do in OS X to get it to see the drives:

Server Elements Forum

I've got an old 233MHz PC in the basement serving up a few hundred gigs of backup storage. It may not be the fastest thing in the world, but it works. And it's alot cheaper than any other NAS I've seen out there.

I'll be giving NeoOffice/J a try so I can draw out my home network diagram. I got some clipart from Cisco from someone's web site that looks like it includes all major pieces on the network.

I'm still recovering from the lightning strike to the house. I found that one of my USB drives no longer works on USB. The Firewire side works, so I'll suck the data off and probably get rid of the enclosure. It'll probably go dead soon anyway. It's copying over to my NASLite server as I type this!

Pocasts in iTunes 4.9 and iPod Shuttle

2005-07-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

I've been playing a little with iTunes and it's new podcast support. Appearently, there's a little glitch in the system.

Overall it's cool but I'd really like a semi-automated way to fill my Shuffle with podcasts. Right now, I have to manually move them over and remember which ones I've listened too.

Happy 4th of July!

Firefox CPU

2005-07-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

I have a new problem. When I load Firefox, either from a restart or after the display has been off, the CPU utilization goes crazy. This causes the internal fans to start whirring and the %CPU for Firefox goes up and down. If I close Firefox and start over, everything's OK.

I'll have to Google around and see what I can find.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

Finally got Popcorn, CPU utilization, Office alternative

2005-06-27T21:29:00.001-05:00

I finally got my copy of Popcorn. I'm now able to make backups of my kid's DVDs. It also included a copy of Discus so now I can print labels for all those other DVDs I created. Not bad!

The only problem is that I can't combine multiple DVDs like I was able with the Nero products on my PC. I'll look around for something to do this. Hopefully something free-ish.

I've noticed lately that sometimes Firefox eats up lots of CPU. I see in the Activity Monitor that it bounces around in the 60's then 80's then sometimes 90 percent CPU utilization. Closing it down then re-opening makes it go back to a normal few percent. Maybe there's something in my Favs group that I open in tabs that is freaking it out.

I also downloaded NeoOffice/J since the copy of Office on my iMac has expired. Stay tuned for how this works out.

This past Sunday I had a lightning storm come through my area. I'm not sure, but it seems like my house got hit! It knocked out my AC unit's controller board. It's been 90 degrees plus lately so I'm glad the HVAC guy was able to fix it a little while ago. It also knocked out my garage door opener, the phone service, 2 phones, a router, a switch, and a few other things. I had the router and switch on a UPS so I'm surprised those got zapped. I'm also a little nervous about one of my printers connected to an external network adapter. I think the switch it's on is dead too.

APC is sending me a replacement UPS and some forms to fill out for replacing the other gear. I hope that works out. Now I need to go research replacement devices. I think I'll go with at least an 8 port switch and router or maybe even a 16 port one. I may look into gigabit ethernet too.

I had a chance to catch NextFest over the weekend in Chicago. It was cool but could have been better. The VeinViewer thing was cool.

I implemented a workaround to my sleep mode problem - I disabled it. I had a very disappointing tech support experience with Apple's chat support feature. The tech support rep just abruptly ended the call as soon as I started asking about their return policy. Don't worry, I was just lining up my options!

It seems that my workaround is working but I would rather the product worked with all features it supports. Besides, I got into the Mac with the notion that "everything just works." Well, everything except sleep mode.

Popcorn(not yet!) and FM transmitter

2005-06-22T19:27:00.000-05:00

Still no Popcorn. USPS said to call Amazon. I think the USPS lost the damn thing. They think Amazon got the address wrong. I don't believe that since I got the confirmation on the order and it's correct. I'll give Amazon a call just to follow their process. Then I'll let them have it. :(

I received my FM transmitter from Nextpower USA. The order came really fast(faster than my damn copy of Popcorn!). The little thing works like a champ! Very nice audio on my FM radio in my car off of a cheap USB stick. There's only a few problems compared to burning a CD:
When the power goes off, it goes off. I can't pick up where I left off.
There's no fast forward function. There's a next track function but no fast forward. I tried chopping up a podcast into 2 minute MP3's but then there's a little delay between tracks. This was my solution to simulate fast forward and rewind. It almost worked. I used Xmp3split to split the MP3 up.

Other than that the product works well. When I get my Shuffle, I'll give it a go with the audio in jack. Hopefully the Shuffle will remember where it left off and allow fast foward.

Now it's time to give Amazon.com an earful!

Sleep mode again

2005-06-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I spoke too soon - it happened again. I came home today and the machine was in sleep mode and I couldn't wake it up. Keyboard didn't respond, nor the mouse. I held down the power button to shut it off and then powered back on.

I don't think I had anything else running in the background. Now I do(iPodder) so maybe the system needs to be running something all the time for the sleep function to operate. Seems little strange.

Maybe I'll give Apple tech support a call later this week for their next steps.

And no, I didn't get my copy of Popcorn yet! :(

Popcorn still not here / Podcast car solution

2005-06-18T12:10:00.000-05:00

It looks like my copy of Popcorn got mis-sent. I called USPS and they said that it's definitely enroute but since it was mis-sent it could take longer.

What a load of bullshit!

In otherwords, if the package is to be delivered in 5 days, and they missent it, it could take longer. Seems to me I paid for it to be here in 5 days, it should be here in 5 days. Bastards.

Hopefully it will be here by Monday. I was hoping to play with it tomorrow.

Happy Father's Day to all of you Father's out there!

On the podcast front, I found this:

Instead of burning CDs of the various podcasts I download, I can just put them on a USB drive and plug that into my car. Hope it's not a POS.

Check it out here: Nextpower USA

Sleep mode/dictionary

2005-06-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't had another recurrence of the sleep mode problem in a few days. I think I'll consider it case closed for now. I'll try letting the machine go to sleep without any other apps running.

Darth Vader sent me a web page with a cool feature of OS X. If you hover over a word and hold down [Control][Command]+D, it will bring up a dictionary definition of the word you were over. Very cool!

The only problem is that it appears it doesn't do this while in Firefox. Neat feature anyway.

I still have not received my copy of Popcorn to re-author a DVD and to print a label. I've got at least two DVDs that need a label. Hope it gets here soon.

Sleep mode/Loosing faith?/Kryptos/Podcast

2005-06-12T12:55:00.000-05:00

The sleep mode issue hasn't occurred in the last day or two. There was a security update recently. Maybe that fixed it? It seems like the sleep problem wasn't happening before this when an app(like a BitTorrent client or something) was running in the background. This never happened on the Windows box I built(nor the Linux box). I'll just have to keep on eye on it.

With the recent Apple/Intel announcements, I'm wondering if I made the right choice here. I can't seem to do everything I want on the Mac(Quicken, print labels, high end games, etc.). And I had an x86 based machine to begin with. Will the only differentiator be the OS and software? Don't get me wrong, I think my iMac G5 is still a pretty cool system.

Here's something that might be another thing to keep me up all night trying to solve:

Kryptos

I've been trying to setup an automatic Podcast receiver. I tried loading the RSS Feed scanner in Azureus but I'm not sure it's working. I also have iPodder running. At least iPodder went and grabbed something as soon I got it configured. Let's see what happens tonight when the new TWIT comes out(hopefully).

And welcome to all the new people to this blog! I see the visit stats going up. Thanks!

Apple and Intel, sleep mode

2005-06-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

This news is all over the 'net: Apple is moving to Intel processors over the next few years. It's covered all over the place:

MacRumors
Anandtech
Slashdot
Engadget

It also appears that they've been running OSX on Intel secretly for a few years! Cool. I wonder what the performance of an Intel based iMac will be?

But the bigger news is that it appears the SMU reset on my iMac may have corrected the sleep issue I've been having. It properly woke up this morning and when I got back home today. Let's let this run for bit before I declare it solved.

No keyboard and mouse on wake up

2005-06-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

Well, it happened again. It went to sleep and did not respond to mouse movement or keyboard activity. Hitting the power button shut it off. Hitting it again turned it back on but the keyboard and mouse do nothing. Holding down the power button completely shut it off.

I then followed the procedure given to me last night by Apple tech support. This involved resetting the SMU. I unplugged it, waited 10 seconds, then plugged it back in while holding the power button.

I'll give this a try and see what happens tomorrow. Maybe it's a Bluetooth problem? I'm using a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Tech support and sleep mode

2005-06-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

I used Apple's chat tech support last night at about 12:30am. I had a few instances where my iMac would not wake up from sleep. I think Darth Vader had a similar problem on a PowerMac.

Sometimes it would not respond to a touch of a key on the wireless keyboard. Using the mouse wouldn't wake it up either. Hitting the power button would power it down(hibernate?) but upon power up it would go back to the password screen. Holding down the power button made it turn off.

The support person on the chat suggested I reset the PRAM. This is done by holding [Command]+[Option]+P+R while restarting. So far so good. It woke up this morning properly.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Labels, first purchased Mac app, FPS

2005-06-04T23:19:00.000-05:00

I ordered Roxio Popcorn so I can re-author my DVDs. I hear it also has a label printing component. I hope it's decent. I've been looking around(trying to find something near free) and I haven't really found much that looked like a must-have as far as a label printing program.

Sure there's Print Shop and others. I've gotten bitten by Print Shop in the past - I don't think it's very good.

I'm really surprised that iLife doesn't have something built in to print labels. It looks like iTunes might have something, but that's just for music. What about iDVD? And what about data disks you might burn? Seems like a little hole in the solution.

Anyway, I've got Popcorn coming in a short while. I had a chance to use up a gift certificate I had, so the price is right. I think this will represent the first application I purchased for the Mac. I also recently downloaded America's Army for a little FPS fun. Price is right on that one too - free as in beer.

CD/DVD Labels and iPhoto gripe

2005-06-02T19:42:00.000-05:00

I finished an iDVD project and now I need to create a label for the DVD. I'm surprised that iLife doesn't include a label program(although I hear that iTunes might have one - but just for music CDs).

If anyone has a good one to recommend, post a comment.

On the iPhoto front, I've got a major gripe. I don't like the idea of making another copy of my digital picture library in my Mac. That's why I have a network to share the photos with my wife's computer and see them on my TV through my Tivo. Besides, I usually offload the photo's from our digital camera using my wife's laptop since it has a memory card slot built in. And since theire on the network, they get backed up every week automatically to an external drive.

What I'd rather have is iPhoto keep the originals as links to the original locations out on the network. I wonder if I can use a Unix "ln" command to replace these JPG files with a link to the original on the network?

BTW - I got a very fast response from the author of iPhoto Diet(thanks Martin!). He confirmed that iPhoto makes a local copy of photos by design. He suggested I take a look at iView Media.

I might monkey with the ln command and see what happens.

NIN in Garageband format

2005-05-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

This is really cool - a Nine in Nails song in GarageBand format! You can go in and change the tempo, cut stuff out, add stuff, whatever. Really cool. I wonder what else is out there like this?

The Switch and UPS

2005-05-30T10:25:00.000-05:00

So I moved my WinXP and Linux boxes into the basement. I guess that's that - I'm on a Mac for good now. Feels a little funny.

I saw on a web site or two that some places recommend an APC ES 350 UPS. Luckily, I had one of these lying around in the basement. I plugged it into a USB port a voila - in true Mac fashion - it was just there and operating. Cool. So far on my wireless Mac I've got three data cables coming out:printer, UPS, and camcorder. At least they are neat and tidy.

Other than games, I don't think there are many apps that I need my PC for right now. And if I do, I can just fire up my RDC to my old PC that's in the basement.

Kickin' back and Quicken

2005-05-28T16:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a few gulps from finishing my first homebrew of the day. I made a wheat beer and the guy at the beer supply place says I got it dead on. Not bad for the first time! I'll be cranking out another batch of Mexican Cerveza today too(while the kiddies are napping and the wife's out running errands!). I'll be using a German yeast so it should be pretty good stuff.

I think I've come to a conclusion on my Quicken dilemma. I'll just Remote Desktop into my PC(which I'll be moving into the basement soon). This way I don't have to mess around with data transfers and such. Darth Vader sent me a screen cap of a post in a forum that gave a procedure involving importing pieces at a time. I don't think I want to mess with my data that much.

I think what I'll do is let this ride for a while and see how it goes. Come January 1, 2006, I'll switch to the Mac version of Quicken. We'll see.

The next thing I need to do is put this iMac on a UPS. Last night, the lights went out for about 5 minutes. All my PC's(old main unit, servers, etc.) powered down gracefully. The iMac had the rug pulled out from under it. I hear that all I need to do is plug the UPS into the USB port and it should see it. Stay tuned on that.

Spotlight rocks! Just a quick [Cmd][Space] away. I've using it to pull up the Remote Desktop client to get at my old PC. This is a great way to find stuff and a huge benefit to using OS X.

That's all for now, need more beer!

Task switching

2005-05-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

Here's something weird(probably a Mac thing). When you fire up an app, minimize it, then try to [Cmd][Tab] back to it, the app doesn't appear. Seems like a minimized app doesn't come back with a task switch. I've got Azureus and iTunes down there and they don't come back up with a task switch. I'm used to Windows cycling through each open app. Maybe there's another key combo somewhere.

I did more configuring of the email for this site(fly@iswitchedtoamac.com). I still need to add it somewhere on the blog page.

iDVD and Email

2005-05-24T23:03:00.000-05:00

I tried to create a DVD of my son's recent preschool graduation. I think using iMovie and iDVD will take some time to learn. Part of the problem from yesterday was that I was choosing the clips to play rather than the whole video. I'm still not quite sure why the title kept bouncing out. Seems to stick now.

I created an email account for anyone who wants to email me directly:
fly@iswitchedtoamac.com

I'll edit the blog somehow and add this email somewhere(like in the footer).

I'm still trying to decide what to do with Quicken. I may have to start over on the Mac. I'm just not too crazy about having our finances across two systems. Any ideas?

Mail, Quicken(WTF!), iTunes

2005-05-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

I configured Mail so I can start getting my main email from a few accounts. That looked liked it worked pretty well. Mail started coming in and I can send too. I sent an email to a buddy of mine. Let's see if knucklehead responds.

I then backed up my Quicken 2004 Basic data on my PC to a USB flash keydrive. I then fired up the included Quicken 2005 on my iMac expecting to be able to import.

It was a no go!

I found this on Quicken's main support site:
Quicken data files are not meant to be transferred between Quicken for Microsoft Windows and Quicken for Mac. Currently, there is not an available converter tool.

WTF! Do I have to start from scratch?! I hope the hell not. What a pain. I usually do home finance types of things on Tuesdays. I'll give this another look tomorrow. If needed, I guess I'll have to create a new file on the Mac. I won't be able to compare years and next tax season could be a pain.

After talking to a co-worker(let's call him Darth Vader) about my iTunes issue, he suggested a change in the settings. I think I found the setting DV was talking about and I'm hoping that iTunes won't make a local copy of music that I have out on a network drive. I'll have to play with this.

I loaded more video of my son's pre-school graduation to make a DVD. This will need more attention too. I tried to add a simple title and it kept bouncing out. When I hit play after adding a bunch of clips it kept stopping after play one clip. I've been a Pinnacle Studio user for years and I'll just need to figure out iMovie and iDVD.

Lightsabers, DVDs, and CDs

2005-05-22T21:23:00.000-05:00

With all the Star Wars buzz these days, this looked like a cool program for the Mac: CrimsonFX It's an app to add a lightsaber effect to videos. Unfortunately, I could not get it to render a short test video. Oh well, I'll keep on eye on it anyway.

I needed some video to try Crimson so I grabbed some video off of my digital camcorder. I just plugged it into the Firewire port and opened iMovie and I was off. Pretty cool! I expected something to tell me it found a camera attached but that's OK - it seemed to "just work" like the ads say.

I hunted down a DVD ripper that seems pretty good: MacTheRipper
On the PC, I like to rip DVDs that I own and combine them onto a single DVD for car trips with the kids. Instead of bringing along three DVDs(and risk scratching, loosing them, etc.) I can bring one and keep them entertained for up to six hours. Comes in handy on long trips and flights. Now that I can rip with MTR, I need to find something on the Mac that can do what I was doing on the PC with Nero's NeroVision Express 3. I'm sure there's one out there somewhere, I just have to look. Maybe this Toast app I keep hearing about is the Mac world's Nero. Or maybe Popcorn.

{Darn [End] and [Home] keys! I need to figure that out.}

Next, I burned TWIT onto a CD for the commute tomorrow. I popped in a CD-R and it directed me to a few apps. I used iTunes to burn it after I created a playlist. One thing I'm noticing about iTunes is that it seems to make a local copy of MP3's that I have elsewhere(like on my Windows server in the basement). I'd rather it just pointed to this and not copy them. Hopefully there's a setting somewhere.

I didn't get a chance to convert my Quicken files. Maybe I'll try that sometime during the week.

I also tried loading a driver for one of my printers and it didn't work. I think it's because they don't have a Tiger compatible version yet. I'll check into that tomorrow. I've got a few other printers to use if I need to print something.

Let's see, what else. I'm still getting used to the keyboard and mouse. Mouse speed isn't as fast as on my PC - I know, I know, it's changeable. The keyboard is a little mushy but it's quiet.

Oh yeah, saw Star Wars yesterday - thumbs up!

Azureus you twit

2005-05-21T00:57:00.000-05:00

I started to configure a BT client. I'm trying Azureus - looks really good! I had a little issue with the IP blocker plugin, SafePeer. The trick is to find the right directory to put the plugin in. You also need to put it into it's own directory.

To find the right directory, go into Preferences and choose Plugins but don't click the little down arrow(usually used to expand this area). In the right pane you'll see the info for your plugin path. I put mine in the user-specific area. Create a SafePeer directory here and move into it the SafePeer files. After this do a restart and it should be OK. Seems like it took a little while to load once I did this, but now I see that it's blocking 85,391 IPs. Cool. Now I can go grab the latest TWIT.

I'd also like to find an IP blocker for the general case, like I had with ProtoWall on the PC. I'll keep looking around.

Starting to play a little more

2005-05-20T23:01:00.000-05:00

I'm playing a little more this evening. I found out some much needed shortcut keys for Firefox:

[Cmd]` to switch open windows
[Ctrl][Pageup] and [Ctrl][Pagedown] to switch tabs

I still need to figure out how to make [End] and [Home] work. On the old PC, these got me to the beginning and end of sentences while editing. On the iMac, they don't seem to do anything(at least in the editor of my blog).

I'll try to transfer over my Quicken data from my PC tomorrow. I need to pay a bunch of bills first. I might need to allocate a good block of time for this crucial step. This could be a major turning point for me.

I think I'm starting to miss my scroll mouse. Might be a minor thing at this point. I'm still trying to get used to the "Apple way" with my usual computing so the single button mouse is OK for now. Let's see what happens, maybe I can can used to a single mouse button.

Maybe I'll go hunt down a BitTorrent client and see what's out there. If you have some ideas on a good one, let me know.

Pix of my new iMac

2005-05-19T20:09:00.000-05:00

I figured out how to get pictures off of my digital camera and into the iMac using iPhoto, upload them to a photo sharing site, and post them here on the blog.

Sucking in the pix from my camera was a little slow. It was almost like watching a slideshow. Must be the USB speed on the camera.

I need to find a table of shortcut keys for Firefox that allows me to flip through open windows. Going through the posting of pix was a little tedious. I kept having to use the Window menu. Seems like the shortcut table in Firefox is for Windows. I don't see references to the apple key.

On with the show...

Here's what was waiting for me when I got home from work:

Here's what was in the second little box(extended service):

Here's my new iMac all set up and booting into OS X:

It begins

2005-05-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

Got it. In fact, this post is being written using my new iMac G5. Pretty damn cool. Ran into a few things during setup, but all is well. I'll see if I can post some pics of it when I get a chance.

Here are some of the things that I ran into:

The Applecare Protection Plan came in a separate box. Looks like there's a CD that needs to be loaded. Maybe I'll do that over the weekend.
During setup, I had to go through the "pairing" process with the wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse was OK, but the keyboard needed a power cycle before it was recognized.
When I got to the wireless setup, I had to figure out the MAC address for the built in wireless for my router/access point. Fortunately, this was on the outside of the box in a field labeled "Airport ID".
Once I got the MAC address into my MAC filter list, it asked for a password. I assumed this was my WEP key. After a little monkeying around, I figured out that you need to enter this in hex, rather than the ASCII version. It should tell you this.
After asking me for my name, address, phone number, and other registration info, I was in. A few minutes later it notified me of new software(kinda like Windows Update - but better - right?).
The screen darkens on it's own after a few minutes of idle time. Moving the mouse or touching the keyboard makes it bright again. I'll bet this is changable in a control panel somewhere.
I get about 2500Kbps over the wireless versus around 3600Kbps with my wired PC. Not bad!
Uh oh, here's a big one. I don't get the same editing options on Blogger that I do on my PC. I had to go back to my PC to make this a bullet list. Maybe the"Compose" feature inside of Blogger doesn't like Safari. I'll need to go find Firefox. [Edit: Yep, Firefox to the rescue! The editing in Blogger is the same as the PC now.]

So far, I'm pretty pleased. It'll take a little while to try things out, fumble here and there, and Google issues for answers. I'd like to play more, but I need to get ready for work tomorrow. Work seems to always get it the way of playing with my toys!

First post! Woohoo!

2005-05-16T21:28:00.000-05:00

OK, so here's the deal - I'm making the switch from a PC to a Mac, an iMac G5 to be exact. I've got one on order and just today I see that it's being shipped. I ordered it the day the new iMac's were announced and I was expecting it last week. That might have been strike one, but, hey, it's on it's way now.
This is also my very first blog. I thought I would share my experiences with my new iMac and document my switch. I'll be learning alot and maybe, just maybe, others can learn from my experiences.
So, this blog will:

Document my first experience with an Apple iMac G5
Share info that may be useful to other PC to Mac converts

Right now I'm using a few trusty Windows boxes I built. Within the next few days I'm hoping to be updating this blog from my new iMac.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what other software I'll need, preparing for the conversion, learning how to use this blog system, etc.

I guess that's it for now. So far so good.