Dashboard Widget - Chuck Norris Facts

Chuck Norris. Humor is just a click away...

Chat or IM apps

The August, 2007 edition of Mac Life magazine has a review of several chat/IM applications: Adium X, meebo, and Spark.

I've been using the native clients for Microsoft Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, but Adium X looks promising! I like that Adium X offers tabbed chats (one window, with one tab per chat).

Optimize your Entourage database

I always found it beneficial to periodically compress my .PST files for Outlook on a Windows computer. The same is true for the Entourage database on the Mac.

Begin by stopping Entourage. Then in Finder, navigate to Applications -> Microsoft Office 2004 -> Office and click on the Database Utility. Once the utility starts, select the desired identity (typically Main Identity) and select Compact Database.

Entourage's Project Center

Entourage includes the hidden gem Project Center (not available on Outlook in a Windows environment). I'm using Project Center to correlate tasks, calendar entries, emails, files, etc. to individual projects.

Read the Beginner's Guide article.

Connecting Entourage to salesforce.com

My move to the Mac and (ultimately) to Entourage initially meant I could not integrate Entourage to the CRM application salesforce.com.

I have since found and installed the Maildrop application. Maildrop provides integration between Entourage and salesforce.com for email and Cases, but it does not provide synchronization between calendars.

Annoying problem with Parallels v3.0

See this discussion forum on the Parallels website.

I have Office 2004 for the Mac installed (on the Mac side of my world). I also have Excel installed on my Parallels/Windows virtual machine. What is happening is I click on a file with a .XLS extension (on the Mac side) and Parallels wants to start Excel on the Windows virtual machine.

My Mac is already ghetto

See the screen comparison (between old/recent and new) in this ComputerWorld article...

I upgraded to Parallels v3.0

I don't have an immediate need for v3.0, but it does provide better/compatible graphics support for some software.

Ensure you stop/quit your virtual machine before upgrading Parallels. A friend told me that having the virtual machine in a suspended state may result in some nasty side affects after one upgrades the core Parallels software.

Tidbit. Parallels v2.0 has build numbers in the 3xxx range, and Parallels v3.0 has build numbers in the 4xxx range. A tad misleading for the user.

Sharing files (or not) between Mac and Parallels/Windows

Parallels provides the option for you to share/access files between the Mac and the virtual Windows machine. I have the option disabled since I want a level of isolation between the two machines. I don't want a virus or rogue script to be able to destroy data files on both sides of the "fence".

How to force background maintenance tasks

See this Apple article on how to force background maintenance tasks.

In a nutshell, you might periodically run these three commands from a Terminal window:

1. sudo sh /etc/daily
   
2. sudo sh /etc/weekly
   
3. sudo sh /etc/monthly
   

Keeping your Mac secure

See this InformationWeek article on OS X and security.

I use Parallels to provide the virtual machine for Windows XP on my Mac laptop, and therefore I am also running an anti-virus program (McAfee) on the WinXP OS.

Mac vs Windows cost analysis

See this ComputerWorld article.

My experiences were similar. Go online and config/price a Macbook Pro laptop and a HP or Dell laptop with similar specs. You might be pleasantly surprised.

One fellow's thoughts on forthcoming OS

Read here. It's an interesting hypothesis that the forthcoming Leopard OS would natively run Windows applications (ie., no need for Parallels).

Next version of Parallels

The website TechCrunch has a review of the upcoming release (version 3.0) of Parallels.

Further detail on Parallels

In April I wrote about my initial experiences with Parallels. I still think it is an incredible piece of software and allows one to run Windows XP seamlessly (and concurrently!) on the Mac.

When you first install Parallels, consider the following:

• If you have 2 GBytes (or more) of memory on your Mac, install or change Parallels such that you give Windows at least 512 MBytes of memory. It doesn't take long for Windows to use 256 MBytes of memory.
  
• Sit down and estimate your disk requirements for Windows. The default of 8 GBytes may be insufficient, and you won't be able to easily increase the size of the disk drive without software such as Partition Magic. If your Mac has a lot of disk space, then I recommend that you consider allocating say 20 GBytes of disk space to Windows. If you will install a lot of software in Windows (e.g. Visual Studio) then you might go to 30 GBytes or even larger.
  

I have not encountered any software-compatibility problems with Windows-based software running under Parallels. I am periodically using the following: Excel 2003, Project 2003, SQL Server 2005, Visio 2003, and Visual Studio 2005. I sometimes need these tools for my technical work. Note that I run the core Microsoft Office suite on my Mac, and not on Windows.

I now use the new "Coherence" feature of Parallels (I don't think Coherence is a good descriptor of the functionality). Coherence essentially changes your view of Windows/Parallels. By default, you will see your Windows machine as a window on the Mac. Coherence it makes the window disappear and instead you have a Start bar on the bottom (just like on a true Windows machine). It takes a few minutes to get used to, but I love it. Now my windows for Mac stuff and Windows stuff are simply blended together. I can move the windows/applications around and I don't need to switch back to the single view of the Windows machine/session.

External peripherals - 3 for 3

I've used three external peripherals with my Mac to date: Canon A75 digital camera, HP 6300 combo printer, and Nikon D50 digital SLR.

The Mac recognized each of them immediately (by actual make/model) and I did not need to install any drivers or software. I like it. :)

T + 2 months, and no going back

It's been almost two months since I gave up my laptop with Windows XP and moved to the Mac. I've had a few delays and stumbles, but nothing dramatic.

Overall, there is no going back to Windows XP or Windows Vista as the core operating system on my computer. I still use Windows XP (running under Parallels on my Mac) for a few needed tech applications, but I'm spending 90%+ of my time on the Mac side and loving it.

How to make the Tiger OS roar like a Leopard

This ComputerWorld article discusses how to improve the power and pizazz of the current version of OS X.

Beta Office Open XML file-format converters

Microsoft has released file-format converters, such that one can open documents from the latest version of Office. Download here.

Dashboard

I REALLY like the Dashboard on the Mac. I downloaded free, custom widgets for the weather, gas prices, near-real-time traffic maps for Seattle, technical/utilization statistics (iStats) for my Mac, calculator, dictionary/thesaurus, and so on.

One click of the mouse... and all of this data is in front of me. VERY handy.

Of course, there is no free ride. Each widget consumes memory on the Mac. However, I have 2 GBytes of memory/RAM and so I've got some headroom.

Moving from Outlook to Entourage

These scripts on scriptbuilders.net are useful for exporting your Outlook data (Windows) and then importing to Entourage (Mac). The scripts cost USD $20.00.

Entourage is an Outlook-type email/organizer from Microsoft. I originally started using iMail and iCal, but I'm moving to Entourage since there is direct integration with an Exchange email server (needed for work/business purposes), and I also can have Notes and Tasks again (integrated with my Calendar).

UPDATE: I used these scripts to successfully migrate my Contacts, Tasks, and Notes from Outlook 2003 (on Windows XP) into Entourage 2004 (on the Mac). Cripes, it was simple and well worth the $20! I have a huge volume of data (e.g. 400+ Tasks) and it was not practical for me to manually enter the data into Entourage.

Windows Media Components for QuickTime

You'll want to install these Windows Media Components for QuickTime.

Retraining oneself - Menu bar

The Menu bar (File, Edit, Window, Help, etc.) of options is along the very top for any application on the Mac. Not at the top of the application itself, but at the top of the Mac's screen.

It took me a while to get used to this change. I have retrained myself now. Remember this so you are not fumbling around...

CrossOver Mac (another Windows VM)

Macworld article on CrossOver Mac.

I haven't tried CrossOver, and am quite happy with the application compatibility provided by Parallels.

VPN-for-hire protection

This is a good article in the Seattle Times on VPN services one could use with their Mac laptop. I have not tried any of these services.