Mobile blogging and more let downs

Do computers ever just work? After hearing souch about how Macs "just work" I guess my hopes got too high. The latest disappointment is with mounting shared drives from Windows to the Mac. It works at first, but after any change, like going from wired to wireless, or sleep, the connection not only stops working but also causes weird problems like hanging system prefs or not being able to shutdown. Why is a stable mount too much to hope for?

Having shared drives also leaves little garbage files on the remote folders. Those little files that start with a dot that are invisible on unix can show on windows. Not too spiffy.

That's it for my first mobile posting by email... Hope it came through okay.  (well it mostly did - line breaks were messed up, but it could have been worse)

iPod screen protectors

Got a nice rubbery case for my iPod Touch today.  It's black, has a good grip to it and feels like it'll take the impact if it ever falls.  It came with a clear plastic screen protector too so I tried that out.  It was great at making me feel like an uncoordinated loser.  Air bubbles were not the look I was going for, but that's all I could manage.  For now I'm gonna go commando on the screen.  Eventually I may try again - especially if I find a store that says "hey, buy one and we'll put in on perfectly for you right now".

iCal and email let-down

Hmm, everything on the Mac/ipod seemed to fit so perfectly together until I got to iCal and email.  They're almost integrated, but doesn't quite make it.  Look at how "to do" lists work.  You create a to-do as a mailbox entry.  It doesn't show up in your calendar even if you put a due date.  Sure, you can ask it to publish to iCal (kinda) but it shows up tacked onto the side and not on any particular day, and that's just on the Mac.  On the iPod Touch version of iCal it's nowhere to be seen.  I just don't get it.

The basic functions of either calendar or email seem to work fine but they've left me wondering where the magic that seems to be everywhere else in the experience is.  Am I expecting too much?

How did I do that?

I know I'll forget most of the little things I did when first moving to the Mac so this post is for me to jot down things I figure out so I won't have to figure them out again.

• Keyboard/Nav stuff:
  
  • Home/End/PgUp/PgDn - use command-left/right/up/down keys to do that
  • Multi-touch drag-n-drop - click and hold with thumb then use another finger to drag around
  • Two-finger scrolling on multi-touch pad is great
  • Three-finger swipe to go forward/back
  • Four-finger swipe (up/down) to organize multiple windows
• Network stuff:
  
  • ipconfig getifaddr en0 - gives the ip address of the wired connection
  • ipconfig getifaddr en1 - gives the ip address of the wireless connection
  • Use Applications/Utils/Network Utility for a GUI network viewer
  • Mount network drives using Finder with command-K
  • For a windows drive use smb://
• iTunes:
• Mobile Me:

Rocky starts and techno-highs

The perfect picture of how things will go lasts right up until you start. Actually for my Mac buying it lasted even a bit longer. The Apple store was enjoyable to shop in, and once I got connected with a staffer who knew details I needed, it went really smoothly. Off I went with my bundle of goodies (13" macbook pro, ipod touch 32gb).

Even when I got home things were going pretty smoothly. The setup of both devices was a breeze, though the 13" screen resolution was a bit disappointing. It all meant nothing when the power cable snapped into place though - a simple magnetic connection and I was all smiles!

Next was orienting and setting things up. Coming from a Windows world I automatically felt a bit out of place. No 'home' key? No 'end' key? No mouse?

But then came Tuesday... things were going so well. I mentioned to a coworker that I got myself a Macbook Pro on the weekend, and he said "oh no - they just announced new Macbook Pros today" and my heart sank. I no longer had the latest and greatest! In less than a week! I went from techno-high to buyer's remorse.

The next day I called up the Apple store and they said they didn't know about it until Tuesday themselves and would let me exchange it. By Thursday they had stock so in I went, and upgraded to a base-model 15". The delta cost was only $250 and I ended up with a larger screen, higher resolution (1440x900), improved processor (i5 instead of dual core 2), and about 100gb more hard drive. They did it! They restored my techno-high, didn't give me any grief about the exchange. That's how I want to be treated in every store I enter. Thanks Apple.

So now I'm back to immersing myself in the new tech. Let the good times roll.

Here goes nuthin

Doing something new is always invigorating - even if you're dead tired. Writing a blog is new for me, as is putting my foot back into the world of Apple products. I'm writing this on my new Macbook Pro and wondering how it will look on the iPod Touch screen. I've always been a gadget guy, but my inherent cheapness kept holding me back.

One tax return surprise and a little bravery changed that so now I have new toys and a place to write about my experiences too. It's been a long time since the Apple ][+ days and building clones. Here goes nuthin!