a blog…

Mac Madness

June 4, 2006 on 11:19 pm | In Blah Blah, Sysadmin | Comments Off

So I got a Macbook… and I have to say it is a fine piece of machinery (and the black one also looks nice). Almost everything about it is fantastic. The size of it, the keyboard, wifi and magsafe connector - all exceeded my expectations. Glossy screen - I have mixed feelings about. On one side it looks really nice in the dark, but it is rather annoying in the sun. But that’s not a real problem… the only real problem is the heat this thing puts off - boy, it gets hot!

With this laptop notebook it makes you want to work away from a desk, in bed, on the couch, but don’t start compiling something with it sitting on your lap - I get it as hot as 85C sometimes - and you really can’t touch the bottom of it… On the upside, if you take it camping - you could cook something on it.

With that “too much thermal paste” issue turning out to be a myth I guess only a firmware upgrade could boost the fan activity a little. I guess I would prefer to have the fans turn on before I go sterile.

So without further rambling, there are some links to software (mostly free) that has made my life on the mac more enjoyable. Mostly it’s the piece of software called Parallels that made me switch to the mac (coupled with Virtue Desktops - it makes switching between desktops wonderful). I use it to run XP & Ubuntu Dapper on top of OSX .

I will make a separate post about how I got my Treo 650 to sync with the macbook, and how to go online through bluetooth.

Enjoy!

Resources

• My del.icio.us mac tag - bunch of stuff that I may or may not use.
• Firefox Download - All versions - Firefox seems to crash from time to time, sort of annoying. Maybe it is caused by some of the extensions.
• iTerm - Better terminal then Terminal.app - nice shortcuts, profiles, focus follows mouse, etc..
• SSHKeyChain - Load your ssh key into the keychain to be used in terminals.
• Fink Project - sets up Apt for OSX. Very useful.
• Fink Commander - GUI for fink.
• MenuMeters - Little graphs of CPU, Memory, Network and Disk activity.
• SideTrack - Extra features of the trackpad. I don’t use this - but I do use two-finger scrolling and tapping that is available in 10.4
• Virtue Desktops - Virtual desktop manager - allows for the 3D cube switching that is so slick.
• Desktop Manager - Virtual desktop manager. Seems cool, haven’t tried.
• Parallels - Virtual machine hypervisor for Intel’s VT-x virtualization. Specifically using it with Parallels. Not free, but cheap and worth every penny.
• Adium - Good IM client.
• Growl - Little notifications that slide out to notify you of something. Plugins available for almost any application
• PathFinder - powerful filemanager. Not free.
• Skype - VOIP client, allows free calls to US & Canada numbers.
• Mac Tips&Tricks - Some general useful info
• Make OS X more like Linux - Notes on making OSX more familiar.
• CoreDuoTemp - Shows the temperature and load of the CPU
• Cyberduck - FTP/SCP Client
• Play XVid Movies on Intel Mac - Links to download Xvid & AC3 components for QuickTime
• QuickSilver Tutorial - I don’t use it, but it seems like it is very cool.
• Flip4Mac - WMV Support for Mac
• Theory about why Macbooks get so hot - The jury is still out on whether thermal paste is the reason.
• Cooling your MacBook Pro may be easier than you think - Article this shows that thermal goop isn’t that much of a problem.
• Extensive Disassembly Guide - But if you do want to take the macbook apart - this is a good guide