Category Archives: Mac

Ginormous iPod to go

The hard drive in my October 2006 vintage 80GB iPod 5.5G died a few weeks ago.  I wasn’t keen on upgrading to the iPod Classic as: With a maximum capacity of 160GB, it is still too small to house my … Continue reading

Posted in Mac, Stuff | 3 Comments

One month with the iPad

Since I got my iPad six weeks ago, I have only used my MacBook Air once. I am not going to repeat the extensive reviews posted elsewhere, but after over a month of extensive use, give some perspective for those … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Mac | 4 Comments

Strange X11 behavior in Snow Leopard 10.6.3

After updating OS X on my work iMac, I noticed XEmacs and DDD take about 30 seconds to launch, behavior I did not see before the upgrade, and do not see at home either. The 30 seconds are suspiciously similar … Continue reading

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Macworld 2010 impressions

I went to the Macworld 2010 expo yesterday. There were as many people as I remember from previous years, but far fewer big-name exhibitors and total exhibit space was smaller by about a third or so. I am not sure … Continue reading

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Matias Tactilepro 3.0 review

The decline in computer prices in the last 10 years is not an unqualified blessing. Something had to give, and component quality is one of the areas where manufacturers skimp. There is no room in a $500 computer for a … Continue reading

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Parallels, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox

When I got my first Intel MacBook Pro, I purchased a license of Parallels Desktop, which was then pretty much the only game in town for PC virtualization on Mac OS X. At some point, when I got my Mac … Continue reading

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Snow Leopard enhancement: Image Capture and scanners

The Image Capture utility in Snow Leopard works with my Epson 3170 flatbed scanner, and is far superior to the clunky and bloated Epson Scan software. What’s more, it can automatically deskew documents that are not perfectly level. Just a … Continue reading

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Garbage-collecting your Mac OS X Address Book

After years of Outlook and Palm synchronization, when I fully switched over to the Mac, I moved my contacts database over to Mac OS X’s Address Book (painfully due to Outlook’s roach motel tendencies, but that’s another story). For the … Continue reading

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Nehalem Mac Pro first impressions

Some people use laptops as their primary computing environment. I am not one of them. Desktop replacement laptops like the MacBook Pro are heavy, and truly portable ones like my MacBook Air are too limited. Even the desktop replacement ones … Continue reading

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I am so sick of product tie-ins

Nearly every computer or software company is guilty: Apple has .Mac pushed down our throats everywhere in OS X, starting with the signup process, in iSync, and so on. Microsoft pushes MSN services Adobe tried to hook up photographers to … Continue reading

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