Category: Apple

OK since Nibaq did his I figured I should also do mine. This is a list of my favorite and most used Mac Apps:

1) Firefox: I used to be a big fan of Camino until I started using the extensions in Firefox and since then I haven’t turned back. No other browser on the Mac gives me this much flexibility and upgrade-ablity like Firefox.

2) Butler: Used to be Quicksilver until a few days ago when Nibaq told me about Butler. Butler works like Quicksilver except its about twice as fast.

3) Xbench: Takes a benchmark of my Macs speed and then uploads it online. Been using it for a few years and I keep track on how fast or slow my Mac has become over time.

4) JBidWatcher: This free software has helped me win a lot of bids on eBay.

5) Zippist: Free and simple. Drag a file to the app and it Zips it.

6) Stuffit Deluxe: Probably the most used software on my Mac right after Firefox.

7) TextEdit: Loved NotePad on Windows, Love TextEdit on the Mac.

8) RadioLover: Don’t usually pay for software but paid for this. Its like Tivo for internet radio streams. Even goes as far separating each song the station plays as a separate MP3 file with full ID3 tags.

9) Data Rescue: Saved my ass twice so far. This software helps me recover deleted files.

10) SharePoints: Allows me to share my folders on the Mac with PCs on the network.

11) JunkMatcher: Best mail.app junk mail filter out there.

12) Serial Box: Ummm.. for research purposes…

13) Tomato Torrent: Stopped going to the movies because of this.

14) Extensis Suitcase: With all these fonts I have there is no better font manager available.

15) Acquisition: Finally, this is the only P2P software I use. I actually wanted to buy this but they only take paypal. Its that good.

For those of you who don’t realize how tiny the iPod nano is, here it the 30 second iPod nano TV commercial. [Video 1.5MB]

OK, this post is connected to yesterdays Hot Hot Hot post. Here are pictures of the inside of my Mac so you guys can understand my problem. As you can see the interior of a Mac is laid out different from PC’s and so cooling devices that work with PC’s wont work on Macs. Currently air is being brought in using the fan over the hard drive and coming out from the top from the power supply.

Here are the pictures:
Inside my Mac 1
Inside my Mac 2
Inside my Mac 3
Inside my Mac 4

Suggestions to my cooling issues are welcomed. I have 4 hard drives inside by the way, 2 side by side and 2 on top of each other on the far right.

Two days ago I posted about my PowerMac finally being upgraded, well I have run into a minor problem that requires more upgrading. Basically you can currently bake a cake inside my Mac because of the heat. I had one hard drive reporting a tempreture of 65 degrees celcius which is around 20 degrees hotter then usual. I don’t even know how hot my CPU is running but I am also guessing pretty fucking hot since you would burn your finger if you touched the CPU’s heatsink.

I am now trying to find ways to cool the interior of my case. Since its a Mac its not easy since the interior of the case isn’t standard by any means. I have found PCI slot fans but I can’t find one that will blow air in, most blow air out of the case which at the moment is not a priority. It is always better to over pressure the interior of the case then to underpressure. I also need to find a way to cool the hard drives, a way that doesn’t require screws since there is no place to screw anything in. Until this heat issue is solved my Mac won’t be on 24 hours a day, I will have to turn it on when I need to use it and off when I am done.

Tonight I did the last upgrade for my Mac, I added the DVD writer and the 250GB hard drive which arrive today from Aramex. The only thing I didn’t upgrade was the VGA card but that is on hold until a suitable option becomes available for me. Here are the before and after specs of my mac:

Before
Apple PowerMac G4 733mhz
896MB SDRAM
280GB Hard Drive
Sony 8X CD Writer (Doesn’t read DVDs)

After
Apple PowerMac G4 Dual 1.6Ghz
1.25GB SDRAM
530GB Hard Drive
Pioneer 40X CD Writer / 16X DVD Writer

I just installed Tiger fresh on the new hard drive and everything is running super fast.

This is an extremely funny post at Daring Fireball where he emulates a conversation between Brushed Metal and Brushed Metal’s agent. You must have seen the new iTunes to understand it though. [Link]

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The new iTunes is really slick. I was so over the brushed metal look and I hope other brushed metal aps (like Safari and Quicktime) adapt this look. Everything new is so kick ass.

I know I want the black one. [Link]

I think this is such a good deal. Something so slick and sexy for only $199. I never liked the large iPods thats why I sold my second generation 20GB iPod and got a 4GB iPod mini instead.. even though I have over 60GB worth of MP3s. I like the iPod shuffle because its a memory stick and an mp3 player. Its practical for moving work from my office to my house and Nat loves taking it to the gym because its so light and unbreakable. I love the iPod mini because its small, gorgeos and blue. The large iPod to me serves no purpose. Its ugly, big and doesn’t hold all my MP3s. Maybe once they come out with an 80GB iPod then it might attract me but for now I believe the Shuffle and mini (ok now Nano) are both all I need.

Even recent survey says that on average a person carries 375 MP3s while on average an iPod user carries 504. That fits the Shuffle and Nano perfectly. Now I just need to find someone who will buy my mini so I can go order a Nano.

Update: Cool you can preorder it already from Amazon.com. [Link]

Oolite is a space sim game, written for Mac OS X in Objective C using Cocoa and OpenGL. It is designed as a small game that is easy for users to pick up and expand upon. Almost every aspect of the game can be modified using simple, free graphics packages and text-editors. Oolite now works in Tiger. [Link]

Update: Although the idea behind this game sounded promising, after playing it or should I say trying to play it, this game is basically crap.

Ipod mini Lanyard prices:

Amazon.com’s Price: KD5.250 ($17.98)
Solize Store in Muthana Price: KD4.500
Mac & More in Galleria 2000 Price: KD12.750

Using Safari, Omniweb or Shiira? Feel like crashing the browser?
Then click here!

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This is a really cool software called coconutBattery and I can’t wait to use it on Nat’s PowerBook once I get home. This software gives you a whole bunch of details about the laptops battery including how much charge it originally held and how much it holds now. Nat’s battery is pretty messed up, in OS X it says her battery would last for 26 more hours when in reallity its more like 26 minutes. [Link]

Shopping.com has product pages for the 2GB and 4GB iPod Shuffle. Do they know something we don’t? [2GB] [4GB]

My favorite mail.app anti-spam tool just got better. With their most recent update, JunkMatcher can now integrate with SpamBayes! [Link]

And I thought models in Kuwait were underpaid. Dancer Mandy Coulton became famous as one of the dancers from the colorful iPod ads but Mandy herself can’t afford her own iPod. She was paid $1,500 for her three-hours work on the campaign and finds $400 for an iPod too much to pay. “I can’t justify spending that much money when I have day-to-day stuff to pay for like the car and rent.” She works as a nanny part-time while she waits for her dancing career to take-off. [Link]