iMac: Manual of Shortcuts for a PC owner

OK so its been about a week since I got my iMac and I'm still impressed... I tried out iPhoto (which i will review later) as well as surfing, Starcraft 2, and watching hulu. On the 27 inch screen its hard to find fault with anything. Remote controlling another computer does usually require that you zoom in to be able to see the entire screen from 4 ft away.

This brings us to the first of the short cuts. Holding down control and rolling your fingers forward on your magic mouse will zoom in on the mouse cursor. Repeat by pulling back and you zoom out again. This isn't some lame make the font bigger bs, it really is zooming in on your screen. Clarity remains the same and it is handy for those wtf moments when you can't read something on a web site, or when trying to find Waldo. If you don't get that last reference, go ask your mom.

Other things that are annoying as a hard core PC geek, there is no Home, End, Page up or Page down on the mini wireless keyboard that I have. Control to the rescue again...

Page up: Control key and arrow up
Page down: Shocker here, control key and arrow down.
Home: Control __ and back arrow
End: Control __ and end arrow.

The universal use of the delete key for backspace or delete is annoyingish too, for example when trying to get to a new web site in safari you have to clear the contents you can't just click inside and start typing, so you have to backspace through the contents. At least that is until your wife (who did I mention has had a mac for 5 years and is Tickled pink to be MY IT department for once?) says just click three times to select everything.

Now for text editing and other uses:

%A: Select all
%C: Copy
%X: Cut
%Z: Undo
%V: Paste

There are some really wild short cuts in the mac, with keyboard symbols I have never seen before and can't find for the life of me.. once I figure out how to represent them, and how to use them I'll update this post, and hopefully you'll see what I mean....:)

iMac: Wall Mounting your iMac 27"

So the smaller version of the iMac does not support wall mounting, but this bad boy does.. Have I mentioned how large this thing is? Man, anyways, getting it up on the wall and getting yourself about 4 ft away seems to be in order, of course then the fonts too small, so you need to increase your perscription lenses...

Mounting it on the wall is simple enough, you need a Vesa compliant wall mount. There are any number of those out there from 15$ to 100$. Not sure about the rest of you, but mounting my over priced iMac on the wall hanging off of a 15$ vesa mount makes me a little nervous...

Getting the mount on is no problem, there is a little "access key" in the kit that you buy from Apple or Best Buy. This is basically a blank credit card... You slide it up the base under the screen until it hits something, then give a small push and the screen flops forward. Don't worry, it doesn't fall off, it just leans all the way forward.

Now lay the screen down on a protected surface and remove the stand with the tool provided. 8 screws later, and you are ready to attach the hinge portion of the vesa assembly. 8 more screws and the hinge is on. Ok for those of you looking at the kit atm, its not really a hinge, but you'll agree that's the best way to describe the small piece of metal that sits in the middle of the kit.

Once the Hinge is on the computer, you attach the vesa adaptor to it with the 2 screws provided. For those of you doing what I did, and swearing that the holes don't line up, in the back middle of the plate there is another screw you have to screw in, this basically pulls the holes into alignment, its not for decoration..So, 8 screws to hold this little piece of metal onto the back of my computer, then 2 screws to hold that to the plate.. the plate will be attached to the vesa mount by 4 screws... anyone see a weak link here?

Wall side prep is easy, locate a stud or two and attach the mounting bracket to the wall. Make sure its level, make sure that you measure so that you don't hit that bookshelf above your old monitor etc.. Now make sure that you use whatever washers etc are required to ensure that the thing doesn't pull out of the wall, and don't use a dry wall plug to secure this, it weighs 20+ lbs, not something you want dangling off of drywall imo...

Once all thats done you just have to "drop" it into place, plug it back in and enjoy. If you didn't buy the apple remote you'll be kicking yourself, this thing really is bad ass.

iMac: First impressions

I may have uttered the words, it might be too big, a couple of times...:)

This thing, is truly impressive, i went with the quad core i 7 2.96 ghz, 8 gigs of ram was the other upgrade. other than that, its basically straight out of the box. Apple delivers a truly easy to use experience, from a hard core 20+ year PC user, it was alarmingly easy to setup and get used to. The only thing I am struggling with a little is the tiny wireless keyboard... its about the same size as the ipad it seems, and I am having the same problems I have there, hitting the ' key instead of enter constantly...:)

Next trick, wall mounting this big bad ass bastard... oh and transferring all my files from the pc... was worried about that but its really simple. All you do is share the folder on the windows pc (keep in mind my windows pc is windows 7), then from finder you select go>connect to server (or %K) and type in the url (so http://computername) once thats done, you browse to the folder you shared and then drag and drop things over.

I have about 60 gigs of video and 20 gigs of pictures transferring over wireless, and it will probably be done by morning. There are a couple of annoyances out there as a mac user, but less than I expected. It might be the right time to make this leap, with snow leopard being built on the linux kernel it should be stable... I've only spent a couple of hours on it at this point, but so far so good, I am really loving how easy it was as a windows user to get in and get moving... much less bumbling around feeling stupid...:)

The 27" imac is so large you can watch a "full screen" movie, and browse two seperate internet sites without feeling squished... seriously its that big...

iPad: Hulu plus day 1

So what to say about hulu plus... How about it's unstable and damn annoying? Every time you "leave" the app and return, you have to sit through the this presentation is brought to you by exlax... That's pretty funny if you think about it... Take exlax, and you would need frequent commercial interruptions... I digress.

So yeah hulu... I rate it a one out of five right now. To watch a 45 minute tv show I had to restart the app 6 times, and my wifi died twice.. You may remember my abc post about how it was g my wifi connection, well hulu is doing it too. What els is wrong with it? The ui is horrible, you can't subscribe to anything so if you are browsing through and see something you like, you better have a pen and paper handy because there is no way to bookmark something for later consumption...

Browsing is alright, but the content is a bizarre mix of 70 tv shows to releases from this week... There doesn't seem to be any sort of organization involved.. Now granted, I haven't used the hulu site much other than to subscribe to shows I know I want to watch so the site might be just as bad, but I'm not impressed so far. It was nice to see all the seasons of lost, but I am not sure I will be able to find them again... (someone will undoubtedly point out that there is a search feature... Back off, i'm trying to make a point)

Now with my luck, the little check box at the bottom of the terms and conditions says I can't talk about hulu, but since I am paying them for the privilege of being a beta tester I figure f em... Oh and also, there's no way to provide feedback from within the app, like hey my iPad crashed five times you want to do something about that?

I do loves me my ipad though... Was in the middle of a show, gavyn called me, hit pause and walked into the other room to see what he wanted...sat down and finished watching the show... Portable tv ftw... No more Ned for 5 tvs in the house, just carry your iPad with you from room to room...

iPad: Hulu Plus First thoughts

Hulu plus came out awhile back, and its basically in open beta by invite only so I put my name on the list. My invite finally came through and my first thought was, wtf, I have to pay to be on your Beta? That aside, I'll post some more thoughts on it after I have reviewed some of the features.

For those of you saying, why did you sign up for it, its crap. No one knows that yet, but I'll be sure and let you know if it does... I don't watch ANY live tv. I hate sports, well hate is a strong word, but to most peoples amazement I don't even watch Hockey unless the Canadians or Detroit Red Winks are in the playoffs.. Don't ask about detroit, the reason for that is retiring this year so I won't have to watch them anymore either...;)

I am also blessed (?) by the fact that I have very few friends due to being socially retarded, and as a result no one says "OMG did you see so and so borked so and so on Glee?!?! I can't believe she's preggers." and so I can happily watch new to me episodes on Hulu a month later and still enjoy them...:) Oh and without hulu plus, I can't use the pad, which hey, thats one of the main reasons to get it....

Begining expectations:

1. I can watch any season of any show that is on hulu, making netflix obsolete.
2. I can watch a show as soon as it goes live over the air
3. I don't get commercials (I know this expectation is wrong...)
4. My videos no longer expire if I don't watch them
5. I can watch on the ipad, my phone, whatever.... Next question is, can I watch it on my iPhone while tethered to my BB... shh don't tell my boss.

That's really all my expectations. Once I have reality to bounce against those expectations I'll be sure and let all of you know what the results are....:)

iMac: Do You mac?

I was amused to read an article in the New york times about some guy who wants a roomate, preferrably mail, gay, and who doesn't own an iPhone. He was quoted as saying he didn't want to live with someone who sold his soul to Steve Jobs.

I wondered, does he have a computer? Likely a windows computer? Is that not selling your soul to Bill? Or does he consider himself having no choice since thats the defacto standard... Or is he one of the few, the proud, the painfully limping along on linux, and has a droid phone. I like the idea of open source, just not sure its at a level where I can feel comfortable climbing on board...

That being said I am buying a new computer in a couple of weeks, and after a lifetime of PC I'm going mac. That's right, you read that correctly. I am buying one of the "new" 27 inch iMac's and will be happy to give you my impressions of it, you couldn't stop me from doing it anyways so you might as well read about the trial and tribulations of a hard core PC lover (one asshat at work says I look like the guy in the mac comercials, and if I put on a bad suit and greased my hair down, he'd be pretty close...) to a new Mac owner.

The success of the iPhone and my love for the iPad have made me think this through, and since they changed macs so that they run intel processors and can share files and everything else with a PC, there's really no reason not to. Jenn's laptop, after 5 years, died, and Apple fixed it free of charge. In doing so, they broke her screen, and fixed that too. So she has an essentially completely new computer, all for free. Thats customer service... wonder if they will do the same for the imac...;)

StarCraft 2: Spank or be Spanked

So for the first time that I have been playing I ran into someone friendly in the multi player, they started out by wishing me a good game, and then telling me how they have got their actions per minute up to 40 with macros everywhere... obviously, this guy was a 15 year old who was all about star craft... he kicked my ass in less than 10 minutes...

It seems that the game is really a spank or be spanked situation... if you wait too long to attack its almost impossible to get through, or its mutual anihilation... the key seems to be to attack as soon as you can gather a couple of units together, and just keep attacking... You also then get to see what the apponents strategy is, theres no sense in having an army of ground troops if they are airborne... makes you getting owned a pretty definite thing.. My last game yesterday I ended with 25k in minerals and 10k in gas, and I still lost... I ran out of supply space because I had too many marines, and not enough air combat... though the marines would have done me fine if I had stim packs... sigh.

Random Thought: Mind your P's and Q's

So I wonder, the saying "Mind your P's and Q's" was that an early sign of Dislexia? Did people have to remind people to be careful when writting a p and a q to ensure the line was on the right side of the o....? Kinda makes you think, how "new" are ADHD, Dislexia, Autism.... are they a result of our environment, the food we eat, the innoculations we are forced to take... or have we always had them and we're just getting much much better at classifying them?

Central Airconditioning Problems

Not a good way to start the weekend, to say the least. This morning when I was getting ready for work I couldn't help but notice that the central air's compressor was clicking on, then immediately off. Being that I just can't let anything be, I went downstairs to check it out and noticed that the houses temp was already at 80. We keep it at 77, and odd temperature, but it works for us...

Anyways outside I go and while I am standing there scratching my head, the compressor goes again, on and off. Its then that I notice that the fan isn't running. That is, the fan on the external side, not the internal side. I can hear a small noise, like something is trying to run, but can't. Curious, I notice a fuse box outside, now thanks to 20 years of training by my father, I think of myself as a bit of an electrician. So I open the fuse box, and note the weirdest damn fuse I have ever seen. Its not a bulb fuse, or a breaker, just a metal bar... would hate to be there when that bad boy "breaks". Anyways I pull it out, the noise stops, put it back in again, the noise starts. Still no fan.

Go inside, turn off the ac, grab a knife from the drawer and spin the fan. It free spins, so at least the motor hasn't seized, it just doesn't want to spin... Having run out of time, I left it off and went to work. Once lunch hits at work I take some time to google whats going on, thank god for google thats all I have to say, that and all the people in the world who publish their experiences and wisdom on the internet for anyone with googles url to access. Anyways, its from there that I find out that its likely the Capacitor that is shot. The only thing I could do to test that would be to spin the fan while the unit is active, and if the fan starts, then thats likely the culprit.

It being friday, I call a friend who calls a friend who does hvac and he comes over to the house, sure enough its the capacitor. 165$ plus tax later and we're in business. Not that I think this guy would have sold me a new unit (I rent) but I am greatful to be able to talk to people like I know what I am talkign about... I am sure however, that half the time those same people are rolling their eyes at me. Here's another guy who thinks he knows what he is talking about.

We all do it, heck I do it at work when one of my business partners starts talking about the system/database or what is or isn't possible in a programming language. I always have to restrain myself from saying something scathing... yes I can restrain myself....

StarCraft 2: Successful Tactics

Well still cutting my way through the hard mode of the campaign. Again, I'd recommend this as a second step if you are rusty from the original starcraft like me. If you give up easily on games, as I do, don't start on hard mode. If you are stubborn and can get through anything, start on hard mode and save yourself some time.

What I am finding with PVP and hardmode is, if you're not broke, you're doing something wrong... None of your factories or barracks should ever stop churning out people, if they do, it should be because you have no money... That is literally the only way to win on Hardmode... Some of the levels start deceptively easy, and then suddenly an overwhelming wave of badies hits you between the gonads and its all over... If you continue building the entire time, you can survive that wave of baduns and move on to the next level.

That, and be agressive.. The best defense is a good offense really applies here. As soon as you can scrape together 3-4 units, attack. Nothing makes the other guy panic and dig in (wasting resources) like being attacked. If you can constantly attack you can actually ignore defense, thereby allowing you to spend resources differently. Of course if he completely squashes your attack, and comes after you its over... You'll see a lot of the professionals take this track, and have nothing but mobile units for defense, they then attack and win, of course if you sneak in behind while they are attacking and drop off a ghost you can nuke them at will with no defenses to be concerned with.

Still a lot of fun, still learning how to play properly, still frustrated as hell when I lose...:) Its like PVP in wow, 20 minutes of hard core blood pumping action before a pivotal battle and death and destruction.... good times.

Anyone else playing? Am I talking to myself...;)

StarCraft 2: Ominous Silence

So my silence over the last couple of days can be directly attributed to Starcraft 2. This would come as no surprise to most gamers out there, or widows of gamers, because a new shiny game certainly does result in you being lost for awhile.

I finished the game on Normal, and I have to say I was a little disappointed that it was as easy as it was. I tend to try and play games on hard the first time, because I don't go back and play again after the fact. However, Starcraft on Hard, is no joke... I definately would have given up and quit playing if I didn't go through the motions on Normal mode first to remember how everything works...

I dabbled with pvp, and like wow discovered that I suck at it... The only tactic that I found useful was building 3 ravagers (I think thats their names, the dudes with the jump packs) and jumping into the back of the opponents base to kill his gold harvesters early on. If left to their own devices, they pretty much kick my butt... this method saw me win 3 games, and when not used I lost 3 games... It really amounts to setting their paranoia, destroying their gold farming abilities, and forcing them to build defenses as opposed to just building an all our armada to come and kick you into the stone age...

That being said, pvp is no more than 20-23 minutes. If someone hasn't won by then it will be a long drawn out smack down affair that comes down to who set the most resources to gathering the fastest... the second base is pivotal, but not too soon.. its a really weird balancing act that I haven't figured out yet..

Having become thoroughly disgusted with my inability to beat the average 6 year old, I went back to play hard modes, and yeah, they're hard... One mission I only finished because I lifted my base off and flew it away while the zerg ate the rest of the base... cheating, sure, effective, sure... of course if I was down to the wire on that mission, I'm sure to be down to the wire on the next one, and the next one... if I even get that far.

What I have to say about the hard modes is, don't defend... Defense is not possible against the zerg in hard mode, in hard mode its all about offense. Get out there early and destroy one or moer of their bases if you hope to live... and get out there early because later they have those giant tongues sticking out of the ground and its impossible to move without getting owned...

Well back to it... see if I can convince the brutalisk to go for a swim in the lava...