Browser Wars
We are really lucky to have so much competition in the area of Web Browsers – regardless of the platform you run, you have many choices of programs to browse with. For years, I surfed with nothing but Firefox (and Netscape Navigator before that), however when Google released Chrome for Windows, I started experimenting with it, and also started running the Chromium daily builds on the Linux box I was using as my main workstation at home. Recently, I switched to Mac full time, and I had a new choice in the mix: Safari. Yes, yes, I know Safari is available for Windows, but it’s never felt right too me, however Safari 4 seems much better on Windows than any version before it.
On my Macs I’d settled in on Chrome – however, regardless of what OS I’m on, I’ve never felt like I could really “trust” Chrome. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that anytime something doesn’t work right, or a page doesn’t load correctly, the first thing I think is “Is this page borked, or is this a Chrome problem?” Recently I started doing all my surfing in Safari, and I do have to say, I like it much better than Chrome. They are both based on Webkit, however Safari seems far more polished, and perhaps a tad faster.
Things I still miss from Chrome? Tab handling and the combined address/search bar…
Vertical is the new Horizontal
As you have probably read by now, I’m a new Mac OS X convert and I’ve been wrestling with my dock…well, no not literally, that would look kinda funny – I’ve been experimenting with it and trying to decide what was the most comfortable way for me to use and interact with it.
Personally, I think in it’s default state, on any size or shape display it’s simply hideous. It’s set way too large by default on first-boot, and honestly, it simply doesn’t fit in it’s default bottom location. Perhaps it made more since way back in the dark ages of the early 21st century, but Hey! Get with the program! We are now in the 2nd Decade of the 21st century and 4:3 screens are so 2002!
Seriously though, 16:10 or more recently 16:9 displays are becoming the norm. At work I use a 13.3 Macbook which has a 16:10, 1280×800 internal display that is connected to a 22″ 1920×1080 (1080p) 16:9 external display. At home, I use a Mac Mini that is connected to a 22″ 1680×1050 16:10 main display and an old 17″ 1280×1024 4:3 display. This is the only capacity in which I feel I could comfortably use a 4:3 display – it’s kind of a “sidebar” off to the left of my main display, usually displaying Tweetie, a Mini-iTunes and Mail along w/ the occasional Terminal window. Also at home I use a PC connected to an odd 15″ 1280×720 (720p) 16:9 display – this PC is running Windows 7.
Given the current “shape” of my displays it simply makes more sense for the Dock to go Vertical – it uses less pixels, and vertical space is far more precious than horizontal space…Sure, sure, I could hide the Dock at the bottom of the screen…I tried that. I liked it, as it gave me the most unobstructed screen space, I lost the functionality of the Dock, because once it was hidden, it was gone, and I seldom made it show it’s face. I lost the notifications, and the ability to see at a quick glance what Applications I had open at the time. Placing the Dock vertically, on the Right hand side of the screen just feels right – The “Finder” icon is at the top and that Trash icon is at the bottom – it reminds me of the old Icon placement of the HDD on top and Trash on the bottom in the Classic MacOS.
Also, I’ve gone to a vertical taskbar on my lone Windows 7 PC. I’ve seen people use vertical taskbars in Windows before, and it just doesn’t look or work right. The start button didn’t “fit”, and neither did application buttons on the taskbar. Also, gradients and highlights were very off giving everything a very odd look. Sure, you could “make due”, but it was painfully obvious not only was it not supposed to be like that, MS had no intentions of even making it look somewhat normal. With Windows 7 however, Microsoft has redeemed itself – they realized that people were not only making their taskbars vertical, it actually made sense. I even read a blog of a MS Developer a while back that said the first thing he does on any Windows 7 PC now is make the taskbar vertical.
Try it – regardless of your OS – make your Dock/Taskbar vertical – it might feel weird for a day, but afterwards, you’ll love it – I’ll almost guarantee it!
The power of the CPU
A really good friend of mine posed a question recently. He was in the process of planning to build a PC for his in-laws…folks who are very much your “average computer user”, and his question – his first thought in planning the new PC was what CPU he should go with.
I’ve said it before, that I think the CPU should actually be one of the last things you spec on a PC. I wrote that over a year ago, and I believe it is even more true today. Obviously other component choices would depend on what CPU you choose – especially when deciding on “AMD vs. Intel”, however I still feel that other components such as enclosure, optical drives, hard drives, graphics cards, etc. should all take precedence over the CPU.
Just today I was reading an article on the performance of Intel’s new Core i3 530 CPU. Now this is very much a mid-line CPU, and I really got to thinking – this thing isn’t THAT Much slower than some of the higher end chips, especially considering that Anand got it up to a cool 4GHz it’s stock cooler w/ just a very minor voltage injection.
I used to be a real hardware junky – I read sites such as Anand’s and I kept up with all of the latest CPU’s – they were the big thing – they were what made a PC. Nowadays, a good SSD will make far more difference than ANY CPU would in general use. The only real areas where CPU speed is of supreme importance is in digital content creation such as Video, Music and 3D rendering and to some extent to Gaming, however the latter is also far more influenced by GPU speed. I still say for a cool 90% of computer users, any currently sold, modern CPU will serve them and their computing needs as well as any other.
What are your thoughts? Are CPU’s getting boring? They sure aren’t the star of the show like they used to be – that’s for sure!
Exciting Times in Hardware
It really is an exciting time to be a technology enthusiast. We haven’t really seen a huge re-vamp in computing technology in some years. The biggest advancement in recent times was the move to multi-core processors. Now, quad-core chips have been out for several years now, and recently, with the new Core i7 line of chips, and the Nehalem based Xeon’s, Intel has resurrected HyperThreading from the big bin of dead technologies, so now mainstream CPU’s can have as many as 8 processing threads.
Wallpaper Handling in MacOSX
I’ve discovered a peculiarity about the way MacOSX handles wallpaper – I’ve noticed this for a while on my MacBook, and it’s really annoying me. Unlike Windows, when running multiple monitors, the MacOS treats each monitor separately in regards to wallpaper. At first, I actually LIKED this – you could easily make dual monitor wallpapers when your screens weren’t the same resolution or even screen-shape, where as on Windows, you had to find an image the exact size of both of your monitors’ resolution combined, and then set it to tile (that is, without any 3rd party add-ons).
However, one thing that has really started bugging me on my MacBook is that anytime I hook a NEW monitor up to it, that new monitor gets Aurora, rather than whatever is set. This includes new monitors as well as projectors. For those of you who really know me, you must understand the pain this puts me through, and the unnatural things that happen to my brain as a result (for those who don’t know me personally, I’m very anal retentive about such things).
As a result, I’ve simply resulted in using Aurora as my background on the MacBook – it’s ok I guess – it makes it look very “Mac”…in other words, I match the commercials and advertisements 
Users are not Idiots
I touched on this topic before yet, I’ve been thinking about it again, so here are some additional thoughts.
Everyone knows about the stereotypical IT person. They sit in the server room, growling at anyone who approaches them and think that all users are idiots. I really hate that stereotype. Although everyone (myself included) has bad days, and may be grumpy at times, nobody wants to deal with someone like that on a daily basis. I’ve been thinking lately about how I can improve my customer service skills, and how things I can do to make my services more available for my customers. Here are some of my thoughts on various matters.
First – what other industry calls their customers “users”? I even did it in that other post. In other to be really effective at your job, you have to be able to relate to your customers in a way that provides them with excellent service, solves their problem, but doesn’t leave them feeling stupid after an interaction with you. Make sure you play out the entire scenario in your head before even contacting the user. Even if you know the solution right away, don’t just walk up, type a few things and leave. Spend time with them, and let them know what you did.
Next, always let your customer vent. They are most likely frustrated – this doesn’t mean they are frustrated with you, but at their computer/phone/piece of software, so don’t take it personally. Again, even if you know immediately what the problem is, don’t just fix it and leave. Take a few minutes out of your day to spend with your customer to let them vent – get their frustrations off their chest. Not only will you solve their problem, they will feel better, and you will gain some valuable insight into they way your customers think which will help you better do your job.
Finally, keep your composure. You may know without a doubt that the sky is falling, but do not under any circumstance convey that to your customer. Keep your cool and solve the problem. If they see you get upset, they are only going to get more upset. Keep calm, and keep them calm. It will make the entire situation better for everyone. They greatest challenge is to be able to stay calm, and calm them down without coming across as arrogant. Again, don’t make them feel stupid for being alarmed – just be confident for them and let them know that you can fix their problem and that everything will be ok. Again, they are not the enemy!
Just remember:
Above all, just be nice! Your co-workers will appreciate you for it!
Fedora’s XFCE Spin – Lightweight Ditro’s Part 2.
So, as you may have read already for the first time ever I’m really digging in a checking out smaller, more lightweight Linux distributions. This whole experiment was inspired by a friend asking for recommendations on what to do with an older computer, but it has been a fun experiment.
I mentioned in the previous post a few of the distributions I have already tried. Most of these distributions were created from the ground up to run optimally on lower-end or older hardware. Today, I am going to look at the Fedora XFCE Spin. The Fedora XFCE spin is just what it sounds like – Fedora, with XFCE, which in turn has lower system requirements than GNOME or KDE, enabling Fedora to run on less hardware than the default “spins”, however as I’ve learned, XFCE doesn’t have to just be for old or low end hardware, it can be a viable desktop for anyone on any hardware, and I never realized until now just now pleasant it can be to work with.
Docking the dock…
As I have alluded to before, I still haven’t quite warmed up to the Dock. I’ve tried various tweaks to place, alter and re-arrange the dock, but nothing really feels natural. In a way, I wish I could get the old Classic Mac OS window list back in the upper right corner (although, there is probably a hack for that already)…I actually used a similar list on GNOME.
Anyway, for now I’ve reverted to the initial setup I had when first presented w/ the dock. On the bottom, normal location on auto-hide w/ a small amount of magnification so that it “arches” up when unhidden…
I’m sure I’ll grasp the concept one of these days. FWIW, I don’t care for the new Windows 7 task-bar either…
Lightweight Linux Distributions
I had a co-worker stop by my desk yesterday and asked a few questions around what kind of an operating system would be appropriate for an approximately 7 year old computer. I naturally mentioned Linux too him, however the only lightweight distro I could think of on the spot was Xubuntu. I know there are many others available, and I wanted to be able to make a solid and educated recommendation to him, so I decided to use an aging Pentium III/512MB RAM based notebook I have to test out some “lightweight” distro’s that pack a heavyweight punch.
Google Quick Search Box
It seems every Mac related site or blog I read talks about this wonder-app called Quicksilver, so naturally, I went to check it out, and I found that it is all but abandon-ware. It did intrigue me however; it’s feature set reminded me of GNOME Do, which is probably backwards since I believe GNOME Do was actually inspired by Quicksilver.
As I said, it seems that the Quicksilver project has been abandoned, and the version I downloaded promptly crashed on my Snow Leopard install. What I soon discovered is that the developer responsible for Quicksilver, Nicholas Jitkoff had actually went to work for Google and worked on developing the Google Quck Search Box, and that was the program I should be checking out.
I really didn’t have any fancy uses planned for the GQSB other than just being an application launcher. After reading up, I discovered that I could also use it to post to Twitter. Initially I was just going to to back to using Spotlight as my app launcher, but soon after disabling GQSB, I immediately was trying to invoke the quick search box to send a tweet – it felt so natural, that I decided to re-enable GQSB as my default application launcher and tweet sender.
I’m still using Tweetie to read my tweets however.
