My switch to OSX

Switching to OSX another update - Still torn.

2013-03-22T15:29:00.004-07:00

So I have to say I am quite torn with OSX. I don't have to use it, I could easily use Windows. But my laptop refresh is coming up in the next 6 months at work, and I am trying to decide, do I want to bring another Apple device into my house, or continue with Windows.

My Macbook Air is doing pretty well, but it has some very aggrevating issues, some I have mentioned before, some new.. But these are keeping me on the fence..

1) Window management is virtually none existant and/or fragmented. > Closing all windows for one app - If you are familiar with OSX, you can probably see that I have 4 preview windows open in the image above, and 3 finder windows. The only way I can see how many I have is by trying to look at the tiny little icons, and counting... No way to close them all at once.. I can show them all at once by clicking on the far left side of the launcher and opening the context menu for finder and selecting show all..
> Closing all windows for one app - Preview is different. I have to pull up the contextual menu for that, and click quit. Then it closes all my previews.. My issue is with preview, if I have several open, and I open a new preview, it seems to open a new preview, and bring all the others infront of my other windows.. When trying to match UE requirements side by side with my code, it makes it difficult when I have a bunch of images covering my screens.
> Popup windows sometimes get buried, and not accessible - Not sure if this is eclipse, but it seems like I have issues with other apps. Sometimes when triggering an eclipse build a popup window gets buried under another window, and it never seems to pop to the front. So if I trigger a build, open chrome, and for some reason the popup window 'pops up' where chrome is taking real estate, it seems to pop behind chrome, and I never notice that it is finished.
> Showing the desktop - I actually just figured out how to show the desktop, and it certainly was NOT intuitive.. So if you make a 3 finger up swipe motion on the track pad, then move your mouse over the top right of the screen, a little thing pops out with a plus on it.. Apparently this adds a new virtual desktop, which can have no apps running, but still all your icons.. Still, minimizing all my apps on my current desktop still can't be done from what I can tell.

2) Drag/Drop -
> Drag drop / copy paste seems somewhat broken - I have tried dragging/dropping things from one app to another, but it just does not work like windows.. For example, I take a screenshot in Eclipse of my device, I copy to clip board, and try to paste into Skype (I know not an 'Apple' app - but it works in windows). It won't work.. I can't copy and paste an image from a website into skype. Seems like other times I have tried to drag and drop items from one app to another, it just does not seem to work as expected. Other times, the only way to do things is to drag / drop when it does not seem intuitive to do that.

3) Performance -
> Seems like it likes to pause every now and then.. Not sure what causes it, but I use my laptop for development, and quite frankly it seems to pause sometimes. I guess you could say eclipse is a hog, but all the cores just go wild for a little while.. No idea what it is doing, but it seems unpredictable I have a similar issue on my windows 7 laptop, but that seems to be caused by downloading a file, encryption trying to encrypt while McAfee trying to virus scan it.. Not quite the same scenario..

4) Settings Change -
> Display Settings Changed on their own - I have my macbook connected by a thunderbolt to display port adapter. It is not a 'Apple' sanctioned device, but since Apple does not appear to make thunderbolt -> display port (full size display port), I decided to buy one online. Seems to work great. And has done since I got my Macbook.. I wanted to preface my issue with these facts, as I have never had an issue like this w/ the display port.
The other night, I closed my MacBook, and turned off my monitor (2560x1600 monitor), and went to bed.. The next afternoon when I came home from work, I opened the lid of my Macbook, turned on the monitor, and my resolution had dropped to 50% (was showing 1280x800 stretched to 2560x1600).. I wondered if the adapter was maybe bad, so I unplugged it, plugged it back in.. Nothing.. I unplugged the Display Port portion from the dongle, and that did not help.. I turned on / off the monitor, changed inputs. Nothing. So then I went to finder to look at displays.. And Was really confused why I could not see both displays in the window on my laptop.. Well what I had not noticed was that I had two different display windows open, one for laptop screen, one for external screen.
I probably spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to adjust / see the display properties of my other screen before noticing that the display screen for the top screen had opened back to the last setting (color) so now it was not familiar to me, and was not paying attention on the 1/2 res screen. It turns out the display settings had magically set themselves to 1280x800. I changed it back to 2560x1600 and everything was fine.. How do my settings just change like that? Bizarre..

5) App tray - part 2 -
> why do the interfaces to documents and downloads differ? Why is it that downloads show some curvy interface while documents show some square interface? Did different people design/implement an interface to what amounts to the same thing.. (a collection of files?)

6) Moving Files - I bring this up again, how in the world does a modern operating system NOT offer the ability to MOVE files? I have to copy/paste/delete, or just go to the command line and do a mv command. I can't understand why this was left out.. Anyone? Why can I Cmd-C a file, but not Cmd-X?

7) Ctrl Z / Ctrl Y vs. Command Z vs. Command - Shift Z - I am glad that Undo is the same for windows/mac.. But why does OSX have to differ from Windows on undo? I hate 3 key combos, especially when I have to move my hand from the home row keys.

Ok, that is enough for this installment of OSX pisses Chris off enough to write another blog post.. Really thought, I am digging the portability and form factor of the hardware, it is just that the software just seems lacking. It makes me wonder what would happen if OSX went and just started making sexy hardware, and started putting other OSs on their devices.. If they started doing that, and stuck to their industrial design, I may buy more of their stuff...

Quickly accessing a calendar?

2012-12-29T10:55:00.002-08:00

Maybe I am so used to windows being able to set the date/time by just clicking on the time, I used it as a quick reference for a calendar. Not just the current date, but to go back and forth to be able to see days of the week in the future etc..

The only way I can see to do this is w/ the calendar app in OSX. But I either have to leave calendar on my menu bar thing.. Or I have to use finder to open the calendar, which in my opinion is way too big. I just want a small little calendar that does not take up over 1/4 of my screen. I don't need to add some random entries to my calendar, I just want to look at the dates.

Anyone have a way to show a windows like calendar by doing something as easy as clicking on the time in the menu bar?

Preview - Any way to scroll through your images in a folder?

2012-12-27T12:12:00.004-08:00

In windows I am used to being able to open the first image in a folder to open the preview tool, then hitting forward/back to move to the next image in the folder..

Does not look like there is anything of the sort for OSX. Anyone have any ideas?

For an OS which is supposed to make my life easier, I seem to be spending more time trying to figure out how to do things that seem like should be common place..

Chris.

Another Post, more frustrations

2012-12-21T11:48:00.003-08:00

I don't recall where I saw this, but I stumbled on this video last night : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo&feature=youtu.be

Good watch, and pretty much explains my issues w/ Windows 8. But after watching that, I guess my subconscious alerted me to ~~two~~ five nagging issues (I found 3 more while writing this!) w/ OSX which are driving me batty, and I can't figure out how to resolve them...

The first was the fact that that I could not figure out where an image was saved.
Some back story : I was doing some development last night and needed to take some screen shots through DDMS. It saved them off to some folder before I realized where it was.. I remembered the name of the folder, and the names of one of the two files (It was late - I already forgot one name). I wanted to attach the images to an email (via Gmail), so I needed to find where I saved them. I went back to what one of my apple fanboy friends said... Use finder.. Ok cool. I will use finder..
My brain tells me that I need to move my images to some new folder to be able to email them (drag them into gmail), not because I can't do it from the finder.. But because I don't want them sitting in some random unknown folder where I will never remember where it is at if I need them again.

So I search for the folder 'sample' and I see this :

A bunch of sample folders.. Great.. Which one has my images in it.. Since one of my images was named idea, I searched for idea thinking that would be a better solution than me opening each folder individually..

I found two images.. Great.. idea.png.. I found it.. I just want to open the folder that it is in and I will be on my way, and I can move it to where it needs to go. So I do a 2 finger click on the file, and it opens preview.. Ok.. I wanted a context menu.. Maybe I can find where the file is located by opening it.. Surely there is some properties or path that let me see where it is saved.

So I tried to

rename the file to see if that offered a path : NO

duplicate the file : NO

delete the duplicate file : NO

tried to move the file : NO

tried to export the file : YES (after hitting a down arrow which did not occur on any other menu).

Finally I found the path, could then open that folder and move my files to a new folder (since I could not remember what one was called at the time).

Now I will say, while writing this article I did find how you are supposed to find the path, although it was not obvious to me. What you need to do is 2 flinger click on the name at the top to get a drop down menu showing the path.. Did not seem very intuitive at all.

So the solution to finding where a file is saved if you have the file open, is to apparently 2 finger click the file name..

The second was that I can't figure out how to close all my finder windows..

Is there really no easy way to close all my finder windows at once? I don't know how to do it.. And I am too lazy to do it one at a time..

The third is how do I add favorites to my finder..

I added one favorite folder to my finder, but can't remember how I did it, and too busy to find out.. But why is my ~ folder not listed as a favorite by default?

The fourth is that my finder keeps showing new screen shots at the bottom of my list (not being taken today)
It keeps showing screen shots w/ No Date, and it is at the bottom of my list.. (I have my list ordered by date descending).

The fifth issue is having to eject devices.. How are install applications 'devices' should there not be a better name for them? Should installer images not be automatically ejected once you have finished installing them? Seems like more manual housekeeping that I should not have to do.

And one last issue for good measure... I want to maximize my screens both horizontally and vertically, while still showing the menu bar at the top.. The top right full screen mode hides the menu bar, and the green icon only maximizes vertically..

Al its not bent up to be..

2012-11-27T17:40:00.002-08:00

What is with the title? Well the 'Aircraft Grade' Aluminum suffered its first real dent/bend... My daughter pushed my laptop bag (backpack) from a chair to the floor. Bent a corner of the laptop screen. and a small dent in the same place of the body of the laptop.. I can't say that I have ever really had a laptop have a dent like this w/ such little effort.. Pretty disappointed in how it did not hold up.. It is harder to see in the first picture.. look at the right hand side of the curve for a bit of dark inside a lighter spot (it is raised).. It is more obvious in the bottom picutre.

OSX Just works - Nope..

2012-11-05T05:09:00.000-08:00

It has been a few weeks, so I thought I would give an update .. So I have had two issues and one annoying issue. I am running 10.8.2, which happens to be the current version.. No wonder others that I know don't upgrade immediately. My first issue started happening after upgrading from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2..

Issue #1 : I do Android Development, Intel has an x86 emulator for Android which is more of a VM than an emulator, it runs the emulator environment at full speed on a decent machine, and it is FAST.. That is until you load 10.8.2.. Now had the emulator just not run, crashed or what not, that would be one thing.. But I don't see how a minor OS update breaks the intel emulator... But not only does it break it.. If you try to run it.. Then entire OSX crashes, and reboots.. Basically getting the WSOD (White Screen of Death)..

Issue #2 : I was going to try and configure some Cisco Switches via Serial connection (since I can't even plug a cat 5 plug into my Macbook air w/out a dongle - which I don't have).. So I grabbed a trusty usb->serial dongle, and used the driver that shipped with it.. (I also tried one directly from the chip manufacturer).. Both worked.. That is until you unplugged them while still using them.. Another WSOD.. Reproducible 100% of the time..

So basically OSX is so unstable, that a USB dongle (which is a network device, and not storage, so you can't unmount it gracefully from the GUI) and a piece of software which not only crash the application they are in, but crash the whole OS.. Piss-ass-poor job if you ask me..

Grating Item #1: One of the things that sold me is that OSX comes up fast from sleep.. It does.. But your definition of comes up fast from sleep and mine are two different things, and I can't figure out what it means.. I refere to the term as how fast it takes for the laptop turn on, and me to be able to enter my password to log back in.. (I.e. GUI + Inputs are both online).. It looks like while it comes up quickly a lot of times, sometimes it can take 5-10 seconds for it to come back on.. The screen is almost instant, but sometimes keyboard/mouse input (and more specifically the input field) are not actionable until it really comes up.. So basically a slight of hand movement makes it look like OSX resumes from sleep ultra fast, when in fact, it looks like right before sleep they create a lock screen w/ name, and just display that back when the computer resumes, then start bringing up the real lock screen which can take up to 10 seconds, then you can enter your information... No longer that impressed w/ resume from sleep on this thing...

I am rather impressed w/ the standby battery time though.. I have not used my Mac much for a week, and the battery hardly dropped at all (if at all)... So good job on the battery preservation..

Connecting to Network Computers

2012-09-23T11:23:00.001-07:00

Connecting to network shares is pretty easy on the Mac. It pretty much auto-discovers all your shares on the network for you.. The only downside is it tries to log in via the guest account, and it was not overly obvious to me how to log in w/ a particular user...

All you have to do is open Finder, and on the left hand side is a list of Shared folders. Just click on one of them, when it fails to open, on the right hand side, is a small 'Connect As...' button. Click that to change the username to connect as.

If you want to connect to a server that is not listed, all you have to do is add a new connection
Hit command K while in the finder app, and it will open a new connection list.

For a windows share, just type in smb:// followed by servername/ip address.. eg.
smb://192.168.1.10 hit the plus button to add it to favorites, then click connect..

You will then be prompted for username/password or use guest account..

Pretty straight forward.

Removing Unused apps/Notification Center

2012-09-23T11:13:00.003-07:00

One thing I noticed was that there were quite a few apps that I would never use, and did not want then easily visible in my Applications folder. So I decided to move them so they would not be visible.. In addition to using a bunch of cloud based services, it made the notification center nothing much more than a waste of space.. So I found an article on how to remove that also...

First off : Lets hide / remove our applications.
Note: I thought that it would be a good idea to remove apps I don't use, but incase some upgrade was broken in the future. I decided it would be best if I just 'archive' them off somewhere so I can restore them incase it breaks something I need.

First off, all applications are stored in the /Applications folder, each application is in a directory named
application_name.app

So, I created a folder in my home folder (~) called /OldApplications

I moved the following apps to my /OldApplications folder by doing the following
cd ~
mkdir OldApplications
cd /Applications
sudo mv Launchpad.app/ ~/OldApplications/

and I did that for all the applications I wanted to move out..

When I was done, I did a
chmod 000 ~/OldApplications/ so it would not show up in spotlight.. And I was done.. A quick reboot should tell you if you did it right..

If you need access back to ~/OldApplications/ just do a chmod 777 ~/OldApplications/

I moved the following apps w/out apparent issue:
Contacts.app
Dashboard.app
FaceTime.app
Game Center.app
Image Capture.app
Launchpad.app
Mail.app
Messages.app
Mission Control.app
Photo Booth.app
Safari.app
iPhoto.app
iTunes.app

That should be it for applications..
To full remove Dashboard you can enter the following into command line
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
Then type
killall Dock

Screen shot w/ no Dock :

Next: Removing the notification center..
To remove the notification center do the following in the CLI
aunchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
killall NotificationCenter

(Thanks OSXDaily )

So many views.. How to see them.

2012-09-23T10:35:00.001-07:00

So one thing I noticed after doing some multi-touch is all the different views available.. Although I am not sure what they are all needed for, but I figured I would go over the different views.

3 finger drag down: it shows you your current application, and any other instances of that application
3 finger drag left/right: it shows you your desktop view, or the dashboard. (Not sure what the dashboard is used for, seems like a bit of a waste)
3 finger drag up: Takes you to an overview of all the current open apps (non-minimized), kind of separated out, along with a short cut of the desktop and dashboard views.
Command - Tab: Allows you to cycle through your open applications (think alt-tab in windows).

In addition to these views, you can also get to your alerts view by clicking on the icon on the top right.. Unfortunately, that works if you use a lot of iStuff.. I don't use iTunes, iMail, or any other iBased applications.. All my stuff I do tends to be cloud based Google stuff, so I don't use an email client etc..

So in the next blog post, I remove some applications, and remove the notification area..

Some more hardware (MagSafe)

2012-09-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Apple has an interesting feature for their power connectors, where it is held in place by a magnet. It is quite useful actually, someone walks by, and trips on your power chord, they are probably not going to pull the laptop off the table..

My only qualm w/ it, is that I wish it had a bit stronger magnet. I find that if I am using the laptop in my lap, that it does not take much to move the connector up, and disconnect the power..

Either-way, it is nice not having to think about having my Macbook yanked off the table.

Where are my scroll bars??? - quick tip

2012-09-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

One of the first things I noticed while scrolling was.. I had no scroll bars! I guess I am just used to them...

You can change the default setting quite quickly by doing the following :

Launch System Preferences from the Apple Menu.
Click General
And look for the 'Show Scroll Bars' options, change it to 'Always'.

source : http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/03/show-scroll-bars-mac-os-x-lion/

Windows 7 -> OSX One thing to trip you up!

2012-09-23T10:15:00.001-07:00

One thing that continually trips me up since moving to OSX is the single Menu interface at the top of my screen. I think the issue is two fold.

1) I am used to each and every app having a menu interface as part of their window
2) Applications on OSX don't ever seem to fill the full screen, so there is white space between the application and the menu bar.

Basically if you are used to looking for a command, or other feature in Windows the application usually has some kind of button for it, or it is an option under the menu bar. The menu bar goes along w/ each application, and is relatively close to the contextual buttons for that app.

When you switch to OSX, the menu bar is always pinned to the top of the screen. The window could be much smaller than the screen, and have contextual actions on the window.. So if someone says, choose this option under 'View', and you can't find anything called view in your application... Look up! It is probably a menu item which you need to use. I am not sure of the benefit of having a single menu bar for everything. Maybe it is for applications who use a pen for input, and it is easy to put the menu at the top of every app?

I just don't understand taking up that real estate the entire time, for something which is not directly connected to the actual windows for what you are doing.. I have adjusted, and somewhat gotten used to it, but it still does not seem to make much sense.. My only other guess is that Apple gives users a menu when you are in the desktop view.. Would love to hear some other thoughts/suggestions as to why it is done this way.

Only 1 instance of Calculator? (Lets fix it!)

2012-09-23T10:08:00.002-07:00

So, one thing I really like about Windows 7, is the ability to have multiple instances of the same application open at the same time. Even from the taskbar in windows, you can launch multiple instances of apps.. If one instance is open, I usually right click the icon, and just click open. It opens a new instance.. If I just wanted to open the exiting instance, I just left click it. If there were multiple instances, it shows me preview windows when I left click, and when I mouse over, it brings focus to only that one. If i click it, it brings it to the front.. Pretty straight forward..

One app, I seem to have loads of instances of in Windows ends up being the calculator.. Don't ask me why, but it is probably a bad habit, but doing multiple calculations and keeping my old answers on screen in a calculator is easier for me than copying/pasting, or scribbling down on a notepad..

So I was not impressed when I found out the calculator app (and lots of other apps) in OSX are single instance apps (meaning they can only be run 1 at a time).. And apps which can have multiple windows (such as chrome), I have a heck of a time finding out how to bring the right window to the front.. (Hint: This 'seems to work': triple finger swipe down)...

So, Instead of searching, I asked some friends, and they pretty much searched and found a solution..

The solution was found from this website : http://www.solutioncottage.com/ShowSolution.aspx?solID=141

Basically you have to create an apple script, then use that script to launch the application.. Not bad, but still.. Why can't I do something simple like this out of the box?

do shell script "/Applications/Calculator.app/Contents/MacOS/Calculator -background >&/dev/null&"

Applications done differently

2012-09-23T10:00:00.001-07:00

I have already touched on Chrome and how the shortcuts appear to be different from windows to mac, but at least the application looks and feels almost identical..

One app which does NOT look / feel the same is Skype..

I have to say, I am really really disappointed in how Skype looks/feels on OSX.
For those with a Windows version of Skype, you are probably used to having a list of your contacts on the left hand side of the app (with 3 tabs, contacts, facebook, and recents), and your chats on the right hand side of the app.

The issue w/ the OSX version (which almost has me ready to run parallels just to run the windows version of Skype is that, it appears all you have on the left hand side is Recent chats.. If you want to open your contacts, it opens it in a separate window.. But that window does not allow you to see your chats next to the people online.. You keep having to switch between the two.. So for me to see people online, I have to move away from my current chats, to a new window, then back again.. It is really annoying..

I was about to say that I was impressed w/ the calculator for OSX, and I guess I should be because it impressed me.. But why did it impress me.. I was going to say because it did things like conversions between common units of measure, in addition to the different types of calculators offered in the windows version.. But after looking at the windows version, it offers the similar conversion options too.. They were just so hidden, and not in your face like OSX, that I never noticed it.. So Kudos to OSX for letting me find something new in OSX (which has been under my nose for years in Windows that I never knew about!)

But one thing I did not like, is that a lot of the OSX apps are single instance apps. (Like calculator) I sometimes like to have multiple instances open.. My next blog post should have how to resolve the single instance calculator for OSX..

Locked Down Hardware - Make sure you oversize!

2012-09-23T09:53:00.001-07:00

I have had my 13" Macbook Air for about 1 month now. Has the new Core i5 processor, 4gb ram, and who knows what size Solid State Drive (SSD).

I have already managed to run out of the 4gb ram.. This is partially my fault, but I think it has to do w/ how OSX manages applications, and how closing an app, really does not close it (unless you quit)..

While doing development w/ Eclipse, quite a bit of memory is used for the IDE. (Sometimes as much as 1GB - or 25% of the available), add on a bunch of Chrome browser instances, some text editors, etc etc etc.. And I realized I quickly reached 36MB free memory. I ended up closing lots of stuff, and working around it..

But I am kicking myself for not going w/ the 8GB option from Apple.. It was only $100 more, but it is not offered (it seems) through any other retail option than online/apple store, which typically don't have any sales.. Which means you are going to pay a premium.. I managed to pickup my Mac Book Air from B&H for $1194.00 (Shipped). Now this is only $5.00 less expensive than buying it at the Apple Store. That is true, but it also came with a couple things.. Included in that price was Parallels (not using it yet, going to try to avoid it), and also a 3 year AppleCare protection plan. If I had bought that from Apple, I would have paid $249.00 for the 3 year apple care, and if I had wanted parallels, I would have paid an extra $70.00. So about $320 more than what I ended up paying for it.. Plus if you add in the extra memory (and remove parallels) it would have been $350 more than what I paid.. I found that $350 was a bit excessive just for 4GB of memory..

Now, going into this, I was aware of one thing... You can't upgrade the memory in the Macbook Airs (and you can't do it in the new retina Macbook Pro's either!). So, I can either try and find some poor sap to buy my Macbook Air, and pay another $350 for the extra 4GB.

Oh well, I don't use my MBA for much else than Development, so I should be able to manage w/ just 4GB.. but after reading forums, I have to wonder where people say their MBA w/ 4GB runs just great are actually doing w/ it.. My guess is Facebook/Farmville, which I am sure is just great w/ 4GB..

So, if you are going to be doing any heavy video/art/development, I may suggest you try to spring for the extra 4GB, or maybe go w/ a MacBook Pro w/out retina..

(Fn) Function keys (and Chrome Refresh)

2012-09-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

So, I have noticed this a lot in newer WinTel laptops, and it is no different for OSX Laptops it appears.. The default F-Keys are actually not accessible unless you press Fn-F-key.. You can over-ride this setting by opening spotlight and type in keyboard. There should be a keyboard setting to allow you to user the F-keys by default..

On my MBA, I tend to find that I use the volume up/down most followed by brightness adjustment second.. But for development I use things like F3 key in eclipse all day long.. So I swapped the default functionality..

The only thing that I can't figure out, (have not really looked -- detour)...
I have noticed that while using OSX, I have become more reliant on asking others for help than just using Google. Some simple questions which I would have gone to Google right away for in Windows to find the answer, I now just ask.. Not sure if it is because subliminally I just want it to be harder, or that I am jumping in feet first and trying to be a typical end user who asks instead of searches.. Either way, I have noticed my own research methods have changed since using OSX.. I need to work on that a bit..

(back from detour).. The only thing I have yet to research, is the shortcut key in Chrome to refresh the webpage.. Refreshing any browser in windows is F5.. I am guessing there is some other key combination in Chrome... ** NEWS FLASH ** Looks like others have the same issue, and you may be able to fix it yourself.. Link: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/If0TdQ2m6hU
Shortcut - refresh webpage : Command-R

Command-Control-Alt -- muscle memory confusion!

2012-09-23T09:29:00.001-07:00

I would say the biggest muscle memory issue I have had between WinTel & OSX has been going between command and alt keys between the two operating systems. I tend to flip flop back and forth, and have a feeling I won't ever get it right on both systems at the same time..

On the Macbook Air to the left of the spacebar are 4 keys (from left to right) (Keys 1.2.3.4)
fn (function) - control - option - command

On my Lenovo Laptop (for example) there are also 4 keys (From left to right) (Keys 1.2.3.4)
fn (function) - control - window - Alt

Now this is not that big of a deal.. The function and control buttons are in the same place.. You could even say that option = window and command = alt.. Simple enough?

No.. My issue is this..
In windows to copy and paste something I do
Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V (or 2-C, 2-V)

In OSX, to do copy and paste, I need to do
Cmd-C / Cmd-V (or 4-C, 4-V)

Now switching back and forth is probably not that big of a deal. But having your finger/thumb do something different for each OS messes w/ my muscle memory.. I am so confused now, I am using OSX commands in Windows, and Windows commands in OSX.. I have it totally backwards..

What is really throws me for a loop, is when using a CLI (Command Line Interface) in windows, and you want to break out of what ever you are doing, you can simply do Ctrl-C (2-C)..

In OSX, I would have expected to be able to do this using Cmd-C (4-C).. No... In OSX to break out of a CLI, you still do Ctrl-C (2-C).

Now when it comes to eclipse, to add to the confusion.. To copy and paste you still do the 4-C, 4-V (Command).. But some of the other commands that I use where it is ctrl-XYZ in windows is still ctrl-XYZ in mac..

So I can't simply re-program my brain to use Cmd for mac, Ctrl for windows. I have to now use two different key combinations (command and ctrl) for OSX where before I pretty much used one key in Windows (Ctrl).

I would love to hear any suggestions / comments that people use before my fingers revolt and just forget how to type..

Best Touch pad!

2012-09-23T09:17:00.002-07:00

I have to give credit where credit is due. I have used lots of touch pads over the years, from Dell, to HP, to Lenovo, to Chromebook. The apple one is by far the most responsive, lowest friction touch pad I have used..

I am sure there is other hardware out there which is just like the Macbook touch pad, I have yet to use it. But it is also a bit more than just the touch pad. It is the multi-touch integration.. From two finger click to get context menus, to two finger swipes to scroll..

It works, and works so well I find myself trying to do multi touch scrolling on other devices (where it does not work, or work as well)..

I did have to go and change the default setting on Mountain Lion back to the pre-mountain lion scrolling direction.. That is more of a preference thing than anything else though..

I have found a couple flaws with scrolling in Chrome, not sure if it is Chrome, or the OS which has the issues, but wanted to let others know about it..

Issue 1) If you are on a page which is split into a static header area, and a scroll-able content area, and your cursor is over the static area, and you try to scroll... It won't scroll..

Issue 2) If you are in a chrome window which has more content that can be displayed, and scrolls, and inside that content is a form field, or another scroll-able window. You will find yourself pulling your hair out with the focus being given to BOTH scrolling areas at the same time..

Like I said, this could just be a chrome issue, but wanted to throw it out there as I like to have all my browsing data synced.

Moving Files - It just works (NOT!)

2012-09-23T09:05:00.002-07:00

My friends who use OSX tend to say "It just works" you don't have to worry about drivers, about this, about that.. It just works, and you can get your work done and be more productive..

From a Windows 7 user who has used windows products back to Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft has changed lots of things over the years (usually placement of things), but the overall interactions between human and computer have stayed the same.. Right click for context menu, etc..

So, when I took some screen shots, and wanted to move them from my desktop to a folder, I tried to command-x, command-v. And nothing.. I thought I must be not clicking command, or doing something else crazy (see a future blog post on my issues w/ command / ctrl / alt etc.. You will be surprised at my findings).

So I two finger touch the trackpad to bring up the contextual menu (I think you can command-click to do it also).. And I see copy, but no 'cut' option.. I want 'cut' so I can move a file.. So I went to my friends and asked them.. The first response was, why do you want to move a file? The second response was, just copy it, then delete it..

Neither of these seemed like legitimate answers to my question, so I just did what anyone else would do.. I went to the CLI (Command Line Interface) and used a mv command to move my files from A to B. Done..

While faster than copy-paste-delete, I was curious.. One of my friends then found a link to an article that explained how to cut/paste files.. (What I did find interesting is that cut and paste is supported inside documents, using Command-X Command-V.. But just not in OSX).. I find that like a pretty large oversight...

Shortcut Move/Cut-Paste Files : Command+Drag/Drop File will move a file instead of copying it.. There is one caveat though.

If a duplicate file is found during the move drag/drop. If you release the command button to answer the dialog, it will only copy the file.. If you continue to hold command while you answer the dialog, and you hit replace, it will move the file..

After learning about some of my issues, I found that I am going to need to learn lots of "short-cuts" to make OSX work the way I am used to working in Windows 7. From the claim that it 'just works', yes it does 'just work', but that is all it does.. Works, to do more than just sit there and run, and actually use it.. You have to learn quite a lot of new things, or change your work habits to work around the OS. While you can do that, I find that the steps to execute certain tasks in OSX take more steps than in Windows 7. Both operating systems 'just work'. It is when you start working, how easy is it to get your work done?

Next up, my favorite hardware feature of my MBA.. The touch-pad.

Window controls - Bugging me..

2012-09-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

One thing I still have not fully figured out is the Window controls in OSX.

In the top left of each window are 3 icons, Red, Yellow, and Green. The red seems to close the window, Yellow seems to minimize, and green.. Kind of maximize, but does not fill the full screen. So I am rather confused as what it does.. Over to the right is a pair of arrows pointed to the corners of the screen, tap that, and it puts you into full screen mode, where it hides the menu bar.. This was confusing the first time I saw it, as I had no idea how to get it back to regular windowed mode.. I felt kind of lost w/out any visual indicator I had to push my cursor to the top of the screen to drop down the full screen menu options.

So, in windows we have minimize, toggle between current size and full screen, and close.. I still don't know how to keep my application in windowed mode, but take up the entire window.. If anyone has any tips I can add, I would be grateful!

For Windows users it may be a bit of a shock having to go to the top left of each window to control the size, but you should be able to get used to it.. If you use Ubuntu, or other OS which already does that, should be easy to adjust.. (I have found it quite easy to switch between the two after a few weeks of using it).

Some first time user tips/tricks.

2012-09-23T08:45:00.001-07:00

Welcome back! I wanted to break up what seems to be a bunch of negative experiences (it really has not been that bad) with some helpful tips. (and some gripes)..

* Spotlight - Spotlight is a system wide search for OSX, Apple tends to give things catchy names where others don't give them catchy names, and all of a sudden they become magical.. Well magical or not, it is a pretty good way to find things.. To find / launch applications quickly, the Spotlight search is pretty decent. You can get to it two different ways.. The first is clicking on the little magnifying glass on the top right of your menu bar. The other way is to hit command-space to launch it. Then just type in what you are looking for.. For example calc for calculator, and it will show you all matches.. Works well, and Windows 7 users will find it just like doing the search from the start button.

One negative thing about the spotlight short-cut, was that the auto-complete for Eclipse appears to also be command-space, and it worked for a while.. But then for no reason, it appears that eclipse no longer got the command-space, and OSX took over.. I ended up having to disable the shortcut.. I did not want to re-configure eclipse, as I would have to do so on all my other development environments.

Shortcut - open spotlight : command-space

* Screen captures - I have to say I am more impressed with screen captures in OSX in one regard, ~~but lesser to another extent~~. Windows 7, you can do a screen capture by just hitting the print screen button, and then hitting paste into your choice of applications which can insert graphics from the clipboard. If you wanted on Windows 7 to just take a screen capture of the current window, all you had to do was hit Alt-Print Screen, and then paste and you are done.. The down side to windows was that to save an image, you had to copy it into something like MSPaint and save it, the up side was that to include into an email, chat etc. You could just paste it right in..

OSX does it a little different. To take a screen grab of the full screen you use Command-Shift-3 and it automatically saves the screen to your desktop as a file. If you want to take a screen shot of just a particular region of your screen you can do Command-Shift-4.. ** NEWSFLASH ** I just researched the list of keyboard shortcuts and found out that you CAN copy to the clipboard.. You just use Control instead of Command w/ the above key combos and it copies it to the clipboard..
Shortcut Full Screenshot to file : command-shift-3
Shortcut Region Screenshot to file : command-shift-4
Shortcut Full Screenshot to clipboard : command-control-shift-3
Shortcut Region Screenshot to clipboard : command-control-shift-4

First thoughts OSX

2012-09-23T08:27:00.001-07:00

So I finally have OSX setup, and now I need to figure out how to setup my development environment.. Easier said than done.. I have some icons on the bottom of my screen in the dock, although I have no idea what 1/2 of them do (their names are pretty self explanatory), so I figure out quickly the right click by 2 finger click, to remove the ones I don't want.

But I still need to get my MBA (Macbook Air) up and running w/ Eclipse, etc. I started by using Safari, and while it seems to work well. I use Chrome across my android devices, windows machines (work and home), and have everything synced. No reason to use Safari, so first things first..

I know windows is creating an Application store to mimic Apple, and I refuse to use either 'app stores'. App stores should be for mobile.. Anyway, enough ranting about app stores..

Downloaded Chrome: Downloaded the dmg file, opened it and it gave me an icon of Chrome and an arrow pointing to the App folder. Now not sure what that meant at all.. I clicked chrome and got all my bookmarks synced quickly.. That was pretty painless. But then where did chrome go? Apparently you have two options when installing most dmg files on OSX. You can just run it from the dmg file and not copy it to the Application folder, or you can just copy it to the application folder and run it from there. The latter is the equivalent of installing an app on Windows. Why they can't just have an option to "Run" or "Install" baffles me.. I had to ask my iFriends what it was about..

Anyway, now I have Chrome installed, I can download and install Eclipse, the Android SDK etc. It turns out that I needed to do an OSX update to Mountain Lion, so I took a break, and let it do the upgrade thing..

After it upgraded, I started installing all the necessary apps I needed. After a few hours, I was done... I decided that I would then go see how it worked w/ my 30" monitor (HP ZR30w 2560x1600). My monitor has Dual-link DVI input, or Display Port. Since the MBA has mini-displayport/thunderbolt, I figured I would just buy a Mini-Display port to Display port adapter, and be done w/ it..

So after reading some reviews of other adapters, it was pretty obvious that the mini-display port adapters from 3rd party vendors have various levels of success based on what monitor it is being hooked up to etc.. So I figured I would break down and buy the Apple Mini-DP to DP adapter, and be done with it.. After much searching, I noticed they offer, Mini-DP to DVI, Mini-DP to DualLink DVI, Mini-DP to VGA, Mini-DP to HDMI.. But they don't offer Mini-DP to DP.. What?? All their adapters run from about $30 all the way up to $99 for their dual-link DVI! What!! That is what I needed was the dual-link DVI to push the 2560x1600 pixels! That is highway robbery.. So.. I decided against Apple (my Kool-aid wore off really quick after seeing the prices), and I went over to Amazon.

I ended up settling on a $12.99 Accell B112B-001B UltraAV Mini DisplayPort/DisplayPort(f) Adapter (Black) Mini-DP to DP dongle.. Unfortunately it is black, which is ok, because my Display Port cable is black too.. But it shipped free w/ prime!

After getting my MBA hooked up, I virtually positioned the 30" above the screen of the MBA (which is where it is physically on my desk). I had a small problem though.. I could not move my cursor above the menu bar. I kind of liked having the menu bar on the top of the MBA, so that way it was 1/2 way between both screens.. But apparently, you have to position it on the top most screen.. Fortunately OSX saves my configuration, so when I plug in, the Menu bar now goes to the top of the 30" monitor, and back to the MBA screen when I unplug..

That is it for now.. Some more updates on some interesting things on OSX coming up (and some tips!)

First Boot w/ OSX.

2012-09-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

So the setup process was fairly straight forward. There were a few small issues I had with the entire process though.. (At the end of this article).. Over-all the experience was straight forward and smooth to get me up and running. My only issue was that there did not seem to be (unless I missed it due to getting stuck during setup) an intro to OSX and what is where.. It took me a little while to familiarize myself with the OS..

So the bad:

During the setup, I was prompted to register my Mac (if I recall, they wanted my address for something).. I am in Texas, and from web forms, I am used to typing T-T in a state drop-down to get to Texas.. T-T left me on Tennessee. If I typed T-X I got Texas (Tx). Now, after some further research it appears that the drop down selection differs even from Safari or other web browsers which still work the same as I am used to typing TT to get to Texas, vs typing T-X or T-E-X (depending on how the state is spelled out).. I have not run across the issue other than during registration, but I certainly noticed it...

Also during setup, my setup got stuck some how.. Basically OSX asks if you will take a photo of yourself and then goes on to give you a quick over-view of how the multi-touch on the touch-pad works.. Which is great.. The only issue is that I managed to take my photo, and then go to multi touch, and swipe some way which took me back to the photo selection screen, but had the bottom half covered w/ a touch example which did not help me get past it.. I was stuck during setup... I decided to power off, and power up, and hope that setup was either finished, or I would have to do it again... Fortunately it came up as a finished setup, but not sure what I missed...

The last thing I did not like, was having to setup an Apple Account to download updates, or anything else. It also wanted me to setup an iTunes account. As a developer, I don't need a lot of the consumer fluff on the device, and not sure why they needed all my information to download updates.. I don't ever recall Microsoft requiring information like that.

Other than that the initial setup went well, and I got up and running, but had no idea where anything was...

Next up: First thoughts GUI.

Making the Jump From Windows 7 to OSX

2012-09-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

Who: My name is Chris Pick, and I do Android development. Usually spend most of my days in Windows 7 or Ubuntu doing development. I am an entrepreneur and married father of 2 wonderful (most of the time) kids.

What: I am going to try and chronicle my switch from Windows 7, and everything I am used to on Windows 7 to a Macbook Air running OSX Mountain Lion (for now). I will try and update the blog as I come across different functionality between the two Operating Systems, and what gotcha's you can expect.

Where: I am in a Dallas suburb, but this could be taking place anywhere.. Oh.. This will be on a 2012 Macbook Air. (And possibly a Windows 7 workstation I built).

Why: To help others going through the same process of jumping to OSX.

How: Hopefully as I find things that are different between the Operating Systems, I can document them here as new blog posts. Feel free to comment on them if I have done something wrong, or just don't get it.. I expect not to just 'get-it' w/ some of the things I have seen from OSX so far (not a bad thing, just a different way of doing things)..

Background: I was in the market for a new laptop (I can call a Macbook Air a laptop right? I am going to lump it in as a 'PC' anyway). I have never liked the way Apple has locked people into their walled garden, and the limited ~~functionality~~ options that arise out of that. I am probably late to the party as an Android developer using OSX, but I have had no problems with Windows 7. So why switch you may ask? Well with a laptop, the driver support from vendors is pretty dismal (as far as how often they update), I have tried Windows 8 in a VM, and I hate it.. I think it is the wrong direction for non-touch devices.. I have always been one of the first to move to the next Windows Version, but I decided I am not moving forward with Windows 8. This left me with an issue, I needed a faster, lighter laptop and wanted to make sure that for the 2-3 years I had it, it would be supported w/ current drivers etc. My current laptop, is about 3 years old, and has not had some drivers updated for 2 years. While it may not be an issue, I don't want to be forced to move to Windows 8 to get latest support/drivers.. (I still have my Windows 7 workstation that I built almost 4 years ago, and it is still going strong).

This left me with a question: "should I move to OSX?". For the most part, the hardware that Apple has placed in their laptops is a generation behind the current offerings from WinTel (Windows+Intel) manufactures. But it looks like Apple is actually using the latest core iX processors from Intel now, and as always has it in a nicely packaged bundle (thin, light, etc). My dilemma was, as much as I despise Apple, and what they stand for, is it better or worse than what Microsoft did w/ Windows 8? After a lot of back and forth, I decided that Windows 8 was so bad (in my view for a non-touch device), that I would make a point to NOT buy another Microsoft Licensed product and switch to OSX / Macbook Air.

It was a pretty tough decision to make, and I am pretty happy so far with the results (been using the Macbook for about a month now - just getting around to blogging about my findings). I have a couple friends who probably drink a bit too much Apple Kool-aid (as I do Andro-ade), but they have been helpful in answering some questions of how and why things are the way they are..

I have not played with any of the ultra-books from any WinTel vendors, but I will tell you so far, the form-factor of the Macbook air is great.. I love the weight (thickness is nice, but not a deal breaker), it is light.. Not to mention the screen is pretty nice. I have to say the touch pad is really good, actually I would say the texture and responsiveness is the best I have used.

First thoughts of OSX while booting for the first time next!