COCOCAST Episode 5
Last week I was invited by my good friends Dan Decker and Arlton Lowry to be a guest on their weekly show, the Cococast. The topics we covered on the show were all pretty much related to Apple and their recent consumer event. Doing this show was a blast and the guys kept me rolling (as usual).
Upgrading to Windows 7
If you know me or have followed my blog for any length of time you probably are already aware of my Microsoft frustrations by now. I have been using Microsoft Windows operating systems since they have been around. My first operating system was DOS 6.22, the old command line, and I have moved with them through every version of their GUI operating systems from 3.11 through Vista with the exception of Win98 and Millennium Edition. In a nutshell I have watched as their operating systems have become more and more bloated for the sake of adding what they call innovation.
Recently I purchased a MacBook Pro and installed Parallels to start learning OSx. My plan has been to eventually transition from developing client projects on a Windows based machine to a Mac. Everyday that I use my Mac I can’t help but fall in love with it more and more. The machine that I am still using as my primary production machine is currently running Windows Vista. With that being said, I haven’t had a “whole lot” of problems w/ this machine but it also hasn’t been perfect. I typically go in and turn off a lot of the theme and indexing features in the operating system so that performance is enhanced but even with these features turned off the past 2 days w/ this machine have been a living hell (to put it nicely…).
I reached out to a friend who does remote repair to have him take a look at my machine and even he couldn’t find the culprit for it’s decreased performance. Grasping for straws I decided to head over to Best Buy tonight and pick up a copy of Windows 7 and see if an upgrade might cure the locking up and performance slow down that I have been experiencing. As of right now I am about 32% of the way through the upgrade and I am having my doubts despite hearing good reviews of Windows 7 from several people. My goal is get through the next quarter or two w/ this as my primary production machine before making the transition to a completely Mac environment. Everyone please say a prayer on my behalf that I am able to do this…
If anything should go wrong during this upgrade process, don’t worry, you guys, my loyal blog readers, will be the first ones to hear about it.
Right Clicking on the Mac…
My transition to the MacBook Pro has been going pretty good the past few weeks. I am really liking the machine a lot. Last week I installed Parallels and started moving some of my native Microsoft Applications over, and I must say, that transition has went very well. The one thing that has always been foreign to me w/ the whole Apple experience has been that there is no “right click” on the mouse (by default). I know I am not alone because I have had others express the same thing to me before.
Well, today I was meeting w/ Calvin Hill to discuss a project and I mentioned that I still missed the “right click” very much and found myself trying to do it w/ my Apple Mouse. He showed me how to setup the Apple Mouse to have the right click function in just a few seconds. This changes everything…
This probably sounds like a juvenile find for a lot of you that have been using a Mac for several years but for me it was huge! To set this up, simply click on System Preferences / Mouse. You will see the screen below:
Once you are in, just go to the right side of the mouse and select “Secondary Button” from the menu. Once you have this setup just close out the window and check it out. Pretty cool huh? Everyday I use this machine I pick up something new and am also to the point of being proficient w/ it enough to actually do some production work from it.
