Alex's Antidote » Updates

A Linux lover on a Mac?

Alex — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:54:22 +0000

Image from daskeyboard.com

Wow has time passed since my last post or what?!

Well I see I still have some readers still hanging on so I should update if nothing but for your sakes. Thank you for sticking around.

I can’t recall if I mentioned this before or not, so I’m going to talk about it now anyway. I purchased a Mac Mini for my business. Why a Mac? Well because it will allow me to develop iPhone apps to sell on the App Store (man I really need to get cracking on that). Yes, I know it is kind of like feeding the beast, but do not worry, I still run Ubuntu at home and even run it on this Mac (yeah, I’m at work) through VirtualBox (I suppose I should post something about that sometime soon). And yes, I’m running Windows XP through VirtualBox too. I’m such a wreck right now!

So, what do I think about my first Mac?

Well to be perfectly honest, I love how smooth the boot and shutdown processes go, and how clean the interface is. I am still getting used to having the menu bar for each application stuck at the top of the screen instead of the top of the application window, but it is growing on me. I thought I would loath it, but I am finding more and more it is quite convenient actually. I also like how clear the display is and I like (for the most part) the dock at the bottom.

I do not, however, like the mouse/keyboard situation. I purchased a PC mouse and keyboard (the Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710 Laser) because I have to have a right click button, and I have big fingers and those tiny Apple keyboards just wont work for me. Not to mention I had planned in advance to use VirtualBox to host Linux and Windows and wanted to have a familiar keyboard/mouse feel when working in those environments.

Everything on the mouse and keyboard work as expected in Linux and Windows (even through the virtual machine), but there are some serious annoyances when it comes to using them in the Mac OS.

PC I/O devices on a Mac

The Home and End keys do not work the same in OS X as they do in Windows or Linux. On Mac they take you to the top of the document or the end (or something, it honestly confuses me when I press them and I really don’t know what is going on). Either way, I can’t stand it. When I press the home key, I want it to go to the start of the line I am currently on (this is huge for coding). When I press the End key, I want it to go to the end of the line I am currently working on… Similarly with Ctrl+Home (sorry, that’s the windows/linux version, on a mac it’s open apple + home or the “Windows” key + home on Windows aka the “Super” key + home on Linux), or Ctrl+End (you get the idea), I expect to go to the beginning or end of the document respectively. Additionally when holding shift and pressing any of those combinations, I expect it to highlight the text between my current location in the document to the respective destination.

Additionally, I want my 4th and 5th mouse buttons to work properly! right now they work just like a “middle click” in the Mac environment.

How to solve this? — Well I’m looking into it. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments!

What next?

Not sure yet. I’m working on some websites and going to be quitting my other job (I’m so burned out and it’s falling apart everywhere), so I will be focusing on this business full time from here on out! I’ll try to keep the updates coming more frequently.

What about Linux?

Don’t worry, I have not and will not abandon my obsession with Linux. The new version of Ubuntu is here! So I am downloading the ISO and will at the very least be booting it up here on my virtual machine to play with and will be doing a complete system wipe and re installation on my laptop at home when I have time (was playing around the other day and found out I was using the 32-bit version of Ubuntu when I could be using the 64-bit, and also still have Vista partitioned there taking up 50GB for nothing!).

Update: changes coming…

Alex — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:41:59 +0000

It never ceases to catch me by surprise how quickly time flys when you are preoccupied with living life…

So much for a post a day, huh?

To update you on what has been going on lately: my beautiful little girl was born a few weeks ago and has been keeping me quite busy (as is my son as usual). Work has been hectic at best, and I am really tired of ignorant (and I mean excessively ignorant) people…

Also, in place of school work and studying (I decided to take a break for a while in case you didn’t know), I have been taking on a few web projects and in the process o some big changes in life… But more on that another time…

I recently received an invite to google wave and also one to google voice… Both seem very promising…

HH Project – Update (again)

Alex — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:21:37 +0000

I received a phone call from my client today. He likes the templates and gave me the go-ahead to get started on the project. I still can’t reveal any specifics just yet, but perhaps in the near future.

I already have a shell framework in place. Now to get started on the rest…

Project HH

Alex — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:05:04 +0000

My first official paid project is underway! At this time I am not at liberty to give out too many details, but I will update with more info when I am able.

What I can say is that I am very excited about this project an eager to get the ball rolling. I already submitted some template ideas and some page-flow ideas for approval.

Ubuntu User Day – January 23rd

Alex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:20:29 +0000

The first Ubuntu user day is scheduled for January 23rd!

Check it out!

It is geared toward new/beginner users, but anyone is welcome to participate.

Business is Business

Alex — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:06:32 +0000

So life has been quite difficult these past several months. I have struggled greatly with school simply because I have not had the time to keep up with my assignments and readings for class along with everything else going on in life (most notably work and family). So I decided to take a break from school in order to pursue other interests. In particular a buddy and I are going to start up a business together. I already have work lined up for us. I figure it will be a few months before we approach anything near stable business. I really hope this works out.

Business is Business

Alex — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:06:32 +0000

GIMP Plugins

Alex — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:47:18 +0000

GIMP splash screen

A buddy of mine asked me today to make him a plugin for GIMP. I’ve never written a true plugin for anything, but have wanted too. Now is a great opportunity. I need to start reading up on this subject and give it a try.

If you haven’t tried it yet, GIMP is a free program similar to Photoshop. In Ubuntu you can install it easily by running the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install gimp

Collabtive update

Alex — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:12:27 +0000

Ok last night / this morning I installed Collabtive to test it out. The install was really simple. Make a MySQL database, upload the files to your webhost (be sure to put them all in their own directory if you have other content on your host), navagate to your collabtive install’s root then install.php and follow the instructions. Once you’re done delete install.php and update.php

I setup a project and some related milestones and tasks. It looks like it is lacking one really important feature: SVN. But for free open source… It’s a great deal! Someday when I get time maybe I’ll add svn functionality to it.

New year – clean start?

Alex — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:24:47 +0000

I think it’s about time for a fresh start for my laptop.

I have had Windows XP (used about 10% of the time), Windows Vista (used only one time, literally), and Ubuntu 9.10 (upgraded gradually from 7.04) for several years now.

Vista is just wasting 50GB of disk space, Windows is becoming bogged down (as windows does over time), and I think I am ready to change from 32 bit Ubuntu to 64 bit.

I am not sure when I will have time for all of this, but hopefully in a few weeks. I’ll keep you all posted.

Perhaps this will be motivation for a new tutorial on dual-boot installation of Ubuntu and Windows.