Alex Harries's diary

(Boring geeky ramblings below...)

Up until recently, I was a Windows user, and made a lot of use of Google's desktop search toy. Secretly though, I wanted a Mac so I could use the wonderful Spotlight search system.

Fast-forward a year or so and I barely ever use Spotlight because it's horribly, painfully slow. Quicksilver has deserted me - it crashes within a few minutes of opening it - and I miss my trusty Google desktop search.

Now Google have released a Mac desktop search toy, and I'm about to give it a go. You can find out more and download it from their free Mac software page, and read more about it on the Hawk Wings blog. If you haven't already installed this free wonder of technology, you really should give it a go :o)

Google might be trying to take over the world, but until I figure out what's so evil about their great free software, I'm happy to keep telling everyone I know how good I think it is. Sad but true... /al

... it's great. Sorry, boring to hear though it may be, I still haven't decided that it's a waste of money.

(This post is very much a rambling stream of consciousness. Don't bother reading it. No, seriously...)

I mentioned yesterday that I'd found a problem with the construction that left a small gap between the lower case and the front edge of the wrist rest. I boxed the whole lot up today and went back up to the Apple store at Bluewater. Since I tend to dress like a tramp at the best of times, I noticed a few looks from people glancing first at my trampish look, and then at the box with the picture of the very shiny, 'spensive-looking laptop on it... And then back at me again, as if to say, "Ok, who did you rob?" (Truthful answer - the Student Loans Company, or at least that's how it feels).

The Apple Store were happy to replace the MacBook for an identical one, but the new one also has a (much smaller) ripple in the same place, as did almost every other MBP on display and in use at the store, so I suspect I won't get away from having this little bit of "personality" as part of the whole Mac experience.

So far, I've learnt...
- that illuminated keyboards are great
- it's thinner than it looks
- it looks really thin
- ... and it looks really pretty

Ok, so I might just be focusing on the aesthetics a little too much here...

I've found loads of helpful pages for life-long PC users, installed a load of helpful toys, including Quicksilver (wow... no, really - Wow) and MenuMeters, managed to get iSync to synchronise with my Razr. And iCal's so damned pretty, but I think I might find out if Outlook's bundled with my copy of Office 2004 since I use it so much.

I still haven't found out if there's an equivalent to NetDrive that works on OS X, so I can edit PHP scripts on UPSU.net directly (I tend to write a line, save, then go to the browser and F5 to see if it worked or not. Slow, but usually effective), and until I can do that I'm going to have to stick with the Vaio (not that that's such a bad thing, but... y'know... New toys and all that - I wanna play!).

Front Row is really very Gucci, and the remote is a lovely little touch. Shame the slim pocket on the front of my laptop bag doesn't have a velcro flap to stop things falling out when I do loop-the-loops 'cos it would be perfect for the remote.

The speakers sound great - really crisp top notes, and a reasonable level of mid-range. There's even an appreciable bit of mid-bass, although I still prefer using my Sennheiser earbuds. It's another nice touch, and the stereo positioning of the speakers makes for some very well-defined lefts and rights.

I have to sign off to drive back to Pompey - I'm back on Helldesk tomorrow, so I need to start making a dent in the several hundred support e-mails I have to reply to. If you're in getting an NUS card this week, do come and say hi - I'll be the sleep-deprived, dribbling wreck in the corner of the room, holding an animated conversation with a chair about how cool Apple Macs are. Or something...

Next object of lust on my list: a silver 8Gb iPod Nano.
Next thing to do: get on eBay and sell everything I own.
Next thing I *should* be doing: my induction week project.
... and when it'll probably be completed: graduation week.