Well, a new MacBook Pro came to my door about half an hour ago

[Bruce Taylor]

I thought it was supposed to jump out of the shipping box and offer to massage my feet, but so far it seems to be acting just a like a regular laptop.

I'm really missing the roller-wheel on the trackpad and have yet to stumble across a forward-delete key (I'm sure it's here somewhere), and there's an "fn" key where the alt-key oughta be...but I imagine I'll get used to these little eccentricities.

The styrofoam packaging seems too nice to throw away.

Now, is there some cool stuff I should download for it?

[elf]

Jealous, green with envy, bilious, what was that line from Gilbert and Sullivan about jealousy!!!?

What sort of propitiation of the gods does one have to do to get one of those!?

[Meerkat]

If you don't give it cookies and milk and send it home until it grows up to be a real computer, it's child abuse! ;)

[Nicholas Carey]

I'm really missing the roller-wheel on the trackpad and have yet to stumble across a forward-delete key (I'm sure it's here somewhere), and there's an "fn" key where the alt-key oughta be...but I imagine I'll get used to these little eccentricities. Run two fingers down the trackpad and it behaves like a scroll wheel on a mouse.

No "forward delete" though, just a destructive backspace.


The styrofoam packaging seems too nice to throw away.Our kid (now pushing 20 months) has been using the packaging for my 17-incher as a toy since June -- including jumping on it -- he's only managed to break it in the last couple of months, and that with the help of the neighbor's 4- and 7 year-olds. Apple employees some good packaging design engineers :D


Now, is there some cool stuff I should download for it?Delicious LIbrary is pretty cool. Cheap, too.

Get your Mac, a webcam, and Delicious Library and rediscover your home library. Just point any FireWire digital video camera, like an Apple iSight (http://www.apple.com/isight/)®, at the barcode on the back of any book, movie, music, or video game. Delicious Library does the rest. The barcode is scanned and within seconds the item's cover appears on your digital shelves filled with tons of in-depth information downloaded from one of six different web sources from around the world.

Once your whole library is cataloged, you can find and use your items like never before. Browse, sort, and search through your digital shelves. Sync your cataloged library onto your iPod or print a color catalog and take it with you. Find and purchase new items using Delicious Library's personalized recommendations. Keep track of the items your friends are borrowing using Delicious Library's loan management system, which integrates with Apple's Address Book (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/addressbook/) and iCal (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/).


Take advantage of new, cutting-edge Mac OS X Tiger features with Delicious Library. Search through all of your library data using the Spotlight (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/spotlight/) menu and enjoy anytime access to your entire collection with the Delicious Library Dashboard (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/) widget. You should buy a copy of Transmit (http://www.panic.com/transmit/) -- the best FTP client out there, although the University of Michigan's Fugu (http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/) is a rather useful and elegant wrapper around SFTP.

Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net/) is a packaging project that supplies pre-built versions of stock open-source *nix software as packages (similar to Linux's RPM -- redhat package manager -- etc.). Too many available package to list, but they include things like Gimp (functional equivalent of Photoshop).

If you have [cough] analog audio media like records or tapes, drop $40 on Griffin's iMic (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/), you'll need some [free] recording software like Griffin's "Final Vinyl" or Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). Apple's Garage Band will prolly work too. Rip yer vinyl, burn it to CD and use the old vinyl for a good round of skeet :D

If you use http://www.flickr.com/ as a photo-sharing web site, google for "Flickr Tools" (flickr is banned on the ol'l corporate network -- there might be boobies out there :D). there are iPhoto plug-ins available to allow you to upload photos from iTunes straight to your flickr account.

There's more, but that's all I have off the top of my head right now.

[elf]

I like Meteo for quick weather. Access is through an icon on the menu bar.

http://heat-meteo.sourceforge.net/

They say they're working up an Intel version but I suspect it will run under Rosetta until they get it done.

[Bruce Taylor]

Thanks Emily & Nicholas. I bought a Mac out of curiosity, mainly...just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It's fun to have a new OS to play with (Garage Band is a blast).

Meanwhile, SWMBO wants her Windows-based GO program (GO++), so I'd better get Bootcamp going.

What's the easiest way to network w/ a PC & bring files over?

[Nicholas Carey]

Thanks Emily & Nicholas. I bought a Mac out of curiosity, mainly...just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It's fun to have a new OS to play with (Garage Band is a blast).

Meanwhile, SWMBO wants her Windows-based GO program (GO++), so I'd better get Bootcamp going.Might want to install Sente Goban (http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/) on the MacBook instead:

http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/BoardSmall.jpg (http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/)

Supports Internet play on the Internet Go Server as well as:
Inspectors to view different aspects of the game (Fig 2.)
Internet go client (Fig 3.)
GNU Go (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/), a go playing program
Opens, edits and saves standard SGF files
Handles efficiently large SGF files, game collections or joseki/fuseki variation trees such as Kogo's Joseki Dictionary (http://waterfire.us/joseki.htm)
Supports the Go Modem Protocol and the Go Text Protocol
Japanese rules
Automatic Scoring
Simultaneous games
Resizable board
Undo/redo moves
One color go
http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/Rendezvous.jpg local network play
What's the easiest way to network w/ a PC & bring files over?If you have a network set up, it should be pretty simple. OS X has Samba -- windows networking that works better than Windows' own networking -- built into it.

[Bruce Taylor]

Might want to install Sente Goban on the MacBook instead:

I'll ask her about it. She's a pretty strong player and needs software that can give her a good game. As I understand it, even the best computer Go programs are still weaker than a good sub-dan player.

[elf]

Another little piece of software I like a lot is WireTap. It's a very straightforward recorder, either from external source through the Griffen iMic, or internally from sound materials through RealAudio or Windoze Media Player.

Costs about $20. Very intuitive interface.