Mac Tricks

Press control-option-apple and 8 all at the same time to invert all colors. Doing it again toggles back. Great for sites with annoying color schemes.

Screen capture (as jpg): command-shift-3
Part of screen capture (as jpg): command-shift-4, then select an area of the screen with the crosshairs to crop it

EDIT: actually, it saves it in png format, but when you open it in preview, you can save it in any format you want.

sweet tea wrote: [quote=Carnivore]Press control-option-apple and 8 all at the same time to invert all colors. Doing it again toggles back. Great for sites with annoying color schemes.

whoa. this also makes your avatar pretty damn scary, carny.

Yeah! Halloween Message Board!
Here's the other kind of scary . . .
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=391343

How's this for neat: since it's an x86, it's possible to reformat the hard drive on your brand new mac and install Windows Vista instead.

doctorj wrote: How's this for neat: since it's an x86, it's possible to reformat the hard drive on your brand new mac and install Windows Vista instead.

You're one of those people who likes to make their life more difficult aren't you, drama queen? hehe. :P

brooklynpotter wrote: and he would want to do that why?

Maybe for the same reason people waited in line to buy a PS3 and smash it in front of the fanbois?
(I don't use MacOS or Vista, but I have to say that Macheads are the easiest to bait)

caaahyoko wrote: Is there anything that can ONLY be done on Linux, or is learning it just like reading War and Peace? Meaning its only for impressing your date/friends by saying you read it while simultaneously pushing your glasses up your nose.

The only platform that's a realistic option in my profession is Linux (used to be IRIX, but now it's Linux). Most of the software is either only available for it, or is seriously inferior when running on Windows. In theory, it'd be a small step to port to Mac, but in practice, no one supports it because the user base is too small. Also, because nearly all clusters and supercomputers run Linux, when you're ready to go from running 1 job per minute to running 1024 jobs per minute, it's convenient to keep everything the same. This is largely historical: just as 2D work has a long history on macs, 3D work has a long history on *ix workstations.

As for learning... I've found it as easy or easier to install than Mac or Windows, and I've watched non-computery people sit down in front of it and just start using it without realizing what the OS is, because it's a computer duh, and a browser and wordprocessor and menu bar look the same.

These days, it's all much of a muchness when it comes to usability I find, and the hardware is all the same. So it comes down to taste, price, and where your applications run best. Or, if you're running a firm or university department, whether you want to hire a part-time self-taught kid or an army of microsoft-trained professionals.

If you want to start hacking around in the guts of the machine, whether to impress your date or to get something done just the way you want it, the Linux interior is extremely similar to Mac (but easier in practice because of the large user base and openness) and Windows is ghastly.

Audio is no longer something I know much about, but it looks like there's a heap of professional tools that are linux / open source.

http://www.prorec.com/articles/tabid/109/entryid/270/default.aspx
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Feb03/articles/linuxaudio.asp
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/mirrorimage.htm

There are many easy ways to try out a particular distribution. One safe way is to download and burn some CDs, take out your hard drive, put in a different one (e.g. an old 20GB lying around) and install. An even easier way just to try it out is to get a "live" distribution: put the CD in the machine, boot, and that's it -- dedicated OS for audio. Take the CD out, and it's back to what it was.

http://www.studio-to-go.com/

Ardour is open source and wants to out-pro ProTools:
http://www.ardour.org/

But really, if someone likes and has paid for the mac brand, the mac interface, the mac hardware, wants to keep paying the premium, and it's doing everything they want, there's not much point switching.

doctorj wrote: Audio is no longer something I know much about, but it looks like there's a heap of professional tools that are linux / open source.

http://www.prorec.com/articles/tabid/109/entryid/270/default.aspx
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Feb03/articles/linuxaudio.asp
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/mirrorimage.htm

There are many easy ways to try out a particular distribution. One safe way is to download and burn some CDs, take out your hard drive, put in a different one (e.g. an old 20GB lying around) and install. An even easier way just to try it out is to get a "live" distribution: put the CD in the machine, boot, and that's it -- dedicated OS for audio. Take the CD out, and it's back to what it was.

http://www.studio-to-go.com/

Ardour is open source and wants to out-pro ProTools:
http://www.ardour.org/

But really, if someone likes and has paid for the mac brand, the mac interface, the mac hardware, wants to keep paying the premium, and it's doing everything they want, there's not much point switching.

i've been working with open-source software lately; right now i'm in the middle of installing drupal with the ecommerce module
the install is automatic on v5.2, so you don't have to worry about permissions, untarring or anything

i've been really pleasantly surprised with open-source software lately

next i figure i'll need to install my own mysql db, and php on my Mac
-- any recommendations for distros?

If the pointer is over a scrollable window (such as your browser window), you can touch your index and middle finger to the touchpad simultaneously, and move them in tandem up or down to scroll. This is instead of using the scrollbar. If there is a horizontal scrollbar, you can use the technique to scroll horizontally too.

brooklynpotter wrote: i think you need to change settings in system utilities to do this

Yeah, you have to enable it. Its under the "mouse" heading. There's another equally cool option to enable. You can turn on a feature that allows you to put both fingers on the tracking pad and then tap with your right finger. This functions just like the right button on a two button mouse.