Switch to MacBook Pro and OS X

A couple months ago I bought my first Mac computer with the release of the new MacBook Pros. The new machine is beautiful and the switch to OS X from Windows has been primarily positive overall.

There were a few things from Windows that I greatly missed, but I found solutions which worked:

Make Safari open new windows in new tabs (especially links in Gmail messages), just like Firefox: http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html

My Bluetooth Mouse was extremely difficult to use with the OS X mouse acceleration settings.  Fortunately after trying several options I found a program that fixed the problem for me: http://www.usboverdrive.com/

Create “new document” context menu option in Finder to create a quick way to make a new Word document or Text document in a specific folder: http://www.growlichat.com/NuFile.php

Combine multiple buddy lists into one in iChat: http://www.ksuther.com/chax/

Quickly lock your computer like Windows Key + L: http://www.gkoya.com/2006/11/23/locktight-for-mac-os-x-intel/

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1 Comment

  1. Jesse Lamb said,

    February 14, 2009 @ 11:14 pm

    Some other mac gems, (some/most of which you’ve probably already discovered):

    -quicksilver (extensible launcher, freeware)
    -growl (system notification agent, freeware)
    -TextMate (decent one-size-fits-all text editor with rudimentary IDE features, commercial)
    -Caffeine (TaskBar app to prevent sleep with one click, freeware)
    -AppZapper (uninstaller, commercial/cheap)
    -Carbon Copy Cloner (backup/cloning software, freeware)
    -JollyFastVNC (great vnc client, freeware)
    -DiskWarrior (to repair HFS volumes, commercial)
    -Transmit (FTP client)
    -Pacifistic (package browser/installer)

    Hope you’re enjoying the laptop.

    -Jesse Lamb

    P.S.- Not sure if you’ve heard my name, but we know a lot of the same people at UF.

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