Mounting FTP and SSH filesystems in OSX
As I mentioned in the earlier OSX article, I was fed up with mounting and unmounting devices in Linux. The way of doing that in OSX is even simpler than in Windows. Mountable devices are mounted automatically like on Windows, but the way of unmounting is incomparably more simple. On the picture below, there is a PathFinder window in which there is a list of Devices. Next to the mounted filesystem „Leia“, there is a button which is used to unmount devices – so much quicker than the Windows way. Also, the CDs and DVDs are ejected this way.
But back to FTP and SSH filesystems – there is actually no necessity to fight with SSHfs, nor with curlFTPfs – one can just get MacFusion which handles everything and userfriendly in the „Mac Way“. I just found the default timeout too small, but after increasing it, it works just brilliant. Beat it!
MacBook Unibody – Have I betrayed Linux?
One day, it had to come. Continuous proublems with VMware after kernel updates, time consuming and tiring mounting, and politics of „what you don't do yourself, you will never have“ forced me to reconsider my attitude to the free software. Yeah – I betrayed my IBM, which patiently served me since my teenage, Debian and Fluxbox and payed a vast amount of money to one of the most evil corporations ever. On the other hand, I got a really lovely and witty plaything!
„The Toy“ also has some drawbacks. The resolution is not as good as it could've been – Lenovo uses 1440×900 at screen of the same size --, and also the time response of the display is worse than on my old IBM, even though the colours are much better. So, playing Unreal Tournament turned up not to be very easy. Funny thing about the display is the fact, that it is used as a flash when taking pictures with the webcam – it will illuminate all white with the highest contrast so that your face get completely flashed!
There is a lot of keys, that is normal PC user used to. However, I recommend using Key Remap 4 MacBook and No Eject Delay to remap the Eject key to Forward Delete as the ejecting can be done very intuitively in Finder or PathFinder as well as unmounting. I also recommend using Ukelele to create custom keyboard layouts – finally I can get all those weird french accents to my Czech Qwerty keyboard – I had never managed to achieve that before neither on Windows, nor on Linux as I was just too lazy to spent hours examining XML files.
Moving windows around between spaces
The thing that one will notice very quickly – it makes people lazy. One will find out, that nearly everything can be done by the huge touchpad – from switching windows and desktops by exposé to resizing documents, copying and pasting. When using Linux I was really proud of using my GUI just by keyboard. Now, I don't know why – now I even feel bothered when having to touch the keyboard, which is by the way very comfortable to write on. As I bought the cheapest model, my keyboard letters are not illuminated, which is maybe better as the Apple Business department messed it completely up so that I got French Azerty keyboard, even though I requested US. In the end I was so tired of discussing it, so I just kept it – writing without looking at it – anyway, I would prefer not to have any symbols written on the keyboard as it would be even more „cool“!
One of my friends referred to this silvery thingie as a coffee machine – and yes, it really is one! Everything just works and one doesn't need to be bothered by any settings and getting angry by things which does not work. The system really tries to implement everything – there is even an FTP and Apache server in-a-box and very easily configurable! I am just a little bit surprised how many people think that buying a Mac is one of the most stupid ideas. Dunno whether they really touched one or not, or whether they are just jealous… On the other hand, I would appreciate native support for NTFS and EXT3 – one must have to do something to achieve it.
My widgets
What I really find useful are widgets. The best one is the Web clip widget – it can cut parts even from secured webpages – so for instance, I can easily see any new comments in my blog admin page or I can see any new notes from my teachers at our university information system.
My opera skin, to be downloaded here
All the things used on Linux are available or there are special OSX version – to name MacVIM, SSHfs, Mencoder. Linux users might fancy Fink which uses Debian package system to provide you not a small amount of compiled linux applications for OSX. Window users might fancy http://darwine.sourceforge.net/ for running Windows applications. Noone will prevent me of using StarCalc.
Use Quicksilver to
save your time – let it run automatically and use it by keystrokes
Erasmus: Michel Knyttl
Jeden z mých erasmáckých spolustudentů si na začátku liboval ve faktu, že mu tu nikdo nekomolí jeho jméno. „Paulíček“ totiž pro nás čechy skutečně vyzívá k napsání jako „Pavlíček“. Očividně to tak ale neplatí za všech okolností. Již tehdá v Anglii jsem si zvykl na oslovení „Vojtek“, čemuž francouzi dodali korunku, když mé jméno komolí na „Vočtek“. Mutace jako například „Vočta“ jsou také k dispozici. Již jsem toto jméno akceptoval a slyším na něj. Ale co teprve „Michel“ od francouzské pošty? Možná stojí i za zmínku francouzský překlad mého jména – i na wikipedii se dá nalézti Svatý Vojtěch, jakožto Saint Adalbert. Ano, oslovujte mne tedy Adalbert.
S příchodem MacBooku prohlašuji éru onanie nad nastavováním systému za ukončenou. Je to krásná hračka, kterou jeden z mých bližních označil jako „Kávovar“. Ano, je tomu tak – všechno to umí samo od sebe a člověk se s ničím nemusí zatěžovat. Navíc je tento Unibody kousek překrásným kávovarem v robustním hliníkovém provedení, které by mohl i sám hliník závidět. Z vypětím všech sil jsem ze svého stařičkého IBM vymámil svá data a nyní již odpočívá v pokoji. Tedy v šuplíku. Jak jsem již zmiňoval, můj osobní prodejce u Applu byl trochu jednodušší a vysvětlovat věci jednou bylo málo. To, že jsem požadoval anglickou klávesnici jsem bohužel zmínil jen jednou. Jeho chyby jsem si tak všiml jsem až den před doručením. Byla mi nabídnuta výměna takovým způsobem, že doručení odmítnu. Bohužel zásilková služba se mne na nic neptala – tudíž jsem zásilku odmítnout nemohl – a zanechala balíček na vrátnici, kde bych ho z bezpečnostních důvodů tedy nikdy nezanechal. Když jsem pak měl v rukou balíček s mým aktuálním snem, bylo těžké přemýšlet ještě o nějaké výměně. Ještě že nemám potřebu se na klávesnici dívat – jen jsem zvědav, jak bude francouzská AZERTY děsit mé přátele.