19) And on we go. I installed AppCleaner from here. It is free to use and helps you wipe all these additional data the apps leave on your Mac.
20) Adding printers was just selecting our university group's printers in settings -> print & fax.
21) Skype, of course. Just went to skype.com and after logging in with my Skype account I could just download the recent version of the application.
22) Then I use f.lux from here to automatically dim my monitors. This helps to take some stress from the eyes.
23) Handbrake is really handy for converting any video, especially for ripping my DVDs.
24) Syncing with the Apple time server went wrong somehow. I set the correct time manually and then started syncing again. It seems to work so far...
25) SPSS is my statistical package of choice for the easier stuff. I got a download and a licence from my University.
26) Similiarly, I used a university licence for Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
My new MacBook Pro III
12) Next up: Things Folders. Although it feels not really completely reliable, I came to appreciate Things Folders very much. As I manage all my tasks with Things, it is quite handy to have all data structured in the same way and connected to the projects and todos. It is available at jazzaround.net. Running it for the first time to create the folders takes some time - depending on your number of projects - but then it is rather quick. I then made my new MacBook accessible on the network to move the contents from my old Things Folders to the new ones.
13) Of course, I also want cloud sync for my calendar and my solution is Google Calendar. Not the prettiest solution but it works most of the time. In Calendar, I just could add my Google account and my main calendar was there. Under "delegates" I then could choose my additional calendars to show. Done!
14) As I use a lot of Subversion repositories, I also need a good way to handle them in Finder. SCPlugin is a good way to do it and it is open source at Tigris. It comes as an installation package. For it to work directly from Finder, I need to drag the SCToolbarButton from the applications folder to the Finder toolbar. No problem!
15) In the mean time, the copy of my music and iOS apps has finished. I start up iTunes and everything of my music is here. That looks good. Let's see if syncing my iPad works.
No, the apps are not here. But the sync works anyway. Hence, I downloaded a free app from the app store and magically the apps part of my library was visible with all my apps.
16) And after a while and after restarting address book, it magically synced all my contacts from Google.
17) To control my finances, I use iFinance, which can be downloaded here. I install it, run it once and then copy from the old MacBook my data base from Library/Application Support/iFinance3. Works!
18) And finally for today, I get Papers running. I use it to organise all the research papers I read and I'm working with. Almost at the bottom of this page, I found a download link for Papers 1. I'm still not convinced by Papers2. Using the license key was a bit more complicated. I had to go to a web page and let me send an activation code by e-mail. But in the end it worked.
13) Of course, I also want cloud sync for my calendar and my solution is Google Calendar. Not the prettiest solution but it works most of the time. In Calendar, I just could add my Google account and my main calendar was there. Under "delegates" I then could choose my additional calendars to show. Done!
14) As I use a lot of Subversion repositories, I also need a good way to handle them in Finder. SCPlugin is a good way to do it and it is open source at Tigris. It comes as an installation package. For it to work directly from Finder, I need to drag the SCToolbarButton from the applications folder to the Finder toolbar. No problem!
15) In the mean time, the copy of my music and iOS apps has finished. I start up iTunes and everything of my music is here. That looks good. Let's see if syncing my iPad works.
No, the apps are not here. But the sync works anyway. Hence, I downloaded a free app from the app store and magically the apps part of my library was visible with all my apps.
16) And after a while and after restarting address book, it magically synced all my contacts from Google.
17) To control my finances, I use iFinance, which can be downloaded here. I install it, run it once and then copy from the old MacBook my data base from Library/Application Support/iFinance3. Works!
18) And finally for today, I get Papers running. I use it to organise all the research papers I read and I'm working with. Almost at the bottom of this page, I found a download link for Papers 1. I'm still not convinced by Papers2. Using the license key was a bit more complicated. I had to go to a web page and let me send an activation code by e-mail. But in the end it worked.
Setting up my new MacBook Pro II
5) Okay, a small complication because I use German as the main language. I needed first to start iPhoto once so that it created "Bibliothek iPhoto" and not "iPhoto Library". Anyway, I closed iPhoto removed the empty library and renamed the old library to "Bibliothek iPhoto". When I reopen iPhoto it looks like the pictures have always just been there.
6) Okay, having Dropbox, I can install 1Password, get my keychain from there and with it all my license keys for all my software. I download 1Password from the Agile Solution website. Then I move it in my applications folder and open it. It directly detects the keychain in the Dropbox and asks to sync with it. Of course we do that. Then I enter the license key from my 1Password keychain. Nice!
7) By the way, in the background I started copying my music. This probably takes much longer than the pictures... This gives us time to install more needed software.
8) The most important one for me as a firm believer in GTD is Things. If you have bought it from the App Store, that would be easier. I need to download it from the Cultured Code website and move it into my applications folder. The license is easily copied from 1Password. To copy the todo database, I need to copy database.xml in Library/Application Support/Cultured Code/Things from my old MacBook to the new one.
Done!
9) I also firmly believe in LaTeX as the superior way to write papers and books. Therefore, I get myself an installation of TeXShop here. As I install everything freshly, I need the complete TeX Live distribution. That is 1.5 GB and takes some time.
10) Meanwhile, I also told Alfred to start at startup. I like Alfred but I'm sure other quick starters might replace it well.
11) What so far does not really work is syncing my address book with Google. I add that in the settings but nothing happens... Maybe I need to google that.
6) Okay, having Dropbox, I can install 1Password, get my keychain from there and with it all my license keys for all my software. I download 1Password from the Agile Solution website. Then I move it in my applications folder and open it. It directly detects the keychain in the Dropbox and asks to sync with it. Of course we do that. Then I enter the license key from my 1Password keychain. Nice!
7) By the way, in the background I started copying my music. This probably takes much longer than the pictures... This gives us time to install more needed software.
8) The most important one for me as a firm believer in GTD is Things. If you have bought it from the App Store, that would be easier. I need to download it from the Cultured Code website and move it into my applications folder. The license is easily copied from 1Password. To copy the todo database, I need to copy database.xml in Library/Application Support/Cultured Code/Things from my old MacBook to the new one.
Done!
9) I also firmly believe in LaTeX as the superior way to write papers and books. Therefore, I get myself an installation of TeXShop here. As I install everything freshly, I need the complete TeX Live distribution. That is 1.5 GB and takes some time.
10) Meanwhile, I also told Alfred to start at startup. I like Alfred but I'm sure other quick starters might replace it well.
11) What so far does not really work is syncing my address book with Google. I add that in the settings but nothing happens... Maybe I need to google that.
Setting up my new MacBook Pro
Finally, I'm the proud owner of a new MacBook Pro. And I decided not to use the migration assistant to move all the old junk over to the new, shiny machine. I want to set it up from scratch. I will document what I did and installed. Maybe it helps you in setting up your Mac (or maybe it just helps me in setting up my next MacBook :-)).
1) I started the MacBook Pro and watched the nice starting animation. I love how much Apple invests in such details! After entering some of my details, Mac OS X was up and running. It found a lot of updates to install but after a reboot, everything was up to date.
2) What's next? Okay, I need to be able to read my e-mail on that machine. Quickly. So I started Mail and entered first my GMail account details. Mail did all the rest for me. Then I opened the settings in Mail in my old MacBook and entered the information for my other mail accounts in the new Mail. It took a bit to download all the mails but it worked like a charm.
3) Then, I made the home directory on the old MacBook available on the network (in the system settings). This allowed my to find it in the Finder of the new MacBook and to start copying the iPhoto Library. This may take a while...
4) Meanwhile, we can see what the Mac AppStore can do for us. I started it from the dock. Under "purchased" it showed my all the apps I bought there (after entering my Apple ID). And I could directly download them again to this machine. I chose to install Alfred, Kindle, Time Out Free, Evernote and MindNode (free). Maybe I'll get some more later but these are the essentials.
5) iPhoto is still copying, so I need my ultimate sharing tool: Dropbox. If you have not account yet, you can get it here and get me some more online space. I downloaded the tool from the web site, entered my account and I instantly got all my data. This is how it should work!
6) Meanwhile, the iPhoto library finished copying. Let's see in the next post how I get iPhoto to use it.
1) I started the MacBook Pro and watched the nice starting animation. I love how much Apple invests in such details! After entering some of my details, Mac OS X was up and running. It found a lot of updates to install but after a reboot, everything was up to date.
2) What's next? Okay, I need to be able to read my e-mail on that machine. Quickly. So I started Mail and entered first my GMail account details. Mail did all the rest for me. Then I opened the settings in Mail in my old MacBook and entered the information for my other mail accounts in the new Mail. It took a bit to download all the mails but it worked like a charm.
3) Then, I made the home directory on the old MacBook available on the network (in the system settings). This allowed my to find it in the Finder of the new MacBook and to start copying the iPhoto Library. This may take a while...
4) Meanwhile, we can see what the Mac AppStore can do for us. I started it from the dock. Under "purchased" it showed my all the apps I bought there (after entering my Apple ID). And I could directly download them again to this machine. I chose to install Alfred, Kindle, Time Out Free, Evernote and MindNode (free). Maybe I'll get some more later but these are the essentials.
5) iPhoto is still copying, so I need my ultimate sharing tool: Dropbox. If you have not account yet, you can get it here and get me some more online space. I downloaded the tool from the web site, entered my account and I instantly got all my data. This is how it should work!
6) Meanwhile, the iPhoto library finished copying. Let's see in the next post how I get iPhoto to use it.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
William Zinsser: On Writing Well
"On Writing Well" is a classic book on writing nonfiction that recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. As my main area of writing is scientific writing, I read it with the intent to learn for my scientific papers.
With this background, my judgement on the book is mixed. There are several chapters that are useful for scientific papers but a good share of the book are written for journalists. The view, which is the view Zinsser himself probably has, is that of a generalist writer who has to explain something to the public. This does often not fit very well with the intention of most scientific papers.
Most useful for me was Part I "Principles" and Part II "Methods". What he explains there is almost universal. He talks about simplicity and style, about words and their correct usage. I especially enjoyed Chapter 10 "Bits & Pieces" in which Zinsser collected short but helpful hints for your everyday writing.
Part III "Forms" includes chapters such as "Writing About People: The Interview" or "Writing About Yourself: The Memoir" that didn't help for my usual tasks. Even Chapter 15 "Science and Technology" was not what I was looking for because it covered much more the journalists's view. To some degree Chapter 16 "Business Writing: Writing in Your Job" could give some insights for my writing.
Overall the book is fun to read and Zinsser proves in it that he is the right guy to listen to on writing well.
Monday, 11 January 2010
Stop Software Patents
There is a new run for a petition against software patents in Europe. There are many good points in favour and against such patents, but I personally don't see any helpful software patents so far. Please get informed about the issue and decide for yourself!
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Airport Express and Airfoil
I don't have a desktop computer anymore because everything I need is on my laptop computer - a MacBook Pro. Although the speakers of the MacBook are actually not bad, I prefer my normal hi-fi system for listing to music and watching movies. Therefore, I have a cinch connector cable to get the sound from the MacBook to the hi-fi system. But that bounds me close to the hi-fi system and the MacBook is not portable around my room anymore.
The solution here is Apple's Airport Express. For this purpose, it acts as a audio streamer. It has audio output interface and connects to any WLAN. Hence, the cinch cable now goes into the Airport Express and I stream the audio from iTunes to it. There is my music on my hi-fi system without any cable going out from the MacBook.
The installation is actually quite easy. It comes with a CD on which you find the tool Airport Utility that lets you configure how the Airport Express should work. It can establish its own WLAN or connect to an existing one for which you have to provide the access information, of course. It has a couple of more features that I don't use such as acting as a print server if you connect a printer to its USB port.
One problem, however, still remains. iTunes lets you only stream music to the Airport Express. Watching movies or TV is not possible. The solution here is the application Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba, available for Mac and Windows. It allows you to stream any sound from any application to Airport Express. This is actually what you expect would work out-of-the-box, but you have to invest $25 for the current single-user licence price. By adding the so-called Extra Instant Hiack it can steal the sound output from any application and send it to Airport Express. This even works for EyeTV and with the included video player also for movies.
The solution here is Apple's Airport Express. For this purpose, it acts as a audio streamer. It has audio output interface and connects to any WLAN. Hence, the cinch cable now goes into the Airport Express and I stream the audio from iTunes to it. There is my music on my hi-fi system without any cable going out from the MacBook.
One problem, however, still remains. iTunes lets you only stream music to the Airport Express. Watching movies or TV is not possible. The solution here is the application Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba, available for Mac and Windows. It allows you to stream any sound from any application to Airport Express. This is actually what you expect would work out-of-the-box, but you have to invest $25 for the current single-user licence price. By adding the so-called Extra Instant Hiack it can steal the sound output from any application and send it to Airport Express. This even works for EyeTV and with the included video player also for movies.
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