Writing What We Want

Many things are happening in my new world of Mac Mini.  Obviously I missed a post with all the excitement.  Or maybe I was just being lazy.  Whatever the case, here we are again.

Hardware Additions

• 8GB of RAM —  Huge improvement over the 2GB, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.  It’s making the whole experience just that much more enjoyable because everything is smooth.  I never again want to see a desktop machine (and probably laptop machine) with less than 4GB.  It just doesn’t make sense.
• Apple Magic Mouse — Had to do it.  The mouse is a crucial pointing device in my world.  The touchpad is still there, and I use it, but the mouse is a must.  Although, I’m still not a hundred percent sold on the Magic Mouse.  We’ll see how that goes.
• Rechargable Batteriers and Charger — Kind of an obvious necessity seeing as how all my devices are wireless (keyboard, mouse, trackpad).

Software Upgrades

• Lion OS — This came in week four, so I’m still getting used to it.  The immididate difference, which actually took me a second to realize was a feature of the OS, was the new natural scrolling.  (up is down and down is up…sort of ).  If you’ve used an app phone or a tablet, then you already get it.  It took me about 45 minutes to adapt to this setting on a desktop, and now I don’t even notice.  Although, going between the Mac and the Winbox is a bit interesting.

The Coolest Part

Apple GarageBand!  Not just the software, but that we’re now using it to make a weekly podcast.  We’ve recorded and aired one show so far, and hope to do a second one this weekend.  If you have a spare 30 minutes, check out The Pregnant Scholars.

Speaking of cool things, the new Macbook Airs were released this week.  Expect to own one of those in the next few months.

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Moved the mini to my primary machine, mostly. Can’t totally write-off the windows box until I’m willing to spring for a Mac version of M$ Office, but I don’t see that happening any time soon, seeing as how I don’t use Excel that often. (But just enough.) The Debian box is officially off the desk and relocated to the closet. Still on the network, though, so it’s serving its primary Samba purpose.

Hardware Additions

2 TB G-drive

AirPort Extreme

I should connect the 2 devices, since they are kind of designed for that, but I opted to hook the G-drive directly to the Mac Mini via the Firewire port. It’s doing what I need it to do, and it’s clean, it’s quiet. (Strangely, though, the G-drive has a very bright light on the front that doesn’t make much sense. I get that it’s there to communicate with me, but it lights up the entire room while doing so. Unnecessary.)

The AirPort is a huge improvement over my old Netgear RT314 and WAP54G setup. I can actually multitask while one computer is, seemingly, saturating the pipe. Accessing the AirPort was fairly simple and straight forward, but gave much less control than I’m used to. That’s the point, I suppose, “it just works”. Sure it does

Added a second monitor. (Not a new monitor, just a new cable.) I’m using the single cord, Apple mini-display to HDMI cable. It works.

Frustrations

2 major complaints: The trackpad is great for browsing the web, and most mind numbing computer past times, but it was way behind the curve when I needed to do some photo editing in Gimp. It’s just too difficult to get the needed control and accuracy at a quick enough pace compared to a mouse. So a mouse addition is on the horizon, and it will probably be the magic mouse, even though I already bitched about it being a plastic piece of trash. (Hey, I want the full Apple experience.)

The RAM is getting upgraded. 2GB just isn’t cutting it, especially since I’m using the Mini as my primary box these days. Or, at least, I’m attempting to. (Seriously, being mostly in the cloud is making life easy across all these platform changes, but I also have three different web browsers running at any one time, in addition to whatever else is open. So we feel the need to upgrade for some speed improvements.)

My second monitor has a strange resolution that isn’t working properly in OS X, so too much of the screen is off the monitor’s display. And the picture is mushy. A fraking drag, to say the least. It works, sure, but it’s not working like it should. (This monitor works fine on my Windows 7 box, so don’t give me that nonsense.) I’m addicted to my two monitor setups, but I don’t see this setup going much further. I’ll go back to a single monitor setup until I can persuade myself to purchase a new monitor. Some day…

New Thoughts

It’s all about what I’ve expected so far, except for the monitor problems. And who knows, maybe that’s something to do with the cable I’m using, although I doubt it. (I know it’s not a “true” HDMI cable, on a technicality.)

The iPod Touch is still kind of a joke. We’ve put some games on it, but that’s about it. It’s a great second controller for my Sonos system, but nowhere near necessary. I’m not willing to give up on it yet, so we’ll keep at it. Maybe I’ll gift it to someone this holiday season. Happy JustinLL foreverness.

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Getting Started

Installation, or boot up I suppose, was a breeze.  I really thought I was going to have problems doing a first boot without having a wired keyboard connected, but much to my pleasure, both the keyboard and trackpad connected via bluetooth hassle free, and I was on my way.  Blah blah blah, and it booted itself fine, connected to the network, and I applied all the available updates, just as I would have with a winbox or linux distro.  As it sits now, I think it’s fully ready to receive Lion when it’s released to the wild.

But let’s keep this simple, and here we go…

Software

All the usual freeware I’m used to on my other machines loaded up just about as nicely as I could have wanted.  I think some of it was through the Appstore and the rest I took directly from web sites.  It wasn’t too difficult learning thew Mac methods of installation.

A quick list of what I have so far (in addition to the standard apps that come bundled with the OS): Chrome (stable and canary), Dropbox, KeePassX, Evernote, Twitter (which is kind of a lame client, but I refuse to install flash just for TweetDeck), F.lux, VLC, and Sonos.  I also added Sophos Anti-Virus, but that is unique to Mac, and I haven’t used it on any other platforms.

We’re still undecided as to whether or not we’ll purchase MS Office or use iWorks from Apple.  Or maybe neither, and I’ll still full time with GoogleDocs.

Use

Really not too much to say just yet.  All my network drives appeared and connected without a fuss.  I immediately searched for a list of keyboard shortcuts (for the OS and Chrome) and I’m in the process of learning those.  The machine is extremely quiet and hasn’t given me any guff.  I haven’t had too much time yet to really dive in, but now that I’m loaded up with software and everything seems to be in place, I think I can start test driving it full time.  My one primary concern is the RAM.

Until we meet again…

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The time has arrived, and it is now. I’ve been tempted for a while, but…it just never seemed right. (Sidenote: The last time I used a Mac was in college for an assembly programming course. My cousin forked out some cash and bought a used macbook thingy so we could do our homework away from the computer lab.) But now I did the forking out of the doughing and sprang for a few key components to get me started in the world of Apple products.

Mac Mini (2010 model) Product Features

• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• 2 GB of Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M Graphics
• 320 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
• 8x-Speed SuperDrive

Not a bad set of specs. It might be a little light on Memory right out of the box, but I can increase that to 8GB, should the need arise.

My Selected Mac Mini Accessories

The Apple Wireless Keyboard, the Apple Magic Trackpad, and an HDMI cable to connect to one of my existing monitors. It wasn’t a tough choice to take the trackpad over the Apple Magic Mouse. The mouse, while having multitouch, still felt like a cheap piece of plastic — it just didn’t add up next to the keyboard and trackpad. Plus I want the trackpad so I can take full advantage of gestures in the Lion OS, when it’s released. (We’ll see, I may end up adding a wireless mouse from Logitech next to the trackpad.)

To iPod Touch or iPad2?

I went with the Apple iPod Touch 8 GB (4th Generation). I’m still unsure what I’ll do with it since I’m not big on carting around music files, and I’m a huge fan of dropbox for moving files around, but I didn’t feel like I could get a full and true Apple experience without having one iOS device.

Next Steps and Then What

Initially, I anticipate some frustration, but that’s more to do with having to deal with change, so we’ll most likely be chalking it up to average human behaviour. I expect I’ll get through it quickly and be on and about my way.

Otherwise, I don’t really know what to expect. I should point out that I’m looking at this as a potential replacement to my Debian (Linux) box and not my Windows box. Not that I think it matters too much these days since most of what I do is moving to the cloud and I can access it from any platform, including ChromeOS when the time tickles me to do so. Which is to say, soon, I suspect, I’ll be running six different operating systems.

Ultimately, I suspect I’ll be recommending 2012 refreshed Mac Mini machines as ideal candidates as brains for folks’ home entertainment systems. Especially with the introduction of Thunderbolt and very large external storage devices. I have a variety of other reasons, but we can uncover those in the weeks to come.

Post schedule will be weekly for the first month, then bi-monthly, and monthly. (possibly less frequent, but will try to maintain once per month.) In any event, stay tuned, and watch as I fall totally off-the-wagon-stupid for Apple products, or violently smash tiny and defenseless electronic items out of frustration. Either way, it’s a party somewhere.

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