(apple)mac geek

Last week I tried to sort out Steve’s computer. Steve’s PC is 8 years old, has 256 MB’s RAM and is running Windows XP. He runs Norton Antivirus, MacAfee, has two anti-spyware programs and downloads all of the windows updates and security patches and surprisingly, given its age, his laptop runs fine. Unfortunately, Steve is a trusting guy. While browsing the net 2 weeks ago a message appeared on his screen telling him that his computer might be infected and he should download a program which would confirm this and clean his machine. Steve doesn’t know he’s not supposed to use Internet Explorer 7. Steve doesn’t know that if something pops up on his screen he should not necessarily believe what it says. Steve doesn’t know that Firefox stops malicious popups which, if he were to click on them (and boy, did he click on them), it would install some very-difficult-to-remove adware on his computer and slow it down to a crawl (worse than a crawl, actually. Time runs backwards when using his laptop. I actually gained an extra 40 minutes of life while working on it).

Steve first suspected something was wrong when he was chatting to a friend in the States on MSN and wrote, “When I get back I’m going to need to buy a mattress.” 30 seconds later, a window popped up offering him GREAT DEALS ON MATTRESSES!!! This initiated a conflict between Steve’s trusting self and the invasive message he read…a conflict which was resolved by – and this is important, as it is the first lesson which most Windows users who don’t know how to hack the registry need to learn – don’t trust your Windows computer. Be suspicious. If it tells you something, don’t believe it. Especially if it looks like a popup.

Steve is from another generation. He gets the basics – emails, word processing, internet. Now he has just learnt why he should not trust his PC. I’m sad for him. Losing trust in something is never a pleasant experience.

Which is why he should trust another Steve and switch to a Mac. It’s not just that Mac’s don’t give you annoying popups – Mac’s allow you to trust them. And trust is important, which is why the philosophers tell us that the challenge for the post-postmodern world is to move from a hermeneutic (i.e. how we interpret reality) of suspicion (the default Windows user requirement) to a hermeneutic of trust (the default Mac experience).

And that’s why I’m relieved I work on a Mac – it’s just so far ahead of the rest of the world.

Technorati Tags: Apple, postmodernism, Mac

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I was asked this question today:

I often work with several docs open form the same program (i.e. 5 different word docs open at a time). Is there an easy/key command way to go between these?

apple/tab allows me to go from one open program to another. is there an equivalent for docs within a program?

Yes, there is! It’s apple + ` (the tilda ~ key).

The tilda key is found in slightly different places on the Mac laptops. On my MacBook Pro it’s right at the bottom left, just to the right of the shift key and just above the ctrl key. On my iBook it’s on the top left.

Exposé is a useful utility introduced in OS 10.3 which lets you do all sorts of interesting things just by hitting function keys (like F11, which moves all open windows out of the way and shows your desktop). F10 shows all open application windows – an alternative to using Apple and ~

like so:

You can then move your mouse over the different windows; click on one and it’ll bring it to the front.

10.4 lets us use different ways of getting at exposé, like moving your cursor to the corners of your screen. If I move my cursor to the bottom left corner Exposé shows me my desktop, like so:

If you have an Apple mouse you can also link exposé operations to different parts of the mouse. I link my side click to show application windows.

So play around with your exposé options and amaze your Windows friends!

Technorati Tags: Exposé

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A photomarathon is a full day of taking photographs on particular topics. The emphasis is on fun and creativity, and anybody can participate – all you need is a digital camera.

On Nov 3rd, we’ll meet at Bryanston Bible Church at 8:30am where we’ll have a short introduction to the theme, “Heaven in Ordinary.” Heaven can be thought of as an “out there” concept but we want to explore (through photographs) how heaven can break into the daily ordinariness of life in Jozi. There will be 12 topics (given out 4 at a time, at 9am, 1pm and 5pm) for the day and although you can shoot as many pics as you want under each topic, you can only submit a single entry – so at the end of the day you’ll hand in 12 photographs.

The cost is R50 to enter and we’ll exhibit the photos the week afterwards at Bryanston Bible Church. We’ll also find some place to hang out together after all photos have been handed in.

The above is a description I posted on the “Heaven in Ordinary: A Photo Marathon” group on Facebook (apologies if you haven’t succumbed yet!). Some of the inspiration is from the other 2 photo marathons run in SA so far and some of it is from a talk by Don Miller and John MacMurray called “Where photography and theology intersect.”.

Technorati Tags: photo marathon, photography, South Africa

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