mguhlin

Best of Both Worlds

Are you a brand new Intel Mac user? I am. After using Windows and GNU/Linux exclusively for the last five years, I was persuaded to buy one of the new Intel-based Macbooks. Like teachers and students in Ysleta ISD who are experiencing the “best of both worlds” with their new dual-platform Macbooks, I am exploring the possibilities. This installment of Download a la Mode focuses on experiencing the best of both worlds, and recommends Macintosh specific software for first-time users. With one $15 exception, all of it is free, open source or freeware you can use. In addition to programs listed in response to the questions below, I have also added a bonus list of must-have applications for Mac users in the sidebar, Must-Have Mac Apps.

Questions

Some of the specific questions addressed in this issue include the following:

  1. How do I run Windows XP (or GNU/Linux) on my Macbook?
  2. How do I get my Mac to play proprietary audio formats?
  3. How do I convert WMA audio files to MP3 format?
  4. How do I get rip audio off CDs without buying any special programs?
  5. How do I terminate individual programs when they crash and freeze on my Macbook?
  6. How do I ensure that a program quits when I close the last program window (like on Windows XP)?
  7. How can I quickly capture images from my screen for use in tutorials or on the Web?
  8. How can I draw images on Windows?
  9. How can I FTP—file transfer protocol—files using a two-pane window, like popular programs on Windows and GNU/Linux?
  10. How can I get my DELETE key to “delete forward” rather than just backward in one direction?
  11. How do I uninstall a program on my Macbook so that ALL the preferences and settings are gone?
  12. How can I easily combine PDF files without Adobe Acrobat Professional?
  13. How can I turn turn a USB Flash drive into a Mac OS X diagnostic, repair, and maintenance tool?

How do I run Windows XP (or GNU/Linux) on my Macbook?

“You’re using a Mac?” asked an incredulous, digital storytelling workshop participant recently. “How can you be running Microsoft PhotoStory on it?” One of the primary benefits of having an Intel-based Macbook is that you can run multiple operating systems.

Having seen these claims before with older Macs—and investigated them thoroughly—I was shocked to find that, yes, you can run Windows XP, as well as your favorite GNU/Linux distribution on your Intel Mac without restarting your computer (you can get the free BootCamp that requires a restart of your computer, but I often like to run Windows and Mac programs at the same time. Having to restart was a pain).

However, this involved purchasing Parallels Desktop for Mac, which costs $79.99 retail. So, I purchased seven copies for my team at work to use (they were also running off an Intel Macbook). However, before the licenses arrived, I became aware of a completely FREE solution (pricing has been announced since I wrote this article, though) that proved BETTER than Parallels.

Some of the obstacles I encountered with Parallels Desktop for Mac included slow startup of the Windows XP “virtualization,” as it is known, and the inability to install GNU/Linux distribution of choice. I was not happy because I occasionally needed to run other operating systems and programs. The new, no-cost solution? VMWare Fusion. Although still in beta, the program did everything I asked of it that Parallels could not do. A neat feature reported of VMWare Fusion is it’s ability to ‘’suspend a virtual machine to disk with all your applications open to just where you want them.” The benefit? You can quickly resume applications open where you want them. For example, if I’m working in MS Outlook, everything shuts down exactly where I want, then I can re-open and voila!, I’m there.

You can find a host of information available online about each of these solutions. You can download these tools to empower your Intel Mac at the sites below:

How do I get my Mac to play proprietary audio/video formats?

Although you can use iTunes to deal with a variety of audio formats, using iTunes in that way is a bit like using a Bowie knife as a letter-opener. The easiest way to get your Mac to play proprietary audio formats is to use VLC Media Player (available for Windows and GNU/Linux as well).

Another benefit of using VLC is that you can “crank up” the sound. If using a Macbook, you will probably encounter “low” sound output on your Macbook from the built-in speakers, as well as unamplified speakers you might plug-in.

Although I recently bought $20 amplified speakers to “boost” the signal coming from the Macbook, another trick is to play media (movies and audio) via VLC Media Player. With VLC, you can crank up your sound to 400%. Now, if only we could crank up our personal productivity as easily!

Download VLC Media Player online at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

You can also equip your Mac by installing a few other applications that add functionality. In addition to playing audio/video, you may want to convert it from proprietary formats as they are shared on the Web. Here are a few more I recommend:

Although converting video is a bit trickier—sometimes the online services fail—you can accomplish it with a shareware program known as EasyWMV ($15). Unlike the other programs mentioned in this article, it costs money. As shared on their web site, EasyWMV can be used to convert or resize wmv, asf, avi, mp4, mpg, mpeg, mov, m4v, flv, nsv, swf and vob video files so that they can be used with QuickTime Player, Apple TV or an iPod. You can get it online at http://www.easywma.com/wmv/

How do I convert WMA audio files to MP3 format?

Want to do fun things with audio, but don’t want to spend money on an iPod and Belkin recorder? You may turn, like David Warlick and my school district did, to the Olympus WS-100 digital audio recorder. This $64 digital audio recorder gets great audio quality and costs a fraction of what an iPod would cost. In fact, you can take lesson plans that use an iPod and use the Olympus WS-100 instead. I wrote about it here http://www.mguhlin.net/archives/2007/04/entry_3123.htm and encourage you to read how. I especially like how Stephanie Sandifer, whom I met at the TCEA 2007 Conference, uses the Olympus WS-100:

I use my Olympus recorder with my Mac and it does show up like a mounted drive (or USB flash drive) as soon as I plug it in to one of my USB ports. It allows you to record into one of 5 separate folders — so you could assign each folder to different situations (meetings, training sessions or classes, interviews, reminders, grocery lists, etc.) and then when you open the mounted drive you’ll see the 5 folders. You just selected whichever one you recorded into and then drag the approriate file over to your harddrive (Source: http://ed421.com)

Like some other recorders, the Olympus WS-100 generates audio files in the WMA format. To convert them on your Macintosh, you can either use iTunes or a free program known as Switch. The Switch sound format converter can convert many different audio file formats including wav, mp3, ogg, flac, aac, wma, au, aiff, ogg, msv, dvf, vox, atrac, gsm, dss and other formats into mp3 or wav. I like it because I do not have mess with running iTunes and instead use one program to get the job done.

You can download Switch for Mac/Windows/Linux online at http://www.nch.com.au/switch/

Sidebar: Nifty Mac Related Web Sites

How do I get (or “rip”) audio off CDs without buying any special programs?

You can rip CDs to MP3, OGG or any variety of formats using the free, GPL Max.

Per the Max web site, Max can generate audio in over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey’s Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE. Furthermore, Max allows you to read and write audio files in over 20 different formats.

Download Max online at http://sbooth.org/Max/

How do I terminate individual programs when they crash and freeze on my Macbook?

Lots of programs are open on my computer at any one time. I’m usually copying-n-pasting images and text from one application to another, checking my email, running a java applet, and much more. Multi-tasking is just a fact of life. Another fact of life is that computer programs crash. Although it seldom happens on my Macbook, when it does happen, I can be left in limbo waiting for something to happen. One trick for terminating an individual program that has crashed or frozen is to press OPTION-APPLE-ESC to bring up the FORCE QUIT APPLICATION dialog. This will allow you to select an individual application and force it to quit. You can then restart the application and move on.

How do I ensure that a program quits when I close the last program window (like on Windows XP)?

When you close a program window on a Mac—for example, the last document window in Audacity sound editor or NeoOffice word processor—the program itself keeps on running in the background. You actually have to QUIT a program you want to close out. This can be problematic for Windows users who are accustomed to clicking an application closed by selecting the “x” on an open window.

To accomplish this on a Mac, use StopLight (you’ll have to register for a no-cost account). After you install StopLight, you can configure it to quit out of a program when you close the last open window of an application.

Get your no-cost account and download StopLight online at http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=26669

How can I quickly capture images from my screen for use in tutorials or on the Web?

Two fun programs allow you to capture pictures of your screen for sharing in other documents. If you’re a brand new Mac user, you may not yet be familiar with Skitch. Skitch—available at Skitch.com—is a phenomenal image capture tool. You can take a picture of your screen, copy an image into the program, and do simple annotations with arrows and more. Here’s a snapshot of a web page where I added arrows and a few words:

Skitch also allows you simple, easy image creation. It’s simplicity makes it a clear winner, as shown in this example of a diagram I made to illustrate a blog entry about writing simply:

One additional feature of Skitch is that you can save your screenshots and created images to the Web quickly, easily and, currently, at no cost. Skitch is beta software, so there will probably be a cost eventually, however, it is well worth it. In the meantime, give it a spin. You may find you won’t be able to go back to other image capture programs!

While you can use the built-in screen capture functionality of Mac OS X—OPTION APPLE 3 or 4 depending on whether you want a shot of the whole screen or a selected area—I like to use a program known as Instashot. This program lacks the functionality of Skitch, but you can use it in different ways.

Instashot allows you classical screenshot functionality for capturing the whole screen, a portion of it or a window and also the option to make timed screenshots or to make delayed captures over time. Once InstaShot is installed, you have an icon in your menu bar. You can see a menu of options that includes any of the following options: whole screen, a portion of screen, timed screenshot or multiple captures. It allows you to save the screenshots to JPG, PNG, and/or TIFF files, as well as to your clipboard.

Download InstaShot online at http://projects.digitalwaters.net/index.php?q=instantshot

For just capturing a screen shot of an application window on Mac OSX go OPTION+APPLE+4+SPACE BAR. A little camera will appear- move it over the application and the app will turn blue. Click and you have a screen capture of just that app or icon.

How can I draw images on Windows?

Not being an artist/drawer kind of guy, may I suggest The GIMP? You install X11 off your Mac System CDs and you’re set to go. If you’re already familiar with Adobe PhotoShop, then you might consider getting the GIMPshop, which customizes the GIMP to look like PhotoShop.

Other programs that might meet your needs—at no cost—in regards to drawing and pixel punting, as well as animation, include Pixen, Seashore, and Pencil.

Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X and Windows. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics.

You can download these applications online at the following web sites:

How can I FTP—file transfer protocol—files using a two-pane window, like popular programs on Windows and GNU/Linux?

While there are several two-pane window FTP programs for Mac, they usually cost money. Those that are free, well, let’s just say they haven’t been perfected yet. CyberDuck is one of my favorite single pane window FTP programs, but it doesn’t meet the standard of showing you the server on one side, and your local files on the other with simple arrows to indicate the direction of the file transfer.

If you use Mozilla Firefox—and I definitely encourage you to do so—you should get an add-on to Firefox that allows you to FTP. In fact, this is a must-have add-on to Firefox regardless of what operating system you use. The add-on is FireFTP. It allows you to save commonly used FTP sites with username and password, and, in my experience, works flawlessly.

You can download FireFTP online at http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

If you want file management a la Xtree Gold (if you know what this is, then you’re an old time DOS user!), in addition to FTP capability, then you must take a look at the muCommander. MuCommander is available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux and gives you control over moving, copying files around on your computer or via file transfer to a remote server or computer.

Download muCommander at http://www.mucommander.com/

How can I get my DELETE key to “delete forward” rather than just backward in one direction?

Various word processors offer you the opportunity to delete forward. Unfortunately, some do not or use different key combinations. As a writer, I often write in the freeware application known as TextWrangler and I am able to use SHIFT-DELETE on my Macbook to delete forward.

While TextWrangler is my multi-purpose text editor, great for editing a variety of files, I would rather not do serious writing in it. And, while I like the power of more sophisticated word processors (e.g. NeoOffice, Open Office, MS Word), those are often slow to start up. And, like the quick Bean Word Processor, SHIFT-DELETE does not delete forward.

Instead, I use a different key combination. Hold down the “fn” key which appears in the bottom left-hand corner of your keyboard and press DELETE key at the same time, and you’ll delete forward.

You can download

You can also re-map your keys using a free, open source program known as Double Command. You can download it at http://doublecommand.sourceforge.net

How do I uninstall a program on my Macbook so that ALL the preferences and settings are gone?

“Skype isn’t working right,” I told the network tech who had trudged down from the vicinity of the heavenly helpdesk. His response was, “Can you uninstall Skype and then reinstall the new version?” After having played around with Macs for a few years, it seemed that uninstalling anything would certainly be a problem. The reason why is that even if you throw away the application, there are a host of preference files and libraries that are left behind.

A more rapturous, uninstall experience can be had if you use AppDelete. AppDelete not only deletes the application you choose, but also any associated items—including files and folders—that belong to that application. This saves you a hunt through your system to find these items and remove them yourself! Using AppDelete is pretty easy. Instead of dragging an application file to the trashcan, you drag it on top of AppDelete icon (I leave mine on the desktop next to the Trash). You soon hear a satisfying series of “trash” deposit sounds from AppDelete as it cleans out your hard drive. The application and related items are put into the Trashcan so that, if you choose, you can review what has been thrown away before you empty the trash. In months of using AppDelete, it’s never failed to do the job right. No documents have ever been thrown away.

Download AppDelete online at http://reggie.ashworth.googlepages.com/appdelete

Must-Have Mac Apps

It’s not every day you run into great applications, but I recently went through and cleaned out my must-have Mac applications. I have narrowed the list down to the following. Note that I do not include applications mentioned in the article, so you’ll want to read that as well.

Communication/Network Tools

  1. Adium – Instant Messaging for Gmail/Yahoo and more- http://www.adiumx.com/
  2. Chicken of the VNC – virtual network control – http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/
  3. Cocoa MySQL – interacts with MySQL databases – http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/
  4. iStumbler – find wireless networks – http://www.istumbler.net/downloads/istumbler.html

Audio/Video Tools

  1. Audacity – sound editing – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
  2. Democracy Player – plays FLV files and more – http://getdemocracy.org/
  3. Handbrake – rip DVDs to a file – http://handbrake.m0k.org/
  4. Soundflowerbed (awesome sound diverting so you can record what you’re playing into Audacity) – http://www.cycling74.com/products/soundflower

Image Tools

  1. Flickr Uploadr – upload images to Flickr – http://micampe.it/projects/flickruploadr
  2. Flickr Backup – backup images from Flickr – http://sourceforge.net/projects/flickrbackup
  3. Image Tricks – simple things you can do with a file – http://www.belightsoft.com/products/imagetricks/overview.php
  4. ImageWell – very simple image editing/manipulation – http://xtralean.com/IWOverview.html

Productivity Tools

  1. CMAP Tools – graphic organizer – http://cmap.ihmc.us/
  2. LiquidCD (this is like the best find for CD burning) – http://www.maconnect.ch/index.php?page=liquidcd&lang=en
  3. NeoOffice – office suite – http://www.neooffice.org/
  4. NVU – web page editing – http://www.nvu.com/
  5. PDFLab – merge PDF files you create with this free utility – http://iconus.ch/fabien/pdflab/
  6. Scribus – desktop publishing – http://www.scribus.net/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=3&page=1

Mac Tweaking Tools

  1. Dock Dividers (vertical) – lets you organize your dock with dividers – http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/dockdividers.html
  2. FlashMount – mounts DMG files quickly. – http://www.liquidnexus.com/?page_id=2
  3. iRed Lite – remote control your Mac – http://www.filewell.com/iRedLite/
  4. SimplyRAR – compress files using RAR format instead of ZIP – http://mac.majorgeeks.com/download5712.html
  5. The UnArchiver – uncompresses just about anything – http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html
  6. TinkerTool – lets you customize your Mac dock and a few other things) – http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html
  7. Enable Your Intel Mac to access 802.11n – http://tinyurl.com/2buz3o

How can I easily combine PDF files without Adobe Acrobat Professional?

While it is certainly easy to make PDF files on a Mac no matter what application you are using, it’s not obvious how to combine multiple PDF files into one document. To accomplish that, you once might have needed Adobe Acrobat Professional. Now, all you need is the freeware PDFLab. This program…

…lets you split and join PDF documents as well as insert images and blank pages. You will also be able to easily create PDF documents out of several images.
Its usage is really simple. You add your files in a list, select the pages you wish to include, order them the way you want and create a new PDF document.

Give it a try! You can find it online at http://www.iconus.ch/fabien/pdflab/ . If you want more choices, check out this list online – http://del.icio.us/mguhlin/PDFTools

How can I turn turn a USB Flash drive into a Mac OS X diagnostic, repair, and maintenance tool?

Booting off an OS X CD isn’t fun. You have to remember to push the “C” key down upon startup of your Mac, then wait what seems forever. What if you could skip those troubles on your new Intel Macbook? You can, of course, if you use Das Boot. It allows you to…

DasBoot allows you to take any third party boot CD (such as those shipped by SubRosaSoft.com Inc, Prosoft Engineering Inc, Alsoft Inc, or Micromat Inc) and quickly create a bootable diagnostic device that contains any of your own utilities you may wish to install. You can use your device to boot and repair Mac OS X computers* as needed without erasing it and taking away your ability to use it for other purposes such as playing music, or watching videos. With the help of DasBoot™ you get to carry all the tools you’ll need with you. But unlike expensive third party alternatives, you’ll have plenty of space left over in case you need to recover data.

Download Das Boot at http://tinyurl.com/2zcymh

Conclusion

The best of both worlds is available as free, open source software, or at no cost as freeware software. With the wealth of applications available to Intel Mac users, it’s no wonder that some school districts are considering a switch to Intel Macs. Applications like MS Outlook and MS MovieMaker run without problem on Macbooks, and take advantage of the built-in iSight video camera.

In the next issue of Download a la Mode, we’ll explore must-have add-ons for Mozilla Firefox, as well as how to work with sharing and getting videos online.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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