Exporting from iPhoto to PhotoBucket + Mac VS Windows part 2

Was trying to look for some options in my photobucket account, and by chance stumbled upon the tools page and realised they provided a plugin for iPhoto for easy uploading of pics...! there there! my rant abt not being able to upload my pics to photobucket with ease solved! 1 problem down! of cos, the plugin is available for free... if you use other image hosting services u might want to check if they have such plugins for iPhoto too.


While i went out for a walk/jog yest evening... this uncle rode past me... with a folding table tied to the back of his bike. pro sia lol


was bored sometime back, so i tried out some photo effects... can't wait for my dad to buy a mac + photoshop for mac... i really want photoshop!

can't believe i left out all the rest of the keyboard differences in my previous post on mac VS windows... while mac has a command button taking over most of the work of the control key as well as en eject keyboard button (rather than one on the side of the lappy, i think this is better actually, cos i keep pressing that button when keeping/handing my old lappy causing the disk drive to pop out), it has many missing buttons compared to the standard windows keyboard...

there's a delete button on mac, but it actually works like a backspace button on windows. to forward delete, you have to press the Fn key and delete together... something that i actually just learnt today bravo. i really should read the keyboard short cuts list on the apple site to see what else i've been missing out gosh...

there's not end, page down/up, or home buttons. my lappy multi touch pad pretty much fixes all these, but it’s a chore when i can't use all these on the trackpad when i'm on xp cos my bootcamp is corrupted (tried deleting the entire partition and reinstalling, tried to re-install bootcamp so many times on xp till i finally gave up... its not too bad tho, at least i can type out my password in maple, no nid to use the soft keyboard, imagine having to use the soft keyboard when i did the attendance taking, i would have died!) it also sucks that i have less keys to put my skills n pots on in maple... but nothing that i couldn’t get used to really.

there are shortcut keys for mac for page up/down and home... but i must say that having physical key was much easier. sure they save some space on the keyboard but that's more shortcuts to rem. using the mac is all having shortcuts and more shortcuts i swear... bad for those for are more mouse oriented and would prefer erm... less shortcuts imo. i think for one my dad is gonna have big trouble remembering all these shortcuts... if he will even use them at all.

for the benefit of myself and anyone who doesn’t know:
space moves the page down, like in windows too.
shift-space moves the page up.
fn-arrow key works like page up/down
command-arrow key works like home/end
option-arrow key moves the screen up/down a page at a time... like say in preview.

that's all i think? hope i didn’t miss out any...
just a lot at this page and there's soooo many shortcuts available. most of them i don't even know, wont ever use, and wont ever remember...

i do like working with the keyboard... but so many shortcuts... it just gets kinda ridiculous at times... not to mention all my apps have their own little shortcuts... i don't use them too often and can barely rem half of them... ><

above: a list of the mac key symbols.

ah yes, i just ejected the photobucket installer... ejected a software? yeah u actually do that in mac... that's something i find cool abt mac. its really easy and fast to say stop ur usb drive. u just need to go to finder and hit the eject key beside ur drive. no nid to right click on the safety remove hardware button, than select the usb device, than select safety remove... to eject CDs u can too click on the eject button beside the drive in finder... or the button on ur keyboard... or just drag the disk icon on the desktop to the trash can... cool eh? i quite like this feature... cool and erm... fun? u can argue that its not much difference tho... but i still like the idea of not having the disk eject button on the side of the lappy. i constantly make the disk drive pop up when putting my old lappy into my bag last time.... or i'd reach sch/home only to find a half ejected disk drive cos something pressed the button during transportation. maybe that's why my disk drive on my old lappy died so fast... it died on me after like 1.5 years or smthing.

hmm, ok, that's all i can think of now... if i come up with more stuff i'll probably put them in yet another post or smthing.

Day Trip to Msia

ok... so i decided to try out flickr cos it’s the most convenient photo uploading service with iPhoto... went JB with my family on the 16th earlier this month to makan n jalan jalan... didn’t buy much tho... except some clothes. and wooden message stuff. the wood is really nice, my dad loves wooden things, like the natural wood texture, color and patterns, it kinda rubbed off me and my sis too.

ok... what i hate most abt blogger is still the pathetic photo uploading... and how many a times it doesn’t even work! and i'm just uploading a photo already on the web for godsake! i end up having to open an old post, and grap the HTML for inserting a photo from there (since my own html skill are close to zero)


we dined at 北京楼 restaurant for lunch (note: idk why this photo refuses to load for me. if u can't see it, click the words to open the photo in a new window/tab)


roasted duck. very good... crispy skin and the duck is very tasty - fresh duck. not like those frozen ones where the meat is tasteless and lost its original flavor. the sauce they gave to go with the duck is great too!


sea cucumber + goose feet + broccoli + pine nuts. i forgot wat fanciful name they gave the dish though. the broth is good, and the sea cucumber heavenly. the goose feet? to me it was nothing special... kinda like duck feet with more meat. taste wise that is. of cos there's more meat than duck feet... honestly i was much more impressed with the sea cucumber. it was soft but still springy. the dish is a one portion to a person, and you have to at least by two plates each time. my family got the min. 2 and we shared. The restaurant is actually famous for their seafood, but we only realized after ordering that we left out the seafood… except for the 2 pieces of sea cucumber… oh wells. We ordered more than enough dishes already so we didn’t really try their seafood in the end.



The dishes that we ordered… we had like one veggie, one tofu (counted by piece, min. 3 pieces, we had 1 piece per pax), one roost duck, one lamb pot, fried beehon with 冬粉… and two desserts.


that’s the羊肉锅 or lamb pot. Curiously the chunks of lamb came with… SKIN! Very much like your braised pork… only w/o the layer of fat underneath the skin, and the skin much more chewy and not as soft (compared to pork skin). 1st time I had lamb cooked with the skin. We figured that most of the time the skin + fur went to other places like handbags and all. I didn’t really like this dish though… sure the meat was soft and well cooked, but in the process of their food preparation, they removed the 羊烧味. Good news for many I guess, but the unique and strong flavor of lamb (and beef) is what makes me (and my dad n sis) attracted to it.


French beans… or something… tasted great but a bit too oily and salty... the only dish we couldn’t finish…


The restaurant’s trademark handmade tofu. Very unique, 1st time I see seaweed mixed into tofu and gosh the tofu and a very unique texture – it was very smooth and loose… the broth was great too. The seaweed at one end… the taste of seaweed isn’t strong or overpowering, just the right touch.



some vegetable+fruit juice they serve as an appetizer to all customers… they forgot to give us when we went though, my dad had to ask for it so we actually drank it after before our desserts rather than before our meal. We had trouble guessing what went into the juice… my guess was something like green apple + plums + star fruit… other guesses by the rest include celery, and… other green veggies like spinach… I’m 100% sure there are plums in there though. Like the salted ones u eat as a snack… could taste that quite strongly. Slightly sour, yet sweet, light and refreshing… very nice appetizer, just too bad it came late.

We had fried durian and honey dew sago for desert. The fried durian was good. Cool durian wrapped in those deep fried Vietnamese rolls… the ones where the roll is like some sort of netting


outside the restaurant






a huge fish tank... but hardly can see any fishes... my sis say she saw a lot of dead fish inside but i didn’t take note ><



we had Japanese food for dinner...



my sis ordered a... grape milk shake... if my memory doesn’t fail me.


salmon salmon our favourite. unless there's otoro. that's a completely different story. that'll be like comparing heaven and earth... ok, maybe i exaggerated a bit










curry omurice. was not bad but... i prefer the curry from that Go! Go! Gorilla Curry! at somerset 313 or Ion orchard (not sure if they opened outlets elsewhere). this dish is really cheap tho, was like 50% off for members and we joined the membership on the spot (20rm for 1 year, the always have special offers for members at half price...) i rem this dish worked out to smthing like 3+sgd... (once again, if my mem didn’t fail me...)


king spider ramen. basically tempura soft shell crab on top of ramen. does look quite scary and spider like tho




shioyaki ika... salt grilled squid. this one's surprisingly gd... i was expecting the ika to be over cooked and hard but nope... its was still nice and soft. personally not that fond of squids (to order a squid dish that is), but it was on 50% offer for members. we basically ordered all the non-vegetarian dishes on offer for members.


it does look quite spider like, don't u think?


their trade mark bento set A... the agedashi tofu was soaked in veggie soup... i prefer it 'dry' tho. sushi and sashimi was not bad... but kinda normal.




salmon + rice. i told u we liked salmon.




the restaurant had a really good ambiance. we went to another shop outlet at times square (erm, is that wat the shopping center right after the woodlands checkpoint is called?) before quite a while back. the place there was nicely furnished too, but it was too small and very cramp. i think the shopping center we went to this time was pelangi or smthing... my memory really sucks when it comes to such numbers and text/words... i can remember pictures and scenes vividly like i can recall the details of a movie i watch long ago and recite wat's going to happen next when Chnl 5 replays the movie X period of time later... i cannot however, for the death of me, memorize things like the times tables (as in, multiplication tables), or all the drug properties and side effects to pass my pharmaco module. but i digress...


a pond in the restaurant! yes its inside a shopping center... the restaurant is really big and spacious compared to those in sg. wat to say, msia big, sg small. simple as that.


pretty decorations...

ok, last picture!

the wooden massage stuff i mentioned earlier. randomly taken when placed on my bed. not the best place to take a photo but my table is way too messy.

ok... so that's all the pics we took... all in all we had a delightFULL day, really ate to our hearts content. the chinese food was more worth it than the japanese food though. both meals cost around the same price.... prefer the salmon we can get from the wholesaler somewhere in... woodlands? or smthing, i mix up the locations of the wholesalers... cheaper so u can eat more haha.

okays... i shd get going so that's all for now.

Mac VS Windows - the good, the bad, and why i love my Mac

I've been using a mac for about... 10 months or so now... so i thought i'll just take some time to summarize why i love my mac.

There are tons of articles praising macs, and even more die hard mac fans who would literally defend the mac to their grave... i dont think its all that fantastic and erm... godly as many make it out to be.... There are quite a few things here and there that makes my mac experience incomplete (at least w/o some EXTRA, and often paid, programs). Still, i'm loving the overall experience... In many ways the mac is more user friendly and convenient than windows... its undeniable that microsoft took ideas from apple when they came up with the sidebar + applications in vista, and the subsequent grouping of application windows in windows 7... what else did they rip off macs? lol.

The greatest change from windows and mac is probably the dock and how windows from the same application are grouped together.... unless you were a windows 7 user that is. It took me some time to get used to Expose. At the beginning i had great trouble with the idea of using both Expose and the dock... Let me explain the background situation 1st. I use firefox, chrome and safari all at the same time so i can say log in to different forum accounts and post at the same time. So previously i used the Expose function to view ALL open windows to switch between different browsers. Which gave me a huge headache as all forum windows look the same regardless of which browser it was opened in (even worst when all the preview windows are really tiny when there are many app windows open). Than figured, and slowly got used to the fact that i can use the dock buttons, and the Expose function to show all windows in the application ONLY. Now its no longer a problem for me... in fact, even when i switch to xp (cos the darn maple which doesn’t run in mac, even when i'm using parallels!) i move my mouse to the corner to switch windows... only to find that i have to click on the task bar instead.

OS X Lion is coming in July, and it brings along many features including mission control... from the preview it seems much better than the current expose as it shows at a glance which windows are from which application. Greatly looking forward to when Lion hits the stores. sadly i believe i'll have to pay to upgrade though :(

Another thing actually had to google on like the 1st day of using mac was... the finder. yes Finder is actually a program in mac, and its basically ur good ol' Explorer in windows. same thing, shows all your files and drives... only that finder is way cooler. Its more organised... instead of that big tree at the side bar showing all the various folders and sub, sub-sub etc folders... in the finder its much neater with less clutter. They dont list out ALL the folders on ur comp like explorer does, and instead you can select any folder you want to 'quick link' under Places.

Uploaded with Skitch!

'Quick linking' is very simple, just drag the folder onto the side bar!

What is strangely lacking though, is the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to cut and paste files. You have to drag the files instead, something which i find not so convenient. Weird that such a... basic? function is lacking. And ppl have certainly cashed in on the opportunity to develop programs to add in the function. Yes cashed-in. so far those that i've seen are all paid.

I use plenty of short cut keys and its great to see that like almost all the 'add on' applications i installed have short cut keys to make calling up the programs faster. the downside is that even till now, i cant remember all the shortcut keys... or wat those weird symbol mac uses stand for (i end up jabbing buttons here and there cos i just keep forgetting which symbol stands for what, there arent that many buttons to jab anyway...) i wish they put all the symbols on the keyboard itself, like the flowery icon for the command key... here's the apple help page for all the symbols and shortcuts...

Mac uses the command key instead of control key for just abt all the short cuts, and of cos the applications all follows suit. Personally i'm fine if either buttons, makes no difference to me (some say location of the command key is better than the control key in windows keyboards, less strain on the fingers and all, i dont feel any difference though). However this means that EVERYTIME i switch from mac to xp (to maple) or vice-versa, i need a bit of time to get used to pressing the corresponding button. Especially since i use the short cuts n each browser all the time (crtl/command + T to open new tab, + W to close tab, + no. to switch to that tab etc etc)... everytime i'll press the wrong key a few times before getting used to it. (command key becomes the windows key in xp!)

wat's great abt mac is that THE COMPUTER settles a lot of things for you. when you install a program, you just have to run the .dmg (its not .exe like in windows) files, and select which hard disk partition to install it in (basically i've got mac and bootcamp to pick from, of cos i install it in the mac). Some programs open up a window and you just drag the application to... your applications folder...! And now the even better part... uninstalling. Just drag the application icon to the trash! Easy! No uninstallers to run and all... no multiple folders to delete... easy and simple. I love this concept of mac.

The simplicity of using mac shines in many other areas, like the two finger scrolling and pinch to zoom features that is also found in the ipod/iphone and ipad. its so great that even other computer makers have copied the concept. rotating photos too... its all so simple and intuitive.

iPhotos is a great program that manages your photos, uploading... even simple photo editing. Great for managing your photos on the computer... but here is where i find simplicity being... a little too much of a good thing. To see the photos in finder you have to right click the picture in iPhoto and go to Show File... say if you want to upload the photos some somewhere not supported by iPhoto, like my blog here for example, or if you prefer say... photobucket (like me) to flickr... you wont be able to 'find' those photos to upload... you have to save the photos to some other file before you can upload them. Really really irritating... so much so for all the other convenience eh?

You can upload photos to FaceBook from iPhoto, and in doing so you so called link the album on FaceBook to the one on iPhoto. The good thing: to upload new photos to that album, just put it in that FB album in iPhoto - the program does the rest for you. The bad thing... or things... is that:
1) you can't upload the pics to an old album that is not linked with iPhoto
2) you can't 'unlink' the folders... not in an easy way anyway... you have to go thru elaborate steps like changing ur FB acct password so that iPhoto can't go on FB and all... why would you want to 'unlink' the album? read on.
3) if you are running out of space on ur hard disk and want to delete some old photos, but leave them on FB... you'll need to unlink the album otherwise once u delete the photo on iPhoto (and thus ur comp), the photo will be gone on FB too. (hence the elaborate procedures others have come up with to unlink the albums)

if you want to upload the photos to an old album (and don't want to link that old album to iPhoto), you can either upload it directly to FB using ur browser after 1st copying out the file to a temporary location else where (use right click, show file to view the file in finder).... OR upload it to any linked album, than go to the FB page and manually move the photos to the album of choice.

linking old albums to iPhoto takes some work too, since there isnt a feature to do this in iPhoto. You can create an album from iPhoto, than move ALL the photos from the old album into the new, linked album...

is this linked album feature good or bad? its up to the individual to decide i guess. i do appreciate the convenience... esp since i know organising photos is a dreadfully tiresome job. However the trouble i have to take to upload photos to facebook, since i do not wish to link all my albums, leaves me with much to be desired. didn’t see any updates on iPhoto in the OS X Lion update... darn, i was hoping they'd come up with a better solution for this (especially for uploading photos to other places that's not supported by iPhoto!) even to upload photos it twitter is a bit of a chore... i paid for twitexport to add that feature on to iPhoto >< abt 6.5SGD sighz. one thing i feel is a little messy is the applications folder. say u have tons of apps installed... you'll have to go through the whole list to find the app you want (if you cannot remember the name to call it up using quick sliver or my preferred Alfred). sure, this problem is present in windows too, and mac is actually better in that you see a big icon, rather than a small icon in windows... but i welcome the idea of the iphone/ipod/ipad style launchpad arriving in mac. Love how you can group apps of similar functions together... i wonder what would happen to the desktop tho? no more dumping of random files onto my desktop? hey is the desktop even there in Lion? >< gotta read up more... can't wait for it to come though! ah... while mac OS supports 2 button mouse... it doesn’t support all the extra buttons like back and forward buttons. which is really dumb... you need an application (once again, its paid) like steer mouse for that... which i bought too... its not really cheap, but it’s a really simple but great program that lets u customise all ur mouse buttons, change ur mouse movement speed etc... you can try it free for 14 days, so give it a try if you are used to the using mouse with like 4 or even more buttons. i'm always used to pressing the back and forward buttons on my mouse rather than using the on screen buttons so the app is impt to me. i think that control freaks will need a bit of time getting used to the mac. you need to let go of that control and stop worrying about where your photos are being saved, or which folder ur applications are going into... or whether that simple procedure of dragging the program icon to the trash can is a clean uninstall... at least those were some of the worries i had in the beginning. what i loved best about mac was all the things i could customise and play around with. i don't know why, but somehow i just didn’t do it much, or at all, when i used my windows lappy. maybe it was cos i was excited at getting a brand new mac? perhaps its cos of all the convenience and intuitive features of mac itself that spurred me to make the lappy even more 'me'. or perhaps it was the mac app store... either way, i searched for apps both on google and the app store that would make things even more convenient and user friendly... or simply for apps to fill the gaps missing in the OS. Customizing the dock and the icons in the dock probably gave me the greatest satisfaction of all. sure that can be done on windows too, but in xp and vista that i used, the application icon in the taskbar was so puny u barely know what it looks like... unlike in the dock where its big, and visible at all times. oh yes... the dock was another thing i loved abt the mac. SO MANY dock applications... i swear there's a lot more than in for vista (tried searching once, didn’t find much interesting stuff). i've loaded my dock with all sorts of stuff like a scientific calculator with more features than the originally give one... weather report (ok, i forgot if that was there originally), word counter (this article contains like 2.5k words as of the previous paragraph ><), screenshot grabber, itunes controller, sticky notes, mac status (like the memory usage, temperatures etc), currency converter... etc... so much things to play ard with indeed. game compatibility is probably still the greatest bane for macs... well at least for a mapler like me. apart from that... well the mac pretty much comes with most essential programs already... the only thing i had to spend big money on (more than 20 bucks per program) was... microsoft office. i didn’t get mac's iWork cos... comments have said that msoft office was still more complete in terms of functionality, and since i'm only getting one of them i picked office (3 user license, which is all well cos i've convinced my dad to get a mac for his own use... nah, it wasn’t really me, it was my mac that convinced him). I need to get a photoshop for mac too. haven gotten it yet though... waiting for my dad to buy it when he gets his mac (and he in turn, is waiting for Lion to be out) hmm ok, that's all the stuff i can think of right now, and blogger keeps saying that auto-save failed. is it cos i've wrote too much? ><

till next time!

How to Zhng ur Mac!

How to Zhng ur Mac! aka How to Spruce Up/Pimp Your Mac (for those who are not Singish inclined)

(written with my macbook pro in mind, title inspired by mrbrown's zhng ur car series)

i remember making a post abt some great firefox and itoy aka iphone apps quite some long time ago. recently i've had a ball of a time sprucing up my mac and such... that i've decided to make a post abt all the best apps (IMO of course) for mac.

Warning: I forsee a really really long post coming up, and I think i'll take an equally long time writing it.


Ease of Access/Use.... Apps that make your life easier:

1) Alfred - free, available from the mac app store. a paid powerpack is available, but its pretty expensive (euros is omg so strong!) and i dont think i will use the powerpack features much (well basically i'm 1) too broke/stingy to buy the powerpack, sponsers anyone? 2) still prefer the mouse/trackpad for powerpack features)

ok more on the FREE Alfred and why i really really love this app to bits. Basically, Alfred is a handy little search bar that you call up with a keyboard shortcut (option + space by default) that allows you to search and run/open files, applications... etc etc. Its tiring to have to scroll through the whole long list of applications... typing them is a much faster way to call up those programs. the downside is that you have to remember their names though.... i dont use Alfred to open up files much. mainly because my lecture notes for sch work are named in all sorts of weird ways (and i'm too lazy to rename them all). Alfred also learns your user preferences, so it will list the most frequently used item on top.

There is another application called QuickSliver that does basically the same thing, i have them both installed but i prefer Alfred. why? cos Alfred shows a list of all the possible hits, rather than just one hit in QuickSliver. This is especially useful when you arent quite sure of the entire name - a list will let you spot what you are looking for while in QuickSliver you might just forever be missing it out.

I think Alfred should be one of the 1st (if not the 1st) app to get on a new mac. Hey its free afterall, why not just give it a try?



2) Window Keys - available in the mac store. Free... supposed to be free cos the developer just released another app... i downloaded it a couple of months back, and now its still free... so... yeah...

One of the greatest annoyances of mac is the pathetic window resizing function. I mean... I've gotten used to how they put all the application windows in the same application on the dock... I've gotten used to using the active screen corners (and fallen in love with it), and how to pick out the right window i'm navigating to amongst the many others show in a small screen etc etc... but i cant stand how they wont resize my windows properly for me. Many a times i click the green + sign and they... 1) make a window into some funny size OR 2) place my window in some funny location OR 3) make my window even smaller (hey, i always though that button was for expanding the window rather than shrinking it!). Well... Apple hates window(s). It’s a fact...

Here's where window keys comes in. It allows you to use keyboard short cuts to move, resize, and most importantly for me, maximise the window. a great savior for me - i like my windows as big as possible, but i dont like running things in full screen cos i love my dock + i keep switching btw windows (i prefer clicking the dock icons than keyboard shortcuts)



3) Typinator - i got this one on offer at like... smthing ard 15 SGD. Got it from MacUpdate Promo - Check out the site for programs on offer...

Yikes! This is one expensive app! Basically it replaces what you type with a predefined word(s). It works great as a spell checker, esp for ppl like me who keeps typing 'T-E-H" instead of "T-H-E', amongst many other common and constant typos... you can also specify long words or even whole sentences/paragraphs for the program to insert as you type. Check you more on their website http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/. It is really as fast as the video shows... and adding or removing words is as easy as they claim. I brought the program with all my frequent typos + upcoming reports/fyp in mind. Like ya know all that pesky long names... i can add them in the program so i dont have to type out the full thing. AND i can delete those when i'm done with my report/fyp etc. Quite pleased with it so far even tho i've not put it to heavy use yet.



4) Calendar - free, available in the mac app store.
Pretty simple app, basically it puts a small icon on your menu bar and lets you view your calendar (iCal) from there. better and faster than opening up iCal IMO. Scroll over the dates to see the entries for that day. If you need to add in any entry, just double click on the date and it will open up iCal for you. with this, i've removed iCal from my already overcrowded dock.



5) nowplaying for mac - free, available in the mac app store.
shows the song you are playing, artist in the menu bar so u can keep track. simple yet convenient. if you listen to songs on your comp a lot and like to keep track of wat you are listening to, than this is the app for you.



6) tracks - free, available in the mac app store.
another music related app. this one lets you type the song you wish to play from your menu bar. without having to open up itunes.


7) Copy paster - free, available in the mac app store.
Basically a clipboard so you can select which previous items you want to paste. Shortcuts available and can be configured.




Communications
1) Adium - free. Download from http://adium.im/
Basically its your MSN messenger, AIM, Yahoo... heck even the China messenging program QQ is supported here! Only bad thing is that it doesn’t support video calls. For that you have to use Skype or Microsoft Messager (basically MSN for Macs). For me, i only use MSN out of all the services that Adium supports... so why use Adium instead of the 'original MSN'?
- Msn (for mac) doesn’t support a bunch load of functions... including things like sending offline messages. I have many friends (heck, even my sis!) who likes to appear offline... i cant send them messages on msn, but i can on Adium
- Loads of pretty themes and emoticon packs for you to download and pick from...
- much better interface, more userfriendly. in particular i love how they put your conversations in one window, but different tabs... makes all your conversations look much neater. on the other hand, MSN is... screwed. Once you open up one conversation windows, ALL the rest of the conversation windows open up. Unlike in the Windows version where each conversation is a separate window, you can minimise and expand each window separately... here you cant.
- Previous conversations are kept in Adium... so you can keep track of where you and your friends previously chatted till. Ever found yourself in a jam cos u needed some info from the convo window but accidentally closed it? You wont have this problem anymore in Adium.

The only reason why I would open up Microsoft MSN is cos of the video chatting... which i hardly use anyway... in any case, there's always skype...



2) Skype - free (can pay to get more features). Download from http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-computer/macosx/
i think most of us know about this already... basically its like msn, but more for video chatting and all... personally i dont use it much though, dont like having ppl see my messy hair + room...




3) MailTab for Gmail - free, available in the mac app store.
As the name suggests, it lets you check your email right from your menu bar. Very convenient indeed.



4) Twitter - free, mac store
Basically... you get a program that lets you read tweets, retweet, and post tweets so you do not have to go to the website itself.



Browsers
Camino - free. http://caminobrowser.org/download/
There's the usual safari (Mac's original web browser, like internet explorer on windows) , chrome, and firefox that most windows users would be familiar with... however there's one more browser that you should try for mac - Camino. It touts itself to be built exclusively for the mac, and have loading speeds to beat that of chrome. Its just like your other web browers, but probably faster. It does load web pages faster, but i've not done an exact speed test so i cant tell you the numbers.



Security Issues
1) Lock Screen - US$1.99 on the app store, i got it at 99cents previously.
with a command L you lock the screen... and you can set a passpattern on how to unlock it. well its not the most secure thing in the world, but its decent enough for me like when i'm in sch or smthing. its not like i'm working on some top secret documents anyway (i'd probably be more afraid of my lappy getting STOLEN than of them trying to crack my slide code...) PLUS, the lock screen is darn COOL i swear!



2) VirusBarrier Express - Free, mac store. There's a paid pro version too.
Free anti virus software that'll scan against mac viruses. Free virus definition updates... if you want it to scan for windows viruses... you'll have to pay.



3) TokenLock - US$2.99, available in the mac app store.
I got this one for free from some twitter... retwiting... erm... competition? idk wat to call it... basically i managed to snug a free code XD. Auto locks the computer when a USB cable is plugged in or out... or bluetooth device is connected or disconnected.



Photos and Doodles
1) Seashore - free. http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/Download.html
Its an open source image editor for mac. No, it wont replace photoshop, but it has quite a lot of photoshop features that lets you do some basic image editing... and hey, its free.



2) SketchBookExpress - free, app store. there's a paid version too.
Great app for random doodles or serious drawing. Not really good at drawing so i dont know if this (or its paid version) is the best one out there... but this app looks pretty impressive to me.



3) Smoke - free, app store. okok, its US$9.99 in the app store... but you can download a free version from their website (will have watermark on save pictures)
Very pretty effects, makes for fun doodling... just randomly dragging your cursor around...



Visual Effects... and more... How to Make you Mac Pretty
1) LiteIcon - free http://www.freemacsoft.net/LiteIcon/
Lets you change all the icons of the mac system. Like the finder icon, the trash can... the Mac HD drive... various folders.... so on and so forth.



2) Img2icns - free to convert img2icns, but to do it backwards you have to buy the paid version.
http://www.img2icnsapp.com/
Basically with this, you can make or take your favourite picture, and convert it into the .icns file format for use as an application icon.

For those of you who do not know, here is how you can change your application icons to another picture: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2493. For a more pictorial version check this out http://pimpmymac.wordpress.com/2007/03/05/how-to-change-icons/. This method is sort of temporary however... sometimes the application... updates itself? or smthing and it changes the icon back. If you are sick of having to keep changing the icon, you can try a more permanent method by...
1) show the application is finder.
2) right click and hit the show package contents button.
3) find the original icon .icns file.
4) copy your new icon into the same location, and change its name to whatever the original one was... and delete the old .icns file.
5) restart the application (if it doesn’t work, restart your mac), and voila! new icon!
Google Chrome keeps... updating and changing its icon back now though... even the 'permanent' icon change doesn’t work... you'll have to do something more drastic like wat was listed here: http://macthemes.net/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=794798. (Note: i followed these instructions and it worked great)



3) DockLibrary - free. http://www.dativestudios.com/docklibrary/
Very simple, easy way to change the way your dock looks. Find a dock theme on the web that you like, open it in dock library and change your dock into the perfect look!



4) DockDodger - free. http://foggynoggin.com/dockdodger
Have too many icons on your dock? Have apps running in the background... and already have a menu bar icon... BUT STILL insists on taking up a dock slot? try this application. Note: i tried it on tracks but it didn’t work >< darn. Here's a screen capture of how my dock looks like at the moment...
Very pretty... no? haha... go pimp your mac now!




Other Useful Applications
basically i dont have enough apps to seperate into more categories, and i'm getting tired so i shall just put them under one universal heading...

1) Store News - free from mac app store.
This app shows you all the other apps on sale... not just for the mac app store, but also in the iOS app store. Convenient filters to help you find the best deals... and what's more, you can 'zhng' your iPhone n Mac at the same time! Now isn't that convenient?



2) coconut battery - free. http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/
Lets you check your battery health. Things like how many times you have charged up your battery in total... your battery capacity now VS the design capacity... Great app to check up on your battery.



3) smcFanControl - free. http://www.eidac.de/
You can adjust your fan speed, and tweak other fan settings. Like on a hot day and your laptop casing feels really hot, you can bump up the fan speed to cool things down.



4) Caffeine - free, app store
Lets you keep your computer awake for as long as you wish (no screensavers and all). Great for draining your battery flat once a month/every few months to recalibrate it.