Posts Tagged ‘mac’
BumpTop for Mac
Posted on: January 21, 2010
I’ve written about BumpTop before and it is in the news again. This time there is a Mac version. Oh, joy!
RSS of my classes
Posted on: August 26, 2009
Ever wonder what the RSS feeds of my classes looks like?
I use Google Reader to follow the entries and comments in group blogs maintained by my teacher trainees. I also use Vienna on my Mac to track the total counts or to archive good postings (click image below to view larger version).
I opted to rename the feeds so that it makes sense to me. Instead of retaining the name of the blog, I label them by their course, tutorial group and subgroup. I keep track of the comments too because that is where the fun really begins!
BTW, the list of feeds might look long, but it is markedly shorter if you think about how I used to follow individual blogs of all my trainees in previous semesters!
New to RSS? Learn more about RSS at our class wiki. Then import the feeds using this XML file (right-click and save).
Google Picasa, an application for “editing, organizing and sharing photos”, is finally available for the Mac platform.
Wired reports that is has almost all the functionality of the PC version, the exceptions being geotagging and webcam capture. I think that one of the better features is that Picasa for the Mac will allow the user to rely on his/her own file structure as opposed to Apple’s enforced structure.
Get a Mac and don’t look back
Posted on: October 16, 2008
Apple released new versions of their laptop computers on 14 Oct (15 Oct Singapore time). They look even more gorgeous than the previous generation!
Beyond the cosmetic beauty, Macs are worth having because of their functionality. They may cost more than similarly specified Windows PCs, but you are buying more than one computer when you get a Mac. (As a result, schools that invest in Macs might actually save money because they could be buying a Mac and PC all in one!) Let me explain.
The Mac comes with its own operating system (OS) of course, so that is one computer already. But it also comes with Boot Camp so that you can run Windows if you wish.
However, Boot Camp requires you to restart the machine to use the other OS. Virtualization software like Parallels, VMware Fusion, CrossOver Mac, and VirtualBox (free), allow you to run more than one operating system at the same time. So imagine running Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista at the same time. Or Mac OS and a version of Linux. Depending on your setup, you can even drag a file from one OS to another!
BTW, various versions of Linux are freely available as are stripped-down versions of Windows XP, e.g. tinyxp and minixp.
Why do I share this? The sad fact is that I think schools often do not know what and how to spend their IT money on. When they do, they want the most cost-effective model. Well, here are alternatives.
To provide some balance, PC users have also tried installing the Mac OS on Windows PCs. Here is an effort on the recently released Lenovo S10 netbook. The netbook does not have full functionality on Mac OS, but the online community will deal with that and it is only a matter of time.
Note that you must already have a Mac to own the Mac OS (unlike Windows where you can buy the OS independently of the PC). Installing Mac OS on another PC without a licence is illegal.
