- Semper Fi -
Archive for the ‘software’ Category.
I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.
The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.
So after a fantastic night chatting with MacBiters in the MacBites chat room during WWDC I eagerly downloaded the release version of Safari and installed it.
While I’m installing I ponder the slightly surprising decision to revert the top mounted tabs to their original location but I’m sure I’ll get used it again.
Trouble is after downloading it and installing it I didn’t get as far as seeing the tabs. Instead I was greeted with this:
In the midst of the iMac fiasco I made the decision to buy a Mac Mini. I’d toyed with purchasing one before deciding to wait for the inevitable upgrades – trouble was Apple took far longer than I anticipated to upgrade the Mini.
Well the upgrades finally arrived and I bought a base model priced at £499.
I had a specific job in mind for the machine, as well as it being a spare system available in the case of a failure elsewhere. That job was for it to act as a host for several external hard drives and the two office printers. By hosting the external drives on the Mini I would be able to run backups and archive data to discs without impacting the performance of my main workstation.
At a recent Mac club meeting one of the talking points was the differences in how Windows and OS X handle application switching. So I thought I’d consolidate some of the ensuing discussion in a blog post.
First a disclaimer, I am not a fan of spreadsheets. There I’ve said it and I know it’s sacrilege to some.
Don’t get me wrong I use them as much as the next person but I’m always very careful in creating a spreadsheet based solution. As a veteran IT professional I’ve seen too many spreadsheets that should come with a warning slapped on them.
In the best cases they are often over complicated in construction and built without a thought as to what they may need to become in the future. However, in the worst cases they just plain don’t add up. Incorrect references and formula and the most eye straining designs you’ll ever have the misfortune to witness coupled with an obvious misunderstanding of the concept of a spreadsheet all mean too many spreadsheets are just not fit for purpose.
Be it a lack of training or a laissez faire attitude on the part of those who should know better in an organization in my experience it is a pervasive problem in organizations today.
Anyway, climbing down from my soapbox …
The impetus for this quick tutorial was a post on the MacBites shownotes site from Gazmaz. We’d mentioned our requirements for sharing calendars and Gazmaz wanted to know if there was a way to share calendars on the same Mac but in different user accounts.
After some pondering I gave the following a try and it works perfectly … hope you find it useful.
Continue reading ‘Sharing calendars in multiple accounts on a Single Mac’ »
In my role as Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers I recently gave an online presentation demonstrating just how many free resources there are available on the Internet and beyond. Originally my intent was to limit myself to free training resources but ultimately I included software and other tools as well.
It proved to be one of our most well attended online events and demand was high for a list of the resources shown. In light of the demand I thought it would be good to share these resources to a wider audience hence this four part series covering free online resources for the IT trainer and in fact the majority of the resources are just as useful if you aren’t an IT trainer.
If you missed part 1 you can find it here and without further ado here’s part 2!
A couple of weeks ago, on the inaugural episode of MacBites, I mentioned the very useful shortcut feature in Saft and how I’d globalized my shortcuts so they work across all the browsers I have installed. I’ve had so much feedback asking how I implemented this system that I decided to detail the process here.
Continue reading ‘Creating Global Shortcuts with Typinator’ »
In my role as Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers I recent gave an online presentation demonstrating just how many free resources there are available on the Internet and beyond. Originally my intent was to limit myself to free training resources but ultimately I included software and other tools as well.
It proved to be one of our most well attended online events and demand was high for a list of the resources shown. In light of the demand I thought it would be good to share these resources to a wider audience hence this four part series covering free online resources for the IT trainer and in fact the majority of the resources are just as useful if you aren’t an IT trainer.
So with that let’s get to part one!
