esperanto letters and other macros

today installed after some debate with myself the small and overpriced keyboard maestro,m which i had running as a demo on my temporary harddisk two weeks ago

it is simply the best way to use esperanto letters on a mac, i set it up to insert a letter when i press a keycombination, thus alt+c becomes ç, no, ehh, wait... what is safari doing?
(copy paste and over in firefox!)
as i was saying, alt+c gives ĉ, yeah!! it works
bye bye safari!

but thats not all, it also has an easy way to manipulate windows, so now shift+command+m is maximise window and furthermore, option+command+arrow is making the window half the size of the screen, either right or left, now thats useful for having two documents at once!

last but not least i made a macro for transforming textclippings into textfiles, with a proper name and put into a folder reserved for that, this was rather tricky and fun, although not perfect way better than doing it by hand: opentextedit+newfile+drag&drop+saveas

Automated upload of iWeb homepage

Finally i got as close as it gets using iWeb, the designs are beautiful and i feel happy about using it - see my Solsang now!

I like cyberduck and wanted to use it only for my homepage, thus i made the settings save when closing, open window at start and use keychain (once done its automatic)

Now it is easy: iWeb publish to folder, i use "iweb solsang", into which iWeb puts the index.html and a folder called "solsang"

Now i made this automator workflow, which starts cyberduck, waits for cyberduck to start up and puts the folder "solsang.dk" and "index.html" into it, where it will get to the server.

To make it fully automatic use Hazel to invoke the automator when it sees a new index.html file in the "iweb solsang" this is really funny:)

burned harddisk timemachine & lost games

my harddisk burned...
...first it was slow and then when i thought i should do a backup, it didnt boot!

luckily i had the external original harddisk and could boot from that via usb:)

ordered a new 320gb and kept working from the usb drive, that felt so weird, but after a few days i forgot it, it was there anyway, now with another function, and i just had to remember to save all new stuff to the desktop so i could easily transfer it

today i installed the new harddisk, and it almost feels like routine to open and do the change - the most difficult part is putting the tiny screws back, should have a magnetic philips for that!

booting from the install dvd and selecting timemachine, then it was all magic and waiting a few hours to get back, wow! timemachine is amazing!

the email and itunes were doing some restarting, yet everything seems to be right where i left off, except for loosing my ipod games:(

now i understand the problems with drm, i will definately avoid getting music from the store!
i wanted to buy a few audiobooks, but if they are also locked i will probably loose them at some time too...

from windows to mac

The final shift to mac was only last month

I have done computer support for ages, having used pcs since 1982 (yes, zx81 is also a personal computer) but never have i used a computer so much in so little time as this month

Last week i again had to repair a broken vista, and upon trying found out that neither linux nor xp could run on it - the family asked how to make a safesurf for their children, which is easy on the mac, and needing to make layout, they came to me after giving up using anything on windows, so we could use Pages for a very photo-heavy job, it was easy and funny
I sorely miss picasa

My nice photocollection in nested folders is not going to be destroyed in iphoto nor aperture, i have not yet fount a solution (i use jpg and want to overwrite my files when doing rotations and basic colourcorrections, i have checked the jpg-loss and found it less than the hazzle of having two copies and are not making posters anyway)
Mac has windows that are stable and fast
Quicksilver, oh joy!!
AntiRSI to avoid staring myself blind on the monitor
Adressbook and calendar that works, even with google
Email that resizes my pictures itself!!
Zoom of the entire monitor
Real virtual desktops that are stable and working
Timemachine the first ever backup for non-techs
Automated actions taking care of repeated workflow
Complete shortcutcontrol of each program menu
Builtin languages (yes, i use at least 3 languages)
Pages&keynote layout and presentations that are simple
Quicksilver triggers for scripts, my rotate picture is opt+r
Remote control that is instant, allways working and easy
Absolutely silent hardware (i use a mac mini w 2gb ram)
My scanner and printer works much better than windows

Fully automatic photo-aquiring; i only plug in my cameras usb, and mac takes all into a folder, i do nothing at all!!
Insert empty cd, drag photos to cd-icon, click burn.
Of course i use firefox, piclens and miro here too
Expose, dashboard, desktop and spaces are my 4 corners
and mousing both expose and spaces show everything!
Quicksilver for opening webpages instantly
Activitymonitor with its dockicon
Secure guestaccount and child-limitations that work
Clearly defined areas of documents, pictures and music
Spotlight search for anything in seconds anywhere
Preview of any document, photo or file

Missing size of multiple selected files
Missing fully automated esperanto letters
Missing picasa or anything else that keeps my files

Absolutely happy about being free of antivirusprograms!!!
(only cost a few hundred dollars more than a pc for this)

I simply get much more work done, and i am happy about that and hope the rumours about google come true

yahoo!

It works , i have now 233gb free on my mac mini, it simply started right away as if nothing had ever happened.
Yeh!!!
Loads of space to put ALL my photos, ALL my music and a few movies and still space to spare
Feels so good and relaxing
Why they dont offer this at the apple store is me a mystery, it costs less than 200€
And lucky that it had been opened before at humac for inserting memory, it took 10 seconds to open, click click that was it:)
Now i also know how to shift memory, which is needed!

much more real estate for the mac mini

Tonight i'm going to transplant the harddisk for my new mac mini, so if you don't see any comments for a long period you know why...

I will be making a carbon copy clone* and then use these excellent notes on how to do it:
http://www.soledadpenades.com/2007/11/01/diy-replace-your-intel-mac-minis-hard-disk-drive/

Oh, and i also have a fresh timemachine, just in case:)

*http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

new mac mini

This very day is my aquring a mac mini from humac helsinki for the neat sum of €818.99 including 2gb memory and a fresh iWork '08 family pack - so they charged 25€ for installing the memory - yet harddisk install would cost 60€, so i take care of that myself;)

Feels good to have this version, then i avoid worrying about burning dvd's and just copy my movies to the harddisk if need be - and the 1gb memory goes for to the mac mini i helped buy last winter, 512mb is a bit slow for more than basic use

www.humac.fi is the finnish address, nice shops and good service, boring website
Gary Attwood was the very helpful contact person and just in case i put the order numbers here for myself to remember;) 362309 sym7472guyl1 pu0207559425

Still takes a few days to get a monitor, HPx19w from citymarket €170 (5% sales week) and a allready have the mac keyboard and logitech laser mouse, jbl duo loudspeakers and a mac mini clone 400gb backup harddisk for TimeMachine