The MMO Notebook

Posts Tagged ‘Mac’

I prefer a full-size mouse, but virtually every bluetooth mouse on the market are “travel mice” size, which is another way of saying you need baby-sized hands to comfortably use them. Long ago I found a full-sized Kensington bluetooth mouse that has served me well. It worked with every PC and MAC that I tried to pair it with. Indeed, I was a very happy camper with this mouse until the time came to install Apple’s new “Snow Leopard” operating system. My trusty old mouse would not pair with my Macbook Pro. I was in a panic.

The pairing process baffled me because my Mac could actually “see” my mouse. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant would show the mac address of my mouse in the detection window but it would not go any further. The pairing process would fail. Since the mouse was working fine right up until I installed Snow Leopard, it was fairly obvious it was a software problem. I was worried that my old bluetooth mouse was no longer compatible with Apple’s latest bluetooth stack. Luckily, an idea popped into my head that fixed the problem.

When you run the Bluetooth Setup Assistant on a Mac, it displays any bluetooth device it finds in the detection window. The normal sequence is that it sees the mac address of the mouse and then it changes to the actual name of the mouse. In my case, it should change to “Kensington Mouse,” but it never would get to that point with Snow Leopard. I began to wonder if I could somehow manually type in the name of the mouse to see if that would help things along. Thankfully, the answer is yes.

I started the Bluetooth Setup assitant, and when the first window appeared, I clicked on the “Specify Device” button. I typed “Kensington Mouse” in the dialog box and clicked “OK.” Amazingly enough, it worked perfectly!

Give this method a try if you are having trouble using a bluetooth mouse with Snow Leopard. The name you type in the “Device Address” box must be the exact name that would display if detection was working properly. I was lucky enough to remember the name of mine.

–Kevin

I didn’t think it was possible, but Microsoft has found a new way to piss off its customers.  A report sighted at Slashdot says that the upcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition will allow you to only run three programs at once. What this means is that if you have your web browser, email, and word processor open and you then want to open Excel, you won’t be able to unless you close what you already have open. That is preposterous!

How in the world can Microsoft be so anti-user as to offer this junk? Limitations like this will only frustrate and annoy users to a point where they might go look for other alternatives. I try to be fair to both sides, but this makes me even more happy to use a Mac as my main computer. Apple has it right when they say that they only offer one version of their operating system – the Ultimate Version. It has no limitations and every feature is included for a price much less than Windows.

Windows 7 is looking better than Vista, but Microsoft has made a big mistake with this decision.

I came across a very useful program that allows me to quickly access the contents of my hard drive from the System Tray in Windows or Menu Bar in Mac OS X. It is called Hawkscope and it performs exactly as advertised.

This program saves multiple clicks by adding a button to the System Tray that takes you right to your files. It is a small program and uses very little resources to run.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. I have been working an insane amount of hours lately and that has not left much time or energy for writing. I work in the IT department of a casino (I won’t say which one), and we have been working night and day to get an expansion open. Now that it has opened, I hope to return to the realm of normal life again, although I think most people would be surprised at just how hard all casino employees work.

My last post mentioned that I had purchased a Lenovo S10 netbook computer. I have been using it has my main machine at home and I can say that it was a very worthy purchase. Now, you may ask why would I use a 10″ netbook as my main computer. Well, I decided to sell my Alienware M17 gaming laptop and go back to a 17″ Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro does not have nearly the same graphics card power as the M17, but I really missed using OS X. Plus, with the hours I have been working, my gaming time has dwindled drastically.

The Lenovo netbook is what made me realize I missed OS X. You see, it is possible to install OS X onto the S10 and that is exactly what I did. I am now dual booting Windows XP and Mac OS X. Installing the Mac operating system on a machine like this is not the easiest thing to do, but when you get it completed, it runs perfectly fine. All the hardware works well. The only exception to that is the built-in ethernet card. It currently does not work, but the built-in wi-fi does, so it is not much of a problem.  I started with this guide from the Lenovo S10 forums.

The Lenovo S10 uses a 1.6ghz Atom processor. Its intended use is light tasks and that is exactly it shines at. I can browse the web, check email, view online video, play music, and other standard things. It can’t view high definition video. It just does not have the raw power necessary to do so. I don’t find this much of a limitation as I don’t think most people get a 10″ netbook with the intention of watching high definition video. Non-HD content plays fine, but it does push the processor. If I watch a YouTube video or watch Twit Live, the CPU utilization stays at 75%.

I only have one complaint about it and that is the placement of the right-hand “shift” key. It is not in the standard position and I find myself pressing the “enter” key most of the time by mistake. It is awkward but I can live with it. All-in-all, the Lenovo S10 is a great little machine.

My 17″ Macbook Pro won’t ship until February 26th, so I will get even more use out of the S10. I wouldn’t recommend it for every day use, but for light use and travel, it can’t be beat.