43 Folders: Hot-rodding SideTrack for web browsing – SideTrack looks like a very interesting bit of software for anyone with a Powerbook or iBook.
OS X
OS X Annoyances & Solutions
As I make the switch (slowly) to OS X, I keep discovering new and exciting things about the operating system. Occasionally though, I find some annoying aspects that impede my progress, and cause me to question my desire to shift platforms. In addition to the fact that HP hasn’t bothered to write OS 10.3 drivers for our scanner (HP 5370c), which we specifically bought because it was friendly to both platforms, I have run into a problem with using a USB trackball on our fileserver, which runs 10.2.8.
Luckily, in both cases there appear to be independent developers solving the problem.
Scanner Drivers
The TWAIN SANE Interface for Mac OS X makes use of the existing SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) project, which was originally developed for LINUX. I haven’t tested it yet, but I have hope.
USB Trackball/Mouse Drivers
According to a thread at macosxhints the trackball problem can be solved with the purchase of a shareware driver called USB Overdrive. The project site provides a great summary of the software’s purpose:
The USB Overdrive X is a driver for Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later (including Panther) that handles any USB mouse, trackball, joystick and gamepad from any manufacturer and lets you configure them either globally or on a per-application basis.
I look forward to trying it out with a Microsoft Trackball Explorer.
I will post the results of both tests soon.
Notational Velocity
Notational Velocity – An interesting OS X note taking app. As stated on 43 Folders, “All Notational Velocity does is record little notes, but it does that in a way that is completely elegant, intuitive, and incrementally searchable. It does this by an uncanny dual use of a single text field for both searching and creation of your notes. If you’re just typing in the field, it acts as a full-text, incremental, live search on all of your notes and their contents. If you hit RETURN at any point, you generate a new note with its title set to whatever you just typed.”
No OS X on My Beige G3
Grrrr. Apple decided that they would no longer support older beige G3s when they released OS 10.3. Apparently, if the machine doesn’t have built-in USB capabilities and a PCI video card, it doesn’t qualify. This is rather sad, as the machine in question could easily handle 10.3 otherwise. In fact, from my research, 10.3 actually runs faster than 10.2, which would easily make it worth the upgrade cost. But, Apple has said I cannot use it, so purchasing the upgrade would be a waste of money.
I found a few sites discussing ways to circumvent the issue. Some people have been able to install 10.3 on older machines, using XPostFacto, but frankly, there are too many hoops to jump through, without any guarantee that it will work, or that it will remain stable over the long run. This is not a good thing as I plan to use the machine as a simple file server. Stability is kind of important, right? Right.
I repeat….Grrrr
OS X inventories, tips & hack collections
43 Folders presents OSX inventories, tips & hack collections, a list of great links, containing a wealth of OS X information and application recommendations.
> Secret goal: make this post a one-stop-shopping link for people who want to quickly ramp-up on “what’s out there” in the OSX world that they might not know about, with a focus on how one given person has put it all together.