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The crossroads of life and tech

Mac Lab Rat – GGP #67: Leopard’s Portable Battery Sparks

There. That title ought to get some interest. :mrgreen:

It’s time again for this week’s edition of the GGP, and with it the latest update from the Mac Lab Rat.

Leopard This week was of course Leopard launch week. I’ve put up several ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]) posts on the subject over the past week or so, and don’t have a ton more to say about it. It’s quick, solid and works basically like Tiger. It’s got a couple of very nice upgrades (Time Machine for one), that I haven’t been able to use yet.

PortableApps for the Mac There’s been lots posted about the concept of Portable Applications — software that you can load on a USB key and run without needing to actually install it on the computer. This week I’ve rounded up a site with OS X compatible versions of many popular programs including Firefox and Thunderbird. If you work cross-platform like I do, the portable Firefox will work particularly well with another GGP featured service Quick Bookmarks. If you use a Mac, or particularly if you use more than one, check out Portable Apps for the Mac.

Coconut Battery Monitor I really like this application. I was running it on my Macbook before the Leopard upgrade and will probably get it back on there this week. Coconut allows you to monitor not only the stock information about your battery (power remaining, charge cycles) but also provides information like the current max charge vs. the max rated charge (ie: is your battery still charging to capacity). It gives some great insights into the true health of your battery. If you’re running a Mac notebook Coconut Battery Monitor is definitely worth a look.

Spark Last up this week is Spark, an application that will allow you to assign a keyboard shortcut to pretty much any action your Mac can do. Not only can you launch applications and open files, you can also tie a shortcut key to application specific functions and AppleScripts! I’ve already got a few different key combos set up and there will be more to come as my Windows-based keyboard-centric tendencies continue to shine through. Spark will save you time!

Removing the Glass Shelf from the Leopard Dock

Widely publicized already, I felt compelled to add to the chorus when I put this change in. Below are terminal commands you can use to switch back and forth between the new 3-D and 2-D dock configurations.

To enable the 2D Dock, open up a terminal window and enter the following two commands

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock

2D OS X Leopard Dock

To enable the 3D dock, open up a terminal window and enter the following two commands

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall Dock

Leopard 3D dock

Thanks to Proton over at MacOSXHints.com for originally posting this tip!

Hey McGeough! Wake up!

OK, so apparently I can’t let this go. I did a search for “Mick McGeough” on Google, and one of the first results that comes up is a petition to have McGeough fired. Made me smirk.

Definitely one of the most inconsistent referees in the league, and with over 1000 games under his belt, perhaps it is time to hang ‘em up in favour of a more consistent product on the ice.

Last year, about the same time of year in fact, McGeough called play dead in an Oilers’ game on a non-existant hand-pass [YouTube]. This cost the Oilers at least one point.

Bah. In the spirit of an Edmonton fan from last year:

Dear NHL, You owe the Vancouver Canucks one point. Your standings indicate that Detroit won the game 3-2, when in fact the Canucks tied the game with half a minute remaining. Please fix your error in the standings. Thank you, The Canuck Nation

‘nucks fall 3-2 to the wings

The third period was largely uneventful, or at least it seems that way now that I’m sitting on the SkyTrain heading home. The only thing most Canucks’ fans are trying to figure out right now is whether NHL referee Mick McGeough needs bifocals or trifocals.

A controversial play with less than 30 seconds to go in the third period left the Canucks short a goal. McGeough claims to have blown the whistle before the puck crossed the line, but the replay begged to differ.

I’ll finish this off with some final thoughts when I get home and cool down. Though I have to say it was funny to watch the 7-year old in front of me (who was already yelling at the players) try to join in on the chant of “Bullshit! Bullshit!” after the ref’s screw-up. :mrgreen:

‘nucks/wings — Second Period, still trailing…

After a rather lethargic looking first 10 minutes the Canucks found some life and managed to notch the tying goal.

Unfortunately, the Wings had other ideas and like the first period managed to score in the last minute of the period.

Luongo looked… human on that third Detroit goal, but had already stood on his head for a couple of other saves earlier in the period, and held the fort on a few scrambles in front of the Vancouver goal.

My Dad, who is with me here tonight remarked at how Detrot seems to be able to find that extra gear in the fina minute of a period. This is no doubt the source of their two late goals.

First period

[[Added at 23:37 -- Apparently attachments mess up the auto-posting script....]]

The Canucks put up a decent effort in the first, but a couple of defensive miscues have us down 2-1.  Its great to be back at a game, I haven’t been to GM Place for a game in about 4 years… I couldn’t believe it had been that long.

The Canucks were skating well in the first, and managed to outshoot the Wings by a slim margin.  But as has been the case all too often in recent games the defense was asleep at the switch once…er twice too often.

Here’s hoping for a few Canucks goals in the second while they’re attempting to score on Osgood in our end of the rink.

Canucks/Wings Live Blog — waiting….

Thank you so much to the security guard on the 100 level who sent a few dozen of us up to the 300 level to go inside. After having waited for 15 mins down below we found that the line was back about a block and a half!

Good to know the crack security team at GM Place communicates so well… grumbles

Canucks vs. Red Wings — Live Blog

I’m heading out the door right now walking to the SkyTrain and on to GM Place! I think I’ve got all my live blog bits and pieces set up correct.

Really looking forward to the game. I’m hoping the boys can build on last game’s squeakerr to avenge the loss in the Motor City.

More to come…

Leopard on your PC

Well that didn’t take long…

BrazilMAC over on the OSx86Scene forums has posted a tutorial on installing Leopard on your stock PC hardware. I don’t see any way that Apple would release a more standard version of OS X… the fact that it only has to run on Apple hardware is part of what makes it such a stable platform. The original post is from August, but the author has updated it as of launch day (Oct. 26, 2007).

Yes, I know it isn't Leopard.  :P -- Photo Credit: dalziel_86 on flickr Photo Credit: dalziel_86 on flickr

If you absolutely must know how the new cat handles, and you don’t want to shell out a few hundred dollars for a Mac mini (and you’ve got several hours of download, try, retry, and try again time to spare) then this tutorial may just be what you’re looking for.

Leopard has Landed

Well, I survived the upgrade.  No major challenges.  In fact the hardest thing was finding a CD I was looking for…  but more to come on that.

So far I’m pretty impressed with the performance boost that I’ve gotten from the new OS.  I’ll be doing a longer post on my Leopard experience in the next couple of days.   But now… it’s time to get some shuteye.  :mrgreen: