Tips

We've all gone through many headphones over the years when using iPods. The most important lesson any iPod owner learns is to stop using the bundled ear buds. Once you try a decent set of buds or over-the-ear headphones, you'll realize how much you've been missing by using the Apple phones. The problem is always finding one that suits the requirements of a variety of situations: active sports, inclement weather, loud or quiet environments, winter hats, fashion demands, etc. It's hard to find one set that does it all. Many of us, therefore, now own a fine collection of headphones. The headphone industry is clearly sleeping with Apple executives.

Despite this, I've recently found myself in the retro and counter-intuitive habit of using the 1st generation buds that I have lying around. The sound may be terrible, but they are convenient for everyday use inasmuch as you can hear enough of the outside world to avoid making yourself a victim of an oncoming bus or a threat to those around you. Popping one out of your ear is easy if you forced into human interaction and have a quick conversation (just drop one bud over your shoulder), and they're so cheap-sounding that you don't care if you sit on them, drop them, or lose them. Which is why, of course, you can never lose them!

Many thanks to georgefromphilly for his instructions (slightly adapted here) for pointing your personal domain name at GoDaddy to your .Mac account with iWeb. This, of course, is one of the problems with Apple not selling domain names: you have to deal with one of the hundreds of domain name registrars to get your personal domain... and it's the wild west out there. I happen to use GoDaddy, and while I don't actually recommend them (in fact, I would recommend a different registrar if you were planning to host a Drupal site with them... but that's a different story) the price is right, and if you're not hosting with them or expecting great support they may be your solution. But don't expect Apple ease of use!

1. Log into Godaddy
2. Select Domains -> My Domains
3. Select your domain
4. Select "Total DNS Control and MX Records"
5. Under "CNAMES:" edit (click the little pencil in a square in the right-hand column) the top line which has "www" in the host column
6. Add the following values:

host = www
points to = web.mac.com
ttl = 1 hour

Unless you type “www”before your domain name you won’t be directed to your site. To fix that, click on “Add New CNAME Record” and enter the following:

I have written about my experiences with the two major Toronto ISPs: Bell Sympatico and Rogers Cable. In my speed tests Rogers came out spectacularly ahead (by a factor of 6x for download and 10x for upload). Because of my extensive use of iChat, and due to its demanding upload speed requirements for video conferencing, I ended up switching from Bell to Rogers.

Today's Rogers speed test result. Pretty good... in theory!

While I have been please with the iChat performance I get through this ISP, the support has been terrible and I have been struggling for months with dial-up modem speeds with my Bittorrent clients. After extensive testing and forum-reading, I am now struggling with what I understand is Rogers decision to limit certain kinds of internet traffic, specifically, torrents. On the bright side, I am learning all the time about the art of bittorrenting - and believe me, there's some voodoo that you must do to get these clients optimized.

Resources:

Azureus (I had to control-click and select "download file" for the installer)

Azureus Initial Set-Up Guide (a very helpful wiki for support)

Xtorrent ("help" takes you to the developer's project homepage, with no support link evident - very disappointing for $20 piece of software built on open-source work)

Transmission (the most stable, and fastest so far)

Use the above shortcuts, taken from the Mac OS X Help, to capture sections, windows, menus, menu bars, or dock without launching the Grab application. Particularly useful is the holding of the control key ( ? ) as you select the other key combinations, to copy the screen shot to the clipboard. Of course, you will need an osteopathic surgeon to untangle your fingers afterwards. But you can't have everything...

We're all keen to learn more about how to improve our personal productivity with a Mac... except, possibly, Michael Dell.

Where better to get some tips than from the mothership herself? Apple has a useful archive of tips on using the features of OS X worth perusing.

One particularly useful tip for educators, other than "quit teaching and go into business", is using the character palette to allow students to find special characters by simply holding down various keys, like the Option or Command keys, and seeing a live keyboard on the screen show the characters.

You can access the Character Palette by Edit -> Special Character in OS X built-in apps, but a better way for schools is to have the students turn on the checkbox in System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu, and leave it easily accessible at all time under the flag in the Tool Bar.

And, hey, just remember, you're all special characters to us...