Craig Knows Things

So as many of you may know Apple recently introduced the new iPhone, the iPhone 3G, with this release they also released new software. This “2.0″ software is free for the old iPhone and $9.95 for the iPod touch. Apple explains that they must charge for the touch because of accounting reasons. I’ll tell you though, it’s totally worth it!

Basically with the introduction of the new software we now have access to the recently released app store. This is a good thing! Developers can now write software that will run on the 2.0 update. Most of you know this however so I’ll just get to the point.

Here’s my review of my top ten favorite apps:

1. Remote (OMG it’s amazing)
2. Aurora Feint (it’s free and I seriously played it for an hour last night without even noticing)
3. Myspace (I use myspace more for email then actually email this really helps me out, I also really like being able to check bulletins from it)
4. Facebook (although facebook bores me I like its feature to do a status update and to be able to take and upload a picture straight from the app, the chat seems nice too)
5. AIM (I am on aim constantly and it’s nice to be able to jump on send some messages to whoever and get off without having to load meebo in safari)
6. Box Office (perfect for seeing what’s playing where and at what time, also as everyone else has mentioned it has the rotten tomatoes reviews built in)
7. Mobile News (to be honest I prefer just loading google news - sci/tech in safari but this app has potential it’s nice to pull up when I’m bored wand want to check up on the world)
8. Shazam (if you haven’t heard this one allows you to record a small piece of a song that you hear playing then it reports back to you on which song it is. From what I’ve seen it works so well and hasn’t messed up a single time for me)
9. Midomi (it’s sort of the same as shazam but it allows you to sing/hum a song say the song name or artist or even just type it in yourself if you know it and then find information on it. Once it’s found the song you can listen to other people singing it. The reason this is after shazam is that I’ve noticed it kind of sucks at listening to the actual song and finding it… compared to shazam anyways)
10. –––– (okay seriously to be honest I don’t want to place something in my ten spot yet. I haven’t seen anything worthy of being my ten. Everything else I have should be at least a 15)

There you have it. That’s my review and my top 9ish apps. :d

First you’ll need to turn on grouping for your iChat conversation from the iChat preferences window under the messages tab:

Once you’re chatting with a few people you will have a window similar to this:

To tab through the various conversations use the key combination of CMD+[ or CMD+]

_{*CMD is the key that says command and has a symbol that looks like ⌘.}

Chances are they are.

Simply drag the following link to your bookmarks area uptop.

When it asks you to type a name simply type, Full Screen or whatever else you would like.

_{Watch Video}

This comes in handy when browsing webpages such as maps.google.com

Also if you’d prefer safari, or any other app, to always open using the entire screen you can drag the window to fill the screen, then hold the command button, while holding the command button close the window.

Get off the computer and go plant a tree or something! :]

      About a month ago the office I work for was cleaning shop. They gave a spare computer to our secretary’s husband for use at his new company. A few days ago he went to use it for the first time and realized he didn’t have any passwords for it. When he called us he informed us the only accounts on the computer were those of two of our resale agents, agents that had left the company over five months ago. No one knew the password. I had an idea however! You see the administrator account on xp systems usually doesn’t ever get a password assigned to it. Here’s what you can do if you fall victim to the same problem.

The following method only works if no password is assigned to the administrator account.

This method can be used to reset a users password, delete a user, or add a new user.

• Start the computer in safe mode.
• Log in as the Administrator using the username administrator with no password. (most users never set a password for the administrative account)
• Access the Control Panel
• Select Users

Starting the computer in safe mode

• Turn the computer off and wait 30 or so seconds.
• Turn the computer on and start tapping the F8 key.
• A Windows Advanced Options Menu should appear. If you get any sort of message such as keyboard error you probably pressed the key too soon. Simply restart the computer and try again.
• Use your arrows to select Safe mode then press Enter.

This should have started safe mode. If it did not another way to get the Windows Advanced Options Menu to appear is to force a computer off as it’s booting into xp. When you turn the computer back on it should inform you there was an error and give you an option to start safemode.

Logging in as Administrator

Now you should have a window that is asking you for a username and password. Use the following;

Username: Administrator
Password:                      

Password is intentionally left blank above. As I mentioned earlier most people never set the admin password. This is how we’re getting in! Through carelessness on our own/ someone elses part which has left the computer vulnerable.

Accessing the Control Panel and using the users panel

Once logged in we can open the Start Menu and then choose the Control Panel. Sometimes the Control Panel is located to the right of the word Settings in the Start Menu. The Control Panel has a few different views but nomatter which it opens in just look for the option User Accounts.

Once in User Account area you can choose various users. You have options once you have chosen a user to delete the accounts, to reset their passwords, and to perform other various actions. You can also add a new user with a password that you’ll actually know.

Once finished adding, removing, and modifying account you can close the window and restart the computer. Viola! You’re not able to log in!

So you’re using your computer but you can’t be bothered to use that pesky keyboard of yours or maybe your bluetooth ran out of juice. There are many reasons to need to use an onscreen keyboard and here’s how.

• Open System preferences found by clicking the apple at the top right of your computer.



• Choose international in the top row



• Click the Input Menu tab



• Choose the box next to the Keyboard Viewer option

You may now close all open windows.

To access the onscreen keyboard you just enabled click the flag that has appaeared at the top right of your screen and then choose to show the kayboard viewer

Video Example of Enabling the Onscreen Keyboard

            Over the last thirty years a battle has been raging on in our homes. The battle is that between Windows and Mac personal computers. The windows operating system has found its way into the homes of many simply because of some good business decisions made early in it’s life, however the Mac revolution has come, he is fighting a loosing battle. There are countless reasons for why Macs are better then PCs we’re going to learn about a few in this essay. More and more people are buying Macs over PC’s and this is especially true for college students.

            The Princeton University newspaper reports that Princeton’s Mac marketshare has been rising dramatically, with 40 percent of students and faculty currently using a Mac as their personal computer. Also According to a separate Pioneer Press survey, Dartmouth is up to 55% freshman with Macs (up from 30% in 2005), University of Virginia with 20% of freshman with Macs (up from 17% in 2006), and Cornell with 21% dorm network users with a Mac (up from 5% between 2000-2002).

            Mac OS X takes all of its powerful functionality and wraps it in a remarkably beautiful user interface. The user interface is what you see when you sit in front of the computer. When apple acquired the technology that runs OS X they basically had a chance to build their user interface from scratch. Apple states that their user interface was, “Designed from the ground up to make computing virtually second nature, every visual element gives you important information about the activity status of your Mac.” Apple has accomplished this goal. 

            In Mac OS X every desktop is equipped with a Dock. The dock is a series of icons at the bottom of the screen each of which can animate and update. When clicked these icons open their corresponding application. The Dock also provides a place for windows to go when they are minimized. Because of the way the operating system is designed it can handle onscreen graphics and video with ease. When a window is minimized it will show a live preview of what is happening in that window. If a video is minimized to the dock it will continue to play in the dock. Each icon also dynamically and smoothly scales in size along with the Dock.  There is also a magnify effect, which allows users to shrink the Dock down to a small strip, but blow up icons to a larger size when they are moused-over and icons bounce to indicate that the application demands your attention. Users can also rearrange Dock items using drag-and-drop, dropping new items into it, and dragging unwanted items out. All of this makes the Dock highly customizable and information rich, despite being very simple and easy to use.

            Another innovation of Max OS X is a technology called Dashboard. Dashboard is the home of widgets. A widget is a mini-applications. Widgets let you quickly complete common tasks and also provide you with fast access to information. To access your widgets a user simply clicks the widget icon in the dock or presses f12 on their keyboard. The widgets zoom onto the screen as the desktop fades providing access to real-time weather, Dictionaries, a calculator, instant web searches and more. Dashboard disappears just as easily, which is very convenient for when you only need a widget for a few seconds. Get the information you need and nothing more.

            Amid the aforementioned features and design elements we can all see why Mac OS X is clearly a winner when it comes down to which operating system is better and easier to use. Whether you’re a college student, retired adult, child, or parent it is clear that a Mac is the right choice for you.