it's here! it's here!

[mikemc]

Boss is gonna kill me cuz I stayed home from work to track the final steps of my iBook through FedEx.com to my doorstep... It was ausome, I almost had their arrival time down to a 10 minute block...

In any case, stayed home longer to play with my new toy... have Airport working, and am upstairs at my kitchen table with the internet connection downstairs... this is just plain great...

I love the shape, stylings... but there are a few things I can't understand... maybe I can get some help on it... (maybe this is the wrong forum)...

1> Most annoying, when I'm typing, hitting the spacebar sounds like a gun is reloading or something... its a very hard 'clicking' sound... quite annoying when you're a fast typer...

2> In windows, I can hit a text box at the end... hit SHFT-CTRL-HOME and highlight everything... how do I use the home keys down at the bottom of the inverted T arrow keys? I'm not having any luck with it..

3> Is installing software just like in Windows world? If I download a proggy off of downloads.com, and install it as my current user, then will everyone who has an account on the box be able to use the proggy? Or is it just installed for me?

[EDIT] I downloaded a program just to give it a shot to see what happens... here is what I saw, and I don't have a clue, so please inform me where you can...

a> The program downloaded to my desktop (I know where to fix this)
b> stuffit expander opened and expanded it onto my desktop... created a file called secureftp_1.dmg or something similar (I downloaded secure ftp)..
c> I clicked that file, and it said something about mounting the disk image...
d> now I have a image of a disk (drive) on my desktop named Secure FTP... If I click it, it brings up a finder window with the proggy in it...
e> is this right? Are applications disk images that get mounted every time I run them? How do I put this into a folder?? Where do I put it? (win has c:\win\program files\ for example, whats the similar location for OSX?)


4> Where do I set the root password?

Thanks again for the help, I'm going to be real happy with this slick little box... It's running a little slow right now, but I only got the 128MB of ram from apple, my 512 stick is on it's way...

Later,
Mike

[dsk]

I'll try to field the disk image questions.

Are applications disk images that get mounted every time I run them?

While you theoretically _could_ run a program from it's disk image each time, that certainly wouldn't be ideal for a number of reasons. If you decide you like the program and intend to keep it on your hard drive, you should copy that application from the disk image to an actual, physical hard drive. I keep all my applications in /Applications (go figure). Assuming there is no weirdness with permissions, I believe this will make the program executable by all users.

In windows, I can hit a text box at the end... hit SHFT-CTRL-HOME and highlight everything...

If I understand what you want to do correctly, I think all you need to do to highlight everything is "Select All" from the edit menu. The key equivalent to this is Command-A. (command is the four leaf clover/Apple key)

Enjoy the machine!

Yours,
David

[taikahn]

1> Most annoying, when I'm typing, hitting the spacebar sounds like a gun is
reloading or something... its a very hard 'clicking' sound... quite annoying when you're a fast typer...

Uh, I worked as an AppleCare agent for a while and I would say, you need to call apple 1-800-APL CARE ----- and see if they think its to loud or not. I cant tell by your written explanation. But, in general, Apple iBook keyboards dont sound like guns.

2> In windows, I can hit a text box at the end... hit SHFT-CTRL-HOME and highlight everything... how do I use the home keys down at the bottom of the inverted T arrow keys? I'm not having any luck with it..

try Apple-A for select all. Also, with a selection, you can hit the up arrow key to get to the top, also in theory if you are at the bottom and you hold shift and hit up arrow or left arrow it should select in either chunks of words or the whole file, depending on the applications behavior, of course.


3> Is installing software just like in Windows world? If I download a proggy off of downloads.com, and install it as my current user, then will everyone who has an account on the box be able to use the proggy? Or is it just installed for me?


some installers, some disk images with apps in them, some compressed apps, etc... if its an app (if not sure, select file, and then hit apple-I for 'Show Info')
just drag it to your apps folder (or the app icon in the finder toolbar, VERY handy).... If its an installer, install it. As for whether its for every user or not, in general yes, but some hax and utils are installed only for the one user.


[EDIT] I downloaded a program just to give it a shot to see what happens... here is what I saw, and I don't have a clue, so please inform me where you can...

a> The program downloaded to my desktop (I know where to fix this)

no need to fix, its a perfectly good and easily accesible spot to have them appear. Remember to delete or backup the installer when you are done. I usually keep the .dmg or the .sit --- but anyone you want to keep or delete is fine. obviously once its installed you dont necessarily need the installer anymore.


b> stuffit expander opened and expanded it onto my desktop... created a file called secureftp_1.dmg or something similar (I downloaded secure ftp)..
c> I clicked that file, and it said something about mounting the disk image...
d> now I have a image of a disk (drive) on my desktop named Secure FTP... If I click it, it brings up a finder window with the proggy in it...
e> is this right? Are applications disk images that get mounted every time I run them? How do I put this into a folder?? Where do I put it? (win has c:\win\program files\ for example, whats the similar location for OSX?)


You got it. Just put it in /Applications/ (there is no stupid drive letter) its just the Applications folder in the "root" (ie. toplevel) of the hardrive.

4> Where do I set the root password?

search macosxhints.com for that... there are help files... for the most part DONT DO IT, just type 'sudo command filename' to use the root user. If you dont understand what I just said, dont even think about enabling root.



Hope this helped...

Tai Kahn
taiNOSPAM@macNOSPAM.com

http://www.taikahn.com

[swelshh]

Good Purchase!

To answer a couple things:

2> Try using select all from the "Edit" menu in any app. Or just hit Command-A

3> Most stuff you download will be in a disk image these days. Once it is mounted, you just drag things to wherever you want them stored on your hard-drive. Apple included an "Applications" directory for you to put things in. Putting apps that you download in here will let them be used by any user on the machine. I personally make a folder for networking programs and a folder called utilities to install programs into. I put these folders in the root directory along with "Applications", "System", "Library" etc. (stuff installed in here is also accessible from any user account). You could make an Apps folder in your "Home" directory to install apps you want private access to. Oh, and the easiest way to deal with mounted disk images is to option-drag them into the folder you want to install the app in (give it a try).

4> Look in MacOSXHints Top Ten Hints.

[nkuvu]

About the text selection:

To do the same thing as shift-ctrl-home in Windows, use shift-home. Same with shift-ctrl-end on Windows -- use shift-end. These will highlight everything from the cursor to the beginning (or ending as the case may be). Command-A works fine if you want the whole thing, but there are times you want just 'everything from here back' instead.

When you press End it goes to the end of the text, not the end of the line. It'll take some getting used to, but most apps will let you do a command-right arrow to get to the end of the line, or command-left arrow to get to the beginning.

[tarmaque]

I didn't see anyone write a real explanation about disk images here in a way that a newbie from the wintel world would like, so here goes.

Disk images are virtual disks used for distributing software (and other purposes). They have to be "mounted" just like any disk. Think of it like inserting a floppy and then copying your shiny new app. to where ever you wanted it to be. When you double click on the .dmg file OS X automatically mounts your disk image using a utility called "Disk Copy" which will allow you to create your own disk images as well.

Probably a majority of your new OS X software will be downloaded in .dmg (disk image) format because of it's versatility. You can put most anything in a disk image, compress it (which will add a little ".hqx" or ".sit" or both to the suffix) copy to and from, or un-mount it so that the program in it can't be accidentally started up. Useful if you don't want OS X to continually re-set your default browser to IE. Just put it in a disk image and only mount it when you really need it.

You will also use disk images when burning CDs. The "Burn" app. that came with your machine makes a temporary disk image the size of your CD that you can copy what you want ON your CD, then when you click "Burn" it burns that image into the CD(not the actual .dmg file, but a copy of everything in it). When it's done, the disk image is removed and replaced with an icon CD.

Disk images are versatile and useful. Play around with "Disk Copy" to get a feel of what it can do!

[mikemc]

Thanks for all the replies, I called in for the rest of the day to stay home and play with this beautiful peice of equipment... I'm a kid in his prime :) I'm going to head out and buy a digital camcorder to play with iMovie here in a minute..

Just for kicks, I took my USB mouse from my Dell Laptop and plugged it into the iBook... now I understand what you mean with "it just works"... Its a Micro Innovations 3 button (2 plus pushable scroll wheel) and it's optical... got it for 20 bucks or so from the local software chain, incase anyone was looking for a decent one... works like a charm, even right clicking, which will help me transition <G>

I'm still working on the selecting, the apple-a is sort of what I want... On windows I can do it for a single line in a big block of text... I'll work on it..

The disk image thing I get the hang of... I came off as quite a newbie though I've got several years of unix and windows experience, I'm just really careful I guess, questioning everything... :) I'll get over it.

I'm kosher with installing now... got a few proggies, saw a couple different ways (disk image, and an installer for yahoo messenger)...

The spacebar still sounds like a loud click... nothing like the other keys when they're being pressed.. Maybe I'll call it in soon here, I don't want to have to send it back after just getting it... :(

Everything else is going pretty good... I was really suprised on how easy the airport setup, the mouse, and everything else... learning on this hasn't been too difficult at all... sans my silly newbie questions :)

Thanks again guys (gals?)... appreciate the help.

Mike

[dsk]

I'm not sure if this is what you want, but to select one line of text, many times you can just triple-click on it.

David

[xchanyazy]

Or use shift + up or shift + down.

[AKcrab]

Keyboard shortcuts. (http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html)
Most complete list I've found.
Welcome to the Mac!!
(The link doesn't really apply to this discussion, but I know how much you laptop users love keyboard shortcuts.) ;)