Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

Lingering Annoyances (Help Welcome)

1. Biggest issue so far: I can’t figure out how to sync keyboard shortcuts between Parallels, Mac, and Remote Desktop. I’m happy to have Cmd+V be paste in all three… just show me how to remap it so that it works.
2. Can’t figure out the keyboard shortcut for Lock Screen.
3. You can’t make the cursors bigger. Using accessibility makes them an eyesore and it’s difficult to determine which pixel the click is being sent to. I’ve read the “we want aesthetic control” rationale, and it’s BS. Make nice cursors that are big enough for almost-blind people to see please.
4. Inability to change baseline font size. I know how to zoom in and out. That’s not what I want.
5. Keyboard support lacking:
   • Scroll through each value in a combo.
   • Sliders.
   • Alt-letter combos for menus and dialogs. After attempting to use a new program on both Windows and the Mac, I’ve decided that keyboard navigation is just plain slower on the Mac.
   • I have a huge laptop. It’s a shame that explicit keys for Home/End/Page Up/Page Down/Delete weren’t added.
6. Can’t make thumbnails big enough in Finder’s thumbnail view.
7. Lack of any-edge resizing means that I frequently need to move, then resize windows.
8. I loved Firefox on Windows. I love it a bit less on the Mac since it doesn’t support Alt+D (yes, Cmd+L works, but I want consistent shortcuts), and it doesn’t play nice with the Mac’s Services.

Still to Install?

1. Brett Spiel Welt.
2. Sling Box.
3. ?VLC? if I can’t figure out how to get QuickTime to play a playlist.
4. ?WordService

Still to Configure

1. Time Machine.
2. Rate iTunes tracks with the keyboard.
3. Keyboard:
   • Rationalize commands (Ctrl vs. Cmd) across Remote Desktop, Parallels, and Mac.
   • Double-command to swap Cmd and Alt?
   • ?Keyboard shortcut widget?
   • Map Caps Lock to Escape.
   • Learn keyboard shortcuts. Notably accents (ä, ö, ü) and German letters (ß). Also figure out Modifier Key + Arrow meanings.

Hardware

17″ MacBook Pro, Dual Core, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM.

Preparation

1. Partition off 32GB of space for Boot Camp / Win XP.
2. Reinstall OS X.
3. Reinstall applications off the DVD that came with my computer.
4. Mac OS X Software Update…

Windows Preparation

1. Slipstream SP3 into WinXP.
2. Note applications installed on my current Windows box.
3. Install XMarks on old computer.
4. Export Beyond Compare options.

Mac Setup

1. Name the Mac “Morgana”.
2. System Preferences
   • Appearance: Place scroll arrows at top and bottom.
   • Desktop & Screen Saver: Black desktop background (google). Screen saver.
   • Dock: Bigger. Auto-hide. On the right (conflicts with Windows TaskBar in Parallels and Remote Desktop).
   • Expose & Spaces: Enable spaces.
   • International:
     • Show Canadian English.
     • Tweak Region, Formats.
     • Change time format in menu bar (medium time format).
   • Security: Lock down. Turn on FileVault.
   • Energy Saver: A bit less aggressive when plugged in.
   • Keyboard & Mouse: Set repeat rate the way I like it. Don’t display Bluetooth icon.
   • Trackpad: Speed up mouse a bit. OMG! Trackpad swiping is so cool.
   • Sound: Sosumi. It’s a cool sound, and the history is cool too.
   • Date & Time: Point to nearest city.
   • Time Machine: Don’t show in menu bar for now.
   • Universal Access:
     • Turn Zoom (Alt+Command+-, Alt+Command+=) on. Turn it back off. Ctrl+2-finger-scroll works.
     • Make mouse pointers bigger. Turn it back off. You can’t figure out what pixel you’re clicking on.
   • Display Keychain in menubar (for ability to Lock Screen).
3. Dashboard: Customize existing widgets. So far, I use it to show the upcoming weather for Winterthur and the current weather for Montreal/Boston.
4. FireFox:
   • Set up Firefox tabs: GMail, GReader, GToDoDoc, GCal, Joe’s Goals, WebMail.
   • Extensions:
     • Adblock Plus
     • Canadian English Dictionary
     • Faviconize Tab
     • Flashblock
     • No Squint
     • XMarks
   • Make GMail the mailto handler.
5. Adium.
   • Adium: Messages on one line (yMous Message theme).
6. Vuze.
7. Skype.
8. Configure Boot Camp. Install WinXP SP3.
9. Install Parallels.
10. iTunes:
    • Point to /User/Shared/iTunes.
    • Sync iPod
11. Create an administrator account.
12. Copy down media (music, movies).
13. Remote Desktop.
14. TrueCrypt.
15. System Preferences | Accounts | Login Items.
16. Change background on login screen (google). Both colour and graphic.
17. MultiClutch for swiping in Firefox.
18. Witch for Alt-Tab. Configure.
19. PokerStars.
20. Anki.
21. Change date format in Finder.
22. Canon codecs and software for SLR camera.
23. Add an application stack to the Dock.
24. Configure Mail to use GMail.
25. Install SeaShore. Marvel that Mac OS X doesn’t have an MS Paint equivalent.
26. Perian.
27. Flip4Mac.
28. Work VPN Software.
29. Exif Renamer.
30. Software updater (App Update Widget). Lament that there’s no really good software updater for either Mac or Windows.
31. Stuffit Expander.
32. Search Google Service.
33. Use Parallels Transporter to slurp in image of old computer. Holy cow that was simple.
34. Picasa Web Albums Uploader
35. Make IE, Quicken, Password Safe, Outlook favourites so that they can be launched via Spotlight.

Windows Setup

1. Name the Windows installation “Mordred”.
2. Fix accounts in the windows machine.
3. Install VS.Net 2008 + SPs.
   • Import VS.Net Macros, Settings.
4. Beyond Compare 2.x / All Plug-Ins.
   • Import options.
5. Subversion.
   • svn checkout playpen
6. nant.
7. Password Safe + Shortcuts.
8. Office 2007 + SPs.
   • Remove some MS Office components.
   • Compress C:\MSOCache. F*** Microsoft.
9. CCleaner.
10. Handy Registry Settings.
11. Name Clip
12. Path: +Playpen bin directory. +Nant.
13. Configure IE / IE Cache.
14. FileHippo.
15. Tweak UI.
16. Nant.
17. Active Perl.
18. WPP.
19. GPEdit.msc | Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Turn Off Autoplay.
20. Run playpen\tools\Registry\Windows Tuning - Tweaks.reg.
21. Configure Windows Media Player, System Properties, Control Panel, Windows in general.
22. Configure command prompt, subversion.
23. Tweak services.
24. Quicken.
25. Active Sync. Sync phone.
26. Resharper.

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