All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Switch notes #1

Beatnik on 2007-05-01T13:48:07

It's been a week since I got my Mac.. I'll try to post some notes on my early experiences. After a week of using it, I must confess I'm getting a hang on the whole single mouse button, the finder and the dock. Shoot me if I'm wrong.

  1. The single mouse button is just an illusion. Although most applications work just fine with a single mouse button, I hooked up my off the shelf USB mouse and it worked just fine (scroll wheel and right mouse button included). The right mouse button works in Firefox (I didn't have the reflex to use it in other applications yet).
  2. On the web application front, I was looking into building Apache and mod_perl but guess what: it's already part of the package. Enable Apache through the Preferences > Internet & Network > Sharing > Services > Personal Web Sharing. Enable mod_perl by editing /etc/httpd/httpd.conf and removing the comments in front of 
    AddModule mod_perl.c
    and 
    LoadModule perl_module libexec/httpd/libperl.so
    Stop and start Apache by using the Stop and Start button in the Preferences panel. The Apache document root is in /Library/WebServer/Documents.
    3. IIRC Mysql has a Mac OS X package that integrates just fine.
  3. By default, the root account is disabled but you can set a password by using sudo. In Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal), type:
    sudo passwd
    and define a password. You'll probably want to edit the PATH as well.
  4. Fink adds a number of tools to the alreadt existing UNIX layer. This allows you to add Midnight commander. After installation, type fink install mc. Fink is installed in /sw so that's also where mc will be installed.
  5. Obviously, the icons in the left Finder panel are links. It took a while to realize this. I was panicking when for some reason, Applications was gone. You can add other links by dragging folders from the Macintosh HD list. If you install the XCore tools (available on the first CD), they will show up in /Developer. The user profiles are located in /Users and not in /home but you can create a link.
  6. Most applications come as disk images which have the dmg extension. They are mounted as a disk partition. To install the application, there might be a fancy GUI to help you but basically you just drag it to the Applications folder. To uninstall an application, either drag it to the Trash or click Command-Backspace. The mounted disk image will appear on your desktop. It'll have a very distinct disk icon. Select it and in Finder, go to File > Eject XXXXX or press Command-E.
  7. Keyboard keys: There is no Page Up, Page Down, Home or End key but use Command-Left, Command-Right, Command-Up or Command-Down instead. The Command key is actually the key with the Apple icon on (it also has a strange symbol). You should have two, on each side of the space bar. Copy and Paste are done with Command cand Command v respectivly. Opening new anything, you usually use Command n. Firefox uses Command t for their Open new tab feature.
  8. You can remove appliction from the Dock by clicking and holding the application. It'll show a small menu. Select Remove from Dock.
  9. Unfortunatly, I coulnd't get my Dell Axim 51v detected, nor my SE k750i cellphone or my SanDisk Cruzer Profile memory stick.
  10. Compared to the other laptops I've had and have, it does get quite warm. No exploded batteries though.
  11. The iSight camera does not work with Adium or MS Messenger for Mac. There is some support for it in aMsn but that kinda crashed on me.
  12. To kill an application, click on the Apple icon in the top left corner and select the application you want to kill in the Force Quit menu.
  13. Apple has some very nice information on Web technologies (including AJAX) at this page.


To be continued...