Keep your OSX workspaces in order

As an OSX user I frequently divide my work up into multiple workspaces.  I keep my email and chat program open on one, IDEs in another, and my browser in a third.  This is especially handy when working without a second monitor, because I can effortlessly swipe between workspace without having to click around to find my windows.

This system works really well until OSX decides to help me out by rearranging my workspaces automatically.  Expecting that my IDE is always to the left of my browser workspace, I swipe left only to find that my email and chat windows are now there.  This can get really annoying when I have 5 or 6 workspaces open, as I end up playing hide-and-seek with windows.

Thanks Mission Control, but I don't need your help.

Fortunately, the solution is simple.  Go into System Preferences >> Mission Control and uncheck the option for "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use".  Now you can arrange your workspaces without OSX trying to outsmart you. 

How to lock the screen in OSX

From day one of Mac ownership, one glaring omission has really bothered me.   There's no obvious way to initiate the screen saver or turn off the screen in order to lock the machine.  Locking the screen is a modern must-do in any environment.  Every other OS places this option in plain sight making it impossible to overlook.  With OSX, both options are obscurely hidden enough that no casual user would ever find them without Googling or mashing random key combinations for half an hour.

I'm here to tell you how to do both things.  First the easy one. To turn the screen off, effectively locking the machine, press Control + Shift + Eject on your Mac keyboard.  The more difficult trick is locking the screen by starting the screen saver.  Open up Keychain Access (hint: it's under Apps>Utilities) and choose Preferences from the menu bar.  Now check the box for "Show keychain status in menu bar."  You will now see a little lock shaped icon in the menu bar that allows you to lock the screen.

OSX Mavericks

It's about time... OSX Mavericks addresses some pretty serious issues I've had with my Mac since day one.  Why these things took so long to be included in OSX is beyond me.  The two new features I'm interested in are the improved handling of dual monitors and the battery graphing feature in Activity Monitor.  

The ability to hide the unnecessary GUI clutter with full screen app is pretty nifty indeed, but I never used it. In the past two versions of OSX, full screening an app with dual monitors caused the app to take over one monitor (expected) and the OS to render a worthless gray texture on the other (WTF).  Full screening an app now leaves the other monitor free to display other programs, the reason why I bought the second monitor to begin with.  Also, the menu bar is now displayed on both monitors instead of only the primary monitor. 

The second irksome issue Apple addressed was that of battery time tracking.  I can see how long my phone has been on battery, so why couldn't I do this on my Mac?   Now Activity Monitor includes a graph of the machine's battery charge over time, so I can see how long my battery has actually been running my machine, instead of just guessing. This pleases me in a very nerdy control freak sort of way. I'm sure there are others out there that will appreciate this new feature.  

There's not a whole lot to lose by upgrading to Mavericks; hell, it's free, and it runs on machines made back in 2007.  It's nice to get a free upgrade every once in a while, especially after having to deal with Mountain Lion for the last year.  

Chainload chimera with grub

If you want to dual boot your hackintosh with Linux using grub to select the operating systems, add the following lines to the 40_custom file and rebuild the grub menu.

menuentry "Mac OS 10.7 loader"{
set root=(hd1)
chainloader +1
}


The "40_custom file is located at "/etc/grub.d" .  To update the grub menu, run "update-grub" from terminal.  Once you run the update script, you will want to remove or comment out the other Mac OS entries that grub finds, as these will not work. (OS X needs chimera to boot from a normal BIOS.)

This scenario works only if you have Linux and grub on one hard drive and Mac OS on another.  Substitute  (hd1) for whatever hard drive you are running Mac OS from.

Apple iBook G4

I've always been a PC user. A few years ago a friend inroduced me to Linux, but I never really liked using it. Now the same friend loaned me an iBook G4. Its not particularly powerful, but it works just fine for everyday web browsing and email tasks. The Macintosh interface is very simple and easy to use. Sometimes I wish it had a right click button though. Having to press CRTL and click to bring up a context menu is somewhat annoying. Software installation is quite easy. Download the file, double click the file, and drag to the applications folder. The operating system itself appears to be quite stable as well. The hardware is also simple yet elegant. The bottom of the laptop is one solid piece except for the battery. There are no stickers, vents, or panels that clutter up the bottom.  Overall the Macintosh platform is pretty nice. Its definately not a power user's platform. However if you are looking for a stable, easy to use computer, I would suggest a Mac. Just remember, that you will have to look for software that will work on the Mac if you want to do more than check email and browse the web.