I am not the Robot Tourist

Truth be told, it's the tree I miss the most. Plus that handy little file info pane between the tree and the folder contents. Tile view would be nice, and so would auto-arrange. It's the little things, really.

If MacOSX had (something like) Windows Explorer it would seriously wr0x3r teh w0r1D!!! No, seriously. So far I'm happy I've switched (heh, my sister's Dell Inspiron 6400 looks positively dated next to my BlackBook), but MacOSX needs two things: The Finder to be more like Windows Explorer and some system-wide easy to remember shortcuts. I know I can show the desktop with F11 (equivalent to WinKey+D) and Expose (F9) is teh hotness (no equivalent until Vista), but I want a key-stroke to bring up the Finder window. I also want the Finder functionality to be more like Windows Explorer. The column view is very poor compared to Explorer's tree. I know Spotlight (which could take a feature or two from Google Desktop Search, like file location/context) is supposed to take away the need to sort, but I like sorting things - I like things kept together. I want a tree. The Mac's user interface to the filesystem is supposed to be entirely spatial. I ask: what could be more spatial than a tree?

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the horizontal pinstripes. Neither do I care about Windows using the start button to shut-down, I like the Start Menu, especially the WinXP version with it's recently used applications. e.g. When I first went to look for Keynote to try showing presenter notes on the MacBook and the slides on the second display, I didn't know where to look. I had that moment of panic and had to resort to Spotlight, then I discovered all the applications live in the Applications folder. That's simple enough, but how do I get there quickly? The Windows Start button lets you do it in two mouse clicks.

The Dock is nice and works well on the left hand side, but I'd like more than a little arrow to tell me which programs are currently running.

Finally, three more things. i) Navigating the entire OS without a mouse DOES wr0q. ii) I miss having the menu bar in the window. Moving the mouse to the top of the screen can be a big productively loss. Although, if you could activate the menu bar without using the mouse, it would help a lot. iii) I want to be able to change more things. Windows lets you change nearly everything easily and I don't even mind resorting to registry hacks (e.g. the simple 'command prompt here' hack, which makes a vast improvement to Explorer).

Finally, finally, finally (the Spanish Inquisition strikes again): Having to quit applications with Command-Q, is a little bit annoying (or using the menu bar at the top of the screen). You get used to the little X in Windows - I like it on the right because I read left to right and I'm right handed, and if I happen to be closer to the left hand side, I can double-click the window's icon.

That all sounds a little harsh. In general the MacOSX experience is excellent, especially seeing fonts rendered well and seeing properly designed web-pages looking like PDFs. But it IS the little things that annoy me, I can forgive the sharp edge on the MacBook, but I want a tree in the Finder!

I was going to add a link to a google search for ftff, but i won't* and will just say that since Mac OSX came out, the cry has rung out: Fix The Friendly Finder (sanitised version* ) Although I'm not sure all the other complaints were the same as mine.

*the second f does not stand for friendly

I BOUGHT A LAPTOP! I finally decided to go mad and drop £1300 on a Black Apple MacBook 2GHz C2Duo/1GB RAM/120GB HDD with iWork '06, neoprene case and Apple Care (I figured if I can afford the insurance I might as well get it). I know Vista is coming and I could get it as a free (+shipping) upgrade with a Dell 640[0|m], but I thought I'd try something new. I am concerned about the glossy screen, but many arstechnica correspondents think Apple's glossy is either, better, as good, not so bad as other marques or not worse than other screens.

Now I can use my own laptop at church/youth fellowship/etc where I might need a projector or just an horrifically expensive photo album! I can also try out objective-C development as I just had an idea to write a program that you can use as a prayer diary. I shall call it 'Intercede', if I ever implement it. Plus I get Keynote, Pages, Garageband, iPhoto, etc and the opportunity to pay the Leopard tax. I may also try Bootcamp with a seemingly legal copy of XPPro I have lying around (SP1a unfortunately). I intend to keep my trusty Athlon XP 1800+ Win2k system, which still runs fine, especially since I switched from Avast to AVG, it just takes ages to boot and shut down.

Next up is a big shout out to Thinktoy for his/her excellent Thinknology Podcast. I have raved about Dao's ska podcast and Hospital Records' drum 'n' bass podcast, but I almost forgot that I had downloaded most of the Thinknology casts and was thoroughly enjoying the big beat/electronica goodness. A few more breakbeats would be nice to get the energy levels up, but as it is Thinktoy has produced an almost easy listening big beat/electronica sound, which is both no bad thing and an achievement. Thinktoy, please do some more podcasts! Your last was July 2006.

Finally, The Mandate 2006. The theme this year was grace, especially the fact that God's grace is sufficient for any man to overcome the things, like addiction (to anything: porn, drugs, etc) that can stop a man living in the way God intended, but like any addiction, you need to want to change and sometimes you need the support of those around you.

This year the Mandate had a mime artist (Steve Murray) instead of the three actors who usually perform the hilarious dramas the Mandate is known for. At first I was skeptical of the value of mime over the usual comedy routines, but when you see Steve Murray in action and acting along to music you realise the extraordinary gifts God has given him. His face is amazingly expressive (I'm glad he didn't wear the Marcel Marceau costume though) and the grace and control he has over his movements is something to behold. Make no mistake, what he does requires extreme concentration, planning and discipline.

I was also glad that the last time I was at the Mandate (2003 I think) I wrote on the comment card that glossy paper was not easy to take notes on. This year the pages in the handbook for note-taking were matte and much easier to write on.

It's hard to pick a favourite part of this year's Mandate, since the mime was a revelation, and the sermons, seminar and interview were excellent, but it was the praise time at the end that most moved me. Granted the band was technically brilliant (although a bit more definition in the bass guitar, a bit more hammond, a boron and an accordian would have been nice), but it wasn't their technical skill that did it. Somehow during Amazing Grace I was able to sing harmonies I didn't think I had in me. Most amazingly, though, during These are the Days of Elijah, I had a real sense of God actually coming to Belfast riding on the clouds and got a tiny glimpse of the Customs House Square end of Belfast's Oxford street (don't ask me why there, I don't know!) bathed in God's glory, the way it could be. Then I thought of John Piper's sermons at this year's New Horizon and realised the vast and painful disconnect between how the world should be and how it is due to our sin and God's curse - and I could not distinguish between the tears of joy for seeing God's glory and the tears of anguish over the world's sin and it's separation from God. But I thank God for even such a fleeting vision of His glory.

hopefully my next post will be written using my MacBook and that I'll get time to blog about and to post some photos of my trip to Morocco.