It's... not magic...

Small gripe. I bought a Magic Mouse to work with my Mac Mini, which is my HTPC... as I learned the hard way...

YOU CANNOT SETUP A MAGIC MOUSE UNLESS YOU HAVE AN EXISTING USB MOUSE!

That's kinda retarded. Apple (of all companies) should have a custom script that recognizes any Apple Bluetooth mouse in the area and auto pair. I don't expect the scroll to work without the new software, but I did expect basic mouse functions.

It was kinda annoying to have to dig out my old mouse just to set up my new one on my Mac Mini. Although I know it's an inherent design flaw in Bluetooth mice and keyboards, but I would've thought they fixed that in the BIOS by now.

apple slices...

I've been an Apple user for about 7 years now. My first Mac was a 12" Powerbook and I loved that little thing up until I got my current Black Macbook.

Although I still use Windows (currently going to switch from XP to 7 Ultimate), OSX has been my primary OS for the past year now.

One of the strangest things I've found with Apple is their symbols for their modifier keys.

If you've ever tried to learn a shortcut on a Mac, you'll know what I mean.



Here's a quick key guide to Apple's shortcuts:

- This is the Apple key, the strange flower looking symbol on it means "Command". So when a shortcut calls for pressing the Command or Apple key, this is it.

- For whatever reason, Apple uses this symbol for their CTRL key. I honestly don't know why this is symbol means CTRL. Any logical person would think it means the "6" key which has the ^ symbol on it.

- This weird symbol which does not appear on the Apple keyboards means OPTION (some Apple keyboards have the ALT on this key as well) ... I don't even know the origin of this symbol, nor why it is used in the Apple guides to depict shortcut keys when this does not appear on the keyboard at all.

You'd think that Apple would start printing these weird symbols that they've been using in their manuals to describe shortcuts on the actual keyboard they want you to use.

But they don't... and I guess that's that. This is Apple we're talking about here.

Mobile World Congress Update

I always get excited whenever the MWC rolls around... this year, in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson launched a few new products that I'm looking forward to checking out.

I've been looking to get a new phone for quite some time now... and these are 2 of the strong contenders. Both running Google's Android platform.

space, the final frontier...

Nowadays, we share files with a lot of people. Documents, project files, etc. Some of these files are huge and most people email these files to their friends or colleagues. Ever email a large file, only to find out that your email service doesn't allow large files to be sent? Find out that the recipient's inbox rejects large files? Or that all these large files are taking up a lot of space in your SENT folder? Instead of emailing files... why not use one of the many online file sharing options?

Two of my favorite ones are Wuala and Skydrive.

Wuala (by Lacie) offers 1GB free online storage. You can increase this by sharing space on your local drive for at least 4 hours a day. The more space you share on your local drive, the more online space you get free.


Microsoft's Skydrive offers 25GB online storage but requires a Windows Live ID to use. Not a big deal if you already use MSN Messenger or Hotmail.



Both services allow you to upload files in both private and public folders. This allows you to send links to your friends to download files you want to share with them... without you clogging up your email, and they can download anytime at their convenience.

I used to use large file sending services like Dropload (now dead) and Yousendit but the two services I mentioned above are far more efficient for frequent file sharing of large files. They also serve as online backup systems when you store files in the private folders.

QWERTY

QWERTY... to anyone who types, this is the most common keyboard layout available today. And even though almost everyone has used this layout at some point in their lives, most people don't realize how this bizarre layout came to be.

The most common misconception is that QWERTY was created out of efficiency. To make typing easier. Quite the contrary. Back in the mechanical typewriter days, Christopher Latham Sholes invented the first commercial typewriter. The very first keyboard was actually laid out as ABCDEFG. But back then, as people would type faster, the hammers (those things that punch the letters onto the paper) would hit each other and get jammed more and more frequently.

In an effort to keep his machines from jamming, Sholes decided to move the most frequently used letters away from each other to prevent them from jamming when typing at high speed. This consequently gave rise to the other misconception that QWERTY was invented to slow down typists and to keep from having to re-engineer the typewriter mechanism. Well, it actually did both at the time. But basically, it was just to prevent mechanical jamming of the type arms.

Despite the odd layout, and inefficient placements of the letters, most modern typists can hit speeds of 70wpm, while others can reach as high as 120wpm.

The more modern keyboard layout, the Dvorak keyboard, has been created with efficiency, speed, and carpal tunnel syndrome in mind. Controversially claiming typing speeds of 400wpm once a typist gets familiar with the keys.