Top 3 things you'd do to make your mac awesome?

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Looking to make my machine cooler. Wanting to hear advice on how to do that. Apps, personal tricks and tweeks, etc are welcome. Compared to my pc that i used to have, this thing is amazing and just so fun to use...so help me make it more fun.
 
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Well, you can customize all your icons and your dock. You can find replacement icons at sites like Interfacelift.com. You can replace the icon in an application's Resources folder with a new one of your choice as long as you name it the same. Or you can replace your system icons with an application like CandyBar or LiteIcon.
 

RavingMac

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Looking to make my machine cooler. Wanting to hear advice on how to do that. Apps, personal tricks and tweeks, etc are welcome. Compared to my pc that i used to have, this thing is amazing and just so fun to use...so help me make it more fun.

Hmmm. Yeah, I've got some advice:

- If you use Twitter, download Twitter for Mac
- Download Dropbox
- Download Droplr - Droplr makes it really easy to share anything with people online. It puts a small icon in your MenuBar (the bar at the top-right with the time). You literally just drag any file you want to the icon, and it will give you a URL to share it with people. Really cool stuff.
- Some people prefer Chrome over Safari, so I'd check that out
- Cmd + shift + delete will empty your trash
- Cmd + shift + 4 lets you capture a screenshot
- FLIQLO is the coolest screensaver ever

That's all I got for now. I'll probably think of more. Macs are awesome.
 
C

chas_m

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Not to be contrarian, but here's my list of three things that will KEEP your Mac awesome:

1. Keep plenty of free space available on the hard drive. Ten percent is a good rule of thumb, though that's just a generalized figure. Mac OS X needs lots of free space to work well.

2. Avoid storing crap on your desktop. It look unprofessional, it makes it easier to accidentally lose things, it's blocking your awesome background, it uses more resources than storing things properly, and its far easier (and a superior solution in every respect) to use aliases and/or the Dock for this.

3. Don't run a zillion menu bar items, cram the Dock completely full, run a bunch of constant background processes, store absolutely everything in one folder and other lazy bad practices. The dock, like the bookmarks bar, like the desktop, is only for the FEW things you GENUINELY need quick access to and works best when you use it like that. Constantly re-evaluate what you're actually using most and least -- get the least-accessed things off your boot drive wherever possible and reserve your one-click access areas ONLY for the stuff you ACTUALLY use all the time.

(and here's a couple more)

4. Do your maintenance every once in a while. I like OnyX but use whatever you want. Every other month or so is fine IMHO.

5. Really learn the Mac before cluttering it up with (mostly) crap. The apps that came with the Mac, along with the OS, have MANY MANY hidden powers and abilities that will amaze you. Find them out -- and once you feel very comfortable with what you have, only THEN will you really know what else you might NEED to get from third-party suppliers.

If you follow all five of these points faithfully, I promise you that (barring mechanical failure) your Mac will a) run well for the entire course of its working life and b) continue to delight you the entire time you own it.
 

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2. Avoid storing crap on your desktop. It look unprofessional, it makes it easier to accidentally lose things, it's blocking your awesome background, it uses more resources than storing things properly, and its far easier (and a superior solution in every respect) to use aliases and/or the Dock for this.

3. Don't run a zillion menu bar items, cram the Dock completely full, run a bunch of constant background processes, store absolutely everything in one folder and other lazy bad practices. The dock, like the bookmarks bar, like the desktop, is only for the FEW things you GENUINELY need quick access to and works best when you use it like that. Constantly re-evaluate what you're actually using most and least -- get the least-accessed things off your boot drive wherever possible and reserve your one-click access areas ONLY for the stuff you ACTUALLY use all the time.
Quick peeking at my Mac? ;)

Actually, I was looking at my desktop the other day, telling myself I needed to do some cleanup.
 
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Not to be contrarian, but here's my list of three things that will KEEP your Mac awesome:

3. Don't run a zillion menu bar items, cram the Dock completely full, run a bunch of constant background processes, store absolutely everything in one folder and other lazy bad practices. The dock, like the bookmarks bar, like the desktop, is only for the FEW things you GENUINELY need quick access to and works best when you use it like that. Constantly re-evaluate what you're actually using most and least -- get the least-accessed things off your boot drive wherever possible and reserve your one-click access areas ONLY for the stuff you ACTUALLY use all the time.

Couldn't agree more. Here's a view of my dock. Only the apps I use everyday make the cut. Some apps I use less often are in a custom apps folder.

2675.Screen%20shot%202011-04-08%20at%2021%3A13%3A51.png


My menubar is equally minimalistic. You can disable most unnecessary menubar items from system preferences. For example, if you do not use Bluetooth, you don't need to see that little grey icon in the menubar. It just takes up space.
 
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To be contrarian - again - run a bunch of stuff in your bar and go buy some Ram. It is cheap from OWC.
Apple Mac Memory Upgrade Options: Easy Buying Guide, Free Install Videos. Memory backed by Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty.
Plus Mac does a very good job of memory management - but you should still clean up. If you aren't running a program then close it - cmd-w
With 8GB of RAM I can run 2 Virtual Machines and the Mac just fine. I dedicate 1.5G Ram for Windows 7, 1G for Ubuntu.

Top 3.5
Istats menu - see what's going on with your Mac
iStat Menus, a Mac app by Bjango
Quicksilver - not just a launcher
Blacktree
Forever save - see how important it is when you lose data
Tool Force Software | ForeverSave
Better Touch tool - was already mentioned but I cannot say enough good things about it.

Others
Typinator - works great for forums
Typinator - the fastest text expander in town
One Password - strengthen your security
1Password
Remind me later - quick task management
bdunagan – Remind Me Later
Espionage - single folder encryption
Tao Effect :: Espionage :: Secure Folder Encryption for Mac OS X
Default Folder X - get more functionality from save dialogs
Default Folder X
Inklet - turn your trackpad into a tablet (try it with a stylus) Not as good as a dedicated tablet - but also not nearly that expensive.
Inklet Trackpad Tablet

But Chas' point 2 I absolutely agree with. Use your desktop for stuff you are working on now - then get it off the desktop.
 
C

chas_m

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Ivan:

I think most of the "extras" you mention are very good choices. I rely on Typinator and 1Password and iStat menu particularly.
 
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Use Parallels, VMwareFusion, or some other virtualisation tool to integrate both Windows 7 & Ubuntu 10.10 (or 11.04 if you trust beta releases) into OSX, and allow you to run apps from all three major OS families on the same desktop. The best of all worlds :)
 
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And to top it all of a Mercury Extreme SSD from OWC.
 
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Still a bit pricy. I bought the 5400rpm hard disk on my MBP. I hope to replace it with an SSD by the end of the year... I hope :p

And to top it all of a Mercury Extreme SSD from OWC.
 
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Ivan:

I think most of the "extras" you mention are very good choices. I rely on Typinator and 1Password and iStat menu particularly.

I wish I had found typinator earlier. It came along with a software bundle. I code with some verbose programming languages and it saves me a metric ton of typing. Plus as I mentioned I have pretty much all the bbcode setup so it is easy to use forums like this one.

1Password also. I was skeptical about keeping my information in one place - but 1Password is very good - plus it has the ability to hold stuff like credit card data and secure notes.

I guess I should mention that there are awesome bundle deals that come along every now and then. I know some people have been burned by some of the terms and conditions but as I mentioned both typinator and 1Password came in bundles when I purchased them. Here are some bundle sites.
MacFriendly
MacHeist » Welcome
http://www.macbuzzer.com/
Mac update promo offers daily deals on software - plus every now and then they offer bundles. Like one year I got Parallels + 9 other software for $50 - which is the cost of Parallels on sale. Another time I got Toast titanium + 9 other programs for $50 - which is also the cost of Toast on sale.
MacUpdate Promo - Huge Discounts and Daily Deals on Mac Software
You can sign up for emails to be informed when deals come around. I haven't gotten spammed by any of them (yet) - just the emails I asked for.
 

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