Maria’s Guides

• New to the Mac and Compatibility with Windows
  An Apple online seminar. Free, but requires registration.
  (tags: apple Macintosh Mac tutorial Windows seminar online free)
• Thoughts on Music
  Steve Jobs’s essay on music and DRM. (I know, I’m always the last kid on the block to read these things, but I’ve been busy.) Could Apple stop DRM? I hope so. The restrictions are more than just annoying.
  (tags: apple article copyright drm essay itunes Jobs Mac music opinion rights technology stevejobs iPod business)
• 24-inch IMac is nearly perfect
  In the Washington Times. It’s making me want one now.
  (tags: Mac review iMac)
• Apple TV
  Apple TV is now shipping. I don’t watch enough TV to want one of these things, but I’d be very interested in hearing feedback from real people who do. Use the Comments link for this post.
  (tags: Apple TV iPod iTunes)
• The Evolution of the Computer Mouse
  A photo essay on Wired News.
  (tags: articles computer design evolution gallery history technology wired mouse interface hardware)
• Apple of Our Eye: Macs Save Money
  Commentary about Macs on Wired.com.
  (tags: apple article business Mac review technology computers wired)

Another way to add To Do items to iCal.

One of the the goals of the Getting Things Done methodology is to get tasks out of your head and into a place where you can track them. That means making extensive use of organized lists.

Although iCal isn’t the best tool for GTD, it certainly is workable. (I have yet to find a better solution, although I admit I haven’t been looking very hard.) The iCal GTD Widget makes it quick and easy to add a To Do item to iCal without launching iCal.

Install the iCal GTD widget and place a copy of it on your Dashboard. Then, when an idea flashes into your mind, press F12 to display the Dashboard (and the widget) and enter a reminder for your idea into the widget’s edit box. You can choose a calendar from the pop-up menu if desired. Press return and the note is added to iCal as a To Do list item for the calendar you chose.

Can’t be much simpler than that.

So that’s what’s going on!

One of the first things I noticed after updating Mac OS X Tiger to 10.4.9 was that my CD eject key didn’t seem to work anymore. Normally, I’d just push it and the CD drawer would open. But it just didn’t work like that anymore. Not having time to troubleshoot it, I decided not to update my 12″ PowerBook.

Well, this article on the Apple support site explains it all: “Mac OS X 10.4.9: Media Eject key delay“:

Issue or symptom

After installing Mac OS X 10.4.9, pressing the Media Eject key on the Apple keyboard does not immediately eject media from the optical disc drive nor display the on-screen eject symbol.

Apparently, too many people were pressing that key by accident, thus ejecting media. Apple decided to add a delay to the Media Eject key before it takes effect.

To eject a disc, hold the Media Eject key. The disc will eject normally and the eject symbol will appear.

I just wish Apple had the foresight to mention this change in the update’s release notes rather than requiring us to fish around for the answer online.

So yes, I’ll be updating my PowerBook shortly.

Another Informit article.

Sheesh. I forgot all about this one. I just checked in at Informit and there it was — an article I’d written at least a month ago.

It’s called “How to Add WordPress Category Feed Links to Posts” and it provides detailed information about how I get those little RSS icons to appear beside category names for each post on this site. I referred to this article in a post on this site, “WordPress Category Feeds.” That post explains why I wrote the article and why I didn’t publish it here. (It basically comes down to my need to pay bills and eat.)

I think that’s the last Informit article in the pipeline. They’ve asked me for some Leopard articles, but I’m going to wait a wee bit longer before I start churning those out.

Anyway, enjoy. And if you have questions about the article, you can post them in Comments here.

• World gets 21st Century totem poles
  About Twitter. On the Chicago Tribune.
  (tags: twitter web communication)

• BusinessWeek: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is ‘slow and dangerous’
  Yet another very good Vista review. Very good for Apple, that is. On MacDailyNews.com, with link to original article on BusinessWeek.com.
  (tags: mac pc vista advertisement Macintosh Windows)