Slashdot Mirror
OS X Hacks
The book is split into 9 chapters; 'Files', 'Startup", 'Multimedia and the iApps', 'The User Interface', 'Unix and the Terminal', 'Networking', 'Email', 'The Web' and 'Databases'.
For my money the last chapter is a complete waste of space since it only covers installing MySQL and PostgresSQL, and if you can't figure out how to install them from the documentation then you aren't smart enough to use them. A number of the other tips would come close to that level, I feel their only use may be to encourage people who would otherwise stay away to make some use of the terminal and similar tools.
Over a dozen people have contributed 'hacks' to the book, among them some major geeks such as James Duncan Davidson (Tomcat author) and Jon Udell (well respected O'Reilly blogger.) This accounts for the wide number of areas covered by the hacks.
When I first started reviewing the book I would have complained about a large number of the tips being too application specific, too general or too low in skill level. Since then I've had a friend who wanted to edit a movie and we both found the chapter on iApps useful, one with a brand new Bluetooth phone who liked the couple of tips on Bluetooth and another who found the cross platform Windows-Mac stuff useful. so I have to say that while some of the tips might seem useless now you may come to appreciate them later.
Overall the book is well written, well laid out and well cross-referenced and covers a wide range of information. My one major beef is still that there are too many 'tips' that are well covered by other material. Since you shouldn't really get this book until you are at least Mac proficient and probably own a basic Mac book or two then perhaps a tenth of the hundred tips will be covered in most Mac books and perhaps another five to ten you will have discovered on your own.
While O'Reilly doesn't offer a sample chapter of this book online they do have a page at Hacks that lists all the hacks and allows you to read eight of them. There is also a page in the catalog with the Table of Contents, Index and Errata.
Reading over my notes I feel split between raving about how good the book is - well written with a bunch of useful tips and tricks for any Mac user - and complaining about the useless nature of some of the tips. After taking another look at 'Google Hacks' and my review I realised where the conflict lies -- in my level of experience on the Mac. If you already feel comfortable with getting your hands dirty on your Mac then this book may well not satisfy you. If, on the other hand, you still have some trepidation about hacking at your OS X Macintosh then you'll probably love this book.
You can purchase OS X Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I am the great cornholio. I need FP for my ego.
I want to have your baby, baby!
Please stop trolling with the same post.
You have posted this 'reply' verbatim in more than one article.
The Mac you are using is obsolete, the OS on it is obsolete, and the PCs you are comparing it to is obsolete
Have you been posting this reply since 1999 or what?
Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
What moron modded this up? This troll has been around forever!
Well, if you're going to be stupid and waste mod points, at least be consistent-- save two more of your mod points for the two "gay" letters, they're sure to be posted in another few minutes, probably by this same fuckwit.
YOU FAIL IT, CORNHOLIO! YOU NEED FAILURE FOR YOUR EGO!
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
LAMENESS FILTER FAILS IT!
I saw this same post a few months ago. It might have even been just a paste of the previous time. When I first read this, I thought it was a Slashdot problem, but I'm not so sure.
Please quit posting this troll.
Plant a tree in a developing country.
And how is this brilliant user going to write code that utilizes said database?
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
I am a homosexual. I bought an Apple computer because of its well earned reputation for being "the" gay computer. Since I have become an Apple owner, I have been exposed to a whole new world of gay friends. It is really a pleasure to meet and compute with other homos such as myself. I plan on using my new Apple computer as a way to entice and recruit young schoolboys into the homosexual lifestyle; it would be so helpful if you could produce more software which would appeal to young boys. Thanks in advance.
with much gayness,
Father Randy "Pudge" O'Day, S.J.
Thanks for your letter. Being Catholic myself, I know exactly what you're talking about! It has always been our plan here at Apple Computer Inc to revolutionize personal computing with our high-quality and highly gay products.
I'm happy to answer your letter by letting you know that YES we will be releasing an entire hLife ("homo-life") software line. You'll be able to recognize it in stores by the small stylized logo depicting a large cock entering a tight anus with an Apple logo on it. ("Suddenly it all comes together" indeed!).
Anyway, I hope you and other members of our community will join us on our mission, and purchase the exciting new hLife boxed set. Only the boxed set comes with translucent cock rings!
Sincerely,
Harry Rodman
Vice-president
Homosexual Liaison Services
Apple Computer, Inc.
I'm not so sure. The time proven way of dealing with trolls is to ignore them completely --
no response, not even downward moderation. Shun them as if they don't even exist.
It's F.U.D. not FUD.
What does M.A.C. stand for? and what is it?
Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
M.A.C. = Media Access Control, a sublayer of the Datalink layer (layer 2) in the OSI protocol stack. It's main purpose is to take care that on a shared network, like ethernet, not two hosts start talking at the same time.
:-)
Apperently, the author is babbeling that anyone on an ethernet (M.A.C. Users) use old hardward (perhaps he would like everyone to use a 10Gb/s optical line?)
Other than that, I have no clue where he's talking about. Obviously it's off-topic since it is not Macintosh related