Today’s the first day using the MacBook Pro, and leaving the IBM at home. This now means that I’m working 100% on the MacBook, the backups are working, and I’ve got access to the applications I need. Some interesting notes on issues/niceties I’ve discovered so far…

Parallels: I’ve found Parallels to be excellent so far: along the same lines as VMware, it’s a virtual machine thingy so you can run a copy of Windows under OS X alongside your other Mac applications. There’s still the little matter that I have to deal with IE6 bugs, and I’ve still not found an OS X replacement for EMS MySQL Manager, so this is proving indispensable: on top of that I can configure some good sandbox justice, enabling me to see what sites look like in IE6, IE7, and under Linux as well as on the Mac itself. I really like how it puts icons for each Windows start-bar process on your Apple task bar too.

LogicExpress: I had a bit of fun with Logic Express last night. I’ve acquired a MidiSport 4×4 and connected it to the Minidisc mixing desk, with the aim of starting to convert the MD-Data masters from the Cheese Factory. After I’d got my head a bit more around how Logic processes things, I switched on MTC and managed to get it talking – woo! Sadly that was the point it went pear-shaped: Logic failed to record anything, crashed, and lost my session. Repeatedly. I think I’ll probably wait until I’ve got some peace and a few clear hours until I try it again 🙁

Palm Desktop: Calendaring is pretty important to me, and I’m very much ingrained in use of my Palm T|X. A killer app for me on Windows was their Palm Desktop product which pretty seamlessly integrates with the PDA itself, but I was quite annoyed to find that the OS X version wasn’t as mature as its Windows counterpart. Additionally, the version for download on Palm’s own site is 4.2.1, whereas my year-old installation CD has 4.2.2 on it! It’s a bit odd and crashes occasionally, and doesn’t have as many features as the Windows one; however it’s passable and beats iCal, which (for instance) doesn’t seem to retain categories properly.

That’s it so far. Probably more soon, but head’s a bit fuzzy right now thanks to the man-flu epidemic.

I’d been intending to do it all along: the arrival of the MacBook Pro had simply speeded the process up, but for about 6 months I’ve been gradually leaning towards having a Mac as my principal desktop.

This isn’t a thing to be taken lightly. I’m a contractor and as I’ve said a lot, I need to hit the ground running. Sometimes I’ll have less than 4 weeks to do a task that should be scheduled for 6 months, and so I need to be exceedingly confident using the tools of the trade – namely, my computer. So it was with a little bit of anxiety that I finally decided to try and use the MacBook in work, properly, and without needing to use the T42p.

How did it go? Well, day #1 was pretty good. I’d installed most of what I thought I might need – stuff like Zend Studio and Photoshop as well as staples such as Firefox. I only really need ssh on top of that lot and I’m fine.

Thanks to Macports I’ve got the MacBook set up to be a full sandbox – php5, mysql5 and of course apache are all installed. I’m working within subversion and it’s a real pleasure not to have to reboot all the time to get to applications such as Office and Photoshop! Then I’ve managed to get Parallels working, so I have a Windows 2000 desktop just in case I need to test IE. Very fine.

Irritations so far: mostly keyboard-related, which could be solved with a proper Apple keyboard rather than using my mobile USB one; the trackpad is a bit annoying but I’ve been taking my Mighty Mouse with me so that’s circumventable; I’m still getting used to OS X in terms of setting things to start up on boot but that’s easy since it’s BSD at the core; Printers crashed today when the Bonjour service was being a bit nosey.

Other than that, fine. No, you can’t have it, I’m happy with it.

I’m typing this on my new MBP. It’s lovely, although it’ll take me a bit to get used to the keyboard, and I want a wireless Mighty Mouse for it. Mmmmmmm yeah.

One of the pieces of kit which goes everywhere with me is my 3rd-generation iPod. Bought by my wife and friends for my 30th birthday (you do the math on how old it is) it’s constantly charged, discharged, bumped and clonked. It’s got almost all of its 40G of disk full of tunes which help me work, sleep and play. Sadly, of late it has managed to last less than 20 minutes before requiring a charge, meaning I either have to play it through the computer or I have to lug the charger around with me too.

So, aware that I was working in Leeds this week, I thought I’d nip to the KRCS Apple dealership up near the Merrion Centre which (last I looked) sold iPod batteries suitable for my particular model. Sadly this time round they didn’t, and weren’t sure if they might get some in by the end of the week or not.

Lucky for me an acquaintance had been through this themselves and pointed me at iPodDoctor.co.uk, who for the princely sum of £18.50 could furnish me with not only a battery, but the tools and instructions to carry out the operation, and throw Special Delivery postage in as well. Bonus! From a Monday afternoon order it arrived on Tuesday morning and so, post-client-meeting, I carried out the operation in a spare moment.

It went smoothly, took less than 10 minutes, and I’m very pleased with the results. Although I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint-hearted, anyone with a bit of technical nouse and who can stomach delicately pulling their beloved iPod apart can do this. They even provide the tools, just follow the instructions carefully.

Definitely recommended.