Weird Dark Border around Leopard Desktop

Since yesterday a dark border kept appearing in my Leopard desktop. I am currently using six spaces and this dark border only appears in space 2, which I used the spaces for Safari and internet browsing.

The screen looks like:

Posted my problem to Whirlpool, some suggested that it could be the Expose that is doing the trick. I am still don't know what is the purpose of having the dark border around the screen. I did not change Expose configuration.

After a machine restart, it seems alright where the dark border disappear in all spaces. Weird.

Wonder if this is a problem with Leopard? Or somehow I did something that trigger this dark border to appear?

Useful Utilities for Leopard

Have my Mac and Leopard for two weeks now and found the following utilities pretty handy.

Quicksilver: This is a MUST HAVE if you want to access your application quickly. Highly customizable. Launch your application by pressing +, type in a few words and search your application from the list.

UnRarX: I saw some posts mentioned that in Tiger it supports .rar file type but not in Leopard. So this utility will come in handy when you want to extract .rar.

VLC: Having problem viewing .wmv and other file types which are not supported by Quicktime? This VLC player supports most of the video format and it comes with clean interface.

Parallels 3.0 with Leopard

Playing with my Leopard and MacBook Pro for a few days now, and I miss my Microsoft Money. I cannot seem to find a replacement yet but Quicken comes pretty close. Quicken also has a version that support Mac.

Given that I have accumulate quite a number of Microsoft applications, especially for Money and Office, I have decided to purchase Parallels 3.0 to emulate my windows environment. There are some good reviews from my colleague.

At first was having some trouble finding a copy of Parallels around the shop and one of the Mac reseller introduced me with VMWare fusion. Not knowing how it performs, I kept looking for Parallels until I got one from another reseller.

Installation from the CD was simple enough and hassle few. Also impress by the book that comes with the box.

The problem comes when I click on the Parallels icon once the installation is completed. It just throw an error and error report displays some information that is too low level that I cannot comprehend.

After a bit of googling, found out that Parallels website does offer a download for Leopard users separately. That could indicate that the copy I have does not compatible with Leopard. So I downloaded the copy and installed it. Build 5160 is the build number that should work with Leopard.

Next challenge is to find my old Microsoft XP CDs. First I have installed Microsoft XP Home edition (without SP2) and apparently it does not work with Parallels. The installation of the Windows stuck at "Install device drivers..." stage. Luckily I found another copy of more recent Microsoft XP Pro and it installed successfully.

After that, starting the VM just a click away and it show up the same old WinXP interface. Installed Microsoft Money and Office on it and voila! Now I can work on applications from Mac and Windows. Also a nifty feature in Parallels is the "seamless" mode where it hides the window frames and make the Windows application looks as if a Mac app. Cool! Don't forget to hide the task bar to make it more realistic.

In conclusion, the installation of setting of Parallels is not as easy than I thought it would be.

•  The first problem is due to the recent release of Leopard and how Parallels 3.0 in store does not work out of the box with Leopard will definitely give headache to the user. I strongly recommend whoever bought Parallels from a store ensure that they download the latest copy from Parallels after that.
  
• Stability - Occasionally when I am starting the VM, it just said some problem starting it and at one point, it even cause the "restart" blind coming up and advised me to restart my computer! Not sure if this is something to do with hibernation.
• Using Parallels is good that provides concurrent usage of both Mac and Windows applications. However, for Windows, I need to perform an extra step by starting the VM.

Leopard - First Glance

Mac OS X 10.5 a.k.a Leopard has been the hot topic around town lately. While getting my first Mac is exciting, learning how to use Leopard or accustom to Mac OS X is another adventure.

Here are some noticeable differences working in Windows environment and Mac OS X:

• Keyboard - As all Macs come with the "Command" key, which I found acts very similar to "Ctrl" key in Windows. Although Mac keyboard also comes with Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. Most of the "Ctrl" key function in Windows are the same with "Command" key function. For example, under Firefox, a new tab is "Ctrl-T", and with Safari, a new tab is "Command-T". Find is "Ctrl-F" under Windows and Mac is "Command-T". I am glad to see this similarity because that makes the transition easier and normally I just have to guess the key.
• Windows menu bar - Under Windows, all window has their own menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc). In Mac OS X, all windows share the same menu bar (with various menu item depending on the application). Also I think all of them share the same common key shortcut too, for example, "Command-," will bring you to the preferences setting for each application.
• Close,Minimise and Maximise - The button group is located at the top left of each window rather than top right in windows. Although in Windows, you can change them using different themes, such as WindowBlinds, AquaSoft, etc.
• Dock - This is the unique signature of Mac OS X where it acts like the "Quick Launch" under windows but looks nicer. Also in Leopard, it comes with the concept of "Stack",  whereby you can organise your items under a folder in Dock. When you click on the Stack folder, it will spring out in a "Fan" or "Grid" mode.
• Spaces - I love spaces very much. Being a Linux user too, I have discovered the effectiveness of using Spaces quite a while ago. Spaces allow you to organise your work into different workspace so that it would not clutter with too much application windows. The new Spaces that comes with Leopard enhance the experience where you can switch to different Spaces instantly by using shortcut key "Command+arrow key" or "Ctrl+". You can also customise the keyboard shortcut if you don't like "Ctrl+". For me, the Ctrl key is a bit out of reach and I have change it to "Command+

To be honest, I found that it takes sometimes to adjust to the new keyboard layout and a lot of time I hit the wrong button. As time goes by, I think it will become easier. Also I think I will buy a Mac keyboard later.

First MacBook Pro - With Leopard

31 October 2007 marks an important part of my life as I have just bought my first Mac - A MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.4 Ghz.

After long awaiting months for Leopard, and now I am carrying my Mac in this black slim box walking down the street. The box opening experience was a pleasant one. With no complication, unwrap the box and removed the white protector cover, revealed the silver and shiny MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro was accompanied with cables and charger. Underneath the MacBook Pro was a small square box which filled with manual and some CDs. The CDs include the new Mac OSX due to the MacBook Pro was shipped before Leopard was released, and some other miscellaneous CDs.

Quick glance through the manual suggested that I should be plugging in the cable and start charging my laptop. This is the first time I use a magnetic charger. It is kind of fancy where the cable will just attract to the MacBook Pro.

While charging is in progress, I cannot wait to open the lid and what I saw was simple - A screen, keyboard, trackpad and a power button, not to mention the shiny surface. When it started up, first it completed the installation of Tiger - simple installation - no grilling or interrogative question asked.

Next I cannot wait to put on Leopard that came with the CD. It took quite a long time to complete the installation of Leopard, approximately 1 hour or more. During the installation, the laptop got pretty warm which made me worry.

After the installation was complete, the laptop restarted and there I am, sitting in front of a Mac, with the latest OSX installed. I am impressed with the presentation of the OS itself. Nice, clean, and the eye-candy animation.

Quickly change my desktop background to one of the pictures under 'Plant' with lots of green leaves. I suppose that is good for my eyes. Tried all the applications sitting at the bottom of the screen. All applications look great.

One of the applications that caught my attention was the photo booth. It was very creative and mimic the commercial photo booth where you can take plenty of photos of yourself or friends with different background. That was cool!

Overall the first impression was really great - Simple. The box opening experience is delightful and same as any Apple product, e.g. iPod etc.