What the hell is Snow Leopard? I keep hearing that it’s just a service pack or not worth the $29 dollars and more recently I have been hearing that Microsoft is laughing at it’s imperfections. Hey Microsoft take a quick look at Windows 7 because it is far from perfect.

However this does not answer the question. Is Snow Leopard a big deal for all the Mac fanboys and fangirls or is it just some elaborate scheme to exploit money from the population to gain revenue and profit. Let’s admit Apple has been down some bumpy roads lately. Just look at the app store’s developer relations and you can see just a few potholes at 1 infinite loop.

I see no reason why Snow Leopard could not have been a free upgrade. Some even say the feature enhancements could have been delivered via software updates and the processes simplified by spanning it over a few months. I am sure that some would argue and say “Well the core architecture has changed and thus well worth the twenty-nine dollar upgrade.

Lets get serious! We are still far from perfecting the 64-bit model and even further from utilizing it’s full potential. When would a consumer ever need to allocate 2 exabytes of memory. As I see it this is the only real upgrade to Snow Leopard as most other upgrades were already offered via hacking or cracking Leopard or using 3rd party software.

Overall I see this as a pathetic attempt to either 1) Represent that they are still ahead of Microsoft by releasing an incremental upgrade before the launch of Windows 7. 2) Add long wanted features to a seemingly identical Operating System to gain a fair amount of profit (Five Million Copies * $29.99 = $66 million in revenue). Regardless I am highly disappointed in Snow Leopard and expected more from Apple.

If you are still debating on getting the upgrade. I would hold off until the 3rd party developers make better use of the 64-bit model and unleash the full power of Grand Central Dispatch.

Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments.

First please watch the video above as it will help you better understand the tools required to get this job done correctly.

I have always had the issue of Mac OS X not having the best IRC clients. So I decided to start using mIRC within a VM (Virtual Machine) Running windows XP. However the problem I ran into was not getting the fancy growl notifications when I received a PM or Highlight. To solve this issue we at Geekologist have found a way to get mIRC to send notifications to Growl via SSH.

Requirements :

• plink.exe – It can be download from putty’s download page. (Just google Putty)
• growlnotify – This is included in the software bundle when you download Growl
• mIRC (Obvious)
• SSH enabled on the Mac – (Follow the instructions in the video to do this)
• Growl installed and running on the mac

mIRC Scripts you will need :

For Highlights :

On $*:Text:*:#: {
if ($highlight($1-)) {
if (($0 == 1) && ($1 isnum)) return
else echo $color(highlight) -ts -Highlight- $nick highlighted you in $chan $+ . ( $+ $replace($1-,$ifmatch, $+ $ifmatch $+ ) $+ )
/run -hide plink.exe -ssh MACIP -l YOURUSERNAME -pw YOURPASSWORD /Users/YOURUSERNAME/growlnotify –image ‘/users/YOURUSERNAME/images.png’ -t ‘ Highlight from $nick ‘ -m ‘ $chan $+ : $replace($1-,$ifmatch, $+ $ifmatch $+ ) $+ ‘ -n ‘ mIRC ‘
}

For PM’s :
On $*:Text:*:?: {
if ($nick == $active) { return }
/run -hide plink.exe -ssh MACIP -l YOURUSERNAME -pw YOURPASSWORD /Users/YOURUSERNAME/growlnotify –image ‘/Users/YOURUSERNAME/images.png’ -t ‘PM from $nick ‘ -m ‘ $1- ‘
}

Please replace YOURUSERNAME with your mac username, YOURPASSWORD with your mac password and MACIP with the IP address of the mac running growl.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.

One thing that will never change in any tech community is the never-ending operating system (OS) wars. I’ve seen a good number of them and a lot of them just don’t have the facts to back up their claims. However, on a constant basis, it is usually the prime two operating systems: Windows and the Mac OS, otherwise known as Mac vs PC.

I don’t normally like to get involved in those arguments or any other computer-related war, the main reason being that both parties are simply not satisfied with what the other product has to offer. It boils down to each party acquiring their favorite OS and dismissing another all together in a stubborn and ignorant manner. However, in this particular post, I’m taking the opportunity to display my observations, clear up a lot of the flaws presented in the arguments, and lay down a few technicalities on this on-going issue.

The word “Mac” is a term that Apple laid down to set themselves apart from the “PC” platform. While this is a creative marketing theme, we need to look at the whole picture here. A Mac, believe it or not, is a PC, taking note that PC stands for Personal Computer. That term also goes for any other brand of system outside the Apple spectrum: HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba; they are all PCs.

Those who have fallen prey to this little piece of propaganda tend to develop a nice superiority complex because of it. That is not a good thing, by the way. Due to this common complex, it also stems others to start OS wars. A lot of the common things that are said sound most likely similar to “Oh, Mac Sucks” or “Vista Sucks” or “I hate Ubuntu”. However, a good majority of the time, this is how a typical conversation within the OS war would be like:

“Mac is really better? Have you tried other operating systems?”
“Yeah, Vista sucks.”
…
“Okay, what about Linux?”
“Linux blows. I could never learn that.”
“Have you taken the time to learn Linux?”
(No response)

I’ll be honest with you. You can’t assess whether one operating system is better than another without actually trying them for yourself. It really isn’t that hard to go to your nearest Apple store or another electronic store and try out OS X. Testing it out also applies to Linux as well. Linux and its hundreds and hundreds of distributions are, for the most part, free. Ubuntu is a nice stepping stone for those that want to learn Linux and the Unix command line. Download Ubuntu Linux and run the Live CD to see if you like it. Don’t automatically dismiss an OS because of what you heard about it. While sometimes that can be reliable, for the majority of the time, however, it’s better if you experience it for yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not hate Apple. I have used OS X before. If Apple’s EULA allows OS X to be installed on other computers, I would probably purchase just the OS and nothing else. Why? Apple’s computers are top notch machines but the price leaves it out of reach for a lot of people, like myself for instance. If they drop the Mac Pro to under $800, I would buy it in a heartbeat. But I really don’t see that happening for a while.

All I ask is that you try out a Mac, a Linux operating system, or any other operating system before you start completely dismissing it all together. Being better informed is better than being ignorant. The knowledge that you gain from experiencing it yourself will be more worthwhile.

In this video, I tell you a little bit about the OS X application, Dock Spaces. Dock Spaces essentially allows you to have one dock per space, or multiple docks to choose between. Dock Spaces gives you more functionality and ease of use on your Mac. Check out the video below and leave comment! We would be more than happy to hear from you. To download dock spaces, click here.