MacBook Pro Antiglare Review

I see many questions on the web asking about the Apple Macbook Pro antiglare laptop. Sometimes its referred to as the MacBook matte finish Laptop.  Having both I am able to see first hand the differences between the two.  This article concentrates on the MacBook Pro antiglare showing photo’s and a Video at the end

I also have a gloss 13′ MacBook Pro to hand, so have experienced both in all conditions.  I will try to give a fare comparison but my preference is the matte version

The first thing you notice with the antiglare MacBook is the silver bezel it has. The gloss MacBook has a black border.  I find this silver bezel gives the MacBook a more professional and expensive look.  Prior to buying I read a few comment saying it looked cheap.  However it looks fantastic and some of my close up photos will show this.  It does however make the matte screen slightly more difficult to clean rather than wiping over a continuous sheet of glass as on the MacBook gloss.

Out of the box and side by side I did feel that the colours on the MacBook gloss looked a little richer.  I did then calibrate the matte screen and that brought the colours to as good as the gloss screen.  I wouldn’t say they looked identical but both acceptable.  On the phone Apple tells me that their professional graphic designers use the gloss screen version in rooms which are correctly lit to prevent reflections.  Any differences seen when side by side are indistinguishable when you use either on its own.

The biggest issue with the gloss is that its very reflective. Almost like a mirror at times.  I found that in a well lit room the reflections gave me eye strain and couldn’t be used for extended periods.  Many times through the summer I used the gloss version on the patio. Although usable it was very difficult and would be used in this situation only when absolutely necessary.  The MacBook Pro Antiglare was flawless in any condition. The reflections were unnoticeable and is why this version is the one of choice.  The one situation where I felt the gloss was better was when using it in a dimly lit room where the light source was directly above the screen. I had a swan neck lamp which I placed above the laptop and it this environment it was a joy to use.

Finally.. On the MacBook’s there is a brightness control.  I do believe that the MacBook gloss version is slightly brighter.  I would say about one notch brighter.  Its a point to note, but not one to worry about.  Indoors you never use either at full, and outdoors a one notch difference isn’t distinguishable.

 Hope this article helps you make your mind up and if you still have doubts visit the Apple store and compare for your self.  To round up I would say the graphical and colour quality of both is very good it just about if you can put up with the reflections and the environment you will use it in.

Here is a video of the MacBook Pro antiglare version.  In my next post I will video some examples of its performance so keep checking back.

 

MacBook Pro Close up from Carlo Saltalamacchia on Vimeo.

The first of 2 videos I created to show of the MacBook Pro antiglare.
For a large screen version of the video click HERE

Installing and using Postnuke

 

 

A step by step tutorial, to install and configure a Post Nuke content management system website (CMS). This article includes installing postnuke customisations.

Preparations
1. Create the domain on your host server with php support. Preferably in the root directory.
2. Create the mysql database on your host and note the name, user and password.
3. Using an FTP program connect to the site and up load all the postnuke files to the domains root directory

Installation
1. Navigate to your domain (install.php)
2. Follow the on screen installation notes. Do not tick the box “create database”
3. At the login screen edit the information for your required login details
4. Remember to delete the install directories and files as instructed.

Installing forums
1. Upload the PNPHPBB2 files to the /modules/ directory
2. In postnuke go to admin/modules/ Hit “regenerate” and then find the pnphpbb2 entry and Initiate it
3. To add “forums” to the postnuke menu, go to admin/blocks/main menu. Add the forums entry to the menu configuration. The link entry will be http://faction.cellxgaming.com/index.php?name=PNPHPBB2

Adding a theme
1. Download the runtime client for AT-Lite (postnuke) from www.spidean.com. Upload it to the postnuke directory as its install notes.
2. Initiate it in the admin/modules section. Regenerate if you cant see it in the list
3. Upload your new theme into the /theme/ directory and set its permissions as instructed.
4. In the postnuke setup menu select the theme.
5. If the theme includes install files to theme the forums as well, then install them.

Shout box
1. Create a new block in the postnuke admin area core/html
2. Name it as “shout box”
3. Add to its contents the html shout box code as supplied by the shoutbox hosting site.

Picture blocks
1. Goto postnuke admin/blocks/new block and select core/html
2. Paste your picture html code into it

Search box
1. Goto admin/blocks/newblock
2. Select core/search box

Post calendar
1. download the post calendar files
2. Upload post calendar to the /modules/ directory
2. Install as its instructions
3. Go to blocks/main menu and add an entry in the menu configuration form for postcalendar. Entry will be [postcalendar]

Member list
1. Activate the members _list module
2. Go to blocks/main menu and add an entry in the menu configuration form for the members list. Entry will be [Members_List]

Other customisations
• Deactivate search box
• Remove from the navigation menu [downloads] and [reviews]
• Position “incoming” block to the top left
• Rename “Sections” nav to “information”
• Set up email notification on news articles
• Add information
• Do tags
• Categories and topics

This article attempts to describe the workings of Postnuke so that admins and users can go about organising and using postnuke.

FAQ Section
This allows members to post questions, and for admins to give answers. The results show up under the FAQ section. Each question can be assigned a category and sub category to allow categorisation of FAQ’s. Admin can design the Faq layout and categories, under administration/content/faq.
The FAQ Nav button must be setup in the administration/system/blocks/main menu area [FAQ].

Topics Section
Topics are used to sectionalise “News Articles” and “Stories”. A Nav menu button allows access to sectionalised news articles. Topics are set up in administration/content/topic. Icons can also be setup for each topic category. The Topic category is assigned to “Submit_News” and “Add Story”

Submit News
Users are able to submit news stories to admin for approval and publishing. “Topic” and “Category” can be assigned to them for sorting and displaying via “Topic” and “Category” Nav buttons. Once published they appear on the home page as a new article. They can also be accessed via the “News”, “Category” and “Topic” nav buttons. Options for setting up email notifications are in administration/content/submit_news.

Read more

Static and Dynamic IP addressing

Setting up static IP addressing for your home LAN network, ensures each device and PC on the network has a unique IP with which to connect to the routers Lan. This ensures you always know whose who on your network and prevents the router assigning duplicate IPs to different devices.

The first place to start is looking at your routers Lan setup information. In my case its Sky’s DG834GT router incorporating an adsl modem. In the routers admin area determine the IP address (192.168.0.1) and the subnet mask (255.255.255.0). Also the Starting and ending IP address (192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254). For each Device or PC on your network you need to assign it a unique IP within the Starting and ending IP address range. For example if you have three PC’s on your network assign them 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.4.

To assign a fixed IP’s to a PC go to your control panel and select network connections. Within this highlight Local area connection, right mouse click and select its properties. Then select Internet protocol TCP/IP. Then properties. Enter the settings in the picture to assign a static IP 192.168.0.5

Restart you PC and repeat for other devices on your network but with a different IP

Most internet providers issue dynamic IP addresses to each client/user. Thus each time you switch your ADSL modem off, it will reboot with a new IP address to the outside world. This presents the problem, that to access your PC or NAS server remotely, requires the new IP address to be known and entered. This is a headache for those with NAS servers, who want to FTP or HTTP into it when its connected the other side of their ADSL modem.

To get over this you can register your IP with a free database, which will assign a domain name to it. Hence you only need to remember the assigned domain name rather than the changing assigned IP. Obviously the assigned IP to the domain in the database will require updating when its changed but their help at hand here too.

To set this up, you firstly need to find out what your current assigned IP is, using www.whatismyipaddress.com/. Then register and set up a dynamic DNS service with DynDNS at www.dyndns.com/. During this process you will enter your current IP and choose a domain name. i.e. mydomain.homedns.org.

Next the dynamic IP information must be entered into the router. My setup is a QNAP NAS TS-101 Server via a Netgear DG834GT and Sky ISP. The router setup page is entered by typing into your browser http://192.168.0.1 then admin/sky at the login panel. In the router setup page, select Advanced/Dynamic DNS. Within this page it lists the approved DynDNS provider. Enter your DynDNS domain name, and its user name and password. Finally enable it.

Once set up, typing in http://mydomain.homedns.org will take you to your network (remember typing this in only works from remote PCs). Now you are left only with the issue that when youre assigned IP changes (by turning off your modem) you need to update the database records at www.dyndns.com/. Well this can be done with a handy utility at www.dyndns.com/support/clients. Install this and let it run on your PC. Walla all you need to remember to access your devices remotely is http://mydomain.homedns.org

QNAP Nas server

The QNAP NAS TS-101 network attached storage device costs about £150. Additionally it requires a hard drive. I fitted a Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 400GB SATA2 costing £55. Specifications for the NAS TS-101 can be found at qnap.com.tw.

The unit is well made in brushed black aluminum with indicators on the front. It’s thermally cooled with just the hard drive noise to prevent it from being totally silent. In the setup the hard drive has a sleep mode, making the unit totally silent with minimal power usage.

I plugged the TS-101 NAS unit into a spare port on my Netgear DG834GT router/ADSL modem. The DG834GT has an Xbox 360 and two other computers on its other ports. Ultimately your speed on the home LAN will be limited to 100mbps via the DG834GT router. When transferring large files between the NAS and PCs this is a bit slow. An improvement is to get a 1000mbp network switch. That way high speeds are maintained between the devices. Each device was set up with a static IP. The TS-101 was assigned an IP of 192.168.0.3

The TS-101 NAS was initially set up using the CD it comes with. This got it up and running, but I personally still found it a bit daunting. Hence I systematically worked my way through setting up each individual function over the course of a few days.

The NAS hard disk is initially divided up into a number of sections Public, Qweb, Qusb, Qdownload, Qmultimedia. Access to these sections is by either a user group or registered individual. (read or read/write). Additional sections can be added. For example I created a Private area for myself. Users can be added and assigned to User groups which can also be added to. Hence each user is assigned to a user group and then either a user group or individual user, is given rights to a section. I broke mine down into User groups : Administrator/Home/Everyone/Friends. Then I assigned users to the groups, and finally users or groups access rights to sections.

Remote access to the NAS server is done using the IP address of your router. The easiest way to get this is by looking at whatismyipaddress.com. Initially this takes you to a default menu page where once logged in access to web based functions and administration are allowed. To assign a fixed domain name to your ISPs assigned dynamic IP see my article entitled Dynamic to static IP from your ISP provider

The default TS-101 menu page allows password access to administration functions and four sub menus.
1. Web file manager for management of individual files on the server
2. Web server accessing your TS-101 hosted web pages.
3. Multimedia station web accessed picture and music viewer.
4. Download station for setting up unattended downloads.

FTP Setup
To allow remote access to the TS-101 behind the router you have to open up ports on the Netgear DG834GT. This is done in the admin panel of the DG834GT. In the admin panel select Security/Services. Then enter three entries. One for FTP on port 21, one for HTTP on port 80 and finally port 6000 for admin access. These are the default ports for the TS-101 but can be changed. Then select TCP/UDP for each. Next under Security/Firewall rules add three inbound entries (one for each). Also I added some outbound entries, although I don’t think they are required. See image. Remote FTP access to the TS-101 drive sections can then be achieved using an FTP client and the IP assigned to your router from your ISP provider.

WEB SERVER
The web server function is activated via the menu Administration/network settings/web server. Once activated your TS-101 default menu page is replaced by your uploaded HTML page. The original admin page can still be accessed via IP 192.168.0.3:6000. I created a link on my new home page to the admin page. Web page files can be uploaded using your FTP client or directly. This works well. Although I wouldn’t recommend hosting large busy sites.

BACKUP UTILITY
On the supplied CD is a Backup program called NetBak. Once installed onto any network PC it allows you to backup either immediately or scheduled any drive or folder contents of that PC to the TS-101. Its straight forward to use. Restore is also provided to retrieve your files or whole disk backup.

DOWNLOAD STATION
The download station is accessed via the admin area of the TS-101 or via the web accessed TS-101 default menu. Its built into the firmware, and allows unattended downloads of torrent tasks and FTP downloads. These are dropped into the Qdownload area. Its functional but limited to the above two methods.

OTHER
Your printer once plugged into the TS-101 becomes networked. Mine was automatically recognized and works flawlessly out of the box. NAS server failures can be set up to remotely email you. 

The QNAP NAS TS-101 is a perfect companion for the XBOX 360. I moved all my photos, Music and videos (inc HD WMV) across to the Qmultimedia section of the NAS drive. Then the Squeezebox UPNP media server firmware of the TS-101 was activated. This is located in the menu Administration/network settings/multimedia station. Click to activate, and leave the squeezebox at its default settings. At the xbox end go into the Media tab, select Music / Source : Computer and the Twonky media server.

 I did find that the preinstalled Squeezebox V4.2Q firmware would not allow access to my videos. This was corrected by downloading and installing the Latest TS-101 firmware 2.1.0 which incorporates Squeezebox version 4.3. Now the wife can access it all easily and with no PCs on. Performance on this is instantaneous as quick as you hit the button its there. On port 9000.

Macbook Hot keys

Take a screenshot of desktop - Shft+Cmd+3
Take a screenshot of a selection - Shft+Cmd+4
Take a screenshot of an element - Cmd+Shft+4+Space
Screen Zoom Ctrl+Scroll or 2 Fingers, then 1 finger to pan
To make a file smaller Select it – File/Save as/Select jpg compression

Quit applications – Cmd+Alt+Esc or Alt+Cmd+Esc
Delete Fn+backspace
Cut, Copy, Paste, All Cmd+X, C, V, A
Quit current application – Cmd+Q
Quickview – Spacebar
Find all , Undo Cmd+F, Z
Alt mouse click 2 finger press or click & hold or Ctrl+MouseClick
Open a file – Cmd+O
New Finder window – Cmd+N

Window Switch – Cmd+Tab (only open or hidden apps..not min ones)
Minimise to Dock – Cmd+M
Hide – Cmd+H

New Finder instance – File/New Finder
Import Itunes Music File- /Add to Library or File/Import to Library
Create an alias without alias Click & Drag while holding Option+Cmd key

Spaces :
Show all – Fn+F8
Switch between spaces – Ctrl+Arrow keys
Collect all – C
Direct Switch – Cmd+Space No.

Safari :
New window – Cmd+N
New tab – Cmd+T
Mail page to contact – Cmd+L
Mail link to contact – Cmd+Shft+L
Reload page – Cmd+R
Text size – Cmd+ and Cmd—

Solutions for your mac

A list of problems and solutions for your Mac :-

1. An application hangs : Press CMD + ALT + ESC
2. To open files in another application : 
   Either drag the file to the application while holding CMD + ALT or for a more permanent association Select the file then press APPLE+I/OPEN WITH/OTHER then browse to the program remembering to select change all.
3. CD stuck in : To eject restart the Mac while holding down the left mouse button or go into Terminal and type “DRUTIL TRAY OPEN”
4. To reset the Admin password : Restart the Mac with the original Leopard disk in it while holding down C. Before the laptop goes to the install sequence go to UTILITIES and reset the password.
5. Lost Airport connection : To force a research for a connection switch the Airport connection off and then back on again by selection the icon top right.  or if this doesn’t work Renew its DHCP lease by SYSTEM PREF/NETWORK/TCIP section/RENEW DHCP Lease.

Connecting MacBook to network printer on vista

This article steps you through connecting your Mac or MacBook to a network printer.  The printer is connected via usb to a windows Vista PC.  The article also details how to connect the Mac to the PC . 

On the Windows PC carry out the following :-

1. Open Control Panel/Network and Sharing Center.  Then set Printer sharing “ON” and Password Protect Sharing “OFF”
2. Open Control Panel/Programs and Features/Turn windows Features on or off.  Select Print Services/LPD print services “ON”
3. Go to Windows Explorer and share a Directory.  This is done by right mouse clicking on it and selecting “Share”.  Then choose people to share it with (everyone read only)

On the MacBook carry out the following :-

1. Plug the printer directly in to the MacBook usb then download and install the drivers.  Make sure you are able to print with it directly connected.
2. Connect printer back into Vista PC.
3. Printer must be setup at a network printer on MacBook so that we can print over lan or wifi to PC usb connected printer.  PC must be on to do this.
4. First we will give the MacBook the ability to connect to folders on the PC via the network. Open “Finder” on the Mac and select “GO” from the top menu. Type in PC details smb://networkname.  Then press “Connect”.  Type in the password and select the volume.  You should now be connected to the shred PC directory (it will appear in the Finders shared L.H panel)
5. To set up the Printer go to System Preferences/Print and Fax then select “+” to add the printer.
6. Press the “Ctrl” key on the MacBook and select “More Printers”.  From the drop down box select “Customize Toolbar” and drag “Advanced” on to your toolbar
7. Select this “Advanced” button and fill in :  Type = Windows, Url = smb://networkname.

Thats it should be done.  Once all working you may want to review what folders you have shared and your permission settings.

High google ranking

The German company Sistrix analyzed the web page elements of top ranked pages in Google to find out which elements lead to high Google rankings. They analyzed 10,000 random keywords, and for every keyword, they analyzed the top 100 Google search results.

Sistrix analyzed the influence of the following web page elements: web page title, web page body, headline tags, bold and strong tags, image file names, images alt text, domain name, path, parameters, file size, inbound links and PageRank. Keywords in the title tag seem to be important for high rankings on Google. It is also important that the targeted keywords are mentioned in the body tag, although the title tag seems to be more important.

Keywords in H2-H6 headline tags seem to have an influence on the rankings while keywords in H1 headline tags dont seem to have an effect.

Using keywords in bold or strong tags seems to have a slight effect on the top rankings. Web pages that used the keywords in image file names often had higher rankings. The same seems to be true for keywords in image alt attributes.

Websites that use the targeted keyword in the domain name often had high rankings. It might be that these sites get many inbound links with the domain name as the link text.

Keywords in the file path dont seem to have a positive effect on the Google rankings of the analyzed web sites. Web pages that use very few parameters in the URL (?id=123, etc.) or no parameters at all tend to get higher rankings than URLs that contain many parameters.

The file size doesnt seem to influence the ranking of a web page on Google although smaller sites tend to have slightly higher rankings.

Its no surprise that the number of inbound links and the PageRank had a large influence on the page rankings on Google. The top result on Google has usually about four times as many links as result number 11.