Yo' Mac Heads, Gotta few questions for ya' !

[WLKjr]

Hey, I finally made the switch to using a mac mini. So far so good using everything since I am sort of already familar with unix somewhat. I am very suprised how easy these are to operate and maintain. I have a few questions that I am wondering about and needing (program wise, free if possible) and was wondering if any DU mac heads could lend a newbie a hand.


1. I need a free wysiwyg HTML editor.
2. Are there any free antivirus/firewall programs out there for mac?
3. How do I sync my pocketpc on the mac or can I?
4. I LOVE garageband, but how can I get the little riffs I make into a format that a cd player can play....or is all I have to do is use iTunes to burn it to cd then it will play in cddb? I think I may have just figured this one out.
5. any other cool things I should know.


BTW, I think I am falling in love with this mini, it is so kewl!

[reprobate]

1. Congrats and welcome. I made the jump about 6 weeks ago myself.

Running an iMac G5 and waiting for my mini to ship. I will not go back to windows.

Firewall: There is a firewall built in to OS X. Go to the Applemenu, system preferences, sharing, firewall. Easy to set up and good enough, especially if you are behind a router.

Antivirus: I joined dot mac when I bought the imac and there is an antivirus that comes free with it, Virex. Got an ok review on Macworld, so I guess it's alright. At least good enough for the almost bulletproof mac. Check macworld.com for reviews on the others. BTW, dot mac is well worth looking at. You can sync your address book, ical, and bookmarks with it and access them from anywhere. Also plenty of back up space online.

Pocket PC sync: I'm using PocketMac Lite ($15) www.pocketmac.net because my needs are small. You may find Pocketmac Pro ($42) more fits your needs. I've found it does quick and flauless syncing with my Toshiba e755.

That's about all I feel qualified to answer since I'm new to mac also.

I do like the fact that everyone who comments on the mini loves it. I'm going to replace my wife's windows machine in the kitchen with the mini when it arrives.

I love the idea that a computer is only 6 1/2 inches square and QUIET. Its the kind of computer I'v been wanting to build, and now I bought it far cheaper than I could have bought the parts. AND ITS NOT WINDOWS!

[WLKjr]

4. My mom loves it

says it's so easy to figure out and she doesn't have to look where Firefox (web browser she is acustom to now) is and she doesnt have to figure out how to connect to the internet.

great system, I want to eventually get a couple of more for my brothers and mom so I can set up a good network using them.

[alfredo]

2. I use NVU

http://www.nvu.com/ It works well, easy to figure out.

The Firewall with OSX should do fine. it is fastened down good and tight out of the box.

I would check out the forums at http://www.macnn.com

http://www.macosxhints.com/

Be sure to go into Safari preferences and turn on tabbed browsing.

You should be able to find enhancements for GB at the Apple Site. or any of the other Mac sites I mentioned above.

Good site:

http://www.macupdate.com/

Learn to use the terminal, get a subscription to MacAddict, and check out the Mac forums here at DU.

Enjoy

[WLKjr]

3. Thank you

I love my new mac mini, it is so damn easy to figure out. This is comming from a Network Admin who has been messing with windows trying to figure it out for over 9 years now and been going to school for it for over 4 years. What took me 4 years of vocational school and college took me 10 minutes to figure out on a Mac. That's just goes to show how bad windows is.


Now if I could just learn applescript......:evilgrin:

[alfredo]

5. Wait for Tiger, it will have new capabilities

for AppleScript, making it a lot easier to use. It's already pretty easy compared to other scripting languages.

If you have real player, put this script in your AppleScript script editor. Hit run.

If it works, save it as an application and give it a name you can remember. Now you will be able to make launchers for any Real stream like AAR or NPR. Just change the URL.

Just copy paste this script. It will format on its own.

tell application "RealPlayer"
run
open location "http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ram/live_infent.ram"
end tell