I sometimes find that my fingers go faster on he keyboard than my brain can spew out thoughts. I’m often auto-completing words that begin the same as a frequently typed word I’m thinking about, but in the end - they end up as typos. Example: Chick Flick becomes Chick Flickr, Dance becomes Duane. Such a thing could make for an amusing post, if left unaltered.

On a similar note, I sat down at my mother’s PC the other day and realized that over the last year my fingers had been completely retrained to use Macs. I would normally place them a certain way to open another tab in Firefox, however my left ring finger now had to extend a little further to press the CTRL button, with the “T” following it. If this isn’t the proper finger positioning per grade school keyboarding, I have no excuse aside from the fact that I taught myself to type expediently before such a class was taken.

Photo Credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Indulge my geekiness here while I share my top five basic/fave keyboard shortcuts that are conducive to speedy computing:

Okay, that was more than five, but feel free to share if you have any of your own - for Mac or PC.

Ever since Tod Maffin’s session at Barcamp I’ve been thinking about getting me some silicone. I have a nice, white, pristine MacBook and I need to protect it somehow.

Yesterday at the Apple Store in good ol’ Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA I checked out some possible keyboard covers. They were clear or white and cost $29.99 USD. I brought them over to John and he said ya know, we could probably just get that stuff at Future Shop or London Drugs. Well, he was right. I walked into London Drugs this afternoon and found me a silicone cover for $17.99.

Would anyone like to help me out with my silicone issue? I’d really like a cover like John Biehler’s, I think his is green. Hey John! Where did you get yours? I’d prefer not to buy it online… I’d just like to find a local store that has a simple keyboard (only) cover for the MacBook 13.3″. If anyone can help me out, get me a deal or supply with me one I’d fully promote the heck of out it on my site, thanks!

I’ve discovered some tools, apps and tricks that have made a part of my ‘real life’ job a lot easier lately. Basically I wanted to start screencasting - providing an online demo video of our new web-based application. After searching and putting the word out to the wonderful Vancity Tech Swarm folks I found the following tools (for Macs) that make this process a breeze.

Once my screencaptured video is converted from .MOV to .FLV how do I get it on my site? I browsed WP codex and forums for a while until I stumbled across this player, which also came recommended by peers.

So there we have it, how to use a Mac to screen capture and publish custom flash video on a Wordpress site. Snapz Pro to an editor and/or converting program, then getting a kick butt flash player to embed your video.

This works so far and everything is fairly inexpensive and simple to use (except for Final Cut Pro if you want to get fancy with fades, text, zooms, compression etc.). If this helps anyone else, great! If this seems like way too many steps, please let me know if you have any recommendations.

I must admit, I love not using a mouse - the trackpad is where it’s at - but going from desktop computer isn’t always accommodating to such needs. That was until I discovered the Mighty Mouse and its wonderful nipple.

In 2001 I got a hand-me-down HP Omnibook laptop that was my best friend over the next 3 years. I’m unsure if I ever plugged a mouse in except at the office when I used the docking station that took up 3/4 of my desk. It had a mini scroll-ball (aka “nipple”) right in the middle of the keyboard. This little red dot was supposed to be hyper-sensitive and do your scrolling based on the slightest movements of your fingertip. Unfortunately, the HP nipple always annoyed me. It was always too fast, too slow, non-responsive or sticky. It wasn’t until I unwrapped my Mighty Mouse at work a few weeks ago that I realized the wonders of the “Nipple 2.0″ or “iNipple” and the joys it would bring.

I come home to my computer, slide my index finger over the scroll button located snuggly between left and right click, and it doesn’t budge. “Oh yeah, pfft stupid Dell mouse”. I’m addicted to the sideways scroll, especially with two fingers on the trackpad, oh man I love the Macbook trackpad. But the Mighty Mouse nipple is the next best thing. Tiny, very sensitive and responding gently to my every touch (hm why does it make me feel uncomfortable to state that?) I’d be very happy to never again see another Logitech.

I put the question out in the tech-o-sphere last week and haven’t been able to find any answers until today. Basically, we were looking for a desktop-sharing, online web conferencing application or service (e.g. Webex) that would work with a Mac. Everyone I asked seemed to think it was something that’s needed, and would be nice, but simply doesn’t exist.

I did a few more searches this morning and in the comments section of a blog I found Yugma.

Yugma is a free web collaboration service that enables people to instantly connect over the internet to communicate and share content and ideas using any application or software. Whether you using a Windows, Mac or Linux computer, you can connect on-demand and real-time with co-workers, clients, friends and family — regardless of whether they are across the city, nation or even the globe.

We had a few issues right off the bat, and the free version seems to meet all of our requirements but we’re still testing it out. A little pain in the butt was that when you invite someone to a chat and they log in/create a username that is not stored so they cannot start their own session after that using those credentials. They just have to initial their own session and sign up that way. The same user/email can be used but you have to input it twice [Yugma Features]

We’ll keep looking at it today but for more information on conferencing apps, check out Troy Angrignon’s summary blog post (thanks for the tip, Boris!)

What Troy says about Yugma: “What about some of the new, lightweight conferencing applications? Yugma crashed when I tried it too.”

A while ago Buzz Bishop, local radio host [Z95], blogger [MacBlog], podcaster, techie writer [Cyberbuzz] and friend of Miss604.com asked to get my story about making the switch from PC to Mac. I’ve done several posts to express how much of a newbie I am with my Macbook [tag: mac vs pc] and Buzz decided to capture the essence in an article he wrote for this month’s issue of Vancouver View Magazine.

…The MacBook travels well, unlike the big beast of a PC, or “Frankenbox” as Rebecca calls it, dominating her home’s office furniture. Her PC is “an ugly beige tower pieced together with miscellaneous parts that sounds like a harbour plane taking off when it boots up.”

And that description of the ol’ PC rings true with a lot of us.

Business Week Magazine reported last year that close to half a million new Mac owners were expected through sales at Apple retail stores alone. Add in those who buy units second hand, online or through authorized resellers and you’ve got a population surge that is making some noise.

But the iSwitch isn’t always smooth. It’s like learning a new language, it takes time and practice… [Read more in Vancouver View Magazine]

The May issue of Vancouver View is available now at your local newsstand, and the Mac-generated blog posts about the switch will certainly continue on this site. After all, I just got setup with a Mac mini at work, the adventure continues.

Right now John and I are sharing his digital camera. Anything we take on our cell phones is easily Bluetooth-ed to our respective computers but any photos taken on the same camera can prove to be an issue. When it up to my computer I don’t really want all his 20 pictures, I just want my 5. The problem is, iPhoto wants to just import everything, I cannot choose what I want to import, as I could easily do with my Windows PC.

So before I start cursing at iPhoto - is there any way you can pick and chose the items you want to import off your digital camera instead of always doing an “import all”??

Update: Thanks to John Biehler, I have now discovered the beauty and freedom of Image Capture. Soon enough I’ll learn my lesson - Macs aren’t dumb and they know what they’re doing, I just don’t know everything about them… yet

I just added two more widgets to my dashboard (this PC girl is thinkin her Mac’s lookin’ cooler all the time).

The first is a default flight tracker that came with my dashboard, which is coming in handy with my in-laws in the air right now. The second is a newly-added Cup Companion, keeping you up to date on scores and standings for all the rounds of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs.

My most-used have got to be the weather, calendar and occasionally the calculator. What are some favourites out there or what else would you recommend?