Since grade school, I have not liked Apple computer systems. Over the last few years, I have been forced into conditions where I had to learn Apple systems... and I still wasn't impressed. OSX is better, but nothing that would make me want to switch platforms.
Why then am I so anxious to try to install OSX on some of the intel boxes in my test network?
I do not typically go torrent hunting... but for some reason, I would just love to see OSX running one of my previous microsoft boxes. Would I use it? Probably not... it's not like a lot of other software is going to be ported over. It's just a cool little challenge. If it would run in virtual PC, even better!
Considering almost all of my programming skills and experience rest on Microsoft systems, why does this interest me so?
My faith is being questioned indeed.
I appreciate Shaggy mentioning one of my tutorials on his blog today. I attempted to leave a comment on his blog, but I could never get it to post. He was talking about changing the msn search to default to google. Since I could not leave it there, here was my response:
Thanks for the mention. Google is still winning the search engine war. Here's the exact link to changing the default search engine in the MSN Desktop Search:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips888.html
You guys probably won't need the step-by-step directions. Just do this for google...
In MSN Desktop Search select...
Desktop Search Options -> General -> Other Search Services -> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=$w
I agree with you completely regarding the tab browsing. I wish they would have left it in beta for a while longer... and only rolled it out once it was more stable and flicker free. Overall, however, this new search tool is my favorite new Microsoft progie this year.
I have always been a command prompt kinda guy. Since XP has been out, I have used the address toolbar as a make-shift desktop RUN box. For the most part it worked very well. However, the ability for MSN Desktop Search to do shortcuts has really floored me. For the most part, you can also treat it as a run box by prefacing your command with an = sign. Web pages are tougher, however, and often require surrounding quotation marks. Some commands are not perfectly smooth either. Typing my computer in the address bar pulls up what you would suspect. Typing =my computer or =“my computer“ in the msn desktop search doesn't work. Obviously you could create a shortcut, but that's not the point...
The other problem I had with the MSN Desktop Search was that it is branded with MSN stuff everywhere. I know I shouldn't complain about a wonderful piece of free software, but I just didn't like that aspect of it. So I hacked it...
Over on tech-recipes I have posted a tutorial on hacking and skinning MSN Desktop Search. I just used a friendly little resource hacker--easy and fun. I would love to see other people's ideas using this technique. So I've solved that problem.
However, so far, I have still left my address bar on my taskbar as well. I love the way it remembers the last sites and commands that I entered. I love the way that I can hit directories, commands, and web sites with it. I want the MSN Desktop Search to do this!.
So I am begging, please have a switch or prefix for the msn desktop search to parse commands like the address bar. For example, say that text that is preceded by a minus sign would be parsed just the way the address bar would handle it. Please... when that occurs I can get rid of my old address bar and free up that wonderful taskbar space.
Anybody with me?