If you have a nagging urge to read this article, I’d imagine that you’ve been a Windows user throughout your technological life. Switching from one operating system to another (in this case to a Mac) is far from easy, especially when the two operating systems have so little in common.

Uprooting yourself from a perfectly safe and familiar surrounding which you were enveloped in while using your PC and switching to a Mac may be uncomfortable and in fact, downright awkward. But trust me, once you understand the difference between the two and learn to adapt to the “Mac style”, the dust should inevitably settle and perhaps you’ll eventually enjoy using a Mac.

This switching to Mac guide or call it a crash course will be a stripped down version of most tutorials on how to use a Mac. I will only touch on the bare essentials and hopefully that will make your learning experience a less complicating one. If you need more information about using a Mac, be sure to check out MakeUseOf’s Mac Manual, written by yours truly.

Installing Apps

If you’re looking to install an application in Windows, most likely you’d have to double-click on the setup.exe file to run in the installer.

On a Mac, the majority of apps are packaged in a disk image called a DMG. The usual installation procedure is:

• Double-click the DMG to mount it
• Once mounted, its contents are automatically displayed
• Click and drag the app to the Applications folder
• Unmount the DMG

Sometimes, an app will come with an installer. Simply follow the instructions and you’re golden.
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Everybody likes benchmarks. Whether your talking about hardware or software, benchmarks allow companies to describe their wares and offer users a chance to identify any bottlenecks or other problems with their systems.

Others may use them for bragging rights on that new top-of-the-line gaming machine. Whatever your interest, computer benchmarks certainly are fun. However, obtaining system benchmarks can be tedious. In the past, installing benchmarking applications could be expensive or, with some systems, difficult and time consuming.

Phoronix has been providing free and quality benchmarking software for Linux for several years and adding support for other architectures since. Free BSDs, OpenSolaris, and MacOS are among those supported and Windows support is in the pipeline. As nice as these packages are, they still require time and the right software support in order to install and function.

One way to address these inconveniences is to use PTS Desktop Live, a live CD built on Ubuntu containing the test suite which removes any operating system or software requirements for the target machine and avoids having to install any extra software permanently onto your system. Just boot the live CD and you’re ready to go.

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An open router port is the term used to refer to a virtual door allowing specific data in or out of  your router. One example of a port is the most popular port 80. Port 80 is used for HTTP or Web traffic. If port 80 is closed outbound for your computer, then you would not be able to get to the Internet. Think of a port as a door. And the door has rules that let people through one way, both ways or prohibits them from passing through.

According to Wikipedia:  A software port (usually just called a ‘port’) is a virtual/logical data connection that can be used by programs to exchange data directly, instead of going through a file or other temporary storage location. The most common of these are TCP and UDP ports, which are used to exchange data between computers on the Internet.

Most people know what FTP is. FTP is the File Transfer Protocol. It is designated to run on port 21.

Now let’s think about this. If you want to have a FTP server on your computer that is accessible to the outside world you will need to open port 21 on your router or firewall.   Bittorrent Client Azerus uses inbound and outbound ports 6881-6889 below is how I opened them on my Dlink router.

To open a port on your network you would log into your router or firewall.  You will need this IP address and username/password to connect. Once you are in, you would look for the firewall portion of your interface. If this is over your head, go to Port Forward and they will walk you through it. All you need is your router’s make and model. Your firewall or router might call it Applications, Rules , Virtual Servers or Firewall rules.

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Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

(1) Honk – New social network for car buyers. It uses existing networks like Facebook (Facebook) and MySpace (MySpace) for organized opinion gathering. By using both platforms, users can get valuable info about cars from their friends and family members on the social networks they already use. Read more: Honk – Social Network For Car Buyers

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Last week I was finally able to buy something I have always wanted – a Google Android mobile phone. For ages, it was either an Android or an iPhone and the Droid won when it came to price and flexibility (and me being a Google fanboy didn’t hurt either!). As soon as I took it home, and it was activated, I started browsing for the right free Android apps to put on it.

This can take a while because the Android Market, which is the Google equivalent of the Apple iTunes store, has lots of good stuff. Granted not as much stuff as the Apple iTunes store, but it’s slowly getting there. So, just like a kid in a candy store, you are likely to start installing everything to see what it is all like.

But in the long term, you can’t install everything you find (phone performance would take a serious hit if you installed the kitchen sink) so finally you have to scale back to the best, most essential apps.

To help all you fellow new Android users out, here’s the ones I personally consider to be keepers. After less than a week, I am still looking and refining my phone but the following are ones I will find really hard to get rid of. To find them, just go to the Android Market on your phone and search for them.

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Creativity is a lot of fun for those with that streak. Now add a pinch of learning to it. No, the mix doesn’t turn sour, in fact web apps and multimedia have combined to make learning not only creative but also fun. The result has been that these web apps appeal to the casual set and also those who want to make something serious out of it.

Creaza is a web based tool designed for learners and educators. But spend a few moments with it and you realize that Creaza has scope beyond that. All of it underlined with fun.

What if I gave you four tools that inspire creative, fun ideas – a mindmapper, a cartoon creator, a movie editor and an audio application and asked you to let loose your creativity. I am sure you could come up with a lot of creative and fun ideas. That’s the canvas Creaza gives you to play around with.

Creaza is a suite of four apps for making planning, creating and publishing digital content, or for the fun of it, let’s say digital stories. The four creative apps are :

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Lala has become my music player of choice, simply because it is, as far as I know, the most affordable way to purchase music on the Internet. I’ve reviewed the Lala music player for another site, and an how-to article has been published here on MUO.

Lala has become my main jukebox and is used ten times more than I use iTunes. With my setup, it doesn’t take much effort to access my Lala account. This article explains the method I use as a Mac user. I’m sure there are similar applications for PC users.

What You Need

FluidApp
Butler
Airfoil (optional)

Each of the applications, except for Airfoil, can be downloaded for free. Donations, of course, are accepted.

Creating a Site Specific Browser for Lala.com

The Lala music player lacks a dedicated desktop web application to play music. You must sign into your account and use its web application. To get a dedicated player of sorts onto your desktop, you can use FluidApp, a “site specific browser” (SSB), for a dedicated website or page. Making your Lala account homepage a SSB is like making it an application, which means it’s less likely to get lost in the clutter of all your other web pages on your desktop, especially if you use some of its advance features that I will describe below.

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Google is the Nirvana of most nerds. They’ve given us things we could only dream of for free. They’ve showed us on multiple occasions that they’re more than just ‘the search engine guys’.

One of those occasions was very recently. With its own mobile operating system, Google has been challenging Windows Mobile (not much of a challenge) and the iPhone.

If you’ve got an HTC Windows Mobile phone, you might not have to buy yourself another device to enjoy the hype. But install Android on your Windows Mobile device instead. Nevertheless, porting this operating system has proven a tedious task, and not all phone types support it yet. Newer GSM devices will have a better chance, and to date CDMA is scarcely supported.

Right now it’s not yet possible to boot Google Android as the default operation system. Instead we’ll be using HaRET, a Windows Mobile boot loader. Note that we’re not running or emulating Android in Windows Mobile, but using it to reboot the phone into Android.

1. Gathering Files

Different phone types require different base Google Android files. Even for supported phones, the files will be scattered over different sites and developer areas. I will supply links for some of the most popular HTC phones.

• HTC Diamond
• HTC Vogue/Kaiser/Polaris/Nike
• HTC Raphael/Fuze/Touch Pro

Again, if you don’t see your phone listed, don’t give up. Do a Google search with your own model – because it’s a user-generated wiki, some major advancements aren’t listed on the site yet. When going off-site, always double check your sources, making sure that you aren’t downloading any malicious content.

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On my way to have a more organized life, I’ve tried to utilize iCal to the fullest. I have found the quickest way to add tasks and events to iCal, but have yet to find the quickest way to show them. I figure that instead of opening another app just to show my tasks and events, why not make them always available on the desktop?

If I could do that, I could just use Expose’s shortcut (Command + F3 in my MacBook) – or the Show Desktop we’ve discussed before – to show the desktop to see everything that I have to do printed there. Of course, those with large screens will have everything visible at all time even without the trick.

With my recent adventure with GeekTool, everything comes full circle. Now my tasks and events can be shown beautifully on the desktop, and I can look at them anytime I need to with a single stroke of a shortcut key combination.

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As the name suggests, play-by-mail offers a number of popular games that can be played via mail.

Chess is a historic example for a play-by-mail board game. The game known as correspondence chess even kept the greatest figures of history entertained. A match was said to be played between King Henry I of England and King Louis VI of France in the early 12th century. Also Voltaire and Frederick the Great were engaged in play-by-mail chess during their time. In 1943, the FBI allegedly suspected Humphrey Bogart to be sending secret enemy codes to correspondence chess players overseas.

Today, eMail and websites make play-by-mail games quicker and more convenient than ever before. However, eMails play only a minor role. However, play-by-mail remains a fun way to find fun games to play online throughout the day, without devoting too much time to it. Besides, you don’t have to be online at the same time your match partner is. Here is a small selection of online games.

SoundChess

The SoundChess website is the link between you and your partner. Either one of you can set up the game and make the first move. With each move you can also include a message to your partner. The site shows the current board and provides some resources on possible chess openings.

After you made your first move, you will see the history of exchanged messages on the very right of the site.
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