For many of us who work from home, we need to track events for different areas of our lives. Apple’s iCal has a feature which allows this and makes it very easy to do. Recently, the post below from MacTips provided some tips on how to make it even easier to do.

I really enjoy the feature in iCal that allows me to arrange my events into multiple ‘Calendars,’ which each have different colors. Typically, to choose which calendar an event goes into, you just select that calendar from the sidebar and new events will go into there, or you will select the calendar from the Edit pop-up for your event.

A cool alternative way to assign a calendar to an event is by simply dragging-and-dropping it. Select any event and drag it over any of the local calendars in your calendar list, and the event will be reassigned to that calendar! Oddly, iCal does not allow transferring multiple events simultaneously using this method.

Another way to switch an event’s calendar is to Control-Click on it and select Calendar, and then whichever calendar you want it reassigned to. This method works on multiple events if you select more than one by using Command-Click or Shift-Click.

Source for Post MacTips.

Why anybody would what to switch back to PCs, I don’t really know but some people actually do. Robert Lemos wrote an article for ComputerWorld about 5 reasons to switch back to PCs from Macs.

He writes about Timothy Keanini, CTO at nCircle. Timothy has been a Mac user the past 5 years and just recently shifted back to Windows.

Apart from this Robert writes the 5 reasons to go back to Windows.

1. Productivity trumps religion - which implies that companies are more productive with Windows machines.
2. Work-arounds waste time - which implies that if you’re using Macs, you have to make work-arounds to achieve results.
3. It’s hard to abandon favorite tools - which implies that all your favorite tools are Windows based
4. Hotel California Factor - which implies that Apple forces their users not to go anywhere.
5. You may feel the heat, literally - which implies that Macs are all hot.

Well these reasons are really weak. Here are just some of my thoughts.

Productivity, hmmm.. ever since I moved to the Mac platform I’ve been more productive than when I was on windows. It’s because I spend less time fixing my computer and more time actually working on something. The only time I’m not productive is when I get distracted and that’s not the machine’s fault.

Work-arounds, well this means that I actually am using a Mac to do something that was designed for Windows. Use Mac centric tools and then no work around is needed. Better yet, use apps that adhere to standards then interoperability is assured.

Abandoning favorite tools means you haven’t let go of your Windows tools. Granted there are no exact counterparts for all Windows tools but most of it have Mac counterparts that are as good if not better. Most apps that are used already have Mac counterparts. I thought this would be a problem also in the beginning but I found tools on the Mac that could do the same if not better. At worse just install Windows via Bootcamp or Parallels.

Hotel California Factor? Well just use the standards based apps and that should be a problem. If you really needed to export your data so you can transfer it to Windows it’s easily done.

The early MacBook Pros did heat up but not as much as Powerbooks and the latest MacBook Pros aren’t even that hot anymore. If heat is really an issue then get a desktop. Apart from that a little precaution goes a long way. If it’s too hot for your lap, work on a table or place your laptop on a tray. This isn’t a deal breaker in my opinion.

Bottom line the reasons are really not that good. Give a good reason such as.. well I can’t think of one..

Oh, check out this article that a fellow ComputerWorld writer posted.

Source for Post The After Mac.

There are many different ways to organize files. From the classic folder structure to the more ‘experimental’ metadata/tagging format. There’s no right or wrong way to do it…just what works best for you.

As a new Mac users it’s easy to get caught up in the ‘old’ way of doing things (ie. how you organized items in Windows). I encourage you to step outside that box for a bit to give something else a try.

The OS X Finder has a ‘Label’ feature where you can color code your files with 7 different colors. Color coding your files and folders does not change anything about them. It’s simply a tool for organization.

One step’further

Using the color labeling feature of Finder works fine as is. It helps you visually separate a folder full of files with a simple glance.

But we can take things one step further and use the labels as an actual organizational tool.

By using the OS X Smart Folder feature, we can group files by the color of the label you chose. So for example, say you decided to mark all of your documents that revolved around insurance (car, health, life, etc etc), you can then create a Smart Folder to automatically group all of those documents in one place. It then automatically updates whenever you label a new file with that color.

In our original label example above, I’ve marked financial documents with the green label. Now we’ll create a Smart Folder to group all of files labeled with green into one folder.

1. Go to the Finder. In the menu bar at the very top of your screen, select File > New Smart Folder. A new Finder window will popup with no files inside.
2. Next we’ll be creating the ‘rule’ that finds all the green-labeled files. In the upper-right corner of the new Finder window you will see a plus sign. Click on the plus sign to create a new rule.
3. You’ll see a couple of new drop-down items. Click on the first one that says ‘Kind’ and select ‘Other…’ from the bottom of the menu. You’ll be presented with numerous additional attributes you can use. We want to find the attribute called ‘File label’ and select it. The select Okay.
4. The rule has now changed to let you pick the color label of your choice. In our example, we’ll select the green label. After selecting your label, your Mac will search all the files on your computer for any labeled with green and will then show you the results.
5. If you’d like, you can now save this Smart Folder by clicking on the Save button.

If all goes as planned, you should see something similar to this.

Homework

You now know the basics of organizing and labeling your files with color labels. Your homework is to develop a basic system of organization on just your documents. Don’t worry about trying to do this to all your files. Just use this as a way to organize documents spread across different folders.

Be sure to check out the video below that walks through this entire lesson.

Source for Post The Apple Blog.

Mac Pilot can enable and disable hidden features in Mac OS X, optimize and repair your system, and perform numerous routine maintenance operations with the click of a button!

Pro user or not, you can now increase computer performance with only a few clicks of the mouse. Optimize your network for broadband connectivity, completely customize Apple File Sharing, perform essential maintenance without having to remember mind boggling acronyms, and much more. However, those are just a few of the many reasons why Mac Pilot is your choice over Cocktail, TinkerTool and Onyx.

Enable the ‘cut’ option in the Finder, disable menu items for security, disable icon caches, set history limits, erase recently used files, prevent your dock from being modified, turn off all system animations, increase the speed at which windows resize, change which format screenshots are taken in, set a default name and location for screenshots, disable a secondary processor, the startup chime, and even change the login window picture.

Source for Post MacUpdate - Mac OS X.

Was pleased to see that 1.1.4 was made available today for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I did the update and as always it was seamless. I have not noticed any new features. Apple stated it contained some bug fixes. I would imagine, it is just a prelude to the soon to be released SDK.

I recently read that there is someone actually moving from the iPhone to the Centro. And quite frankly, I don’t get it In fact, after reading the blog post, I am not sure they ever used an iPhone.

Here are some reasons they are switching to the Centro.

1. SMS. The iPhone has SMS and I use it daily. In fact, it is modeled after iChat and works great.
2. Copy and paste. Rumor has it, it is coming in the next firmware upgrade.
3. Apps. I am assuming they are talking about third or native iPhone applications. Again, SDK is being launched later this month. I think I would wait a few days instead of moving to the Centro.
4. Calendar with task. Also coming with SDK. Besides, there are some great web based applications which provide this anyway.
5. AIM or IM. Have it use it. There are a number of applications which do this for the iPhone now. I also believe it will be out with SDK.

I switched from the Treo to the iPhone and would never go back to the Palm OS. And the biggest problem with the Palm OS is the simple fact it is outdated and has not been improved in how many years.

This from Talk iPhone,

Tiny Code are a group of native app developers for the iPhone who specialise in making fixes for jailbroken iPhones, a recent update on their official website would suggest that the 1.1.4 iPhone firmware update is apparently pretty imminent.

As an iPhone power user, this is great news. I for one can’t wait for SDK to produce some great native native iPhone applications.

I have noticed over the last couple of weeks a new email spam method. Over the last couple of weeks I have been getting email spam indicating that some email that I apparently sent was not delivered. I am getting the messages back as undelivered and that I should try again. In addition, I am getting emails with the apparent auto respond message that the other person is out of the office and will return…..

First of all, the emails are to people I have never heard of or even sent any email too. My spam filter is not picking them up either. So, I have to waste my time trashing all of these new spam emails. Just the other day, I received these spam messages throughout the day. I think I counted at least 75 of these new spam messages. And just this morning, I have received 25 of these new spam messages.

Is there anyone else out there getting this new spam email?

UPDATE: Since I posted this, roughly 10 minutes, I have received 10 more of these new spam messages.

Gmail does have a new look and it is very nice. When the iPhone first came out, the interface between it and Gmail was not all that great. The new look is great.

The new look includes:

• Auto-complete when composing
• Automatic refreshing
• Faster load times when viewing email (This one I did notice right away)

It may come as no surprise, I use and love the Mac computer. In my humble opinion, they are the best machine built built. And the Mac OS is the best operating system on the market.”And the Mac OS is the hands-down operating system winner, from the perspective of cost effectiveness.”Recently CIO.com provided the eight reasons and here they are.

1. Macs bring a better overall value proposition.
2. Mac licensing fees are cheaper.
3. The Mac desktop spawns fewer calls to the help desk.
4. Mac users are more productive workers.
5. Macs last longer
6. Mac OS is more secure.
7. Mac is just as cost-effective as Windows to manage and administer
8. Add Macs while hanging on to your investments in other OSes. (They play well with others).

In my humble opinion, I can see no reason that the Mac computer is not the perfect computer for the home office warrior. When you consider the fact that the Mac OS is truly the most stable OS on the market and the 8 financial reasons above, if you work at home, get a Mac.Now if this don’t generate some comments from the windoze users, I don’t know what will.