I have a set of quick searches I regularly use, but am sometimes put off creating new ones. In case you don't know, this allows you to search for anything in your location bar.

For example, to google for something I just type 'g something'. If I want to find out about a movie that's on TV: 'i moviename'.

To create a new quick search I used to:

1. Do a search
2. Bookmark the page
3. Edit the link in the bookmark to be a quick search
4. Assign a letter to the keyword search

However, there is a much quicker way to do this:

1. Find the search form on the page
2. Right-click, and select Add a Keyword for this Search
3. Assign the letter and you are set.

Enjoy!

• Mozilla Smart Keywords

Dapper Drake has been released.

This morning, the IRC channel was unsurprisingly busy. In fact, it surpassed 1000 nicks and was muted several times.

This was a much anticipated release, not only because they pushed it back a month. The amount of support it will receive - three years on desktop, and five years on server - indicated that it was going to be a solid release.

I downloaded and burned the server ISO. The newish Dell Optiplex has been under my desk for a week, waiting for this release. The install went pretty quickly.

I had to manually install ubuntu-desktop and the ATI drivers. That is probably because I was installing from the server ISO.

I have not yet managed to get the OpenGL effects working yet, but am not sure about whether they are worth the hassle.

One good piece of news is that they have packaged Ruby 1.8.4, and not the flawed 1.8.3 release as Breezy did.

More later.

It has been two weeks since I bought the Macbook, the day it hit the stores. I'm passed the 14 day return limit. Why did I decide to keep it? It is a very smart laptop.

Heat

This laptop can get hot. Most laptops get hot. This one seems to get hottest whilst charging. I don't know if this is common or not, but I tend not to use it too much while plugged in. The left hand side, both top and bottom get uncomfortaly hot while it is charging. I think this is something that will require further investigation.

Screen

There was much commotion when the glossy screen came out. I had a look in the store and decided it was not a problem. Since then, I have not encountered any reason to change that opinion. The screen is fine.

Whine

This is the problem that the Macbook Pros had. The Macbook also has it. Is it troublesome? Only if you are in a soundproof room.

Moo

The moo is the sound of the fan starting up and down. It happens around 67C. Again, not noticeable unless you are in a particularly quiet environment.

Battery

I calibrated the battery as suggested in the manual. I am getting a little over 3 hours of normal usage out of one charge. A friend informed me that it is a bad idea to keep the charger in all the time. I am therefore charging it overnight only, then using it until the battery runs low the following day.

I have found that the following help improve the battery life:

• Turning off bluetooth
• Installing Adblock and Flashblock for those flash adverts
• Set Quicksilver to update the catalog less frequently - mine is set to hourly
• Turn off VLC if you are not watching anything

Keyboard

I really like this keyboard. As many will attest, I remove keys from keyboards which I find myself hitting by mistake. This keyboard has the keys sensibly spaced so that I don't do that anymore. Hurrah, finally a laptop for people with bigger fingers.

Wireless

I am impressed with the wireless in this. I get signals where previous attempts proved fruitless.

iSight & iChat

Wow. I was blown away by the quality of this. I have tested it with a friend in London, and another in New York. It is definitely better than Skype and also has video. I was surprised that we were using Jabber networks with such ease.

Applications

Here are the applications I installed. All of these, save the CoreDuoTemp monitor, I consider essential on any of my systems.

• Quicksilver - if you have not installed this on your Mac, then do so immediately. Even using one facet of the functionality will improve your productivity.
• VLC - for viewing movies and DVDs which are not Quicktime.
• Textmate - I am trying this editor. Although I usually use Vim, and still use it for more powerful editing, I am keen to explore what this editor has to offer.
• Adium - IM package which allows you to talk to all your friends, whatever IM network they use.
• Growl - Notification messages tuned how you like.
• Firefox - nuf said
• CoreDuoTemp - needed to monitor the CPU temperature of the Macbook
• UK Keyboard mapping - so you can have the @ symbol and the # keys where you expect.

The rest of these are probably only relevant if you intend to do development work.

• MySQL 5
• Darwinports - I am trying this instead of Fink. Seems to work so far.
• Subversion - version control for your sanity
• wget
• Ruby 1.8.4
• Rubygems
• Rails

Conclusion

The only things that this laptop needs are:

• more memory - 512MB was just plain mean
• some way of dealing with the heat issue
• maybe a nice neoprene sleeve
• a free pony