Exposé on Windows

It brings me great excitement to announce that I have found a program that emulates the OS X Exposé function on Windows! Now this will mean nothing to ALL Windows users, and probably some Mac users too who don't know its name.

Gold Star Award!
Basically Exposé is a cool window organizing application that runs natively in OS X. To view a demo, navigate to Apple Exposé.

I have found this application an absolute heavensend due to its ease of use and sheer neato factor when you see all the windows swoosh about into a nice little arrangement, enabling you to see what you have open.

But F9, F10 and F11 only go so far. In OS X I reconfigured the left and right navigate buttons on the mouse to reveal all windows and reveal active application windows respectively. Obviously I couldn't do without this function in Windows. As sheer luck, fortune and fate would have it, I previously had downloaded a program to allow me to pause, play, skip and previous play iTunes when iTunes was not selected (very useful when Counterstriking or C&Cing). As I said above I reconfigured the mouse in OS X, so I've done the same in Windows!

Here are the links to the two AWESOMEFUL programs that have allowed me to become the smuggest Windows on a Mac user EVER.

• www.autohotkey.com - The program to remap keys/ buttons to do almost any function
  
• www.reflexvision.net - Exposé for Windows, called Reflex Vision
  

And here is my AutoHotKey.ini file

; IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT GETTING STARTED: Lines that start with a
; semicolon, such as this one, are comments.  They are not executed.

; This script is a .INI file because it is a special script that is
; automatically launched when you run the program directly. By contrast,
; text files that end in .ahk are associated with the program, which
; means that they can be launched simply by double-clicking them.
; You can have as many .ahk files as you want, located in any folder.
; You can also run more than one .ahk file simultaneously and each will
; get its own tray icon.

; Please read the QUICK-START TUTORIAL near the top of the help file.
; It explains how to perform common automation tasks such as sending
; keystrokes and mouse clicks.  It also explains how to use hotkeys.

; Note: From now on whenever you run AutoHotkey directly, this script
; will be loaded.  So feel free to customize it to suit your needs.

;Remap Left and Right Mouse Navigate to F9,F10
XBUTTON1::F9
XBUTTON2::F10

; iTunes Anywhere
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language:       English
; Platform:       Win9x/NT
; Author:        Polyphenol 
;
; Script Function:
;   Control iTunes from anywhere with hotkeys
;

#NoTrayIcon
#SingleInstance force
DetectHiddenWindows, on

#\::
IfWinNotExist, ahk_class iTunes
{
Run %ProgramFiles%\iTunes\iTunes.exe  ;launch program
return
}

IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes ; toggle minimize/restore
{
IfWinNotActive ; restores window
WinActivate
Else
WinMinimize ; minimizes windows
return
}

#SPACE::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {SPACE}  ; play/pause toggle
return

#LEFT::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {LEFT}  ; previous
return

#RIGHT::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {RIGHT}  ; next
return

#F3::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^!{DOWN}  ; mute
return

#F4::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^{DOWN}  ; vol down
return

#F5::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^{UP}  ; vol up
return

;endofscript

I am pleased and/or smug. Also I award a Gold Star to Increment Software AND AutoHotKey for making me such a pleased and/or smug geek.

Useful stuff for Windows on a Mac

Windows on a Mac is most weird. Heresy/blasphemy/anathema even.

But to make the experience as OSX/nigh on perfection as possible, here are some programs I have "obtained".

• Bootcamp - Contains the needed Boot agent and Windows drivers to get the whole thing going
  
• InputRemapper - enables most of the keys on the keyboard; FN, Volume, Eject, Brightness being the more important ones
• MacDrive - allows read and write operations on a Mac formatted drive; very useful if you want to have your iTunes on Windows if they're on the Mac partition. I would advise searching on torrent sites for it, but I would get my blog closed down, so I will not
  
• Microsoft Intellipoint 5.5 - puts a cool onscreen volume control when the volume is changed with the keyboard
• "Royale" Media Center skin for Windows XP makes Windows XP look a lot prettier with no need for bloatware such as StyleXP or WindowBlinds
  

Obviously there are the vital programs such as Firefox and MSN but they don't really need to be added to this list.

Gold Star Award!s have been awarded to InputRemapper and the Intellipoint programs because they OWN.

MacBook Pro Annoyances

I have quite a few annoyances with this that I feel I have to vent. Sorry to anyone who doesn't have a MacBook Pro, but if you have one you'll know where I'm coming from, and if you're thinking of getting one read through these before doing it.

Hardware

• No delete key, (in OSX FN+Backspace is delete); how inconvenient is that?!
• There is a processor idle whine, which my sister's computer suffers from, it drives me mental which is why I play music quite loudly to cover it up
• There is no card reader, but this is solved by Bluetooth
• There are only 2 USB ports
• There is no S-Video out
• The screen doesn't go very far back and as such is quite difficult to use on my lap
• The bottom is hot enough to fry two eggs and maybe half a rasher of bacon

OSX Mode

• In OSX it is impossible to close the lid without making the laptop go to sleep; unless you pay a few dollars for a program called SleepLess. The annoying reminder windows turned out to be more annoying than the sleep problem
• Enter doesn't run the selected file, it renames the file
• I can't write to NTFS partitions
• I seemed to have filled my HDD even though I only have 33GB of music. Where has the rest of the space gone?!?
• I don't know all the ins and outs, nooks and crannies, and all relevant caveats of the OS to be completely confident and to fix weird happenings
  

Windows Mode

• Unstable
• The keyboard backlight doesn't work
• Windows Live Messenger is highly unstable on it
• Starcraft won't install on it (but runs in OSX anyway)
• Had to remap one of the Keypad Enter Key to Delete to get a delete key. CTRL ALT DEL is indispensible in Windows

Don't get me wrong, I love my MacBook Pro; but the above problems prevent it from being perfect.

MySpace emmigration. Blogspot immigration.

I have finally given up with the MySpace blogs, since they were a bit poop. Hopefully this BlogSpot malarky will yield better view results!

I will probably copy and paste my blogs over to here, since I'm pernickity like that. Also I may create another profile to store my religious ramblings on. Ooo! I am quite excited (I hate the word pumped) about the whole project.

I like bracket interjections.