How can you prevent this?!?!

Intro

The product being evaluated today is the Black Notebook Cooler manufactured by Antec. Before we start off with the review a brief overview of the company that manufactures the product is in order. The company Antec is was founded in 1986 and is based in Fremont, California. The company manufactures products such power supplies, cooling fans, computer cases and lighting accessories. Needless to say, Antec is a well established vendor of computer paraphernalia in the industry. This claim is furthermore reinforced by the fact that it has vendors in over 25 different countries.

The notebook this cooler is being used on, (actually under) is an Acer Aspire 5672. The 5672 has an Intel Core Duo T2300, (1.66 Ghz), a ATI Mobility Radeon X1600, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11 a/b/g, and a 120 GB HD. With all that power under the hood it’s easy to understand why this particular model is infamous for having heat issues. For some this heat issue has been so irritating that physical modifications to the laptops motherboard were necessary. Seeking an easier solution to the issue of excessive heat, I set out in search of a notebook cooler that would effectively keep the temps of my notebook down and the tilt cool to the touch.

Ultimately I settled on the Antec notebook cooler. Among the many reasons I chose this particular product a few of them were due to its aluminum surface, its low height, the product was relatively low in cost, and because it had few frills, (personally I have no need for a card reader or any extra usb slots). Click da link for the rest of the review.

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Windows users need not apply. Though it’s been out for a while, I finally looked into MacFuse, which allows one to implement various file systems into OS X. Ported from Linux by Google, there are already many file systems supported. The ones that interest myself happen to be sshfs and ftpfs.

As you can see in my cluttered screenshot below, I used the sshfs along with MacFusion to mount my Dreamhost account for this here web site. Which is really cool because it acts just like a normal hard drive in finder, and I can just drag and drop files. Additionally, I can edit the files directly in TextMate, which as you know from my previous post is the best text editor in the computarland.

Anyway, in order to achieve this awesomeness:

1) Download MacFuse from Google here.
2) Install MacFuse.
3) Download the latest version of MacFusion from here.

Ever since I bought my first generation Macbook, I hath been a Mac fanboy. The brawn, the beauty, the majesty. And the software. Indeed, I do enjoy much of the software available for OS X. And therefore I’d like to rehash something that has probably been already posted to Digg repeatedly! The difference between mine and the rest of the fish in the sea is that not all of the software I will post is free. Indeed, greatness and freedom do not always go hand-in-hand. -Myself

Alas, I will not give up, because maybe, just maybe, my guide to the greatest Mac software will be recognized, oh yes. Well, on to the meat of this word stew:

TextMate
Simply the greatest programming text editor ever invented. One of the greatest joys about using a mac is the ability to use this program, which blows all other Windows and Unix based alternatives out of the water. Say goodbye to Notepad++ (arguably the best Windows alternative) or vi (shitty command line h4×0r script), fork out the big dollas for this one.

NewsTicker
There is elegance in simplicity. Bring it to your rss feeds, let them scroll at the bottom of your screen, while you do other things. Simple. Easy to remember. I like it.

NewsFire
For those of you who like a little extra spunk in your newsreader, there’s NewsFire. Add a feed and watch it update automatically in a beautiful interface. Additionally, you can add your favorite podcast too, and use this as a replacement for the built-in iTunes podcastmabob.

Media Rage
One of the most difficult things about the move from Windows to OS X was the lack of a good id tagger for music files. Tag n’ Rename is arguably the best tagger for Windows (I know as I’ve tagged thousands of albums with it), however it’s not for Mac. Well, Media Rage is about as close as you can get. Not only does it do normal tagging and renaming, it has about 50 other tools for you to use on it’s handy dandy dashboard. Never again will you need tagging software.

Transmit
A great FTP program. Get it and never look back. It’s batch downloader comes in pretty handy, if you know what I mean.

Schoolhouse
It’s what keeps me turning in my assignments on time. If you are in school, you absolutely, posotutley need this application.

Adium
All other chat programs are shit compared to this one, no discussion. All other OS’s envy you for having this software. That includes you, Trillian, Gaim/Pidgin, etc.

OmniWeb
It’s what I’m using to browse this site right now. However, I actually wouldn’t recommend it at the moment, as it currently makes my life a living hell trying to get it to work with web 2.oh. It’s pretty shwing though when it works.

Linkinus
Potentially the only IRC client for OS X that doesn’t suck or look ancient or isn’t some port from another platform. It looks better than Colloquy, and is as powerful as your favorite shell client.

Quicksilver
Apple’s greatest folly in the design of OS X was not building this software into it. By far the most powerful and necessary application in this pitiful excuse for a guide to software. Allows you to quick launch anything with the click of a few keys.

Ah, so you’ve had to fork out a few dollars for the software on this list. Well, that’s okay, you can just brag to your friends like I do about how awesome it is, and how much better OS X and how much more secure and how there are no viruses and how Steve Jobs is sticking it to the man.