Spaces is a feature I rarely use. One reason is that I’ve got some excellent programs for web development like Coda that keep me from having to keep five windows in five different applications open all the time. Secondly, when I park my laptop at my desk for serious coding, etc, I always hook up a second monitor, giving me a lot more real estate for keeping windows open to monitor progress, etc. without having to shuffle and find them. I also learned to get by without it before they made a couple large improvements to it.Â

That said, it definitely has it’s uses. To get the most out of it though, you need to be able to categorize or organize your computer usage in some meaningful way. If you can’t break up your usage into two or three different areas, it may end up being more trouble than it’s worth.

So here goes….

To get to Spaces, you can open up the System Preferences application which is in the dock by default, and select “Expose and Spaces,” then click on the “Spaces” tab if needed to hilight it. If you removed it from the dock, you can also get to it from the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your menu bar. Lastly, if you have already enabled spaces and checked the “Show Spaces in menu bar” option, you’ll get something similar to this:

The first option you see is to enable spaces. Check this. I also recommend you check the “Show Spaces” checkbox as well.Â

The black area underneath the checkboxes is where you set how many “spaces” are available. There always has to be at least one row and one column, and you cannot have partial rows and columns.Â

Underneath that is where you set application assignments. This is where “how do I want to organize my programs” becomes vitally important. Here is where you select which programs open in which space, for when it matters. For any program you add here, you have two choices: Either define which (one) space that program will exist in, or if it will exist in all of the spaces.

If you assign a program to exist in space 1 for example, then switching to that program, especially opening up a new window in it, will shift you over to the space that program is assigned to. If you assign it to all spaces, then the program follows you. Set Safari to be in all spaces, and switch to space 2. The existing Safari window will follow you to space 2.Â

The one major piece of inflexibility here is that it only allows you to be all or nothing. Either a program can be used for one type of work, or all of its windows follow you. Which is why Apple added the last checkbox. If it’s checked, opening up a program like Pages in space 2 “anchors” it in space 2. Switching to that program while in another space brings you back to space 2 as if it had been specified in the list. If it’s NOT checked, you lose the auto-switching, but now you can keep separate windows for Safari, Word, etc. in their own separate spaces, and they won’t follow you around.

Let’s say you might have a space you want to use for school work and research. You have another one you want to use for web programming or organizing family photos, and another space for web browsing or music or emailing or….. You can see the beginning of a problem. You may want to have Word, or Pages, or Safari open in two or more of these spaces without all of the windows following you.

So the solution is to uncheck the bottom checkbox, and NOT specify a space for any program that a) can have more than one window open (most of them), and b) you may use in more than one context. In short, programs like iPhoto which only ever have one window open you will usually specifically assign to one space. iTunes can have more than one window open, but is usually used single-window, so either assign it to one space, or have it  ”follow you” if you keep it minimized. Then open up all the Word, Safari, etc. windows where you need them based on the kind of work done in that space instead of based on what program you are using. Of course, now YOU have to remember what space 3 is for, etc.

As long as you keep track of what space is used for what purpose, you’re golden.

I want to tell you how to produce a drink that my wife introduced me to about two years ago and we just introduced my family to over Thanksgiving in Tampa. It’s a wonderful, lime-flavored concoction that done properly, tastes like a sharp, sugary lime, but hits like a gold brick.

The ingredients and tools are easy:

• Limes (1 per drink)
• Natural Cane Sugar (not brown sugar) (approximately 2 tablespoons per drink)
• Glasses. You can get custom caipirinha glasses but any short, solid juice-glass will do.
• Pestle. Traditional caipirinha pestles are almost flat-bottomed, with a pyramidal grid on the bottom much like a meat tenderizer. Wooden juice pulpers will also work as long as the tool you use can crush the lime in the bottom of the glass.
• Crushed ice. Not too fine either – the crushed ice that comes out of most dispensers built into refrigerators is actually a bit too fine but will do in a pinch. You can get a good consistency by hammering the ice in a bag until it’s well broken up.
• Short straws suitable for stirring and sipping.
• Cachaca The smoother and least alcohol-flavored the better. It’s a bit difficult to consistently get a hold of any particular favorite brand but the best I’ve seen so far is the “Pitu” brand.

Cut up one lime (I usually quarter it), and place it in the glass. Add the two tablespoons of sugar. Crush the limes in the bottom to mix the lime juice and the sugar, getting as much juice squeezed out as possible.

Top off the glass with ice.

Add about 2 oz of cachaca. This will usually come close to the top of the ice.

Add straw, stir it up, and enjoy!

First of all, what is a router? According to my Techno Babble page it is:

A piece of hardware that connects two separate networks together and routes information between them…

The two networks we are talking about are the internet, and one that likely didn’t exist until you installed the router – your home network. The second you plug your computer into the port marked “LAN”, or one of the numbered ports (if the router has a built-in switch), you have an instant, if very small network made up of your computer and the router. The second you attach the router to the cable modem or DSL modem, you have added the router to the network we call the internet.

How to tell if you need a router:

Some DSL modems provided by companies like Bellsouth already act as routers. If this is the case, then you do not need to add a router, though you may want to add a switch and/or a wireless access point to allow more computers onto the internet, or to free yourself up from being tethered to the desk. In order to tell if you are behind a router:

If you have a Windows machine, click on “Start”, then “Run”. In the box provided type:

cmd

…and click OK (If you’re still using windows Me or Windows 98 you will have to type in the full word “command” instead of “cmd”). When the black box with the “>” prompt appears, type the following:

ipconfig

… and hit the enter key. You will get a short list of numbers.

For Macintoshes running OS X, open up the system preferences and look at the network preferences. For older versions of OS X you may have to specify “built-in-ethernet” in a drop-down menu.

What you are looking for is a line that starts with “IP Address.” Following it will be a series of four numbers separated by periods. If the first number is a 192, a 172, a 169, or a 10, and you are able to get online, then you can stop worrying. You’re good to go. If not, your standard mail-order place like CDW, newegg, or PC zone can help you, as well as any local Staples, Radio Shack, or electronics store that sells computer equipment.

Setting Up The Router

Hook it up between your modem and your computer as shown in the diagram below:

You will likely have to do one or more of the following three things: First, if you have a cable modem, unplug your cable modem completely for a few minutes. Don’t just turn it off. The reason for this is that it whatever computer or router it first sees is the only piece of equipment the modem will talk to. Unplugging the modem clears this memory and allows it to start talking to your router.

Knology and some other providers may ask you to provide the “MAC” address of your computer. As opposed to “Mac” computers from Apple, the MAC is a unique ID number given to every network card. Your router will have this number on the outside of its’ casing.

Finally, there is a percentage of internet companies like Time Warner that require your computer or router to log in. In this case you will also have to follow your setup instructions for configuring the router and find the option (often on the main page), to have the router connect to the internet using “PPPOE.” You will also have to type in a user name and a password that your ISP gives you. This can unfortunately be problematical and confusing, made worse because most ISP’s don’t support home routers, even though it is unsafe to put your computer directly on the internet without one.

When this is all set up, the router decides if any information it sees on the internet needs to be forwarded to your home computers, and if anything your computer is asking for needs to be sent out to the internet in order to download a web page or file. Without any further configuration or setup, you already have the following benefits:

1. Because of a firewall technology called NAT that is built into nearly all home routers, your computer and home network is now one step removed from the internet. By creating a separate network it just became significantly harder to crack into. More importantly, it is almost impossible for most “worms” (a type of virus that scans nearby networks every few minutes) to get into your computer.
2. On some ISP networks, it’s fairly easy to browse and find computers in your neighborhood. While this is less common these days, having a router prevents anyone else your neighborhood from seeing what computers you have running and from looking into any files you may accidentally share out.

Also, if your router has a built-in switch, or if you are using an separate switch, you can now connect more than one computer to the internet without paying up for more than one internet account. Finally, if you bought a wireless router or add a wireless access point, you can also access the internet from any wireless computers in your household.

One of the things we handed out was a tip-sheet that gave some basic information about different types of threats, family issues, and protecting your personal PC. It’s short (two sides of one sheet), and as a result neither thorough or deep, as it intended to help parents who know little about computers without drowning them in technobabble.

You’re welcome to a copy of it here. Safety.pdf

Just remember, please properly attribute it.