Mac101 — Owning Your First Mac Pt. 2

Owning your first Mac is usually a big step. Overcoming the feeling of buying perhaps the most overpriced gadget you’ve ever admired. And it probably goes on to having to live with people who, even when they decide to keep it to themselves, look at it as a rip-off because, always, there are much cheaper alternatives with perhaps even better specs!

All that aside, you’ve probably also spent a considerable portion of your life on a PC. You’re used to it, familiar with it, and most of all, grown attached to it.

Among other things, these are a few reasons of the many reasons I think people take Windows with them when they move to a Mac. They either install Windows *just in case* or have their older laptop readily available for when they (almost always) need it. This branches to two main problems: not exploring, and porting your conveniences. I’ll elaborate.

Not Exploring

Out of the box, a Mac is far beyond your best companion. Aside from all the apps you’ll ever need for you to dive right into work, there are probably apps that you won’t know you need until later. If you decide to assume a Mac is yet another PC and not lurk around for what’s there and what’s not, you might never know what power lies within your hands. Always look for missing items and never hesitate to Google!

Porting Your Conveniences

Get used to the old (could be bad) habits and using them on your Mac. For example relying on GUI for all tasks. Mac is built on unix and has the same powerful terminal you expect to find on any linux machine. This lets you do extraordinary things with a few commands. Once you’re used to the new “Mac” conveniences, you’ll realize everything could be done better. ;-)

Remember, treat your Mac as a new environment. Don’t use your Mac alongside a PC at least during the first few weeks of your purchase. Get used to your new gadget because it is rewarding. Happy Macing!

Under The Spotlight

Dear Diary,

I have no interest in birthdays or celebrations of that sort. They simply have (had) very little to zero significance to me. And since I’ve always thought of myself as an awkward person (probably still the same) when it comes to parties anyway, that made it all the lot easier. I don’t really look forward to being under the spotlight on my “special day” (still applies teehee) because of a lot of irrelevant reasons at the moment.

19/01/2012 marks my 25th birthday. Happily enough, 19/01/2012 also marks my 1st “surprise birthday party.” It marks the first time I was shocked to realize I’m surrounded by people that care enough to give you a special treat on your special day. People that will forever be engraved in my memory for how they made me feel on that single one day.

To all those that made this possible and were there, from the deepest spot of my heart, thank you. :-)

PS. Since I try and keep a lid on my birthday (it’s not on my Facebook and it’s not even in plain here on my website,) I spent quite some time during my shocking gaze trying to figure out how it went out. Apparently Ahmed Motaz (the extremely detail-oriented software engineer I so happen to work with) had noticed it on my CV when I applied for Zoboon, Inc.

Thesis Acknowledgements

My sincerest gratitudes and appreciation go to my parents for their faith and unlimited support to me.

I am also greatly thankful to Nourhan Labeeb, whom if it weren’t for her this thesis would have not been been possible.

I also owe it to Prof. Dr. Slim Abdennhader, Eng. Marlien Edward, and DFKI for giving me the chance to work on this project.

I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisor Ralf Biedert for sharing his expertise and giving me guidance whenever possible. Also, I would like to thank Thomas Kieninger and Jane Bensch for making us feel right at home during our stay abroad.

Finally, I would like to extend my warm gratitude to my colleagues who accompanied me, some of which had agreed to being experimented numerous times — without them it would have never been the same. I would like to specially thank Dalia Badawi, Iman Mansour, Khaled Shokry, Loai Ghoraba, Menna Amer, Mohamed Emad, Mohamed Gad, and Rana Ashraf for their humongous moral support during the tough periods of my stay.

AutoCompleteTextView Not Showing On-Screen Keyboard

Problem

When attempting to write in an AutoCompleteTextView element, the on-screen keyboard doesn’t show. After changing views and going back to the Activity that had the element, the keyboard worked as intended.

Environemt

The on-screen keyboard worked as intended on the android 1.6 emulator. However on the Samsung emulator (2.2) and a Samsung device the keyboard failed to show.

Solution

You should not requestFocus by the autocomplete element. After removing the requestFocus the autocomplete worked with the on-screen keyboard every time it got focus.

Credits: @dina_helal for reporting. Thanks!

Germany — The Experience

Kind of ironic how everyone expects there to be an experience when you travel abroad.

Why should there be “an experience”? What’s so different out there that makes it all worth the while, I wonder.

In short: nothing. (I bet a bunch of you aren’t surprised right now at me saying this, but that’s not supposed to surprise you. Read on.)

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