When I got Jamby, one of the first problems I encountered in my switch from Windows to Mac OS X was how to transfer my iTunes library. Before I purchased my Mac I actually did a bit of googling and saved links to some tutorials, but when I got the chance to try to initiate the transfer I discovered that because my Windows install is f—ed up beyond all repair, none of the how-to’s would work for me.

Thankfully I found an easy way to transfer my iTunes library from Windows to Mac OS X over WiFi. All this method needed was an iTunes account, for iTunes to be installed on the transmitting and the receiving computers, and for the computers to be in the same WiFi network. This is all thanks to an iTunes feature called Home Sharing, introduced in iTunes 9.

Here’s how to transfer your iTunes library from Windows to Mac using this method.

1. Go to Advanced → Enable Home Sharing on your menu bar, then click the Home Sharing icon on the iTunes sidebar. Enter your iTunes Store login credentials. Do this on both your Windows and Mac computers.
2. On iTunes on your Mac computer, you should be able to see the library of your Windows computer under Home Sharing in iTunes. Then just click on Music, hit Cmd + A to select all the songs, then drag them over to the Music section of your Mac’s library (at the top of the sidebar). Do the same for Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Apps. (Movie rentals can’t be transferred using this method, though.)

Just wait a few minutes for the transfers to complete, and, Bob’s your uncle (heh, British expression), you’ve successfully transferred your iTunes library from Mac to Windows easily through WiFi. For more information and help regarding Home Sharing, visit the pertinent Apple support page.

I hope you found my little tutorial on how to move your iTunes library from Windows to Mac O X useful. I’d be glad to try to answer any of your questions—just post them in the Comments section below or contact me.

A KLM Boeing 747, just after taking off from KJFK in FlightGear.

I’m an avid, if mediocre, user of flight simulation programs, being a bit of an aviation fanatic. So when I got Jamby, one of the first things I did was scout for a good flight simulator for Mac OS X. The problem is, one can say that flight simulators fall at least partly under the “Gaming” category of software, and if there’s one thing Macs do badly, it’s run games.

Windows users are much luckier, as they have a lot of options. Microsoft makes a commercial flight simulator program for Windows called Flight Simulator X, which, from what I’ve read, renders an immersive flight simulation experience. For cheapskates and open source junkies, there’s FlightGear, a free flight simulator, which is developed and maintained by a vibrant open-source community. There’s even a lightweight flight simulator for Windows called YSFlight, for those who don’t care about fancy graphics and just want the unadulterated feeling of flying a plane.

Mac OS X users have a few choices. Flight Simulator X is a Windows-only program, but there’s a rough OS X equivalent developed by Laminar Research called X-Plane. X-Plane is a commercial flight simulator for Mac OS X, as well as for Linux and Windows. X-Plane is so kickass, there’s even an FAA-certified version of it for sale! A license costs $29 plus shipping, which may sound steep, until you find out that it ships with six dual-layer DVDs with installers for Windows, Mac and Linux, and scenery for the entire world. It doesn’t make the price sound more bearable, but it sure does make it more reasonable. (No purchase-and-download option is available, which is too bad since it would be more environmentally friendly.) For those who, like me, do not have $29 to fund their aviation fantasies, there is FlightGear for Mac, a free flight simulator for Mac OS X. This is the one I use, and it works just as well as its Windows counterpart, although I have to say it’s already crashed on me a couple of times.

If you want, though, you can use Flight Simulator X on Mac OS X…well, sort of. Mac OS X has a feature called Boot Camp, which allows you to dual-boot Windows alongside Mac OS X. If you’re really itching to use Flight Simulator X on your Mac, just install Windows via Boot Camp (official Apple instructions here—WARNING, opens a PDF file), then install FSX on your Windows partition. If you’re a real aviation junkie, you can even devote your entire Windows partition to your flight simulators.

You can raise any questions about free and paid flight simulators by leaving a comment on this post. You can also contact me.

I’ve found a new endeavor to busy myself with for this summer (aside from preparing myself for college): mastering the Dvorak keyboard.

For those of you who don’t know, the Dvorak keyboard layout was patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak and William Daley. Whereas the widely preferred QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow people down (it was made for early typewriters, whose keys clashed when people typed too fast), the Dvorak layout was designed with speed in mind. It minimizes the distance a typist’s fingers need to travel and reduces the risk of repetitive strain injuries. Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, is a well-known Dvorak typist.

Since it is next to impossible for me to find and purchase a Dvorak keyboard, I have taken to modifying my USB QWERTY keyboard. The original plan was to print out a copy of the layout, cut out the individual keys, and paste them to my keyboard keys, but since my roll of adhesive tape has gone missing, I simply wrote the Dvorak layout on my keyboard using liquid eraser. Ubuntu Linux (which I use) allows you to simply choose the keyboard layout you prefer (go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard); instructions for Mac OS X are available here (and in many other places around the Web, I’m sure); the Dvorak Assistant utility looks perfect for Windows users.

I practiced touch-typing on the Dvorak keyboard using this dandy webapp, and now I use the layout nearly 100% of the time. I only use the QWERTY layout when I have to boot into Windows to download podcast episodes on iTunes (as I’m too lazy to modify my already-borked Windows install). I’ve mastered the positions of the keys in Dvorak and right now I only need to work on regaining the typing speed I had on QWERTY. My biggest qualm about the switch is that since I’ve already lost my mastery of the QWERTY keyboard, from now on I will have to hunt and peck when using machines other than my own. Still, I’m confident that the switch will be worth it in the long run.

If you’re curious about Dvorak and/or are thinking about switching to Dvorak, here are a few good reads: The Dvorak Keyboard and You, typedvorak.com, and dvorak-keyboard.com.

Are you contemplating switching to Dvorak? Are you a Dvorak typist? Tell your tale in the comments.

Don’t get me wrong—Ubuntu Linux is an incredible operating system. In fact, I’m writing this blog post on Ubuntu right now. I like its lightness and speed, plus the fact that it’s open source and completely free. However, being a certified Windows user since my early grade school days, it has been very difficult to get used to a completely different working environment, which is why I opted to dual-boot with Vista Ultimate (yes, Vista—it’s not all that bad) instead of wiping out the entirety of my hard drive and installing just Linux.

Looking back, I’m thankful I chose to dual-boot. Why? There are just some programs that work a-okay in Windows but refuse to in Linux. And these aren’t programs of secondary importance, either. These are stuff I use frequently and cannot live without. Sure, there might be Linux-compatible programs to replace these, but nothing beats the quality of the real thing.

iTunes

Yes. I run iTunes. It’s painfully slow, but I need it for my iPod and iPhone. It’s the easiest way to sync my music, video, podcasts, photos, etc. into the music player extraordinaire without wrecking it. I’ve tried Amarok (a popular Linux music player) to do that for me, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to restore my iPod because the system kept on shuffling my album art.

I’ve been reading stuff on the Internet and apparently, most people have no problem at all with their iPods and Ubuntu, so I guess my case is pretty unique. It’s also a petty annoyance when you think about it, but it still irritates me a lot and diminishes my music-listening experience. As Linux’s popularity grows, I’m fairly certain Apple will come out with a Linux version of iTunes, hopefully sooner rather than later.

DOES IT WORK WITH WINE: From what I’ve read online, iTunes refuses to run using Wine, which makes it all the more difficult for me to switch. WINE, by the way, is an acronym for “Windows Emulator”. It’s a program that allows you to install for-Windows programs on your Linux machine.

Photoshop

Photoshop is love. I’ve been tinkering with Adobe’s renowned photo editing software ever since I got hold of a digital camera. It allows me to touch up my photos seamlessly, remove zits from my mug shots, and even create my own campaign paraphernalia.

Mock campaign poster for moi, created on Photoshop CS3.

It’s this kind of quality that I find difficult to achieve on Linux’s answer to Photoshop, GIMP. GIMP, which stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, comes with a vanilla Ubuntu install, and has been described by many as having features “similar” to that of Photoshop. Personally, I can’t say they’re even remotely alike. GIMP also has more restrictions and is less versatile than Photoshop. I know of people who’ve created works of art using the relatively rudimentary photo manipulation software, but for a newbie like me, Photoshop is still the way to go.

DOES IT WORK WITH WINE: Photoshop CS2 is listed as one of the programs that work swell with Wine on this list on the software’s official website.

MS Office Suite 2007

While OpenOffice might be sufficient enough for most people, I honestly believe it still lacks a lot of the features Microsoft Office has provided throughout the years. I love Microsoft Excel and the many complex functions it can execute in the blink of an eye; Word and its several (not to mention deantastic) formatting options; the fancy animations on PowerPoint; the ease of creating a brochure in Publisher.

OpenOffice.org simply lacks the versatility and functionality I find appealing in MS Office, and while I do believe that the fact that OpenOffice is open-source means that it has a lot of potential, I’ll have to stick with Office until that day comes when it trumps Microsoft’s offering in the office suite market.

DOES IT WORK WITH WINE: See this page; it seems to work fairly well, although some users are reporting a few bugs. This is normal, of course, considering that you’re running a Microsoft product on a Linux install.

Conclusion

Look, don’t get me wrong—I have none but a few qualms about Ubuntu. Over all, it’s a pretty OS, and its *nix-ness is definitely a plus. It’s just that the three programs I’ve mentioned above are critical to my computing environment. They’re stuff I just can’t live (or at least compute) without. Only when they get stable, workable Linux versions will I even consider moving to Linux.