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TwilightKid · Mar 28, 2007, 05:01 PM

Hey guys

First off. A tiny introduction. I have been a PC user for about 20 years, finally got tired off all the nonsense, and decided to go MAC.

I picked up the Black 13" MacBook with a 160gig drive, 2 gig of RAM.. All the bells and whistles....etc.

I have had limited use with MACs over they ears, and now that I own one, I find myself feeling like I have never used a computer before.

I am sure I will have tons of questions. I will promise to check the FAQ's and do searches first, but will also hope that some of you will be kind enough to answer some of my questions, as inane as they may sound.

SO, I am trying to get this thing working as closely to the way I had my PC going. I d/l'ed Mozilla Firefox and that seems to be fine.

I am not nuts about iC'hat. (perhaps I havent figured out how to customize it yet. ) I really like how the newer version of AOL IM let's you display each person on your list with 'nicknames' I have over 200 people on mine, and get confused with the different screen names.

I dont see that feature in iChat. I also don't see the ability to have each conversation in one bgi box, but each new convo opened in a different box.

SO, I tried to d/l AOL IM for the Mac. Version 4.7. It d/l'ed fine.
When I click to install it, my computer opens up the trial version of EXCEL on my computer. I then get an error message saying that the .bin file cannot be opened.

I tried deleting and re d/l'ing the program but get the same results....

Any advice?

thanks!

frdmfghtr · Mar 28, 2007, 05:28 PM

I had a similar problem when I first got my MacBook. For some reason, Excel associates .bin files with itself.

I solved the issue by getting StuffIt and installing that to handle compressed files. There maybe a better solution somewhere, but that's what I did.

TwilightKid · Mar 28, 2007, 05:30 PM

Great. thanks

I had a friend recommend a IM program called ADIUM....

anyone familiar with that?

ajprice · Mar 28, 2007, 06:06 PM

Yeah I use Adium, it handles most of the different IM clients including MSN, Yahoo, iChat, Google Talk, ICQ..., but not webcams and video (but the last time I looked the Mac MSN software didn't support video either), for video chats, use Apple iChat, or aMSN / Mercury Messenger (both MSN clients). Depends what software most of your friends use really, but Adium is a pretty good catch all app.

sdilley14 · Mar 28, 2007, 06:15 PM

I'd also recommend Adium. It's highly customizeable, you can rename contacts, add themes and different sounds. It's a GREAT program. I was using iChat for AIM for a while and it just didn't seem to have enough features and for some reason it didn't display some of my contacts/contacts' info all together. Went with Adium and never looked back.

Also, IMO, the actual AIM client for Macs SUCKS. Interface is terrible.

post_break · Mar 28, 2007, 06:35 PM

I would use SKYPE if you want to do video chats. ichat OWNS my dsl modem while trying to do video while skype works without a hitch.

voiceofra · Mar 28, 2007, 06:50 PM

Why do all these people recommend Skype for video chat when somebody wants an MSN video chat client?? (Skype just means that means YOU have to get a skype account and the person on the OTHER end has to get one, too. YAY One more friggen chat client username and password!!).
Just download aMSN or Mercury Messenger for MSN video chat and the OS X Yahoo client for Yahoo video chat.

post_break · Mar 28, 2007, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by voiceofra

Why do all these people recommend Skype for video chat when somebody wants an MSN video chat client?? (Skype just means that means YOU have to get a skype account and the person on the OTHER end has to get one, too. YAY One more friggen chat client username and password!!).
Just download aMSN or Mercury Messenger for MSN video chat and the OS X Yahoo client for Yahoo video chat.

Pardon me but who asked for a MSN video chat client? We are all simply suggesting what programs we like to use for what. Calm down there dude.

chrisdisregard · 06:04 PM

...

Frugle · Mar 29, 2007, 10:37 AM

ichat co-exists with address book... so when you are in ichat, and click add a buddy... you can put in a first and last name, and that will show up whenever that person logs in instead of their screen name.

control click (or two-finger click) on a buddies name and click get info... type in the first and last name (or whatever you want to call them) and that is what will show up

I chat does do tabbed browsing, I'm justnot sure how.

Chaoticjoe · Mar 29, 2007, 11:22 AM

You don't have to type "MAC" and "ADIUM" in all caps, they're names. Mac and Adium will do fine, and you might get people thinking you're talking about MAC addresses.

I definitely recommend Adium for IMing, and you should probably get some external program to open .bin and other compressed files. Two great "expanders" are Stuffit's "Stuffit expander" (duh...) and "The Unarchiver," which is an open source expander.
They both do the job very well.