What makes you happy ?

I posted a while a go and image of my ‘office’ with 3 screens. While reading things about the Mac and trying them I’ve been acutely aware that stuck on the right and away from my line of sight I was never going to really give it a go despite me wanting to get more stuck in. So I’ve removed the 3rd screen and hooked the mini up to the right.
As I type this where X-Chat (PC) was I now have X-Chat Aqua running. Firefox is there, Opera probably will be, Smultron definitely will be, Cyberduck and when I find one something like PuTTY (I’ve not tried Terminal yet in case that is any good. I am determined to use nano more).
So I’m putting the Mac more in my face because I want to learn more, use more, make a better decision about what to use. I really like XP but Vista is not going to get me. XP will be around for a while yet and between Linux or OS X the latter might win. There is also the case of the Laptop. As D is now using that as her primary machine I need another and I either get a Windows machine or a Macbook. The former are cheaper and I know my way around. The latter are really really expensive (because apparently – like Windows – you have to throw a heap more RAM in to start) so money wise it’s the worst decision and an expensive one. I should have some cash soon to get one – if the text links guy gets going again. It all stopped abruptly this morning which is hugely inconvenient – and I’d like to make a decent choice. I’m sat in front of the computer many hours a day so I do have the time to work at it.

Apart from adding details of ftp etc to programs, tonight’s objectives are:
- get things to start faster when I click them. Here is an actual example. Opera takes 5 seconds to start and load it’s home page on the PC. It took a huge 17 seconds on the Mac. IE6 took half the time of Safari and they both have the same homepage. That is slow slow slow. Maddeningly slow. Maybe I need to find a setting but that HAS to get faster. It could be something like that which has me saying no to the Mac as the machine of choice. I’ll go find the setting. There really must be one.
- find a mod somewhere that affects the styling. I hate rounded corners. If I liked them my blog would have them. It never has, never will. I really dislike that blue. Just like Mac (and Linux) users will say Windows looks ugly I think the Mac needs an aesthetic uplift. (Disclaimer – I wouldn’t know aesthetics if it sat on my face).
- try try try to get the kb working. It’s gobsmacking on a stellar scale that the Mini has been configured for one keyboard and one keyboard only. Synergy is a cool but having to keep the mac kb around for # and other characters is just stupid. Bring Your Own Keyboard = Buy Your Own Keyboard and I know I’m not alone in seeing this area of deliberate shortsightedness. (Maybe the mac kb works better on the PC?)
They sound like I’ve got something against it – I haven’t really but the first and third are real obstacles. Which I need to try to get over. So I’m going to try…..

Update: Keepassx. Fan-damn-tastic :)