More Mac converts

I've spent the last couple of years trying to persuade my parents that they need to convert to an Apple Mac in place of their sorry succession of windows machines. Thanks to a modest windfall, they were in the market for a new computer and came to me for purchasing advice. 

They are now the proud owners of a lovely new MacBook Pro (15"). I just need to set up their user accounts tonight, and they're off! 

At least when they phone for computer support I'll have the same operating system in front of me. Also, hopefully they'll need a little less support once they've got past the initial PC to Mac acclimatisation. I know most people find MacOS to be more intuitive than WIndows (though Windows 7 is meant to be better than XP).

Great Mac software

Partly as a result of my preparations for training for priesthood, I have acquired a massive number of books on a range of subjects. I have got so many now that I have no hope of remembering what I do and don't have. This makes it tricky when (as recently happened) I am offered more books. As I have no idea what I already have, I don't know which books to accept.

Thanks to a quick google search, I stumbled across a $40 piece of software (Delicious Library) which allows mac users easily to catalogue all their books (and other items too), and when I say easily, I mean easily! To add a book to my library, I simply hold up the book's barcode to the macbook's built in webcam. The software uses Amazon's database to find the details for the book - including the covershot. Of course, for books without barcodes it's a manual entry job, and for some more obscure titles, the information may be partial or unavailable, but it's recognised everything I've shown it so far.

This is going to be a great thing for me to keep track of which books I do and don't have!