Auto-record iChat A/V chats

On my last project, we made extensive use of iChat's video, audio and screen conferencing features. I found myself wishing I could record our sessions, as some of our discussions were extremely complex.

It took me a surprisingly long time to realise that there is a Record Chat item in the Video menu of iChat. Activate this, and the other party is asked if they mind if a recording is made. If they accept, each party then ends up with their own recording, copied to iTunes.

If, however, you are as lazy and forgetful etc. as I am, you may find this simple AppleScript handy:

-- automatically turn on AV Recording in iChat
using terms from application "iChat" -- enable iChat's on event handlers
on av chat started theChat -- activated when the chat starts (iChat's "A/V Chat Started" Event)
tell application "iChat"
request recording theChat -- ask the other parties if they'll allow recording
end tell
end av chat started
on av chat ended theChat -- activated when the chat ends (iChat's "A/V Chat Ended" Event)
stop recording theChat -- turn off recording
end av chat ended
end using terms from

That script will automatically turn on recording in iChat for AV Chats (audio, video, document share). To make it work, copy the above into a new document in Script Editor.app, and save it as AVRecorder.scpt in your user's Library » Scripts » iChat folder. You now need to attach the script for it to work.

If you want it activated for all buddies, attach the script in iChat Preferences; if you only want this for specific buddies, attach the script for just those Buddies, in their Info window. To attach the script, open the relevant window (Preferences or a specific buddy's Info window), and then choose the Alerts tab in that window.

Click the Event pop-up menu and select A/V Chat Started. Check the Run AppleScript box, then choose the script you just created in the adjacent pop-up menu. Now repeat the process for the "A/V Ended" event.

Now whenever an AV Chat commences, the other parties will be asked if it's OK to record the chat; if they accept, recording will automatically start. Unfortunately, I was unable to make this work for Screen Sharing sessions.

Turn Mail’s “new message” sound on for every message in Leopard

You may have noticed that Apple Mail does not play the “new mail alert” message every time you get a new email. This is an issue that has been present since the first release of OSX 10.5, but it has never been fixed by Apple.

Thankfully someone over at MacOSXhints has solved the problem. All you have to do is turn off the IDLE command (which is what Mail’s IMAP is using sometimes to discover a new message). In Mail open Preferences, then go to Accounts>Advanced. In all your mail accounts turn off the “Use IDLE command” feature. Now go to Preferences>General, and set “Check for new Mail every minute”.

Now you should get the new mail alert sound every time you receive a message.

Add Functionality to Quicklook

Quicklook is the one reason I’ll never be satisfied on a non 10.5 computer ever again. The way it lets you look at any file with just a pop of the spacebar is something you just can’t imagine getting any better.. but then along comes The Folder Quick Look Plugin which you can find here.

Basically what it does is add a holy dose of extra goodies to Quicklook, including allowing you to view the contents of a folder without browsing into it at all.

Modify Your Leopard Dock With DockDr

A lot of People don’t seem to like the new dock in OS X leopard, I however think it’s great, but needed a few changes, or at least a way to change it around and modify it.

I created this neat little piece of software called DockDR that enables you to do just that.

With a few clicks you can change the docks dimensions and even swap between 8 different dock skins without having to mess around in system folders or settings.

You can also Disable Dashboard and adjust Icons settings, Check it out at Innermindmedia

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

Learn about common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts. A keyboard shortcut is a way to invoke a function in Mac OS X by pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard.

 

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

Speed up Mac Mouse tracking via terminal

Here’s a great Mac OS X terminal trick to change your mouse tracking speeds via terminal.If the available settings in the mouse preference panel aren’t good enough for you, You can adjust the rate via terminal using the following command:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling *.*

 

Replace the *’s with a number between 1 and 5 ie:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 5.0

for fast tracking or

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 1.0

for slow tracking

Customize stacks icons

If you would like to set a

specific icon for ea

ch stack instead of the default stack pile of ic

ons, Stacks in Da Place from Eagle-of-liberty was developed with you in

mind, It’s a

great little piece of donationware that lets you use any icon you

want for any stack, easy as dragging and dropping the icon you want.

Add Hover Effect to Stacks

To add a nice hover effect to the icons in the stacks pop up enter the following code into your terminal ( applications/utilities/terminal.app)

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES killall Dock

To Remove this Stacks hover effect enter the following terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean NO killall Dock

Here’s a preview of the magic at work.It’s also important to note that this only shows when you navigate your stack pop up by keyboard.

Remove Leopard 3D Dock

If you’re looking for a way to remove the 3d styled dock from leopard, Here’s how you do it
First open terminal and enter this command:

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

To change it back simply enter :

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

Then Type:

killall Dock

The dock will then restart with a new 2D style dock similar to that of Tiger, but slightly better looking in my opinion.
If you’re not up for entering terminal commands and would like to achieve the same thing you can also download the DockDoctor widget from inner mind media and it’ll let you toggle back and forth with 0 effort right from your dashboard.

Bulk Edit Address Book Contacts

The first major step is to export the contacts you want to change. We are going edit directly the .vcf file which is used to store all of the address book data. Select all of the contacts you want to change, either the group of contacts or individually using the command key and click on each one. Then drag these contacts onto the desktop. Your Mac will work its magic and create one big .vcf file (which is actually all of your contacts as one file). This file in essence if a big text file which we can change.

The next step is to right click on the file and select “Open With” select your favourite text editor. TextEdit will do. Inside the file you will see lots of text that looks like a mess. The next step is to simply do a search and replace. Most items will be separated by a semi-colon ( ; ) so bare this in mind if you are changing multi line addresses. If you do a search and replace I recommend going through the items one at a time. Hitting change all could change things you don’t want to.

The final step is to save and drag the vcf file back into Address Book. It will ask if you want to review the differences, hit Import and it will override all of the files.

Welcome to Tips for Mac OS X

Hi All,

Welcome to Tips for Mac OS X Blog. The blog is all about Tricks and Tips for Apple Mac, updated daily to help you get the most out of your Mac.

Comment the feedback on the blog.

Regards,
Karthikeyan M