Mac OS X Tips & Tricks

Download, back up, and upload Google Docs files

2009-08-28T15:23:00.000+05:30

You can download, back up, and upload documents from your Google Docs account using a little Terminal magic. Prerequisites:

gdata-python-client 2.0.1 - download page
gdatacopier 1.0.2 - download page

Installation:

Download the prerequisites. Decompress each of the downloads.

Install gdata-python-client:

$ cd gdata-2.0.1

$ sudo python setup.py install

Patch:

The current gdatacopier download has a small bug in it, and it needs to be patched to work properly. Open the file gdatacopier.py in the app's folder, and locate line 555. On that line, change this...

item_list.append({'title': entry.title.text.encode('UTF-8'),

...to this...

item_list.append({'title': entry.title.text,

Save the file and quit the editor.

Usage:

By default, gdatacopier will download your spreadsheets and text documents in the OpenOffice format (.ods and .odt, respectively). TextEdit does a pretty good job of opening the text (.odt) documents, but I was unable to find anything free that could open the spreadsheet (.ods) documents, so you may want to specify a specific format when downloading your documents.

Variables

$DIR = local download location
$USERNAME = Google email (e.g. someone@gmail.com)
$GOOGLEID = Google docs id number. You can find the document's Google ID by using the list- commands below. Make sure to copy only the Google ID from the listing -- not the date or other data. Also make sure to enclose the Google ID in quotes in your command.

Examples:

Display gdatacopier help: ./gdoc-cp.py --help
Back up all Google Docs in OpenOffice format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username someone@gmail.com --export default --google-id all --local $DIR
Back up all Google Docs spreadsheets in Excel format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export xls --google-id spreadsheets --local $DIR
Back up all Google Docs Text in Rich Text format (retains most formatting): ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export rtf --google-id documents --local $DIR
Back up all Google Docs in PDF Format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export pdf --google-id all --local $DIR
List all Google Docs: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --list-all
List all Google Docs spreadsheets: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --list-sheets
List all Google Docs text documents: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --list-docs
Find a specific Google Doc by title: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME -p $PASSWORD --list-all | grep Casserole
Download a specific text document in TextEdit (rtf) format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export rtf --google-id "$GOOGLEID" --local "OUTPUT_FILENAME.rtf"
Download a specific spreadsheet document in Excel (xls) format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export xls --google-id "$GOOGLEID" --local "OUTPUT_FILENAME.xls"
Download a specific document in PDF format: ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --export pdf --google-id "$GOOGLEID" --local "OUTPUT_FILENAME.pdf"
Upload a document to Google Docs (rtf, txt, xls, doc): ./gdoc-cp.py --username $USERNAME --import --local "INPUT_FILENAME" --title "OPTIONAL_TITLE"

Notes:

A password can be hardcoded into the command if desired.
The current version of gdatacopier (1.0.2) is unable to upload all the file types supported by Google Docs (including PDF, html, docx, and possibly others -- that's all I tested).
gdatacopier-1.0.3 in the repository appears to offer support for presentations and some other options including folders (aka tags). If you want to play around with it you can get it here. (The code must be patched as above, plus also patch line 289: download_document(document_id, file_format, local_path, write_metadata) -- change that to download_item(document_id, file_format, local_path, write_metadata).)
A future v2.0 is in the works, hopefully soon.
Maybe a crafty AppleScript Studio programmer could write a GUI for all this.

Apple to release Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28

2009-08-28T15:13:00.003+05:30

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

The world's most advanced operating system. Finely Tuned.
Available on August 28, 2009.

Apple announced Monday that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will go on sale Friday, August 28 at Apple's retail stores and Apple authorized resellers, and that Apple's online store is now accepting pre-orders.

Use web proxy auto-discovery in Safari

2009-07-15T17:05:00.003+05:30

Unlike most browsers, Safari doesn't have a setting to use WPAD (web proxy auto-discovery) in OS X. However, there is a way to ask Safari to automatically detect the network's proxy settings, but only if your network administrator has configured WPAD on your network.

This auto-detect feature works through DNS. The browser looks for a host named "wpad" and if it exists, loads its settings by accessing a file named "wpad.dat" via HTTP. To use DNS-based WPAD with Safari on OS X, follow these steps:

In Safari, choose Safari » Preferences
Click on the Advanced icon
Click on the Proxies » Change Settings button
In the Configure Proxies dropdown menu, select Using A PAC File
In the PAC File URL field, enter http://wpad/wpad.dat
Click on OK
Click on Apply

Again, this is only helpful if your network administrator has set up a proxy to be auto-configured. If you're on a network that doesn't have such a setup, Safari will still work but much, much slower. To find out if your network supports proxy auto-detection, visit http://wpad/wpad.dat in your web browser. If your network supports WPAD, then your browser will download the file "wpad.dat" (which you can just delete). If it's not supported, you'll get an error message.

Firefox 3.5's Three-Finger Swipes

2009-07-15T17:05:00.001+05:30

In addition to the previous "twist" gestures which are disabled by default, Firefox 3.5 also ships with default enabled multi-touch swipe inputs:

Three-finger swipe up: Home key (top of the page)
Three-finger swipe down: End key (bottom of the page)
Three-finger swipe left: Browse back
Three-finger swipe right: Browse forward

These can be edited by entering about:config in the address bar. Enter swipe in the filter box.

Remove Safari history files on logout via shell script

2009-07-07T18:58:00.000+05:30

If you'd like to remove your Safari history files when you log out, first create the following shell script:

#!/bin/bash

# Point this at your user folder.
useroot=/Users/your_user

# Clear Safari History (except for bookmarks).
rm -f $useroot/Library/Safari/Downloads.plist $useroot/Library/Safari/History.plist
rm -f $useroot/Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk $useroot/Library/Safari/TopSites.plist
rm -f $useroot/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db $useroot/Library/Safari/LastSession.plist

# Add any additional clean-up here.

Save the script somewhere, make it executable, and because it runs as root, make sure it is protected from modification. Then copy and paste this command into Terminal, modifying it to point to wherever you put the above script:

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook "/Users/your_user/scripts/privacy.sh"

To be complete, you should also visit Safari's Preferences, open the AutoFill tab, and clear all of the checkmarks (Safari then won't remember passwords and forms).

Make SMB shares appear in Devices section of Finder sidebar

2009-07-07T18:57:00.000+05:30

It was driving me nuts that SMB shares from my Windows server would not reappear under DEVICES in the sidebar. However, I then figured out that I can do this:

Open System Preferences » Network
Click the network interface you use for the shares
Click on the Advanced button at lower right
Click on WINS tab, and manually enter the workgroup name of the server
Click the '+' under the WINS Servers list
Enter the IP of the server (you are using static IP on your server, right?)
Click OK, Apply, etc. until you're done

The next time I dragged a mounted share to Devices, it then showed up there automatically after the next unmount/mount. My shares seem to mount much faster now, as well. Now if only I could find a way to increase the transfer speed...sigh.

Mac OS X 10.5: Wake a sleeping Mac with via Automator

2009-07-07T18:30:00.001+05:30

I have a Mac mini in my living room hooked up to my TV. I wanted to be able to control the mini from my iMac in my office. Using Screen Sharing built into Leopard, it's a simple click of the mouse to do this. With a little Automator love, I created a simple workflow that turns the Screen Sharing step into a click of an icon in the dock.

However, even with the power efficiency of the 2009 Mac mini, I don't want to leave it on 24/7. After searching through several solutions that used Python and shell scripting (neither of which I know or could make work), I found this nifty this nifty Applescript from Mark Muir that I adapted to solve my problem. Here's my modified code:

(*
Script adapted from Wake on WAN - by Mark Muir (2008-04-01)
http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?4,2751523
*)

property MAC_address : "00:25:4b:9f:63:c8"
property WAN_IP_address : "255.255.255.255"

on run
 set command to "/usr/bin/php -r " & quoted form of ("$mac = " & quoted form of MAC_address & "; $ip = " & quoted form of WAN_IP_address & "; " & "
$mac_bytes = explode(\":\", $mac);
$mac_addr = \"\";
for ($i=0; $i<6; $i++)
$mac_addr .= chr(hexdec($mac_bytes[$i]));
$packet = \"\";
for ($i=0; $i<6; $i++) /*6x 0xFF*/
$packet .= chr(255);
for ($i=0; $i<16; $i++) /*16x MAC address*/
$packet .= $mac_addr;

$port = 9;
$sock = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);
socket_set_option($sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, TRUE);
socket_sendto($sock, $packet, strlen($packet), 0, $ip, $port);
socket_close($sock);
")
 do shell script command
end run

You'll need to replace the MAC_address property with the MAC address (found in the Networking System Preferences panel) of the machine you'd like to wake. I then wrapped this script in a simple Automator application to make it a true one-click operation. You can read all the details, and download a copy of the Automator application, in this entry in my blog.

I've mirrored the Automator application here on Mac OS X Hints, in case the original post ever goes away. While I haven't tested this one, I'm pretty sure you could replace the full script shown above with a call to the free Wakeonlan perl script, which was described in this older hint.

SSH’ing Into Your Mac

2009-07-01T12:40:00.002+05:30

I use SSH a lot, it stands for Secure Shell and its main purpose is to connect to other computers, or servers, over a secure connection which you can use to manage the remote computer. For a general overview I recommend reading this Wikipedia article. For this article you do need to be a little tech savvy with Terminal, but if you are way from your computer, or you want to manage another computer this is a very useful technique.

The first step, which you must do, is enable this process in your Firewall. Took me ages to work out while I couldn’t do this on my own Mac. Go to System Preferences > Sharing and check Remote Login. This will open port 22 on your computer and allow SSH to be active.

This should be done on the computer you want to log into. For the purpose of this tutorial you can do it on your own computer, remember to switch it off when you have finished for security purposes. Under the Green icon there will be an address. This combines your ISP Internet address, which is given to you by your ISP, in my case it is part of my Uni address, this will be unique to you. For example it will be a unique identifier, such as a MAC address or account name, on your ISP network, it will then be preceded by your ISP web address. For the most part you don’t need to understand how this address is built. You just need to know what it is. The first part of the address is the user name, for the purpose of most maintenance a normal account will suffice, if you want to do some really high level stuff an administrators account can be used.

You can now log into the remote (or your Mac). Open terminal and type:

ssh user@ISP.address.com

This will start the connection process. If it immediately says connection refused make sure you have enabled SSH as mentioned above. If it says couldn’t connect on port XXX, add the following.

shh -p22 user@ISP.address.com

This will force your SSH connection to run on port 22, instead of a different port. If you, or someone else, has used SSH before it may have been bound to a different port. This will correct this problem.

The first login will ask you to accept and RSA key. This is a method to make sure the two computer are who they say they are. Since you know this accept the key by typing yes and hitting return. This is a security method to keep the connection secure, more information about this process can be found here.

The very final step is to type the password which belongs to the user name. This is the remote Mac’s login password, not your own, my friend who I tried to teach this concept too, didn’t grasp this step for a long while and confusion ensured. Once you have done this, the connection will be secured and you can happily run commands on their computer.

At this point you can run any Terminal command, which is useful to sort out problems with file and folder errors and problems relating to settings. You can also use it to monitor the health of the remote computer by running a process such as ‘top’. The Terminal window, at this point, is exactly the same as one you would use on your own computer. It just happens that the result run on a different computer and are forwarded to you.

When you have finished your session, type exit and the SSH session will finish.

Although this is a tech savvy process and solutions such as screen sharing are more useful to people who do not know how to use Terminal, it is a great technique to learn. You can use it on any Mac, Linux or Unix computer, this method is exactly the same. It is also very low bandwidth, with screen sharing your are sending a lot of data, this technique sends text. Text has a very low data rate, as a result can run on a dial up connection. This sort of process can be used to administer a server over a home network, or to make sure a remote Mac (such as your Grandparents) is still operating fine.

There is a lot more topics on how to use SSH on your Mac. I recommend search the internet for how to find out more, if you are interested on using this technique more.

MacBook Pro 13-inch teardown reveals "unimaginative" SD Card slot

2009-06-19T16:46:00.005+05:30

A dissection of Apple's first 13-inch MacBook Pro shows the company may have run out of real estate to create a slot that would completely conceal SD cards but also points to certain do-it-yourself upgrades being near-trivial jobs for prospective owners.

The undisputed teardown experts at iFixit have just completed their step-by-step illustrated disassembly of the latest member of the MacBook Pro family, in which they note that the system's new SD card slot "is rather unimaginative" given that "half the card hangs out of the side of the computer."

"Apple couldn't free up enough space for a slot that would make the card completely captive," representatives for upgrade solutions provider told AppleInsider.

As with the MacBook Air and 17-inch MacBook Pro, removing the battery is simple enough that it can be done quickly, likely to allowing technicians to swap out batteries at Apple retail stores in a matter of minutes. All that's needed is a small Phillips screwdriver to open the case and a tri-wing screwdriver to remove the battery.

It's also noted that the mid wall dividing the MacBook Pro is now attached to the top case, unlike in previous models where it was was held in by four Phillips screws. iFixit believes this may be a move on Apple's part to help out its do-it-yourself customers.

"Aside from a couple of visual cues found outside, a casual user would not be able to discern if this was a [unibody] MacBook or MacBook Pro," the firm added. "Most screw layouts and brackets are identical to the old [unibody] MacBook."

Also discovered was a slightly heavier battery at 360 grams (compared to 302 g for the old one). However, it offers 60 Watt-hours of power, compared to the lighter battery's 45 W-h. And given that its connectors, size, and shape are different from the battery in the 13-inch unibody MacBook, the new battery isn't interchangeable with last year's models.

Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.8 to fine tune service technologies

2009-06-19T16:41:00.002+05:30

The next, and potentially final, upgrade to Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system will address loose ends in the software's underlying service technologies with a particular focus on networking and syncing.

Just two betas of the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update have made their way into developers' hands thus far, the first of which was labeled build 9L12 and arrived for an extremely limited group of testers early last week. That distribution was quickly followed by the release of build 9L14 to all registered Mac OS X developers this past weekend.

Unlike Mac OS X 10.5.7, which addressed roughly two dozen system components and applications, Mac OS X 10.5.8's focus appears more narrow from the onset. People familiar with the update say Apple has asked developers to concentrate their evaluation efforts on just a dozen key technologies, only two of which represent forward-facing applications: Automator and iCal.

The remainder of the update addresses underlying service technologies that include 802.1x wireless protocols, Apple Filing Protocol, AirPort, Bluetooth, graphics drivers, iDisk syncing, networking, Spotlight indexing, Sync Services, and USB.

Similarly, many of the roughly two-dozen code corrections already baked into the first two pre-release builds also target underlying networking and syncing technologies. For example, Apple has reportedly made note of fixes to AFP and TimeMachine syncing, iCal time and calendar syncing, execution of startup items on Network home folders, and problems with DHCP client and 802.1x integration.

New Mac owners wrestling issues with their DisplayPort to DVI/VGA adapters should also see improvements with the release of Mac OS X 10.5.8, though Apple has reportedly failed to provide any color on the specific issues being addressed. Those users experiencing issues where their Mac inexplicably fails to go to sleep a second time around will also reportedly see relief to their problems.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard gives heads-up for near-death MacBook batteries

2009-06-19T16:30:00.003+05:30

While the immediate charge on a Mac notebook's battery has been available for years, Mac OS X Snow Leopard now tells owners when their batteries are nearing the end of their useful lifespans.

Those familiar with the WWDC build of the operating system upgrade note that clicking the battery icon in the menu bar now shows a new, one-word "battery condition" summary in addition to the energy for the current charge and the power source.

When the battery has been used often enough that it 's losing capacity, the icon is overlaid with an exclamation mark warning and the battery condition changes to "poor" -- both signs that the pack is due to be replaced. While not every condition is known, Snow Leopard presumably reports varying degrees of battery status when the pack has only been moderately used or is like new.

The addition partly replaces third-party utilities that sometimes provide a more detailed estimate. Apple hasn't documented the reasons behind the change, but the most logical explanation is simply that the company's decision to seal in most notebook batteries makes it more important to have an early notice that a battery is near failing. A replacement of the sort is easy for technicians but, without the option of swapping batteries in the field, not trivial for end users.

Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.

Save non-savable PDF files

2009-06-17T18:40:00.002+05:30

Occasionally one has to use an annoying PDF that one can't re-save, but can only print. My sister had this situation dealing with some obnoxious state-run Microsoft system that didn't allow the user to save a completed form, only to print it from a browser. The individual administering the system apparently flipped the wrong bit, as last year, the form could be saved.

Here's a workaround, various versions of which can allow you to save the PDF:

1. Turn off the print queue for the printer by going to Printer Setup Utility.
2. Print the file, but don't reactivate the printer -- choose the Add to Queue option.
3. Go into the terminal and su to root. (If you haven't enabled root, use sudo -s to start a root shell.)
4. Type cd /var/spool/cups, then identify the file you just printed. Do this by matching the queued file's time stamp to the time you printed the file (ls -l; the file of interest should be at the bottom).
5. Copy (don't move) that file out of the spool folder: cp filename ~/Desktop. I don't know what a move (mv) will do to the print system.
6. Type cd ~/Desktop to move to your user's Desktop folder.
7. Type chown myaccount:myaccount filename to make sure the Finder in your user space will play nicely with the file.
8. Peek inside the file and determine whether it's a postscript or PDF file -- you can drop it on TextEdit to see its contents. If it's a postscript file, rename the file to filename.ps. If it's a PDF file, rename it to filename.pdf.
9. Confirm the above by dropping the file on Preview. If the file is a postscript file, you can then save it as a PDF file from Preview.

Bulk convert Safari's Web Archives to PDFs

2009-06-17T18:39:00.005+05:30

I've been archiving web pages using Safari's one-file web archive format for a while. I was trying to figure out a bulk conversion method if I want to send these archives to Windows users, or switch to a different browser. It turns out that Scott Garner's Download URL as PDF Automator action can take web archive files from the Finder and will convert them to PDFs (in addition to its intended function of downloading pages off the web.)

Just download the Automator action, then create a workflow with Find Finder Items hunting through your home directory for files that have the extension webarchive. That action should feed into Scott's action, and you're all set. The action has some options, including whether or not the PDF should be split into pages.

Mac OS X 10.5: Take and upload screenshots via Automator

2009-06-17T18:39:00.004+05:30

I often take screenshots and upload them for my friends to see -- especially while working on web projects etc. So I created an Automator workflow that does this automagically!

First the workflow snaps the whole screen and saves it to the desktop. Then a bash script is run wich uses ftp to upload the image to the webserver. It then takes the URL of the image and copies it to the clipboard. Lastly it notifies you of the upload via Growl. It has no error handling or anything. This is my first workflow and bash script ever, but it works for me. In Automator, create the following steps in a new blank workflow:

Utilities » Take Screenshot. Use these settings:
- Type: Full Screen, or whatever you prefer.
- Select Main Monitor Only and/or Timed as you desire.
- Set the Save To pop-up menu so that it saves to a file named tmpScreen.png on your Desktop.

Utilities » Run Shell Script. Set Shell to /bin/bash and Pass Input to to stdin. Enter the following code, noting the lines you need to edit:

#!/bin/sh
# Author: Simon Ljungberg @ www.nimnim.se

# Edit the 5 lines below to fit your configuration
# URL will be copied to your clipboard!
HOST='yourftphost'
USER='yourusername'
PASSWD='yourpassword'
REMOTEFILE='pathtoremotefile(including filename)'
URL='http://yourdomain.com/screens/screenshot.png'

# If you change this you need to change the rm-line too.
# For some reason (I'm new at this) I couldn't get the file
# to disappear when using the variable...
LOCALFILE='~/Desktop/tmpScreen.png'

ftp -n $HOST <

If you have Growl installed, add Utilities » Show Growl Notification. Give it a Title ("Done!") and Description ("Your screenshot has been uploaded") so you'll see a message after the upload is completed.

Alternatively, you could download the script from my server, and then just change the variables in the shell script section of the workflow.

To make this work, you need a web server with FTP access, and note that your username and password are stored in the script. Works for me in 10.5.7; I hope someone can make use of it!

Create a Numbers document listing all Safari bookmarks

2009-06-17T18:38:00.002+05:30

ou might find this AppleScript interesting and/or useful -- it opens a spreadsheet in Numbers of all of your Safari bookmarks.

set the bookmarks_folderpath to the POSIX path of (path to "cach" from user domain) & "Metadata/Safari/Bookmarks/"

tell application "System Events"
set these_bookmark_filepaths to the POSIX path of every disk item of folder bookmarks_folderpath whose name extension is "webbookmark"
-- generate book mark AppleScript list: {{bookmark 1 name, bookmark 1 URL}, {bookmark 1 name, bookmark 1 URL}, etc.}
set the bookmarks_list to {}
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_bookmark_filepaths
  set this_bookmark_path to item i of these_bookmark_filepaths
  tell property list file this_bookmark_path
    set the end of the bookmarks_list to {value of property list item "Name", value of property list item "URL"}
  end tell
end repeat
end tell

-- convert AppleScript list to text
repeat with i from 1 to the count of the bookmarks_list
set this_bookmark to item i of the bookmarks_list
if i is 1 then
  set the bookmark_text to (item 1 of this_bookmark) & tab & (item 2 of this_bookmark)
else
  set the bookmark_text to the bookmark_text & return & (item 1 of this_bookmark) & tab & (item 2 of this_bookmark)
end if
end repeat

-- write to file
set the target_file to (path to documents folder as string) & "Safari Bookmarks.cvs"
write_to_file(bookmark_text, target_file, false)

-- open in Numbers
tell application "Numbers"
activate
open file target_file
end tell

on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data)
try
  set the target_file to the target_file as string
  set the open_target_file to open for access file target_file with write permission
  if append_data is false then set eof of the open_target_file to 0
  write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof
  close access the open_target_file
  return true
on error
  try
    close access file target_file
  end try
  return false
end try
end write_to_file

For the AppleScript wizards out there, I didn't send the data directly to Numbers because the Numbers scripting dictionary does not support making a document with the make verb.

Add URLs to Address Book contacts for use in Safari

2009-06-17T18:37:00.004+05:30

A somewhat-hidden feature of Address Book is its ability to add a URL to a contact. This feature used in Safari 4, which has a special Bookmarks section for Address Book entries, where it will use URLs from Address Book contact records. (For instance, if you take a look a the Address Book entries in Safari 4's Bookmarks area, you will find that the Apple Inc. card has a home page associated with it.)

It's not obvious how to accomplish this, as a Home Page field does not appear by default on a new blank card, nor when editing an old one or when adding fields using the green (+) button. The solution is in the Card » Add Field menu. From that menu, select the URL entry to add the field to any card. After entering a URL, it will then appear in Safari's Address Book bookmarks.

Mac OS X 10.5: Find which items weren't modified by Time Machine

2009-06-17T18:37:00.003+05:30

Getting ready for work this morning, I walked into my office to find my 2.5 year old daughter mashing on my keyboard with the monitors off. Time out! After a quick check, it looked like no damage had been done. Later though, I tried to launch iCal with Quicksilver, and Quicksilver could not find it.

I looked at my apps folder (which was open apparently when she was mashing the keyboard) and saw that there were three folders with a bunch of jibberish for names. They were apps, but I wasn't sure which ones were which. Enter Time machine!

I tried to restore the whole apps folder, which I knew would take a while, but it told me Applications cannot be restored as it is used by the system. I selected all apps, hit copy, pasted the names into a text file and printed the file, meaning to open Time Machine and go down the list marking things off until I figured out what was missing.

With all of those items selected, I opened Time Machine and selected a backup from early this morning. All of the apps that were the same remained selected, but the ones that were missing -- the renamed ones -- were de-selected. I simply chose the de-selected apps and restored them.

This saved me a bunch of time going down the list and manually comparing the folder in Time Machine to my printed list. Now, off to Home Depot to get a lock for the office door!

Mix Safari 4 Beta and Final to get tabs on top

2009-06-17T18:36:00.005+05:30

Just a quick note to those who, like me, greatly miss the 'tabs in the title bar' feature of Safari 4 Beta in the final release of Safari:

After installing Safari 4.0 Final, I was quite disappointed to no longer have the 'tabs in title bar,' but I still had both the app and the installer from the last Safari 4 Public Beta (remember there were two main versions; the last one was published on May 12) on another disk, and I noticed that it launches just fine using all the underpinnings of the final version.

I'm sure it's not 100% compatible, but we all know that most of the meaningful components of Safari are *not* in the app itself. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this.

In short, you can install the final Safari 4.0, then use Pacifist to extract just the app from the Public Beta disk image. Better yet, if you still have the beta, rename it to something like Safari_beta.app, and you'll be able to use the tabs in the title bar again, as well as any of the customization tricks found here and elsewhere.

Fix an issue with Dreameaver and networked previews

2009-06-17T18:36:00.003+05:30

When using Dreamweaver's Browser Preview feature when editing a file on a network drive, you will receive a path name which is incorrect in your browser window:

file:///NetworkDrive/Folder/Folder/file.html

Where the path name should be:

file:///Volumes/NetworkDrive/Folder/Folder/file.html

To resolve this instead of making a 'site' for each website with the text Volumes: added to the front of the path name for the site it is much easier to use a symbolic link. Open Terminal and type

$ cd /
$ ln -s /Volumes/NetworkDrive NetworkDrive

Please note that NetworkDrive should be replaced with your drive's name. You will now see what looks like an alias on the root of your hard drive, but this is a symbolic link and you should have no problems previewing your sites.

Change the default length of new iCal events

2009-06-12T15:49:00.000+05:30

The default new event time in iCal is set to 60 minutes. There is not a interface preference to change the default. Seeing a request the other week on the Apple Forums asking for a way to change this setting, I had then assumed that this behaviour was 'hard wired' into iCal. After reading 'How to find hidden preference settings' just now (thanks Rob) and playing around with the result of the strings command on iCal, I came across the string Default duration in minutes for new event'.

It turns out this sets the default duration of new events in iCal. The defaults command below sets it to 15 minutes. You should quit iCal before running this to see the result. Open Terminal, enter the following and press return:

defaults write com.apple.iCal 'Default duration in minutes for new event' 15

Then open iCal. New events entered by double clicking or pressing Command-N will have the default time of 15 minutes. Obviously, you can set different values. To remove this setting altogether, enter the following in the Terminal and re-start iCal:

defaults delete com.apple.iCal 'Default duration in minutes for new event'

I've not noticed this hidden iCal default mentioned anywhere else.

Show random desktop picture immediately on login

2009-06-12T15:47:00.001+05:30

You can select a folder or iPhoto album in the Desktop subpane of the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences panel and tick the Random Order checkbox. This works fine until you logout / login or restart -- then the image defaults back to the Lightning picture until the next 'change picture' interval occurs.

For example, if you have Change Picture set to Every Day, on restart you won't see a picture from your chosen folder until up to 24 hours later. Meanwhile you're stuck with the default (IMHO, ugly!).

Solution? Go into the preferences pane, untick and retick the Random Order box, and your desktop is refreshed with a new random image. You can automate with a short applescript and add it to Accounts » Login Items:

tell application "System Events"
tell current desktop
  set random order to false
  set random order to true
end tell
end tell

This bug has persisted on several of my machines through 10.5.7.

Change the Apple logo in Login Window

2009-06-10T15:53:00.000+05:30

You can replace the large Apple logo that appears at the top of the login window with any tiff image that is 90x90 pixels. In the Finder, choose Go to Folder from the Go menu or press Command-Shift-G. In the dialog box that appears, type the following line:

/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/

A folder called Resources should appear. Here you will find an image called applelogo.tif. You will need to create a copy of this file, just in case you ever want to revert back to it. The easiest way to do this is to hold the Option key and drag it to a safe place (like your Documents folder). Now, rename you new image "applelogo.tif" and drag it to the Resources folder to replace the old file. You will be asked to type in an administrator password.

To change back to the Apple Logo, just drag the copy that you made back to the Resources folder.

Hide accounts in the Login Window

2009-06-10T15:52:00.001+05:30

If you find yourself with an overly long list of users in the login window or you just want to get rid of that annoying scroll bar down the side, you can stop accounts appearing in the login window.

Start by go to the Accounts pane in System Preferences, and find the "short name" of each user you want to hide. Once you have these, open up Terminal and enter the following:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add shortname1 shortname2 shortname3

Replace shortname1 2 and 3 with the short names of the user accounts you wish to hide. You can hide as many as you like, just separate each with a space.

To make a hidden name appear again, type the command with no names in it, therefore resetting the list of hidden users.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add

Notice that doing this adds an extra option to your login window - "Other..." When you select this, you will be presented with text boxes to enter a username and password.

If you aren't running OS X 10.4, this doesn't work. Another option is to replace the list of users with username and password text boxes. Go to the Accounts pane in System Preferences and click on Login Options. There you will find an option to display the login window as name and password fields. This isn't as pretty, but saves time if you have lots of users, and is also more secure.

Add a message to the login window

2009-06-10T15:51:00.000+05:30

You can add a string of text above the list of users in the login window. To do this, start by opening up Terminal. This is located in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder. Once it has loaded, paste in the following line and press return:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "Hello There"

Replace "Hello There" with your text. To remove the text, type the following line:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText ""

Batch rename multiple files using Automator

2009-06-10T15:46:00.006+05:30

Often you might find you have a folder containing hundreds of files, and you want to rename them all, for example to create a numbered list. In the Finder this would take ages, but luckily you can use Automator to make the process more efficient.

Simple open up Automator and add the following actions into the workflow. First add "Get Specified Finder Items" followed by "Sort Finder Items" followed by "Rename Finder Items". Your workflow should look something like the screenshot below. When you add the "Rename Finder Items" action, you will be asked if you want to create a copy of the files. Generally you won't want to do this, so choose "Don't Copy".

What the workflow does is pretty straightforward. When you click Run in the top right, it gets the files you have added to the list in the first action. You can add the files by clicking the Add button below the list before you run the workflow. The second action then sorts the files by name, size, kind, or whatever you specify. The final action takes this list of files and modifies their file names.

There are a huge amount of options in the "Rename Finder Items" action. The first drop-down menu allows you to choose between adding a date or time, adding text, changing uppercase/lowercase, making a sequential list or performing a find and replace for a string of text.

The second action, "Sort Finder Items" is really optional and only makes a difference if you have the renaming action set to "Make Sequential". This takes the list in the order it's given and places sequential numbers before or after the file names depending on the files position in the list.

Also, there are a couple of alternatives to the first action. One option is to use "Get Selected Finder Items" instead, which will perform the renaming on whatever the current selection is in the Finder. Another is "Ask for Finder Items", which will open up a dialog prompting you to choose the files each time you run the workflow. This is a good choice if you want to regularly perform the same renaming on different batches of files. You can then save the workflow as an application (File, Save As... and then choose Application from the File Format menu) that simply runs the workflow when you open it, instead of bring up Automator.

Mutihoming with one Ethernet interface

2009-06-10T15:43:00.001+05:30

Like many small businesses we have taken advantage of the 'free' DSL services offered as part of an existing mobile phone contract. In this case we use Orange for mobile service (we're based in the UK) and they offer 2 Mbit internet with a wireless router for no extra if you have at least one pay monthly account. I thought that it would be a useful addition to our network for testing and backup, especially as it is from a different ISP and delivered over a physically separate landline from our business internet.

The wireless router arrived yesterday and the DSL activation happened on time so that the line came up first time when I plugged the line into the router. I'd heard a few horror stories about Orange's support for Macs so I was pleasantly surprised when I popped the install CD into my MacBook and it came with full OSX installation instructions. 5 minutes later I was surfing on the internet via my shiny new Orange broadband.

Now that we had two internet accesses functioning, how to use them both?

I originally thought that I would keep our 8 Mbit business broadband link and the new line on separate networks so that I would not have to change any server or client configurations, just point my test machines at the new default gateway.

However, with a little thinking about how much work it would be to switch all clients over in the event of a line failure (it does happen), especially if no IT savvy people were available at the time of failure, I started Googling for suggestions on how to link all computers to both gateway routers.

I investigated using a spare Linksys router with new firmware to act as a load balancer, but that would introduce a new single point of failure. After thinking a bit more about OSX's multihoming feature I decided to do the following:

At each Mac, clients and servers, add a new interface (System Preferences » Network » Show Network Port Configurations » New.) I called ours orange internet, using port 'Built-in ethernet.'
Set up the new port with 'Configure IPv4: Manually,' giving it a 192.168.1.x address. (The original LAN address range is 192.168.0.1, mask 255.255.255.0, and default gateway is 192.168.0.1.)
On each machine, arrange the order of ports so that the default ethernet for each is first in the list.
On the server, setup a new DNS zone on 192.168.1.x with the same config as the original.
Optional: Use dyDNS or similar to assign a domain to the new external IP

Now, if the first interface is not available then it will fail-over to the other one and I can chose which gateway to use at each machine by re-arranging the port order.

One fix for an always-running laptop fan

2009-06-10T15:41:00.001+05:30

I found a solution to why my laptop fan was running constantly and running my battery out in an hour. This problem is common for MacBook users and many websites and forums suggest restarting, installing fan regulation software, resetting PRAM, etc. None of these really work, but the solution is very simple.

Since laptop users are mobile, they're frequently using different printers. When sending a document to print sometimes my MacBook selects the wrong printer, when it doesn't print I select a new printer and print again. But I forgot to delete the print job sent to the first printer, so my Mac keeps looking to print at the other printer causing the processor to heat up and the fan runs constantly.

Therefore, open System preferences go to Print & Fax, then select the printer that has a document in the queue, delete the print job and the fans shuts off within a minute -- and stays off.

The laptop will stay quiet and cool, the battery will last the usual amount of time, and MacBook mobile life is good again.

Mac OS X 10.5: Delete users accounts from command line in 10.5

2009-06-10T15:35:00.003+05:30

Many times we need to do a new OS X install, create a (temporary) user account, run all the updates, then delete the user account and get the machine back to "new" condition, i.e. no user accounts and Setup Assistant runs at boot.

The process in 10.4 is pretty well documented, but not so 10.5. Here's a process I've come up with and tested twice. It's not as elegant as just deleting the whole netinfo database, but it still seems to accomplish what I need. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can improve it!

To delete a user from the command line in 10.5:

1. Boot into single user mode. Hold Command-s at startup.
2. Check the filesystem: /sbin/fsck -fy
3. If no remaining errors, mount the filesystem: /sbin/mount -uw /
4. Start up directory services:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

Note that single user mode said to use com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist, but that didn't work -- this did.
5. Find what groups the user belongs to: dscl . -list /groups GroupMembership | grep username -- repeat for each group except for the user's own group.
6. Remove the group corresponding to the username: dscl . delete /groups/username (this may not be necessary -- you may get an error that the group doesn't exist; you can ignore it and go on).
7. Remove the user account: dscl . delete /users/username
8. At this point, you may wish to remove or archive the user folder in /Users.
9. You may wish to remove the .AppleSetupDone file in /var/db to cause the Setup Assistant to run when next booted.
10. All done? Type reboot to reboot the system or shutdown -h now to shut down the system.

Much of this was taken from this entry in Robert Daeley's blog at O'Reilly. Please know what you're doing before trying this -- the dscl command will let you wreak havoc on your system if you're not careful!

Apple Unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard - SEPTEMBER 2009

2009-06-09T12:35:00.003+05:30

Apple today unveiled Mac OS X Snow Leopard, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system that includes hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for $29. Apple also unveiled a Developer Preview of Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, a full 64-bit UNIX server operating system based on open standards that is up to twice as fast as its predecessor. Filed under: Mac.

In ways big and small, Mac OS X Snow Leopard makes your Mac faster, more reliable, and easier to use.

Announcing the new iPhone 3G S —The Fastest, Most Powerful iPhone Yet

2009-06-09T12:33:00.001+05:30

Apple today introduced the new iPhone 3G S, featuring improved speed and performance—up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G—longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and a new Find My iPhone feature that works together with MobileMe to help you locate a lost iPhone. Filed under.

Apple Releases Safari 4

2009-06-09T12:26:00.002+05:30

Today Apple released Safari 4, the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser. Available for Mac and Windows PCs and introduced as a beta in February of this year, Safari 4 features the Nitro engine which runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3. Safari 4 makes browsing more intuitive and enjoyable with innovative features, such as Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow, and support for modern web standards like HTML 5 and advanced CSS Effects. Filed under
It renders web pages at lightning speed. It works on the iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC. It shows you your favorite sites at a glance. And it’s so smart, it even checks your spelling and grammar. Meet Safari 4, the world’s most innovative browser.

Top Sites
Cover Flow
Full History Search
Nitro Engine
Windows Native look and Feel
Developer Tools

The new MacBook Pro family.(13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch.)

2009-06-09T12:06:00.005+05:30

High performance now comes in three sizes: 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch.
The new MacBook Pro brings precision engineering and advanced technology to everyone.
Today Apple updated the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display with greater color intensity, the innovative glass Multi-Touch trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics. Apple also updated the incredibly thin and light MacBook Air, making it more powerful and more affordable. Filed under: Mac. Read more: apple.com/macbookpro

The Mac is designed to provide the best computer experience you can have. Everything just works. And everything works together. That’s because Apple makes both the hardware and the software. So whether you’re accessing a Wi-Fi network or organizing your photos by faces or video chatting with friends, it’s all amazingly simple. And that’s just the beginning. Here are a few more reasons why so many people choose a Mac.

Precision aluminum. The new gold standard
The longest-lasting Mac notebook battery ever.
Graphics in full force.
A display of brilliance.
Even the keyboard is advanced.
It all just clicks.

ABGmerge - Sync between Address Book and Gmail

2009-06-08T17:09:00.002+05:30

Never go without contact information again. With ABGmerge you can keep your Mac OS X Address Book and Gmail Contacts synchronized. This isn’t anything fancy, just an Applescript that can interface between a Gmail CSV file and your Mac Address Book. But if you use Gmail and your Address Book, you might like the convenience of having all your contact information in both places.

Arrow - Free e-mail Program

2009-06-08T17:05:00.001+05:30

Arrow is a free e-mail program that was written to address the e-mail needs of users migrating from Mac and Windows to Linux. Arrow currently supports viewing, composing, and organizing of e-mail, including secure e-mail via PGP, POP access, and a spell checker.

TraffiX - Bandwidth / Trafiic Monitor

2009-06-08T16:59:00.001+05:30

TraffiX monitors the total amount of data transferred between your gateway router (the router that connects you to the internet) and the internet. This is sometimes referred to as “bandwidth” or “Traffic”.

Stainless - Free Web browser

2009-06-08T16:55:00.004+05:30

Stainless is a free web browser that comes with support for most of the features available in Google Chrome: unified address and search bar, tabs that one can drag between windows, and a private stealth browsing mode.

Add Spacers to the Leopard Dock

2009-06-08T16:39:00.003+05:30

If you find your Leopard dock a little messy, Here’s a tip that’ll allow you to add spacers to the dock to seperate your apps/documents into groups on the dock.If you’d like a space on the left or application side of the dock, Open terminal (~/applications/utlities/terminal.app) and enter the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

If you’d like to add one to the right or document side of the dock enter this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

To see your changes you’ll also need to restart the dock by entering the command:

Killall Dock

Afteryou’ve done this once, you can drag the spacers where ever you’d like and even create more by simple entering the same commands into terminal over again.To remove the space, simply click and drag the space out of the dock like you would any other application or document and ” poof ” it’s gone.

Safari Widget

2009-06-08T16:35:00.002+05:30

Leopards new version of Safari comes packed with new features, my favorite being the new webclip feature. WebClip basically allows you to create a custom widget on the go from any part of any webpage.

This can come in super handy, and recently I discovered a little trick that brought my favorite radio station to my dashboard so it’s always ready, and not taking up a browser window.

Here’s what you do, Browse to your favorite radio station that allows you to listen live online,browse to the player and click File/Open in dashboard, You will be prompted to select the area of the web page you want to make into a widget, Select the radio player and hit okay, your new custom radio widget will now open in dashboard.

You can change the style and size of the widget by clicking on the little i icon just like any widget, While you’re there uncheck the ” only play audio in dashboard ” option and it’ll play while you work!

Free Alarm Clock for your Mac using iCal

2009-06-08T16:34:00.002+05:30

There’s a lot of good alarm clock software out there, but there’s also a way to turn your Imac or Macbook into an alarm clock totally free using iCal and iTunes.
First you open iCal and set up a new event for the time you want the alarm to go off, then set up an action by editing your event and setting the alarm to “Open File” then attach a song from your iTunes.

Make sure you’re volume is up and you’re all set with your own free alarm clock for OS X

How to save a YouTube video

2009-06-05T22:01:00.001+05:30

Here’s how to save a YouTube video if you’re using Safari. If you use other web browsers, the process is the same, but you may have to look around in the menus to find the right items.

View the YouTube video you wish to download and save.
Open Safari’s Activity window (from the Window menu).
In the Activity window click the disclosure triangle beside the correct Safari Tab or Window. A list appears showing all the activity for that Tab. In my screenshot you can see a long list of items that are part of the Queen Rania YouTube page I have open. Beside each item is a size in Kb or Mb.
Identify the biggest item — it’s likely to be several megabytes. In my screenshot it’s a 3.4Mb item at the top of the list.
Watch that item as the size may be constantly increasing. If it is that means the video is still loading.
Wait until the size of the biggest item stops increasing then hold down the Option key (⌥) and double click on that line. The movie file downloads to your Downloads folder. It may be named something like video.flv.

Set The Screen Saver As The Wallpaper

2009-06-05T21:59:00.001+05:30

This command sets the currently selected screen saver as the desktop background. Use command + c or . to stop while in Terminal. Alternatively you can use wallsaver.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

Enable The Path View In Finder

2009-06-05T21:57:00.001+05:30

One of may favourite hacks as it lets you see the current path of the Finder window you are in. Its great if you work with a lot of windows.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

Drag A Widget Onto The Desktop

2009-06-05T21:55:00.001+05:30

Probably one of the coolest hacks. This command enables widgets to be placed onto the desktop. Drag a widget around and press F12 to drag it onto the desktop. Repeat the process again to drag a widget back onto the dashboard. This may need you to log off or restart for it to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Add A Message To The Login Window

2009-06-05T21:53:00.000+05:30

This little Terminal command enables you to add a message of your choice to the Login window. Pretty cool and deserved a screenshot if I new how to take on while not logged in.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "Your Message"

Enable third button options for generic third-party mice

2009-06-05T19:13:00.001+05:30

I won't discuss the pros or cons of Apple's Mighty Mouse here, as mine just broke. Or more to the point, I broke it -- the sticking little ball just drove me round the bend. Anyhow, I ended buying myself a simple, cheap and quite nice USB optical mouse. Nothing fancy. Two main buttons plus a scroll/button wheel (ie: a scroll wheel that you can also click). So far so good. Until I re-installed my System.

Once in I started setting the system up like I wanted it, to my horror, the Mouse preferences didn't show me the third button on my mouse! Now what? Well it turns out that the System treats the Mighty Mouse special. That is, it recognizes it as such and brings up the corresponding preferences. Great, what about the rest of us?

I scoured the net for several days trying to find out if someone had worked it out. I did find one solution. Just plug in a Mighty Mouse, set the preferences, plug it out, use you other mouse -- the preferences will 'stick.' Fine, what if you don't happen to have a Mighty Mouse just lying aroud?

Most people replace their mouse with fancy Logitech, Microsoft or MacAlly mice that bundle their own drivers that allow all kind of wonders to be done. But what about us simple folk that want a no-frills but functional mouse (not to mention five times cheaper)?

Caution: Terminal and root access required.

Mac OS X 10.5: A possible fix for Mail problems after 10.5 upgrade

2009-06-05T19:12:00.001+05:30

When upgrading a Tiger machine to Leopard, there seems to be some circumstances that prevent the upgrade of Mail data from completing. You can recognize this condition by these symptoms:

* Message viewer window doesn't automatically appear
* All mailboxes are present but empty
* Activity Viewer shows connection attempt not proceeding

The Console logs can give some clues to the cause. Sometimes this is caused by conflicting or corrupt Junk Mail settings in the com.apple.mail.plist file.

The various values have changed in some version updates to Mac OS X. For some, it's the JunkMailInfoPanelHasBeenShown attribute. For me, it was changing JunkMailBehaviorHasBeenConfigured to false. Also, removing the JunkViewerAttributes setting seemed to be necessary. These can be changed using Property List Editor (installed with XCode developer tools), or it's possible it could be done in the Terminal with these commands:

$ defaults write com.apple.mail JunkMailBehaviorHasBeenConfigured false
$ defaults write com.apple.mail JunkMailInfoPanelHasBeenShown false
$ defaults delete com.apple.mail JunkViewerAttributes

Use MobileMe with Firefox and NoScript

2009-06-05T19:10:00.001+05:30

Today I found that Apple's MobileMe login page redirects so quickly that I can't even see what domain I should add to NoScript's whitelist so that I can login.

Trial and error led me to a solution: Add auth.apple.com to NoScript's whitelist. To save you the time of testing others, I'll tell you here that I had already tried both me.com and mobileme.com, with and without a leading http://www. or www., but neither worked.

Mac OS X 10.5: Share any files between users on the same Mac

2009-06-05T19:08:00.002+05:30

For a long time now, I've wished that there was a way in OS X to create a shared folder which disregarded file permissions. In particular, I want all the users to be able to read and write to all the files in the shared folder. This is very useful to me, because I want to have only library for each of iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture, and share those libraries between all the users on my Mac.

I've tried many different things, but they were either too hacky or they just didn't work as advertised. I've come up with the following method which works, is safe, is not a hack, and is easy to implement. The secret to this technique is to use Access Control Lists (ACLs). The procedure is as follows:

1. Create a new group. The easiest way to do this is through the Accounts pane in System Preferences. Just click on the Plus sign to add a new account and then select Group from the New Account drop-down menu. Call this group anything you want; I called mine friday. Add all the users who you want to participate in the file sharing to your newly-created group.
2. Do the following steps in Terminal, in Applications -> Utilities:
1. cd into the /Users/Shared directory: cd /Users/Shared.
2. Create a new folder where the users will be able to share their files. I created a folder named Friday by typing mkdir Friday.
3. Change the group of the new folder to your newly-created group: sudo chown admin:friday Friday.
4. Change the default permissions, if you wish: sudo chmod 770 Friday (this is optional if you're happy with the default permissions).
5. Create the ACL entry for the new folder:

sudo chmod +a "group:friday allow delete,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,list,search,add_file,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" Friday

You now have a folder where all members of the group friday can read, write and delete files, as well as read, write to and create new sub folders. The ACL rule takes precedence over standard UNIX file permissions and is automatically inherited. It's this automatic inheritance that is really important.

Now you are ready to copy your iTunes, Aperture, iPhoto libraries, plus anything else you want to share, into the shared folder. IMPORTANT: You must copy (hold down Option in Finder prior to dragging), and not merely move, items. This is particularly important with bundles, such as the Aperture library bundle for example. Moving items doesn't seem to always inherit the correct ACL rules. Copying ensures that the files are actually created in the shared folder, thereby forcing the ACL rules to be inherited.

Mac OS X 10.5: Use multiple Time Machine disks for redundancy

2009-06-05T18:51:00.001+05:30

Time machine, at least as of 10.5.6, will gladly maintain multiple Time Machine disks. This way, you can periodically rotate your Time Machine backup disks to keep one safely off line and off site. The trick is that there is no trick. I say this because there are some dangerous methods posted on the internet involving complex setups like copying the hidden disk ID number, that while appearing to work, actually slowly corrupt your backups.

All you need to do is attach the disk and tell Time Machine to use it. When you are ready to swap drives, attach the other and tell Time Machine to use it instead. The very first time you do this, there is (of course) a big time consuming backup. After that, the swap is pretty fast. A bit longer than a typical backup session (but a lot shorter than say an rsync by comparison).

Time Machine correctly finds the files that were changed since the last time that disk was mounted and backs these up, making a perfectly synced new backup in the older disk's time lineage. And then it proceedes normally. If you are alternating disks weekly, then of course each disk is missing the disk state from the previous week. It still has all the files, it just can't restore to an epoch during which it was not connected -- that time period state is on the other disk.

Other than that, this approach seems to be significantly better than the alternative of keeping an rsynced copy of the Time Machine disk. That's an ugly process, due to all the hard links, that is fraught with many small perils.

Widescreen Mail.app Plugin: Letterbox (3 Column View)

2009-06-04T19:12:00.003+05:30

Now that every Mac laptop has a widescreen display and the present/future is widescreen displays it seems only logical to use that extra space we have.

One great plugin is Letterbox; it takes advantage of your widescreen monitor by changing Mail.app into a 3 column view similar to NetNewsWire’s Widescreen View or Vienna’s Condensed Layout.

Download here, for free!

Here’s a screenshot:

Recording Sound on a Mac

2009-06-04T19:02:00.003+05:30

To record sound on a Mac, Download Audacity

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Once it was downloaded and installed, it was as easy as hitting the big red record button to begin recording sound.

The world's thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook

2009-06-04T15:53:00.005+05:30

MacBook Pro

For details Click here

Disable Dock Bouncing

2009-06-04T15:36:00.002+05:30

I like my Terminal tricks, they are really handy. I don’t think I have mentioned this quick tip before. I have searched my database and no tips have turned up. This little Terminal tip will disable any icons in you dock from bouncing. If you find them annoying there is a simple command which enables you to turn the animation off.

As with any Terminal command open up this little app from Utilities. Type or copy and paste the following

defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE killall Dock

This will disable any dock bouncing. If you want to reverse the process replace TRUE in the command above with FALSE, and any bouncing icons should come bouncing back to see you.

Drag Items to Finder Toolbar

2009-06-04T14:31:00.001+05:30

You can do it by drag-hold-release item on the toolbar of Finder. To drag them out again, use modifier key Command before dragging the item.

Installing RAM in MacBook Pro

2009-06-03T21:33:00.001+05:30

15 short Ads Mac vs PC

2009-06-03T21:28:00.000+05:30

Windows vs Mac vs Linux

2009-06-03T21:27:00.003+05:30

Drag and drop files directly to print queue windows

2009-06-03T16:41:00.002+05:30

Have a PDF to print but hate to open Acrobat and wait? Go top System Preferences » Print & Fax, and click Open Print Queue for the printer you want to use. Drag the PDF into the window and it starts to print.

This should work with other files (Word, etc.). Some apps may start up to access their unique data, but for some files, this is a fast way to print and not have to run the app. Desktop printer? We don't need no stinking desktop printer!

A quicker way to do this is to simply drag-and-drop the PDF onto the desired printer in your user's Library -> Printers folder. This will open the queue and start printing directly (assuming the parent app doesn't need to launch to print)

A basic guide on setting up a home-based web server

2009-06-01T19:11:00.002+05:30

If you've got any interest in setting up a Mac mini (or other Mac) as a web server in your home, I wrote up my experiences doing just that. I cover how to use:

* dyndns.com to set up a domain name.
* The built-in OS X web server to serve pages.
* PureFTP to set up an FTP server.
* SquirrelMail to read my Gmail, which is blocked at work.
* WebMon (Leopard, Tiger) to set up a WebDAV server to sync iCal and Outlook calendars between home and work.

Read the blog entry for more detail on each of these solutions.

[robg adds: While the above guide is a good 'getting started' primer on setting up a home-based web server, note that many ISPs won't allow you to run a web server on a home connection plan. Even if it's not prohibited, many home connections lack the upload bandwidth to effectively serve pages to more than a handful of users at one time.

So as technically cool as it is to run a server from your own home (and I keep one running, but restrict access to my own use via password protection), there are many free and low cost hosting companies that offer better connectivity along with all (and usually more) of the above features. I host our family's site and my personal blog using 1and1.com, for instance, but there are literally thousands of companies to pick from. Sites such as Web Hosting Geeks and Upper Host list some of the best-rated providers, and I'm sure the readers here have lots of suggestions for those looking to start hosting a site.]

Mac OS X 10.5: Set CPU usage limit per Parallels virtual machine

2009-06-01T19:10:00.001+05:30

I wrote a small free application called CpuLimiter which allows you to limit the CPU usage for a selected virtual machine running in Parallels Desktop or Parallels Server. The download file contains two programs:

* cpu-limit which may be used in Terminal as a standalone app to limit any process, not just Parallels' virtual machines.
* GUI, which wraps the cpu-limit in a traditional GUI application, and is suitable for most Mac OS users.

Installation is very simple -- just double-click the CpuLimiter-0.1.zip file, and drag the application to the Applications folder, or any other desired location. To start the program, just double-click it then select a running virtual machine from list and set the CPU limit in percentage. That is, to limit a VM's CPU usage to 20%, you'd enter 20. You can start as many instances of applications as you want to handle more than one virtual machine.

Please note that at least one VM should be running, so that the application can detect it. This works in Leopard with either Parallels Desktop 4 (build 3522 or higher) and Parallels Server 3 (build 2251 or higher). This is beta version 0.1, and I welcome any bug reports.

Log in to a single SMB share with multiple user names

2009-06-01T19:09:00.001+05:30

I was having trouble connecting to multiple directories on a single SMB share in Leopard, where the directories had different logins. If I was logged into one directory as one user, then the "Connect to Server..." option in the Finder would default to that user for all directories on the same share and error out. I found a workaround for this.

With one directory already mounted under the first user login, select Go » Connect to Server. Type in your share name with the user before the drive name:

smb://2ndusername@drivename/2ndDirectory

Finder will then prompt you for a password, and mount the directory as a separate network drive. This should also work for AFP shares, though I haven't tried it.

Create symbolic links for all items in a folder

2009-06-01T19:03:00.003+05:30

If, for some reason (space in my case), you want your applications to reside somewhere other than /Applications, you will still want to have links to those relocated programs in /Applications. For Apple applications, updates are likely to fail if the applications aren't located there, and tools like AppFresh only search that location.

Creating a bunch of aliases is tedious, so here's a quick Terminal trick (that I didn't think would work, as it doesn't under Linux):

$ cd /Applications
$ ln -s /path/to/apps/* .

Change /path/to/apps to the path to your replacement Applications folder, and then run those two Terminal commands (don't overlook the very-important . at the end of the second one), and you're done.

Mac OS X 10.5: Make the DiskImageMounter icon appear in the Dock

2009-06-01T18:53:00.002+05:30

Personally, I can't stand double clicking a disk image file (.dmg) on the Desktop and not getting instant notification that the disk is being mounted. This is probably not as much of a problem on newer, faster Macs. However, depending on how many processes I have running at the time, it can take my iBook G4 a while before it displays the disk mounting progress dialog.

As a result, I often end up double-clicking a disk image more than once, thinking I may not have properly double-clicked it the first time. Often times, I've just resorted to highlighting the file and using Command+O to insure that the disk will mount soon.

Here's one way to make the DiskImageMounter application icon appear in the Dock while mounting a disk image. This will provide you with almost instantaneous notification that the disk mounting process has been successfully initiated, even if the dialog box is missing in action.

1. Launch Terminal (in Applications » Utilities).
2. Make a backup of DiskImageMounter.app's Info.plist file first:

$ cd /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app/Contents
$ sudo cp Info.plist Info.BU.plist

Provide your admin password at the Password: prompt.
3. Use the defaults command to change the LSUIElement setting:
$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app/Contents/Info LSUIElement 0
4. Re-set the permissions on the Info.plist file:
$ sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app/Contents/Info.plist

This hint may not be for everyone. It's just been something that has bothered me personally for some time now. The progress dialog doesn't take all that long to appear on my iBook. But, at times, it does take long enough for me to wonder what's going on. Having the icon appear in the Dock just gives me a little extra peace of mind. Plus, the icon immediately goes away once the disk mounting process has completed.

Add linked text and/or graphics to Mail.app signatures

2009-06-01T18:51:00.001+05:30

This is a simple enough trick, I think it must have been suggested previously, but it was new to me. I don't know if this hint applies to systems prior to 10.5.6.

Mail.app's preferences do not allow attaching links to signatures on the Signatures preferences tab, but will accept pastes containing linked text and graphics. I wanted a graphic in my signature that when clicked would open a new mail window with my address in the To header.

Instead of creating a signature in Mail.app's preference pane, I used a new message composition window (File » New Message), dragged in a graphic file, and added a mailto:myemail@mywork.com link to the graphic with Edit » Link » Add. I then selected and copied the linked graphic, and pasted it into a new signature on the Signature tab of Mail's preferences panel. The new signature retained the graphic and its link.

I suggest using a png or jpg image, rather than a tiff (which is the default for the OS X clipboard), so your message isn't excessively large -- tiff files are sizable. If you create your graphic and save it in a compressed format, you can drag the file containing the graphic to the new message window in Mail.app; Mail will retain the image's compressed format.

Get Windows Live Hotmail in Mail.app

2009-06-01T18:40:00.001+05:30

I get a lot of people sending in questions asking how to set up Hotmail with the Mail application in Mac OS X, and until recently it has been a real pain to do. Now, however, it is a lot easier to set up and doesn’t require any third party software.

Start by opening up Mail and going to the Preferences. Click on the Accounts tab and create a new account by clicking on the plus (+) at the bottom. Enter your name, email address and password, then click continue to set the incoming mail settings. Enter the following:

Account Type: POP
Description: Hotmail (or whatever you like)
Incoming Mail Server: pop3.live.com
Username: Your email address
Password: Your password

In the next section, you should leave the Use SSL checkbox checked and Authentication as Password. For the outgoing mail settings, enter the following:

Description: Hotmail (or whatever you like)
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.live.com
Check “Use only this server”
Check “Use Authentication”
Username: Your email address
Password: Your password

As before, leave Use SSL checkbox check and Authentication as Password.

Now you should be able to both send and receive email from the Mac OS X Mail app.

Change hidden settings with Terminal commands

2009-06-01T18:39:00.002+05:30

Often developers choose not to include some settings in the preferences of an application in order keep things nice and simple for the user. Luckily, they often leave these hidden settings accessible via the Terminal. Although this will scare off a lot of people, being comfortable with the Terminal is really useful and it's the best way to get a higher level of customisation and enable hidden features on your Mac. Luckily, modifying preference files is one of the easiest things you can do in the Terminal - just paste in a line of code and hit return. Simple! Here are a list of Terminal commands that will work with every version of Mac OS X, and here are some ones just for Leopard.

Force Eject a CD or DVD that is stuck in your Mac

2009-06-01T18:35:00.002+05:30

Every once in a while you may find that you have a CD or DVD stuck in your Mac that just refuses to eject. If it happens - it’s frustrating. There are a few things that you can do to force you Mac to eject the disk.

1) First, try iTunes. Sometimes the iTunes eject button will work, even if your Finder eject button, or keyboard eject button won’t.

2) Open Terminal.app and type “drutil tray eject” - this will eject the disk tray most of the time.

3) If you’re still having no luck, you can restart your Mac and hold down the mouse button. Keep your finger pressed down until the disk ejects, or the login screen appears.

If you’ve tried all three of these, and you’re still having trouble - you may want to call Apple Support.

Auto-record iChat A/V chats

2009-06-01T12:10:00.001+05:30

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

2009-06-01T11:29:00.002+05:30

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

2009-05-31T00:10:00.002+05:30

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

2009-05-30T23:58:00.001+05:30

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

2009-05-30T23:38:00.000+05:30

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

2009-05-30T23:27:00.001+05:30

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

2009-05-30T23:23:00.002+05:30

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

2009-05-30T22:08:00.002+05:30

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

2009-05-30T21:53:00.002+05:30

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

2009-05-30T21:27:00.003+05:30

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

2009-05-30T21:10:00.001+05:30

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