Gabe Mac Digital Life Style

moved sites

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:22:32 PST

I have moved and am now posting everything on Gabemac.com, and viral videos on vrlvdo.com.

Pimp My Mac Finder

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:50:39 PDT

Learn how to Pimp your Mac's Finder window with this tutorial. To see the Quicktime Version, click here.

Transfer Videos, Photos and Audio files to your Wii from your Mac

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:08:14 PDT

With the program Wii Transfer for the Mac, you can transfer all your video, movie and podcast files to your Wii Memory Card for viewing. Furthermore you can transfer Photos, audio files and music as well as backup saved games. It will automatically convert those files as well as allow you  to then make playlist for photo sideshows and music play lists once the files are on the Wii. Very cool little application indeed, and it's free! We love that. I haven't tried swapping saved game files yet, but I'm sure that this would be possible to so that one could get through that hard stage of Zelda and not worry about it. I see a new Wii cheats avenue opening up here.

Download Wii Transfer 2.3.2 here.

Uploading Videos on blogger

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:57:57 PDT

Blogger has added an upload feature to upload your films directly to the blog. This is a really nice feature, but it is only available if you use the site login draft.blogger.com. *Tip: Start uploading at the beginning of your post. By the time you've finished typing a large part of the video has been converted. There's not any real ability to change the title or anything on the video, but it is a nice little function.

Collaborative calendars with Google

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:39:25 PDT

Probably the best solution I have found for collaborative calendars is Google Calendar. It is an excellent and free service which allows the creation of multiple calendars. No without getting too geeky I want to run down some points of why this is cool.

Unlimited calendar creation.

You can create various calendars for all kinds of events or projects. I know in my life I have a number of projects running at any one time with multiple people. Tamara has created a calendar for her production which shows when the production will be playing at what location.

Private or public display

Sometimes you don't want the whole world knowing about a calendar. Sometimes you do. With a theatrical production, you want everyone to know where you will be when. With google calendars you can allow the whole world to see it, or if you prefer you can grant access to just a few people that you invite to make it a private calendar which others can see.

Collaboration

Besides just allowing others to view a calendar, you can also allow others to make changes in a calendar. Just invite people as collaborators and they can also be making changes. Be careful though, I've found too many collaborators for projects make for double bookings and mis communication.

Print out the calendar

I see Tamara doing this all the time. She prints out week, month, or agenda views of the calendar to take with her to meetings and write down planning notes. It is actually easier to use pen an paper and rearrange that than using the online service just because it scribbles better. But once you are done, drop those changes in quickly and easily.

Add locations

If you have an address of where it is, just add that into the location of the event. People are then able to click and see on Google Earth maps exactly where it is, and even get directions to there. No more excuses for (oh I though we where meeting there)! Great for locations as well even in the forest as you can give longitude and latitude coordinates really easy using google maps as well. You don't even need a street address.

Sync your calendar to iCal or publish on a webpage

Google allows for the seamles subscription of google calendars directly into iCal for the mac. Although you cannot edit google created calendars in iCal and sync backwards. This is still a problem. But there is a solution. I use a great little application that is called Spanning Sync and can be downloaded here. It allows for editing in both Google and in iCal of calendars and they syncing there of. Furthermore, you can add a link on a site to the HTML or XML version of a calendar to allow people to subscribe in news readers, or to see directly on a web page. Great stuff!

Invite people to events

You can invite people to events on google calendar, like parties or meetings which people can then accept or refuse. This is great because then you have an RSVP system built right in.

Get updates on your mobile

You can configure google calendar to send updates and invitations to your mobile phone as SMS messages, so you never have to be out of sync with a collaborative calendar. Great stuff!

So try out Google calendars and let me know what you think. If you need a Google account still, just e-mail me and I'll send you and invite.

Tips for office collaboration on the interent (espically for theatrical production)

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:51:51 PDT

Tamara is busy producing a theater tour this summer with 't Wout. They are touring all over the country during the summer. However her office is at home, as 't Wout has no central office. Consistent e-mails and telephone calls are going around to communicate in between the meetings every so often to talk about new locations, script rewrites, etc. It's a perfect example of a highly collaborative project with people in different locations. How could the internet help something like this?

In the following posts I will tell you about a number of sites that can help on the following project management topics:

Community and individual Calendars

Collaborative Word Processing and Spread Sheeting

Project management and to-dos

Location scouting

And the great thing is they are all going to be free!

Tips for Goodbye Spam!

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:57:23 PDT

Here are some tips I've used over the past to reduce the SPAM in my e-mail box.

NEVER give away your e-mail address online. If you are writing your e-mail in a forum or on a webiste, writing it with spaces or only videually will help. For instance my e-mail gabemac at gmail dot com. It looks like a sentence and the spam bots won't pick it up.
Bounce junk e-mails. You may not know this but in Mail on Apple you can select a bunch of e-mails or just one and bounce it back to the sender. This sends a message back to the sender saying that this e-mail no longer exsists. (it's also great for getting rid of ex boyfriends or girlfriends that are stalking you.) Simply select the message, or messages you want to bounce and then select Message -> Bounce. The mail is bounced and deleted in one go! Although most spammers do not have their e-mail reply address correct so they won't get it anyway, but it does work for some spam.
Make a fake or spam e-mail address to signup for all those websites like e-bay, sending postcards, etc.

I have the regular e-mail for personal use above, as well as another gmail account I use to sign up for all these other different web services. Gmail has over 2gb of free storage. And the cool thing is you can keep sending yourself invites to make more addreses for different things. For instance a personal mail, a friends and family only mail, a junk mail, a confidential mail, a bozo the clown mail. Okay you get the picture. If you want to get a g-mail account, just e-mail me at the address above and I'll send an invite. Gmail accounts have more to offer which I'll talk about in a later post.
You can also register your own domain. By doing this (depending on who does your e-mail) you can make an e-mail for each website. I used to do this, and it lead me to see who was giving my e-mail out to 3rd parties. It's simple, when you signup for a new webservice, simply place the name of the site at yourdomain.com as an e-mail. For instance if I had the domain greencoffee.com and I was at e-bay, I would enter ebay@greencoffee.com. Then if spam came in I could see that it was sent to the e-bay address. Then a pissed e-mail goes to ebay, and using my e-mail server I would block all incoming mails from that address, and for ebay simply make another one. Like ebay2@greecoffee.com. This is a great solution.

So there are some tips. Try them and see if they don't help cut down on the spam!

Mac Web Browser rundown

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 05:58:35 PDT

There are a number of web browsers available for the Mac. Here is a list of some of my favorites and a rundown of what is good and bad about each one.

Firefox

Firefox is an excellent browser for the savy web 2.0 community allowing for many add-ons to enhance your browser experience. It is usually the base for most new website development as well. This is my main browser and at the top of the favorite list.

Pro's

Tabbed browsing
Great add-ons for extra features when browsing like controlling iTunes, site translation and more. (see extensions here)
Integrated search bar for Google, Amazon, Flickr, Creative Commons and more
When there is a crash you can re-open and restore all the sites you had open
Has RSS subscription abilities
Add block is available to stop those annoying ad pop-ups
No fulls-screen browsing (added as a feature download)

Con's

There is really only support via text on the site, or by surfing the net for help
Too many add-ons can make it buggy and prone to crashes
Browsing of RSS feeds is not as nice as other browsers like Safari

Safari

Safari is Apple's packaged webbrowser that comes with the OS. It's simple design and lack of clutter make it quick and easy to use, and is one of my favorites as well.

Pro's

RSS subscription is implemented really nicely
RSS viewing is also really simple and functional
Stable web browser that does not crash often
Tabbed browsing is possible
Google search bar is embedded
Switch between RSS and web browsing mode quickly
No full-screen browsing at all
Excellent help support via Apple phone support, stores or the Apple website
Private browsing is available. Don't want to leave any traces for your boss that you were on porn or game sites on your machine. Use this function

Con's

There's not a lot of add-ons to increase functionality
There is no ability to search more than just google in the searchbar
Development of added functionality happens slowly as it is usually added to an OS update from Apple

Camino

This is a very simple web browser that is in my experience the most stable up till now.

Pro's

very stable browser
simple design and interface that doesn't clutter
Embedded Google Search bar
Ability to install lots of add-ons for extra functionality
Camino incorporates features that use Spotlight, Address Book, the
Keychain, the Finder, the Dock, Bonjour, Services, and System
Preferences.
Add block is available to stop those annoying ad pop-ups
Tabbed browsing

Con's

No RSS reader or subscription built in
No Full-screen browsing
Lack of extra functionality at this point as development is not as large spread as for instance Firefox is

Shiira

This has to be the coolest web browser on the market at this moment. It has so many built in features that really enhance the web-browsing experience. If you want to really wow people, use this browser. However be warned it crashes a lot!

Pro's

Full-screeen mode really means Full-screen mode here
Embedded google and more searches out of the box in the toolbar
Switch between RSS and web browsing mode quickly
Excellent RSS reading and viewing (although Safari allows for better searching through the feeds)
Shows how many new RSS articles are waiting to be read in the icon in the dock. Much like Mail does this with e-mails.
Tabbed browsing in the traditional since, but you can also see snapshots of the web pages that are open to switch quickly as well. (coooool!)
Want to switch really fast between pages, you can hit the see all open pages and they all come forward like Apple's expose and just choose which one. (you just have to try it to understand)
The best Bookmarks browser for a user interface I have seen anywhere. It actually will have all your Safari and Firefox bookmarks in there as well (so you don't have to search "Which browser did I bookmark that in again?" anymore.)
In the sidebar, Shiira supports what is called "Page holder", which basically shows you a guide to the main site. This is useful to show the links on a website, or for example the table of contents.
You can make really cool page animated page transfers (Tiger only)
Private browsing is available. Don't want to leave any traces for your
boss that you were on porn or game sites on your machine. Use this
function

Con's

It Crashes alot!! (Hopefully this will change as new updates occur.)
Page loading can sometimes be slower than other browsers in my experience
Watching flash embedded videos can be troublesome as the functionality to play, pause, stop, skip etc. does not always work right
Page transfers can cause crashes
All the features can be confusing at times
Not a lot of information on the website to what everything is and does in the browser
Virtually no support or help except for browsing through difficult discussion forums or viewing the web

Explorer

Forget this browser on the mac. Too many con's to even mention.

So there you have it. A list of some excellent browsers for your mac. Try them out and let me know which are your favorite in the comments.

Xbox 360 to a Mac

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 12:27:35 PDT

Now I know that Evert loves gaming (being head of Design for Virtual Theater and Gaming), and I'm sure one of the things he is wondering is how to connect his XBOX360 to all the content on his new MacBook? Well Evert the answer is this. Connect360.

This is so cool I'm actually thinking about getting an XBOX just because of it. Imagine seeing all the iPhoto photos, iTunes music and more on my game console easily. Pretty cool I must say, and always one of those things that when people come over and you show it they will go, ooooooohhhhhhhhh!

Of course there is also software for that PSP syncing between a Mac on the same site, which is pretty cool as well.

More screens than you can shake a stick at

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:58:49 PDT

Wouldn't it be great if you had the cash for, oh say 10- external monitors for your laptop. Imagine the screen real estate for all those programs you have open all the time!

Ok, so we don't all have that kind of cash lying around. But there is an alternative. Desktop Manager to the rescue. Now you can switch to left and right over multiple "Virtual Screens" as if you have 10 screens connected to your computer. This is great for working day to day. I have an e-mail and agenda screen, web browser screen, writing screen, work screen (if I'm working on photoshop files for instance) etc. Etc.!!

And with one simple keystroke or mouse movement, I'm zipping through screens and making anyone  looking over my shoulder sick. So Marc stop looking over my shoulder or you will get sick again and not be able to work for a week!

Here is the website.

See it in action with this film.

Save your lap from burning!

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:17:04 PDT

For those of you who enjoy sitting on the couch, watching videos or working, and almost always burn off you lap and prive parts, this is for you!

So I have a new MacBook Pro. One of the problems with this ultra thin design is that this sucker heats up fast on my lap when working. There are stories of guys getting serious burns on thier private parts by doing this naked. Let's not go into why they are naked with thier laptop, it just happens.

In any case this program tip from Rodrigo will solve that problem. SMCFANCONTROL lets you put your laptop fans into overdrive, and subsequently cool the sucker down. Great little app that has saved me from a scorching lap many times.

P.S. on the same page is Shuffle saver, a nice screen saver of your flickr and iPhoto photos. I'm not a big screen saver buff, but some are, so if you like that kind of thins check it out.

Cheers!

Handy Shortcuts for a Mac

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Sun, 06 May 2007 14:13:35 PDT

A lot of people go wow when they see someone on a Mac using shortcut keys for everything they do. People sit behind me and see me change the screen with a simple button press. How did you do that? they ask. Oh that's simple. Just use shortcut keys. They can be lots of fun. I'm going to list some of my favorite ones here with a link to even more. So let the keystroke fun begin.

- a note before I begin. I'm old school mac user which means I call certain keys different than the "new names". If you want to be ultra geek old school use the old names and you will see who is a true mac user.
For instance I say Apple when describing what the Command button. Why Apple? becuase there is an Apple symbol on it which is easier to describe.
Secondly I say ALT rather than Option. Why? Because there is Alt on the key. The thing is a number of years ago apple changed it's terminology to be more windows compliant I guess. So we will use Alt and Apple on my tips, and on other sites you will see Command and Option.

Daily use:

Switching quickly bewtween applicatins use "Apple-tab"
Quiting an Application "Apple-Q"
Close a window "Apple-W"
Close all windows "Apple-alt-W"
Open a new window "Apple-N"
Hide an application (but not quitting it) "Apple-H" This is great when you should be doing work but are goofing off and someone comes in.
Make all the windows fly away for a bit "F11"
To see all open windows smaller "F9" (note that on a laptop you have to use the "fn" key as well to make it work.
Bring up the widgets screen "F12" (I'll probably do a post later about my favorite widgets and what that is.)
Apple-A selects EVERYTHING!!!
Of course Copy is "Apple-C" and Paste is "Apple-V" (my dream is to meet the man that invented this one some day. The hours it has saved me!)
If you ever make a big mistake like accidentally tell your girlfriend that you don't like the new pants she bought "Apple-Z" UNDO!!! I really do wish I had this in life sometimes.
The MOST IMPORTANT STROKE TO USE!!!! Save what you are doing with "Apple-S"
If things start to go wrong god forbid and you need to "Force Quit" an Application that is no longer responding press "Apple-Alt-ESC". Select the program and kill it. You may loose the info or work you did, so only use as a last resort.

Now the great thing is that most of these strokes can be used in any application.

Now for some FUN keystrokes.
Freak out people by zooming in, screwing up the screen and more with these keystrokes.

Apple has a lot of help User Interfaces for seeing impaired. But by activating these, you can really freak people out. How about turning your screen all Black and White and inverted colors?

Press "Apple-Alt- Ctrl-8"
Zoom in on something with "Apple-Alt-8" then zoom in and out with "Apple-alt-+" and "Apple-alt--" That's a minus. :-)

So this should get you playing. For more great shortcuts look at this link here.

So enjoy Keystroke HEAVEN!!! Let me know what you think in the comments.

For everyone who goes AWE!

maceverywhere@gmail.com — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:38:33 PDT

It seems that a lot of people around me are getting into this digital lifestyle. In the sense that they are getting new mac laptops, or wanting to know more about how I manage my digital lifestyle with all the blogs, etc. So I decided to start this little blog for my friends and anyone else who comes by to show how I'm configuring my digital life here. So go ahead and subscribe and enjoy! How to subscribe? Okay I'll be covering that one soon. :-)