MacSwitched

How to get to a file you just searched in Spotlight (Yosemite)

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 03:24:00 +0000

One of the changes I did not like in Yosemite was when they removed right-clicking on search results in Spotlight. I used this feature to access Show in Finder so I could jump to the actual file in Finder without opening the file itself. If you miss this feature, you could still do it, but with more clicks.

Scroll down to the bottom of Spotlight results and double-click Show All in Finder at the bottom of the search results.

This will open a Finder search window where you can right-click and choose Show in Enclosing Folder.

Turn off auto-spell in iMessage (Mavericks)

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 03:48:00 +0000

Mavericks's aggressive auto-correct could become annoying especially if you use iMessage. Here's how to turn it off for iMessage. After that, I'll show how to turn it off in general using System Preferences.

To turn off auto correct in iMessage:

Open iMessage and click on any existing chat thread.
On the iMessage menu, click Edit > Spelling and Grammar.
Uncheck "Check Spelling While Typing".
Uncheck "Correct Spelling Automatically".

Somehow, Apple decided not to make auto spelling universally controlled in System Preferences. But you may have to turn that off, too. Here's how.

To turn off auto correct in System Preferences:

Click the Apple icon and select System Preferences.
Click Language and Region.
Click the Keyboard Preferences button.
Click the Text tab.
Uncheck the "Correct spelling automatically" box.

Macbook Air problems with Motorola cable modem (Surfboard 6580) - solved

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 06:29:00 +0000

I've just solved a pesky problem with our Motorola cable modem (Surfboard SBG6580). For a month now, my Macbook Air's internet connection was giving me grief. The main symptom was the very slow loading of pages like Google. The browser kept telling me that it was still "Resolving hostname," which was puzzling because our internet provider actually uses Google DNS.

The problem is an incompatibility between the firewall of the Motorola cable modem (DOCSIS 3.0 specifications) and the Macbook Air's built-in firewall. To solve it, you just turn off either firewall (that is, either turn off your Macbook's firewall or your cable modem's firewall).

Caution though. Turning off the firewall on your cable modem may result to attacks from the internet. So you have to understand what's happening. Simply put, a firewall is a "shield" that makes it hard for external computers (ie., hackers) from getting inside your home network. You have two main options:

Option A. Turn off your Macbook Air's firewall. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > click the lock icon (lower left corner) > enter your password > click Turn Off Firewall. (Read Caveat, below.)
Option B. Turn off your Motorola cable modem's firewall. Login to your cable modem's admin page. You typically do this by opening your browser and typing the IP address of your cable modem (usually 192.168.0.1) at the URL box. Then type your admin username and password. Click Firewall on top of the page and choose "Off" in the dropdown labeled IPv4 Firewall Protection. Some also recommend unchecking IP Flood Detection, but it's up to you to do some tests whether this helps or not (~~I'm still testing mine as of this writing.~~ So far my tests indicate that leaving it checked does not slow down my connection). Check the Motorola SB6580 User Guide here for more details. (Read Caveat, below.)

Option A. Turn off your Macbook Air's firewall.

Option B. Turn off your cable modem's firewall.

CAVEAT

Caveat for Option A. Turning off your Macbook's firewall makes your files and system vulnerable when you connect to another network (eg, in an internet cafe).

Caveat for Option B. Turning off the firewall on your cable modem will make all computers and devices vulnerable to external attackers.

Until Motorola or the DOCSIS specifications solve the conflict, this solution will have to do for me. Hope this solved your problem, too.

* * *

Behind the scenes. I nearly gave up on solving this problem since the real solution (that obscure Apple forum entry) didn't turn up in the usual searches. The initial keywords I used ("problems with Motorola 6580) led me to the wrong track that led me to the wild goose chase of checking signal strength and fixing cable connections.

What finally gave me a breakthrough was the realization that the other network users (mostly Macbooks and a Windows machine) weren't experiencing the slowdown. This led me to a new track and restarted by searching for "Problems with Macbook Air and Motorola 6580" that finally led me to the solution from an obscure entry in the Apple community forums.

This just goes to show that I need to constantly reexamine my assumptions. And that perseverance pays off, eventually. After surfing the internet and reading bulletin boards, I thought the problem was a weak signal coming from the cable provider OR a problem with the cabling. A long process of elimination with some experimenting eventually led me to a solution hidden in

Neat Totoro decal for Macs

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 02:54:00 +0000

Found this neat Totoro decal for sticking on a Macbook, available at Amazon for $1.99! Click the image to visit the store.

How to delete passwords typed in wrong box

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 20:31:00 +0000

Have you experienced this? In your rush to login, you mistakenly enter your password in the username box. And now your password is visible in the browser for other users to see. What do you do? Use this nifty trick you learned from MacSwitched.

Annoying mistake, ain't it? You can delete it without deleting your whole cache.

Solution: In the drop down, hover your mouse over the erring item, then click Shift-fn-delete and voila! No more cached password in clear text.

I used to have to delete my cache -- tedious and annoying. But now this trick saves the day!

How to move iTunes music and playlists to another computer

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 19:50:00 +0000

You just bought a new computer and now you want to move your iTunes music and playlists from the old computer to the new one.

Turning on Home Sharing

This Apple support page contains several migration methods, but I prefer the Home Sharing option because it's easier (works for iTunes 9 and above -- mine is version 11). If you have lower versions, manually moving the files may be better for you. Check out this apple support page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

To do the Home Sharing method, just turn on Home Sharing on the old computer. Click File > Home Sharing. Enter your Apple ID.

Go to your new computer, click Store > Authorize this computer. Enter the Apple ID you used in your old computer.

Authorizing a computer in iTunes

Now turn on Home Sharing on your new computer. File > Home Sharing (use the same Apple ID you used earlier). Next, view the right bar of your new iTunes. Your old library should now show up. Click the arrow to expand the items. Click one of the songs in the main window and then click Edit > Select All. Then at the lower right window, click the Import button. This will import all songs to your new iTunes.

Warning: This may take a while if you have an extensive collection and you're connected over slow wifi.

Exporting Libraries and Playlists

Lastly, transfer your playlists. In your old computer, click File > Library > Export Library. This outputs your library information into an XML file which you should save on your Desktop (to find it more quickly). Copy this file into your new computer using a thumb drive or by emailing to yourself (I used AirDrop since I had the feature on both Macs). Then, in your new computer's iTunes, click File > Library > Import Playlist.

The good thing about this method is that it works, even if you've already put music into your new computer.

Signing Electronic Documents with Preview (minimum: Lion)

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:07:00 +0000

Scenario: You need to sign and send a contract quickly so your client could start processing your payment soon. Your client has told you it's okay for now to just scan the signed contract and email it to them, to further facilitate the processing. Now you could facilitate this even further through Preview and your built-in webcam (iSight).

Before proceeding, you'll need the following:

A digital file of the contract, converted to PDF.
Your signature on a clean sheet of paper.

The steps:

In Preview, click Preview > Preferences > Signatures > Create Signature. Your iSight web camera will activate.
Hold your signature up against the camera and position it along the blue line.
Click Accept if you're satisfied with the capture. Preview will even drop out the background, so you get a signature with a transparent background. You could paste this on your contract without worrying about covering the other text embedded in the PDF file.
Open your PDF contract and click Annotate (ie, pencil icon) > Signature (ie, the italicized and underlined "S"). Choose the signature you just captured.

The Annotate and Signature icons

Your cursor changes to crosshairs. Click at the point where you wish to insert your signature. Resize the signature to suit your taste, and that's it.
As a final step, I usually "flatten" this PDF to make sure that the signature is embedded into the document. Just click File > Print > PDF > Save as PDF. This will flatten the file and ensures that your signature is no longer just an annotation that could be deleted.

Lion: Finally Available as USB Thumb Drive

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:37:00 +0000

We've been betting on whether Apple would make Lion available outside of the App Store and if so, on what media. I bet on USB thumb drive and I was right.

Here's the link for Apple Store (Philippines) and for Apple Store (US).

'via Blog this'

Sync problems between Nokia, Lion, iCloud and Google Calendar

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:05:00 +0000

This is just a list of sync problems I get when I try to sync between my iCloud-based Calendars on a Macbook (Lion) and with my Nokia E51 phone. So far, I have not really found a good solution, so for now, I'm just making notes of my observations.

Problems with iCloud:

Let's say I create an event called "Yoga" under my "Personal" calendar that is under iCloud in my Macbook Calendar. I can sync (push) this event to my Nokia E51 calendar. But the "Yoga" entry is marked as a "read-only" event in my Nokia calendar.
That means that although I can edit the "Yoga" entry to something like "Yoga revised" in my Nokia phone, the Mac will refuse to accept the edited entry and will issue a warning saying "Changing events in a read only calendar on the phone is not allowed...".
In the next sync, iCloud will then overwrite the "Yoga revised" event in my phone with the original "Yoga" event from my iCloud calendar. Essentially, it ignored the edits I made on the Nokia phone and then overwrites my phone event with the old event -- frustrating.

This is a major annoyance for me because I often edit event entries in my Nokia calendar and sync these changes with my Calendar on the Macbook. If these edits keep getting ignored and overwritten by iCloud, then I'll be wasting time.

My temporary solution has been to migrate all these iCloud calendars into local calendars. That is, I followed these steps:

Export my iCloud calendars to a backup file (done one by one, unfortunately).
Create new local calendars under the "On My Mac" category of Calendar.
Import the calendars one by one.
Turn off the iCloud calendars and use the new local calendars.

I need to sync with Nokia and iCloud due to two factors. First, for iCloud, because this allows me to share my calendars with my wife, who's using iCloud on an iPad. Second, with my Nokia phone, because I carry this around most of the time and use it as my mobile calendar.

Problems with Google Calendar (aka gCal):

Another approach I've explored is to create a Google Calendar, import my Mac Calendar there and then share it back to my Mac via a weblink. This experiment resulted to almost the same results. That is, the event created in gCal is marked as a read-only event when it gets pushed to my Nokia calendar. The only difference I've noted so far is that on the next sync, gCal does not overwrite the event I edited (unlike in iCloud).

If you have a free, alternative solution, please post a comment. I used Plaxo before, but I'm trying to avoid that. GCaldaemon is not really easy to use and I haven't revisited Calgoo (which used to be buggy and slow).

How to cycle through browser tabs

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:09:00 +0000

I've been searching for the keyboard shortcut that would allow me to cycle through the tabs of my browser. It turns out it's simple: Command + alt + left/right cursor key.

If you've got several tabs open in your browser, try it now.

This has got to be the shortest blog entry here. :)

How to make a smooth transition to the Mac

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:07:00 +0000

DON'T PANIC!

I used to think switching to a Mac would be like pulling your own teeth. I was a power Windows user for 20+ years before I made the switch to a Mac, so you understand my misgivings.

It turns out it making the switch was easier than I feared. If there's one thing Apple is good at doing, it's making things easier for users.

Here are three important websites containing guidance from none other than Apple, to help you switch smoothly from Windows to a Mac.

Switch 101: Migrating to Mac

This web page that contains handy tips to help you make the move: how to move your files from your PC, how to connect devices including printers, and get introduced to basic Mac software you will most likely be using immediately. Go to the Switch 101 page.

Mac 101: Getting Started with the Mac

This one is a more basic introduction, for those whose first computer is a Mac. I would still recommend this to those switching from Windows, because it contains among others, a "grand tour of the Mac interface". Go to Mac 101 page.

Mac Essentials

Read this one to get a jumpstart of the most important things you need to know about the Mac -- a bit about the interface, a smattering of how to click, copy, paste, etc. Go to Mac Essentials page.

Lion highlights, caveats and first impressions

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:35:00 +0000

I finally switched to Lion!

Highlights:

Lion incorporates new gestures that are similar to iOS. The most obvious and pesky change is the scroll behavior. In the old OS, a two-finger downward drag caused the screen to scroll UP. In Lion, this gesture now causes the page to scroll DOWN, that is, it simulates what happens on a touch screen. This is actually more intuitive, but I've been used to the reverse scroll.
Using three fingers to swipe left or right causes a page to turn. In a browser like Chrome or Safari, this gesture becomes Back and Forward commands, respectively.
There's also a new icon on the upper right corner of applications. Clicking it makes the app occupy the whole screen (just like in iPad or iPhone). Could these change be hints that touch screen is coming to Macbook and iMac?
The Lion download took one night (I'm based in Metro Manila), on a DSL line during a holiday (read: people in holiday = less sharing in bandwidth). I'm wondering where the Lion installer is now saved in my Macbook (if at all).
Lion installation took about an hour (probably less). I just told the installer to continue, stood up and went out to lunch. When I returned, I found the new prompt waiting for me. Then it asked me to configure iCloud. This produced some headaches for me, which I will discuss next.

Caveats:

iSync disappeared. This was an annoyance for me because I rely on it to sync appointments and contacts with my Nokia E51. I had to restore the iSync app from a Time Machine backup. (Or read this tip from the Apple forum.) Be sure to back up your Calendar and Address Book data before starting this procedure.
After restoring iSync, I tried synching my data, but I got two new problems: (a) iSync apparently re-sent my phone contacts to Address Book, causing double entries, and (b) Calendar refused to sync, giving me this error: "No writable calendar was found...". After googling and mucking about, I found the solution -- I only needed to create a new local calendar by clicking File > New Calendar > On My Mac.

Important notes. It turns out problem 4b happened because Lion moved all my local calendars to iCloud (yikes!). So when I did another sync, my phone now sent its calendar data to my Macbook, causing more double entries. I still have not moved to resolve this problem, but my plan is to just change the sync settings so that the next sync will delete data in my phone, then copy the data from the Macbook back into the phone.

It's a good thing I activated iCloud. By default, this uploaded my contact and calendar data to iCloud. So when I made a nearly fatal mistake, I simply restored the data from iCloud.

Connect to the Net using bluetooth and a Nokia phone

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Little known, but powerful fact: you can use a Nokia phone as a modem to connect to the internet anywhere there's a 3G signal (in technical speak, this is GPRS). This will mean extra charges for your data usage, but, hey, in case of emergency, you'll probably need this.

The steps seem tedious, but if you have enough patience, you'll be rewarded with internet almost everywhere in the country. :)

Preparation

You'll need to have the following:

A Nokia phone with a modem. Mine is an E51 and I think all of the "E" and "N" series have modems. check your manual to see if you have a modem).
Your phone configured to acces the internet through GPRS, 3G or Edge. (I use Globe. Ask your telco how to configure this, if you don't know how.)
Bluetooth in your phone, or a USB cable. I prefer bluetooth so I don't have to carry around a cable, but cable is faster. Make sure your Mac and phone are communicating through bluetooth. (You can do this by clicking on the Bluetooth icon in System Preferences and
MacOS Tiger (10.4) to Snow Leopard (mine is the latter, aka 10.6; the screens you'll see here are for Snow Leopard).

If you don't have an access point configured, read "No Access Point?" below:

I. Find your APN (access point name).

In your phone, go to Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points.
Click the Access Point that Globe sent you. This will probably be named myGlobe Internet unless you renamed it when you received the configuration info. Click this.
Write down the value inside "Access point name". Mine is internet.globe.com.ph.

II. Set up your Mac to use the phone modem.

In System Preferences, click Network Preferences. The left box contains your possible connection points.
Click the + sign to add a new connection. Type a name for this connection. I called mine "Globe Nokia". Click the "Create" button. This brings you back to the main screen. (Screen 1, below)
In the Telephone number box, type *99# and click the Advanced... button. (Screen 2)
In the Modem tab, enter the following values and click OK. (Screen 3)

Vendor: Nokia
Model: GPRS (GSM/3G)
APN: internet.globe.com.ph (Note: this is the value you found in Step I, above.)
CID: 1

In the main window of Network Preferences, click Apply.
Test your connection by clicking the Connect button. Make sure your phone and Mac Bluetooth devices are turned on.

Screen 1.

Screen 2.

Screen 3.

Tips:

Check the box beside "Show modem status in menu bar". This will display a telephone icon that you could click to quickly connect through your phone.
If you use gmail, or google, type m.gmail.com or m.google.com to indicate "mobile".

No Access Point? Try the following steps to set up an internet connection to Globe:

In your phone, go to Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points.

Click Options > New access point. You'll get the form to enter a new access point.

Put a Connection name. Example: Globe mobile internet

In Data bearer, choose Packet data.

In Access point name, type internet.globe.com.ph

Don't touch Username, Prompt password, Password and Authentication.

I also leave Homepage blank -- this is the default page that your phone loads when it connects to the net. It will add to your data charges if you always load the default page, especially if it has big graphics.

A few years back, I didn't have the benefit of this Nokia webpage. Check it out for more information.

Share your tips on how you connect to the net, using your mobile devices.

Recording Skype Sessions using Free Apps

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:38:00 +0000

I finally had time to figure out how to record a Skype session using the free apps Soundflower, LineIn and Audacity.

Thanks to 360east.com for the original post that helped me set this up. The directions on the 360east blog are for using GarageBand as the recorder. Check it out, too.

I decided to write more detailed instructions to make it easier for non-techies. Here are the steps:

1. Download and install the following:

Soundflower from Cycling 74.
LineIn from Rogue Amoeba.
Audacity from Sourceforge. This will be our recorder.

2. Configure the sound settings of your Mac.

Click the Apple icon > System Preferences > Sound Output. Choose Headphones (or Internal Speakers, if you're not using Headphones). See screenshot, below.

In the same window, click Input. Choose Internal microphone. Close the window.

3. Configure Audacity.

Run Audacity. In the menu, click Audacity > Preferences > Audio I/O.
Set Playback Device to Built-in Output.
Set Recording Device to Soundflower (2ch)

4. Configure LineIn (we're almost there).

Input from: Built-in Input
Output to: Soundflower (2ch)
IMPORTANT: Click the Pass Thru button before recording the call. On playback, turn it off (if you're wearing headphones, be careful as this may cause deafening feedback).

This redirects your microphone output to Soundflower, which in turn will be piped into Audacity. Using LineIn lets you record not just the people on the other side of the call, but also the sound coming through your mic.

5. Configure Skype (just a bit more patience).

Run Skype and click Skype > Preferences > Audio/Video. (The picture below is Skype version 5.0)

Set Microphone to Soundflower (2ch)
Set Speakers to Soundflower (2ch)

This redirects your Skype session to Soundflower, which in turn redirects everything to Audacity (our recorder).

6. Run Soundflowerbed.

When you install Soundflower, you also install an App called Soundflowerbed residing in your /Applications folder. You can also use Spotlight to find it.

Soundflowerbed shows up on the upper right menu bar of Mac OS X.

Check Built-in Output in the settings for Soundflower (2ch).
Important: Leave the 16ch off (or you may get deafening noise!).

6. Hit the record button on Audacity.

7. Start your Skype session and have fun!

Using one iPod Touch on Two Computers

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:17:00 +0000

I've been meaning to solve this problem: my wife and I want to share one iPod Touch. From the menu of iTunes, I know that I could authorize several computers to use it. It turns out it's trickier than that.

If you want to do it, be careful as it may erase the content of your iPod Touch when you plug it into the second computer. The trick is to set your iTunes/iPod options to manually manage your device.

To do this, connect your device to the second computer. Open iTunes. Depending on the setup, iTunes will most probably prompt you to Cancel, Erase and Sync, and Transfer Purchases. BE CAREFUL HERE: choose "Cancel".

Then, click your device in iTunes (left sidebar). Click the Summary tab. Scroll down to Options and click "Manually manage music and videos". That should do it.

For more details, read also this Apple Support page.

Cheaper Way to Protect Your Keyboard

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:47:00 +0000

In an attempt to protect my keyboard, I bought one of those expensive silicon covers that you place over your keyboard. Later I found that the oil from my fingers still seeps through the cover and got locked in there because, now, the cover was stopping the oil from getting wiped away.

So I just took it off and replaced it with 3M magic tape. Buy a one-inch and half-inch roll, cut it into squares and tape it over your keys. This actually worked better for me because the fit is tighter and the tape is cheaper (and you could use the remaining tape to wrap gifts and books) :)

Using Vista on Bootcamp: Right-Click Problems

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:48:00 +0000

I needed to run Windows because I'm now developing in C# on the ASP.NET platform with IIS web server (excuses, excuses). I tried Mono, but it's not yet fully compatible. So this got me to trying out Vista on a Macbook. It's worked quite well so far on VMWare and Macbook Pro. But running Visual Studio got to be a drag (bearable, but slow sometimes).

I decided to dust off an old Blackbook and try running Vista on Bootcamp. This would allow Windows to maximize the Macbook's resources. In Snow Leopard, I went to Utilities and ran BootCamp Assistant. Before I digress any further, just follow this link to get the rest of the instructions.

The first time I installed Vista on BootCamp, I couldn't get right-click to work. The instructions told me to feed the Snow Leopard installer on my DVD drive and then run setup.exe -- this worked all right, it installed the right drivers so Vista could work with the Macbook hardware (including the keyboard, bluetooth, wireless adapter and audio). However, I still could not get right-click to work. On the Mac, this is usually a two-finger tap.

After searching with no successful results, I hit upon my own solution:

Go to the BootCamp setup. You can do this two ways. First option: Click the BootCamp icon on your System Tray (lower right corner of the screen, in your Task Bar. It looks like a grey diamond), then click BootCamp Control Panel. Second option: Go to Control Panel and click the BootCamp icon.
The BootCamp Control Panel shows up. You'll find different tabs to set up different hardware on the Macbook. Click Trackpad and check Secondary Tap under "Two Fingers".

That's it. Vista will instantly understand the new configuration and you can try using the two-finger right-click right away.

Btw, make sure you the "Tap to Click" box is checked.

Links:

Install Vista on a Macbook using BootCamp
Also helpful: Install Vista without BootCamp

What's the difference between VMWre and BootCamp? VMWare is a virtualization engine. So

Mac versus PC

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:36:00 +0000

While taping a web show with Jerry Liao last week, Jerry asked me what advice to give viewers who intend to buy laptops. I said my advise is simple: buy a Mac!

I keep telling this to everyone who asks me now, because eventually these are the same people who will approach me for advice once they start getting malware and viruses. So I tell them to just get a Mac instead. At least less and less people have been approaching me for tech support :)

One of our guests (Pao Manzano of HWMagazine) shot a question at me. He said if Macs are really that great, why is Windows still number one in market share? I should have given him a simple answer. Instead, I rambled on about the mechanics of first-mover advantage, pricing, and how people are naturally resistant to change, etc etc.

I should've said, "What is right is not necessarily what is popular."

Here are some readings that I recommend for those who want to understand the Apple phenomenon.

Non-Apple's mistake: this guy actually digs why Apple makes great products. The funny thing is, he's an Apple hater but he admits Apple products are great and everyone else is being duped to accept substandard PC software. Read it in full.
The Big Bite of the Apple: maybe we need to see it from the big picture, as GigaOm does. Apple's market capitalization (a measure of company value) is now closer to Microsoft and way above Google, Dell, and Palm (which is up for sale after PalmPre failed to compete successfully against the iPhone). Read it in full.

I devised a simple test called the Cafe Test to check the rising popularity of Macs. Go to a cafe and if you see at least one Mac, then that's a good sign. Why? Because two years ago, Macs were deemed pricey and unattainable by the rest of us. They have steadily grown cheaper and more accessible since then and, despite that, they retain their status as a product whose design respects the ordinary user.

I asked Pao why he decided to stick to PCs. He said that unlike others who want something pretty, he wanted something that simply worked. Too bad, I thought. Pao never used Macs long enough to know that they do indeed just work -- right out of the box, you could start being productive with a Mac. Which is something I could not say for PC/Windows (and I used them for 20+ years!). Using a Mac, I was released from the annoyances of being asked pointless questions on whether to overwrite this older DLL or let it stay, the drudgery of daily scanning for malware that caused Internet Explorer to pop an endless amount of unwanted ads, the headaches of installing and deleting software, migrating my data and software when I changed laptops, etc etc. Life with PC was paranoia. Life with Macs is liberating.

Although PCs and Windows are still dominant in the PC market, it does not necessarily prove that they are the better products. PC/Win users will never really understand this until they try it for themselves, suspending early judgment while they adjust to the different paradigm of the Mac OS interface.

The success of Apple speaks for itself -- in the fields of music (iPod), telecom (iPhone cornered a significant market share in its first year) and now slates (iPad). In comparison, the rest of them really just follow Apple's lead.

How to Change Default Paper Setup in Pages

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:43:00 +0000

When I studied in Australia, I had to change the default paper size of Pages from Letter to A4. It took a bit of hunting to find out how to do it.

Turns out it's easy:

Go to File > Page Setup.
Click the "Paper Size" dropdown and choose A4 (or whatever default paper size you want).
Click the "Settings" dropdown and choose "Save as Default".

MS Word had a different way of doing this, so it made it difficult for me to find out how Pages did it. Now that I know the right way, the Word way of changing the default paper setting seems more complicated.

Installing RoR on Snow Leopard

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:13:00 +0000

The short of it: if you're on Mac OS X (Snow Leopard, in my case), the smoothest way to install RoR is through MacPorts. (Read the excellent instructions by Paul Sturgess).

* * *

Having lots of time to waste , I decided to continue studying RoR. Things have changed since I got my hands dirty with RoR. I'm now running Snow Leopard. RoR has kept maturing in the one-plus year that I stopped tinkering with RoR (had to do C# -- don't ask).

Anyway, I reasoned that the installation problems I encountered in Tiger were a result of Apple's outdated installation of MySQL and Apache. This time, I felt that the Snow Leopard team may have been thoughtful enough to resolve the old issues from Tiger days.

So I happily followed the steps outlined in http://rubyonrails.org/. Things worked well. I was able to create a web app in no time (applause) using SQLLite for my database and doing the blog exercise on the the rubyonrails.org website. However, as soon as I tried to shift to MySQL, my headaches started.

I downloaded the latest dmg file of MySQL. I got different errors when I tried to run rake db:create. RoR refused to create the database on MySQL as promised (it worked fine with SQLLite, the database that comes pre-packaged in RoR). The error messages alternated between the inability to create the database and a syntax error on the .yml file.

Googling revealed that the problem was common. Many solutions were proposed. I tried many of them too. Nothing worked. My RoR-guru-friend Kenneth kept bugging me to just use MacPorts. I told him this would be my last resort and gave myself a deadline.

That deadline has passed without any fruitful solution. So I have taken Kenneth's advice and gone on installing MySQL, Ruby, Rails and Gems on MacPorts.

* * *
Errors and solutions:

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/opt/local/var/run/mysql5/mysqld.sock' - This probably means that MySQL is not running. Start MySQL by typing this on the command line:

sudo /opt/local/share/mysql5/mysql/mysql.server start

Useful links:

Paul Sturgess's Guide to Installing RoR on Leopard - Found this entry update only after I went through MacPorts. This may be an easier and faster way of installing RoR and MySQL.
Absolute Moron's Guide to Capistrano - I was always wondering what the fuss on Capistrano was about. This is the simplest introduction I've read about it.
Get Started on RoR Quickly - RoR is big on action, so the fastest way to start is just to try it. This is a link to the Ruby on Rails Guides.
Configuring MySQL and PHP in MacPorts - Helpful tips on those topics.
Insight on the Problem from MacOSX Hints - Found this a bit too late. Some really good insights on the MySQL problem.

(Thanks to Kenneth D. for helping me out in setting up RoR).

Multi-touch gestures

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:32:00 +0000

Starting from Snow Leopard and on to Mountain Lion, Mac OSX now features multi-touch gestures. Try them out -- it'll help save you time when working with the Macbook:

Expose. I can do Expose now just by putting four fingers on the trackpad and dragging all four fingers downward (Expose displays all your active windows by fitting them into the screen).
Switching apps: Place four fingers on the trackpad, just like in Expose, but drag left or right. The app switcher will show up as an overlay. Now touch one finger on the trackpad and point to the application you wish to bring up.
Show the desktop. If you have too many apps covering your Desktop, just do the reverse of the Expose gesture (four fingers, drag up). This will push away all your windows to reveal the Desktop.
Zooming: I can zoom in and out of pictures, documents, even websites just by using a two-finger pinch. To zoom in, just pinch in and to zoom out, just pinch out. This may not be available to all applications, but just try. I was surprised that it worked on Chrome and Safari.
Rotating: to rotate, I just touch the trackpad with two fingers and do a rotate gesture.
Next or previous pages: in Pages or Preview (PDF files), place three fingers on the trackpad and then drag them left to jump to the previous page, or drag right to jump to the next page. In a browser like Chrome, this will jump to the previous or next tab.
It also has spaces, which I use to unclutter my desktop. For now, I use only two of the four default workspaces. One for work, one for my to-do lists and Stickies notes.

If you're new to Snow Leopard and your Macbook supports multi-touch gestures, try these. To find out more about gestures and multi-touch commands, click the Apple icon (upper left corner of your screen) > click System Preferences > Trackpad. Hover your mouse pointer over each command to see a video demo videos of the gestures (don't click, just hover). It's faster to learn this way.

If you wish to activate the gesture, put a check on the box. If not, then uncheck the box.

Ctrl in Windows is Cmd in Mac

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:51:00 +0000

There are two most common questions by Mac switchers:

How to right-click (there is only one clicker bar on the old Macbooks and the new aluminum Macbooks don't even have them) on a Mac.
How to do copy-paste or cut-and-paste on a Mac (or Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V or Ins in Windows).

The first question is answered in this blog post on how to right-click.

The second question's answer is simply to substitute Ctrl with the "command" key on the Mac. There are two of these, one on either side of the spacebar. So if on Windows you do Ctrl-C to copy, just do a Command-C or Cmd-C. Here's a quick summary:

Copy: Ctrl-C = Cmd-C
Paste: Ctrl-V = Cmd-V
Cut: Ctrl-X = Cmd-X

Python and Mac OS

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:26:00 +0000

While reading the excellent book "Programming Collective Intelligence", I got interested to learn Python again. I did some googling and found that the Python interpreter comes with Mac OS X. I tried typing "python" on the terminal window and sure enough, I got the prompt. Only, my version is 2.5.

I went to the Python website to download the upgrade, installed the upgrade and ... nothing seemed to have happened. When I call the interpreter, I still get version 2.5 (it should have been at least version 3. I did some investigating again and found Python installed at /usr/local/bin. Moreover, I found the two versions installed: python2.5 and python3.1.

Typing "python3" on the prompt got me the updated version!

Connecting Mac OS X to a Windows Printer

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Here is how to connect Mac OS X (Tiger 10.4 or Leopard 10.5) to a printer that is attached to a Windows computer on a Windows network.

Scenario: You've got an existing network setup that includes a printer attached to a computer in a Windows network.

Preparation:

Your printer must already be shared on the Windows network.
Also find out the printer's shared name, the name of the computer that is on the Windows network, and the printer brand and model.
Be ready with your printer drivers for Mac. If you don't have them, try googling keywords like "Mac OS X printer driver for [insert brand and model here]" or "PPD drivers for [brand and model].
If the printer driver is not available, read number 5, below.

1. Install the printer drivers on your Mac.

2. Click the Apple icon and go to System Preferences > Print and Fax.

3. Under the printer list, look for the button with the plus sign and click that. This will pop up the Add printer dialog box.

4. Click IP Printer.

5. Fill the boxes using the following specs. In the items below, the values in bold represent sample names. Substitute your own computer names and printer names.

Protocol: Line Printer Daemon - LPD
Address: MyComputer
[Note: Do not add slashes. Just put the computer name. You may also use the IP address of the shared computer, but this is not recommended, specially if you use dynamic hosting or DHCP.]

Queue: MyPrinter
[Note: This is the shared name of your printer. You should find this in your Windows computer by looking at the properties of your shared printer]

Name: [The system will automatically fill this in.]

Location: Optional

Print Using: [This is where you enter your select your printer's model number. If you installed the driver beforehand, you should see it in the list. If the drivers are not available, try using Generic Postscript Printer].

6. Close and try to test print.

If this does not work out, you may try to install Gutenprint (just google it).

Print Photos Directly from iPhone/iPod Touch

macswitched@gmail.com (Ruben and Data Canlas) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:32:00 +0000

If you have an iPhone or have photos in iPod Touch, you can now print directly to a printer by using an App from HP.

Excerpt from NYT:

After installing the app on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can output 4-by-6-inch photos on H.P. printers connected to a Wi-Fi network in one step.

Read full story here.