Mac Tricks And Tips

Buying The Right Mac – #1 Noob2Pro

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:19:58 +0000

Hey

For any new user to the Apple Macintosh platform, picking the right Mac is a must. If you end up buying the wrong type of hardware for you needs, you could end up with an underpowered machine, or worse and over powered machine which you don’t really need and is effectively a waste of money. This post is going to assess the pro’s and con’s of each Mac, and tell you who it is for, so you can make an informed decision. Everyone has a wide variety of needs and I can’t accurately tell you which machine you should get from a simple post, however I hope you get a good enough understanding so you can make your own decision. I have done a similar post about this in the past, however this is updated with the latest hardware.

iMac

The iMac is the main desktop for the Mac operating system, it is the first port of call for anyone consider buying a Mac. If you remember the bubble gum coloured Mac’s from years ago, this is the modern equivalent. It is an all in one system. All of the hardware is located behind the screen, this means that the entire unit takes up hardly any desk space. The major advantage of this is that everything is included in the box. You don’t have to think about buying a mouse or keyboard. You simply purchase the unit from an Apple Store, take it out of the box, plug it in and you are off. There is no worrying thinking about putting the desktop unit on your desk. Very simple.

The speed of each unit varies from 2.66Ghz to 3.06Ghz and screen sizes from 20-24 inches. Like most Mac’s available from Apple there is a lot of variation in what you can buy. You need to think what you need to buy and how to customise it. It goes without saying the most expensive machine, doesn’t necessarily mean its the best.

The iMac is best for pretty much everyone. Consider it the main model if you are looking for a Mac. It is suitable for the family, the grandparents even the student. It is powerful enough to run the latest programs, the more expensive models also have a dedicated graphics card enabling you to run the latest games and high end graphics programs. The only problem with this unit is that you can’t upgrade it easily. You are effectively stuck with the specifications you have bought. You do have, however, access to memory and hard drive so you can always upgrade later.

Pros

Lovely design that will fit well in any home or office, all in one unit with no messing about. The large screen and relative power make it an excellent choice for nearly any use. Can vary from web surfing to use of high end programs.

Cons

You are stuck with this specification of hardware unless you really want to take your iMac to bits. Not that portable, but it is designed as a desktop.

Mac Pro

The Mac Pro is a step up from the iMac, a very big step. It pulls out all of the stops when it comes to power and speed. The minimum priced unit is the same price as the high level iMac. At time of writing it comes in two models, the 4 core and 8 core models. The only real difference between the two units is the memory and processor. The advantage of the Mac Pro is that you can customise pretty much every part of the system. You can insert up to 32Gb of memory, 4 graphics cards, 4 1Tb hard drives (which is a lot of space), plus lots of extra features.

The Mac Pro is designed for the high end graphic designer or similar. It is expensive. For a top level model it can set you back the price of a car, but you do end up with a lot of speed. You do get a lot of bang for you buck and it will last you years. I mentioned in the iMac section that it wasn’t very customizable, the Mac Pro is the complete opposite. You can add or remove memory, hard drives, graphics card, cd burners and if you get the right stuff the CPU’s. I would love this Mac if I could afford it.

Pros

Power, you get lots of it. If you really need 8 cores for video rendering this app is what you need. It goes and goes and goes. You can also, easily, customise and upgrade it later if you need to with ease.

Cons

Price, it is very expensive, if you need to upgrade the memory for example you need to buy expensive powerful stuff. It also doesn’t come with a monitor, which can be an extra cost.

Mac Mini

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Mac Mini. This is for the to-be Mac user who doesn’t have a lot to spend. Nearly all of the specifications are low, you get a slow (relatively) CPU, fixed hard drive space and a slow graphics card which uses the small amount of main memory. If you are on a budget this Mac may be suitable, however you can’t do anything which needs a lot of power. Games is a no-go as well as anything such as video or graphics rendering. It designed as a Mac for web surfing or office work.

To be perfectly honest, if you were to buy this Mac for yourself I would wait and save up. The amount of power you actually get out of the system is relatively poor. As well as this you also don’t get a mouse, keyboard or monitor. It is a great system if you want to move an office from PC to Mac, for a cheap price. But for a home system you are better off waiting and getting an iMac. This unit is good, however if you want to build and run a small mini home server, as it can easily serve a limited amount of files. It would be good as a media server behind a TV.

Pro

Cheaper than the other Mac’s, good for upgrading an office of PC’s.

Cons

Poor speed for the price, little ability for upgrading.

MacBook

A wonderful little machine if I don’t say so myself. The MacBook is designed to be used for practically anyone. Since it is so small (13 inches) you can pop it in your bag and take it with you. It also works quite well as normal desktop computer. This type of Mac is perfect for anyone who wants a cheap laptop, whether it be a student or some one at home.

Laptop’s are perfect for being more mobile. Unlike a desktop you can take it anywhere with you, for example I am writing this outside in the summer sun. This does increase the risk of it being stole (or lost) however if you are careful it is the ultimate computer. I can’t say this enough the MacBook and MacBook Pro, is perfect for pretty much any body.

Pros

Small, light, quite cheap and a perfect computer for practically anybody.

Cons

The only problem with this Mac is a little slow and doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card, so high end graphics and games don’t work. However for web surfing and office work it is great.

MacBook Pro

If you thought the MacBook was good, the MacBook Pro is even better. It is a step up from the MacBook. Ranging from size of 13 inches to 17 inches it is designed to be a desktop on the move. The major difference between this unit and the MacBook, is the more powerful graphics card and a higher end CPU. This type of Mac is designed for people who need a slightly higher Mac for day to day use. For example it will run games perfectly, high end program such as Photoshop or anything to do with video will work as well. You wont get the same speed as you would with a desktop, but for a laptop it is blindingly fast.

The MacBook Pro does come with a lot of speed. If you need this type of processing power it is perfect. If you do need a Mac for web surfing save some cash and down grade to a MacBook. MBP good for high end every day stuff, but you don’t need it don’t buy it. In essence the MBP is an iMac which you can move. I would also recommend going against buying the 17inch model as it is a little bulky and for the extra price increase you don’t get much back.

Pros

Lots of power in a laptop, good for practically anything

Cons

Can be expensive and a waste of money if you don’t use the power.

MacBook Air

The MacBook Air is a very light and thin laptop from Apple. It looks uber cool against any bulk PC laptop. However this Mac is really not worth it. It is very expensive what what you do get. At the same price you could get a mid range MacBook Pro with far better specifications. Even though you do get a thin laptop, it is not much thinner than a normal laptop.

This type of laptop is simply for people who want something that does look cool (and it does look cool) but doesn’t want much bang for your buck. For every one I meet who asks about the MacBook Air, I will always tell them to look at the MacBook Pro or MacBook. They are far better machines and you get a lot more out of them. This machine is good for web browsing and working with office and living with the fear that it may blow away.

Pro

Very thin and light, it also looks very cool.

Cons

Not worth it. You are better getting a MacBook Pro, or MacBook.

Conclusion

Hopefully you understand the difference between each of the models and who they are for. To summarize: iMac = For any one who wants a general machine. Mac Pro = Someone who wants a really powerful machine. Mac Mini = People who want a cheap upgrade, although not worth it. Mac Book = People who want a general day to day laptop. MacBook Pro = A more powerful laptop, a desktop which you can take with you. MacBook Air = Not worth it, unless you really want one.

Before you do pick you laptop make sure you investigate each of your options. Read through the pages at Apple. Go into an Apple store an try out the Mac’s. People in the Apple shop will be more than happy to help you and spend all day with you. You can also get a one to one who will spend a lot of time with you to make sure you pick the right Mac.

Tommorows post will discuss on how to set up an account, the different types, and the saftey and problems which you can encounter. If you haven’t all ready please subscribe to keep you up to date with the latest news, either buy RSS or by email using the form below.

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Buying The Right Mac – #1 Noob2Pro

MacTricks&Tips 30 Day Guide – From Noob2Pro

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:26:19 +0000

Hey

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was planning to release a 30 day guide for the Mac. The time has come for me to begin this guide. In essence I wanted to write a guide for new users to the Mac and for more experienced users. The reason behind this is that I get many simple questions asked by people (which I don’t mind receiving or answering) which could be easily dealt with if they had a little bit of knowledge. Hence I decided to put to together this guide.

What’s Going To Happen?

This guide will be split into 30 sections, incidentally that same amount of days left in this month (what a coincidence!). Each day there will be a long post explaining a certain feature about the Mac. I am going to start simple, pointing out and giving out hints for each various section. I will, over the next series of posts, build up on this knowledge. The idea being by the end of the series you will be able to figure out and solve problems, which in most cases can be quite hard. I will use examples on what is happening, explain why this is happening and hopefully give you enough knowledge to solve future problems.

What Going To Be Featured?

I am going to start with setting up your account correctly, moving on to explain about the interface, how it works and how you can customise it. I will then move onto the major parts of the operating system including applications and how you can use them to full effect. The final part of the guide will include extras and useful tips and tricks to help you solve a wide array of problems.

Each post is going to be quite long, I am really putting a lot of effort into this post so you can get the best out of it. At the end of the series I will also have a special surprise for my regular reader with some extra content, just for you. I will make sure I put in plenty of images and tips, so each point is explained properly. I think some of my posts I tend to skip over some minor parts, which as a new user you wont understand.

Apart from daily posts, I will also feature a weekly update summarising what I have shown and what you have hopefully learned. This weekly post will also introduce the next weeks worth of post, so you can have something to look forward to.

Bring It All Together

Some of the topics I will write about have been written before on this blog and else where on the Internet. The problem with this is that it is not disjointed. I plan on taking an approach where it is all in one place. Hopefully by the end of it, I will have a series of posts at the same level of quality as a book you would buy off the shelf.

I also realise that Snow Leopard will be coming out in September, I will keep this in mind and update any of this posts with relevant content in the future.

Tomorrows Post

Tomorrows post will begin by explaining to you the different Mac’s available and which one will be right for what you need. I have done a post similar to this in the past, however it is quite old and needs a good update. Like I said I will start out right at the beginning.

Conclusion

Hopefully you get the drift of what I this post is about. I realise that for some experienced users to the Mac platform that this series of posts may not be that helpful. I will, at the same time, post my normal tips and tricks that I will find so you wont feel left out. To find out more about the series each post will be tagged with Noob2Pro or N2P, depending on the title length. You can then search for this using the search box or look through the category. If you have any major requests that you would like to see featured, please leave a comment.

If you want to stay up to date with the latest post, please subscribe below by entering your email address, this will beam the latest post directly to your inbox. Alternatively you can always subscribe by RSS.

MacTricks&Tips 30 Day Guide – From Noob2Pro

Create A Crossword Solver

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:50:47 +0000

Hey

This tip was passed onto me, so I decided to share it here. This very small Unix script is designed to solve crossword puzzles. For a person like myself who can’t think of words any longer than four letters (scrabble is a no hope) this little script is very useful if you want to show off or actually complete a crossword. This script will check the Unix database of words and give you possible solutions.

To set up this script is dead simple. Open up TextEdit and copy and paste the following. Name it something simple and in a folder you can easily find.

#!/bin/bash

echo -n "Please enter a word pattern to search for (use a . for unknowns): " read text

echo `grep -w $text /usr/share/dict/words`
Save this file as xxx.sh. The sh bit is very important.

Next open up Terminal and type the following.

chmod +x xxx.sh

This will make the sh file an executable and ready for use.

The final step is to actually use it. In Terminal again, type the following:

/path/to/xxx.sh
The script will then run. You now have to enter the word you want to be searched. On the command line, type all of the letters you know, and replace any you don’t with dots (.). Hit enter once again and it will display all of the words it has found. Hopefully it will find ones that match. As mentioned the dictionary Unix uses isn’t as large as the built in one for Apple’s app Dictionary, but it will do most of the time.

Create A Crossword Solver

Mac Cheat Sheet

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:57:05 +0000

Hey

Just a simple post today, but one you shouldn’t take light heatedly. Anyone who ever has a Mac will know that you generate a long list of passwords and other pieces of information when you install or upgrade the operating system. The problem with this is that you usually end up with a sheet of paper that doesn’t make much sense a couple of months later. This is were your Mac Cheat Sheet comes in.

You can find this cheat sheet online at Apple’s Website, the file is located here. I recommend you fill out this sheet and hide it. It is designed to be used when you going into a Genius Bar, but it serves as a good reminder.

Some of the options on the sheet are a little simple, but I would pay particular attention to the Account section. This contains the main passwords you would usually forget.

It is simple, but it does serve as a good reminder. When you have completed, remember to put it in a safe place. I recommend you put it in the box your Mac came in.

Mac Cheat Sheet

A Site Refresh – A Reason Why

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:48:46 +0000

Hey

If you haven’t noticed I have done a little site refresh, most notably i’ve change around the design. I have cleared all of the caches so the new design should be beamed straight to your desktop. This post is going to be a little reason why I have changed the design and what you can expect from the new design and this site. I hope you enjoy it.

Quite a few weeks back, I was looking critically at might site to see how I could improve it. This included taking apart the backend of the site. I noticed as this site started to grow the response and loading time of the site started to suffer. This website design was the first one I had done in WordPress, as a result it wasn’t that well designed. It had a lot of extra code, which wasn’t needed. From the time in which it was built to now I haven’t learnt a lot more about WordPress, as a result I could do a better job.

One of the other reasons for changing the sites designs was regards to the ever growing list of other sites that I am developing and plan to develop. I didn’t want each website to have a different design, as a result I tried to take a simple design which could be slightly changed and worked out across the whole site. I initially found this deign on Theme Forest, it had all of the elements that I wanted in a site, and what I could easily change and work into a unique theme of my own.

So, the past week or two or labouring in Coda, has come to this new theme. Its lighter on code and images. There is no big banner which you browser has to download. This will save on everyone’s bandwidth. This makes the site quicker to load and response times better, giving you a better browsing experience. Over all its a lot simpler.

As well as code and theme changes, I have removed quite a few of the plugins on this site. As a new WordPress user, I did what everyone does and install every plugin I could find (OK not every one), but I did have quite a few. This, again, slowed the site down. I have removed the ones that really didn’t serve a purpose. A side effect of this is that it is a lot lighter on code and my server doesn’t have to do as much math.

Hopefully you enjoy this new design. It is a radical change from the previous one, but I think its a lot better. Over the next couple of days I will be bug hunting and making sure everything works. If you find any problems please leave a comment in this post so I can solve them as quick as possible.

A Site Refresh – A Reason Why

Remove Options From Front Row

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:50:51 +0000

Hey

I use Front Row on my Mac every so often. Its a cool way to navigate various Music and Movie files while I’m in bed. The other day I was digging into the source files and folder to see if I could find anything interesting. Most of the files are standard for a Mac app. However I soon came to realize that the various different areas in Front Row, Movies, Music, TV etc are actually plugins. I then wondered if you could remove the to make the screen smaller and simpler, since I never use the TV option. Turns out you can.

To remove the plugins are rather simple. Go To /System/Library/CoreServices. Right click on Front Row and select “Show Package Contents”. In this folder navigate to /Contents/PlugIns. Notice a list which references DVD, Movies etc. These are the different options which appear on the Front Row screen. To remove on of these from the list, drag the folder to your desktop (as a backup). Then delete the folder, Finder will ask you to authenticate.

If you haven’t run Front Row before you did this little hack, open it up and you should see a difference. If you have being using Front Row, open Activity Monitor, under Utilities, and quit Front Row from the list. You can then open Front Row once again and the changes should take effect.

If you want to bring back the option in Front Row, simply drag the plugin folder (the one you deleted) into the Plugin folder, you will have to authenticate and restart Front Row. It should then re-appear. Simple.

One tip I must say regarding this tip is to not delete FRSettings and FRSources. If you delete these folders bad things will happen to your Mac, mostly likely Front Row will not function quite right. I also recommend you leave at least one plugin folder, otherwise you have effectively crippled the application.

I hope this little tip serves you well. I was going to include a list of optional plugins you could install, however I could only find one. One item doesn’t really make a list. If you have any tips regarding this little trick please leave a comment below.

Remove Options From Front Row

Keeping Your Mac Safe From Harm

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:26:56 +0000

Hey

Every one wants to keep there Mac safe from harm, whether it be from physical attack, such as it being stolen or from cyber attack from some intent on giving you a bad day. Inspired by the review of WatchMac I did the other day, I was having a look around the Internet for a couple of different ideas on how to keep you Mac safe from yourself and other users. This post will list a couple of different tips and tricks ranging from the simple, to the slightly more complicated.

Don’t Use Admin Accounts

One of the things that bugs me when I set up a new Mac is that the first account is always the administrators account. As it is a new install you always forgot about this little feature. It is a big security risk, since you do have permission to delete and change things you normally wouldn’t have access to. To relieve this problem you have to create a second account. Do this under System Preferences > Accounts. In your new account make sure you don’t have the check, in the check box option “Allow User To Administer This Computer”. This should close quite a big loop hole.

Disable Automatic Login

If you laptop does get stolen the last thing you want is to enable any thief to automatically log in. To disable automatic login, go to Accounts Preferences again, under Login Options in the sidebar, make sure the “Automatic Login” drop down list says “Disabled”. This will disable automatic login. It does mean you have too type you password to login but it does increase your security.

Looooong Passwords

This one thing that I personally insist on is, long passwords. For any user accounts or passwords for disks try and make the password as long and as memorable as possible. Add extra letters and numbers to your passwords. This makes guessing passwords a lot harder and increases your security.

Use WPA for Wireless Networks

It doesn’t that much longer to use WPA encryption on your Laptop and routers. WEP can be easily cracked with a little bit of know how. WPA increases your security as it uses a different method of encryption. When you do choose a password, pick a long password as mentioned.

Disable Sharing Options

You can create quite a few access points if you enable the various different types of share on your Mac. Under System Preferences > Sharing, you can pick various different options such as File Sharing, Remote login, etc. Each of these can be used as a possible method of attack, especially if you are using a public network. Disable all of the Sharing options which you will never need, and only turn on the other options when you have to use them. This blocks any possible security holes.

Use Up To Date Software

Old software can have bugs and holes may be patched in newer versions. As a rule of thumb always try and keep software up to date. I recommend you use software update every couple of days, to make sure you have the latest software. I also recommend you use apps such as AppFresh to keep none Apple apps updated to the latest version.

Hopefully these basic rules will keep your Mac as secure as possible. I could have gone into a lot of depth such as using Terminal to secure your IP tables from possible intruders, but I don’t have much knowledge of deep level Mac operations. As well as this it is pretty hard for less experienced users to get a hold of. I wanted to keep this article brief an to the point.

If you have any other Mac security tips, please leave a comment.

Keeping Your Mac Safe From Harm

Safari 4 Tips And Tricks – A Collection

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:25:22 +0000

Hey

I’ve been using Safari 4 for the last couple of days and I am quite impressed. I’m a little slow on the uptake to new and improved software, usually because I don’t want to hassle of when things break. For a change I decided to go tips hunting to see what new tips and tricks I could learn for this piece of software. I have complied a list of what I think are useful tips that you can enjoy and use. There are a couple of Terminal tips, which I always like, quite a few I have found out by shear chance. As always if you have a tip you want to share, please leave a comment.

Lazy Domain Search

This one I think is rather cool. Normally you have to type a full domain to gain access to a website eg http://www.mactricksandtips.com. But this is for people with far too much time on their hands. A quicker way is to simply type the main part of the domain plus the TLD, and then any subdirectory. (e.g mactricksandtips.com/archive). This again takes far to long. If you want to be a speed freak, you can simply type, in the address bar of Safari, mactricksandtips/archive. This will automatically add http://, add the tld (in this case .com) and take you to the sub-directory. This works for most cases, since I think Safari will do a quick Google search to check its got the right information. If you are accessing a local variant of a popular domain name, you may end up in the wrong place.

Split Off A Tab

If you find you have too many tabs, a quick way to split them off into new windows is to drag the tab off the tab bar. When you do this a small, transparent, thumbnail will appear. When you release the mouse a new window will open with you desired website. You can then proceed to surf the web.

Merge Windows

If you have too many windows open and they are difficult to navigate you can always merge them into one. This I find is quite useful as windows can pile up and become unmanageable. Simply goto Windows > Merge All Windows. I would advise against doing this for loads of windows and tabs, since I have a feeling Safari will refresh the web page in question, a lot of web pages begin refreshed at once means you may need to go get coffee before it completes.

Will You Email Me That Link?

A very hand shortcut is Shift + Command + I. As implied by the sub title for this little tip, it will automatically set up an email in you main email application with a link to the web page you are currently browsing. Just thinking I doubt you save that many keystokes by actually using this command. Its handy anyway, plus a cool little trick to show off to anyone who happens to be hovering over you shoulder.

Scroll Through Tabs

One handy hint, that I would recommend is Ctrl + Tab. This will scroll through you tabs. Its also the same command to scroll through windows in Photoshop CS3 if you were interested.

Disable/Enable Top Sites

I like the new feature of Top Sites in Safari, its nice eye candy. However, it is really slow to update and takes for ever to do anything. It may just be my computer. If you want to disable top sites simply copy and paste the following command in Safari. To enable it again replace false, with true.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool FALSE

Disable/Enable Top Sites Animation

If you are still using Top Sites, and you haven’t killed it off, you can save some CPU cycles by disabling the animation of the webpage being zoomed in. At first I wondered what was going on with the zoom in animation. If you don’t like it you can switch it off with the command below.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot -bool FALSE

Disable/Enable Suggest Sites

A new feature of Safari that you may or may not like is the suggest sites. This is the drop down list of sites that is present when you type a domain. If you don’t like it you can disable it. Simply type the following, again, into Terminal.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList -bool FALSE

If you want to disable search suggestions simply use this command.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest -bool FALSE

Bring Back The Blue Progress Bar

If you like the blue progress bar that took up the space behind any web addresses you have typed you can re-enable it. You need to use two commands. The first brings back the old style animation, which was a pie chart. The second changes this pie chart to a blue bar.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool FALSE defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool FALSE

Hopefully all of this commands do work. I tried them out and they seemed to work on my Mac. However my friend did run into some problems when he tried to use them. They simply didn’t work. If you have problems using any of the tips, please leave a comment and I will amend my post. If you also have any new tips, I would love to hear them.

Safari 4 Tips And Tricks – A Collection

Increase Refresh Time For Folders

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:03:28 +0000

Hey

If you have some folder Applescript or Automator work flows attached to a folder you may find out that it takes quite a while for them to begin running. If you are waiting for something to happen, you may be waiting up to three minutes for the action to run. You can change this polling time with a simple Applescript to change the value. This will hopefully speed up the interval in which scripts are executed and allowed to run.

This polling time is managed by a program called Folder Action Dispatcher, it checks when a script needs to be run. To change the polling time open up Applesctip editor and copy and paste the following.

tell application "/System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app" to set polling interval to nnn

This Applescript will tell Folder Action Dispatcher to change the polling time. Change “nnn” to a value in seconds. For instances “60″ will change the polling time to every one minute. Speeding up the refresh time by 3 times. Handy.

Increase Refresh Time For Folders

Add Trash To The Sidebar

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:34:48 +0000

Hey

Today’s handy hint was supplied by my friend and I just had to share it with you. As you may know the Trash folder exists in your dock. This is quite a useful place. You can actually place a link to your Trash folder in the sidebar, which I find is a handy place to work from. This tip is a bit long winded, ands its not a simple solution. However the results are quite useful.

Simply dragging the Trash icon onto the dock will not work. For some reason Apple have stopped you from being able to do this. The first step is to go to the Trash folder. You do this in Finder, from View > Go To Folder menu option. In the text box type ~/.Trash. This will take you to your Trash folder. Select Column view in Finder.

At this point, you can’t drag the Trash folder to the sidebar as mentioned previously. However with the folder selected you can use a nifty menu option. Under File, select “Add To Sidebar”. This will pop the Trash folder in your sidebar. It doesn’t have the Trash menu icon, but we can fix that in the next step.

Open up the Trash folder and Get Info. You can do this by right clicking on the Trash folder and selecting the option, or pressing Command + I. The next step is to Get Info for the sidebar Trash folder (still following me?). Right click on the .Trash sidebar option and select Get Info again. At this point you should have two Get Info windows open. One for the normal Trash folder, and one for the sidebar.

Select the original Trash icon (top left hand corner) in Get Info and copy this to your clipboard by pressing Command + C. Then, with a bit of luck, paste this onto the icon for the sidebar. The icon should change to a Trash icon. If you don’t fully understand how I did this, then please leave a comment.

At this point you have finished. Do Not, what ever you do rename the Trash folder from .Trash to Trash. This will cause a whole load of problems, and you wont be able to empty your trash. Not helpful.

I hope you have followed this tip correctly. It makes sense in my head, but then again I know what I am doing. If you run into problems please leave a comment below.

Add Trash To The Sidebar

Troubleshooting Your Network

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:08:36 +0000

Hey

Networks are a fickle thing. Every so often your network, which ever method you are using, will just suddenly stop. This can be a right pain and usually happens right before you have to buy something off ebay, at that crucial time. This guide will hopefully enable new users (as well as those pro’s) to troubleshoot your own network before you have to phone a techie friend or a company. This guide is designed to be followed one after another, although you can skip to any point. I recommend you read the Anatomy Of Network Preferences, before you begin.

Switch It Off And On Again

If you have ever watched or heard of The It Crowd, one of the main jokes in the show is it switch there computers on and off again. This usually works for network problems. For instance it can usually be a good idea to unplug your network cable, leave it a minute or two and then plug it back in again. This gives any network components chance to re-register your Mac into the system. Can usually solve most DHCP errors. This tip can also extend to switching off and on, routers switches or even your computer. This problem may be hardware side, if it happens persistently it might be a good idea to buy new hardware. Usually start with cables and move up to switches, routers and maybe even your Mac’s LAN card.

Use Network Diagnostics

One tool that may be useful to analyse network problems is to use Network Diagnostics. This can be found in /System/Library/CoreService or from any 404 page in Safari. This tool can be used to see where you have problems along the network path and can be used to find problems.

Disable Network Interfaces

It can be hard to juggle more than one conversation at a time. Now imagine you have to do this a thousand times faster. This is the type of thing you Mac has to handle. If you have multiple interfaces connected to a network. Whether it be LAN, Wi-Fi or Firewire, all these connected to the same, or different points, can cause errors as you Mac send information to the wrong sources. The best way to handle problems is to delete the interfaces. Do this by selecting the interface in System Preferences, and pressing the minus button at the bottom of the sidebar.

Check Your Settings

If something has gone wrong on your Mac, usually the problem is down to your settings have been changed. Go through and check them all. If an IP address has been set back to default this can cause a whole load of errors. Go through the Network Settings of the interface you are using and check every setting to make sure it is correct. Change any settings as needs be. Also check settings on routers and other network hardware, settings could have been changed there.

Refresh The DNS

All computers use DNS servers to ask for webpages to IP addresses. This DNS uses a cache to save having to run hundreds of commands every time your surf the web. To refresh your DNS, read this article I published a while ago. If you still have trouble accessing web pages I recommend you change, or add, the OpenDNS servers to your list. More information on how to do this can be found here.

Hopefully this little guide is useful to yourself. Its not a full manual to help you diagnose every problem, but it will solve 99% of the problems. If you do have major network problems it might be a good idea to get some help.

Troubleshooting Your Network

Rebuild launchservices db to fix minor bugs

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:19:19 +0000

Hey

Every so often your Mac will have generate minor problems. For instance it may replace a file type icon with a different icon, it may also get confused with your open with, right click menu. This is mostly due to your Mac writing over file with wrong information or the same information twice. This is kind of annoying, but it can easily be rectified. The most common method, and the one explain in this post, is to rebuild the launchservices database. This takes a Terminal command (like most commands), to clear the database and rebuild it with the correct information.

As always, open up Terminal and copy and paste the following. This line of code works for Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) only, if you are on an older version please use the second command.

Leopard Only:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Tiger and Older:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

The only difference between the commands it the location of lsregister. This is your launch services database.

Re-building your database will take a couple of seconds depending on how quick your Mac is. If everything goes to plan you open with menu should be back to normal and the correct icons should be present with your file types. If the same problem persists it may be a bigger problem.

Rebuild launchservices db to fix minor bugs

Video Capture Your Desktop

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:09:08 +0000

Hey

Quite a few people over the last couple of days have asked about video capture on your Mac. I particularly like video capture since it can show more detail and steps than a text tutorial can alone, I may introduce it in a couple of new posts. This post is going to be an introduction on how to use video capture so you yourself can do it. Video capture is really useful if you want to do time lapse movies of your desktop, or you want to show family members and friends how to do something specific on your Mac. Its really simple to set up and you can be producing a video in no time.

The first step is to download iShowU. They offer one of the best video capture programs in my opinion, there are other out there and if you plan on doing this for an extended period of time I recommend you research into these different programs and find one that is suitable for how you work. They are all very similar.

Video capture is spilt into three steps, capture area, output video and then record. The first step is to pick how much area of your screen you want captured. The smaller the area the more detail will be present when you compress the video, however if you have a small area it can become difficult to get all of what you want recorded into the capture area. I recommend having a capture area slightly larger than what you want to capture, but not the full screen. In iShowU click on “Choose” and you can use the selectors to drag the capture area.

The next step is to pick your output options. This is very useful as you can reduce the amount of post processing on your video. In iShowU you can choose and option for YouTube or various other settings. You can also choose the frame rate, so if you want to make a time-lapse video you can do so in the settings.

The final step (on iShowU interface) is what to do with your mouse and keyboard. I recommend you set it so you don’t follow your mouse since I find it really annoying, however you can change these settings as you please. Other settings include, microphone, and using your iSight so your lovely face can be viewed as you explain to your views how to do something really complicated. As usual with this sort of application there is lots of advance settings which you can tune and tweak to get the best looking video. Have a play around with the settings until you get something you like.

The very final step is to record your video. I suggest you have everything planned out in advance, including opening files, web pages and other documents. A smooth flowing video always looks better than a video where the viewer is waiting ages for something mundane to happen. Once as you have finished recording you can then post process the video using iMovie, or post it straight to the web if you have done a good job first time round and have the correct settings for you final video source (eg YouTube).

I hope this very brief introduction has helped you get an idea on how to do video capture on your Mac. It is very simple and doesn’t take a lot of doing. Nothing very technical is needed and you can be up and running within a couple of minutes. For instance I got a good looking video out of this application after playing around for a couple of minutes. For the person who emailed or tweeted me asking about this, I hope I have fulfilled your request I can’t find the original request.

Video Capture Your Desktop

Quickly Close Terminal Windows

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:54:51 +0000

Hey

This was a question asked by Rob a couple of days ago. He wanted to know if there was a way to disable the pop up message, which appears when you close a Terminal window. This message usually pops up when you have a Unix program such as ssh running and it warns you when you are about to close it. Its quite useful if you tend to close windows a lot but for Unix power users it can get in the way.

It is really simple to remove the warning. In Terminal go to Preferences > Settings > Shell. You will have plenty of options here. The one you want to look for it at the bottom under “Prompt Before Closing”. This controls the prompt as shown in the image above. You can Always, so it will always be shown. Never, which is the option you want to remove the warning every time. The final option you can use to customize when it comes up, for instance you can warn when it comes up when you use ssh and you can disable it at other times.

A very simple tip which I hope you will find useful.

Quickly Close Terminal Windows

Add Sub-Folders Easily In Mail

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:29:45 +0000

Hey

Today’s post idea was originally submitted by Chris, its a rather cool trick he accidentally found when adding new mailboxes into Mail. If you ever use folders it can be a bit of a pain to add sub-folders. This trick will do both, at the same time. Rather cool if you ask me. This trick may also work in other applications, I have yet to try it out.

If you click on the plus symbol at the bottom of the sidebar in Mail, and select “New Mailbox” you will be given a pop up similar to the one below. This is used to add folders for your email messages.

In the text box type the following:

Text / Subfolder

Notice the slash. This will then generate a folder called “Text” with a sub-folder called “Subfolder”. You have hit two birds with one stone, and save yourself a bit of time. You can then proceed to add more sub-folders by repeating the process. From my limited testing you can only add one folder and one subfolder at a time. I haven’t found a process which you can use to add more than one subfolders, to a main folder at the same time.

At the end of it you should have something that looks similar to the image below.

If you think adding folders this way is still a bit slow you can go to:

/Users/[Username]/Library/Mail

Here you will see lots of files and folders, in your selected folder you can see files called sub-folder.mbox. You can copy and paste these files and re-name them as you see fit. Its a lot quicker than going through Mail. You do have to restart Mail for the changes to take effect.

Add Sub-Folders Easily In Mail

SSH’ing Into Your Mac

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:36:10 +0000

Hey

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.

SSH’ing Into Your Mac

Find The Level Of Cover For Your Mac

admin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:37:15 +0000

Hey

Making sure your Mac or other Apple product is top notch is a must. You have spent a lot of money and you want to make sure the warranty is up to scratch. Since I have a poor memory I can never remember when my warranty will run out. Apple have provided a cool webpage which you can use to check the level of your Apple Care. In this post I will show you how to check it, plus a couple of tips and tricks.

The first place to check out is the Online Service Assistance. Notice the first option is to add you serial number. The quickest way of finding you serial number is to run the following in Terminal.

ioreg -l | grep IOPlatformSerialNumber | awk '{ print $4 }'

This will display your serial number in quotes. Copy this alphanumeric number into the text box an hit ok.

This will give you information about your Mac, plus when your Apple Care will run out. Very useful. You also have other information such as where to fix your Mac and useful phone numbers.

Find The Level Of Cover For Your Mac

University Is Over, Lets Begin The Summer

admin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:47:02 +0000

Hey

If you have followed my Twitter feed at all you may have noticed I had plenty of exams on at University. I am very glad that these have now finished. Since summer has started I have got plenty of free time, as a result I am going to expand and increase the amount of posts on this blog and on other sites.

I have a couple of plans for this site. Namely a site redesign. The current one is a bit old and boring. I am sure I can do a better job by making it simpler and more Mac like. I hope to introduce a couple of new features such as polls, as well as better navigation. If you have any ideas that you want to see introduced please leave a comment. The re-design will hopefully be a lot better, it will also incorporate other sites, bringing unity between this site and iLoveMacApps.

A part from a redesign I also hope to do more posts. Since I have most of the day free this gives me plenty of time to do some actual writing. I will have a new post up everyday, this will range from simple tips to more complicated tutorials. The usual on this site. I also plan on doing a post series, at this current time its going to be an introduction to Mac for new users, hopefully bringing them up to an advance level pretty quickly. If, again, you want to see something different please leave a comment.

The final bit of news is that I plan on opening up a couple of new sites. This will be on the Mac theme again. Stay tuned for more information.

I will be up to full speed by Monday, at the moment I have to clean my room up. I can’t see the carpet on the floor.

University Is Over, Lets Begin The Summer

Back Date A File Using Terminal

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:15:16 +0000

Hey

This is quite a fun or useful trick which you can use to change the date of any file or folder. Its useful if you need to previously date a file for what ever reason, you can also date something in the future if needs be. This trick, like most on this site, using Terminal. You need to be a little bit proficient using Terminal with this trick otherwise you could screw things up.

Open Terminal. This trick is a one liner and takes the following syntax

touch -t 20090101050202 /location/of/file/filename.png

The first part of the file is pretty obvious, we are using the touch command which is really useful and is designed to change file access and modification times. The next part of it is the number, this is the date of the file in reverse order. 20090101050202 = YYYYMMDDhhmmss, year month day hour minute second. You can omit the seconds section, you really don’t need it.

Once as you hit return and everything is done correctly the file access time will have change to what you have imputed.

In the future I will be going through the touch command more, as it is a quite useful.

Back Date A File Using Terminal

Mute A Single Application

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:14:31 +0000

Hey

This tip comes from a request by Alec, after a bit of fiddling and looking for workarounds I have found a solution on how to mute individual applications. This is quite useful if you have a noisy web browser or application that you want to mute, which doesn’t have its own volume control.

The solution involves using a program called Audio Hijack. As the name suggests its designed to hijack audio from other applications. Although this is a paid app there trial version (which is free to use indefinitely) does exactly what we want.

The first step in hijacking an application and to mute it is to press the hijack button.

This will take hold of the application within the program, you can still use the app normally. Unless you install the instant hijack button you do have to restart the soon to be muted program. The instant hijack button will, from the looks of it, cure this minor problem.

You can then press Mute, and the program will be muted. Very simple. If you want to add any more applications to be muted simply press the plus button at the bottom of the sidebar in the Audio Hijacks window and you can add as many apps so you wish.

Its not a perfect solution, and it is a bit bulky, however it does work and if you find some apps really annoying and you can’t mute them, this may be one solution.

Mute A Single Application