MAC OS X Tricks Tips For Beginners

A Few Handpicked Tips For Mac Beginners

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Enhance Your QuickLook With Plugins
This oft-forgotten feature allows you to preview files without ever having to open up an application, and it’s only a space bar click away. A team in Japan has released what appears to be the first external plug-ins for QuickLook, and they really add some awesome functionality to this already useful new tool.

Download Folder.qlgenerator and uncompress it. With the folder uncompressed, you should see a couple of files inside, including a Readme, and the actual Folder.qlgenerator file.
Head over to your root ~/Library and then find the folder entitled QuickLook. Now, simply drop the Folder.qlgenerator and Zip.qlgenerator into that folder.

Try and QuickLook a folder and you should see a new screen that shows the contents of that folder and not just the one large icon that QuickLook displays by default. If it doesn’t happen right away, either give it a minute, or try opening a Terminal window (located in /Applications/Utilities) and typing killall Finder.

You can just invoke QuickLook with a .zip file selected and it will show you a list of the files that are within it too.

Play Any Video Format File On Your Mac
There are 3 very important applications that every Mac user should download. These applications will allow you to play almost every video file on your mac, and make you a happier, more entertained person.
To play any video format on QuickTime you need the following applications.

1) Download Perian-it adds the following codecs:
AVI, FLV (Flash Video), MKV, “MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio [...] AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3

2) Download Flip4Mac WMV -After the download, it will install the components on your computer. It plays all your WMV format files on mac.

3) Download VLC -This is the “swiss army” knife of video players, and can handle most video formats out there. This is my go-to if my Perian-Flip4Mac-Quicktime system doesn’t work . VLC is free, and can be downloaded from videolan.org

Hopefully these 3 items will get your video files playing.

Clear Finder's "Open With" Menu
Have you ever right-clicked and selected “Open With” on an MP3 to open it with your favorite player only to be bombarded with a list of applications you thought you removed ages ago? Maybe even some you never knew existed? There is also the problem of duplicates.

Everything is stored in a single file located in your preferences folder. Take the following steps to delete this file so the list can get a fresh rebuild

Go to your ~/Users/Library/Preferences folder
Find “com.apple.LaunchServices.plist” file and trash it (you can back it up if you want)

There you have it. The next time you right-click on an item and select “Open With” in the Finder, only current applications will be listed. Some items may return if the application that controls them adds itself back to the list. You can delete the file again if you are having problems.

Courtesy MacApper

Technorati Tags: QuickLook Plugins, Play All Video Format, Perian, VLC, Flip4Mac WMV , Mac OS X Backup, Mac OS X for Beginners, Mac OS X Beginners Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Clean Up Your Desktop Now For Better Performnce

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:49:00 +0000

How many icons counting hard disks, network volumes, and removable mediaare sitting on your Desktop right now? (My answer: 11, though I usually try to keep it closer to 6. Ask me again tomorrow, after I've performed my weekly housekeeping.) I know lots of people who regularly have dozens or even hundreds of icons on their Desktops, who use it as a catchall for downloaded files, work in progress, email enclosures, and everything else that needs a temporary home.

The fact is this may lead to slow up your Mac ,here is how:

Mac OS X considers every icon on your Desktop a window, and because every open window uses up a certain amount of RAM, more Desktop icons means greater RAM usage.

Exposé shortcuts notwithstanding, putting files and folders on your Desktop makes them harder to find, because they're so easily hidden behind windows. (You can, of course, access the contents of your Desktop folder in a regular Finder window, but some people put items on the Desktop specifically to avoid working with Finder windows.)

Your Desktop displays files and folders in icon view, unlike the more efficient list and column views available in other windows. (Yes, I know, you can view the contents of your Desktop folder in a window too, but work with me here...)

Tossing lots of files into a single big storage area (wherever it may be) creates more work later on when you try to locate specific files.

If you use your Desktop to hold important items that you want to keep "in your face" at all times, you'll lose that effect when the files become too numerous.

A cluttered Desktop slows you down, so take a few minutes once a week to organize most (if not all) the items on your Desktop into other folders.

I know of numerous organizational philosophies, but I have no wish to impose a rigid system on you. Instead, simply consider these suggestions for keeping files off your Desktop:

TIP
If your chief concern is keeping track of a few important files, use the Finder's label feature (select a file and choose a color label from the bottom of the Edit menu) to mark all high-priority files in a given color. Then, use a smart folder to display all files on your disk labeled with that color. Choose File > New Smart Folder, choose Color Label from the first pop-up menu, and click the color you used to label the files. Then click Save and give your smart folder a name. The folder automatically updates itself to display all the files labeled with the selected color, wherever they may be stored on your disk.

TIP
If you store downloaded files on your Desktop, instead make a new folder named Downloads, put that on your Desktop (or somewhere else convenient, such as in your Documents folder), and keep the downloaded files inside it.

To change the location to which Safari downloads files, choose Safari > Preferences, click the General button, and choose a location from the Save Downloaded Files To pop-up menu (choose Other to select any folder on your disk).

TIP
Check your Desktop for files you no longer need, such as software you've already installed, PDFs you downloaded and printed, or outdated text clippings, and delete them.

If you keep files and folders on your Desktop because you find it difficult to work with Finder windows, you may be able to improve your experience considerably by customizing the default Finder window.

Technorati Tags: Clean Up Desktop , Mac OS X Backup, Mac OS X for Beginners, Mac OS X Beginners Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Maintenance Of Your Mac Hardware: Apple Hardware Test (recommended)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:53:00 +0000

When you purchased your Macintosh, the box should have included a CD or DVD with an application called Apple Hardware Test. Depending on when you bought your computer, this could be an independent disc, or it may be included on the Mac OS X Install Disc. (Look for tiny lettering on the disc that says "To use Apple Hardware Test, hold down the Option key as the computer starts up," or words to that effect.) Find this disc now.

You have in your hands a very special program. Apple Hardware Test can run only when you start up from the CD or DVD it came on; don't bother trying to copy it to your hard disk. This program performs a series of diagnostic tests on your Mac's hardware, including the AirPort card, logic board, hard drive, RAM, modem, and video RAM.
It doesn't repair anything, and it doesn't look for problems such as directory errors that are the province of Disk Utility. But it can identify subtle hardware defects that could later lead to serious problems. Whether your Mac is fresh out of the box or years old, you owe it to yourself to make sure its major components are in good health, and this is the easiest way to do so.

To run Apple Hardware Test, follow these steps:

1.Insert the disc with Apple Hardware Test on it into your Mac and restart, holding down the Option key until icons appear representing the available startup volumes.

2.Click the Apple Hardware Test icon, and then click the right arrow.

3.After the program loads, select a language and click the right arrow.

4.On the Hardware Tests tab, click Extended Test.

5.Take a nice hot bath or enjoy a stroll around your neighborhood. This test takes a while!
The screen says, "Estimated time: 10-15 minutes, or longer depending on the amount of memory installed." Take the "or longer" part seriously. On a fairly fast test machine with 2 GB of RAM, the test took almost an hour and 45 minutes.

6.If all is well, the word "Passed" appears next to all the applicable tests in the Test Results area. If not, a failure message appears; if this happens, look in the About the Test and Results area for advice.

7.Click Restart to restart your computer.

I recommend running the test again after installing RAM or any other new hardware inside your computer, or if you begin to have inexplicable problems that ordinary disk utilities do not solve.

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Apple Hardware Test , Mac Maintenance , Mac OS X Backup, Mac OS X for Beginners, Mac OS X Begginers Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Six Tips to Keep Your Mac in Top Form

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:35:00 +0000

1) Keep Things Up to Date
Make it a point to check for Apple software updates once a month to keep your system running optimally. From the Apple menu, choose Software Update while your computer is connected to the Internet.
Software Update will assess the Apple software on your computer and check our servers for new versions. If it finds any, the updates will appear in the Software Update window. Select the checkbox for the software you want and then click the Install button to download and install the software.
You can configure Software Update to automatically check for updates either daily, weekly, or monthly.

2) Put Your Files Away To A Safer Place
Put your files away where you can easily find them. I prefer to put all my new files I downoaded or are working on in a folder called Inbox. This helps me to get organized and can help prevent accidental file deletion and help you find things much more efficiently.

You can get organized by creating new folders (in the Finder, press Shift-Command-N) and arranging them into a workable hierarchy for your files at hand, or you can move your files into existing folders.

3) Name Your Files Correctly
Go through your generically-named files and folders and give them more descriptive names so you can find what you need fast. Right-click on any file and choose Get Info from the drop-down menu.
Go to the Spotlight Comments area and fill in some keywords for that file.This can help you get organized and makes it easier for Spotlight to search.

4) Go Through Your Files. Clean It Up!
Having unneeded files can use RAM so delete them frequently. To reduce the amount of clutter on your hard drive, free up some disk space by archiving large, seldom used files , and be sure to name the resulting archive file appropriately too, so you know what's in it.

Delete any unnecessary or outdated personal files whenever possible and anything that you no longer want or need—just drag them all into the Trash and don't forget to Empty Trash.

5) Auto-Back Up Your Files
To prevent losing your prized or important files, make it a point to back up on a regular basis. You can back up files onto a CD, DVD, external hard drive, iPod, iDisk, or other storage medium and then delete the copies on your hard drive to free up some space. To learn how to back up files, choose Mac Help from the Help menu in the Finder and do a search for “back up files.”

6) Clean the Outside Regularly
It goes without saying that you must dust-free your Mac regularly.I love my Mac and do it once every weekend atleast. Dust and other debris can harm your computer's hardware if you allow the stuff to build up around your workspace.

Use a soft, dry, lint-free cloth, feather duster to clean your Mac's outside as well as the surface areas around it. You can use a slightly water-dampened cloth to clean the screen. Do not use any type of liquid cleaner to clean your Mac use a specific one.

Technorati Tags: Mac Maintenance , Mac OS X Backup, Mac OS X for Begginers, Mac OS X Begginers Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Five Things that Still Missing In Browsers.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:07:00 +0000

I’ve been on the ‘net for a good while (even before it was called the Internet), so I’m pretty used to technology taking a while to sort itself out.

Nevertheless, considering all the hoopla regarding (for instance) Firefox 3, whatever-is-the-working-version of IE and Safari (or should I say Webbed Squirrel Fish Kit?), I am astounded that it’s 2008 already and nobody has fixed these five things:

File Uploads

The utterly idiotic, asinine and counter-intuitive file browse field/button combo ought to have been replaced by a multi-file drop target years ago. We have the technology to do that in every major operating system,and yet people keep having to reinvent the wheel and use funky Flash uploaders and whatnot.

Guess what, none of those are the right solution. The right solution, as far as I’m concerned, would have been for the HTML5 committee to get off their collective arse and deliver something better than RFC 1867 (dated 1995) now instead of doing stupid things like writing a specific codec name in their spec, whether it’s a free one or not (yes, Ogg zealots, I’m looking at you). And yes, I know about this. It isn’t done yet. And it’s only half a solutio

WYSIWYG Editing

This, too, ought to be standard by now, and yet there are a bazillion workarounds – none of which can cope with inserted images or cut & paste from desktop applications properly. All I ever wanted was a textarea replacement that POSTed a MIME multipart with the images and text I insert, and by the looks of current efforts, I’m going to be lucky if I get rich text with re-usable CSS styles, let alone something that can deal with images.

Again, this should be an integral part of every browser. I am utterly fed up with ActiveX editors for corporate intranet apps (which handle cut & paste from Office beautifully, but generate hideous markup and opaque data blobs) and dinky JavaScript editors that sort of do WYSIWYG HTML until
you try to add an image or paste something from a desktop app – at
which point they become slightly more useless than your typical X application circa 1991 (i.e., cut & paste sucks).

Saving Entire web pages

Everyone does it differently: some save MIME multiparts (as they should), others sets of files inside a folder, and others serialize their internal browser data structures. Shock, horror, Microsoft is the one doing it properly! Yes, you read that right – .mht files are (gasp) more standards compliant than Safari .webarchive files.

If you have a Mac, go see for yourself – I’ve mentioned before that there is code to convert between .mht and .webarchive files, by dint of unpacking the MIME structure and loading it into a browser context. I fervently hope that one of these days my hard disk will stop getting littered with folders entitled random page_files every time I save a page in, say, Firefox (that stalwart of web standards).

Proper vector graphics

I don’t want to care about VML, SVG or canvas – I want something that just works across browsers, and wish people would stop faffing about with plugins and reinventing the wheel. And yes, I know that some JavaScript libraries are trying to fix that. I think I’ve listed them all in this Wiki, and despite the technical brilliance of most of them, they’re all doing the wrong thing – fixing something that ought to be common across browsers. It kind of reminds me of the GIF wars, except that the SVG spec has become a political quagmire rather than a troll patent gate.

Standard “widget” definitions

Again, I couldn’t care less about Dashboard, Opera widgets, Widsets or the current hysteria surrounding desktop widget engines, personalized start pages, and (of all things) postage-stamp-sized widgets for mobile phones. And yes, “widgets” have been around for a while. Even before Microsoft tried to get Digital Dashboard (and its quaintly named “nuggets”) off the ground, there were a bunch of people trying to build HTML snippets with a life of their own. And we’ve been at it on the desktop since Konfabulator (which was the first serious cross-platform effort), and it hasn’t really taken off or turned into a business model for anyone.

I just want it all to stop. It’s pointless, it’s a waste of time and energy, and it doesn’t improve any kind of experience for anybody. If we must have widgets, then please let’s have some kind of agreement as to exactly how sucky they will be regardless of platform. Someone needs to sit down and define a DTD (or equivalent) for an HTML widget and exactly what it’s DOM can (and can’t, ever) do and pick a decent packaging and deployment method to end all this misery of umpteen incompatible widget platforms, pronto.

And that’s it, really. Oh, and I’d just like to take this opportunity to say, to all of you out there raving and foaming at the mouth about web applications and storage APIs that I don’t want browser-side storage.
That means turning the browser into a fat stateful client, and down that path lies madness – and the negation of what brought the browser into being in the first place.

But I guess that some people will push on regardless, since they clearly cannot remember the past.

written by Rui Carmo

http://the.taoofmac.com/

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The New Apple iTunes Avatar Is Here: iTunes 7.7 A Review

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:57:00 +0000

iTunes is Apple’s media player, media organization and sync software. Apple released iTunes 7.7 recently on 10 July, adding support for the iPhone 3G and the iTunes App Store.
This latest version of iTunes is required for the iPhone 3G, Firmware 2.0, App Store and MobileMe.iTunes is available for free download. Get the latest version here:

Download iTunes 7.7
(System Requirements: Mac OS X(10.4.7 or later) or Windows
File Size: 48MB)

So Whats In The New Avatar ?

The New AppStore
iTunes Version 7.7 contains support fo making downloads from the App Store. The app store will have Applications and games for the iPhone and iPod touch. However the highly awaited store has not yet been launched as I write this post. One of the most awaited applications is the all new remote application…

The iTunes users can utilise the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback remotely. The iPhone/iPod touch remote application will be available as a free download from the App Store.
According to Apple:

" The new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store."

The software is a 50MB download.

iTunes Support:
iTunes 7.7 is available for Mac and Windows. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows users the same online music store as Mac users, with the same music catalogue, the same personal-use rights, and the same 99-cents-per-song pricing.
However, iTunes runs slower on windows and eats away lots of system resources. However there is no such problem on Mac.

Much Improved Store.
The iTunes store has been enormously successful and has gained wide popularity. One can Shop the itunes store for music, TV shows, applications and audio-books. One can also download free podcasts from the iTunes store 24*7.

Music: it has More than 8 million songs for 99¢ each with music from all five major music companies and more than 600 independent labels.
Movies: Rent from $2.99, buy from $9.99.
Music Videos: More than 11,000, from 99¢ each.
TV shows: Over 20,000 episodes.
Applications: Hundreds of apps for iPod touch and iPhone.
Audio-books: More than 35,000 titles.Podcasts: 100,000 and counting. 100% free.
iPod Games: lots of games at $4.99 each.

Other Previous Features Included:

Media management: iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song's attributes. iTunes supports ripping from CDs.

Library views: three different views for the music library

File format support: iTunes can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless. The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert but doesn’t support direct playback of WMA. It is well known to support a large number of ‘audio’ formats for playback.

Sound processing: There is a feature called "Sound Check" which automatically adjusts the playback volume of all songs to the same level.

Video support: iTunes did not come with video support initially. But with each new version, video capabilities are getting further enhanced and it has improved a lot. However, I still prefer VLC player for playing my video files as iTunes is still no match for VLC.

Smart Playlists support: Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria.

Integrated Audio and video Podcasting support: Apple's iTunes player is also considered the dominant podcatching client. It also lets us manage podcasts on iPod.

Synchronizing with iPod and iPhone the moment it connects, can also sync with Apple TV.
Integration with other applications like iWork and iLife and Garage-band.

iPhone activation: Since the introduction of the original iPhone, users could use iTunes to activate their phone through their mobile carrier. However, a worldwide crash of iTunes’ authentication servers on the day that the iPhone 3G was released has caused major issues.

iMix: It is a user-created playlist published in the iTunes Store. Anyone can create an iMix free of charge.

Internet radio supported

Plugins: iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins.

The Final Say...
Well since iTunes is easily available for windows, it has become a must have, not only because of the popular Apple tag behind it but also because of so many unique features and audio-format support it provides the user. Apple is expected to also released the 2.0 Firmware and App Store shortly, as well as launching MobileMe. Moreover the iTunes store which guarentees 24*7 entertainment has gained incredible success and all that it has in store is another big attraction towards iTunes.

written by Mayank Kandpal

Technorati Tags: iTunes 7.7, iTunes Store , MobileMe , Mac OS X for Begginers, Mac OS X Begginers Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Which Mac Screencast App Is For You? Its Not Just A Review...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:31:00 +0000

Screencast has been the must have app these days, with many new applications to choose from which is the correct screencasting app for you? Screencast has been an indispensible thing for video tutorials , Youtube videos and Bloggers. So let me give you a review of the best Video Tool for Mac Screencasting. Some of the best Mac Screencast are :

Snapz ProX
ScreenFlow
iShowU
Screenflick
Copernicus (freeware)
Jing (freeware)

Which is the best?
There’s no great screencast app for the Mac yet. Snapz ProX is about the best there is, and it’s not bad, but it’s… well… it feels like there should be something better. Even ScreenFlow is not bad either,it is from Vara Software and is an incredible, breathtaking work of genius that is going to make daily screencasts less of a chore, and more pleasurable than they have been for a long time.

While I felt spoiled by Snapz Pro X, iShowU was definitely a nice little app for motion screen captures. Abject misery in the frame dropping antics of iShowU , with it’s delightful blinking cursor “feature”.
Screenflick features high performance screen capturing for smooth, fluid motion up to 60 fps. Screenflick can record any portion of the screen, simultaneously recording audio from internal or external microphones and the system audio.

Purchase Options ...
But should you go for these apps and buy one of them for your screencast purposes. Well I advise you to go for the freewares available till something very special comes up with Camtasia at the end of the year in its new mac format.

Some of the best freeware screencast are Copernicus and Jing .
Copernicus prides itself on being very fast allowing the program to record directly to your RAM for super fast access. Use it to easily create screenshots or simple how-to movies.
Jing isn’t just another great screencasting application. Jing is an interesting “project”. Snap a picture of anything on your desktop.Record video of what you do, or what you see.Instantly uploaded. Share in email, IM, or blogs.

Whats expected in a Screencast App?
Personally I use Copernicus and its great and simple to use. But in a Video Tool screencast I'd love to see Basic screen video capture with a few simple compression options, audio recording, caption/graphic overlay support, simple video editing (cut, duplicate, slow down, just the basics), and export to Quicktime or Flash. All wrapped up in a nice UI too, of course.

The biggest downfall of the current options is editing — there’s no way to preview the screencast you just created, overlay some captions, intro and outro text, and cut out some of the dead video).Other stand out features include highlighting of the cursor, or the foreground window

May your screencasts always be thrilling (and short, please), whichever tools you choose!

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Screencast For Mac , ScreenFlow , Screenflick , Mac OS X for Begginers, Mac OS X Begginers Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Firefox 3 Hidden Tweaks And Settings For You.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:22:00 +0000

I am a hardcore Firefox user and have been using it for about 3 years now. Firefox has been a stable browser in Mac OS X .Even if you are a regular Firefox user, you still may not know about the advanced configuration options. I reccomend these modifications for better browsing experience. To get these options, type about:config into the Firefox address bar. Once you hit return, you get a warning because modifying these preferences can cause strange behaviour.

Clicking "I'll be careful, I promise!" brings up a huge list of preferences, most of which aren't accessible from the normal Preferences dialog. As the list is so long, the best way to find things in it is to start typing the name of the preference into the "Filter" box at the top. Once you have found the one you want, double-clicking it allows you to change it. Here's a list of my favourite hidden Firefox preferences. All of them work in Firefox 3(the latest sensation in web browser , but only some work in Firefox 2.

1. browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
The default behaviour, true, means that when you click the address bar, it automaticall selects all. Changing this to false stops this, and just inserts the cursor where you clicked.

2. browser.tabs.closeButtons
By default, Firefox displays a close button on every tab. Setting this preference to 0 will only display a close button on the currently open tab. Setting it to 3 will move the close button to the far right end of
the tab bar, and setting it to 2 will get rid of all close buttons.

3.browser.backspace_action
This changes the behaviour of the backspace key. setting it to 1 makes the backspace key scroll up a page
in the current window. Shift-Backspace will scroll down. 2 to make the backspace key do nothing. Except delete when text is selected, of course. Changing to 0 will change back to the default behaviour of
going back a page.

4. browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
Determines the maximum number of results that drop down from the URL bar when you start typing. Default is 12.

5. browser.fixup.alternate.suffix
Allows you to change the suffix that is automatically added when you don't specify one.

6. browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace
If you open a whole folder of bookmarks at once using "Open All in Tabs",they replace all of your open tabs. Setting this preference to false will cause the new tabs to only replace the current tab and add in the rest after it.

7. accessibility.typeaheadfind.casesensitive
Setting to 1 Makes the Find function (Command-F) case sensitive.

8. ui.click_hold_context_menus
Set this to true to enable the click-and-hold way to open contextual menus. One of my favourite tweak.

9. browser.tabs.tabMinWidth
If you open lots of tabs in Firefox, they shrink down so they all fit across the screen. After a certain limit, your tabs don't get any smaller and you have to scroll to the left and right to view other tabs. This preference allows you to set the minimum width. Default is 100, lower values will give smaller tabs.

10. browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
Setting this to false disables the yellow tooltips that appear when you mouse over the bookmarks bar.

11. layout.spellcheckDefault
Changing this value to 2 makes the spell checker work in all text boxes, not just the large text fields.

12. browser.search.openintab
Double-clicking this will set it to true. This makes searches from the box in the top right open in a new
tab rather than the current one.

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Install Windows or Linux on Mac by rEFIt Graphical Boot Menu.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:19:00 +0000

Do you want to install another operating system on your Mac (other than Windows )? Or do you want to try out a Live CD without pressing any special key bindings?
You might think there is Boot Camp which can help you to make two partitions of your Mac disk and Install Windows. But the problem with it is that it cannot make a Third partition or Install a Linux or Solaris dirstibution into ur Mac.You need BIOS emulation compatibility. This is where rEFIt comes in. rEFIt is a Graphical Boot Menu for your Mac.

The rEFIt Project
rEFIt is a boot menu and maintenance toolkit for EFI-based machines like the Intel Macs. You can use it to boot multiple operating systems easily, including triple-boot setups with Boot Camp. It also provides an easy way to enter and explore the EFI pre-boot environment.
It is a new and, used in place of the pre-installed BIOS used on Macs.It enables you to select your OS of choice on boot. It even recognizes Live CDs so you can select them instead of having to push the C key when you want to check out a bootable CD. It also provides a neat options to shutdown, reboot and other terminal.

rEFIt automatically detects which operating systems are installed on the internal disk as well as CDs and external media, and displays an icon for each one.

It is a great software to replace your BootCamp, and it can really change your Mac experience.

Download
The current release is 0.11. It is available in various forms. Both disk image distributions include the Installer package and can be burned as a bootable CD as well. All binary distributions can be used to install rEFIt on a USB memory stick or other disk drives.

rEFIt 0.11 (6.5M Mac disk image)
rEFIt 0.11 (6.5M ISO disk image)
rEFIt 0.11 (3.2M .tar.gz)

More Info: http://refit.sourceforge.net

Written by Avipar\\
Technorati Tags: Linux On Mac , BIOS Menu For Mac, rEFIt Boot Menu , Mac OS X for Begginers, Mac OS X Begginers Tips, Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard

Your Windows Games On Mac , CrossOver Games + COG Crack.zip

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:48:00 +0000

If you are a gamer like me and want to play your favourite games on your Mac then here is a perfect solution for you. With CrossOver Games ,you can run many popular Windows games on your Intel OS X Mac or even Linux PC. CrossOver Games provides the capability to run many popular FPS, RPG ,Strategy and many popular games titles.

I used to boot to Windows to play all my favourite games but with CrossOver Games I can play all my RPG , FPS , Strategy games in Mac OS X,without needing a Microsoft Operating system. This application is only for Games unlike the other CrossOver products which was aimed only for Office productivity applications.
CrossOver Games built on the latest version of Wine, which means the newest games runs faster and better with great frames/sec(fps).

CrossOver comes with an easy to use, single click interface, which makes installing your games simple and fast. Once installed, your game integrates seamlessly into your Desktop. Just click and run!

Complete Supported Games list is available here.
CrossOver Games Compatibility

Download Trial for Mac CrossOver Games 7.0 (size 40MB)

Here is a crack patch for the above software to get rid of the registration.
Download CrossOver Games CracK.Zip (AppleScript)

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, CrossOver Games , Crack Patch

Download Trailers Form Apple.com

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:42:00 +0000

I was looking for some movie trailers at Apple.com(Apple's Official Website) and wished if I could download them from the site directly. But the problem was you can only watch the trailer but cannot download it.
So I decided to look around for solutions and I found a userscript to Download the full movie trailers from apple.com. I think you too might be facing the same problem.

A fixed-positioned box containing the links to the movies is
inserted in the bottom-right corner. You just need to select
the resolution which you want to download and then
press Alt + Left mouse click to download the clip.
No longer distinguishes between HD, custom or default trailer pages. All 3 are processed the same way.

Check out the schreenshot to see the userscript.
HD Trailer page
All the trailers are in .mov format. You can play it in QuickTime or VLC.

Follow these steps to install the script..

If you are using Firefox as your web browser , then you need to have Greasemonkey. Download it here.
For Safari users, you need to install GreaseKit along with SIMBL plugin
Install the Apple Trailer Download userscript.

Install this script

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Download Trailers From Apple.com , Userscript , Greasemonkey , GreaseKit

Tor: Your Complete Anonymity Solution Online For Mac OS X (Recommended)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Do you think somebody is watching your internet connection, learning what sites you visit or your physical location IP address ? Do you want to hide your IP address before accessing a particular site ?

Tor is a software that help you defend against traffic analysis ,personal freedom and privacy. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world . It prevents somebody to watch your internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and even mask your physical location.

Tor helps to reduce the risks of both simple and sophisticated traffic analysis by distributing your transactions over several places on the Internet, so no single point can link you to your destination.

It focuses only on protecting the transport of data. You need to use protocol-specific support software if you don't want the sites you visit to see your identifying information. For example, you can use web proxies such as Privoxy while web browsing to block cookies and withhold information about your browser type.

I have been using it for a while and am really happy with the results. And would really recommend it to you.Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet.
Download TOR :Mac OS X [OSX 10.4 & 10.5] [OSX 10.3]

more info: http://www.torproject.org/download.html.en

Download and install the Mac OS X bundles .
Now setup the browser
Firefox users can install Torbutton Plugin
Safari users need to change change the Network Settings.
1) From System Preference choose Network
2) Choose your connection (AirPort or Ethernet).
3) Go to Advanced -- Proxies enter 127.0.0.1 and port 8118 for both web proxy (HTTP) and Secure Web Proxy(HTTPS)

Check if you are using Tor CLICK HERE

For more info on Tor :Mac OS X Install Instructions http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-osx.html.en

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Tor Anonymity, Torbutton Plugin , Tor MacOS X , IP address

Key Points For Your Mac Battery to Last Long.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:19:00 +0000

With a little bit of care you can maximize your battery life and performance of your Apple Notebooks . The most important thing is not to keep your Apple Notebook in hot places. Heat degrades your battery's performance the most.
Make sure you keep your battery softwares updated.
It is not good to always keep your portable laptop to be plugged in all the time. Do use it on battery at least once a day or two to keep the battery juices flowing.

Caliberate your battery for accuracy

Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your
PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter
plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates
that the battery is fully charged.
Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Tip: When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.

Battery Lifespan
A properly maintained Apple notebook battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 300 full charge and discharge cycles.You can replace your if it fails these criteria.

CoconutBattery is an application that completey monitors your battery.
DOWNLOAD CoconutBattery (recomended)

To Make your Battery Last long before a recharge follow these tips:

Dim the screen to the lowest comfortable level to achieve maximum battery life.
AirPort consumes power, even if you are not using its features to connect to a network. You can turn it off in its control panel to save power.
Must turn off the Bluetooth wireless when not in use to maximize battery life.
Close Applications which are not in use. And do Eject CD/DVD when not in use
If you want you can use a headphone instead of the inbuilt speakers and reduce the volume.
By these you can increase your duration from 3 hrs to 5 hrs.
In the energy saver control panel customize several settings for maximum performance and durability.

If your MacBook or MacBook Pro's battery is fully drained of power, the battery will put itself into a low power state to preserve its ability to charge in future. Fully draining the battery might be done by running the battery until the computer sleeps and then leaving the battery in the sleeping computer for an extended period without plugging it in.

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Macbook Battery, Coconut Battery, Battery Lifespan , Caliberate Apple Battery

How To Gain Read/Write Access For NTFS Format Hard Disk On OS X?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:56:00 +0000

You have used Boot Camp for an installation of Windows Operating System but the partitioned hard disk is not writable. Or you have bought a new external Hard disk for storage or you already have an external hard disk before and now switched to Mac, you would be facing a critical problem. The problem is you can read data from it but cannot add anything on it ,which is not the case when the same HDD is connected to a Windows based computer.

The problem lies in the different formats , your Mac OS operates on a HFS+ format while your External Hard Disk has NTFS format. So it only allows you to read it but cannot manipulate any data on it. There are two solution softwares which you can use to make your NTFS format Hard disk Read/Write.

1) The first one is a software called Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X.By using this software you have complete read/write format access to NTFS volumes partitions. Easily transfer data between Windows and Mac® computers using external or USB drives with
NTFS partitions.
Download Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X (10 days trial)
more info:http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

But it is not a free software you have to buy it. But if you want a free method then there is a second process below.

2)Download MacFUSE-Core-10.5-1.5.1.dmg , and install the dmg image file.
Then you have to install the NTFS-3G driver which is an open source application.
So, download NTFS-3G 1.2531 and install it .The machine will now restart and then you can read/write NTFS volumes.These are Open Source softwares so they are available for free.
more info:
http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Boot Camp , HFS+, NTFS format , MacFUSE-Core , NTFS 3G

Visor -A Drop Down Terminal Add-on For Mac OS X (Recommended)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:37:00 +0000

Here is an plug-in for your Terminal which allows you to Drop-Down a Terminal window from the top menu bar. Sounds interesting ! Visor is a small add-on for the Terminal from the creators of Quicksilver that lets you get a Quake style window. It is activated with a command(keyboard shortcut) which is easily customized.

If you are a frequent Terminal user it is just the right thing .When the terminal is running , you'll see the Visor icon in your menubar where you can access the preferences.
Visor can perform any task that a normal terminal does, but its main feature is the drag and drop. So if you happen to come across a terminal code, just hit a keystroke to activate Visor and type your code right there. But you need to keep your Terminal running for Visor to be triggered. So, you can set Teminal to "Open at Login" if you like.

Installing VisorTerminal.

1) First,Install SIMBL 0.8.2 compatible with Leopard developer builds.
Download SIMBL-0.8.2.tbz
2)This package install to /Library/InputManagers (in the main Mac volume). So copy SIMBL.bundle file from

/Library/InputManagers/SIMBL

3) Paste the SIMBL.Bundle file in

/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins.

4) Now, Install Visor 1.5 is compatible with 10.5 only. Download Visor.1.5a1.zip
5) Unzip Visor and place the Visor.bundle in the folder as in above /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins.
6) So now you have both the SIMBL and Visor bundles in the Plugins folder.
7) Launch or Relaunch Terminal.app- You will now see the Visor menu item.
8) You can now trigger Visor with your hotkey for a instant terminal session.


For more info visit:
http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-visor/
                    http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Visor terminal, SIMBL , Quake Style

How To "Right-Click" While Running Windows On A Mac?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Mac OS X has been a very user friendly interface to work with but still some do install Windows in their Mac with the help of Boot Camp.
If you have installed Windows along with Mac OS X by Boot Camp then you must be facing an expected problem, how are you supposed to do a “right-click” when you’re running Windows?

Well I too faced the same difficulty in figuring out the right click in Windows.So, here I have suggested some sollution for it. And no, Control-clicking doesn’t solve problem One easy way to solve the right-click problem, just plug in a real (two- or three-button) mouse. It just works.

Well this is what you might be doing, which is quite obvious. But there are other methods too, like using a keyboard Remapper if you are using a Macbook Pro.
Simultaneously pressing the Shift + F10 (but some might get it by adding function key to it pressing Shift + fn +F10) is another way to do right click on a Macbook.

The best part is that there are a few softwares which can do this job for you. You can now right-click with the help of the single wide mouse button beneath your trackpad.

This handy Windows utility called Apple Mouse Utility, made several years ago for using Apple mice with Windows PCs, allowing you to hold down the Ctrl key and click to simulate a “right-click,” just like you would in Mac OS X.

Download HERE
For more info try this link:http://www.geocities.com/pronto4u/applemouse.html

But I prefer iMouse, the full-feature right-click (not only to bring up the context menu but also right-click and drag, etc) with one-button mouse.iMouse enables right-click feature for a single-button mouse. It is useful for you to run Windows on your Mac computers (desktop/laptop) from Apple.

Download HERE
More details here:http://livecn.huasing.org/imouse/

These are very well devloped softwares for all your right-click problem on your Mac running Windows.
I hope you will now enjoy using Windows on your Mac till you get fammilar with OS X.

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Right-click Macbook, Boot camp, iMouse, Apple Mouse Utility

Mac OS X Terminal Commands Tweaks You Can't Resisit To Use.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:58:00 +0000

You must be familiar with the Terminal in Mac OS X Leopard , the command line world. Here are some terminal commands which you can use to customize your Mac. I have tried many, but these are few which are most useful and amazing. You can reverse the commands by replacing YES with NO.

If you have already used them then just have a look at the list. I recommend you to copy the whole commands and paste them in the terminal.

[1] Add An Exposè Button To The Desktop
This hack adds a big blue button onto the desktop to enable you to use exposè. Clicking on it shows all the windows from one application (F10 default), option clicking it shows all windows (F9 default).

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool YES killall Dock

[2] Set The Screen Saver As The Wallpaper
This is one of the coolest tweak. This command sets the currently selected screen saver as the desktop background. Use command + . to stop while in Terminal.

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

[3] Changing the Format Of Screen Shots
If you use the screenshot function, you may want to change the format of the images. Where jpg is in the code you can change this to the format your want, png bmp gif etc. You need to log out and back in again, or restart for the changes to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

[4] Enable The Path View In Finder
One of may favourite hacks as it lets you see the current path of the Finder window you are in. It makes life easier as the path is easily visible on the top of the finder window.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

[5] Recent Applications, Documents, Servers Stack
This command creates a new stack in your dock so you can view the recently used Applications. I have kept it permanently in my dock.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

[6] Skip Disk Image Verification
If you want to save some time you can skip the disk image verification for a disk image. Potentially risky as a whole load of things could go wrong without you knowing.

com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify TRUE

[7] Disable Crash Dialog Prompt
Disables the unexpectedly quit dialog that normally appears when an application crashes. Replace "none" with "prompt" to enable again.

defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

[8] Drag A Widget Onto The Desktop
Another cool tweak, this command enables widgets to be placed onto the desktop. Drag a widget around and press F12 to drag it onto the desktop. Repeat the process again to drag a widget back onto the dashboard. This may need you to log off or restart for it to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

[9] Change The Login Picture
If you get a bored of the space picture used on the login screen, you can change it with this little bit of code. Change the file location in the second half of the string to the exact file location of your chosen picture.

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/xxxxx.png"

[10]Gradient Behind A Stack Item
It enables you to put a small gradient behind an icon. It makes your stack look cool with the gradient following your mouse.

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

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Terminal Commands Tweaks, Expose , Screenshots, Finder, Widget , Dock

Protect Your Mac Hard Disk From Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:39:00 +0000

Here are some security tips that I came across and wanted to share with you. Although Mac OS X is a secure interface but still there are some precautions to be taken.

The data that an application writes to random-access memory (RAM) might contain sensitive information, such as user names and passwords. Mac OS X writes the contents of RAM to your local hard disk to free memory for other applications.
While the data is on the hard disk, it can be easily viewed or accessed. You can protect this data by securing your virtual memory in case of an attack or theft of your computer.

System Swap File
System swap is a process that your computer uses to free the RAM for other application uses.
When your computer is turned off, the RAM on your computer contains no data. Computers use virtual memory to reduce problems caused by limited memory.

Virtual memory swaps data between your hard disk and RAM. It’s possible that sensitive information in your computer’s RAM will be written to your hard disk in virtual memory while you are working and remain there until overwritten. This data can be compromised if your computer is accessed by an unauthorized user because the data is stored on the hard disk unencrypted.

Even when you computer hibernation, it writes the content of RAM to a sleepimage file unencrypted.

You can prevent your sensitive RAM information from being left unencrypted on your hard disk by enabling secure virtual memory to encrypt the virtual memory.

How to Encrypt System Swap?
You can prevent your sensitive information from remaining on your hard disk and
eliminate the security risk by using secure virtual memory. Secure virtual memory
encrypts the data being written to disk.

Turn ON secure virtual memory:

Open System Preferences
Click on Security, then go to General tab.
Select "Use secure virtual memory" checkbox.
Reboot system.

Turn ON FileVault:
If you use FileVault, your virtual memory or the home folder is encrypted because the data being written to virtual memory is encrypted by FileVault.

System preferences
Click Security, Go to FileVault tab.
Click on "Turn On FileVault" button.
Set a master password (DON'T FORGET IT).

You are now safe and secure!

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, System swap, Hibernation, Virtual Memory, FileVault

Backup Your Mac Folders To Windows By Network Sharing.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Learn how to share files and folders between your Mac and Windows PC on your home network.
Recently I bought a wireless router(Linksys WRH54G) to connect my Macbook through AirPort for wireless internet access. I also have another PC and now I have got both connected to my home router. Well it might be the same case with you too. I decided to share Windows files and access it from Mac OS X. Here is how I did it.
It might look nothing new for some but useful if you are just switched from windows to Mac OS X.

Its an handy procedure if you want to Backup your data into your Windows PC. Well I have less space on my Macbook's hard disk so I usually do this.

Sharing on your PC(Windows).
To do this go to the file you want to share and right-click on it to get to its Properties dialog box. From there go to Sharing tab, make sure your PC is set up for file sharing . If not then run its setup wizard.
click on the checkbox which says "Share this folder on the network" under the Network sharing and security , and choose a name for the shared folder.
You can select "Allow network users to change my files", if you want to save files or change things on your Mac. Here I will be sharing file 'database'.

Get the PC IP address.
To join with any machine on a network you will need its local IP address. So if you already know the IP address of your PC then its fine .If not then you can get it . Go to RUN and type "cmd". Then enter 'ipconfig' in the windows that appears . You will get your IP address .It would be something like 192.168.1.102 (as in my case).

After you have your IP address of your PC, login to your Mac OS and press + K to open the "Connect to Server" box. Or you can access it from o 'Go' menu of finder and choose "Connect to Server" from the drop down menu.
Enter the PC's IP address , preceeded by smb://
like smb://192.168.1.102 (in my case)

If your PC server is found then it will ask your Windows username and password:

After filling the details you can choose the shared folder to be mounted on your Mac. In my case it was 'database'(see below).

You are Done! You can now fully access your PC shared folders from your Mac and if you had selected "Allow network users to change my files" then you can manipulate the folders and can even use it as a Backup.

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Router , Network sharing , Data Backup , IP address

Learn To Browse Intelligently in Mac and Windows By Keyboard Shortcuts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:13:00 +0000

Put your mouse away while browsing!. You don't need it, as here is an incredible list of keyboard shortcuts which you can use for easier browsing experience in Mac OS X or Windows.
These shortcuts have saved me a lot of time. The shortcuts below works with all the browsers of OS X be it Safari , Firefox or Camino. I know many will already know a few of them but for those who don't look carefuly.

There can me many more keyboard shortcuts like this but here are some useful ones that I know and use :

Command KEY - (Windows users can replace key with control key-CTRL in below shortcuts)

+ D : Adds Bookmarks to the browser. (for Camino + K)

+ L : Move your pointer to Location bar.

+ K : Move your pointer to Search bar.(not applicable for Camino)

+ R : Refresh or reload the page.

+ Left Arrow : Back to previous page.

+ Right Arrow : Forward to next page.

+ .(Dot) : Stop the page.

+ A : Select all.

+ T : Opens a new Tab.

+ W : Closes a Tab.

+ Shift + T : Reopen a close tab. (only for Firefox)

+ F : Find in a page.

+ click a link : Opens in a New Tab.( only for Firefox and Safari)

spacebar : Scroll down the page.

shift + spacebar : Scroll up the page.

+ '+' : Zoom in.

+ '-' : Zoom out.

+ (1,2,3,4...) : Access tabs directly

Note: Windows users can use CRTL-control key instead of -command key above

If you know about some more common keyboard shortcuts do share.

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Firefox , Safari, Camino , Keyboard Shortcuts, Command key, Browser Mac OS X

Add-ons You Should Downloaded Immediately After Installing Firefox 3 (Release Candidate 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:24:00 +0000

Mozilla launched its next generation Firefox browser recently ,the Firefox 3 Release Candidate 3. There are many browsers to choose from IE 7 , Safari ,Opera. But the one I prefer is Firefox. So I updated my Firefox browser by downloading the latest release on my Macbook which has Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in it.

DOWNLOAD FIREFOX 3 [Mac] [Windows]

Well I had customized my older Firefox 2.0.0.* with numerous extensions, plugins and themes. I decided to do the same with my Firefox 3. I thought I would update the previous add-ons and there would be no problem.But sadly I discovered most of them were not compatible with Firefox 3 . I think you must have also experienced the same.

So I decided I would search for some useful or better addons that would be compatible with the newer version of Firefox.

But before proceeding I would like to mention some new features that are introduced in Firefox 3.

Speed and memory usage enhanced
Replacement of older password dialog.
One-click site info
New Download Manager with resume feature.
Full page zoom (well in mac os you dont require this)
Save sessions before Quit.
Star Button for quick Bookmark
Better Protection.
Integrates with any OS (windows , Mac , Linux)

Below is list of compatible extensions and plugins which I immediately downloaded after installing Firefox 3.You
install these add-ons directly into your Firefox 3 by clicking on the links below.
{1}WebMail Notifier
WebMail Notifier checks your webmail accounts and notifies the number of unread emails...
Supports : gmail, yahoo, hotmail, daum, naver, empas, nate and more

{2}Web Search Pro
A complete web search extension.Search the web the way you like...

{3}Secure Login
Secure Login is a login extension for Mozilla Firefox integrated password manager.Easy and convenient selection for multiple logins (multiple users),Secure Login Bookmarks

{4}Adblock Plus
Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that
often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install
Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.
{5}Scrapbook
ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support.

{6}DownloadHelper
The easy way to download Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.

{7}Foxsaver
Turns Your FireFox into ScreenSaver! ,turns Your FireFox into Digital Photo Frame!.Full Screen if FireFox is maximized.

{8}Shareaholic
Shareaholic allows you to share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages quickly via a wide array of web 2.0 social websites without cluttering up your browser! supports: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, healthranker, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, simpy, stumbleupon, streakr, truemors, tumblr, twitter, ycombinator, bzzster,

{9}Sage
Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox.

{10}Cooliris Preview
Cooliris Previews gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the Cooliris preview window immediately appears to show you the content.

{11}ScribeFire
ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.

{12}Lori(Life-of-request info)
'lori' can tell you how long it takes to load a page. Useful for web developers who are working on profiling, optimizing a web site.

{13}User Agent Switcher
Adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser. Supports IE 6 ,Opera and Netscape.

{14}TagSifter
Firefox 3 lets you tag your bookmarks, but it doesn't give you a great way to browse your bookmarks by their tags. TagSifter tries to. Select a group of tags in the sidebar or menu, and TagSifter shows you all the related tags and bookmarks.

{15}easyGestures
It is a pie menu that pops up inside the browser when you click the mouse and then let you perform various actions at the tip of the mouse pointer with minimum mouse movement...

{16}FlashGot
Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page togetherat the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers.

{17}Quick Drag
Extends the function of the drag-and-drop mouse gesture so that it can be used to load URLs, do a web search of selected text on a page, or save an image on a page.

Firefox 3 comes with an inbuilt Shockwave, Java and QuickTime plugins.
Additional plugins I installed on my Mac OS X leopard...

[1]Adobe Flash Player plugin
Adobe Flash Player is the universal rich client for delivering effective Adobe Flash experiences across desktops and devices.
Download (All OS)

[2]Real Player plugin
RealPlayer enables your computer to play streaming RealVideo and RealAudio.
Download(Mac) Download(Windows)

[3]Flip4Mac WMV plugin
It is the officially supported plugin for viewing WMV content on the web.
Download(Mac)

written by Avipar\\
Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Firefox 3, Firefox Add-ons, Firefox Plugins

Is your User Account in Mac OS X Leopard Secure?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:06:00 +0000

When you create a user's account you specify the information to prove the user's identity,such as userame ,user ID ,authentication method ,and password.These information is required by many services in your Mac which makes it less secure.

Basically ,some access details provided to the users accounts are listed below.

Administrator: Full control over the computers configuration.
System administrator(root): Unrestricted access to computer
Guest Account: Restricted user access
Standard Account: Non privileged user access
Managed with Parental Controls: Restricted computer access

How to create a secure account?

Follow these key guidelines while creating a new user account:

1) If you are the administrator of the computer then , create another standard account for daily use and use the administrator account for administration purposes. By this you reduse the risk of accidentall
reconfiguring secure system preferences.

2) Use strong Authentication Password. You require passwords to log in ,to wake up the computer from sleep or from a screen saver,to install applications ,or change system settings.

Mac OS X provides Password Assistant, an application analyzes and generates a complex password for you. This feature appears when you click on the 'Key' button infront the 'Password' block.
You can choose from following types of password:

Manual
Memorable
Letters & Numbers
Numbers only
Random

You can even use it to create passwords for other purpose.

3) Put a 'Password Hint'. Its important that you remember the password, but incase if you forget always keep a backup question or a hint to help.

4) Select FileVault Checkbox. Click on the option "Turn on FireVault Protection".
Mac OS X includes FileVault which encrypts information in your home folder and its files.

5) Never create account that are shared by several users. Each user should have his or her own Standard or Managed accounts. Individual accounts also help to keep a track of user's own folders.

Secure that Guest Account Too!

The guest account ,used to give a user temporary access to computer, is disabled by default. Because it does not require a password to log in, if this account is enabled and not secured it can be dangerous.

After enabling the account :

1) Enable parent controls. To limit what users can do, select parental control.You can manage its preferences. Parental Controls can also be used to secure Standard user accounts and Managed user accounts.

System:only allow selected applications

Content:Limit access to certain websites

Mail & iChat: Limit Mail and iChat restricted to a specified list

Time Limits: Limit computer use to certain hours a day/week

Log: keep an eye on visited websites ,iChat logs,applications.

2)Deselect the "Allow guest to connect to shared folders" checkbox

3)When you finish with this account, disable it.

Securing Administrator Accounts

Each administrator should make two accounts:a standard account for daily purposes and the other for administrative purposes.
A user account with administration privileges can perform tasks such as:

Creating user accounts

Adding users to Admin group

Installing system softwares

Enable,or disable sharing firewall settings.

Changing FileVault master password

I hope these advise would help you in making your Mac OS personal and safe.

Written by Avipar//

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, User accounts , Admin accounts, FileVault, Password Assistant, Guest Account, Mail a& iChat, Shared Folders

Access Your Favorite Folders With Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Instantly.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:30:00 +0000

I always had a problem in opening my favorite folders and recent folders instantly in Mac OS X .In fact I had to either keep them on the desktop some other easy to access area, but it was very unorganized and made the desktop look like a mess.

Here is an application that makes the life simper for you. Default Folder X lets you open your folders instantly and save your files effortlessly on Mac OS X .Customize keyboard shortcuts, put your favorite and recent folders at your fingertips.

Default Folder X

Some Key features are:

Navigate folders using Menus
Quickly access recently used and favorite folders
Integrated Finder
Set Default folder for any Application
Better Use of Spotlight (add keywords and comments to file as you create them)
Open Dialogs Interface

The Default Folder X Preference
After installation of Default Folder X ,it's accessible from System Preferences under Others category.
Click the 'On' button to enable Default Folder X's feature and also select 'Enable at Login' checkbox to open it on your restart .

Default Folder X Open and Save Dialogs
It's one of the key feature which I like personally. The Open Dialogs window has toolbar buttons placed vertically which give fast access to various folder commands.

--'Utility Menu'

--'Computer Menu'

--'Favorites Menu'

--'Recent Menu'

--'Finder Window Menu'

Spotlight Comments in Save Dialogs:Turning this option o lets you display the Spotlight comment window.Comments added will be indexed by Spotlight, helping you in searches.

"Default Folders Option lets you set the initial location shown in Open and Save dialogs"

Best Feature of Default Folder X is the "Favorite Folders"
Just under the Favorite Folder option in the Default Folder X Preferences ,
Add Folder which you use frequently for instant access and then Set Hotkey for keyboard shortcuts.

You can access you favorite folders just by the shortcut keys directly when the Default Folder X in on.

Download Here--

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools, MacOs X leopard, MacOs X Terminal, OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Default Folder X, Open and Save Dialogs, Spotlight, Customize keyboard shortcuts

Snow Leopard! An Intel-Optimized Built of Mac OS X

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:31:00 +0000

The next version of Mac OS X is code-named "Snow Leopard," as all of you know, and will indeed be Intel-only.Mac OS X Snow Leopard will focus on performance enhancements rather than featuring new apps like in Mac OS X Leopard (10.5).It will be optimized for multi-core processors and enable “breakthrough amounts of RAM.”

"So what new does Snow Leopard has to offer"?

Enhanced Multi-core Processing. No New Eye Candy Features.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard delivers a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality.It makes the Mac OS X more efficient for users.It's called "Grand Cental" , built into Snow Leopad.
Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore Macs.
Apple is laying the foundation for future with Intel processors.They're likely just to tighten-up the OS, make it faster and more secure for users with this os.

64-bit Technology In Mac OS X.

More RAM makes applications run faster, because more of their data can be kept in the very fast physical RAM instead of on the much slower hard disk.
Therefore,Snow Leopard provides the 64-bit technology in Mac OS X to support breakthrough amount of RAM(theoretically estimated 16TB or 500 times more). Apple has a lot of hope with this in the future.

Improved QuickTime X and Safari.

The release will come with a new version of Quicktime that improves media playback QuickTime X, a new version of the multimedia framework optimized for extremely efficient playback and support for modern codecs.

Snow Leopard delivers the fastest implementation of JavaScript to date SquirrelFish, web applications are more responsive. Safari runs JavaScript up to 53 percent faster with Snow Leopard.

The Newcomers!, OpenCL and Microsoft Exchange Support.
OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations per second With GPUs.OpenCL takes that power and redirects it for general-purpose computing.

Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal.
Mac OS X uses the Exchange Web Services protocol to provide access to Exchange Server 2007.

Because Exchange is supported on your Mac and iPhone, you’ll be able to use them anywhere with full access to your email, contacts, and calendar.

Price? Wait Untill...?

Apple has announced that the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard is expected to ship in about a year.By then the Intel Macs will be at least 3 year old. Well there are new updates for the present Leopard Mac OS X 10.5.4.

It will surely not be sold free, but i'd be surprised if they sold it on full price of $129.I think it will be less something like $49-$79. Or even as less as $30.

Should You Transform Form 'Leopard ----> Snow Leopard '?

Well for all the new Mac OS X 10.6 looks like a Windows Service Pack upgrade in PC is here for the Mac OS X 10.5.

But, in my opinion the Snow Leopard has a lot more to offer than it appears. Well it all depends on the marketing strategy of Apple .I hope they make it a little cheap.

written by Avipar\\

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools,MacOs X leopard,MacOs X Terminal,OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6, MAC OS X Snow Leopard, Grand Cetral, Multicore Macs, QuickTime X , SquirrelFish, Safari, OpenCl, Microsoft Exchange 2007

What Makes Apple iPhone 3G your perfect choice ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:37:00 +0000

Apple has launched its latest mobile device iPhone 3G, which calls for the attention to the feature missing from the original release -3G support. Well its not the only killer feature, the full GPS system in it is here to stay.But the most eye catching aspect of the iPhone 3G is its price tag of $199 and $299 which is just 1/3 of the models launched a year ago.

I would like to highlight some key features of this mobile device which may help you make the right choice...

Should you buy it?

1)The Design Is Great

The phone measures a hair thicker (0.48 inches versus 0.46 inches) in the gut.It weighs 4.7 ounces.A single Home button sits just below the screen.The back of the phone is made of plastic skin with black version for 8GB models, while 16GB version in black and white.
Apple has done away with the irritating recessed headphone jack, which now is flush so that you'll be able to use any 3.5mm headphones you like. The camera lens, volume rocker, charger port, speaker, microphone, power button, and display locking switch all are perfectly placed making this gadget a success.

2)3G Speed Worldwide and the GPS features at your fingertip!
With support for 3G bands and both UMTS and HSDPA networks, the iPhone 3G is well positioned for using high-speed networks all around the world.Email attachments and web pages load twice as fast on 3G networks as on 2G EDGE networks to be precise its almost 2.8 times faster. And since iPhone 3G seamlessly switches between EDGE, faster 3G, and even faster Wi-Fi, you always get the best speeds possible.

You can even talk and browse at the same time.But 3G technology lets you multitask in more places — without connecting via Wi-Fi. And if you’re in an area without a 3G network, iPhone connects you via GSM for calls and EDGE for data.the iPhone 3G uses Assisted GPS supplemented by satellites. It also offers live tracking so you can monitor your progress as you drive (or walk) along. iPhone 3G delivers UMTS, HSDPA, GSM, Wi-Fi, EDGE, GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR in one compact device — using only two antennas.

3)Excellent Multi-touch controls

With its large Multi-Touch display and innovative software, iPhone lets you control everything using only your fingers. Type using the predictive keyboard, glide through albums with Cover Flow, scroll through photos with a flick, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page — all courtesy of Multi-Touch.

4)Accelerometer Motion Detector

iPhone responds to motion using a built-in accelerometer. When you rotate iPhone from portrait to landscape, the accelerometer detects the movement and changes the display accordingly. So you immediately see the entire width of a web page, view a photo in its proper aspect ratio, or control a game using only your movements.

5)Third-Party Apps And Softwares Are Plenty.

the iPhone 3G will indeed support the collection of apps available through the iPhone SDK(Software Developer's Kit). Gaming apps should feature prominently, many will integrate with the phone's accelerometer.Some other

special features are :

Better Email Management
Contacts Search
Email Attachment Support
Scientific Calculator
MobileMe Support

6)Extra long Battery Life

Even though the inclusion of 3G in iphone has not affected its battery life.The iPhone 3G promises a solid 5 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of 2G talk time, 5 hours of 3G Internet time, 6 hours of Wi-Fi Internet time, 7 hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio playback, and 12.5 days standby time.

What else ?

Since the latest iPhone will support the 2.0 software, additional new features will show up at launch , including contacts search, iWork document support, the capability to view PowerPoint attachments, bulk move and delete, a scientific calculator in landscape mode, parental controls, and support for 16 languages.iPhone
also has a multilingual keyboard and a removable SIM card.

But on the downside , iPhone 2.0 still has a 2 megapixels, which is why they have been able to lower dow their price tag for the competitive market.

Only If iPhone Had These Features Included...

You will not get multimedia messaging along with voice dialing and video recording.Even no I still don't understand why Apple can't include these basic features.

I am also hoping for a landscape keyboard and the capability to cut and paste.As far as I can see ,there is no wireless sync of iPhone with an iTunes in a computer.

Phone And Internet Service Providers

Purchasers will still need to sign a two-year contract with AT&T to use the phone. And the price for a basic plan increases by $10 for 3G usage (that is, $30 a month for unlimited data, with voice plans starting at $39.99 a month). Unlimited 3G data plans for business users will be available for $45 a month.

The Final Say...

The addition of 3G and GPS, the affordable price tag of $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB versions, and extra features from the iPhone 2.0 software update make the iPhone 3G a worthy prospect. So , if you are an iPhone fringe-watcher now's the time.

written by Avipar\\
Technorati Tags: Mac OS X Ticks, Macintosh OS X Tools,MacOs X leopard,MacOs X Terminal,OS X Tools , Macintosh OS, MacOs X 10.5, MacOS X Software, MacOS X Hints, Free MacOS X, OSX Desktop, Macintosh consulting, MacOS X Apps, Leopard Tricks, OS X Leopard, iPhone 3G, Apple iPhone 2.0, GPS, Multi-touch controls, Accelerometer, iPhonne SDk, iWork