macosxhints

Use custom masked shapes in iWeb@macosxhints

Fri, 26 May 2006 16:30:03 +0200

I've read on a few Mac forums of people who are looking to mask their photos in iWeb not just with a rectangle, but with any shape. People have suggested to simply composite something in Photoshop, but not everyone has Photoshop -- and if you don't have the latest Mac, it can make a simple task into a long tedious one. iWeb doesn't have built in capability to make custom shape masks, however Pages 2 (along with Keynote) in iLife '06 does. iWeb is essentially Pages for websites, so it accepts a lot of the objects created in Pages, including custom shape masks. Start by creating the shape you want in Pages, either with the standard shape tools or with the "Draw a Shape" tool. After you've created your shape, you'll need to mask an image using your shape. It doesn't matter what image you use. (You mask a shape and an image by selecting both and then choosing Format > Mask with Shape.) After you've got a masked image, select the object and press Control-Option-Command-I. That keystroke ...

Clarifying secure FTP vs. non-secure FTP settings@macosxhints

Fri, 26 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

To be brief, enabling "Remote Access" from the Sharing preference pane enables remote login via ssh as well as the secure ftp (sftp) server. You do not need to enable FTP Access in the Sharing pane to get the secure FTP server. For some reason, I always thought you needed to enable both to get sftp, but I was wrong. If anyone else is under this confusion, you can disable the FTP server. There is no real excuse for anyone to use regular FTP any more, what with the proliferation of SFTP clients on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. [robg adds: Yes, this is a basic tip, but for those new to the various remote access options offered in OS X, they may not be aware of the relationship between ssh and sftp.]

Set up a video projector for better portrait mode photos@macosxhints

Fri, 26 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Do you feel that this is a big disadvantage of modern picture projection compared to the old-fashioned slides: portrait format is really handicaped, because you have two big black bars on the left and right hand sides of the image. Video projectors have an aspect ratio of 4:3 (or even 16:9), compared to the quadratic display size of slide projectors. I thought about that and came up with the following solution: If you could get a video projector with quadratic display size, everything would be fine. It would signal to the Mac a quadratic screen size (e.g. 768 x 768). If you would display pictures on that screen (e.g. with iPhoto), then portrait format would have the same size as landscape format pictures, each having black bars on top/bottom or left/right. But there is no such device. So, lets cheat a little bit. With SwitchResX you can define a new custom resolution for the connected video projector. I defined 768 x 768 with 60 Hz to be somewhat on the conservative side at first...

Create resumable podcast downloads@macosxhints

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:30:05 +0200

Being a dialup only user, I've been very frustrated with iTunes' lack of a resumable download for podcasts, etc. My attempts at downloading with Firefox from sites such as MacObserver(MacGeekGab) was poor, since Firefox would often find the connection closed after the download was partly downloaded. (This is the same thing I'd see in iTunes, where I would never know what had happened, except that the file size was way too small.) I'm sure there are shareware-type downloaders out there that would work, but money doesn't grow on trees for a lot of us folks. So I use the built-in curl command in Terminal. Trying curl in Terminal using the options -C - -O will work for most sites. However, for sites (like MacObserver) that are using a service such as CacheFly which uses redirects, it won't work. I was stumped until I contacted CacheFly, and they pointed out that "you can have curl follow redirects by passing it the -L flag." I had read the help for curl, but did not understand what F...

An AppleScript to copy lyrics from iTunes' songs@macosxhints

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:30:03 +0200

I have not had any luck finding any Terminal or GUI applications that could get lyrics from MP3 ID3v2 tagged files. The only way I've found is to go into the info dialog (in iTunes) and copy the text there. If you're looking for lyrics to several songs, or want and easier way to do this simple and useful task -- I love to do this because while I listen to the song, I can read the lyrics and control iTunes or leave it behind other applications -- you can use this AppleScript: tell application "iTunes" set these_tracks to the selection of browser window 1 set the track_count to the count of these_tracks display dialog "Copying lyrics of " & (track_count as string) & � " tracks." buttons {"Cancel", "Copy"} default button 2 if the button returned of the result is not "Copy" then return end if set the item_counter to 0 set letras to "" repeat with this_track in these_tracks if letras is not "" then set letras to letras & return & retur...

Minimize the silence between songs on an iPod@macosxhints

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:30:02 +0200

When listening to popular music, particularly when exercising, I really enjoy the effect of one song seamlessly crossfading into another without a discernible break or silence. Unfortunately, although you can ask iTunes to do this beautifully on your computer (under Preferences -> Playback), the effect does not transfer to your Ipod -- you'll still hear those few seconds of silence between songs. Until Apple fixes this, there is something you can do to make life a little better. Connect your iPod to your computer. Once the updates are all complete, choose a playlist from your iPod's list, not from your iTunes' list. Now do the following: Select the first song, then choose File: Get Info (or hit Command-I). In the new window that opens, go to the Options tab. Next to Start time, do nothing. Listen to the end of the song while watching the timer, and note the time that the music actually stops. Next to Stop time, enter that time. For example, the song 'Son of a Preacher Man' as sung by...

Bring back minimized Safari windows via a hotkey@macosxhints

Wed, 24 May 2006 16:30:03 +0200

I sometimes find myself having Safari open, and the only browser window is minimized. Usually you use the mouse to bring back the minimized window, or hit Control-F3 (Move focus to the Dock) and the arrow keys. But here's a much quicker way: Just make sure Safari is the active app, then hit Command-L -- this is the shortcut for File: Open Location, and it will restore the minimized window from the Dock, instead of opening a new window. [robg adds: This also works for Camino, but not OmniWeb or Firefox. OmniWeb opens a new window, and Firefox does nothing.]

Easily create 128x128 PNGs from icons@macosxhints

Tue, 23 May 2006 16:30:05 +0200

I was attempting to make some new icons recently, and I wanted to start with an existing one, but modify it in a graphics program. I thought there was a way to copy the icon into the clipboard in previous versions of OS X, but each time I tried (Get Info, select icon, copy), I would only get a small version of the icon (about 32x32), and without transparency. But I wanted the larger version and with the transparency. I do realize there are some shareware utilities out there for this, but this should be do-able by the system itself. Turns out, it is. So, here's the tip I found -- perhaps this has been reported before, but I couldn't find it. Drag the item which has the icon you want to use into the Dock, then activate OS X's window capture screenshot feature -- press Shift-Command-4, then press the Space Bar. Now position the camera icon over the icon in your Dock and click. On your desktop will be a PNG file of the full-sized icon (128x128), with its transparency and nothing else...

10.4: Version Cue / Intel Mac / latest updates woes@macosxhints

Tue, 23 May 2006 16:30:02 +0200

I have seven Macs, including two Intel Macs. On May 11, 2006, Apple released 'Security Update 2006 003' and 'QuickTime 7.1' through Software Update. After installing the update, the Intel Macs would no longer boot. Dead. Nada. I called Apple Care, but they could not fix it. After some futzing, I managed to fix them this way: Cold reboot and hold the Shift key after the tone (Safe Boot...) Go to /Library/StartupItems, and remove Adobe Version Cue if it is there Reboot [robg adds: I don't have Version Cue, so I can't confirm this one (my Intel mini handled the update just fine).]

Tidy up your HTML with ... tidy!@macosxhints

Tue, 23 May 2006 16:30:01 +0200

I was messing around in the /usr/bin folder and found a binary called tidy, which is installed by default on OS X. Immediately curious, I looked up the function of this program. Its purpose is to generate cleaned-up versions of HTML, XML, and XHTML files, and it can even convert them. This is useful if you code web pages by hand, as I do. It fixes your mistakes, like the following, and many more:

heading

subheading

tidy will tell you the errors and then spit out a fixed version, which you can optionally save to a new file. Here are some examples: Convert HTML to well-formed XML and output to a new file (hit control-D after the output is finished): tidy -asxml test.html -output fixed.xml Just show the errors and quit: tidy -errors test.html Use upper case tags for output: tidy -upper test.html For more options, try man tidy or tidy -h. One use for tidy I can think of is cleaning up those horribly formatted Word webpages. tidy do...

Use a Windows emergency CD on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Tue, 23 May 2006 16:29:59 +0200

If you are enjoying your new iMac, MacBook, or Mini, but are afraid that all of your emergency software won't work on the platform, you may want to test some of the free CDs designed for Windows Users. A few weeks ago at the local user group meeting (MUGOO - Ottawa Ontario), as part of a presentation on Boot Camp and Parallels, the presenter asked the question: Who here thinks I can boot this Intel-based Mac using an emergency CD designed for Windows machines? We were pretty dubious, but in the end we saw it happen. As I recall, it was the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" that we actually saw demoed. Of course, like any time you boot off CD, it was very slow. It was pretty amazing that it worked at all, though. Here's a bit more info on the Windows emergency CDs. I don't know of the state of Intel-compatible disaster recovery software for the Mac -- the market may be difficult with good free competition. The designers of these packages don't seem to know that they might work on ...

CamiTools - Add useful features to Camino@macosxhints

Mon, 22 May 2006 16:30:10 +0200

The macosxhints Rating: [Score: 9 out of 10] Developer: nadamac/ Product page Price: Free Note: This is the Pick of the Week for May 22nd. Although I still switch between three browsers (Camino, Firefox, and Safari) with some regularity, I've found lately that Camino gets used more often than the others. Camino itself was a Pick of the Week way back when (November 2002, when it was still called Chimera), and I wrote about verion 1.0 when it was released in February. The articles detail some of the reasons I prefer Camino, one of which is the subject of this week's Pick of the Week -- CamiTools. CamiTools extends Camino in many interesting and useful ways. After installation (there's an easy-to-use removal tool, too), CamiTools shows up as an additional Preferences tab within Camino. This new preferences tab gives you a ton of additional features; here are some of the most useful: Enable HTTP pipelining (for quicker page loading). Immediate type-and-find, ala...

Skype - Internet telephony app with free LD calls@macosxhints

Mon, 22 May 2006 16:30:08 +0200

The macosxhints Rating: [Score: 8 out of 10] Developer: Skype Limited/ Product page Price: Free Note: This is the Pick of the Week for May 15th Skype is one of a number of Internet-based phone services, and it's been out for quite a while. I've never featured it as a Pick of the Week because, well, I hadn't used it much and saw no need for it -- we don't make a lot of long distance calls, given that the whole widely-flung family is iChat (or AIM) enabled. But two recent changes have given me another reason to use Skype. The first change is that I've been doing more interviews -- for both Macworld podcasts and Gene Steinberg's Mac Night Owl. Skype is the tool of choice for both of these shows, so I've had an excuse to play around with the app -- and I've come away impressed. While not technically perfect (there are occasional connection issues, and sometimes the sound will dropout for a brief period of time), Skype works very well. There's a built-in chat client, t...

10.4: Use serial Wacom tablets in Mac OS X@macosxhints

Mon, 22 May 2006 16:30:06 +0200

Wacom doesn't provide a driver for "obsolete" serial tablets in Mac OS X. Nature abhors a vacuum. So an open source project emerged to fill the void. TabletMagic is a free, open source driver and preference pane for Wacom serial tablets. Supported model numbers start with PL, SD, UD, KT, and CT, and end in -R. It has been tested with tablet models UD-1212-R, UD-1218-R, CT-0045-R, PL-300, and PL-400. Intuos (GD) is not yet supported. ADB tablets are not supported. The updated preference pane provides an improved interface to control the driver, configure low-level tablet parameters, set mapping options and presets, and test the tablet. TabletMagic 2 includes full source code under the General Public License. [robg adds: I have a newer tablet, so I can't test this one -- but I know there are a fair number of serial tablets out there, so perhaps this will help someone...]

10.4: Hide all low UID users from the login window@macosxhints

Mon, 22 May 2006 16:30:04 +0200

In the days before 10.4, a user with a user ID lower than 500 would be hidden from the login window. This was especially practical when creating server administration users like postgres. For some reason, 10.4 didn't preserve this behaviour. This hint explains one method of hiding such users by defining each of them in a list. Here's a solution that will simply hide all the users with IDs below 500, as previous OS X releases did by default. Open Terminal, and type this command: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \ Hide500Users -boolean true This takes care of the login window, as well as the Fast User Switching menu. It also does not add the "Other..." option to the login window.

10.4: Alias individual Yojimbo items@macosxhints

Mon, 22 May 2006 16:30:02 +0200

I use Bare Bones' Yojimbo as an information repository, as well as to store my next actions and other notes that I consult regularly. But rather than switching to Yojimbo each time I want to view one of these items, I found an easy way to access them by creating an alias of the metadata file for the individual items. Do a Spotlight search for the item you want to use, then select it and press Command-Return (from the Spotlight results drop-down, not the standalone Results window). This displays the metadata item (the file that Yojimbo creates for Spotlight searches) in the Finder. Make an alias of this file, then rename it; you won't want to keep the funny name it uses. In my case, I stuck it on the desktop, but you can put it anyplace. When you double-click the alias, the item opens in Yojimbo in its own window. With this in mind, you can create aliases for other metadata files for any application that works this way. You'll find these in ~/Library -> Caches -> Metadata, then...

Install an enhanced SMART monitoring package@macosxhints

Fri, 19 May 2006 16:30:07 +0200

Unfortunately, I've recently had reason to want to check the SMART status of my PowerBook's internal disk. Apple's Disk Utility will tell you a simple pass/fail summary of the SMART status of the disk, but it won't go into any detail, show you logs, or details of particular errors. What's more, I believe that it only looks at certain classes of errors to determing the Verified of Failing status, and so if the drive is experiencing errors, such as its firmware silently remapping sectors, it's still shown as A-OK. I decided to go hunting for some more useful utilities, and first discovered SMARTReporter which displays an icon in the menu bar showing you a visual status of the disk. This utility, however, appears to use the same criteria as Disk Utility for determining as simple pass/fail status, so in this particular case isn't that useful to me. It is handy in a more general sense as it can monitor multiple disks, and upon a SMART failure it can do any combination of: pop up an alert...

Toggle trackpad clicking via an AppleScript@macosxhints

Fri, 19 May 2006 16:30:06 +0200

Occasionally, I let other people (my partner, co-workers) hop on my PowerBook to look something up, or write a quick email, etc. My practice of keeping the trackpad on clicking mode can be annoying (and confusing) to those who don't use it, or who don't even know it's possible, as they inadvertentlly click on something they didn't mean to. Yet for me, drilling down into the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane and unchecking the "Clicking" box was more time consuming and than I'd like. The following AppleScript was for me an elegant solution, hope others may fine it useful. It's especially useful with Quicksilver, since I can just invoke Quicksilver, hit t-o-g-Return (which finds the script I've named "Toggle Trackpad Clicking"), and it's done. How to use: Copy the script: tell application "System Preferences" activate end tell tell application "System Events" tell process "System Preferences" click the menu item "Keyboard & Mouse" of the menu "View" of menu bar 1 ...

A script to quote any script for use as an alias@macosxhints

Fri, 19 May 2006 16:30:03 +0200

This recent hint describes how to pause and resume a process or application. The automatic version of the hint involved a long, but single-line, perl script that I said could be made into an alias. However, that's easier said than done, since the script contains so many special symbols you have to escape them properly. Therefore, this hint is actually a standalone helper hint. If you want to make an alias out of a perl command or other complex script, you can let perl do it for you like this: perl -we '$s=;print quotemeta $s' Run this, then type (or paste) in any command, and it will print out an escaped version of the entered code that can then be aliased.

10.4: Manually add a Tiger Software Update Server@macosxhints

Fri, 19 May 2006 16:30:02 +0200

I've been using my computer on a network where there is a Software Update Server (SUS) available, but since my computer is not managed by Tech Support, I've been unable to use it. I recently found the secret location of the preference that Workgroup Manager saves the SUS location in; it's in /Library -> Managed Preferences -> short_username -> com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist. Copy the following code into a plain text document and save it as com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist in the above mentioned location. Make sure to edit the string of CatalogURL to your specific SUS URL: CatalogURL http://PUT THE URL OF YOUR SUS HERE/ WebKitDefaultFontSize 11 WebKi...

Avoid a QuickTime 7.1 / VLC embedded video issue@macosxhints

Thu, 18 May 2006 16:08:00 +0200

I was getting a "(no picture)" message in Safari windows in place of streaming content after upgrading to QuickTime 7.1. This makes the trailers site truly depressing, I'll tell you what! A quick search found this article on MacFixIt regarding some sound issues, and a reply by a user named Swift2 with a comment and a fix for the issue I was having. It turns out that the latest version of VLC wants to install a web plug-in, and if you let it do so, it will cause this problem. To solve the problem, just remove VLC Plugin.plugin from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins, then relaunch your browser. The only other glitch I noticed with the new version of QuickTime is that if you play an MPEG in an Inspector preview or in column view, it will pause a few seconds from the end and then jump to the last frame. Anyone else?

Allow sleep in Better Performance Energy Saver mode@macosxhints

Thu, 18 May 2006 16:07:00 +0200

I was looking for a way to change the default settings for Energy Saver menu extra. I have a PowerBook, and from time to time, I want to switch to Better Performance, which makes H264 encoding faster, thanks to highest processor performance. (I have noticed an increase from 17fps while on Automatic to more than 25fps on Highest.) However, I also like the computer to sleep after encoding. This is a problem, because the default setting in Better Performance mode (when plugged in) is Never Sleep (as probably a server or desktop user would like). So I backed up and sudo edited the following system file: /System -> Library -> SystemConfiguration -> PowerManagement.bundle -> Contents -> Resources -> com.apple.SystemPowerProfileDefaults.plist In the SystemProfileDefaults -> 3 -> AC Power section, I changed the value of System Sleep Timer a desired value in minutes. I then did the same thing for section 4 of SystemProfileDefaults. I was a bit too lazy to figure out what those 3 and 4 means...

10.4: Another method of adding album art to iTunes@macosxhints

Thu, 18 May 2006 16:06:00 +0200

I am the proud posessor of 45GB of music, none of which is downloaded. However, because I digitized many of these files on my PC years ago, most of my colection does not have album art. I found a simple fix for this problem. First, I downloaded and installed the Sing that iTune! Dashboard widget. Activate the widget, and click the "i" button to flip it over. Check the Download Artwork button, and change the pop-up to 'into iTunes.' Then I downloaded a program that allows users to move widgets from the Dashboard to the desktop. I then moved Sing that iTune to the desktop. Next, I configured it to save album art to iTunes, which also applies the artwork to all the songs from any given album. Finally, I set iTunes to shuffle. Now, as iTunes shuffles through my music, Sing That iTune! goes through and applies all the album art. It's an easy way to get a lot of work done in just a few easy steps. [robg adds: This hint explains how to detach widgets from the Dashboard without using any t...

Unmount FireWire drives after SuperDuper backup@macosxhints

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Like many people, I depend on SuperDuper (an award-winning backup utility) to make nightly backups of my Mac. I have it scheduled to run at 2:50 a.m., but in reality most of the time I run SD manually when I am finished for the day. I run a 'Smart Update,' and then have SuperDuper sleep my Powerbook. This works great; in the morning, I can just pick up my PowerBook and head to the office. Except for one thing: the external FireWire drive is still attached. Sure I could just disconnect it, but do you want to see that dire message that appears when you disconnect a drive without unmounting it first? Me neither. The obvious solution: Tell SuperDuper to eject the drive when it is finished. The problem: How? Simple. Write a small shell script to eject the drive and have SuperDuper run it after the copy and before the computer goes to sleep. Standard disclaimer: I've been using this successfully on a 15" PowerBook 1.5 GHz running 10.4.6 and SuperDuper 2.1 (v77). Use at your own risk, etc e...

10.4: Control Front Row via a Bluetooth phone@macosxhints

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:29:00 +0200

Here is a script to use with Salling Clicker, which will let you control Apple's Front Row with your Bluetooth mobile phone (it should work with most Bluetooth phones -- see above Salling link for compatibility details). This script could be handy if you can't be bothered finding the Apple remote control for Front Row, or if it has been chewed up by the dog. In order to control Front Row from your Mobile Phone you need a few things first: Download, install and pay for Salling Clicker. Now install Salling Clicker in your mobile phone by going into System Preferences -> Salling Clicker, and clicking on Set Up Device. Install the Front Row script found on this page of my blog macosxhints direct download mirror). Open up Salling Clicker in System Preferences. You'll see Clicker Items and Scripts menus. Just drag the file above, FrontRowLite.cgz, into the menu box named Clicker Items. In Salling Clicker 2, this puts it with all the other standard clicker items, like iTunes, in your phon...

Another possible iChat fix for connection issues@macosxhints

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:25:00 +0200

I have been having problems with iChat for many months now. Not responding, or the other person not responding, and all of that nonsense when trying to do an audio or video chat. Sometimes the chats would work, most of the time they didn't. My setup is like this: A phone line to a DLink 302g modem to an AirPort Extreme base station, and finally, out to my PowerBook running 10.4.6. The latest fix that I have tried, which seems to have worked so far, is to put the modem into "bridged" mode. I then connect to the ISP via 'Connect via PPPoE' under the Internet tab of the Airport Admin application -- add your ISP username and password in the appropriate boxes. Hope this helps! I have been through the previous 212 iChat hints, and I don't think I came across a similar hint.

Import old NeXTSTEP/Openstep mailboxes to Mail@macosxhints

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:23:00 +0200

I fired up my old NeXT hardware this past week, and noticed that it had a NeXT Mail.app email archive and newsgroup posting archive from my early days on the 'net. How I would love to have that info extracted and placed into my current archives on my IMAP server. However, I ran into two problems: PopOver would not connect to to my IMAP server, due to security changes that disallow older, less secure connections. The files were all in NeXT's mbox format. So I FTP'd the files over to my OS X machine, and tried Mail's 'import other' function, which allows mbox importing. Unfortunately, mbox import failed, much to my chagrin. On a lark, I tried "Mail for Mac OS X," and lo and behold, it started sucking in all my old mail in the Imported folder. It even made subdirectories to keep all my mail separated based on the old mailboxes I had. I thought I would just pass this hint on even if there is little use for this hint other than as a trivia item.

Prevent automatic playback of embedded QuickTime@macosxhints

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:22:00 +0200

Irritated by the automatic playing of ads on the Apple home page? Or how about that stupid little movie on the 300 blurb on the Movie Trailers page? To stop these things from playing automatically, control-click on the offending movies (or any other QuickTime content), and select Plug-in Settings from the pop-up menu. Go to the Browser tab on the QuickTime preferences panel, and uncheck the 'Play movies automatically' option. You'll now have to click to play any embedded QuickTime content. [robg adds: You can go directly to the QuickTime Preferences panel, of course; no need to first visit a web page with QuickTime content. And yes, this is a somewhat obvious hint, but it's possible that not everyone knows where to look to disable auto playback.]

Fix Open/Save dialog delays caused by local iDisk@macosxhints

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:00:00 +0200

The iDisk feature of .Mac can be very useful, however it seems to be plauged by slow speeds (I find it impossible to use without the local iDisk turned on) and sync issues (automatic sync causes corrupted files in some apps). Even with auto-syncing off, open/save dialogs and even opening Finder windows can cause a spinning rainbow cursor; sometimes for over a minute. The problem lies in the fact that the local iDisk (stored in /Volumes/iDisk) has symbolic links (aliases) to folders on the remote iDisk (/Volumes/your_mac.com_name). When OS X lists the local iDisk's contents, info for these folders must be loaded from the remote iDisk, which can take some time. The Open and Save dialogs are particularly bad if they default to a location on the local iDisk, because the column view that displays the files and folders includes the alias folders at the root of the local iDisk. As some people have noted, the problem gets better after the first incident. This is because OS X is kind enough t...

10.4: How to swap pairs of Finder keyboard shortcuts@macosxhints

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:00:00 +0200

Over in the Macworld forums the other day, a reader lamented the switch in functionality of Command-N between OS 9 (new folder) and OS X (new Finder window). It's been so many years since I switched over that I'd basically completely forgotten about that change -- and I make new windows more often than new folders, so I actually prefered the switch. Nonetheless, I was pretty sure we must have run a hint on how to swap the existing shortcut keys, which became possible with the release of 10.4. But all I could find when searching was this old hint I wrote about other ways to easily create new folders. It seems I never documented the method of switching the New Finder Window and New Folder keyboard shortcuts. So I did that yesterday in this Macworld tip writeup. In a nutshell, you can make Command-N create new folders by first assigning the New Finder Window command to another key combo, then reassigning the New Folder command to Command-N (all done in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the ...

How to run Classic (pre OS X) apps on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:00:00 +0200

Do you use an Intel-based Mac but still have a few essential Classic (pre-OS X) Mac applications you want to run? Recent universal compiles allow you to use SheepShaver (SS) or Basilisk II (B2) to run Classic software in emulation on Intel Macs under Mac OS X directly -- or under Windows via dual-boot or Parallels virtualization. B2 emulates an old 68K Macintosh, while SS emulates a PowerPC Mac. What you need: An old Mac OS (up to OS 8.1 for B2, or OS 7.5.2 through 9.0.4 for SS). You can get OS 7.5.3 for free from Apple. E-Maculation has a downloadable OS 7.5.3 starter disk already prepared (4.3MB download). A Mac ROM. For B2, you must extract a ROM file from an old 68K Mac that you own. Use CopyROM or ROM-grabber for the extraction. For SheepShaver, use the Mac OS ROM Update 1.0, provided by Apple. None of the other Apple-distributed software-based New World ROMs, nor the Old World ROMs I've extracted from my own Macs have worked. However, to use this ROM, I think you'll need at l...

10.4: Set the Boot Camp startup disk during boot@macosxhints

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:00:00 +0200

If you've got an Intel Mac, and you've installed Boot Camp, then you're familiar with the boot loader screen. As seen at right, it appears at startup and lets you select whether to boot your Intel Mac into OS X or Windows. I accidentally discovered this tip -- I was invoking the boot loader when I realized that my Bluetooth mouse worked. Using the mouse, I could select my partition with a double click. The interesting thing is that if you click the arrow icon seen below the partition, then that partition will be set as your Mac's startup disk. For example, if you select the Windows partition, the Mac will then boot into Windows every time you restart it -- unless you hold down the Option key to bring up the boot loader again.

An odd fix for AirTunes intermittent dropouts@macosxhints

Mon, 15 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I have been experiencing intermittent dropouts when broadcasting iTunes music from my G5 iMac to my amplifier using AirPort Express. I tried running the firmware updater for the AirPort Express, re-positioning it, checked cables, checked for interference, etc. However, nothing seemed to help. Then I tried switching the output in iTunes to 'multiple speakers' instead of just to the AirPort Express. With music coming from the iMac's internal speakers and the amplifier connected through the AirPort Express, the problem has resolved itself ... and I haven't a clue why.

Prevent unwanted host sleep while networked@macosxhints

Mon, 15 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

With the new child in the house, I've lately found myself working in many locations at many odd hours of the night. The end result is that my 12" PowerBook is getting a lot of exercise lately, including a lot of hint writing and editing. (And it's also making me yearn for a 15" Core Duo machine; as much as I love travelling with my 12" PB, it's not the ideal machine from which to work remotely within the house. The lack of pixels leads to too much reliance on Expos� to help get things done.) My Dual G5 desktop runs a local copy of Geeklog, so I do all the previewing and editing of stories from its database on the G5. When working on the PB, I enter the G5's IP address to load the submitted stories, preview my edits, and then publish to the G5. (Later on, I dump the SQL data files from the G5 and upload to the web server to publish the hints.) I was doing this the other evening when the G5 suddenly stopped serving pages. So I put down the PB, walked over to the den, and found that the...

Fight ATSServer stall at login@macosxhints

Mon, 15 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

The ATSServer process sometimes stalls the system upon login, and there is nothing you can do to kill it at this point except killing it by ssh from another machine. But what to do when there is no other machine you can use to login from? It gets even worse if you activate/deactive a lot of fonts during your session. The solution I found, which fits my needs, was to create a LogoutHook, which kills ATSServer on logout. Create a simple sh script: #!/bin/sh killall ATSServer Save it in a convenient place, like /usr/local/bin, and name it killATSServer.sh Then make it executable via sudo chmod +x killATSServer.sh. Make it a LogoutHook by entering the following command: sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow \ LogoutHook /usr/local/bin/killATSServer.sh And now everything should be fine. The ATSServer process will be killed on logout. It is started automatically upon the next login. This solution was tested under 10.4.x, and it works well for me. Hope if helps others. [robg...

10.4: Disable the installation of Dashboard Widgets@macosxhints

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:31:00 +0200

My company is preparing to install Tiger on all of our Macs, and I was told by an IT guy in the know that there's an intent to completely disable the Dashboard. Having used the Dashboard since Tiger's release and loving it, I...

Play back certain .avi movies on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

My Samsung Digimax A7 digital camera is capable of shooting video footage. The file format is .avi, but I found that my Titanium PowerBook was incapable of playing the video. It is my understanding that QuickTime supports the...

10.4: Choose Intel Mac boot drive via remote control@macosxhints

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I've installed Apple's Boot Camp, which lets my Intel-based Mac boot into Windows. To do so, you hold down the Option key at startup, and then select either the Mac or Windows partition to boot from. When at the boot volume...

10.4: A MacBook Pro 'no sleep' solution@macosxhints

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

So, I had troubles sleeping my Macbook Pro, since I use a Sony VAIO memory card adapter (VGP-MCA20), plugged into the cardbus slot. When I try to sleep my computer, the screen turns black, then the SuperDrive is activated (I ...

Rename an iPod via iTunes@macosxhints

Thu, 11 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I think most people just name their iPods during the initial run of the iPod Setup Assistant, and then just leave the name alone. But what if you want to rename your iPod? I've checked the Apple manuals, and Apple doesn't app...

10.4: Adjust word break behavior back to 10.3 default@macosxhints

Thu, 11 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Problem: With the advent of Mac OS X 10.4, the default "text double-click selection" behavior was changed so that when double-clicking a key in an AppleScript record, not only the key would be selected, but in certain cases, ...

Firefox Facts ebook - A great collection of Firefox tips@macosxhints

Wed, 10 May 2006 16:30:03 +0200

The macosxhints Rating: [Score: 10 out of 10] Developer: Firefox Facts/ 420KB direct download Price: Free Note: As you may know, I was out for two weeks with our new daughter, and I returned needing to catch up on a co...

10.4: Apply Finder labels based on application type@macosxhints

Wed, 10 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Having just bought a MacBookPro, I wanted a fast and easy way to see what apps I have that are universal, versus the ones that are PowerPC. This AppleScript will apply finder color labels to all of you applications. PowerPC a...

Have fun with Google's 3D Warehouse@macosxhints

Mon, 08 May 2006 18:30:00 +0200

Google has a free 3D modeler, Google SketchUp, but for the moment it is Windows only (the Mac version has been announced but is not yet available). However, although Google doesn't mention it, OS X users can get a free viewer...

10.4: Reorder the list of firewall rules@macosxhints

Mon, 08 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

If you're using the built-in firewall in OS X, you'll find that you can't rearrange the order of the rules in the GUI -- things are stuck in the order that they're shown in the panel. This can make it difficult to find the ru...

Play movies on a widescreen TV from a PowerBook@macosxhints

Fri, 05 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I sometimes use my PowerBook (Titanium G4) to play movies on a widescreen TV via the built-in S-Video connector. Unfortunately, the PowerBook does not appear to be very widescreen-TV-friendly; its TV display proportions are ...

Speed up iTunes CD importing@macosxhints

Fri, 05 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

This might be obvious for some people... I find that importing a CD goes visibly faster [you can see it in the progress bar] if you're not playing the CD while importing, even if you're using a fast Mac with gobs of RAM. On ...

Tabbed Terminal alternative@macosxhints

Wed, 03 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

A number of Mac OS X applications support tabbed terminals, such as iTerm, GLTerm and the X11 apps such as multi-aterm. Some users are happy with these solutions, but none of them worked for me: iTerm is too unresponsive--it...

10.4: Change firewall rules for system Sharing services@macosxhints

Wed, 03 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

After using OSXvnc for a while I installed Apple Remote Desktop client 2.1 because I have two screens. Chicken of the VNC to ARD works great (though slowly) as long as I do not choose 8-bit mode and remember to send a passwor...

Use AppleScript and Mail for remote control and file access@macosxhints

Wed, 03 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I am unable to connect to my home Mac from work using VNC or SSH because of the company firewall, and I frequently wish I could access files or perform other tasks on my home Mac while still in work. So I wrote an Applescri...

Change Google search country with a bookmark@macosxhints

Mon, 01 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

For non-English speakers, this hint allows you to change the country that Google uses when searching from Safari. Whenever you enter a search into the Google search field in Safari, the search is made on the US Google. But i...

10.4: System-wide iPhoto browser@macosxhints

Mon, 01 May 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Since Apple developed its "digital hub", with iLife and now iWork, I have wanted to have a system-wide panel that would let me choose pictures from my iPhoto library without having to open the application. For example, if I...

Share a Mac DVD drive to a Windows PC@macosxhints

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

My daughter bought a cheap Windows PC a couple of years back to play the online game Final Fantasy XI. The company recently released a game expansion, but the software is on a DVD and her computer does not have a DVD drive. A...

Run Aperture 1.1 on 12" PowerBook@macosxhints

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

If you had Aperture running on a 12" PowerBook using one of the methods available (such as this hint), and you upgraded to 1.1, then you must have noticed that Aperture stopped working, complaining about graphics card incomp...

10.4: Build a GCC 3.3 C compiler for Intel Mac OS X@macosxhints

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I use a GCC cross compiler for embedded systems development on my Mac. I use Apple's supplied GCC to build the cross toolchain, but when Apple started using GCC 4.0.x, I could no longer compile the specific version of binutil...

Delete Firefox bookmark backups to save space@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Firefox stores backup copies of prior bookmark files, and these files can accumulate, taking up a fair amount of space. I found 129 files, the most recent being 300 KB. Deleting all the backup files saved about 40 MB in disk ...

10.4: Fix a command-line FTP problem with IPv4 servers@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I sometimes use the command-line FTP program that's included with Mac OS X to upload files to my ISP. Since Tiger was released, I have had problems. The login process always works fine, but when I try to do a dir command, for...

Resolve Macbook Pro trackpad response issue@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

The Macbook Pro trackpad is very sensitive, and this falsely triggers the Accidental Input detection in Tiger. The result is that the trackpad seems to lock up for a few seconds. The fix is easy enough: go to System Prefer...

Fix Quark QLA server after Java update@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

After installing the Java 2Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 4 on my OS X server running QLA 3.5, the QLA server would not open, run or even uninstall. I had to do the following to revert it back to Java 1.4.2: ...

10.4: Resolve Spotlight pause on hard disk sleep@macosxhints

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Lately I have been noticing a slowdown when I activate Spotlight. My searches would not begin for a few moments, and then would take a moment to complete. I thought it was because of my two 500GB internal hard drives, but...

10.4: Find all non-Universal applications@macosxhints

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I love my new MacBook Pro with its Intel processor. Unfortunately, not all of the applications that I want to run are Universal. While I am impressed with Rosetta, I eventually want my machine to be 100% Rosetta-free. As I ...

View Power On Self-Test results via AppleScript@macosxhints

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

After my lower memory slot failed, it took me quite some time to realize it. While the Mac does a Power On Self-Test of certain hardware, it gave me no notification that this slot had failed. It is possible to get to a report...

10.4: A Smart folder Automator action@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

I have made a Automator Action that allows you to use your smart folders in Automator workflows. It's written in Cocoa and relies on Spotlight and it's notification features. You can download the Automator Action installe...

Delete updaters and save disk space@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:30:00 +0200

Software update likes to insist that you have and download the latest version of iPod Updater and iSight Updater--even if you aren't using these devices. Even if you do use the iPod and/or iSight, it doesn't delete the previ...

10.4: A PDF workaround for PowerPC printing on Intel@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:48:00 +0200

I tried this earlier hint on using PowerPC printer drivers on Mac OS X Intel. I noticed when printing from Intel or Universal applications that if I selected the print driver options which were provided by the PowerPC code in...

10.4: Quickly 'free the mouse' in Parallels Workstation@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:16:00 +0200

Using Parallels Workstation? To regain control of the mouse in OS X (freeing it from the virtual machine), the default key command is Control-Option (they call it Control-Alt), and then you have to move the window to do what ...

Use an iSight-equipped Mac as a surveillance tool@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:58:00 +0200

One of the first things I thought when I saw the iMac would have a built in isight camera was "the doors have ears and the walls have eyes." If you really want to invite big brother into your home (or be him yourself), you ca...

10.4: A speedup tip for Parallels Workstation@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:35:00 +0200

Most of you have probably heard, by now, of Parallels, which creates a virtual machine that runs Windows on the Intel macs, much as Virtual PC did in the past. But this isn't Virtual PC - I've found the Parallels workstation ...

10.4: Spoof old PowerPC Firefox with Universal version@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:18:00 +0200

The official Universal build of Firefox was released in mid-April. You have to get it explicitly -- Firefox's "Check for Updates" feature will only find updates for the PowerPC version. I've found that some sites don't like ...

10.4: A simple alarm clock that plays an iTunes playlist@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:09:00 +0200

I was looking for a way to use my computer as an alarm clock. (I don�t like my local radio stations.) I checked out several of the software packages available, and none of them worked for me. I wanted something that would s...

10.4: Define partial words in the Dictionary pop-up@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:56:00 +0200

We all know that you can look up a word in any Cocoa application on Mac OS X 10.4 by hitting the (slightly awkward) key combination of Control-Command-D when the cursor is hovered over the word you'd like to define. However,...

10.4: Verizon and Telus calendar sync fix for RAZR/Mac@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:46:00 +0200

I managed to remove the Verizon (also Telus) limit on iSyncing my Razr VC3 CDMA with iCal. I have been trying hacks for weeks, and had almost given up when I read another macosxhints tip. I also decided to try sync-repair fro...

10.4: Create tab clones via a keyboard shortcut@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:49:00 +0200

My latest beta of Quicksilver (QS) crashed while I was in Safari, and I kept hammering down on the Command-Space key combo (my setting to activate QS, not Spotlight) before I realized this. The QS dialog did not appear, but w...

Parallels Workstation - Run other OSes alongside OS X@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:49:00 +0200

The macosxhints Rating: [Score: 7 out of 10] Developer: Parallels/ Product page Price: $39.95 during beta / $49.95 normal price [This is the Pick of the Week for the week of April 10th] Last week (the week of ...

10.4: A solution for server volumes locked by 10.4.6@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:04:00 +0200

Soon after installing the OS X 10.4.6 update, some of us discovered that some of our server volumes were suddenly locked. And some of the folders in these volumes were write locked for no apparent reason. It didn't take some...

10.4: Prevent hang after login of Active Directory User@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:54:00 +0200

Symptoms: Spinning beachball after login, only Desktop picture is shown, no menu bar except the Spotlight bar, no Dock available. Local users can easily login, remote login via ssh still possible. Solution: It turned out ...

10.4: Create multi-partition Boot Camp disks@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:48:00 +0200

It turns out that part of the 10.4.6 update was the inclusion of non-destructive partitioning in diskutil, via the new resizeVolume option. You can use this feature, for example, to create a Boot Camp setup with more than tw...

10.4: View web pages in Dictionary@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:41:00 +0200

I recently grabbed a URL from the Address Bar in Safari. My intention was to drag it to the edge of the screen and drop it in Yojimbo's pop-out drawer. Along the way, I accidentally dropped the URL on the Dictionary Window. T...

Use the SMC2621W-U print server with OS X@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:20:00 +0200

The SMC2621W-U print server is a small, cheap wireless print server with support for Windows and AppleTalk printing. At least that's what it says, but I have never gotten it to work correctly with OS X using these protocols. ...

A possible fix for misbehaving FireWire devices@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:18:00 +0200

I bought an iSight camera for my G5 iMac a few months ago and it worked for a while. Until I flashed the firmware that is. It never worked after that. It would sit and you could hear the iris open and close constantly. In the...

New poll posted on Intel Macs and Windows XP@macosxhints

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:05:00 +0200

I've posted a poll concerning the new solutions that allow easy use of Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. I'm curious about what impact, if any, the ability to run Windows on Mac hardware has had on your buying plans for the Int...

10.4: Use iSync with a Nokia 6230 with older firmware@macosxhints

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:16:00 +0200

In Apple's latest update (10.4.6), they have finally added iSync support for Series 40 Nokias, including the 6230. Unfortunately for some reason, that only applies to 6230's with later firmware revisions. However, there does...

A solution for X11 forwarding on AFP OS X clients@macosxhints

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:57:00 +0200

When ssh'ing into an OS X client as a user whose home directory is mounted on an AFP server, the following errors can occur. First, during the login process: /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth: error in locking authority file ~/.XAuthorit...

Use the Dell DJ Ditty with OS X@macosxhints

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:53:00 +0200

So I'm sure that some of you have Dell DJ Ditty MP3 players by now. Mine was given to me, but I'd like to make it useful. The problem is that according to Dell, it doesn't work with OS X. At all. Actually, I think it works ea...

Make the OS X Color Picker into an application@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:46:00 +0200

I've always enjoyed OS X's color picker. It's a marvelous way to choose colors within an app that uses it. But therein lies the problem: some applications don't make use of it. This becomes more of a problem with web developm...

10.4: Watch and listen to the Tiger setup movie@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:50:00 +0200

I was asked by a friend to help him make the setup tune that is played when you first install Tiger as his phone's ringtone. After a lot of digging I found the location of the sound file (an MP3), and the movie (a QuickTime m...

10.4: Possibly improve Safari's speed by disabling RSS@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:45:00 +0200

Page rendering seems faster for me after disabling RSS in Safari v. 2.0.3 (10.4.6). If you use another app for feeds (I use Thunderbird) or don't care for them, it might help. Use an application like Safari Enhancer to enabl...

10.4 Server: Enable the Blojsom Admin Console@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:40:00 +0200

OS X Server's Weblog/Podcasting Server (based on Blojsom) is pretty darn cool, but it seems like one should be able to do a lot more from the Admin perspective with one's blog. (For example, deleting a blog category that you ...

10.4: A free utility to check for complete network copies@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:33:00 +0200

A possible bug which has been reported at several Mac internet sites and at Apple Tech Support involves incomplete copies made over a network to 10.4 machines. In copying some folders -- in my experience, ones with a large nu...

Avoid certain characters in networked printer names@macosxhints

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:26:00 +0200

I recently had to purchase a new printer, and so I took time to choose one to network. I chose an HP Deskjet 5940. The box said it was compatable with both OS X and XP, and the documentation inside claimed it could be shared ...

10.4: Update WindowsXP with SP2 for Boot Camp@macosxhints

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:55:00 +0200

I just tried installing Windows on my Intel Mac last night, but had some driver issues. It turns out it was because I had on old install disc of XP that didn't include any service packs -- and SP2 is required for the Mac to r...

10.4: Create DMGs in Disk Utility via drag and drop@macosxhints

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:33:00 +0200

I've been using Disk Utility a lot lately to make disk images from folders. The process is somewhat tedious, so I searched Hints for alternative methods. In this hint, I learned that in 10.2 there was an application called D...

An AppleScript for real time backups with Path Finder@macosxhints

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:40:00 +0200

If you're like me, you use Path Finder in lieu of Apple's OS X Finder as your primary file browser. This means that the Finder is never running on my system, and I would like for it to not launch each time my backup runs. Pre...

Locally Cache Mac OS X Network Login Folders@macosxhints

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:37:00 +0200

Here at the school district, I was running into a problem where if several Mac OS X wireless clients logged into the network at once, everything slowed down to a crawl. After researching the problem, it looked like the user's...

Set up wireless printing via the Linksys WPS54G@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:42:00 +0200

After many hours, phone calls, and profanities, I am printing wirelessly using a Linksys WPS54G Print Server. I am printing from a Powerbook G4 running Mac OSX 10.4.5 to an Epson Stylus Photo R320. Here's what worked for me: ...

10.4: Sync Nokia Series 40 via 10.4.6 iSync@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:29:00 +0200

At last, iSync has support for the Nokia Series 40 operating system (OS), but not all phones have been added. This is, though, quite easy to do yourself. (This is based on another hint posted about the Series 60 phones.) Fir...

Speed up Adobe Reader PDF rendering in Safari@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:57:00 +0200

Launch Adobe Reader, and then open its Preferences. Under the Internet section, update your network speed to LAN (or whatever's appropriate) from 56kbps (default). This really speeds up the Adobe Reader PDF viewer plug-in fr...

A fix for iCal refusing to show a given view@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:43:00 +0200

After several years of use, under 10.4.3 through 10.4.5 on a PowerBook G4, iCal suddenly refused to display the week view -- the one I depend on the most! The failure mode appeared (as best I can tell) shortly after using an ...

10.4: Scripts to help search AppleScript via Spotlight@macosxhints

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:38:00 +0200

Macscripter.com partly inspired me to make the two scripts below -- I love the way the scripts on their site can be loaded into Script Editor with one click. And I hate that I cannot search my scripts for references in Spotli...

An AppleScript to automatically reconnect to the net@macosxhints

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:12:00 +0200

I leave my PowerBook G4 (running OS X 10.4.5) mainly unattended, and I want to be able to access it remotely; to do that, it has to be always online. From time to time, my Internet connection drops and I've come up with an Ap...

Update Garmin nuvi GPS firmware on a Mac@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:19:00 +0200

Seeing the TomTom post, I thought I'd chime in that while everyone waits (and waits) for Garmin to make good on its Mac compatibility promise, the new n�vi 350 (a great in-car GPS) is already fully Mac compatible, only it see...

10.4: Enable tabbed windows in iChat@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:14:00 +0200

A free little iChat extension called Chax just released a version that allows for tabbed iChat windows. They did a very nice job. [robg adds: Chax is a previous Pick of the Week winner, but it didn't have tabbed window suppo...

Reduce excess fan noise by cleaning out dust@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:46:00 +0200

There have been reports of high fan speeds on the iMac 15 in flat panerl after installing various versions of 10.3.8 or 10.4.x. I had such a problem. I tried the hints about restart with plug out and PRAM resetting and the re...

10.4: More Spotlight results keyboard shortcuts@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:42:00 +0200

Spotlight searches can bring up long lists of results, and there are a few ways to navigate through them quickly. After you've typed in a Spotlight search and you've got your list of search results growing down the right sid...

10.4: Avoid sending Mail with unattached attachments@macosxhints

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:14:00 +0200

I have this annoying habit of sending emails that refer to an attachment, only to realize after sending that I never actually attached anything. So I wrote a plug-in for Mail.app that scans my messages when I hit Send. If th...

10.4: Print to AppleTalk networked StyleWriters@macosxhints

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:07:00 +0200

I was fooling around with my old Color Stylewriter 4100 printer and some LocalTalk connectors, and found how to make it print from Tiger using AppleTalk PAP (Printer Access Protocol). Presently this printer is connected to my...

10.4: Combine Mail messages for print via Automator@macosxhints

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:51:00 +0200

I created a three-line Automator application to combine multiple messages into a single (new) email message. I can then print this message, which saves tons of paper. First, you select the messages you want in Mail. They wil...

Access Safari's site nav drop-down via a mouse click@macosxhints

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:46:00 +0200

As described in this previous hint, you can navigate a site's structure in Safari by command-clicking the title bar. I accidentally discovered that you can get the same behavior by clicking the title bar with the middle butt...

Restore PHP, MySQL, etc. after a fresh OS X install@macosxhints

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 16:32:00 +0200

Yesterday, when I tried to run the 10.4.6 updater on my Dual G5, it locked up just before the end of the progress bar -- all apps went spinning beachball, and force quit had no affect. I had no choice but to power down manual...

Adding static routes to a network@macosxhints

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:24:00 +0200

I have two LANS, each with their own OS X Server, that need to talk to each other through a low bandwidth, secure, dedicated connection. There are various ways to do this, but I opted for using a pair of EtherBridges, which a...

Use Tiger Woods 2004 (PC) courses on the Mac@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:23:00 +0200

I'm a bit of a golf nut; I play the real thing when I get the chance (not nearly often enough), and enjoy playing on the computer when the real thing isn't a viable option (November through March here in Oregon, generally). I...

Recover from wrong language on screensaver password@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:16:00 +0200

I have my Mac (running Tiger) use both British English and Spanish keyboard layouts. My passwords use various symbols as well as letters and numbers. Several times I have had passwords rejected, even though I know I typed the...

10.4: Back up files in the background using launchd@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:59:00 +0200

Having benefited from this site many times, here is my first contribution. Apple provides an example of how to automatically back up things using a Folder Action. This solution did not meet my needs, however, since: It does...

10.4: Search Samba volumes with Spotlight@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:54:00 +0200

I have read many different posts about how to enable Spotlight to find archives, etc., on external volumes, but I didn't find a solution to make Spotlight to search on a Samba volume. I found one post on macosxhints, but then...

10.4: Combine PDFs without using Automator@macosxhints

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:15:00 +0200

There have been many hints here about combining PDFs over the years. All but one required either third party software, or old versions of OS X. The most recent hint notes that Automator has a combine PDF action built-in. This...

How to convert MHT and MHTL files@macosxhints

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:31:00 +0200

A friend who recently switched from Windows has a few hundred .mht files to convert to something more usable in OS X. .mht files are the RFC 2557 web archives that Internet Explorer on Windows creates. A previous hint gives a...

10.4: Enable remote logging in 10.4@macosxhints

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:16:00 +0200

First we had this hint on how to enable remote system event logging in whatever version of OS X was current in April '02. Then we had this hint to update it for Panther. Well, now we are into Tiger, and it's changed again. I...

10.4: A c-shell alias for searching via Spotlight@macosxhints

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:41:00 +0200

This hint is motivated by this earlier hint, and other stuff I've read elsewhere. I created a csh alias to search via Spotlight. Results are returned in chronological order and logically grouped. Here is a detailed descripti...

10.4: Export Mail messages to Thunderbird, revisited@macosxhints

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:38:00 +0200

Apple Mail v2 does not use the .mbox format as the Panther version did. At least, that's what it looks like. While trying to move my mail to Mozilla Thunderbird, I could not find a way to export my mailboxes. However, if you...

Install TomTom GO maps using a Mac@macosxhints

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:35:00 +0200

I've been fighting with my TomTom GO 500 on my Mac for a while now. The software that TomTom provides allows me to backup and restore the device, but not to add new maps. TomTom's response to my support request was to find a ...

Use AppleScripts to send URLs from browser to browser@macosxhints

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:24:00 +0200

I finally got around to generalizing the ability to "open URL in $browser" using a single keystroke -- that is, while running browser X, open the currently-viewed ULR in browser Y. The services menu, unfortunately: requi...

Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word@macosxhints

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:29:00 +0200

I am using Microsoft Word 2004 11.2 with Tiger 10.4.5 on a 1GHz PowerBook attached to a second monitor, a Samsung SyncMaster 213T. It turns out that when you scroll in Word on the second monitor, you get this really annoying ...

How to salvage OS X when fonts go awry@macosxhints

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:22:00 +0200

For weeks I have had Font issues. I must have either made some mistake or chosen the wrong option with Font Book, but a number of apps that relied on specific system fonts were beginning to regularly crash, or display awkward...

10.4: Create a Universal NetBoot OS X@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 18:50:00 +0200

As posted here earlier, it is possible to create a "Universal OS X" installation disk. But what's even better is one can create an Universal NetBoot Image, too! Simply image the partition, open the .plist file in the image f...

Add more videos to iTunes' Converting Songs playlist@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:14:00 +0200

I recently started using iTunes as my main iPod video converter, because it copies the tags of the existing non-iPod movies from my library when I convert them. After you've selected one or more videos in the library to conv...

10.4: Let iSync synchonrize Smart Groups@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:09:00 +0200

iSync normally restricts your list of groups to synchronize to regular ("dumb") groups. But if you create a dumb group, and drag the icon for a smart group into it, iSync will now be able to sync with the smart group. I use ...

10.4: Enable Remote Desktop.app on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:42:00 +0200

This Apple note states that ARD admin ("Remote Desktop.app") does not work on Intel Macs. A solution has been circulated on several admin lists, however: After removing ARD client components from the admin computer and resta...

Use a large display with a G3 iBook at high resolution@macosxhints

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:38:00 +0200

I recently bought the Dell 24" monitor for my PowerBook, which works great. However, I had a hard time getting it to work properly with my girlfriend's G3 iBook (933Mhz). The there is not enough video memory to drive both pro...

10.4: A collection of 'Spotlight from Terminal' tips@macosxhints

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:31:00 +0200

I just wrote a detailed article on using Spotlight from the Terminal. Here are a few tips from that article: Example 1. A Basic Spotlight Query The commandline version of Spotlight is mdfind. Simply provide your search qu...

10.4: Disable IR port on new Macs via a startup script@macosxhints

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:28:00 +0200

Having searched high and low for a way to disable the Infrared Port on new Macs, I decided to go ahead and write my own Preference Pane to do so. No sooner had I finished writing it and telling everyone about it, someone poin...

Drag and drop links to SafariStand's sidebar@macosxhints

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:06:00 +0200

I accidentally discovered that if you have SafariStand installed on Safari (tested with Safari 2.03 running on 10.4.5), and the "sidebar" preference is activated (Stand: Toggle Sidebar), you can drag and drop a link to the op...

Mac to Novell filename issues may block copying@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:41:00 +0100

When trying to drag a folder to a Novell File Server from the Mac hard drive, a user received the following message: Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occured (Error Code -51) After som...

10.4: Change keymapping only on external keyboards@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:36:00 +0100

This tip covers how to get Command and Option in the right place on an external PC keyboard, without stuffing them up on the built-in keyboard of a PowerBook. This is of great use to people who dock their laptop with a Window...

Southwest DING! now available for Mac@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:08:00 +0100

Not sure how many other people fly a bunch, but I have had to keep a XP machine around almost solely to check the Southwest Airlines super savings on DING!. Today, though, they have released a Mac OS X version, available on t...

10.4: AirPort and System.keychain password solution@macosxhints

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:23:00 +0100

I, like many other users, have had the mysterious "Mac OS X wants to use keychain system" dialog box after each reboot, when AirPort tried to access the wireless network for the first time, that refused to accept any known pa...

Sync to a remote machine without using the CLI@macosxhints

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:18:00 +0100

I've read a dozen hints on related topics, but haven't seen anything that deals with precisely this issue. I have an iMac at work and a PowerBook at home. I wanted to keep the two machines in sync, but without lugging the Pow...

Fix printing issues with shared Intel-PowerPC printers@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:18:00 +0100

I was pulling my hair out trying to get my MacBook Pro to print properly to an HP DeskJet 9800 shared by a PowerMac G4. The main problem was that on the MacBook Pro, I didn't get all of the printer options I normally should (...

10.4: Create a single Universal binary bootable disk@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:42:00 +0100

Without a Universal binary, Mac OS X 10.4 System Administrators like myself must effectively double their responsibilities and maintain two operating systems, one for each platform. Ideal would be an OS X system which is Univ...

10.4: Increase the max size of a FileVault directory@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:40:00 +0100

FileVault protected home directories are nothing more than a special usage of sparse disk images, like the ones you can create with Disk Utility. Sparse disk images only use as much space as they currently need to, but they d...

Run Starcraft on newer versions of OS X@macosxhints

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 15:41:00 +0100

Starcraft has problems running on newer installs of OS X, due to case-sensitive HFS. The easy fix for this is to create a read-write image that has a case-insensitive file system and installing it in there. [robg adds: As su...

10.4: Control zoom level when viewing PDFs in Safari@macosxhints

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 15:33:00 +0100

I've been looking for a way to zoom in and out of PDF documents when they are previewed in Safari. And I found the way in the comments on this site... Just control-click in Safari's window while previewing a PDF, and you wil...

10.4: Use Automator to detect background crashes@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:28:00 +0100

Sometimes, things crash in the background, but you need to know immediately. For example, I've installed a virus checker and its folder monitoring sometimes crashes. I want to know this straight away. So I made an Automator a...

10.4: Permanently increase the process limit@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:27:00 +0100

This is not my hint, but I'm reporting it here after seeing it posted elsewhere. Phillip Moore found a solution for occasional tcsh: no more processes and similar errors. Check his original post for details and the discussion...

Safari hijacked by Acrobat (revisited)@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:09:00 +0100

I hate that Safari will automatically present PDFs for viewing; every time you browse back to the page, you have wait for the document to be downloaded again; it does not persist if you disconnect from the network; etc. Whil...

10.4: Transfer data via iMac G5 (iSight) IrDA port@macosxhints

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:26:00 +0100

My new iMac G5 received a vCard sent from my phone -- through the Apple-shaped infrared port on the front! I just thought I'd try it, to see if the thing only cared about the Apple remote. But to my surprise, it worked. Now h...

10.4: Character conversion with textutil@macosxhints

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:22:00 +0100

Everyt ime I have come across hints about textutil, I have tried to use it for converting text files between different character encodings. According to the documentation, textutil should be perfect for this. However, it has...

A possible fix for no sound in Flash on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:31:00 +0100

I'm not sure if this problem is exclusive to Intel Macintoshes, but I first noticed it after an iTunes update; my Flash plugin had completely lost its sound. Luckily, I found an extremely strange but workable fix in the Macr...

10.4: Re-enable dynamic signatures in Mail@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:28:00 +0100

While there's certainly no shortage of dynamic email signature tricks on MacOSXHints, unfortunately they all seem to have broken when Apple released Tiger. I submitted a bug back in December and was told it was a known issue ...

Speed the Finder by hiding desktop icons@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:19:00 +0100

As discussed in this hint, Mac OS X's Finder tends to get very slow when you have a lot of desktop icons. Here's one way to speed things up: Use the shareware app DeskShade to hide the Desktop, then open a new Finder window ...

10.4: Batch text conversion with textutil@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:57:00 +0100

I first learned about textutil in Mac OS X 10.4 in a tip here on macosxhints.com. textuil a rosetta stone for converting between different text file formats. For example, I recently wanted to change 36,000 .doc files into te...

10.4: Binding to single-label Active Directory domains@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:37:00 +0100

I have a single label domain name that is the same as the name of the Forest. Try finding any information about the problems of a single label domain. I'll just say that the problems are numerous, vexing, and undocumented. I...

Make Windows Media files play on an Intel Mac@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:30:00 +0100

Not a hint by me, but I thought this information on how to get Windows Media (WMV) videos to play, using Flip4Mac, on an Intel Mac should be shared. [robg adds: The essence of the tip is as follows: Set the Apple Installer...

Configure firewall ports automatically by application@macosxhints

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:59:00 +0100

With the recent security threats to OS X, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to automatically configure my firewall based on the applications I have open. If no application is using said port, it's closed. So with a...

Possibly fix one display profile problem@macosxhints

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:43:00 +0100

After installing Tiger, I noticed that my Dell 2405 looked washed out. I went to the Display Preference Plane and found that the Color Profile had been reset to Generic. I tried to put it to my calibrated profile, but it woul...

Possibly fix iPod hard drives via bad block scan@macosxhints

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:31:00 +0100

Here's how you can often recover an iPod that's got a hard drive suffering from bad sectors. It's not a magic bullet, but if your iPod is out of warranty then you've got nothing to lose. I've seen iPods that have been "fixed"...

External Bluetooth adapter and iPod sync errors@macosxhints

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 14:41:00 +0100

I couldn't get my 4G iPod to sync, because I kept getting read/write errors after a few minutes of copying files to the iPod. I was convinced my iPod's hard drive was dying. I tried both a FireWire and a USB cable to connect ...

One method of skipping bad sectors on an iPod's drive@macosxhints

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:26:00 +0100

I purchesed a 3G iPod (15GB) second-hand for $65, not a bad deal eh? Well, the iPod worked fine until I saw I could not add music past the 10.96GB remaining space mark. I though it was just a formatting error at first, so...

10.4: Sleep and wake IR-equipped Macs via the remote@macosxhints

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:09:00 +0100

The Unofficial Apple Weblog tells us that by holding down the Play key, you can use your Apple Remote Control to put your Mac to sleep (assuming you have Front Row on it). [robg adds: Now that I have a mini in house, I can t...

Install and use the pdnsd proxy DNS server@macosxhints

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:47:00 +0100

One day I discovered that my Internet Service Provider�s Domain Name System (DNS) servers were not working as expected. I did not see the usual "can't find the server" message when I made a typo in Safari. Instead, a search e...

Restore normal fan operation on an iMac G5@macosxhints

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:26:00 +0100

I attempted to boot my iMac G5 with Bluetooth keyboard into single user mode. Sadly, it didn't work and caused my fans to subsequently run at full speed, despite CPU usage around the 4% mark. I almost went nuts trying to find...

Set minimum font size in NetNewWire's browser@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:48:00 +0100

One thing I missed from NetNewsWire web browser is an option to set minimum font size, so I used a style sheet to change fonts. However, this got tedious, and using a regex to set the font size of all selectors is not somethi...

Boot PowerPC Macs via USB 2.0 drives@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:23:00 +0100

First off, I have tried and tried again over the years to boot various PowerPC Macs via a USB2 disk. Thankfully, somewhere about the time the iMac G5 with the ambient light sensor (ALS) was released, Apple tweaked their Open ...

Charge FireWire iPods on sleeping Macs@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:51:00 +0100

Has anyone noticed that you can charge your iPod via FireWire when your Mac is sleeping? Put your Mac to sleep and then plug your iPod in. It will charge without being mounted, until either you remove it (just pull the cable...

10.4 Server: Avoid errors with dot-local access@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:45:00 +0100

I was encountering a couple of issues with my OS X Server installation. First, I found that ssh logins to my server, which I access in the dot-local notation (i.e. server-name.local) were suddenly very, very slow. Using ssh ...

10.4: Create a copier with Automator and a scanner@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:38:00 +0100

My old (and very slow) Xerox copier ran out of toner before putting it away for storage several years back. I recently had the need for a limited number of copies, so I went to my local Staples, only to find that the cartridg...

How to solve a 'no software to install' error@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:28:00 +0100

I previously tried to install a new Version of iWork from the original DVD on a Mac of a collegue. After clicking through the installer, it displayed an error message "No Software found to install." (I translated this from Ge...

Avoid a kernel panic with the D-Link DWL122 adapter@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:25:00 +0100

The D-link DWL 122 seems to very buggy drivers on OS X: when you unplug it while your Mac is on, it often crashes with a kernel panic. How can you avoid that? Go to your System Preferences, then Network, then click Show and ...

10.4: A script to use the Dashboard as a screensaver@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:45:00 +0100

There are a lot of widgets on my Dashboard that display some information that I'm interested in (such as weather, RSS feeds, application updates, daily comic etc.), but that aren't so important that I'm actually going to acti...

10.4: Avoid a noisy hissing problem on MacBook Pros@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:39:00 +0100

Is there a 'hiss' bothering you on your new Intel-based MacBook Pro? It isn't so terrible to me, but it does get annoying when I am cranking my iTunes really loud. Here's a fix: open up iChat and choose Video: Video Preview, ...

Yet another Safari bookmark-all-tabs AppleScript@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:36:00 +0100

There have been several hints published in the past, as noted below, to save/copy all open Safari tabs, either saved to a file, saved to a Bookmark folder, or copied to another Safari window. I wanted a script that did a litt...

Scroll pages in Firefox via the mouse wheel button@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:00:00 +0100

This may or may not be new, but I just stumbled upon it. If you are on a web page that requires scrolling to see the whole page, you can press and hold the mouse wheel button (assuming you have a mouse with a mouse wheel butt...

10.4: Add Google phonebook results to Address Book@macosxhints

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:33:00 +0100

I am constantly looking up companies or individuals using Google. Then I want to add them to my Address Book so they get iSynced to my phone. I was copy/pasting them, but that is repetitive, and thus had to be scripted. I am ...

Generate random passwords via a perl script@macosxhints

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:46:00 +0100

For a little while, now, I've used this Perl script to generate truly random passwords. I don't actually bother to remember them, of course -- that's what Keychain is for. The program uses /dev/urandom as its source of ran...

A perl script to list duplicate files@macosxhints

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:23:00 +0100

Whenever you have a collection of data files that came from several different sources, there is the possibility that some of the files are duplicates of one another. For example, you might have sound loops that came with sev...

Check server status remotely with a perl script@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:25:00 +0100

I was looking for an easy way to keep an eye on the status of some of my servers. Since I didn't have the patience to search for a solution which matched my needs, I wrote this little perl script. Download it, paste it in you...

10.4: Make Flash work in Universal Safari@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:21:00 +0100

Recently, when running Safari's Universal version on my Intel Mac, I was not able to see any Flash content. I would get a blank screen or window with a Quicktime Q and a ? in the middle of it. Viewing Flash was fine using Saf...

Cure an insomniac Mac with SleepWatcher@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:54:00 +0100

Since 10.3.9 or thereabouts, my Mac has been unable to put itself into a deep sleep no matter what I set in the Energy Saver preferences panel -- the monitors will turn off, but the fans don't spin down. This seems to be a co...

10.4: Use the Apple Remote with other applications@macosxhints

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:53:00 +0100

While messing around with my new MacBook Pro, it suddenly occurred to me that the remote included with my computer might be used to control more than just Front Row. Since it seemed just the sort of thing Apple would think of...

10.4: A Bluetooth file transfer fix for 10.4.5@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:44:00 +0100

Apple fixed most of the Bluetooth connectivity problems in the 10.4.5 update, leaving just one unresolved issue, wherein you can't send a file from the phone to the Mac. A workaround was posted on the Blue Mint blog. Essenti...

10.4: A fix for a font substitution issue on an Intel Mac@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:32:00 +0100

We had hundreds of documents that used a very old version of the Lithos font called LithosBol. The Intel iMac would not recognize the font and substituted Geneva. There is a new version of the font called Lithos Pro Bold. On...

Modify the partition map to recover a damaged iPod@macosxhints

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:38:00 +0100

After my iPod (3G 15GB) spent a couple of weeks sitting stoically alone in my backpack, I pulled it out only to find that the Apple symbol was displayed indefinitely. I'll call this the "Continuous Apple Symbol of Musical Dea...

Unmount a volume (on login) via AppleScript@macosxhints

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:57:00 +0100

I was looking for a way to unmount a volume which appears on the Desktop immediately after logging in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) for security reasons (it's a rescue volume with a plain system on it), and came across this hint from...

View multi-page online TIFFs in Safari via a plug-in@macosxhints

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:24:00 +0100

In my day job, I am often searching through U.S. and European patents, and naturally I like to save and print the interesting patents. The USPTO presents a plain-text version that is searchable but not terribly readable, and ...

Avoid a security vulnerability in Safari@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:11:00 +0100

As most of you know, macosxhints is not a 'breaking news' site. We generally post things that aren't time sensitive, and try to stay away from news as much as possible -- there are many better sources for Mac-related news out...

10.4: Create an all-encompassing Spotlight index@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:28:00 +0100

My Spotlight days were painful. I could never get Spotlight to find things the way I wanted. Until now. I recently ran across the free SpotlightIndexer utility. I used this nifty little program to index my entire hard drive, ...

10.4: Boot Intel Macs from iPods and FireWire drives@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:02:00 +0100

Curious about how to booting your Intel iMac from either a USB2.0 iPod or an external Firewire drive? It is possible, and here's how. This has been tested with a 5G 30GB USB2.0 iPod with Video and an external FW400 60GB hard ...

Track file changes to help with system recovery@macosxhints

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:48:00 +0100

With the recent advent of a possible Mac OS X virus (or trojan, depending on who you ask) many OS X users are wondering how safe they really are. Those "infected" by the so called virus are currently clueless as to what the v...

Retrieve hidden X11 apps after Finder crashes@macosxhints

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:39:00 +0100

I work with UNIX servers in my day job, and love having X11 on my Mac systems. Unfortunately, every now and then the Finder either crashes or is restarted for some reason. When that happens, any X11 applications minimized to ...

10.4: A script for PPTP custom routing on VPNs@macosxhints

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:18:00 +0100

To stop OS X 10.4 from creating a default route to your VPN connection, open Internet Connect (in Applications). Choose Options from the Connect menu, then uncheck the "Send all traffic over VPN connection" option. Click OK, ...

Convert videos for iPod directly in iTunes@macosxhints

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:45:00 +0100

I noticed this when clicking through Apollo Pony video podcasts. Only about twenty of almost hundred transfered to my video iPod, because they used different codecs like Sorenson or MPEG1 Muxed. Well, now you can just control...

10.4: Restore lost Wacom tablet mapping feature@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:30:00 +0100

Having only recently upgraded to Tiger, I never got around to setting up my Wacom PenPartner tablet until yesterday -- and I found that the latest driver does not include any mapping features at all! This makes it impossible...

Convert VCDs to DVDs via Toast@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:28:00 +0100

I have searched and searched for an easy way to convert my Video CD's to DVD -- most were tedious and didn't seem to work properly, or relied on programs no longer available, supported, or able to be run on Tiger. However, on...

10.4: A workaround for a Cisco VPN client problem@macosxhints

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:15:00 +0100

The Cisco VPN client 4.7.00 (0510) mostly works for me on OS X 10.4.4, but I get "Error 51" sporadically, and I used to have to reboot to stop it, but not any more. I took a tip that I found on VersionTracker and did a sligh...

An AppleScript to quickly stop all print jobs@macosxhints

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 16:02:00 +0100

One thing I have always missed in OS X is the quick way to stop a print job. So this is my "Hello World" AppleScript to stop print jobs. It will delete all print jobs for all users on the local computer: do shell script "can...

10.4: Use Transmit with X11 emacs@macosxhints

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 15:50:00 +0100

Having spent �39 on TextMate and a similar amount on Transmit, I felt quite happy with my development environment. However, once an emacs user, always an emacs user (and it doesn't help that TextMate has mediocre python suppo...

Use KDE and Konqueror on OS X@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:48:00 +0100

This seems pretty old, but I just came accross it. It looks like the OpenDarwin group has created binaries for installing KDE specific apps on OS X (the source files are also accessible elsewhere). Just visit kde.opendarwin.o...

Make Butler bookmarks work well with tabbed browsing@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:37:00 +0100

I typically hadn't been using Butler as a web bookmark manager. The main reason was that I couldn't have Butler open groups of links in one tabbed window. Instead, Butler would open one browser window for each link in the gro...

10.4: Rework the M-Audio Audiophile 192 driver setup@macosxhints

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:31:00 +0100

The following is not a complete fix for the problems I've been having with the Audiophile 192 under Tiger, which include (a) the drivers won't load unless "Automatically log in as" is deselected from the Accounts Preference P...

Prevent Disk Utility's 'Lost Connection' in 10.3.9@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:46:00 +0100

There is a bug in Mac OS Panther 10.3.x and iTunes 6.0x that will prevent Disk Utility from repairing permissions. When you try to repair permissions, it will stop with a "Lost Connection" error. To fix this problem, simply r...

10.4: How to search for non-integer exposure times@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:35:00 +0100

I couldn't get Finder searches (Spotlight Saved Queries, aka Smart Folders) to search for photos with exposure times greater-than or less-than anything but integer seconds, which is pretty useless. Then just now I found that ...

Use a D-Link DWL-G122 USB WiFi Dongle - revisited@macosxhints

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:26:00 +0100

Let's say you have an "old" Mac you want to wirelessly connect to your AirPort network. In my case, it's an eMac. Like me, you probably don't want to buy an expensive AirPort Extreme card. It's worse if you have an old G3 CRT...

A possible solution for a hanging ssh login@macosxhints

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:47:00 +0100

If you cannot login any longer from your Mac user's shell account to a remote server with ssh, and ssh -vvv loginname@server is hanging at the following line... debug3: Trying to reverse map address 192.168.73.23. ..then lo...

Retrieve 'lost' files from Apple's backup 3@macosxhints

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:39:00 +0100

I recently wiped my PowerBook and started over. I used Apple's Backup 3 software, and backed up my home folder to my FireWire drive, thinking I was all that. However, after I re-installed the system, I found that the backup d...

Play multiple podcasts automatically on the iPod@macosxhints

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:01:00 +0100

I recently bought an FM transmitter for my 4G iPod Photo, and got excited because I could finally listen to some podcasts enroute to and from work. Usually I get a few days behind and listen to a handful at a time. But, frust...

10.4: Move swap files to another drive@macosxhints

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:59:00 +0100

In Tiger, unlike Panther, one must explicitly mount drives to make them available at the point in /etc/rc where virtual memory is set up. The catch-22 here is that one can only use BSD device names of the form /dev/disk1s10 a...

New poll: Browsers Wars #7!@macosxhints

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:14:00 +0100

Somewhere between every six months to a year, I take a survey of OS X browser usage. Well, it's been eight months since the last go-round, so here we go again. Browser Wars #7 Take a second to vote for your favorite browser...

Fix an iPhoto 6 (German) full-screen issue@macosxhints

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:12:00 +0100

I'm using iLife 6 in German on a 12" PowerBook. In this case, I had the following problem... When opening an image in full screen mode, the zoom slider was not visible due to the small screen and lengthy captions on the spee...

Use Safari PowerPC plug-ins on Intel Macs@macosxhints

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 15:59:00 +0100

With the release of Intel Macs, we now have an Intel native version of Safari, but not many third-party plugins are Universal yet. This leaves the Core Duo users without a way to use these plug-ins until the developers releas...

10.4: How to boot an Intel Mac from an external drive@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:42:00 +0100

If you've got an Intel Mac, the process for getting it to boot from an external FireWire drive is different than it is for a PowerPC Mac -- an Intel boot drive requires a different partition scheme than does a PowerPC boot dr...

10.4: How to prevent single user mode logins@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:15:00 +0100

Ever since Tiger did away with running rc.boot at startup, there have been a lot of system administrators wondering how to deny single user mode to their users. While anyone with enough motivation can still gain privilege on ...

A script to determine Maximum Transmission Unit@macosxhints

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:08:00 +0100

Though OS X should, under normal circumstances, just automagically figure all this stuff out on its own, certain brain-dead networks are messed up to the point that standard settings won't work reliably and OS won't be able t...

10.4: Use Automator to keep the desktop clean@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:44:00 +0100

It happens to the best of us: Desktop clutter. Try as we might, we always end up with all sorts of files on our beautiful desktop, and if you're anything like me [ie: retentive], it irks you, but you live with it until you ca...

Use the E-Tech Broadband Router's print server@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:47:00 +0100

I bought a dirt-cheap E-Tech Broadband Router with USB Printer Server (Model RTPR01), which officially supports the Mac platform only on the routing part of the product. There's no mention in the manuals about the built-in p...

Copy all tabs from one Safari window to another@macosxhints

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:20:00 +0100

Have you ever wanted to copy a bunch of tabs from one Safari window to another (without resorting to copy and paste)? If you have, hopefully you will enjoy this script. Run it, and you'll see two dialog boxes, asking for the ...

Convert RSS feeds in Safari bookmarks to OPML@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 15:39:00 +0100

I have created an XML stylesheet that will scan Safari's Bookmarks and find only the RSS feed entries. The output can then be redirected to an OPML file for import to readers like NetNewsWire Lite. Folder structures are maint...

Use MacDrive on Windows to read a 'dead' HFS disk@macosxhints

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 14:25:00 +0100

If you have an unmountable/unrepairable HFS external drive, you can try using Mediafour's MacDrive running on Windows to access the data. This is my story... My external FireWire HFS drive stopped mounting on OS X after my k...

About partition maps and non-bootable FireWire drives@macosxhints

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 15:26:00 +0100

I recently discovered the following while trying to get my Mac Mini to boot from a FireWire drive. I'm a recent switcher. I took some leftover PC parts I had, and combined them with a Mac Mini to make a pretty decent machine...

10.4: Quartz 2D Extreme available again in 10.4.4@macosxhints

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:58:00 +0100

Quartz 2D Extreme is once again available in 10.4.4, available in Quartz Debug, part of Xcode (the Developer Tools). To enable it, select Tools: Enable Quartz 2D Extreme in the Quartz Debug menu. [robg adds: The 10.4.3 upda...

10.4: Use Google Maps with the Business widget@macosxhints

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 15:43:00 +0100

Using phanofwclark's People widget hint as a guide, it's easy to also make the Business widget use Google Maps. As per robg's usual warning about modifying widgets, it's a good idea to copy the Business widget to your user's...

10.4: Make the Dashboard layer less translucent@macosxhints

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 15:16:00 +0100

I've been a user of Konfabulator, now Yahoo! Widgets, since day one. I love it. Apple has now given us their Widgets in Dashboard. I love Dashboard, too, but one thing that has always bugged me is that the Dashboard backgroun...

10.4: Control Front Row via speech@macosxhints

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:58:00 +0100

If you have Front Row on your Mac, you might like this little idea. Pretend you lost your remote to control Front Row, and it's basically pointless to use the keyboard to control it. So why not say it? The idea is to use OS ...

10.4: Change the organizer of recurring iCal events@macosxhints

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:27:00 +0100

When I recently migrated from 10.3 to 10.4, I found that I couldn't change some of the recurring events in my iCal calendars. When I tried, I saw an error dialog that said the events were created by a different organizer. Tha...

10.4: See all of a day's events in the iCal Events widget@macosxhints

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:36:00 +0100

If someone using the iCal Events 2.2 Dashboard widget wants to keep all present day's entries, even if their time has already expired, it's easily done. Here's how: Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities). Type the foll...

10.4: A quick look at Rosetta memory requirements@macosxhints

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:20:00 +0100

I did some simple testing of the memory needed to run applications under Rosetta versus being run as a native binary. Follow the previous link to my website for the full details but in short applications running under Rosetta...

View a list of Intel Mac startup key combinations@macosxhints

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 13:58:00 +0100

Not really a hint - but this Knowledge Base article lists the start-up keys of Intel Macs. Could be useful ... if only I had one! [robg adds: This list looks identical (as of now) with that of the PowerPC-based Macs, except ...

10.4: Navigate the Calendar widget via keyboard@macosxhints

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:53:00 +0100

I was looking through Apple's new Calendar widget code, and noticed that you can navigate it with the keyboard: The Up and Down Arrow keys will jump to the previous or next year, the Left and Right Arrow keys will jump to th...

10.4: A fix for X11 Windows not coming forward again@macosxhints

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:47:00 +0100

The OS X 10.4.3 update brought a welcome bug fix for users of Apple's X11. Prior to that version, X11 windows would not raise when the program was selected in the Dock or with Command-Tab. This hint talked about some workarou...

10.4: Set 'Location' automatically via a script@macosxhints

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:33:00 +0100

If you want to set your Mac OS X Location automatically (based on Airport name (SSID) or something else), have a look at this script and launchd item. Basically, it creates a launchd item that listens for changes in the /Lib...

Easily switch the current default Java version@macosxhints

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:21:00 +0100

I recently downloaded and installed Apple's Java 1.5.0 update for Tiger. Unfortunately, even using the bundled Java Preferences app, I could find no easy way to change the version of Java used by the java and javac commands i...

An AppleScript to print a 'daily' URL via Firefox@macosxhints

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:09:00 +0100

After looking around for a simple script to print web pages (the daily Dilbert cartoon, in this case) using AppleScript and not finding one, I decided to write one of my own. The script I wrote does the following: Gener...

Display last-connected-iPod's serial number in iTunes@macosxhints

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:01:00 +0100

My iPod was recently stolen out of my car, and in the process of reporting it to the police, they asked for the serial number. I was at a loss to provide it, seeing as how my iPod had been stolen. Anyway, I was playing arou...

10.4: Use Yahoo! Maps Beta with the People widget@macosxhints

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:47:00 +0100

This hint is similar to the Use Google Maps with the People widget hint, but it uses the new Yahoo! Maps Beta, which runs smoother on my Mac than does Google Maps. This hint involves editing files in the widget package. It m...

10.4: An Automator action to add an image to PDF files@macosxhints

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:56:00 +0100

My invoicing software is pretty basic when it comes to printing invoices. It cannot handle the graphics for my nicely-designed letterhead, so printing an invoice is a two-step process of printing the letterhead, and then send...

10.4: A USB Printing tip for Intel-based Macs@macosxhints

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:22:00 +0100

I have been wondering if Rosetta will work with PowerPC print drivers and found the following tip on the osx86project wiki page: OSx86 has universal binaries for all its pre-installed printer drivers. However, if your model ...

Google Earth - A world exploration tool@macosxhints

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:19:00 +0100

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 9 out of 10]Developer: Google / Product Page Price: Free Google Earth has been out for the PC for quite a while, but the Mac version was (finally!) officially released during Macworld Expo a c...

10.4: Fix the Business widget's Address Book feature@macosxhints

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:49:00 +0100

The OS X 10.4.4 update breaks the Business widget, a.k.a. the Yellow Pages search widget that's included with Tiger. Specifically, the little plus sign that should appear next to each search result, as seen at right, is missi...

Subscribe to iPhoto 6 photocasts in Firefox via RSS@macosxhints

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:33:00 +0100

You probably know that you can subscribe to an iPhoto 6 photocast even if you don't have iLife '06. If you use any of the more-recent versions of Safari (i.e., with RSS support), the link in the photocast announcement will wo...

10.4: How to run JBlogEditor 0.6@macosxhints

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:24:00 +0100

After trying ecto and MarsEdit, I thought I would give the experimental build of the all-Java program JBlogEditor a spin. It was a little more complicated that I thought it would be, so here's some instructions for others: ...

10.4: An AppleScript to import metadata into iPhoto 6@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:46:00 +0100

I haven't been using iPhoto in the past, because I prefer keeping my photos in a specific folder structure. Since version 6 will handle images without copying or moving them, I decided that it is time to take a plunge and sta...

Browse man pages with a web browser@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:34:00 +0100

So you hate scrolling through man pages in the terminal and don't want to produce PDF versions because they would take up space, be slow, or not be as easy to access? I've often wondered about those online man browsers. So I ...

10.4: Select text areas via the keyboard in Terminal@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:32:00 +0100

This is a menu item, new to Tiger, but who goes searching the menu items of their terminal emulator? Especially those buried in sub-menus? You can now define the Mac-side text selection (the one you might normally create by ...

Resolve various crashes caused by language settings@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:05:00 +0100

Apparently some applications (at least older ones) do not like it when certain languages with non-Latin alphabets are set as the first preferred language in OS X. ImageReady 7.0 one day started dying immediately upon startup...

Recover Adium's AIM buddies via generic log folders@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:51:00 +0100

One day I was using Adium X (a popular AIM client for OS X) when my buddy list suddenly disappeared, and Adium then updated the AIM server with my empty buddy list ... and then my buddy list was gone. Luckily I had all my bu...

Install 10.3 on a 1.5 GHz Mac mini@macosxhints

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:37:00 +0100

I needed an OS X 10.3 boot partition on my new 1.5 GHz Mac mini, for applications that don't work on 10.4 (in my case, BitPim for syncing my cell phone). However, these minis were built to run 10.4, and "do not support 10.3."...

Fix dynamic playlists on certain iPods@macosxhints

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:10:00 +0100

I just discovered that the latest iPod updater (2006-01-10) fixes an issue that's bugged me for quite awhile. It's even the covered in a Knowledge Base article on Apple's website (which now refers to the latest update as a fi...

H264 for iPod may be larger than 320 pixels wide@macosxhints

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:54:00 +0100

As the MPEG4 limit for iPod encoding is 480x480 (230,400 pixels) and one may alter the ratio as long as the pixel limit is respected (640x360 is also okay), I wondered if the same "pixel limit" held true for H264 (320x240 = 7...

10.4: Let Simple Users mount any network volume@macosxhints

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:40:00 +0100

I just recently realized that, with the release of Tiger, Apple has changed how Simple Users can mount network shares. In Panther (10.3), it used to be that Simple Users could mount any volume on any system over a network, as...

Use the USRobotics 9600 Skype phone with OS X@macosxhints

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:23:00 +0100

USRobotics makes a cheap (�25, $30) Skype-compatible USB phone, but they don't provide a Mac driver. However, the OEM has put out a beta Mac driver and it works! You can download it from this page. You run their Skypemat...

Run automated backups to a UNIX server@macosxhints

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:15:00 +0100

Our office network has a UNIX server which is backed up nightly, and I wanted to take advantage of this to back up the contents of my home directory on my Powerbook when I'm in the office. I'm sure there are GUI tools that w...

Use an extension to remap Firefox keyboard shortcuts@macosxhints

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:35:00 +0100

I'm really trying to switch over to using Firefox as my default browser. But it's the little things that keep me from going over. For instance, my hands hardly ever leave the keyboard. And I love being able to do web searches...

10.4: Recover missing menubar icons in 10.4.4@macosxhints

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:03:00 +0100

After upgrading to 10.4.4, my menu bar icons (clock, volume, displays, etc.) disappeared. It turns out that if you have disabled Spotlight, when the updater replaces Search.bundle (located in System -> Library -> Core Servic...

10.4: Fix full-speed fan issue with 10.4.4 on iMac G5s@macosxhints

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:01:00 +0100

I ran the 10.4.4 update, and my fans then went flat out. Sounded like 1800nm of thrust out the rear of my machine. Several reboots did not fix the problem. So, irst I played with pmset, and as advised in another hint here, th...

10.4: Use Orange Micro SCSI adapters with 10.4.4@macosxhints

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:58:00 +0100

If you have an Orange Micro Grappler SCSI adapter that went dead when you upgraded to Tiger, and you can't find a firmware update anywhere, you can download and install one of the Advantsys drivers (1.2MB download). Find the ...

Force Safari to render Google Analytics charts@macosxhints

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:50:00 +0100

Google Analytics is possibly my favorite Google-created service, other than search itself. Unfortunately, its fantastic charts do not readily display in Safari (or any other browser using WebKit). I came across an easy worka...

10.4: Keep the old red Calendar widget from 10.4.3@macosxhints

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:33:00 +0100

Some people won't like the new black Calendar widget in 10.4.4. The color is a bit dark, but mostly it's way bigger than the old calendar. Here's how to keep the old calendar and have the new one, too. Note: you have to do t...

10.4: Use Google Maps with the People widget@macosxhints

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:27:00 +0100

As with the Phone Book widget, I wanted to use Google maps with the new (in 10.4.4) People widget. After a little fiddling, I rewrote a bit of the code so that the widget uses Google Maps. The code that controls the people w...

10.4: Repair PHP/MySQL connections in 10.4.4@macosxhints

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 14:29:00 +0100

After updating to Mac OS X 10.4.4, you may find that the connection between PHP and MySQL running on your local webserver is broken. Apparently the socket file got moved in the update. You can make it start working again by ...

10.4: Recover from a 'disappearing' pico/nano@macosxhints

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:25:00 +0100

There's a bug in nano (and pico, as pico is just symlinked to nano) in 10.4 (including 10.4.4), which can seemingly cause you to lose the document you are working on. If you have an open document in pico, and then resize the...

A simple fix for sound output issues@macosxhints

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:19:00 +0100

My 2GHz iMac G5 (now pretty worthtless, compared to the new Intel iMacs) has been giving me some problems with sound playback. This has been occuring only with certain applications, such as Quick Time Player, Windows Media Pl...

10.4: Hide frontmost application using Mighty Mouse@macosxhints

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:05:00 +0100

Using Mighty Mouse (requires 10.4.2), you can set any of the actions to open a file, script, application, etc. So I set about making the squeeze action hide the frontmost application. The AppleScript for this is fairly simpl...

10.4 Server: Another way to mount shares at login@macosxhints

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:03:00 +0100

I have read on macosxhints.com about many different ways to mount a network share when a user logs in. Many of them require AppleScripts and editing NetInfo databases, neither of which I was particularly comfortable with. My...

Allow shared write access to any directory@macosxhints

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:05:00 +0100

A straightforward method can be used to enable shared write access on selected directories for multiple users on the same machine, without resorting to cron scripts or Access Control Lists (ACLs). Since Tiger and Panther use...

Change the pitch of recordings with AU Lab@macosxhints

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:42:00 +0100

One of the questions asked on my previous hint about playing podcasts back at 1.5x speed was how to change the pitch. If you have the Developer Tools installed (a free download after registration, or from the 10.4 installer d...

Use an unsupported Konica Minolta laser printer@macosxhints

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:31:00 +0100

I just picked up a�Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W laser printer on sale cheap (for $50!), only to find out it was not compatible with OS X Tiger, and I could not find much help searching on the web. However, I found a rela...

10.4: Hide certain Mail mailboxes from Spotlight@macosxhints

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:18:00 +0100

I don't know about you, but I quite like to keep all my old email archived, rather than just trashing it. However, since most of it is Paypal receipts and forum-joining notifications, having these messages pop-up whenever I ...

10.4: Use an IOGear Serial to USB converter cable@macosxhints

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:26:00 +0100

The IOGear GUC232A USB to Serial/PDA converter cable, which can be found at most larger Walmarts, uses Prolific Technology's PL-2303H/X/HX chipset for USB to Serial (RS232) communication. It appears the ATEN UC232A and the IO...

10.4: Avoid a fast user switching color profile bug@macosxhints

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:10:00 +0100

There is a nasty bug in Tiger related to custom color profiles. Specifically, when you have a custom profile assigned to your display and use fast user switching, the profile will get reset and a "Generic RGB Profile" assigne...

Re-enable portable home directory options at login@macosxhints

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:39:00 +0100

Mobile users in an OS X Server / Client setup are prompted at login with a dialog asking if they want to create a portable home directory on the machine they are logging on. They have three buttons to choose from: Not Now --...

A script to generate a random password@macosxhints

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:39:00 +0100

There are many good password generators out there, including the one built into Keychain Access in 10.4. However, my only complaint is that they all require too much mousing around, which can be slow. So, based on lectrick's...

Migrate from evolution email to Mail to Entourage@macosxhints

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:35:00 +0100

Here's one way to move your Evolution (v 2.4.1 in my case) emails and addresses to a Mac (v 10.4.x). The intermediate steps on the way to everything in Entourage have email in Apple Mail and addresses in the Address Book, and...

Share iPhoto libraries on external drives@macosxhints

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:20:00 +0100

Not sure how useful this trick is, or even if it will survive the next system update. (Mine is running the latest versions of OS X Tiger and iLife '05.) I was working this morning on using iPhoto Buddy and our external Fir...

SafariStand - Add many useful features to Safari@macosxhints

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 16:42:00 +0100

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 8 out of 10]Developer: Hetima Computer / Product Page Price: Free This week's pick is a bit odd in that ... I'm not even sure I can tell you everything it does. The developer is Japanese, and ...

Create a hard-drive based OS X installer@macosxhints

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 14:55:00 +0100

A recent post reminded me of a trick I've been using for the past year or so with great success, so I figured I'd share. Being a Mac specialist, I find myself having to do OS installs on a pretty regular basis. I carry around...

Open new xterm windows in current Terminal directory@macosxhints

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 14:17:00 +0100

UNIX / X11 users could always easily open a new xterm in the same directory as an existing xterm by typing xterm at the prompt. OS X's Terminal.app functions differently, making such a shortcut difficult. With some bash scrip...

Create a keyboard shortcut for the maximize button@macosxhints

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 15:12:00 +0100

Ever since I started using OS X as my main OS (back at version 10.1), I kept wishing for a keyboard shortcut for the green button at the top left of each window. I wanted a quick way to maximize a window. Sadly, such a shor...

10.4: Create a classification feature in Address Book@macosxhints

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:57:00 +0100

Ever since I started using Address Book, I have wanted to be able to use some kind of feature classification of records (like enum types in Java/C, or value lists in File Maker). Using Smart Groups and a previous hint on Mac ...

10.4: How to reuse Automator workflows@macosxhints

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:10:00 +0100

I often save Automator workflows as applications or plug-ins. The nice thing about that is that you just select it or double-click and it runs, without launching Automator. The bad thing is that if you don't save a seperate c...

10.4: Use Preview to view formatted man pages@macosxhints

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:45:00 +0100

If you don't like having to scroll through man pages with the arrow keys on iTerm, or if you just want them to look better, you can get your Mac to open them in Preview using an undocumented feature of the open command that's...

10.4: Yet another DVD screen grab tip@macosxhints

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:40:00 +0100

Here's how to take a screenshot from a DVD in Mac OS X Tiger. I noticed another hint said to quit DVD Player and all that other stuff ... but that's too much work. Here's a much simpler workaround: Go to the part of the mov...

10.4: Use cron or anacron to run workflows@macosxhints

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 14:33:00 +0100

I was late installing Tiger, but one of the first things I did was to create the Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod) workflow in the December Macworld. Having done that, I realized I would actually have to run it every day; w...

Easily create web views in Keynote via drag and drop@macosxhints

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:40:00 +0100

I just noticed that if you drag a URL proxy from Safari (and other browsers, probably) into a Keynote document, you get an inline web view to the site rather than a hyperlink -- i.e. the same result as if you'd used Insert: W...

Modify the default search engine URL in Firefox 1.5@macosxhints

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:25:00 +0100

If you have Firefox and like to use the built-in search engine, but find that it is not the appropriate engine for your home country (I am in Australia, so I like to use www.google.com.au rather than www.google.com), then the...

10.4: Change the iTunes widget's display font@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:40:00 +0100

The stock Lucida Grande font that the iTunes widget uses was looking kind of boring to me, so I went in to see if I could find where to change it. Sure enough... Navigatge to /Library/Widgets, and then open the package conte...

10.4: Enter multiple lines in PDF forms in Preview@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:21:00 +0100

Mac OS X 10.4 added the capability to fill out PDF forms in Preview. However, if you hit Return while entering information in a form field, Preview de-selects that field, so that you can't enter any more data. If you want to ...

Use Safari as a 'sliding' browser@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:58:00 +0100

Browsing has become much of a "add-on" these days, looking-up some info being a side-activity to what you do. New browsers (such as DeskBrowse) appear that quickly pop-up and disappear after use. However, there is something...

Create LightScribed DVDs using an HP burner@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:42:00 +0100

In some sort of self-test, I got myself an HP dvd840i DVD burner today -- it's identified as HP dvd840b within System Profiler. As you might know, LaCie seems to offer the only LightScribe DVD writers available for the Mac at...

10.4: Modify how the system classifies 'safe' files@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:21:00 +0100

You can modifying what Safari considers a 'safe' file using a local file that will override the global file-type security assessments. If there's a file named com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist in your user's Library/Prefere...

Use the new standardized RSS icon in Safari@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:03:00 +0100

I've always disliked Safari's RSS icon (and the even-worse XML icon) used for RSS feeds, so as soon as Microsoft and Firefox agreed upon a new icon, I immediately wanted Safari to use it. It turns out to be pretty simple, and...

10.4: Avoid a possible Installer crash@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:42:00 +0100

Installer.app will crash if you tab to the Agree button in the license agreement, then hit the Space Bar to press the button -- it crashes when you get to the last step (after selecting the destination). Also, the text Click ...

10.4: Install OS X without first rebooting from DVD@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:29:00 +0100

I couldn't find this anywhere in the hints and, in fact, I can't believe I never tried it until now. I needed to reinstall Tiger on a drive, but couldn't spare a reboot on any machine so I figured I'd look for the installer p...

10.4: Create a Bluetooth Mac-to-Mac network@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:17:00 +0100

The following is based on a comment by sparcleosx on June 25th to this hint that explains how to share an Internet connection to a Palm. This new hint will explain how to connect (network) a Mac to another Mac via bluetooth. ...

10.4: Avoid dropped connections due to idle timeouts@macosxhints

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 14:17:00 +0100

My ISP is very agressive about killing stalled connections. When no data has gone across an open connection, the ISP kills the connection. This killed ssh connections to remote machines constantly, and I found myself having t...

Use the iMac's built-in iSight with iMovie@macosxhints

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:08:00 +0100

The iSight camera built into the new iMac cannot be used with iMovie ... or can it? It seems Apple has simply disabled this, as you can enable it with this trick: Plug in a FireWire camcorder and open iMovie. Switch to reco...

Remove display glitches on external monitors@macosxhints

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:04:00 +0100

I use a 12" 1.33Ghz G4 PowerBook with an external 17" LCD VGA Microtek monitor. When I'm not mirroring the PowerBook display (that is, when I'm using the external as additional display space), I often have problems with windo...

Pass variables back and forth between Applescript and Javascript@macosxhints

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:27:00 +0100

I've been making use of the do JavaScript command in AppleScript, but I was frustrated that there is no way of getting information back from the script. The command always returns true, regardless of whether the JavaScript su...

Install a newer Microtek scanner driver@macosxhints

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:40:00 +0100

Microtek Scanner Drivers. Yeah we all know they're not so great on OS X (an understatement, of course!). I have an X12 USL and have been unable to find an update more recent than version 7.11. In searching for an answer, I fo...

How to install BEA WebLogic Server 9.0@macosxhints

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:36:00 +0100

Want to run BEA System's WebLogic Server on OS X? The first step is to download the 'generic' version of WebLogic Server (WLS) 9.0. I used the HP-UX 11 version for Itanium processors. The downloaded file is named server900_ge...

10.4: Store Aperture libraries on multiple volumes@macosxhints

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:31:00 +0100

Question: Would you like to store Aperture Library files across multiple drives? If your answer is "yes!," then you'll be pleased to know it's quite possible to do so, using symbolic links in the Aperture Library package to ...

10.4: Install Apache2, PHP5, and MySQL5@macosxhints

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:07:00 +0100

Here's how I installed Apache2 (version 2.0.55) and MySQL5 (Standard 5.0.16 for Mac OS X 10.4) on OS X 10.4... [robg adds: Note that I haven't tested this one, and I added some detail to the hint as submitted -- so any mista...

Use psync on FAT32 volumes@macosxhints

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:50:00 +0100

If psync (also available via Fink) is used without any configuration switches, it fails to work properly if backing up to FAT32 volumes -- it always copies all files instead of only the changed ones. I figured out that using...

10.4: How to use BrickHouse firewall GUI@macosxhints

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:39:00 +0100

BrickHouse is a very nice GUI for Apple's built-in firewall. The only problem I've had with it is that it hasn't been updated for OS X Tiger (10.4) since the pre-release days. Everything seems to work fine, except for the sta...

Document Palette - Slick 'new document here' app@macosxhints

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:14:00 +0100

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 9 out of 10]Developer: Cold Pizza Software / Product Page Price: $8.00 [15 document demo] One thing that's easier to do on Windows than on the Mac is to create a new document at a given loc...

Quickly strip formatting from Safari's clipboard@macosxhints

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:37:00 +0100

When in Safari, Mac OS X is smart enough to copy the formatting of text when you copy it from a webpage. Unfortunately, this is not always convenient. For example, say I wanted to copy a link to send to my friend via IM. When...

Smart iTunes playlists help with language lessons@macosxhints

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:17:00 +0100

I use my iPod to listen to language lessons during my morning commute. Since I could never remember whether I was on Lesson 16 or 17, I was constantly having to listen to the first couple of minutes of the lesson to be sure I...

10.4: Install Tiger on older unsupported Macs@macosxhints

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 14:44:00 +0100

Panther (10.3) was able to install perfectly on the older iMacs and Power Macs (Blue & Whites). Now, becasue a FireWire port is required, you cannot install on those machines. There are, however, two ways you can install it o...

Use an OS X Mac to install OSs on Intel machines@macosxhints

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 14:25:00 +0100

I often need to install OSs on Intel boxes, which frequently come without CDs or floppy these days. After some playing, here is how I use my PowerBook running OS X to do the job via pxeboot. The following example shows OpenBS...

Potentially recover 'lost' web browser text area input@macosxhints

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:30:00 +0100

It sometimes happens to me that I have entered a lot of text in a text entry area on a web page, and then somehow I lose the page before submitting it to the server. Perhaps Safari crashes, I accidentally close that tab, etc....

10.4: A fix for Internet Sharing not issuing IP addresses@macosxhints

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:28:00 +0100

I found a problem with Tiger not working with Internet Sharing to both a PowerBook and a Dell laptop. It was a brand new PowerMac G5 with dual Ethernet. The PowerMac G5 obtained an IP address from the internet provider, and w...

A possible fix for a non-booting G3 PowerBook@macosxhints

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 14:53:06 +0100

I've had a G3 Lombard collecting dust for the last couple of years in a closet because of it's failure to boot. Pressing the power button would spin up the hard drive and light the green led for about 2 seconds and then powe...

10.4: View two different Spotlight searches at once@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:46:00 +0100

This is partly a bug, partly a feature (perhaps?)... If you have the Spotlight search results window open, but in the background, you can bring it forward by pressing (by default) Command-Option-Space. This not only brings t...

10.4: Finding Audible files with Spotlight@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:41:00 +0100

This is clearly a bug, but it might be good to know... If you do a Spotlight search for Audible files (audiobooks from Audible.com, with the .aa extension), they do not show up in the Music category -- Tiger considers them t...

10.4: Fix System Keychain corruption after migration@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:14:00 +0100

This may be a rare glitch, but it's a nasty one: after I used Migration Assistant to move settings and accounts from an old machine to a new one, corruption in the System keychain prevented user keychains from working or bein...

10.4: Use a graphical GUI to create launchd tasks@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:01:00 +0100

In my case, I just wanted to start up snmpd at boot time on Tiger. I had quite a hard time configuring launchd to do so, until I found out about the open-source Lingon program. Lingon is simply a graphical user interface you ...

Run Aperture on machines with under 1GB of RAM@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:39:00 +0100

It's quite easy to trick Aperture to run with less than 1GB of RAM. I have a G4 1.33Ghz Powerbook with 500Mb ram, so here's the trick: Go to the Aperture application, control-click on it and select Show Package Contents from...

10.4: Improved symbolic linking via Volumes folder@macosxhints

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:34:00 +0100

Not sure when this creeped in, but it's good for people who like using Unix-styled symbolic links. At least in the latest version of Tiger, all volumes, including local volumes, are listed in /Volumes. The consequence of this...

10.4: How to use the Swann MacSurfer USB modem@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:31:00 +0100

The rather neat Swann MacSurfer USB modem was discontinued over a year ago, and the manufacturer's modem script, which hasn't been updated since Mac OS X 10.2, does not work in 10.3 and 10.4. This is obviously rather frustrat...

Regarding Calculator and low precision values@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:22:00 +0100

The precision setting in Calculator.app is either broken or doesn't work according to Help. To demonstrate, choose View > Precision > 2 from the menu, then try the following: 10000 + 2500 = My 10.4.3 PowerBook G4 returns 12...

Run Aperture on a 12" PowerBook@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:16:00 +0100

This hack should let you run Aperture on a 12" PowerBook with a CPU faster than 1.25Ghz and more than 1GB of RAM. It fools Aperture into thinking that it's running on a supported video card. It will not help if you don't have...

Print from a Mac to a PC over a network using SAMBA@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:00:00 +0100

I've had to figure this out for myself quite some time ago, and I had to look this info up again today, so I figured I may as well share it with everyone else. This method works for me under 10.3 and 10.4 on a Mac, and XP Pro...

Show the original for multiple aliases in the Finder@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:44:00 +0100

The Mac has always had an easy way to trace back to the original file of an alias. Select the alias in the Finder and choosing 'Show Original' from the File menu (or just hit Command-R), and the Finder will highlight the orig...

A shell script to switch the Java Virtual Machine@macosxhints

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:39:00 +0100

I've created a useful little shell script that simplifies managing the default or current JVM that is used from the command line and other utilities under Mac OS X. Most people that run multiple JVMs for development and testi...

How to disable an optical drive@macosxhints

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 14:40:00 +0100

The SuperDrive in my PowerBook failed recently. Attempts to query the drive from System Profiler (disc burning), mount disks, or interact with the drive in any way cause the calling application to just hang in an unkillable (...

A simple trick to conserve laptop battery power@macosxhints

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:08:00 +0100

My Aluminum 15" PowerBook G4 only gets around two hours of battery life these days, and I have to use the laptop during college lectures. I discovered a hack that can help prolong the battery life. You can hit Control-Option-...

10.4: How to install the Zimbra collaboration suite@macosxhints

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 14:46:00 +0100

If you're interested in installing Zimbra, an open-source collaboration suite, I've written up a step-by-step guide in the Zimbra forums. You can read the installation guide in this thread, and I've also posted instructions o...

10.4: Toast 7.0.1 and iTunes 6.0.1 after 10.4.3 upgrade@macosxhints

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 14:31:00 +0100

I had problems burning discs (audio, data, movies) after upgrading to 10.4.3. I thought of changing the write speed to 8x and 2x, and it worked -- but sometimes I still got laser calibration or media errors. I tried using dif...

10.4: About Preview and rotated/mirrored images@macosxhints

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:16:00 +0100

So I have this nice new background image. As you can see, it would look kind of crowded with my desktop icons stacked up on top of the island on the right. Simple enough, I decide to mirror the image. My first shot was to im...

Speed up save and open dialog boxes@macosxhints

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:10:00 +0100

I was having to wait up to a minute every time I saved a file in an application when using Tiger. I looked high and low for a reason, and finally discovered that having my iDisk sync set to Automatic was the problem. So I we...

10.4: Easily use Front Row on a second monitor (TV)@macosxhints

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 15:36:00 +0100

I use a TV in my living room as my Mac's second monitor. I have been searching for a way to get Front Row to come up on the TV, instead of my monitor. Normally I would open the Displays System Preferences panel and under the ...

10.4: Create custom Blojsom themes in Server@macosxhints

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 15:13:00 +0100

I have seen many questions on various sites on 'how do I make my own theme in the Apple install of Blojsom in 10.4 Server?' Well, I dug around in the files for a day or two and here it is. BTW, as you can see, I'm still tweek...

Print selected text from any application@macosxhints

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:45:00 +0100

There's a very nice Services add-in called Print Selection from Robert Chin. Unfortunately, its menu item (from the Services submenu) isn't available from within FireFox (or most other Carbon applications). And there doesn't ...

Change Camino and Firefox font sizes via scroll wheel@macosxhints

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:07:00 +0100

When viewing a webpage in Camino, hold down the Command key, and then scroll down to increase font size, or scroll up to decrease font size. This allows a more accurate font decrease/increase then Command-Plus or Command-Minu...

Auto refresh unloaded Safari pages on AirPort link up@macosxhints

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:29:00 +0100

I am not sure when this started happening, or if it happens to all machines, but it has become handy for me. Certain laptops, particularly older iBooks, when woken from sleep, can take a bit of time to restore their AirPort ...

10.4: Fix a kernel panic after Security Update 2005-009@macosxhints

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:22:00 +0100

I thought I'd post this fix for a potential kernel panic problem after installing Security Update 2005-009 -- as this happened to me, I thought others may be affected, too. The original solution (along with alternative soluti...

10.4: Move lyrics from Sing that iTunes to pearLyrics@macosxhints

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:40:00 +0100

I used to use the Sing that iTune! widget to insert lyrics into iTunes, but moved to using pearLyrics to avoid a bug. (The bug was that occasionally the lyrics for one song would be put into the iTunes lyrics for a different ...

10.4: Us the Finder as an outliner@macosxhints

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:16:00 +0100

So, what is the perfect outliner? I wanted it to be project related. Ideas and project files should be organized in one simple way. I tested many outliners, but they all had the same problem: some stuff stays in the Finder (i...

10.4: Use the Finder as an outliner@macosxhints

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:16:00 +0100

Use the Verizon Nokia 6256i phone with OS X@macosxhints

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:42:00 +0100

The Nokia 6256i is the only plain phone in Verizon's arsenal, besides the Motorola e815, which supports Bluetooth. And the e815 requires a PC, a data cable, and low-level hacking to enable crucial Bluetooth features which Ver...

10.4: Find and modify the 'About this Mac' box@macosxhints

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:40:00 +0100

As of 10.4.3, it seems Apple has changed the location of the "About this Mac" images, and made them into one image. It took me some time to find the location of the new image with Terminal, as the usual places were not workin...

Use Quicksilver to search macosxhints and others@macosxhints

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:08:00 +0100

If you're a Quicksilver user, doing a simple macosxhints.com search with it is exceptionally easy. On their site is a page which lists many web searches that can be done "out of the box." I added one into Firefox from the sit...

10.4: Start lists in TextEdit via the keyboard@macosxhints

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 15:35:00 +0100

Personally, I usually don't like having the ruler visible in TextEdit -- it just bugs me. So if I want to add a list to my document, I have to make the ruler visible, and then select a list type from the list menu. Or I have ...

10.4: Avoid an Office 2004 save problem@macosxhints

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 15:30:00 +0100

The new version of Word has a problem when saving documents to network folders. Users with network home directories have a problem with Save or Autosave from Word 2004 11.2 (Office Service Pack 2) on OSX 10.4.2, and see an er...

Pipe to Safari from stdin@macosxhints

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 15:26:00 +0100

I stumbled on this partially-documented feature while experimenting with XSL and XML processing. Quite frequently, I'll want to pipe my XML through several stylesheets and view the result in a browser. This is an iterative pr...

10.4: An AppleScript to automate Address Book backups@macosxhints

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 15:13:00 +0100

I was browsing through old hints and the forums the other day and I came across this hint about Address Book and iCal data loss during a sync on 10.4. As usual, the first thing in my mind was, how do you automate backups then...

Convert pixels to ems in BBEdit for elastic CSS layouts@macosxhints

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 14:46:00 +0100

This will probably only be of interest to a few people -- namely web developers who use BBEdit and elastic layout techniques. I have written a little AppleScript to convert pixels to ems measurements from within BBEdit. Elas...

Use Keychain Scripting to autocomplete certain logins@macosxhints

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:07:00 +0100

My bank thinks it knows better than me, and stops Safari from auto-completing my access details. There are ways around this, such as setting up a proxy to rewrite the bits of HTML and JavaScript on the page which prevent auto...

Save open tabs in Safari into a bookmarks folder@macosxhints

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 15:56:00 +0100

I, like others, have always wanted to save the open tabs in Safari as a set of bookmarked sites. One reason is when I have no choice but to quit Safari, but have not finished with all the pages in the tabs and so lose them. L...

Repair a broken FireWire interface@macosxhints

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:46:00 +0100

Sorry for the delay in getting today's hints online -- at some point this morning, my Mac decided to stop recognizing any FireWire devices that were connected. It didn't matter if I used the front-panel port, the back-panel p...

10.4: Use .Mac iChat certificates in Mail@macosxhints

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:16:00 +0100

If you enable iChat encryption, .Mac will generate a Certificate and key with your .Mac name and store it in your keychain. This is used to encrypt iChat text and video, and it works well. But did you know ... you can also u...

How to share a wireless connection with a Nintendo DS@macosxhints

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:29:00 +0100

With the recent release of Mario Kart DS and Tony Hawk: American Sk8land, Nintendo has launched its new WiFi service. If you've got an OS X box with internet access (other than through the AirPort card), and an AirPort card t...

Create a list of login (startup) items' paths@macosxhints

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:08:00 +0100

Login Items can cause conflicts in OS X just as in earlier Mac systems. You can reorder them, or delete them, in the Accounts System Preferencespane. Unfortunately, there is no way to temporarily turn off a Login Item. What i...

10.4: Print directly from the Finder@macosxhints

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:07:00 +0100

I can't remember seeing this before Mac OS X.4.3, so I think it's a new feature ... if you click on a document in the Finder, you can now choose Print from the file menu. You can also control-click on it, then choose Print fr...

A possible solution to an invisible external DVD writer@macosxhints

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:48:00 +0100

I bought a new PowerBook G4 15in with a combo drive. I also had a Pioneer DVR-107D DVD-RW, which I put into an external FireWire/USB 2.0 enclosure. Unfortunately, my shiny new PowerBook would not recognise this external devic...

A simple but effective Mac speed-up tip@macosxhints

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:46:00 +0100

Here's a tip I was made aware of recently that I thought I'd share (though I'd like to take credit, I must give that to some Smart Friends of mine); it'll help speed up your Mac, and may reduce the appearance of the SPOD (the...

Install Java 1.5 onto 10.3 Panther@macosxhints

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:31:00 +0100

Download the J2SE 5.0 for Tiger file from the Apple website. Drag the resulting .pkg file onto the Desktop, control-click on it, and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. Navigate into Contents and trash the Inst...

10.4: Capture DVD screenshots via a Dashboard widget@macosxhints

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:16:00 +0100

I've found that using the Capture widget (Developer's page), in addition to its advertised functions, allows you to capture screenshots from a DVD. Here's how: Pause DVD the desired frame. Invoke Dashboard. Make sure you h...

10.4: Remove attachments in Mail to save disk space@macosxhints

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:06:00 +0100

I've been using the excellent utility WhatSize (a long-ago Pick of the Week here) to see where I've got file cruft that I can trim away to save space. Using it recently, I noticed that my mailboxes were larger than expected. ...

Control the 'text drag delay' time in Cocoa applications@macosxhints

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:13:00 +0100

I recently wrote a bit for Macworld, discussing the recent tip here on dragging text snippets to the Dock. In that writeup, I provided a brief overview of OS X's two modes of text dragging for those not yet familiar with the ...

Archive pre-existing email with Gmail@macosxhints

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:50:00 +0100

While this is similar to this previous hint about archiving email to Gmail.com's 2+GB storage for each user, it's a different approach. The basic premise is that if you can get your email into mbox format (Netscape, Firefox,...

10.4: How to easily secure a nearby iMac G5 (iSight)@macosxhints

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:36:00 +0100

I was reading through the User's Guide for my new iMac G5 (iSight), and noticed that the addition of the Front Row remote has added a new way to put the machine to sleep. If you press and hold the Play/Pause button on the ...

Recover from an iPod stuck in 'eternal Apple' mode@macosxhints

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:31:00 +0100

This is not operating system-specific, but I want to get it on the record somewhere since I could not find the solution anywhere else. Last week, my third-generation 30GB iPod refused to go beyond the Apple logo on startup. ...

Add 802.11g wireless networking to older PowerBooks@macosxhints

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:13:00 +0100

Apple uses Broadcom chipsets in their AirPort cards (at least the 802.11g ones), and a lucky little thing in both Tiger and Panther (maybe Jaguar, too) is that if you have a Broadcom chipset connected via the PCMCIA slot in y...

A helper script to enter SafeSleep on demand@macosxhints

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:39:00 +0100

If you're using 10.4.3, you may have already tried out enabling SafeSleep on your computer using the tips from Andrew Escobar's blog. I found it works great on my Powerbook G4 867, but I didn't want to have to keep using the ...

10.4: Manage Sidebar items with managed clients@macosxhints

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:05:00 +0100

This hint is pretty obvious. I'm very glad, with OS 10.4 Server, Apple has implemented some form of managed preferences on a per-file basis. Yet in 10.4, they never added a UI for managing the Sidebar items in Workgroup Manag...

Regularly recapture memory used by Apache@macosxhints

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:51:00 +0100

I recognized that my Apache 1.3 consumes a lot of memory during different tasks (eg. running phpDocumentor multiple times allocates about 80 MB of RAM for every instance). You can gracefully restart your web server to free th...

10.4: Change the default Spotlight Preview zoom level@macosxhints

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 16:06:00 +0100

The new Spotlight feature in Tiger does a great job at searching the contents of PDF files. Clicking on the result will open the file in Preview, starting at the first reference. However, the default zoom is so large that the...

10.4: Enable safe sleep on some older Macs@macosxhints

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 15:32:00 +0100

As soon as I heard about 'safe sleep' (which lets you replace a battery without a shut down, for instance) on the new PowerBooks, I wanted it. I have often been in the position where my 12" PowerBook G4 has run out of juice w...

10.4: Use drag and drop of vCards in iCal@macosxhints

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 14:49:00 +0100

Prior to Tiger's release, I submitted numerous requests to Apple asking for a feature that would allow the dragging and dropping of vCards within iCal, thereby eliminating typing of your contact's info. After upgrading to Ti...

10.4: Hide Automator applications when they run@macosxhints

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:15:00 +0100

I've set up a number of Automator workflows as iCal plugins, but it annoys me that when the alarm triggers, the plugin shows up in the Dock as an application and, worse yet, the focus switches to the plugin. The solution is ...

10.4: Migrate from Mail.app 2.0 to Thunderbird@macosxhints

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:57:00 +0100

I hadn't seen this hint posted here yet, though it seems to have been around the Internet for a while. As you may know, with Mail.app 2.0, the mailbox format on disk has been 'exploded' into individual messages (so Spotlight...

How to make a headless older PowerBook work@macosxhints

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:37:00 +0100

Before I started using Macs, I used to take old, broken, Gateway laptops and turn them into little "Convertibles," as I like to call them. Well, I got a hand-me-down TiPowerBook with such a destroyed screen that I began usin...

10.4: About the Java SE 5.0 Release 3 update@macosxhints

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:29:00 +0100

Yesterday, Apple released Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 3. It's in Software Update, and you can read more about it (and find a download link) on Apple's About the Java 2 ... Release page. If you're like ...

10.4: An AppleScript to do a 'find by name' search@macosxhints

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:54:00 +0100

If you're like me, you love Spotlight, but can't imagine what Apple was thinking when they chose to provide Kind and Last Opened as unchangeable default criteria in every new Finder search window. Most of the time, I want to ...

Replace a broken AirPort slot in older PowerBooks@macosxhints

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:07:00 +0100

The AirPort card in my Titanium 15" PowerBook no longer would connect to my home wireless network, using a Linksys 802.11b router. I swapped the AirPort card for one that I knew worked. Still it would not connect, though the ...

Possibly restart a hard-crashed iPod@macosxhints

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:56:58 +0100

I have a third generation 15GB iPod. One day I left it in my car, and it was moderately cold out, but nothing to where I was concerned about it -- the iPod was only in there for 15 minutes. But when I went to use it, it was d...

Use /etc/hosts to block ads at the local level@macosxhints

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:35:00 +0100

When I'm surfing the web at home, I am easily able to use my DNS server to block content that I don't want to see on web sites. Though I'm using a Gentoo box (can't quite afford the nice Mac server I want), this hint covers t...

Disable a user's account without deleting it@macosxhints

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 15:11:00 +0100

I was looking for a way to disable (but not delete) a user's login account in 10.4. An older hint explained how to do this using NetInfo Manager to prepend an asterisk (*) to the password hash, but this approach no longer wo...

Select text word-by-word@macosxhints

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 15:09:00 +0100

This might be old hat to some, but I just discovered this behavior by accident (in both 10.3 and 10.4). If you double-click to select a whole word, and then hold the mouse button down, you can then drag to select contiguous w...

Let shared internet users web browse without Apache@macosxhints

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:41:00 +0100

When enabling Internet Sharing in the Sharing preference pane, those using the built-in firewall are warned that computers sharing their internet connection will be unable to browse the web. The proposed solution is to enable...

An AppleScript to sanitize Safari@macosxhints

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:56:00 +0100

I recently moved from Firefox to Safari after upgrading to Tiger. One thing I missed was the ability to 'sanitize' (clear history, cache, cookies, saved searches etc.) my browser. Although Safari has a Private Browsing, featu...

Schedule regular dismount of fileshare connections@macosxhints

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:52:00 +0100

We have found a problem on Mac OS X systems which are used for acquiring laboratory images of experimental work. The systems are run as guest and are left logged into that account most of the time. The issue arises when users...

Use an alternative to the EyeHome software@macosxhints

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:55:00 +0100

Since I updated to 10.4.3, the EyeHome software (v1.6) crashes all the time. Until an update is released, you can either downgrade to v1.5.2 (13.1MB download), or to use third-party program called Virtuoso MC-500 Media Center...

10.4: Drag and drop URLs onto browsers' Dock icons@macosxhints

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:52:00 +0100

I noticed today that you can, in addition to clicking a link in a Mail message, drag the URL to a browser's icon in the Dock. This seems overly obvious, and may not seem terribly useful. However, some might find it helpful if...

Avoid a glitch with the 'Computer Name' screen saver@macosxhints

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:03:00 +0100

I have noticed this Desktop & Screen Saver (D&SS for short) System Preferences panel oddity since at least 10.3. I have tested it on 10.3 and 10.4 machines, and it's still an issue. Here's a description of the issue, and how ...

A timesaver when using Safari in offline mode@macosxhints

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:38:00 +0100

A quickie but a goody. If you are using Safari to browse a previously-saved page such as boingboing.net while offline, here's a little timesaver. When you Command-click a bunch of links to new sites, they're not going to load...

A simple way to prevent PowerBook fan activation@macosxhints

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:34:00 +0100

I've just starting using the online version of Rosetta Stone's language learning software. One of the features I like is the pronunciation practice, where you listen to a phrase pronounced by a native speaker, you try to say ...

10.4: Make the Dictionary safer and easier to use@macosxhints

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:19:00 +0100

We all know the Dictionary pop-up built into Tiger is excellent. I use it throughout the day, whether to define a word while browsing the web, or to find a synonym in the Thesaurus while writing an email -- which brings me to...

10.4: Avoid rsync errors during backup due to Spotlight@macosxhints

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:38:00 +0100

The command-line utility rsync synchronizes files and directories, and can be used as a tool for backing up important data to external or remote drives. The version of rsync that comes with Mac OS X 10.4 has the ability to in...

A fix for a MySQL5 Control Panel system boot crash@macosxhints

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:17:00 +0100

After sort of crash of the mysqld server, I tried unsucessfully to stop/start the deamon from the fancy MySQL5 System Preferences panel. (I use bash all day at work on linux, so using my Mac is a happy time at home.) Unfortu...

10.4: Fix a StuffIt v10 crashing glitch@macosxhints

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:53:00 +0100

If you find StuffIt v10 is crashing when launched under Tiger, try this. Open the Network panel in System Preferences, and set IPv6 to Automatic on your active network interface (via the Configure IPv6 pop-up). You can then ...

10.4: How to take 'screen-based flashbulb' pictures@macosxhints

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:51:00 +0100

Are you a 10.4.3 user, but not a new "iSight built in" iMac user? Want to see at least one small piece of Photo Booth technology in action? It seems that the 10.4.3 includes at least one of the Photo Booth features to those o...

10.4: Remove arrows from aliases@macosxhints

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 15:02:00 +0100

I dislike the Windows-like arrows in the lower left corner of alias icons. Ever since Panther came out, I'd been using the technique described in this hint to get rid of them. When the 10.4.3 Update restored the pesky arrows,...

10.4: How to set up a wildcard DNS@macosxhints

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:26:00 +0100

I like to use a wildcard DNS entry for my localhost. The reason? If I want to establish a new virtual domain in Apache for testing, I need only go in and create my own arbitrary virtual domain (like railsdev.localhost), and t...

Secure remote access to a Mac from Windows@macosxhints

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:17:00 +0100

I work at a large company that blocks all Internet ports, only allowing access to the web through a proxy server on ports 80 and 443. I have a fast connection at home and a nice shinny PowerBook sitting on my coffee table all...

10.4: Eliminate excess fan noise under 10.4.3 on G5s@macosxhints

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:41:00 +0100

After installing 10.4.3, I was dismayed to find that it had sent my G5 (a first-generation Dual 2.0GHz model) into the land of eternally cycling fans. Every few minutes, for seemingly no reason at all, the fan noise would ram...

Bluetooth adapters, wake from sleep, and headsets@macosxhints

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:35:00 +0100

I've had an external Bluetooth adapter on my Mac for a long time -- since the earliest days of its support in OS X. Back then, I used it to pair my Palm with my Mac for wireless synching. Since my previous Macs never had buil...

10.4: Enable 'Open With for all' to work for certain apps@macosxhints

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 14:58:00 +0100

Fellow Macworld employee Jonathan Seff pointed me to the following problem/fix; I haven't experienced it myself, so I can't vouch for the solution at all, though it worked for Jonathan. I thought it was worth sharing, so here...

10.4: Fix a post-10.4.3-update SystemUIServer crash@macosxhints

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 14:48:00 +0100

When I updated to 10.4.3 last night, I rebooted and my Antenna, Volume, Input Menu, and Account Menu wouldn't come up in the upper right hand corner of the screen in the menu bar. I checked out the Activity Monitor and the Sy...

10.4: Safari Downloads window now tracks files better@macosxhints

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:46:00 +0100

I do not know when this changed; maybe in 10.4.3... I have a couple of folder action scripts that move my Safari downloads into 'type' and then 'dated' folders. But after the scripts moved the files, the Show in Finder butto...

Migrate music, playlists, etc. from old iPod to new iPod@macosxhints

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:39:00 +0100

Problem: I bought a new iPod, and wanted to quickly migrate everything from my old iPod to the new one. Solution: Plug both iPods into a Mac. In the Terminal, copy the following files from the old iPod to the new iPod: iPod...

Restore missing iTunes artwork to an iPod@macosxhints

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:35:00 +0100

Problem: I loaded all of my files on my brand spankin' new iPod, but when I use the iPod, I can't see any of the artwork. When I plug the iPod into my Mac, I see the artwork in iTunes. Solution: Plug the iPod into your Mac. ...

Speed up DarwinPorts builds with distributed compiling@macosxhints

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:27:00 +0100

I spent some time today staring at DarwinPorts slowly grinding my PowerBook G4 to a halt. Frustrated, I set about discovering whether Xcode's distributed build process could be leveraged to speed up my DarwinPorts builds. I w...

10.4: Create a chrooted SSH/SFTP server@macosxhints

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:04:00 +0100

The directions from this previous hint weren't cutting it anymore for setting up a chrooted SFTP environment in Tiger, as the networking code changed significantly from Panther. With these updated directions, you can use ssh...

10.4: Add Canon EOS350D RAW support to 10.4.3@macosxhints

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 13:58:00 +0100

I've been annoyed with the lack of RAW support for the Canon EOS 350D for a long time, and had high hopes that 10.4.3 would fix this, as it seemed to be the OS version that Aperture was waiting for. However, I was dismayed to...

10.4: Use Widget Update to keep widgets current@macosxhints

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 15:37:00 +0100

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 9 out of 10]Product Page Price: Free (Donate button, but non-nag, non-limited program) I'm not a huge Dashboard user, but nonetheless, my collection has managed to grow to something like 30 wi...

Use higher resolution MPEG4s on the iPod Video@macosxhints

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 14:22:00 +0100

While waiting for my iPod Video to ship to my place, I had been ripping DVDs using MacTheRipper and then HandBrake to convert the videos to H.264. However, after receiving my iPod, I figured out something. Some people might a...

Use encrypted disk images to password protect apps@macosxhints

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 14:19:00 +0100

My teenage daughter loves iTunes, DVD player, games and other Mac apps -- so much so that they can interfere with her homework, music practice, chores, etc. So I limit her access to addicting applications with a password. I ...

10.4: Add Xcode c and c++ header files to Spotlight@macosxhints

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 14:15:00 +0100

If you use Xcode, it's extremely useful to have your header files indexed by Spotlight. This isn't done by default, and it isn't well documented how to achieve it. It's actually pretty easyl. Open Terminal, and then run the ...

10.4: A simple fix for Windows Media Player crashes@macosxhints

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 14:04:00 +0100

I frustratingly found that even after installing a brand new copy of Windows Media Player (WMP), it simply would crash on startup under Tiger. The fix was really, really simple: Just throw away the files in your ~/Library/Pr...

10.4: OS X 10.4.3 update released@macosxhints

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 15:56:00 +0100

Long ago, when the site was but a young thing, I used to regularly cover the minor OS X releases. I haven't done that for quite a while, but I felt yesterday's release of the 10.4.3 update merited at least some mention here--...

10.4: 10.4.3 update may break Automator workflows@macosxhints

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 15:31:00 +0100

If you have Automator scripts that combine Finder actions with shell scripts, you may have some problems with 10.4.3. In particular, it appears that the 'Get Selected Finder Items' action has changed its behavior under 10.4.3...

10.4: View secure iChat certificate details@macosxhints

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:57:00 +0100

If you're in an encypted iChat (with another .Mac user on a 10.4.3 machine), here's a quick way to view their certificate info: just click the small lock icon at the top right of the iChat window. You'll get a pop-up window s...

10.4: Mail search breaks when excluded from Spotlight@macosxhints

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:38:00 +0100

This is kind of a non-hint. Maybe everybody else already knew this, but if you exclude Mail Messages from Spotlight's search results -- in the Spotlight System Preferences panel, Search Results tab -- you then cannot search y...

Access Bonjour discovery info from the command line@macosxhints

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 15:01:00 +0100

It took me a little while to find this, so I thought I'd share. You can access BonJour (nee Rendezvous) discovery services from the command line by using the command dns-sd in 10.4, or mDNS in 10.3. There doesn't appear to be...

Prevent Image Capture from launching spontaneously@macosxhints

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:32:00 +0100

Maybe this is too obvious to be regarded as a hint, but I was puzzled for some time by why I kept finding Image Capture running unbidden under Tiger. Eventually I realized that because I have a FireWire scanner permanently at...

Easily set permissions on a migrated Home folder@macosxhints

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:27:00 +0100

Situation: Copying your user's existing Home folder onto a new system. Problem: You want to ensure all the permsisisons are set properly along with the UIDs. Solution: Copy the folder from the old machine onto the new mach...

Create a Safari toolbar button for the bookmark manager@macosxhints

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:44:00 +0200

If you set Safari's Home Page address (Safari: Preferences, General tab) to bookmarks://, you can display the Bookmark Manager by clicking the Home button in Safari's main toolbar. I use this trick to get a clickable icon fo...

Convert existing video podcasts for use on iPod Video@macosxhints

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:40:00 +0200

Just a helpful hint for any new iPod with Video owners out there. I wanted a way to move video podcasts that were not originally formatted for the video-enabled iPod onto it, while still keeping the videos in the podcasts lis...

10.4: Make OS X remember LEAP wireless networks@macosxhints

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:18:00 +0200

The story goes that, in 10.4, you could set up a LEAP-authenticated wireless network as a preferred network in the Network preferences pane. Some time later (and I'm not sure when, maybe 10.4.1) when you tried to do this, the...

Use PithHelmet to allow simple URL typing@macosxhints

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:51:00 +0200

Recently, somebody in the DNS system started serving advertisements to me when I type in simple URLs, like foo. I used to get failed lookups, which would make Safari try to load http://www.foo.com, and I think try http://www....

Consistent UIDs may solve file transfer issues@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:33:00 +0200

I have several machines that I routinely transfer files between. After a rebuild of a PowerBook, I was unable to upload files successfully (but I could download files without issue.) The error indicated that I did not have ...

Activate particular X11 windows via a hotkey@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:10:00 +0200

One of the issues with using X11 under OS X is that the default window manager, quartz-wm, does not allow you to manipulate the properties of the various X windows very much. The biggest problem is that it is not possible to ...

10.4: Create simple backups with SSH and Spotlight@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:02:00 +0200

This only works in 10.4, and requires that you have adequate space on an accessible SSH-capable machine (Linux, Unix or OS X, maybe Windows if you know how to set up SSH on it ... but I don't). This script will use password...

10.4: Avoid kernel panics with the Contivity VPN Client@macosxhints

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:40:00 +0200

The Contivity VPN client (version 3.3) is causing a kernel panic when you want to stop it. As it is stops when you shut down or restart the computer, it means that sometimes your computer will go into a kernel panic instead o...

Remote control one computer via another using ssh@macosxhints

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:30:00 +0200

I have a Linux server (slowly being phased out by my OS X server) connected directly to the internet with a static IP address. Then I have an old PowerMac 9500 running OS 9.1 with Retrospect and a tape library to back up my L...

10.4: FileVault breaks some Automator Actions@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:26:00 +0200

I recently solved a problem I have been having with Automator for a while. When I run certain Automator actions (for example, when trying to rename Finder items) I get the following error: AppleScript Error: Finder got a...

Use groff to easily create PDF pages@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:09:00 +0200

I need to automate PDF document generation and have looked at a number of options for doing this from a PHP enabled web site. The basic problem is that for machine-generated documents, it's easiest to work with text files, bu...

Use Automator to help publish iCal calendars@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:40:00 +0200

Does your web host not have WebDAV installed on Apache? It's not unusual; none of the hosts I use or looked at had mod-dav installed, nor were they willing to do so. That means that the one-click Publish feature in iCal won't...

Use Quicktime Player to export movies to iTunes video@macosxhints

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:10:00 +0200

Apple's tutorial Creating Video for iPod requires Quicktime 7 Pro, but the free Quicktime Player is equally capable. I've posted both an AppleScript (Export front movie to iTunes.scpt) and an automator workflow (Export se...

Rip losslessly to flac with abcde@macosxhints

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:01:00 +0200

All the ways I could find to rip to flac on OS X involved way too many steps for my taste. So here's my solution... The first step is to install DarwinPorts. Once that's done, switch to the Terminal and type sudo port inst...

10.4: Damaged widgets may cause CPU usage issues@macosxhints

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:35:00 +0200

I have noticed that if a widget's preferences get corrupted, that widget's CPU usage can scale, and use all or most of your CPU cycles. The fix is to use Activity Viewer to list processes by CPU %, locate the troubling widget...

Use iSync with some unsupported phones@macosxhints

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:32:00 +0200

If you have a phone like the Z520i that is not supported by iSync, you can usually pair it with your Mac, but you can't enable Address Book syncing. But you may be able to get it working if you pair the phone with your Mac fr...

Rewind/fast-forward QuickTime movies via trackpad@macosxhints

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:27:00 +0200

Today, by accident, I found out that when you move the mouse cursor over a QuickTime movie and scroll up/down using two fingers on the two-finger-scrolling trackpad built into the latest PowerBooks and iBooks, the movie will ...

10.4: Use Automator to add QuickTime annotations@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:54:00 +0200

I was disappointed when I started using Quicktime Pro 7 and discovered that I couldn't add Director, Performers, Producer or Writer annotations to my movies. Only basic Annotations could be added or modified using the Show Mo...

10.4: Fix Compressor background process error@macosxhints

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:42:00 +0200

Like many others, I have run into the "Unable to Connect to Background Process" error when trying to submit video files to the Compressor utility. I've looked all over the net, including the Apple web site for a fix and found...

10.4: Finder selections and Automator action targets@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:45:00 +0200

If you use the Automator action 'Get Selected Finder Items' in your workflow, when you actually use the workflow, make sure the item you wish to affect is actually highlighted before you run the action! I innocently opened a...

10.4: Mark Safari RSS items as read via a click@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:27:00 +0200

I just noticed that in Safari 2, you can mark an RSS Item as 'read' by simply clicking on the summary of the article -- the text directly below the title of the RSS item. By doing that, you don't have to reload the whole pag...

10.4: Use Xcode's AU Lab to send sound via the net@macosxhints

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:16:00 +0200

After playing with Fun House (and using a simple clock screensaver made in the great Quartz Composer), I found another app that made it worth installing the Developer Tools. Using the AU Lab utility, you can (amongst other th...

10.4: Use Spotlight as a quick and dirty database@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:56:00 +0200

Spotlight does not index network volumes, so in a workgroup environment where all the 'interesting' documents are on a network volume, it's not very useful. However, since Spotlight will index the contents of files on your ha...

10.4: Entire Message vs. Subject searches in Mail@macosxhints

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:46:00 +0200

I rely very heavily on Mail's search feature to find mail from hundreds of companies that send me information on a regular basis. I was a bit surprised the other day when I was searching all mailboxes using the 'Entire Messag...

Instantly restart a server or workstation each day@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:43:00 +0200

Among other things, I administer two identical servers located in different locations on different LANs. They're running Mac OS X 10.4.2 client w/all updates and they run the services: ipfw, nat, dhcp, dns, and ssh. Unfortuna...

Improved 'Google search to Find box' transfer@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:31:00 +0200

I liked the "nice UI touch" described in this hint: In Safari, after using Google Search box, you can use Find on page (⌘-F), and the search terms are filled in automatically. However, dzurn was right: I saw this befor...

10.4: Some info on iChatAgent 'not responding'@macosxhints

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:15:00 +0200

Well, this isn't really a hint or a solution to a problem, but just for those of you who were concerned by seeing the iChatAgent in red ("Not Responding") in your Activity Monitor. Did you even occasionally try to fix the iss...

Restore logging of SSH logins@macosxhints

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 15:03:00 +0200

With the release of 10.4, Apple has changed logging for ssh. I used to keep an eye on break-in attempts to my home computer (see this hint), which has SSH login enabled so I can log in from work. After I installed Tiger, I d...

Use the envelope feeder on LaserJet 4000s@macosxhints

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:30:00 +0200

Since Mac OS X.3.9 (and still a problem in X.4.2), there has been a bug with the HP LaserJet 4000. The problem is that you cannot use the envelope feeder. The job just goes to one of the other trays, and you cannot select "En...

10.4: A fix for Motorola wireless cards under 10.4.2@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:03:00 +0200

I have a Dual PowerMac G4; it's from before the time of AirPort Extreme Card slots. It does has an AirPort slot, but only for wireless-b AirPort cards ... which you can no longer get from Apple, and other place charge a premi...

Use a black image to instantly blank an Apple LCD@macosxhints

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:40:00 +0200

On an iMac G5, it's impossible to turn the screen off immediately. There is a workaround: Create a screen-sized black image in your favorite image editor. Import that image into iPhoto (like any picture). Create a forlder n...

10.4: Demystify Spotlight's saved search syntax@macosxhints

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:13:00 +0200

Spotlight is terrible. But at the same time, very useful. Let's hope Apple cleans it up a bit in a future release. But until then, here is some more help - to go along with the tons of Spotlight hints we already have here. S...

Enter Address Book birthday info via relative dates@macosxhints

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:07:00 +0200

In Tiger's Address Book (not sure about previous versions), you can enter the current person's birthday into their vcard using words only, not dates. For example, let's say today is Monday, October 10, 2005. In the birthday ...

Spotless - Gain some control over Spotlight@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:57:00 +0200

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 10 out of 10]Developer: Fixamac Software / [Product Page] Price: $7.95 Spotless is a simple little app that gives you a bit more control over OS X 10'4s Spotblight, er, Spotlight, feature....

Share files and internet connection between 10.4 and XP@macosxhints

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:56:00 +0200

A problem I ran into while trying to connect a simple network of a Mac running OS X 10.4 to a PC with Windows XP via a crossover cable was that if I wanted to share my dial-up internet connection from the Mac to the PC, I had...

10.4: Check changes made to Apache's config file@macosxhints

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 15:22:00 +0200

With the release of 10.4, OS X has changed a couple of things important to the Apache Web server. For example, Rendevous is now Bonjour, and there a few changes in the configuration file for Apache. Due to this and a couple o...

Use a shell script for incremental backups@macosxhints

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 15:08:00 +0200

This shell script is a modification of a script I've been using on Unix systems since the late 80's. I recently updated it for use on 10.3, and it should work on 10.4 as well. Here's a reformatted version of the instructions,...

10.4: Avoid a fax sending bug with Brother MFCs@macosxhints

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:49:00 +0200

Brother updated their drivers for a number of their MFC devices early in 2005 for Tiger. Unfortunately, they included a bug that removes the ability to fax to a manually-entered number. Instead, you are forced to use Apple's ...

10.4: Automatically handle iCal events in Mail@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:51:00 +0200

Tiger Mail and iCal have a nifty new feature where events that come in the mail are automatically sent to iCal for entry on your calendar. However, if you get events from a mailing list, iCal will refuse to let you add the ev...

10.4: Find Address Book names by initials in Spotlight@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:47:00 +0200

I haven't seen this hint elsewhere; there is something similar in Mail, but not exactly. If you type in someone's initials in Spotlight, it will return their contact info. [robg adds: This works, but it's not necessarily the...

Play Ogg Vorbis files in iTunes 5 / QuickTime 7@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:28:00 +0200

Install Arek's OggVorbis QuickTime component, and you can listen to Ogg Vorbis files in QuickTime 7. Tested with QuickTime 7.0.2 and iTunes 5.0.1 on OS X 10.4.2. [robg adds: Back in 2002, this hint covered another Ogg Vorbis...

Manage LittleSnitch over SSH via a PHP script@macosxhints

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:27:00 +0200

I previously posted a hint about using AppleScript UI Scripting to allow LittleSnitch while logged in via SSH; this is a follow up on the story. I decided it was not enough and came up with a php shell script to manage the L...

10.4: Upgrade Diskwarrior 3 to repair 10.4 disks@macosxhints

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 14:50:00 +0200

This morning I booted from my original Diskwarrior 3 CD. Immediatly after the directory rebuild began, a window popped up saying the directory was damaged beyond the ability of Diskwarrior to repair. I ran Apple's Disk Utilit...

10.4: Avoid Spotlight issues when adding Classic@macosxhints

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:44:00 +0200

Here's a little heads-up concerning Classic. Do not move an OS 9.2.2 System folder from another computer to a 10.4 Mac. This will confuse Spotlight (it will crash trying to index the other non-extistent computer). Also, in th...

10.4: Fix a blank speech commands window@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:11:00 +0200

While trying to test this hint earlier today, I was somewhat dismayed to find that speech recognition appeared to be broken on my G5 -- I could enable speech recognition, but the Speech Commands window (which you can display ...

10.4: Clear old Console logs from 10.4 upgrade installs@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:44:00 +0200

Apparently, versions of Mac OS X before Tiger used to write Console logs to a directory named for your short user name: /Library/Logs/Console/shortu/ i.e. shortu is the user's short name. Apparently in Tiger, console logs a...

10.4: Restore custom international number formats@macosxhints

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:10:00 +0200

I was looking for a way to restore a custom number formatting on my German localization under Tiger, as I am not satisfied that I cannot change the decimal separator in the way I want (in Germany, we use a comma as the standa...

Install a modified Tiger-compatible version of GeekTool@macosxhints

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:19:00 +0200

Tired of waiting for a new release of GeekTool (it's been a long time that it's been stuck at 2.1(D8))? The current release also has some problems with Tiger -- take a look at the system console and you will see for yourself....

10.4: Delete burn folders on OS X Server@macosxhints

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:25:00 +0200

`In a Mac OS 10.4 managed client / networked home environment, burn folders, once created, cannot be removed by the user. The only way to remove them is to log into the server as root. Do a find (Command-F) for "fpbf," which ...

Customize Griffin's AirClick USB actions@macosxhints

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:25:00 +0200

Griffin's AirClick USB is a wireless remote control that allows you to control applications such as iTunes, Keynote, and Safari. Unhappy with some of the default choices of application and of the particular actions assigned t...

An AppleScript to integrate clamscan and Apple Mail@macosxhints

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:18:00 +0200

I've been using clamscan (part of the Clam Anti Virus package; OS X version available via Fink) and Apple's Mail for quite a while now. However, I never really had an 'elegant' way of scanning my emails -- I'd scan my entire ...

10.4: Use Mighty Mouse driver to customise other mice@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:22:00 +0200

I use a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse (MX700) connected to a Belkin KVM switch to control both a WinXP Pro Dell I8000 laptop and an Apple PowerBook 17 1.67 GHz. Since the Logitech driver for the Mac requires the mouse ...

10.4: Run postfix and other Unix services via Automator@macosxhints

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 14:20:00 +0200

On my PowerBook, I, like many others, have the postfix mail server running. In 10.3, there was a way of getting this mail server to start automatically upon login, but that doesn't seem to work anymore in 10.4, creating the a...

Scan to print via Image Capture and Desktop Printers@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 16:39:00 +0200

Push button printing (i.e. 'scan then print') doesn't work with my Epson scanner and OS X's Image Capture. But I found something close. First create a desktop printer using Printer Setup Utility (Printers: Create Desktop Pri...

Run KDE on OS X via Xfree86@macosxhints

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 15:37:00 +0200

This article discusses running KDE on OS X, using the XFree86 package in place of Apple's own X11 program. I have yet to try this, but thought it might be of interest here. [robg adds: I also haven't tested this one. If you'...