Tips – A Small Corner of the Internet

TIP: Save to recent locations

As OS X has changed over the years, I find myself missing some of the nuances I in the new interface. Recently I had been working on a number of documents in various applications and while saving them, repeating many steps. I would click Documents in the sidebar, then find the folder I had been… Continue reading TIP: Save to recent locations

Proper Mac OS X Permissions

I just spent a bunch of time trying to figure out why my Time Machine would not restore data. The restored folders were empty, but the data was on the Time Capsule. I tried to copy the folder via the Finder and that failed silently as well. Even more oddly, I could open some folders… Continue reading Proper Mac OS X Permissions

How to launch games with different video drivers

a very useful guide on how to use OpenGL Profiler to launch games, like World of Warcraft, with older video drivers (if you crash with the current drivers)

Is Safari’s Autofill choosing the wrong phone number for you?

Safari uses the first phone number listed in your Address Book card. There is no direction UI manipulation gesture for controlling this order, but there is a preference. Address Book -> Preferences -> Template Make the number type you wish to be used by Safari (Home, Work, etc) be the first number type in the… Continue reading Is Safari’s Autofill choosing the wrong phone number for you?

Using PathFinder and keeping changing desktop patterns

For some time I have been a big fan of Path Finder as a Finder replacement. One of the things I missed tho was changing desktop photos. It turns out, I could have had this all along, but the convoluted preferences are well, convoluted! You see Path Finder has a much nicer display of desktop… Continue reading Using PathFinder and keeping changing desktop patterns

Asked at PMUG – My MacBook is running the fans a lot

At PMUG last night, someone asked what to do about their fans running non-stop on a MacBook. Aside from bad sensor, or a runaway application, we told the person to update their SMC firmware. But where do you get that? Well luckily Apple just redesigned the Apple Support page and I really like it. From… Continue reading Asked at PMUG – My MacBook is running the fans a lot

Quicken 2006 background scheduler breaks TextExpander 1.4.2

Took me awhile to track down, but there is a conflict between Intuit Quicken 2006 Quicken Scheduler and TextExpander 1.4.2. When the scheduler is running, textexpander snippets cannot be triggered via the keyboard, rather only via the menu.

Lock Screen

I often want to password lock my screen, but not log out. OK, I can set the security preferences to lock the screen when the screen saver kicks in, but I don’t want to do that every time the screen saver kicks in. Thanks to FourOhFour on #macintosh, I have a solution. Open Keychain Access,… Continue reading Lock Screen

Speed up mail.app!

Here is a tip to easily double, if not triple your Mail.app speed! Read

Werid Fonts Issue

Along with this security issue, Font Book ran into corrupted fonts which I removed as noted earlier. I had also tossed my Caches and byHost folder to see if that would help. As a side effect, Mail.app was drawing its from field on top of the subject field. Safari and OmniWeb had the wrong display… Continue reading Werid Fonts Issue

Whacky networking issues

For awhile I would get issues about certificate errors, etc. Today, I could not go to my webmail, check mail nor go to say godaddy.com in Safari, Omniweb nor Mail.app. After 90 mins of mucking around, deleting corrupted Fonts (now my TextMate font is all messed up, later issue) I found this thread on apple… Continue reading Whacky networking issues

Airport Extreme N Users – Turn on your IPV6 Firewall!

As noted in the linked Ars Technica article, Apple messed up and left the IPv6 firewall off. Oops. Read Out of the box, the router will connect you to the IPv6 Internet using an automatically configured tunnel. This means putting IPv6 packets put inside regular IPv4 packets. Those of you who really want to test… Continue reading Airport Extreme N Users – Turn on your IPV6 Firewall!

Remember to run Apple’s Broadband Tuner from time to time

I ran my usual performance test to UC Santa Cruz and was only getting 10 of the 15 MB/s I should be getting on FIOS. So I installed the Apple Broadband Tuner and whoopee, immediately up to 15MB/s. I guess I never ran this while using Ethernet, or installing OS X Updates negates these settings.… Continue reading Remember to run Apple’s Broadband Tuner from time to time

Entering unicode characters in any Cocoa App

This is a cool tip: How to Add a key mapping file When the file is installed, quit and relaunch Mail and type control-m, control-a to get the apple/command symbol! (a caret (^) means control) So for example control-m control-a control-m control-o P gives: ⌘⌥P

Have I complained about iChat lately?

As you can tell from my mystic posts, I’ve been trying to solve this can’t iChat AV in Tiger issue even though I’m talking to people with PhDs and what not. Or not talking to them should I say. I had Vonage switch to SIP port 5061, but then eliminated the Vonage router altogether and… Continue reading Have I complained about iChat lately?

Apple revises MacBook Pro

According to Daily Tech, Apple has now released 3 revisions of the MacBook Pro hardware. The latter having no known issues. I am glad my order took so long and was BTO as I have W8612, the latest known version. I still think there are wifi issues with speed, reconnecting and very hot temperature issues… Continue reading Apple revises MacBook Pro

Did I finally get iChat 3 A/V Working?

Thanks to info at Ralph John’s iChat Page, I finally got iChat AV working, we think. It still depends on the remote end being configured properly, so if you have problems, see the linked image. Basically I turned off uPNP and used port triggering instead. I have a Linksys WRT54GS v1.1 with Firmware Version: v3.37.6… Continue reading Did I finally get iChat 3 A/V Working?

Security Hole in Safari – Take action now!

A flaw has been found in Safari if you have open “safe” files after downloading checked. Any site can use this flaw to attack you, just by visiting it. To secure yourself, go to Safari Menu, Choose Preferences, click General, and uncheck “open “safe” files after downloading” You’ll now have to double click widgets, sit… Continue reading Security Hole in Safari – Take action now!

iTunes 6.0.2 adds “Do not auto delete”

iTunes rocks for podcasts but I had my settings set up to delete podcasts after I had listened to them. This was fine, except for some podcasts, like Tikibar TV, I wanted to keep them all, even if I had listened to them. When now in iTunes 6.0.2 you can control-click on a podcast and… Continue reading iTunes 6.0.2 adds “Do not auto delete”

Command-Control-D over words in Tiger

I heard about this tip from Rob Griffiths at PMUG the other night. Put your cursor over a word in any cocoa app, like Safari or mail, and press COMMAND-CONTROl-D. A popup window will show with the definition of that word!