Posts tagged with "leopard"
Tuesday, 13. November 2007, 15:39:57
playlists, os, list, mac
...
Sorry for my hiatus in writing yesterday; I couldn’t get into the mood to write. And granted I am not in the mood right now to write, I am forcing myself to write. So, without further adieu, here’s todays article.
Last Friday I was looking into backing up my iTunes library and playlists. Now, not the typical backup one can easily do by using an external drive, but instead I wanted to back up to multiple CDs. CDs have a life span that is roughly three to four times longer than a hard drive. So by backing up to CDs I won’t have to fear a hard drive randomly not working and me losing all of my music.
I did a quick Google search and actually found that I needed no external program. The backup option is built right into iTunes. Simply go to File > Backup to Disc... Yeah... It’s that simple.
From this window you have a few options. You can choose to back up all of your music and playlists at once (I suggest doing this for your first backup). Or you can have iTunes backup only your purchased music (and videos?) from the iTunes store. Then you are given a check box that, when checked, will only backup additions to your playlists and library since your last backup. That’s right! You can now do monthly backups and only back up the changes to iTunes. Brilliant!
When you need to restore, simply pop in the first CD and iTunes will instantly prompt you and ask you if you want to restore and rebuild your music collection.
Well, simple tip as it is, I didn’t know about it so I’m assuming that others didn’t either.
That about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Friday, 9. November 2007, 07:53:54
os, mac, x, dock
...
A few days ago I wrote about a the importance of customizing the Leopard dock and then listed two sources for dock replacement themes, and it would seem that I spoke way too soon.
Released only yesterday, PimpMyDock is the application we have all been waiting for. It not only alleviates the need to manually edit the Dock application in order to replace the theme, but it also brings us a standardized format for the theme packages called “.docktheme.”
Being so new, however, limits the amount of themes available in the .docktheme format. As of the time I write this, only 12 are available on the web. However, there’s nothing bad about that as PimpMyDock makes it extremely easy to create your own dock theme files. Simply press command+N to create a new theme, select the picture you want to replace in the list of pictures in the left-hand side of the window and drag the picture you want to replace it with into the box located on the right-hand side of the window. It’s that simple! And when your done, having edited the theme you opened or not, simply press “Apply Theme,” enter your administrative password and watch your dock transform!
I decided to make a theme file out of the dock theme I prefer from LeopardDocks.com, and that theme is Jet Black. So also I decided to package it up for you guys and upload it onto the MacsVsPcs.com server:
-Jet Black (Created by Bryan Clodfelter & Mike Yaroshinsky, packaged by DMXell)
Finally something to make replacing dock themes as easy as four clicks, Well that finishes up the week, check back on Monday for yet another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Friday, 9. November 2007, 01:54:04
os, leopard, spotlight, mac
...
The “Help” menu found in most Mac OS X application received a much needed update in Mac OS X Leopard. In every operating system the “Help” menu is pretty much beyond useless. The only real information ever listed in it that actually helps the end-user is the help file associated with the program, and even that is questionable as to how much it actually helps the user.
But, with Leopard, Apple put on their innovation caps as usual and added something to the help menu that has never been seen anywhere else before; and this is Spotlight. That’s right, the Apple implementation of instant search, which also received quite a few updates in Leopard, has been placed right into the menu system in applications to help the user not only more quickly locate the help documentation that he/she may be looking for, but also to help that user locate menu items.
That’s right, within the help menu you have a fully integrated menu search feature. Nothing like this has ever been done anywhere else before. Simply begin typing the name of the function you’re looking for, go down to it on the list of possible solutions that Spotlight presents and see it go right to that function you were looking for in the menus and point it out.
Now, in most applications, this probably won’t be helpful. But if you constantly use an application that is filled with menu items (like, say, Photoshop), this function is a Godsend. I personally love this feature because when I do editing in GIMP I often forget where some filters are, but with this I no longer have to spend a few seconds tediously going back and forth between menus to find the filter I’m looking for. I simply go to the help menu, type the general function of the filter, and let Spotlight find the filter for me
Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Thursday, 8. November 2007, 03:50:33
os, video, flip4mac, mac
...
Getting video files to play in Mac OS X has always been a rather tough issue for new Mac users. Often on various websites I’ll see a help thread asking how to play certain video files such as WMV, AVI and the like which are common video formats found on the web. And the typical answer varies between one of two answers: 1) the responder suggests the free, open source program VLC which can handle many video formats, or 2) the responder suggests Flip4Mac (a Quicktime plugin suite) which costs $29 and only supports a few video file formats.
The average user opts for VLC, for obvious reasons. Each solution, however, has its faults.
VLC, while supporting various formats, doesn’t integrate with iMovie, Safari or anything else. It’s just a program with no real intention to integrate with the system. So, for people like me, VLC isn’t a good option as I use iMovie for making my Youtube videos.
Flip4Mac, on the other-hand, integrates with iMovie, Safari and the like but lacks the vast amount of video formats that VLC supports as well as costing $29.
In my opinion, the faults of both those solutions are too good to consider viable, and luckily, others agree. There’s yet another free, open source solution that isn’t often mentioned, but essentially combines the pros of both the previous solutions into one. And this solution is called Perian.
Perian is touted as the “swiss-army knife for Quicktime,” and it is just that. Like Flip4Mac, Perian integrates into Quicktime, adding support for various video formats inside of iMovie, Safari, and the like. And like VLC, Perian adds support for many video formats.
Basically Quicktime gains all the functionality that VLC had while remaining as Quicktime. So next time you see one of those help threads, mention Perian, the best solution of the three.
Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Tuesday, 6. November 2007, 23:53:25
leopard, unix, x, rc3
...
With Mac OS X Leopard came a lot of new changes. One of the changes was to the Unix core of OS X. Leopard is the first Mac OS to receive a full on Unix certification, and in order to do that Apple had to change a lot of the ways that Unix interacted with the OS. One of these was to X11 (Apple’s implementation of the x windowing system).
Many program ports rely on X11 to function, and due to the change in the way X11 works, those applications no longer work in Leopard, or if they do work they’re probably not usable.
One of these applications happens to be GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), my application of choice when it comes to editing photos. There’s a work around that can get the GIMP 2.4 RC3 version to at least load, but once you try and do anything inside the program, it crashes.
So, I was stumped and resorted to using the far less versatile program, Seashore (which is a watered down version of GIMP programmed for the Aqua interface).
That is... until I remembered a nifty little attempt to render from source a GIMP version that doesn’t rely on X11. That’s right, an Aqua version of GIMP that includes all of the nicks and crannies from the real GIMP 2.4 build RC3. I knew that GIMP wouldn’t work in Leopard was because of X11 being changed, so I was pretty certain that this version would work. Was I right? Yep. It works, but it isn’t nearly as good as one would hope. Granted you can do everything that the X11 GIMP could do, the Aqua version is plagued with various bugs.
Now these bugs don’t crash GIMP or anything, they’re just pretty annoying to deal with. So here are the bugs and annoyances that I have found:
-I cannot get any themes to work in GIMP, and the the Tango theme inside of the normal X11 installation is gone. You are, instead, left with a default theme that looks like Windows in classic mode (ewww).
-The dock icon, once you have GIMP open, is rendered useless. If you right click it the menu will take a few seconds to load and won’t show “Quit” at the bottom, but instead “Force Quit,” which doesn’t quit GIMP. You must manually quit GIMP from the menu. Also, “Hide” doesn’t work.
-OS X doesn’t recognize GIMP as being a valid source to open image files with, so you can’t drag images onto the dock icon to open them in GIMP. You must manually go to the GIMP menu and click “Open.” Then browse to the file. There may be a way to get OS X to recognize GIMP as a way to read image files, but I haven’t found one.
-Dragging layers in the layer window panel doesn’t move them. Nope, it duplicates them and then hides the original. Granted it does duplicate the layer to where you were trying to move it, it’s pretty annoying and slows down GIMP.
-When loading GIMP the load screen may seemingly freeze. If this happens simply click it a few times (anywhere will do) and it will finish opening.
-Sometimes popup dialogues (like the perspective dialogue) will randomly go to the bottom of the screen when using the tool associated with it. You’ll have to drag the window up to be able to click “Okay” or “Cancel.”
-You cannot rename the app from “AquaGIMP” to something else (like “Gimp”) for some odd reason.
-If you're trying to manually enter pixel values and the like, the number "1" seems to need to be held for a second before GIMP recognizes it. I don't know why.
So, as you can see, these are really annoying bugs or just general annoyances that I have found. So, let’s hope that the X11 version of GIMP is fixed soon.
If you would like to download this version of GIMP, click here. (From www.nasendackel.de)
Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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UPDATE: I forgot to mention, the Aqua version of GIMP only works on the Intel processor and I believe you also need at least version 10.4.10 (correct me if I'm wrong).
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Tuesday, 6. November 2007, 00:22:12
10.5, leopard, dock, theme
...
Well I forgot to organize myself over the weekend, so I’ll be winging my articles again this week. Hopefully next week I’ll remember (lol).
So as we all know, the dock in Leopard received a major upgrade. The dock was changed from the previous 2-dimensional look to a full on 3-dimensional form. The result is something that I consider classy and extremely modern, though as I found out others prefer the 2D look in which a hack has been found to revert the dock to that form.
And while the new look is a breath of fresh air, it can still stand for some improvements. As others have pointed out in various videos and blog posts about it, the new dock is counter-intuitive when it comes to the color scheme. In the world of the arts, one never puts blue on white as we see with the new dock and the dock indicators. So hackers went to work to find ways of fixing this and boy were we all shocked at how easy it is to change the docks entire theme.
With the old dock, Apple opted for the operating system to use vectors and transparency to render the dock. The result was something that not only made it hard to customize, but also very limiting when one chose to customize it. However, the new dock simply uses a set of pictures (five to be exact) to render the dock. Replace these pictures with custom ones and you have themed your dock.
So exactly how easy is it to make your own themes? Well, I was able to make a simple one (that has no reflections for some reason) using a snapshot of the Time Machine program in about six minutes (in reality only two, but my editing program ran into some problems along the way). Here is the result (click to enlarge):
As you can see, it is a true theme; I can use it as my primary theme if I so chose to. Now because of the fact that the new dock uses pictures to render its theme, this allows the end user to be extremely creative and have it match your personality. For my dock I may spend a day designing a theme to match my personality as a video editor. I have seen other themes such as guitar frets spanning the entire dock and even cheese (if you’re a dairy enthusiast). So I can see this becoming a very popular form of self expression.
Here are the two most extensive databases of user-made themes that I have found thus far (and remember, Leopard has been out less than two weeks at the time I am writing this, by the time you read this many more might exist):
- Leopard Docks
- James N. Rhodes
Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Saturday, 3. November 2007, 02:00:34
os, leopard, mac, x
...
Sorry guys, no blog today. I plan to do five blog entries a week (Monday-Friday) but since I began this blog last Sunday and wrote a post for that day, yesterday’s blog post was the fifth for the week. True I could do one today, but I wanted to take a day off for my Youtube videos.
I have worked out how my schedule for this blog will go, however. I will spend the weekends planning out what to write about and then write about them during the week. All this week it has been rather spontaneous; I’d try and find an article to write about on the day I planned to put it up. I’ve tried this method before and it really makes me not want to write since it puts a lot of pressure on me to find something good to write about and write it that same day.
So this new schedule I’ve decided upon aims to fix my past failures and hopefully keep this blog running longer than a month.
Well, that concludes this blog update, check back on Monday for a new article!
--DMXell
Thursday, 1. November 2007, 21:26:18
clock, os, leopard, mac
...
One of the things that has always bugged me is that we [as tech enthusiasts] have many different things to perform simple tasks and almost no real way to simplify things.
For example, before the iPhone, many of us carried around our iPod’s, Wireless Phones and maybe even a wifi-enabled PDA or some other device to connect us to the internet. But with the introduction of the iPhone all of that was put into one simple, and elegant device. Well something that I came across does exactly what the iPhone did for all those devices: it simplifies a few devices, and in this case, two, into one.
So what am I talking about? Well of course our ever so lovely Macs and our annoyingly dull alarm clocks. It was an unbearable pain in my side to have to fiddle around with my alarm clock just to get it to work. And Heaven forbid the power goes out and I have to reset the hellish device. So, via some software, I have effectively turned my Mac into an $800 USD alarm clock. And what program did I use? Why of course, Alarm Clock.
Alarm Clock is a nifty little application that will do everything a conventional alarm clock can do, and more, in a simple-to-use interface. You can set different alarm times depending on the day of the week (perfect for those of you who like to sleep in on weekends), and it will even let you choose if you want the music to fade in over a period of time that you have the choice to set.
And what song will play when the alarm goes off? Well, any song you want. Alarm Clock ties in directly to your iTunes library allowing you to have anything play when you wake up, even podcasts, TV Shows and Movies.
Now, something I never condone doing is leaving your hard drive spinning constantly. It’s a moving part, it will break. So, in the Alarm Clock settings, a feature has been included allowing you to have it wake your computer up from sleep mode, in which your hard drive doesn’t spin whilst in. This feature is what sold me into using software instead of an actual alarm clock.
There is a lot to like about Alarm Clock; it’s not only feature-packed and easy to use, but it’s also 100% free. I have tried out some of the more pricier alternatives and found them lacking in either the ease-of-use area, or features. I would really suggest checking out Alarm Clock if you’re like me and curse your current alarm clock to hell each time it wakes you up.
Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.
--DMXell
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Wednesday, 31. October 2007, 20:00:29
erase, leopard, os, gutmann
...
Happy Halloween! And so as to stick with the theme today, I have concocted a special article for you all. This one is sure to not only bring a new depth of terror into geeks eyes but also a small bit of delight with a new feature in Leopard that’s sure to surprise you!
Many people might find themselves slightly hesitating to press the erase button in their trash can. Once they delete it they might never be able to recover it again. Well in Leopard, Apple has made it impossible to recover some deleted files with a new feature called Secure Erase. So what’s the different between this type of erase and a normal erase? Well, a Secure Erase performs a 35-pass overwrite erase (using something called the Gutmann algorithm). This kind of erase is extremely secure. In fact, it’s even more secure than what the US National Government deems adequate enough to erase data concerning top-secret information about the US Government.
If you choose to erase by this means than expect to never be able to recover the data deleted unless you have it backed up using something like Time Machine.
So why is something this secure needed, and who is it targeted for? Well, to be blunt about it, this type of erase is needed by almost everyone. In a computer’s lifespan the average user will have one file or another that lists either their social security number, credit card information, or perhaps even a scanned copy of their birth certificate. So, with this kind of erase, no one on the planet can retrieve those files and steal your identity.
Now there are some obvious drawbacks to this. First and foremost, your data can never be retrieved again, as I have stated. Second off is that the erase may take many times longer to erase data than a normal erase. So this type of erase isn’t recommended for deleting average file, only use it when you have to. And the benefits are fairly obvious.
So, the next time you need to empty the trash can you’ll have two poisons to pick from versus the one found in previous versions of Mac OS X as well as most alternative operating systems on the planet.
Well that concludes this blog post. If you liked this post please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or, if you use the Opera web browser, using the widget button located in the address bar to make a widget out of this blog.
--DMXell
Tuesday, 30. October 2007, 15:19:31
os, dashboard, mac, x
...
In Leopard, many bits and pieces of the operating system have been modified. Some changes have been major like the addition of Time Machine, and others have been minor, like what I am going to talk about today. We all heard Steve Jobs mention the addition of the new widgets called “Movies” and “Web Clips,” but we have seldom heard of what other changes to the Dashboard were made. And in those other changes to Dashboard, I consider at least one of them to be a major change. And that was to the iCal widget.
Probably one of the most used widgets in the default widget line-up, the iCal widget lets you see the date, time, and if you choose, a monthly calendar. However in Leopard a third pane has been added: the events pane. The events pane lets you see what events you have planned for the day. Not only that but it also allows you to click on the planned event(s) which will promptly open up iCal allowing you to see more details about the event.
So what makes this a major change? Well, if you’re someone who tediously uses iCal to keep organized (and you should!) this is a Godsend. You no longer have to wait for iCal to load and open. Simply hit the Dashboard button on your keyboard and you’ll get the information you seek instantaneously.
But not all of the widget is good. It lacks one critical feature that, I think, would make it far more useful: the ability to switch the date on the calender to view events on future or past dates. If I need to put down an event it would be so much easier (and quicker) to go to Dashboard and find the date in the iCal widget, then click on the empty events pane to open up iCal and have it go to that exact date.
With that one flaw aside the new iCal widget definitely makes it easier for you to keep organized.
Well that concludes this blog post. If you liked this post please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or, if you use the Opera web browser, using the widget button located in the address bar to make a widget out of this blog.
--DMXell
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I did a quick Google search and actually found that I needed no external program. The backup option is built right into iTunes. Simply go to File > Backup to Disc... Yeah... It’s that simple. 
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