If you’re wondering how to mount an ISO image in Mac OS X, it is very easy. In the Terminal type the following command: hdiutil mount sample.iso with sample.iso being the path to the image you want to mount. After the checksum is completet, your ISO will appear mounted on your Mac OS X desktop - that’s it. You you can actually mount virtually any other disk image type with hdiutil as well, so give .dmg .img a try too.

A while ago I made a typo when creating my short username in a fresh Mac OS X install, I figured it wasn’t a big deal and that I could change it easily in the User accounts system preference pane, but boy was I wrong. Unfortunately, changing your short username is not a matter of typing a new name in a field, but thankfully Macworld magazine has a fantastic write up on three ways to change the short username in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

The first tip, involving the creation of an alias by accessing an ‘Advanced Options’ area within the Accounts preference pane, is pretty nifty. You can access this area by doing the following:

Step 1): Unlock the Accounts preference pane by clicking on the lock icon
Step 2): Right click (or Control click) on the name of an account in the list and choose “Advanced Options” from the resulting menu.

So that’s where you create an alias and do some other fancy things, but this isn’t really a solution to the short username problem I had. So what else can we do? Read the Macworld article for more:

Macworld: Change the short username in Leopard

If you’re a systems administrator or a web developer, chances are you’ll have to flush your DNS cache every once in a while to get things straightened out serverside. Flushing your DNS cache in Mac OS X is actually really easy, and there are two different commands to use, one for Leopard and for Tiger. Depending on your version of OS X, open your Terminal and follow the appropriate directions below:

Flush your DNS Cache in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Launch Terminal and issue the following command:
dscacheutil -flushcache
All done, your DNS has been flushed. On a side note, the dscacheutil is interesting in general and worth taking a look at, try the -statistics flag instead for some stats.

Flush your DNS Cache in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Type the following command in the Terminal:
lookupd -flushcache

That’s it, that’s all there is to it. Now your DNS settings should be as you intended them to be.

A MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to your network card, and some networks implement MAC address filtering as a method of security. Spoofing a MAC address can be desired for multiple reasons, and it is very easy to spoof your MAC address in both Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. For the purpose of this article, we are going to assume you want to spoof your Mac’s wireless MAC address. So without further ado, here’s a 3 step process on how to do it:

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Here’s a great tip that creates a nice hover effect when your mouse goes over an application (or folder) within a Leopard stack. Why this isn’t enabled by default in Leopard is beyond me, because it makes navigating within stacks a whole lot easier. Don’t miss out, here’s how to activate it:

Launch the Terminal and type the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean yes

then, you’ll have to restart the Dock by issuing the following command:
killall Dock

To disable the hover highlights, type:
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean no

Quick Look is likely the only feature in Leopard 10.5 that I actually notice and something I would certainly miss if I went back to 10.4, it’s just too useful. The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a decent post listing 10 useful Quick Look usage tips, some are built right in and won’t require modification, while others will require 3rd party plugins to use. Here’s the full list, minus the detail:

1. Identify files on remote machines.
2. Preview the contents of Zip files (plug-in required).
3. Preview the contents of a folder (plug-in required).
4. Examine snippets of code with syntax highlighting intact.
6. Prep your iWork documents for use with Quick Look.
7. Enhance TextMate.
8. Preview fonts.
9. Quick Look and Cover Flow.
10. Send images to iPhoto.

If these sound appealing, read more at TUAW: 10 ways to get the most out of Quick Look

The Mac OS X desktop is attractive, highly functional, and very customizable, but by default the maximum icon size is 128×128, which is pretty large but if you have a huge monitor or you’re visually impaired you may want larger icons. This is where the command line comes in, where you can force the Mac OS X desktop to display icons as large as 512×512 pixels! Launch the Terminal and type the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.finder DesktopViewOptions -dict IconSize -integer 256
You can set 256 to whatever number you want, as high as 512, just be aware that it can get a little ridiculous, and 512×512 pixel icons will take up the vast majority of your screen.

Next, kill the Finder to relaunch it and see the changes
killall Finder

Reverting the changes is a matter of setting the integer variable to a smaller number.

Source:MacOSXHints.com

The appearance of the new Dock in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has caused somewhat of an uproar in the Mac community, some of whom even claim it looks like it belongs in Windows Vista. If you’re totally insulted by the new 3D dock, or if you just prefer the old Dock appearance, it’s very easy to change and you don’t need to be a super Mac genius to figure it out. Simply launch your terminal and type the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

then you will want to kill the Dock to relaunch it without the glass effect:
killall Dock

to get the reflective 3D Dock back, simply type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO

again, you will want to kill the Dock to relaunch it. Enjoy!

Quick Look is a nice feature added in 10.5, I use it often for glancing at the content of various documents and it certainly beats launching an application. If you’re an avid command line user though, you may be browsing through a directories contents and wondering just what is that JPG or DOC file. Wonder no more, because you can easily use Quick Look from the command line:

From the command line, use the following syntax:

qlmanage -p filename.jpg

This will launch a Quick Look window with whatever file is specified as ‘filename.jpg’, the file type can be anything that Quick Look is compatible with (which seems to be just about everything).

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Here’s a really cool Firefox tip that was just passed along to me. You can instantly search for any text on a web page by hitting the forward slash and typing that word. So for example, you want to find “Firefox” on this page, you would type /firefox - that’s it! The first instance of “Firefox” will appear highlighted. This slash search feature is really just a shortcut to Command-F but it’s a lot faster if you ask me. This works across all platforms I have tried. Oh, and if you want to find the next instance of that word, hit Command-G (or Control-G if you’re in the Windows world). Check out more great Firefox tips.