If you find yourself needing to access hidden files on your Mac (say an .htaccess file you downloaded), run the below command from the terminal.

For those who don’t know, files that are hidden in Mac OS are determined so by preceding the filename with a single period symbol (.), you can actually make any file hidden by doing this.

Show Hidden Files on your Mac

Launch the Terminal and enter these commands exactly as shown. The first command activates the ability to see the hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Now you must relaunch the Finder by killing it, this is how the changes take effect:
killall Finder

If you want to hide hidden files again (those preceded with a .) and go back to the default Mac settings, you can just type the following:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

Again you will need to kill the Finder so that it can relaunch for changes to take effect:
killall Finder

That’s all there is to it!

Show Hidden Files in a Mac Save Dialogue

You can quickly show all hidden files in any Mac OS X save dialogue box by hitting Command+Shift+Period

Show Hidden Files on your Mac through the Terminal

Another way to quickly see hidden files is by using the ls command within the Terminal, at the command line type the following:
ls -a
The -a flag tells the ls (list) command to show all contents, including hidden files. You then just have to specify a directory if you want to see the hidden files in it:
ls -a ~/Sites/betasite
This method does not effect the Finder or the visibility of hidden files outside of using the -a flag.

If you are like me and struggle to keep up with a years worth of Hollywood releases check out this page at apple.com. It gives a nice run down of the nominations with direct links to media for each category. The trailers are in HD and make a nice primer for tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony. Now I feel so in tune with pop culture!

MAMP: It stands for Mac Apache MySql PHP. It delivers on all four of these fronts and it does it very efficiently. MAMP is nice because you can install it (and delete it) without altering anything “built-in” to your OS X installation. Every file that MAMP needs and uses lives inside of the MAMP folder that you download. This includes all php, mysql and apache configuration files. MAMP ships with a small application that when launched gives you the ability to switch port numbers and control the state of the servers. Also included is a dashboard widget which allows for the same control, from a slightly different angle. For those command-line faint of heart, MAMP ships with phpMyAdmin a very nice front end to MySQL. All of this, out of the box, for free! Other eye-catching features include the ability to switch from PHP 4 to PHP 5 and the ability to enable cache mechanisms on the fly. Visit the MAMP site for more details.

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A quick way to lock your Mac desktop is to hit Shift-Command-Option-Q to do a fast user logout. This logs the current user out of Mac OS X, which is one way to initiate a login screen when the Mac needs to be used again.

Update: inaminit says “If you have Fast User Switching enabled through the System Preferences/Accounts, you can just click on Login Window in the drop down menu from the menu bar to do the same thing.”

Other ways to lock Mac OS X include:

• How to Lock the Mac Screen with a Keystroke
• Lock the Mac Desktop through a Menu bar item
• Lockdown a Mac OS X Workstation with a Screen Saver hot corner

Each method has it’s own strengths and weaknesses depending on the user skill level, read through each of them to determine what fits your needs the best.

For me, listening to Pandora is as routine as brushing my teeth in the morning. Tonight I was browsing the application downloads over at apple.com and came across “PandoraMan”. PandoraMan is “A small Cocoa app to run the Pandora mini player using WebKit. Created so you can quit Safari, Camino, etc. without killing your music stream.” Excellent! No longer do I need to spawn an entire web browser just to hear my favorite stations. Place this app in your dock and you are one click away from Pandora radio! Download now or head over to the IntraArts development studios for a closer look.

UPDATE: from pixxan: “There is also a Google Code app called pandoraboy with similar functionality. PandoraBoy uses Growl and can be controlled with the Apple remote.”

Update: Different wallpapers for different spaces is now a feature of Mac OS X Lion, here’s how to use it.

Spaces. Personally, it is my favorite addition to Apple’s Leopard operating system. I have become very accustomed to working with Spaces and have long desired the ability to set a different background for each virtual “space”. That is now possible thanks to SpaceSuit. Installation of SpaceSuit is a breeze and setting your backgrounds involves a simple drag and drop. The only downside or complaint I have thus far is that I can not figure out how to set unique backgrounds across my multiple monitors. Maybe a reader out there has figured out how to do this and can chime in. Anyways, Enjoy.

I have been a long time user of Skype and recently some of the features unique to the beta have caught my attention. In particular, I am enjoying the new screen sharing functionality. Frequently, I work remotely and find screen sharing crucial to collaboration. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to cruise over to skype.com and download the new beta. In addition, you can now use your SkypeOut credits to access participating public wifi hotspots across the globe!

Wallsaver is a freeware utility that allows you to easily take a screensaver and make it your desktop background.

The application makes use of your Mac’s GPU (graphics processor) which leaves plenty of power left over to carry on with your desktop tasks. Removing the screensaver background and reverting to your previous choice of desktop decor is as simple as right clicking and selecting “restore”.

To get WallSaver to work, you will need a Quartz Extreme capable graphics card with at least 32 MB of memory and, obviously, a screensaver.

Recently I connected my Mac to my linux based NFS server at home. I use NFS to access files from two other Linux boxes and on each server my UID (unique id) is set to 1000. In order for me to easily have full access to my NFS shares from OS X I changed my UID to match:
dscl . -change /Users/will UniqueID 501 1000
chown -R 1000 /Users/will

Remember to run the chown command afterwards, or you will not be able to access your home directory. Finally, log out and log in.

These days there are no shortage of ways to backup your Macintosh. Probably the most popular method available to an end-user is Apple’s Time Machine (first introduced in Mac OS X 10.5). Personally, I was very impressed with the ease of use offered by Time Machine, but I am a command line junkie so I must report on the alternatives. Read on for a few methods that you can use (from the command line) to back up your Mac.
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