Ever typed a nice fancy string command into the terminal and been frustrated to discover it must be run as a super user? No problem! Just type this command next:
sudo !!
This executes the last used command but through sudo, running it as the root user. No more retyping those lengthy complex strings! Helpful indeed.
“Close Firefox – A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.”
You may have gotten this message if Firefox has recently crashed or you killed the process. The reason this error is appearing is likely because there is a lock file on your Firefox profile.
The easiest fix to resolve this “Close Firefox” error message is to remove the lock file from your profile, here is how to do this:
* Open the Terminal, you will need to navigate to your FireFox profile directory:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles/
Now there will be a randomly generated name in here attached with a .default extension, like aioruajc.default or groeakc.default, once you’re in the Firefox Profiles directory you can find out what the randomly generated name is by typing:
ls
then type the cd command with whatever the random .default directory name is:
cd alaklrac.default
Once inside the .default Profiles directory, you can remove the lock file:
rm -rf .parentlock
You should now be able to relaunch Firefox without the error message.
Note: an alternate method to get to the proper Firefox Profiles directory is to type the following command:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles/*.default
The * is a wildcard and will enter whatever directory ends with .default, this only works if you are using a single Firefox profile though. You can then remove the .parentlock file and relaunch Firefox as usual.
This is a pretty cool decal for a MacBook Pro featuring Iron Man. Thanks to Andrew for the submission! If you are interested, you can buy the iRon Man Decal for MacBook Pro’s at Etsy
It looks like there will be an update to the plastic Unibody MacBook lineup soon. A very authentic looking refreshed unit has shown up in some video and images out of Vietnam, which is a popular source of Apple product leaks at the moment. Assuming this is legitimate, the specs on the revised MacBook are practically identical to the base model 13″ MacBook Pro, except that the refreshed MacBook will only ship with 2GB of RAM (as opposed to the 4GB in the MBP). Expect a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard disk, and the same Nvidia 320m GPU.
This is kind of frustrating to me. I’ve always wondered why Apple makes the consumer MacBook so close to the more expensive and supposedly “Pro” model, especially since the 13″ MacBook Pro really underperforms with its C2D chip in benchmarks next to the new MacBook Pro Core i5/i7 models. This refreshed MacBook with identical specs really suggests that the MacBook Pro 13″ is just a MacBook in a much fancier case. For the record I have a 13″ MacBook Pro and love it, the small form factor is perfect for me, which I guess proves that regardless of the frustration on the specs people still buy the otherwise beautiful machines.
If you’re interested, you can see video and a few more pictures of the box on Engadget.
The MacBook and MacBook Pro screen backlighting is set to automatically dim and adjust in different situations. For the MacBook, it will adjust based on the power source and based on how long the computer is not in use. For the MacBook Pro, the same is also true, in addition to the screen adjusting it’s brightness based upon ambient light. Here is how to disable both of these features to stop the MacBook and MacBook Pro screen from dimming.
The MacBook and MacBook Pro will both automatically dim the screen if running on battery, or if the computer is left alone for a period of time. Here is how to disable these features:
* Open “System Preferences”
* Click on “Energy Saver”
* Unselect the check box next to “Slightly dim the display when using this power source”
* Unselect the checkbox next to “Automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep”
* Close System Preferences
Now if you have a MacBook Pro and your screen is still dimming, it is because of the ambient light sensor. Here’s how to adjust that:
* Open System Preferences
* Click on “Display”
* Unselect the checkbox next to “Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes”
* Close System Preferences
Changes to both of these take effect immediately. Note that if you are running on battery and you disable the screen dimming features you will lose some length in battery life.
I’ve always been a big fan of the glass screened aluminum iMac’s and MacBook Pro’s, and this setup has both making it a big win in my book.
[ via MinimalMac.com ]
Many of you have probably seen the latest ad campaign from Adobe stating “We Heart Apple”, with full page ads running in the Mercury News and on tons of banner ads across the web (you can occasionally find them on our own site too). This has to be the funniest response to the pro-Flash campaign, which not so subtly states that, well, Flash sucks. Whatever your thoughts and opinions on the matter, Flash is really on it’s way out. Steve Jobs has already famously posted his thoughts on Flash and with Microsoft pushing for HTML5 video in IE9, the future of online video is growing increasingly clear.
If you want to start developing for the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, the first thing you’ll need to do is download and install the iPhone SDK. Yes, the iPhone SDK is what you will want to download even if you have no intention on developing for the iPhone itself and only the iPad, they both run the same iPhone OS operating system.
You will need your Apple user ID, this is the same login you use when you access iTunes, register an Apple product, use the Apple forums, and for other communication with Apple.
* Go to http://developer.apple.com/iphone
* Enter your Apple login ID information and login
* Once you are logged into the iPhone Development Center, look for the ‘Downloads’ link for iPhone SDK, it is usually bundled with Xcode and will be labeled something like “Xcode 3.2.2 and iPhone SDK 3.2″, the combined download size of the iPhone SDK and Xcode is about 2.3 GB, and takes about 6.5GB of hard drive space to install.
* Once the file is finished downloading, launch the installer and follow the onscreen installation instructions. Remember that a sizable amount of disk space will be used to install Xcode and iPhone SDK.
* After the installation is complete, you will have a new directory located at the root of your Mac called ‘Developer’, inside this directory will be developer apps, tools, resources, the iPhone simulator, and more.
If you’re new to iPhone and iPad development, picking up a good book on the topic is a pretty good idea. Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK
Another good resource is the iPhone OS reference library on Apple.com, there’s plenty of code samples and other helpful information. Apple’s iPhone Human Interface Guidelines is a helpful read too when working on an interface for your app.
If you want to save and watch YouTube movies directly from your Mac try this out. Robert Warner writes in with a handy trick to download YouTube videos directly to your Mac using only Safari, without installing any additional software. Here’s the steps he sent us:
* Launch an independent Safari window with the YouTube video you want to download
* Press Command+Option+A, or go to Windows > Activity to bring up the ‘Activity Monitor’ window in Safari
* Look through the activity from YouTube – Video Name, look for the largest file size and double click to download it
* Find the file that you downloaded (usually named get_video or videoplayback.flv) in the Finder and edit the name so that it has a .flv file extension
* Confirm the file extension change, and now you can watch the downloaded movie in VLC or Perian equipped QuickTime
Robert also tells us that this should work in the Windows version of Safari but I can’t confirm that. Thanks for the tip Robert!
If you want to download YouTube songs there’s an easy way to do just that too, using an app that extracts the audio track from the video file.
Hulu for the iPad is still under development, but that doesn’t mean you can’t watch Hulu content and TV shows right now on your iPad. If you’re a fan of ABC shows like LOST, Flash Forward, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and whatever else is on their lineup, the official ABC Player for iPad is free [iTunes link] and works practically identically to Hulu and lets you stream any TV show to your iPad for viewing free.
Hulu for the iPad is rumored to be available sometime relatively soon, possibly even before the end of this month. There’s speculation that the Hulu for iPad app will actually be a paid monthly subscription service costing $9.95, which is interesting considering one of the Hulu partners, ABC, has the aforementioned freely available ABC Player available on the iPad.
Another option for watching video content on your iPad right now is the freely available Netflix app [iTunes link] but that requires a separate subscription service to actually view the Netflix downloads on your iPad.
If you’re absolutely committed to watching Hulu content on your iPad, try the solution for watching Hulu on the iPhone. This method works exactly the same on the iPad and you’ll need the following:
* Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed
* Latest version of QuickTime Player (with Screen Recording support)
* Hulu Desktop client for Mac (for easy full-screen mode)
* The audio recording utility called SoundFlower (so you can record system audio while a screencast is going on)
Basically by watching Hulu and then recording the screen and capturing audio, you can save the screencast to an iPhone/iPad compatible format and watch it on the devices. The method was intended for viewing Hulu on the iPhone but works on the iPad as well, unfortunately it’s not the most instantaneous method, but if there’s a show that’s only available on Hulu and you can’t wait for the official app, this is your best bet.
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