If you have ever looked at your Mac root directory and wondered what some of those other directories are for, you’re probably not alone. Mac OS got a whole lot more complex with the advent of Mac OS X, adapting a unix file structure that is largely unfamiliar to Mac OS 9 and Windows users. … Read More

Most of us use iTunes to transfer files to and from our iPod, but apparently you can also use the command line. Sasha Ingbram writes in with this tip: “I realize this is a controversial position to take, but I’m not always thrilled with iTunes and how long it takes to get things done. For … Read More

Ever wished you could send the output of a command to a file or append that output to an existing file? That’s what redirects do. To put it simply, command line redirects allow you to take the output of certain commands and create new files or add to existing ones with this data, this is … Read More

Apple has just released an update to their Boot Camp software, although it still is technically in beta. If you don’t want to shell out the bucks for Parallels or VMWare but you want your Mac to run Microsoft Windows, Apple’s free Boot Camp is what you need. For those that don’t know, Boot Camp … Read More

If you have ever wanted to turn a DMG file into an ISO file, look no further than the handy command line utility called hdiutil, which is bundled in all versions of OS X. This can be helpful for many reasons, but one of the primary reasons to convert a DMG to ISO is for … Read More

Love it or hate it, but we live in a multi-platform world with multiple operating systems. Sure we prefer Mac’s, but the chances are high that at some point you’ll have to interface your Mac with a PC to share files between the two machines, particularly if you are in an office environment or school. … Read More

Ever needed to eject a disc, cd, DVD, or media from the command line on a Mac? You can do that from the Terminal, as we’ll show here. To eject a disc or media from the command line on Mac, open up your Terminal and type the following:

Most new consumer Macs come with a built-in iSight / FaceTime camera which can be used for all sorts of fun, ranging from live video chatting in FaceTime, Skype, and iChat, to horsing around in Photo Booth, to using third party apps like Gawker to capture time lapse photography of whatever is going on. That … Read More

Booting Mac OS X as usual shows the Apple logo and eventually you’ll wind up at a login screen or desktop, that’s attractive and all, but some users would prefer to see what’s going on behind the scenes. That’s what Verbose Boot Mode does, it shows you what is really happening during system startup on … Read More

Yes we have covered UNO in the past, but todays release of version 1.5 is a complete rewrite, offering even more features and interface improvements. For those that don’t know, UNO offers interface enhancements to Mac OS X to remove the brushed metal interface, thus unifying the appearance of Mac OS X to more closely … Read More

Anytime you visit a website or do any other kind of DNS lookup, the IP address conveniently gets cached. While what’s convenient for most of us can be a real nuisance for others, particularly administrators who are moving around servers. This set of quick tips that Systems Administrators (and others) will surely appreciate covers flushing … Read More

Need to create an ultra-fast RAM disk in Mac OS X? We’ve got you covered with a command line trick that will generate a RAM disk of any size of your choosing. These instructions have been updated to support all versions of OS X, from modern releases to older ones too, so no matter what … Read More

There are some Mac users out there who love to customize and change the appearance of every single thing on their desktop, from the shape of their windows, to fancy wallpapers, to custom icons. Personally, I keep it simple, aside from a custom wallpaper I unify the desktop appearance with UNO, which provides a clean … Read More

We’re big fans of Spotlight here at OS X Daily, but we realize it’s not everyones cup of tea. If you’re someone who dislikes Spotlight enough to want it disabled completely then this is the guide for you. What you’ll need is some basic knowledge of the command line and a command line text editor … Read More

If you’re tired of waking up every morning to your old fashioned alarm clock, Awaken may be the app for you. Awaken turns your Mac into a multifunction alarm clock, capable of waking up your Mac (assuming its sleeping) and initiating a user selected alarm of either a sound effect or song selected from your … Read More

Getting disk usage information on a Mac is often gathered by selecting a file, directory, or hard drive and hitting Command-I for Get Info, then appears a nice GUI interface with extended information about the selected object including disk usage. Command-I isn’t the only way to get disk info however, with the command line there … Read More

Need to quickly see where you are in the Finder by showing the current windows path on a Mac? There are a few ways to do this in Mac OS X, for example you can use a defaults command to show the full path in Finder window title, and we’ll show you another couple of … Read More

We’ve received several questions asking how to block specific sites from being accessed directly on the Mac. The frustration seems to lie in how easy it is to circumvent the typical measures, such as setting Parental Controls and blocking sites in Safari, only to have them accessed in Camino or Firefox. Well, a quick and … Read More