52 alleged ways to speed up Mac OS X

May 16, 2007 - 3 Comments

We all want our Mac performing at it’s best, and this list is quite long addressing all sorts of things. Many of the tips are common sense but there’s still some decent advice and it’s worth checking out. Not everyone is happy with the 52 tips though, MacUser has released a lengthy rebuttal addressing each … Read More

Download Files from the Web via the Mac OS X Command Line

May 11, 2007 - 12 Comments
terminal

I am frequently developing web pages and often times I find it frustrating when I can not restart my browser because I’m in the middle of a download. So when I need to download a large file and I don’t want to have to worry about whether or not Safari, Chrome, or Firefox continues to … Read More

Ebay, Macintosh style.

May 7, 2007 - 4 Comments

If you make a living on Ebay or if you are the casual bargain shopper, GarageSale deserves a look. At first glance GarageSale looks like any other Mac OS X application but after a few minutes of use you will begin to feel how powerful this little tool can be. Most every function available on … Read More

Kill a Frozen Program to Stop the Spinning Beachball in Mac OS X

May 3, 2007 - 25 Comments
Spinning beachball of death in Mac OS X

Frozen apps happen to the best of us for reasons we don’t always understand, and a Mac application can just suddenly become unresponsive and we see the spinning beachball of death (sometimes called SBOD for short). For those new to the Mac platform, getting around the spinning wait cursor might be confusing, so here’s two … Read More

Change the System Volume from the Command Line in Mac OS X

Apr 28, 2007 - 29 Comments

There are several ways to go about changing the volume on your Mac, but did you know you can use the command line? I’m a big command line junkie so the more things I can do from the Terminal the better. If you want to adjust your system volume level directly from the command line, … Read More

How to Control the Fan Speed of your Mac Laptop with SMCFanControl

Apr 24, 2007 - 9 Comments

If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro you’ve probably noticed that it can get a bit warm, no surprise considering the tremendous amount of processing power stuffed into their respective cases. The cooling system is simple to understand; when your CPU load goes up, your fans will kick in. Well, not all users think … Read More

Four Great Uses for Preview App Full Screen Mode in OS X

Apr 19, 2007 - 21 Comments
Preview in Mac

Preview is the default application to open just about any image or PDF file on your Mac, it’s a great program that blows anything comparable in the Windows world out of the water. One of the greatly underused features of Preview is the ability to view images and PDF files in full screen mode. Entering … Read More

How to Disable browser window auto-resizing in Firefox

Apr 11, 2007 - 10 Comments

Hate it when a web site resizes your browser window? In Firefox, you can stop that. While development etiquette has generally made web browsing a more pleasant experience over the years, removing such horrors as blinking text and the background midi. Unfortunately, there are a few annoyances still left on web sites, and one of … Read More

How to disable automatic image resizing in Firefox

Apr 4, 2007 - 2 Comments

Tim Russell, the man behind the disabling favicon tip for Firefox, sent us another good Firefox tidbit today: “The worst thing about Firefox is undoubtedly that any image larger than your browser size is automatically resized, which has the effect of distorting pictures and generally being annoying. For some reason, Firefox didn’t include the ability … Read More

How to: Connect to your Mac Remotely through VNC

Feb 12, 2007 - 8 Comments
Remotely Controlling Another Mac with Screen Sharing in OS X

If you have a Mac with broadband, and you want to remotely administer your Mac or someone else’s, you should be using Apple’s Remote Desktop. Remote Desktop is basically just VNC with a fancier and more user friendly name, and it works great for its intended purpose. Setting up a VNC server enables you to … Read More

ShufflePuck Cafe and Flying Toasters for Mac OS X? Get Retro!

Feb 3, 2007 - 2 Comments

Think back, and pretend for a minute that it’s 1989 and you’re on a Macintosh SE/30. What was the hottest game? Shufflepuck Cafe. What was the coolest screensaver at the time? AfterDark’s Flying Toasters. It’s time to get retro with your Mac, and thanks to Mac developers these two blasts from the past have modern … Read More

Latest Leopard Build Includes Support for New Filesystem

Dec 18, 2006 - 1 Comment

The World of Apple has reported that the latest build of Apple’s next generation Operating System, “Leopard” will include support for Sun Microsystem’s ZFS filesystem. The ZFS filesystem has been described by Sun as “The last word in filesystems.” It appears that HFS+’s days are numbered, but on that same note, ZFS looks like an … Read More

GLTerminal – Get Retro with Mac Terminal

Dec 14, 2006 - 4 Comments
GLTerminal

Remember the old days, where we’d all be peering at little 10″ fisheyed black screens with green or amber text? Well you can relive the computing 70’s and 80’s with this funky app that emulates the appearance of an old terminal. Complete with display curviture, shoddy colors, and even settings for simulated baudrate lag, you’ll … Read More

Max – An Audio Swiss Army Knife

Dec 3, 2006 - 1 Comment

Max is a tool that simply no iPod user should be with out. This program can generate audio in over twenty compressed and uncompressed formats. Whether it be FLAC, OggVorbis, MP3 or AAC, just drop the file onto the Max icon and away you go. Max can also handle ripping your personal audio cds to … Read More

iTerm – Safari-like Tabbed Terminals in Mac OS X

Dec 1, 2006 - 2 Comments

Something that has long bothered me about Apple’s Terminal.app is its lack of the ever so common “tabbed” navigation option. We see it in Safari, why not also benefit from this space saving technology when using the terminal? Behold, iTerm, a GPL’d (open source) free alternative to the Terminal.app. iTerm’s features matches what Apple’s Terminal.app … Read More

Using the Unix command line in Mac OS X to manipulate images

Dec 1, 2006 - 4 Comments

Anytime I find myself doing a repetitive task, it is crucial that I discover small tricks and workarounds to make my daily routine as efficient as possible. I have long been a Linux user, so naturally I lean towards opening up the Terminal and using the familiar bash shell environment that I have mastered on … Read More

How-to Manually Adjust the MacBook Pro Keyboard Backlight

Nov 30, 2006 - 45 Comments

Want to manually adjust the backlighting on your MacBook Pro keyboard? You can do that easier than you might think. With the push of a few buttons, you can turn the brightness of the keyboard backlighting up, or you can turn the brightness of the keyboard backlighting down (or even off). The secret is simply … Read More

Have Multiple Docks in Mac OS X with DockFun

Nov 29, 2006 - 10 Comments
Finder

Ever wished you could have multiple Mac OS X Docks at the same time? Maybe you want one at the left and right and bottom of your screen? Then DockFun is for you for those of you who’ve wished you could have more than one Dock in Mac OS X. The other day I became … Read More

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