Mac Setup: Dual Screen Mac Pro with Analog System Activity Meters(!)

Jun 23, 2012 - 13 Comments
Dual screen Mac Pro desk setup with analog CPU meters

Rather than watching system activity in Activity Monitor, have you ever wished you had physical analog meters on your desk that showed you what was going on with your computer? You know, maybe having a gauge that showed you what your CPU cores were doing, another to show network activity, and another for RAM usage. … Read More

How to Remove Chrome “Most Visited” Web Thumbnails

Jun 22, 2012 - 10 Comments
Remove Chrome Most Visited thumbnails

Chrome’s “Most Visited” thumbnails capture snapshots of the websites you most frequently access. These thumbnails can very convenient but they can also be embarrassing, thankfully they are fairly easy to clear out: How to Remove Thumbnails from Chrome Most Visited List on Mac Quit Chrome From the Mac Finder, hit Command+Shift+G and enter the following … Read More

Swap the Last Two Characters Typed on Mac with a Keyboard Shortcut

Jun 22, 2012 - 11 Comments

How many times have you typed something to discover the last two characters are in the wrong order? You know, when “the” turns into “teh” and “something into “somethign”, a fairly common general mistype. Well the Mac has a solution to this, with a great little keystroke that swaps the last two characters.

Access Terminal from Anywhere in Mac OS X via Keyboard Shortcut with TotalTerminal

Jun 18, 2012 - 3 Comments
Total Terminal brings Terminal access to anywhere via Hot Key in Mac OS X

TotalTerminal is an excellent tweak for those of us who frequently use the command line, it provides instant access to the Terminal from anywhere in Mac OS X with just a keyboard shortcut. Modeled after the classic Quake console, an official Terminal.app prompt drops down from the top of the screen where you can quickly … Read More

4 Ways to Run a Retina MacBook Pro at 2880×1800 Native Resolution

Jun 18, 2012 - 31 Comments
Retina MacBook Pro at 2880x1800 resolution

The Retina MacBook Pro 15″ screen resolution is 2880×1800, but because of how a retina display works the effective resolution is 1440×900 and the onscreen elements are just running in HIDPI mode. Apple provides an option to run at 1920×1200 through System Preferences, but as of now there is no built-in approach to running the … Read More

Mac Setups: Medical Researchers Desk

Jun 16, 2012 - 16 Comments
The Mac desk of a medical researcher

This weeks awesome Mac setup comes to us from Sergey N., a doctor and medical researcher in Russia who needs plenty of screen space to get work done quickly and efficiently. Maximized for productivity, the Macs are set up with a Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and a Griffin Powermate, each configured for different tasks and … Read More

Re-Run the Last Command While Replacing Syntax or Typos

Jun 13, 2012 - 6 Comments

If you’ve ever entered a lengthy command into the terminal and upon execution discovered a syntax error, a “no such file or directory”, or “command not found” message because you made a typo, you’ll love this quick tip that lets you rerun the last executed command while replacing the erroneous syntax. You’ll need to be … Read More

Make a Quick Backup of a File from the Command Line

Jun 11, 2012 - 3 Comments
Quickly make a file backup from the command line

It’s always a good idea to backup a file if you’re going to be making some changes to it and you’re uncertain of the outcome. In the Finder this is as simple as just selecting the file and hitting Command+D to create a duplicate of the file in question, but in the command line you … Read More

Mac Screen Looking Blurry? Optimize & Troubleshoot Font Smoothing in Mac OS X

Jun 9, 2012 - 6 Comments
Incorrect screen resolution looks fuzzy

If you think a Mac display looks fuzzy or blurry there are a few common solutions to check into before assuming the screen itself has a problem. Likewise, if your screen text just doesn’t look right it may be due to a few settings within Mac OS X. With that in mind here are a … Read More

Mac Setups: Programmers Desk

Jun 9, 2012 - 5 Comments
Mac programmers desk

This weeks Mac setup comes to us from Marc D., a programmer in Austria who has a nice clean desk with some great hardware. From left to right you’ll find: Macbook Pro 15″ – Late 2011 – 2.4GHz i7 4GB Apple Cinema HD 23″ connected to the MacBook Pro (and viewing OSXDaily.com!) iMac 21.5″ – … Read More

Fish Shell for Mac OS X Makes the Command Line Smarter & Friendlier

Jun 7, 2012 - 6 Comments
Fish Shell for Mac OS X showing autosuggestions

Are you looking for a way to make the command line a bit more user friendly? If so, you may find Fish to be a pretty nice alternative shell whether you are completely new to the OS X Terminal or you just want some general assistance when at the command line.

How to Check SHA1 Hash of a String

Jun 6, 2012 - 3 Comments
Check SHA1 Hash of a String

Do you need to check the sha1 hash of a string? You can easily find the sha1 hash of any string from the command line, and this trick works to check sha1 hash from Mac OS or Linux. We’ll use the openssl command to

How to Remote Wipe an iPhone or iPad

Jun 5, 2012 - 36 Comments
Remote Wipe an iPhone or iPad

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you can remotely wipe the device with the help of an excellent free service offered through iCloud called “Find My iPhone” (or Find My iPad, etc). This is perfect for situations where a lost device is long gone with no chance of recovery, because it erases anything … Read More

Create SSH Bookmarks in Terminal for Quick Remote Server Access in Mac OS X

Jun 3, 2012 - 5 Comments
SSH Bookmarks in Terminal

Setting up SSH bookmarks within Terminal app is an easy way to quickly connect to remote machines. If you haven’t noticed these in Terminal before it’s probably because they aren’t labeled as bookmarks, and therefore the feature gets frequently overlooked by even the most advanced Mac users. Here’s how to create bookmarks within Terminal, and … Read More

Mac Setup: Computer Science Students Desk

Jun 2, 2012 - 12 Comments
Mac setup featuring a MacBook Pro, iPad, and more

This weeks Mac setup comes to us from Ilter C., a computer science student who uses his Apple gear for web and iOS development. Hardware shown includes: MacBook Pro 15″ mid-2010 Hi-Res, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD External 500GB hard disk connected to MacBook Pro LG Flatron IPS225 21.5″ LED monitor iPhone 4S iPad 2 Wi-Fi … Read More

Improve Diablo 3 Performance in Mac OS X

Jun 1, 2012 - 13 Comments
Improve Diablo 3 Performance in Mac OS X

Diablo 3 system requirements are fairly lenient but as many Mac users have discovered, performance on some computers just isn’t that great. Even some of the newest Macs with the best GPU’s are experiencing performance issues. The good news is that Blizzard is on the case and actively working on patches to address many of … Read More

Create & Extract bz2 Archives in Mac OS X

May 29, 2012 - 10 Comments
bzip2 archive in Mac OS X

The Bzip archive format is generally more effective at compressing than zip and gzip, and while the default Archive Utility or the excellent all-purpose Unarchiver tool will handle unarchiving bzip2 files with ease, you will have to venture to the command line if you want to create a bzip archive in Mac OS X. Creating … Read More

Mac Setup: MacBook Air 11″ & iPad 2 with AirDisplay

May 26, 2012 - 4 Comments
MacBook Air and iPad with AirDisplay

Despite it’s tiny size, the MacBook Air 11″ is more than capable of serving as a primary workstation, and this weeks Mac setup continues to prove that point. Hardware shown includes: Macbook Air 11″ (2011), 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD iPad 2 Wi-Fi 64GB iPhone 4S Blue Snowball USB Microphone Mophie Powerstand iPad stand The iPad … Read More

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