Mac OS http://www.computersight.com/Operating-Systems/Mac-OS/index.1190 New posts in Mac OS Top Mac OSX Tips You Didn't Know About http://www.computersight.com/Operating-Systems/Mac-OS/Top-Mac-OSX-Tips-You-Didnt-Know-About.241179

  • Calculator in Spotlight

    Spotlight is a great way to instantly find files and programs you are looking for based on their file name or context. But did you know that Spotlight can also function as a quick (and scientific) calculator?

    Simply open Spotlight (keyboard shortcut command + space) and type an equation. It can be simple such as 2+2 or advanced such as (3.2-1.4)*1.99. It accounts for order of operations and supports most mathematical functions.

  • Silent Volume Change

    Have you ever been in a place where you want to adjust your volume, but don't want to disrupt those around you in a meeting or in class with the “clicking” that is produced from your speakers?

    Try holding down the shift key while pressing volume up or down. The volume is changed silently.

  • Unmount Multiple Volumes At Once

    With the introduction of the Time Machine feature and Boot Camp, I have found that my external hard drive has three separate partitions. When unmounting, I found it annoying to drag each partition to the trash to eject them all.

    Instead, try holding the alt/option key while dragging a single partition to the trash to eject it. All partitions on the same physical device will be ejected simultaneously.

    The last two tips require that you install Onyx. Onyx allows you to modify features that are currently present on your computer, but normally hidden. It does not install anything that is not currently on your computer.

  • Slick Dock

    I have found that the new reflective 3D dock format is sometimes hard to see when there are many applications open and with certain desktop images. It is also difficult to see which applications are “glowing” and open.

    Open the Parameters window in Onyx and select the Dock tab. Under Appearance choose 2D With Transparency Effect. This will give your dock a new and clean look that you may not have ever seen.

  • Disable Processor

    When in class with my MacBook I always try everything to conserve battery power. It used to frustrate me knowing that two processors were eating up my battery power when the only thing open was Word.

    There is a Preference Pane that can be unlocked through Onyx called Processor Prefs. To access this open the Parameters window in Onyx and select the General tab. At the bottom of the screen click on Install Processor Preference Pane.

    From there, you can see how hard your processors are working (on multi-core systems). You can then disable the processors that you choose to conserve battery power. A quick icon can also be added to the toolbar by the clock.

    I have seen a 45 minute increase in battery life solely by disabling my second processor.

    • I hope you find these tips interesting and useful! I would appreciate any feedback you may have.

    ]]>     Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:06:17 PST     My Top 10 Mac OS X Applications http://www.computersight.com/Operating-Systems/Mac-OS/My-Top-10-Mac-OS-X-Applications.200713

  • Caffeine

    Although Caffeine is a very simple and basic application, it definitely is one of my most used applications. Caffeine stops your computer from going to sleep when it's enabled - yep; it's as simple as that! It is definitely a great application, and it can be downloaded here on Apple's website.

  • Adium

    If you're one of those people who have many different IM account, Adium is for you. Adium offers support for over 15 IM accounts. It's a great application that allows a lot of flexibility. Give it a try and download it here on Apple's website.

  • Tomato Torrent

    Tomato Torrent or simply "Tomato" is a very basic BitTorrent application. Torrents are a method of P2P file sharing. Tomato Torrent doesn't take up much memory and makes downloading with Torrents just as simple as it should be. Head over here to download it on Tomato Torrent's website.

  • TextWrangler

    TextWrangler is a basic application that can do a lot of advanced text editing. I personally use TextWrangler for programming, web design, and changing system files on my Mac when I need to. It's a great application if you are interestd in programming. Give it a try and download it here on Apple's website.

  • VisualHub

    VisualHub is the only application on this list that costs money, but it's definitely worth the $23.32 to buy. If you convert videos a lot this application is for you. You can even convert to DVD formats if you want to burn something onto a DVD. Go to their website and try a free trial, I'm sure you'll love it.

  • VLC

    VLC is a must have for anyone who plays any type of videos on their computer. It's not likely that you'll find a video format that you won't be able to play on VLC, which is why it's so great. You can even extract clips from the videos you play (including DVDs). If you go to their website you can download VLC free of charge.

  • Handbrake

    Handbrake is a free application that you can use to extract chapters of DVDs to different video formats. It's free and great if you ever want to extract a chapter or two from your favorite movie. Go to their website and give it a try.

  • MacTheRipper

    MacTheRipper is a great simple application that rips DVDs to your computer. If you have a personal DVD collection that you want to back up, all you have to do is put the DVD into your computer and hit "Start"! It's great and you can download it free on their website.

  • Synergy

    Synergy is a bit more of an advanced program for Mac users. With Synergy you can share the mouse of your computer to multiple computers at once. It can be configured to use with Windows, Mac, and even Linux too. I use it with my Mac and a couple of Windows computers when I want to use them but stay on my MacBook. Synergy does not offer a GUI interface for Apple but there are a few applications online that can do that for you. Setting up Synergy over the terminal isn't very difficult, but it takes a little while the first time you do it. Head over to their website to download it and learn how to use it.

  • Firefox

    Almost everyone knows about Firefox and most will be appalled that Firefox is the last application on my list. I don't use Firefox too often because I find Safari suitable for most of the things that I like to do online. Sometimes I need to do a bit more, and I like the ability to do so many different things with Firefox and it's add-ons. Everyone needs to at least try Firefox, so give it a shot and download it at their website.
    • ]]>     Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:14:48 PST     Mac OS X: A Web Developer's Dream http://www.computersight.com/Operating-Systems/Mac-OS/Mac-OS-X-A-Web-Developers-Dream.186115 Web developers often shy away from Mac OS X, because they believe that it is very unsuitable in terms of web development; this is very untrue, and in this article I will talk about Mac OS X and web development, sorting out truth from fiction.

    Myth #1

    You can't do any real web development on Mac OS X, including server scripts such as PHP.

    The Truth

    You can do the same amount of web development on Mac OS X as you can on any Windows machine; in fact, I have found Mac OS X even easier to set up server scripts. Recently I decided to set up PHP on my Mac at home to find out that Mac OS X Leopard actually comes with Apache2 and PHP5 already installed onto it! All it takes is a few configuration steps to set up PHP5 to work on your computer.

    Myth #2

    It is much harder to set up the use of web development languages on Mac OS X than it is on Windows.

    The Truth

    I have actually found it easier to set up different web development languages on my Mac than on my friends Windows computer. A few days after I set up Apache2, PHP5 and MySQL on my Mac I helped a friend do it on his Windows computer. It took at least 3 more hours to get all of them installed on his computer than on mine, and even longer to get MySQL to work because the default configuration file for MySQL on Windows does not have everything needed for it to work.

    Myth #3

    You might be able to do web development on Mac, but you can't get much further than the things you can do with iWeb.

    The Truth

    You can do the same scripting on a Mac as you can do on a Windows machine. Saying that you are confined to iWeb is like saying you are confined to Frontpage on Windows.

    There are many more myths regarding Mac OS X and web development, but I think that this will help some of you realize that Mac OS X is just as good for web development as Windows is. In the end, the scripting of languages is the same on both machines because the languages do not change depending on operating systems; the only difference I can find is setting up those scripting languages, which I have found to be much easier on Mac OS X than on Windows.

    ]]>     Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:16:49 PST