General – RCDefaultApp
RCDefaultApp is a Mac OS X 10.2 or higher preference pane that allows a user to set the default application used for various URL schemes, file extensions, file types, MIME types, and Uniform Type Identifiers (or UTIs; MacOS 10.4 only). MacOS X uses the extension and file type settings to choose the application when opening a file in Finder, while Safari and other applications use the URL and MIME type settings at other times for content not related to a file (such as an unknown URL protocol, or a media stream).
The practical application for this app, as I see it is: use it to assign every possible video format to VLC! (there will be a Mac Essentials post about VLC coming soon). Of course you can use it to assign any other filetype to any other app as well.
Download Manager – JDownloader
I actually just found JDownloader the other day, but I already think it’s good enough make a post about. What makes JDownloader good is that it’s open source (it’s free) and platform independent. What makes it great is that it’s capable of downloading files from all sorts of popular uploader sites such as rapidshare and megaupload with or without a premium account. Updates work well, I haven’t had any errors, it’s downloading everything just fine. Definitely worth checking out.
The average Mac user (I’m guessing) has no idea what a dotfile is. In Unix-like operating systems, hidden files’ and directories’ names begin with a period (e.g. /Users/username/.Trash). These are aptly called dotfiles.
So assuming that most of the people who get a hold of your computer arn’t going to know what a dotfile is, using them is a great way to hide things. Here’s how to do it.
- Open the Terminal
- Navigate to a folder you want to store files in (Use cd and ls)
- Type mkdir .foldername to create a new hidden folder
- Open Finder and hit Command + Shift + G
- Type the full path to the folder you want to open
There you go, you can save all your secret files in this folder and your significant other or kid won’t be able to find it! (maybe)
I’ve been struggling a bit getting adjusted to all this new shiny Macness, but here I am a month later and I think I’m getting close to having enough to be productive. Introducing Mac Essentials – What you should have on your mac.
Web Browser – Firefox
What seperates Firefox from the rest? And why should you use it rather than just use Safari? Firefox has a lot going for it, speed, ease of use, but to me it’s all about the Add-ons. Here are some of my favorites:
Read more…
I was going to make a post about this, but honestly I think this will be more useful.
It is possible.
Don’t do it.
The end.
I tried it, and successfully booted Ubuntu 8.10 on my MacBook Pro. I’m sure if you look around you could find the same guide I used, but here’s the verdict: It just didn’t work very well. Drivers were buggy and mouse control was awful. I just didn’t see any reason to keep it around, especially since OS X is such a close relative of Linux anyways. Unfortunately when I tried to remove it, the swap partition simply wouldn’t budge. Trust me, I tried every possible method for reformatting that partition, but no dice. Long story short, I ended up reformatting the whole hard drive just to get everything back together. Many hours sunk, no progress made, NOT WORTH IT! You’ll be better off putting it on your old windows box or something.
If you tried it yourself, why don’t you comment here on how it went.
Chances are if you are seeing this, you’ve tried quite a bit but it hasn’t worked. Look no further. If you are seeing this and haven’t been researching it, then this should still be enough info to get a good start.
First, here’s the point: Using windows file sharing (Samba/SMB) is a good way to access your files across your home network, but don’t even think about trying it over the internet. In order to access SMB shares across the internet you’re going to need to get creative. A method which works reasonably well is using a zero-configuration VPN program such as Hamachi, Remobo, Wippen, etc. to create a virtual lan connecion, thus fooling your computer into connecting like you were on the same lan. That works, but in my experience it isn’t very reliable, it has limitations, it has overhead, and it means you have to have that ZCVPN client on both ends. So here’s my solution, skip the program, jump straight to the solution. If you use an SSH tunnel to connect to your computer, you can access your SMB shares, you can use VNC to view your screen, or do just about anything that uses a port on your host computer. The best part about it is, once you have it up and running, it’s really simple to use!
Read more…
A few weeks ago I decided to do something quite random. I’ve been a PC user all my life, and I bought a Mac.
Why?
Well, I did have my reasons, I bought one of the new generation MacBook Pros, 2.4ghz 2gb ram, etc. It just seemed like I these MacBooks were so well built. I needed a laptop for school and I didn’t want some thick piece of plastic that I would be disappointed with both in immediately and eventually. My OS X experience was limited to only what little time I had spent surfing the internet on my friend’s mac. But I had an idea. I thought I could set up my old computer as a file-server or something. Of course ideas are to results as seconds are to days.
Enough back-story though, what’s the point of this blog?
Well, I’ve learned a lot since then, I’ve been working hard to adjust, and I’ve been figuring out some pretty interesting stuff. Interesting enough that I thought it would be a shame for my work to go to waste. Instead I hope to post it here and pray that the right google search will lead some lucky guy to a shortcut in what could be hours of work.
