OS X 10.5 stuff to tweak

This comes courtesy of macosxhints and is definitely in a list of things
I plan to do in the morning. 

*** Disable Shadow In Screen Window Captures *** 

In Leopard, there is a shadow around whole-window during screenshots (ie,
Command-Shift-4, Space). This can be disabled from Terminal with this command:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true 

To make the changes take effect, logout and login, or restart SystemUIServer. 

[robg adds: This works, and I activated it with killall SystemUIServer in Terminal. To add the shadow effect back in, delete the newly-added pref: defaults
delete com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow, then restart SystemUIServer again.]

—–

*** Set Help Window to NON FLOAT ***

he following Terminal command will revert the Help Viewer window to its “not
always floating” 10.4 behavior:

defaults write com.apple.helpviewer NormalWindow -bool true

Additionally, execute the following (bash) commands as an administrator in Terminal to have access to the application via Command-Tab or its Dock icon:

i=/System/Library/CoreServices/Help\ Viewer.app/Contents/Info.plist sudo defaults write "${i%.plist}" LSUIElement 0 sudo chmod 644 "$i"

Sources:

• Non-floating window command from Ars OpenForum.
• Command-Tab and Dock icon from macosxhints.

[robg adds: This hint makes the second half of this previous hint (which required hacking the Help Viewer executable code to change the window behavior) irrelevant.
There's still some good info in the previous hint if you'd like to not only gain a dock icon for Help Viewer, but also change the window's behavior (by editing its .nib file). For most people, though, I suspect the simple Terminal command in this hint will be sufficient. I went through the Help Viewer binary files in the 10.5 release, and I honestly don't recall seeing theNormalWindow string
anywhere, so this may be new in 10.5.3 (or I just overlooked it with the earlier release).] 

—–

*** Show All 64 bit apps using terminal ***

#
For Intel: locate -0 app/Contents/MacOS/ | xargs -0 file | grep x86_64

—-

 

Photoshop CS3 Extended + Mac Pro 8-core

Radial Blur applied to 40″ x 60″ image (16-bit) at 300ppi resolution.
It would appear all 8 processors are being used.

I’m happy.

 

Microsoft Tries to Patent a Crippled Baseline OS

Source: Groklaw by way of LinuxJournal

The story I’m linking to was reported on Jan 30, 2007 so I’m late to the party. It looks like it was Dugg long before.
Nevertheless, I figured all us Mac folks could get a laugh at it.
Long live OS X.

It would seem Microsoft wants to patent a method to cripple the OS in the same way Sony is crippling Gran Turismo for PS3. I think the original PS3 link is here.

If you don’t know, the PS3 game would reportedly cost over $970 if you buy all the tracks. Sony gives a few cars and tracks. If you want more, you have to pony up the cash.

Of course, our charitable fiends(sic) at Microsoft are following – not innovating – the Sony model:

— Microsoft fantasy scenario —  (My hyperbole of the situation)
Microsoft will give you a basic OS but if you want to speed your network up past 10Mbps it will cost you dearly.
Oh. Those SATA drives? Well …. you’ll have to pay us to unlock the full throughput. RAID functionality will be $1900.00.

Do you want to throw those files in the trash? Mmm. That’ll be $4 per megabyte.
Empty it? Ohh. That’s gonna be extra.

Wow. You want to create a PowerPoint containing more than two charts? Well, that’s past your basic subscription so it’s gonna be $5 per extra chart.

You’ve bought that nice new Firewire drive? Oooh. You’ve already got a USB MIDI controller attached. You’ve exceeded your external device quota. It’ll be $30.99 for two more external devices.

What’s that? Your broadband connection is 8Mbps? You’ve only paid for 1Mbps. We have a three year subscription that will make your connection more valuable. It will benefit you as a consumer. Click to accept.

You get the picture ad. nauseum.

Whoever approves that patent should be deported to Neptune without an oxygen tank (since Pluto isn’t a planet any more).

 

Just found MythTV frontend for OSX – all variants

Looks like somebody was able to pull it off.
Collectivity has posted three builds (and additional works-in-progress) for running MythTV front end using his Intel-based MacBook Pro laptop.
It will still interface with the Lunux-baed backend.

NOTE: Pleas make sure you click through the few pages in his blog to be sure you’ve got the latest build. I posted what i think it the latest build below.

Versions are:

• MacOSXintel for 0.20
• MacOSXPPC for 0.20
• MacOSXUniversal for 0.20

I’m not posting the direct links to the downloads. Please visit his site to be sure you read the caveats and make sure you have the latest build.
One obvious request is for the Intel hardware – turn on the vector optimized video output. Otherwise it won’t work.

On the page I have linked to: Those builds only work with Protocol 30. They don’t work with Protocol 31.
Here is a posted fix for the MacIntels to run with Protocol 31.

Of course, i just tried it and I’m not having much luck getting it to go without hanging in OS X 10.4.8 on my dual G4.
Take my comments with a grain of salt. I don’t have my Linux box working completely since the re-start. i just wanted to see how far i could get on the Mac.

—————————————————————–
sources: collectivity.goof.com via Lunapark via Google search for Installing MythTV on Fedora Core 6 without using ATrpms.

 

Saft – probably the best Safari extension

If you don’t know about Saft, you should.
It’s $12.00 (USD) and it’s a steal. Don’t take my word for it.
Go and download it yourself to try it out for free.

It’s strictly for Apple’s Safari web browser.

Saft is a Safari plugin to add features like draggable tabs, full-screen browsing, searchable bookmarks and history, URL shortcuts, kiosk mode and more.

Saft is so well-developed that Safari has incorporated some of its ideas into the updates of Safari.
In my opinion, after tinkering with the demo, it brings Safari closer to the cool things you can do with Mozilla extensions created for Firefox.

As the screen grab shows, I like the shortcuts section.
Although Quicksilver currently takes care of those clerical navigation issues, I’m willing to give Saft a fair shot.

You should check it out, too.

 

Installing the Bling Bling On My Parent’s New 20″ iMac

I never thought I’d see the day that my parents would beat me to the punch on high technology, but they’re won round 6a.
They also won round 1, 2, and 3.

Round 1 – They had the first DishNetwork / DirecTV
Round 2 – They had the first HDTV
Round 3 – They had the first Automobile GPS (I paid for 25% of it, though)

I beat them in a few spots.

Round 4 – I had the first Satellite Radio (Sirius).
Round 5 – I had the first broadband internet
Round 6 – I had the first mac

But they retaliated with the golden purchase:
They currently own the fastest computer in the family.

So, now that I’ve convinced them about the virtues of the mac and the requisite OS X, it’s time to load them up with cool stuff.
The next few posts in this blog will be my repository for what I’ve done to set them up with the niftiest software that I think they will enjoy.
Sit back and let me do all the work.

————–
First, their combined interests are:

• heavy equipment
• auctions
• antiques
• cooking
• financial management
• sewing
• medical
• drafting
• photos of kids
• video
• music
• music production
• stuff they don’t know about but heard about

In my next few posts, I shall attempt to compile some software to meet their needs along with software they don’t have a clue that exists.

 

MacCulture announces winners of the Coladia giveaway! | MacScoop

MacCulture announces winners of the Coladia giveaway! | MacScoop:

They’ve put out the first 50 of 500 winners of Postino.

Postino is an RSS reader with audio and video podcast support.

Of course, if you didn’t know about it I guess you’re too late to the party.
If you did sign up, head off to see if your name’s up there.

I think I’m around 320th or something. It’ll be a while before I see anything.
While I’d rather see my name stamped to an oversized PowerBall Lottery check, this will have to do for now.

 

Salon Management Software – OS X

No. Neither did I.

However we’re both wrong. They DO make software for this. it ranges from $695 to $2895 so it’s serious stuff.

Let STX help you with cash drawer, receipts, gift cards, appointment booking, payroll, client tracking, inventory management, sales evaluations and more. STX is the simplest computer management system to learn and use – saving you thousands in training and support costs. You can now see STX in action at many of the 100 Apple Store locations across the country. Just call us to find out dates and times for the live seminar at a store near you.

The software looks very well laid out.
They won an Apple Design Award, at some point.
Looks like Apple knew they were there.

Go figure.

 

AppleSeed – Apple Software Customer Seeding

AppleSeed is a program set up within Apple Inc. where customers are invited to test pre-released software for Apple.
You complete a profile, sign a confidentiality agreement, and wait to see if you are selected.
Then you have to provide feedback by reporting bugs, filling out questionnaires, etc.

Don’t take this lightly. I beta test several large commercial software packages (you’ve heard of them, I promise) and this type of thing is not for everybody.

Also, it seems it’s geared towards development teams. It’s also limited to premier and select members.

 

Here’s a nice tutorial on HDR imaging.

Stuck In Customs » Blog Archive » HDR Tutorial – Focus on Clouds

Click up there if you like, but I’ll give a synopsis and provide the links to some discounted software that I’ve double checked. This post is a gold mine if you are into High Dynamic Range imaging.

You’ll hear a lot about

• Photomatix
• LucisArt
• FDRTools
• Aperture
• Lightroom
• Photoshop

I believe I read that LucisArt will not work on Photoshop CS3 on Intel. Photoshop CS2 on Intel will work in Rosetta emulation, but I’m sure they’ll get it figured out.

Nevertheless, please check out the link at the top of the page for some astounding photographs.

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