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showing posts tagged with 'mac'
 
Clearing DNS cache on Mac
by lunarg on December 13th 2011, at 12:54

You can clear the DNS cache on a Mac by using these commands (depending on the version of OSX you're running):

  • Tiger (10.4): lookupd -flushcache
  • Leopard and later (10.5+): dscacheutil -flushcache
 
Configure iCloud in your e-mail client
by lunarg on November 14th 2011, at 14:52
While unsupported, iCloud still allows access to your e-mail via IMAP, and sending via SMTP. Apple has published the necessary parameters for manually configuring your e-mail client to use the iCloud service.

Server name: imap.mail.me.comSSL required: yesPort: 993 (is set by default)Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)Password: Your iCloud passwordServer name: smtp.mail.me.comSSL required: yesPort: 587SMTP authentication required: YesUsername: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)Password: Your iCloud passwordSSL is required  ...
 
Additional libraries in iPhoto
by lunarg on May 20th 2011, at 11:20

It is possible to have multiple iPhoto libraries, and not just one. To create a new library, hold down the Option (⌥) key while starting iPhoto. This will prompt you to create a new library or open an existing one.

Alternatively, you can also use iPhoto Buddy, which allows you to easily select libraries from a nice GUI.

 
Create a permanent link to a share in OS X
by lunarg on April 19th 2011, at 15:40
By default (and if turned on in Finder), Mac OS X only shows network shares on the desktop when they are connected. If you want to have a link to the share, even when it's not connected, you can create an alias to that share to have it always shown on the desktop. This way, you will always have it available, and moreover, double-clicking the alias will automatically connect the share, and, if required, prompt for a password.

To quickly create a share, connect it like you normally would. While staying in the root of that share, drag its icon in the title bar of the Finder window to your   ...
 
Avast Mac Edition RC (v3.11)
by lunarg on March 11th 2011, at 12:01
Currently, the official Avast for Mac Edition available for download is still at version 2.74, released somewhere in 2007.
This version still has many annoyances and bugs that have not yet been resolved (one of these issues is the ability to run automatically in the background, without the main window popping up at start up each time).

Luckily, the Avast Forum has a post, providing a new release candidate is available for download for some time now. The build is also a bit outdated but has at least many fixes that aren't present in the official release.

The direct download link   ...
 
Invoking the Apple Hardware Test
by lunarg on October 21st 2010, at 12:19
If you're having trouble with your Mac and think the cause could be hardware-related, you can run the Apple Hardware Test. It's a set of tools by Apple which perform basic and extensive tests on your hardware to see whether they are still okay. These tools are available for anyone with a Mac, and are either preinstalled on your system, or available through your OS'es installation discs.

Applies usually to older models of Mac.

You can download the AHT disc images for a number of older Mac models through here: http://www.info.apple.com/support/aht.html.

Insert the Apple Hardware Test disc int  ...
 
MPlayer OSX Extended
by lunarg on September 6th 2010, at 13:39
MPlayer OSX Extended, the Mac OSX port of the well-known linux media player MPlayer.

MPlayer was originally ported a while back, and has then been superseded by this version, and is considered the official Mac port by the original developers.

From the official website

MPlayer OSX Extended is the future of MPlayer OSX. Leveraging the power of the MPlayer and FFmpeg open source projects, MPlayer OSX Extended aims to deliver a powerful, functional and no frills video player for OSX.

MPlayer OSX Extended is based on the original MPlayer OSX project but has since undergone fundament  ...
 
Wine for Mac OSX
by lunarg on March 24th 2010, at 14:51

Wine now also has precompiled binaries available. Together with WineBottler (an application to prepare and pack Windows applications for redistribution with Wine), it is available here: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/.

Wine is an application which allows to run Windows application on linux, BSD or Mac OSX. Rather than full emulation, it acts as a compatibility layer between the application and the OS.
Wine is not entirely foolproof just yet; there is still much to be done, but with each passing release, more and more applications are getting supported.

 
Seamless compression with Squeeze
by lunarg on March 1st 2010, at 22:45
Seamless file compression has found its way to Mac OSX 10.6 with Squeeze.
The application is a system applet, implementing the new HFS compression technology to transparently compress folders you configure to be compressed. Each folder added with Squeeze will be compressed in the background. To the user, they are just regular files, but they will take up less disk space.

Using Squeeze is easy: just select the folders you want to get compressed, and it will silently work in the background to compress the contents of those folders. Whenever you use any of the files, it will be read like any   ...
 
Take screenshots on Mac OSX
by lunarg on January 19th 2010, at 21:16
Taking screenshots in Mac OSX uses Preview.
Inside Preview, you can use the menu to capture screens, but that's not very handy when you're working in other programs.

Luckily, there are some global shortcuts available that implement every way of capturing. As I always forget what they are, and I'm sure others forget this all the time as well, here's a short list.

Cmd + Shift + 3 Capture the entire desktop, and save in on the desktop as PNG. Cmd + Shift + Control + 3 Capture the entire desktop, and place it on the clipboard (inste  ...
 
Creating ISO's on a Mac
by lunarg on December 6th 2009, at 22:28

Create a folder with the contents you want on your ISO.

Open Disk Utility and use the New Image from Folder menu item to create an image. Ensure it is uncompressed and use the CD/DVD master option.

In my experience this creates HFS+ masters which are no good in Windows.

Open the Terminal

Assuming your new image is called ~/Desktop/Master.cdr (the file is on your desktop and called Master.cdr) type:

cd ~/Desktop
hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o Master.iso Master.cdr

This will create an ISO/Joliet .iso file.

 
MacOSX: unlocking locked files
by lunarg on October 28th 2009, at 15:50
Ran into an issue where I could not unlock files that were copied from a network location to local disk. The files were marked as being locked, but I was unable to unlock them (through Finder), even though I had all proper rights. Additionally, chmod as root (= user with the highest privileges) did not work either.

The solution to my issue was to manually override the locked flag of those files, from within a Terminal.

sudo chflags -R nouchg my-problem-file-or-dir

Additionally, I found that it sometimes is easier to completely reset/clear an ACL, and start over, rather than trying to fix th  ...
 
Set up VNC in Mac OSX
by lunarg on September 7th 2009, at 20:34
Did you know that since version 10.4, Mac OSX has a VNC server built in? It was originally implemented to have remote control and management. Since 10.5 (where Apple Remote Desktop was implemented for remote managing), they have renamed it to screen sharing, but the principal remains the same.

To enable it, follow the instructions below.

The following guidelines are for Mac OSX 10.6, but they are roughly the same for other versions.

Open System Preferences.

Find the icon that says Sharing.

In the list of services at the left, select and enable Screen Sharing by ticking its checkbox.

By d  ...
 
[Mac] Memory stick not empty after deleting files
by lunarg on June 24th 2007, at 20:24

A friend of mine had this problem with her camera storage thingy. If you're a MacOSX user, you might want to read up on the symptoms and solution on her blog.
Extra thanks go to Heidi for this.

 
 
showing posts tagged with 'mac'
 
 
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