Swept Under the Rug

If you're using Mac OS 10.6, you probably had a software update in the last day or so. Don't put it off. This one is really important. Did you notice the last item listed under the fixes included in this update?

Just a little issue. Some users who have a guest account enabled have experienced data loss when logging out of the guest account. Translation: it deletes your entire primary user folder!

As I understand it, it only affects a small percentage of users but it only takes one, me, to make it a huge issue. I'm surprised I never got a warning notice about this. Seems like it would merit one. Instead, I heard it on MacBreak Weekly and so knew what to avoid. I guess they at least acknowledge it in this update text instead the vague statement frequently given with updates about general bug fixes and enhancements. I guess they didn't totally sweep it under the rug.

I WANT a DROBO!

If you've never heard of DROBO, you should definitely read this. You can also win one at the Managing Your Digital Life blog. Here's why I want one:

My day to day workflow involves layout of a local paper I publish and ad design for the paper, web design for clients of the other half of my business, and web design and digital communications design work that I do for the church of which I am a member. Everything I do on a daily basis involves storing, retrieving, and incorporating digital media (primarily photos and graphics). It’s kind of like I have three jobs but it’s not as bad as it sounds since there is so much over lap.

I have two machines that I use every day. The older of the two is a 5 year old PowerBook G4 with an 80 GB hard drive (only 2.8 GB free). The newer machine is a 4 year old iMac G5 with a 160 GB drive (only 7.4 GB free). Both were large drives when I bought them. I’ve added a 500 GB external drive for backup and I also store vital files on my iDisk (when it’s working) as a backup of my backup.

How would I use a DROBO? After wiping the tears of joy from my face, I would immediately set it up as the central media storage device for my home office network so that I could free up the limited memory on each of my machines and have the peace of mind that knowing my livelihood is stored on a DROBO would bring!

Be sure to head over to the Managing Your Digital Life blog to find out more about DROBO and how you can win one!

Geekbit: Spotlight Calc

Perma-Widget

Are you one of those Mac users who loves a particular Widget but hates the fact that you have to use Dashboard to get to it? If so, then I've got the cure for what ails ya. Watch this Geekbit to learn the solution. Also, don't forget to log out and and back in to make the changes take effect. I forgot to add that little nugget to my demo.


The text you need to paste in the Terminal is

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Then hit the Enter key. Free at last, Free at last. Remember to vote for me as Supreme Commander or the WLO (Widget Liberation Organization)!

It's All There In Black & White (Part 2)

Waaaaay back in May (okay, it was only a week ago), I posted Part 1 to this topic and promised to continue soon with more on tools that are available to help you with distraction free writing. I know you're all on the edge of your seats, so here it is.

I am writing this post in a program called WriteRoom. It's a program designed to provide a distraction free environment for writing. The way this "pure" environment is achieved is very reminiscent of the old WordPerfect days where you have only a blue screen and white text. There are no visible menus or toolbars; it's just you and your text.

I actually like to work with a black screen and green text and pretend I'm Neo trying to hack into the matrix. I also couldn't resist the temptation to set the screen to black and the text to white and type the words: "Want to play a game?".

Another cool feature I tried was "Edit in WriteRoom." This setting is supposed to add a WriteRoom option to your edit menus in all your other programs. You should be able to just type a magic keystroke that triggers a switch to WriteRoom, work with your text sans distractions, and type -s to switch back to your original program and insert all your text. It didn't really work that way for me. It did show up in my services menu but the selections were all grayed-out. Not sure what I did wrong.

WriteRoom has tons of options to let you customize your experience. That's really what this app is all about-controlling your experience. It even gives you the option to use the old-timey block insertion point. Overall, I find it to be a useful program. I have the attention span of a...Oh look, a puppy! What was I saying? Oh, yeah, I can use all the help I can get. If you suffer from hyper-distractability too, you should check it out.

If only it could lock my Apple Mail, hide my TV remote, and mute my kids. Then it would be a complete distraction-free writing solution.

UPDATE: The "Edit in WriteRoom" feature now works in Safari and my other apps. I have restarted my PowerBook since the first attempt to use that feature. I don't know if that's what fixed it or not. If you have trouble getting that item to appear in your edit menus, try restarting your Mac.

It's All There In Black & White (Part 1)

I read a neat tip from Merlin Mann over at 43folders a while back that you might find helpful if you spend a lot of time in front of your computer. He was reviewing a program called Nocturne that causes your display to run in "night vision mode." The effect is kind of like looking at a negative of a photo. The tip that I found so interesting was that you can get a similar effect using a built in feature of OS X.

The magic keystroke for this built-in night vision feature is ctrl-opt-cmd(a.k.a. )-8. Go ahead and try it. Now type it again to return to normal mode. It doesn't have quite the same effect here at Geekbert since I've already chosen a reversed color scheme (see, I do care). If you are viewing a document that has black text on a white background, you'll get the right effect. It kind of reminded me of the old WordPerfect bluescreen word processing. It is a little easier on your eyes after long hours in front of the computer.

As I understand it, the benefit of using Nocturne, as opposed to using ctrl-opt--8, is that Nocturne gets rid of the crazy looking rainbow effect on colorful items in your display (looks weird just like in a photo negative). I think it does this by changing the display to gray scale before reversing (just a guess). Nocturne also automatically hides the desktop to prevent you from having to look at the freaky looking rendition of your family's photo that you use as your desktop wallpaper.

I like to use built-ins whenever possible but Nocturne is free, so check it out too and use what works best for you.

In my next entry, I'll be showing you some other tools that are available to help you with distraction free writing. Be sure to stop by again soon!

Geekbit: Address Book Labels

There's a treat waiting for you in your OS X Address Book. Watch and see. You're gonna like it!

Geekbit: Using Spotlight to Launch Applications

Geekbit: What's Up, Dock?

You know how when you're doing laundry and you find twenty bucks in your pocket that you had forgotten about? This tip is like that. It's built right into the OS but you'd never know it was there if you hadn't stopped by here and checked our pockets. Thanks to applegazette.com (where I found it) and osxdaily.com (where they found it).


If you've never used the Terminal, this might be a little intimidating but it's really very simple. Here are the commands that I reference in the video:

Enable transparent hidden Dock icons:
Type this: defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Press Enter
Type this: killall Dock
Press Enter

Disable transparent hidden Dock icons:
Type this: defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool NO
Press Enter
Type this: killall Dock
Press Enter

Geekbit: OS X Hits The Spot

This geekbit is a little longer than usual but some of you will get the time back right away. The next time you go looking for that file that you know you saved on your desktop, somewhere (if you could only find your desktop), just call on Spotlight to find it in a flash! Take a look:

Geekbit: Yellow Pages Widget

Get rid of the clunky big yellow books. This slick little widget speeds up the process and your friends will all think you're really smart.

Geekbit: Quick Email Attachments

Geekbert Cares

If you've spent any amount of time blog-slogging you know how easy it is to get lost in the blogosphere only to emerge hours later wondering how you wasted so much time. Well, be thankful you have a friend like me to suggest subscriptions to you.

If you have several blogs that you enjoy on a regular basis, you can use subscriptions to help you keep up with the latest posts all in one place. Then you only have to check one place to see if there is anything new on your favorite site(s) without getting sucked into the vortex that is the blogoshphere. Many browsers now have the ability to manage subscriptions for you. You can also use one of many online services to manage your subscriptions.

Which brings me to the reason for my post. I've recently added, out of generous consideration for your time, links in the sidebar for you to subscribe to www.geekbert.net. You can subscribe to posts (via reader or email) and comments. A few days ago, Brian asked about subscriptions to comments. I believe I have it all set up correctly. If you have any trouble with subscriptions, please let me know. And remember, Geekbert understands the value your time.

Mac Minute: Expose

Mac Minute: Bezel

A reader suggested recently that I start a basics tutorial to help you discover things that might otherwise go unnoticed for months or years if you don't read your manual. Does anybody read the manual?

I have been thinking about doing this for a while now and so, Scott, thanks for the little extra push. I've made a list of things that I think you would find helpful. I'll be adding to the list as time goes on and I invite you to make suggestions as you think of basic OS X features that you've found helpful but not necessarily obvious to the average user. I'm starting off with something really basic, but I know a few of you probably don't use it. Take a look:

Another Reason I Like FireFox

I was just browsing in Firefox. I had 4 tabs open, all for things I plan to review. One of them launched Rhapsody for Web and for some reason my browser stalled. I waited while the rainbow beach ball spun. I waited.

O.K., force quit (apple, option, esc) and move on. Oh, wait. I hadn't yet bookmarked the sites for review. Crud!!! What were they. Oh well, live and learn.

I restart Firefox and it asks me if I want to restore my previous session (multi windows, tabs and all) that had quit unexpectedly or if I want start fresh because I think something in the previous session caused the crash. SOLD!!!

If you don't already have Firefox, get it. You'll be glad you did.

The Need for Speed

Thanks to Mactalk for this gem. I have started to use FireFox pretty regularly as my browser instead of Safari. Safari is starting to show it's age and need of an update. For example, there are frequently features of web forms that I can't see in Safari. The only thing holding me back from switching to FireFox completely is that I was sure it was working slower than Safari. Turns out I was right but Mactalk will show you how to fix that! Watch:

Fring For All

Did you ever have to read something like five times to make sure you weren't seeing things or totally misunderstanding it. When I read through the description of fring, I had to take a quintuple-take. I'll spare you some of the technical jargon and cut to the chase. The bottom line is how would you like unlimited minutes on your cell phone and a guarantee that it'll always get a signal in your house? And what if I told you it would cost about $68 a year?

No, I'm not smoking anything. Yes, I feel fine. Of course I know what my name is. I'm telling you it's true.

In beta now, fring is "Mobile VoIP Telephony designed for GPRS, 3G & Wi-Fi Networks." That means with the right phone and a reasonable data plan you can basically use Skype as your primary phone service. Skype Unlimited gives you unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada for just $29.95 per year. You can get a SkypeIn number for $38 per year. You still have to have a data plan on your device (translation: monthly charge) but that is still a lot cheaper than my current 2100 min./mo. plan costs. $68 a year! Having managed for one of the global wireless carries for a few years, let me tell you this is their worst nightmare. And Ma Bell, nice knowin' ya.

UPDATE: Thanks to Rachel from Fring for letting us know that they do not yet support Skype Unlimited but plan to in the future.

There are several caveats. You have to have the right phone (Nokia is the primary choice now) and use either Cingular or T-Mobile service (in the U.S.) for now. I still feel like it's too good to be true or maybe I've missed something. If this is what it appears to be, I believe you're looking at the future of voice communications...and probably the reason that carriers will begin to hike their data plan rates.

***SpinVox Update***

I learned today (thanks Vince!) that SpinVox, which I wrote about a few weeks ago here, is limiting the number of people in the U.S. who get the free year deal.

From their website: "SpinVox is offering only 15,000 free Spin-my-Vmail accounts for US customers and they're going fast."

I got one. If it sounded interesting to you, you should sign up soon for the free year or it looks like you'll be limited to a two week trial.

Remote Possibilities

One of my favorite things about my Macs is that they are like compact entertainment centers. Sure, I bought them to facilitate my business needs but any Mac user knows that the reason you bought a Mac vs. a PC is because they're more fun!

I don't own a stereo system. My iMac and some fancy computer speakers does the trick. It's great–all my CD's are packed away because they're all in my computer now. In fact, until a few months ago, my 20" iMac screen was the biggest screen in my house. If I wanted to watch a DVD on the big screen, I watched it on the iMac. It does a great job. The new iMacs even come with remotes and software called Front Row to simplify your interface when in entertainment mode. Cool, but that doesn't help me. I got my iMac before they added that feature.

That's okay; I already have a remote for my iMac...my Treo 650. I have been using Salling Clicker for about two years now to turn my bluetooth equiped smart phone into a remote control for my computer. Salling Clicker is a software utility that turns a mobile phone or PDA into an advanced wireless two-way remote control for your computer. It works on both Macs and PC's. It really does it all. It lets me use the touch screen to control the mouse. I can control Powerpoint or Keynote from my Treo. I can control just about every app on my Mac from my Treo. Really the only apps I use it for are Keynote and iTunes.

iTunes is really the reason I bought it. It lets me browse my play lists, play, pause, fast forward, rewind, you get the picture. It even shows me the album art that is associated with each song or album. The best part is that it doesn't require line of sight. I can walk around the house with my phone in my pocket, as I always do, and have immediate access to my iTunes controls. It's really a great program for about $24. It's a cheap way to satisfy your inner control-freak. Enjoy!