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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
The recovery stick is in event of hard drive failure or replacement. It's just a clone of the recovery partition I believe.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Guys, is Air Display the best "use my iOS device as an external display" app out there? Or is there a better one I don't know about?
I'm currently testing the Free version of Air Display and it's pretty good. Ever since switching to Mavericks I can finally get some use from a second display. The delay is not too bad, but what can you expect. The ads are just getting obnoxious so I need to decide whether to buy it or not. If there's no better alternative. I mean AD seems elegant enough. Can't really imagine the experience getting any better.
It's $10 though so I want to weigh my options.
I'm currently testing the Free version of Air Display and it's pretty good. Ever since switching to Mavericks I can finally get some use from a second display. The delay is not too bad, but what can you expect. The ads are just getting obnoxious so I need to decide whether to buy it or not. If there's no better alternative. I mean AD seems elegant enough. Can't really imagine the experience getting any better.
It's $10 though so I want to weigh my options.
charlemagne
Member
What do you dislike about it?
Well for one I can't easily navigate to the harddrive directories.
(unless I'm just stupid?)
jts
...hate me...
Shortcuts are really your friends on OSX, so in doubt just CMD+up arrow until you get there.
However you can drag your hard drive to the favourites sidebar for an easy shortcut.
Also don't forget to give your own spin to the Finder's preferences, among other things you can enable the Desktop to show your hard drives right there, and choose what a new Finder window shows.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Hit cmd-j in Finder to bring up 'view options'. Cmd-, is preferences. Between the two and you should find what you want.
Fuck....why is are all these power options hidden like that?
Everything is right in the menus...
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
It's Apple. They've never been big on having thousands of options visible to the user, but will always have tons that you can't tweak without using third-party utilities. It's the way they've been since the dawn of time. (Think PowerToys on Windows) There's numerous third-party utilities and extensions to help customize and tweak OS X.
I keep treating that menu bar like the windows taskbar. So much good shit in there.
Theres really minor stuff I need to tweak on here. Like really really small stuff. I think it just might be ecoswap syndrome
e: wow, the air on my balcony is making my air waver...crazy
The biggest mistake to make during the switch is to try and bend the OS to behave more like your old OS then complaining why it isn't like the old OS. Goes for moving from any OS to any other OS.
Give things a chance.
Also, I never use shortcuts.
The key to Mac OS is that the dock is a unified task at and app launcher. Use it with expose and mission control to master your OS user experience without excessive finder navigation. Learn the gestures for navigation.
Also, learn spotlight (cmd+space).
It's really just the file structure that I keep holding onto. I'm loving the gestures on here (expose+ mission control are awesome)
cmd+space...motherofgodthankyousomuch
jts
...hate me...
kennah, it's just transition woes I suppose
Welp, I love you. Just got home and dug through the options and now my I feel better.
e: Shit wait I change the icon size for finder....but it doesn't auto wrap the thumbnails...instead I have to scroll left/right, wtf?!
Welp, I love you. Just got home and dug through the options and now my I feel better.
e: Shit wait I change the icon size for finder....but it doesn't auto wrap the thumbnails...instead I have to scroll left/right, wtf?!
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
There's two sorting options. Arrange By and Sort By. Changing Arrange By makes it work like you are exhibiting. Change that back to "None" and change the Sort By. Not the Arrange By.
In OS X up to Mountain Lion it only displays one line of icons at a time when using Arrange By. Arrange By separates all the icons into groups and shows each group on one line.
Mavericks however (supposedly) expands each group by default (Thankfully.. hopefully) so you won't have that problem later. However I rarely ever use Arrange By. But since Mavericks doesn't collapse them by default it's much more usable. Mavericks will be out in the Fall. (I say hopefully supposedly because it seems to be inconsistent here.)
Also note that when using Arrange By you can't change the folder background color anymore. Bottom line, don't really use Arrange By. Just use Sort By.
Basically Arrange By will separate icons into Folders, Documents, Movies, Music, Apps, Images, Etc.. while Sort By will break them down into individual file types like MP3, AAC or MPEG, AVI, MKV or TXT, HTML, CSS, JS, etc.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Wait, are you using the 'All my files' thing? I forgot that existed because I have more than three files in my home folder and therefore hate it and got rid of it (you can too!).
ugh that reminds me of the "group" stuff they added to windows seven. Double settings for viewing the same data.
All my files thing is there on after looking, but I'm not really using it to browse.
---
I had to look up a tutorial on uninstalling and app. Dragging the icon to trash? Is there a more....natural way to uninstall?
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Huh, just played with the arrange-by thing. I only use list view so hadn't seen it.
... how is that less natural than opening some weird-ass program in Control Panel? Throw it out like anything else.
... how is that less natural than opening some weird-ass program in Control Panel? Throw it out like anything else.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Oh. Nifty. The Windows boffins at work never show that trick off.
Command-click on an icon in the dock or in a Spotlight result (or cmd-return if using the keyboard), then cmd-backspace to fire it in the trash. Cmd-shift-backspace to empty it.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Drag it to the trash. The way it's been since 1984.
You seem to be looking for things to complain about just because they're done differently from Windows. Yet you willingly switched over from Windows. God help you if you ever switch to Linux.
Only certain apps have installers. But most of the time it's drag and drop. Apple invented the Mac App Store mainly to move away from this old method though to make it easier to install and uninstall apps. But there will always be apps not on the App Store that you still have to install the old ways.
You seem to be looking for things to complain about just because they're done differently from Windows. Yet you willingly switched over from Windows. God help you if you ever switch to Linux.
Only certain apps have installers. But most of the time it's drag and drop. Apple invented the Mac App Store mainly to move away from this old method though to make it easier to install and uninstall apps. But there will always be apps not on the App Store that you still have to install the old ways.
Well, I'm just asking about stuff I have no idea how to do. That's what this thread is about I thought.
I've always found the app install/img/mount thing weird, even as an outsider. Like conceptually it makes sense, but apparently more people are using installers that get mounted first? The last four apps I installed had installers. It just seems redundant.
I've always found the app install/img/mount thing weird, even as an outsider. Like conceptually it makes sense, but apparently more people are using installers that get mounted first? The last four apps I installed had installers. It just seems redundant.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Yes, keep asking.
Installers on .dmgs seem weird. Adobe-level weirdness. Whatever standards exist for installing software is set by the community. As I said earlier (I think in reply to you), there's been a shift to simple .zip files.
Actually I've found in recent times, more people releasing apps as installers too. .pkg that you double click.
I loved the way applications were so simple in that they were self contained files, but perhaps people were really getting confused.
Inspecting the pkg installers often revealed that all it did was move an application into applications folders anyway.
I loved the way applications were so simple in that they were self contained files, but perhaps people were really getting confused.
Inspecting the pkg installers often revealed that all it did was move an application into applications folders anyway.
jts
...hate me...
Just today I installed some apps as I was needing them.
Chrome -> DMG with applications folder shortcut (the proper way of doing DMG these days)
Silverlight -> DMG with PKG installer
Cocunut Battery -> ZIP
It's a small sample but every single thing was different, lol.
Just wondering though, maybe I'm being dumb about this but I'm not thinking about it too much anyway... what would be the disadvantage of simply publishing the .APP file as is?
Chrome -> DMG with applications folder shortcut (the proper way of doing DMG these days)
Silverlight -> DMG with PKG installer
Cocunut Battery -> ZIP
It's a small sample but every single thing was different, lol.
Just wondering though, maybe I'm being dumb about this but I'm not thinking about it too much anyway... what would be the disadvantage of simply publishing the .APP file as is?
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
The thing is, I guess, that some apps require more than just a self contained folder. Some need to add preference panes, or install extensions.
They COULD make it so they install on first run, I suppose, but either way would need an admin password so may as well use a pkg then.
They COULD make it so they install on first run, I suppose, but either way would need an admin password so may as well use a pkg then.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Those are the two kinds of Mac apps.
1) It's a self-contained folder with a .app extension that includes everything you need to run.
1a) That self-contained app will automatically install all the files it needs when you run it so you don't need an installer.
2) A .pkg will put the .app in Applications and the support files in the proper Library folders for you.
Apple's trying to simplify things by making the App Store handle all that's needed. Even with Xcode now which USED to require an installer that would put everything in a Developer folder. Now it's a single .app that installs what's needed when it's needed and if it's needed and keeps everything contained and has optional extra downloads if you require them.
Heck, even OS X updates are now one-click to install right from the App Store as well.
So don't think Apple hasn't thought it was silly too.
BUT, I've seen PLENTY of Windows apps that came in ZIP folders. The only difference is that all the files are in the ZIP and not inside the EXE within the ZIP. For instance, all the DLL files will be separate and either A) a Windows installer puts the DLL's in a System folder or B) the DLL files sit right next to the EXE which can be put wherever you want and the EXE will use the DLL's in that folder when you launch.
So complaining about OS X apps being awkward to install and uninstall is not really needed as Windows has plenty of analogs to these methods. (And plenty of apps that don't have Uninstall options) And even its own App Store when it all comes down to it.
Yah.
The AppStore is actually pretty awesome. I've been exploring it more and more. There's just not a lot that is interesting there, probably due to the limitations placed on apps that make it through.
When I got my new iMac I decided to start from scratch aside from my user folder. Nuked my dev folders, and age-old /usr, which may have been overrun with years of fink installs (even though it sits in its own folder, I think running a lot of stuff kept messing withy all the hidden unix folders) and running open source unix-style software.
Xcode is probably a culprit too. Now that its a little more self-contained, it's probably a bit better, although I don't really know. Apple are bad at having a lot of stuff install after the fact and just leaving the installers lying around in a hidden folder, like the command line tool dmgs.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I only avoid the App Store when the developer puts out two versions because of restrictions. If the sandbox ruins some of its features. Doesn't happen often though. I even got the new GeekTool from the App Store and it works just as well as it did as a downloadable Preference Pane.
Eh, clam xav is restricted on the AppStore, but I don't use sentry anyway. I just use it to scan various files and drives manually, so the AppStore version is fine.
iMovie and iDVD?
Yay but where do I get iDVD?
It's discontinued, but if you have a copy anywhere since 2009, you could install it and update it.
There are probably much more recent authoring tools now.
Nothing as good or recent. Encore is quite difficult to use (and nearing end of life). Toast is decent but has shitty menus.
I'm all ears for any better suggestions though!
jts
...hate me...
Hey, so my Mac doesn't hibernate or deep sleep, or whatever the name is. When it runs out of battery, that's it... although OSX deals very well with that.
I stopped having that when I installed the custom fusion drive dealio, but now that I'm with a single SSD, I kinda wanted to get that perk back. But no dice, just tried it.
Any clues?
Gotcha.
I stopped having that when I installed the custom fusion drive dealio, but now that I'm with a single SSD, I kinda wanted to get that perk back. But no dice, just tried it.
Any clues?
Gotcha.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
jts
...hate me...
Thanks.
I did it, however I checked its status previously (googled on that) and it was already set to mode 3:
Then I checked my sleepimage file and it's still there:
However, it is weirdly 4GB in size, when it used to be 8, just like the RAM size. The ~private/var folder is around 8GB though.
Checked my RAM, seems to be detected fine:
Maybe it's something about Mavericks. I don't know. But I'll just leave it be anyway. It's no biggie. At least until we're out of the beta.
Require a password and then use the corners to turn your screen off. I do this when I get up from my desk at work.
System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver -> Screen Saver -> Hot Corners
It also goes without saying you should be using Alfred. It's a billion times better than Spotlight.
Oh cool, I'm gonna try that for a bit and see how it goes, thanks.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
This works:
Though I have it set to engage only when I have command pressed, so that I have to want to do it (have triggered it manually too many times when I fire the mouse out of the way to type in the terminal).
Another option is to enable the Keychain menubar item, which has a 'lock screen' item. To do so, fire up Keychain Access, which is the management program for your Keychains where good Mac applications (e.g. not Firefox) store passwords, encrypted with your login password or any arbitrary one. Anyway, open the preferences here and enable 'show keychain status in menubar'.
I have no idea why this is so buried.