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[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Ugh, I don't want to spend an extra $80 just for the hdd support, that's a bit ridiculous.

Are there any cheap non-apple wireless N routers that can share hdd and don't suck / lose signal?

The Airport Extreme does like 1 MB a second transfer if you're lucky. It's not worth bothering with.

 

[Lord Error]

Is it possible to keep all the music on a desktop computer HDD, and have it all as a shared library in Itunes, then when I see that shared library in my Mac laprop Itunes, have all that music sync to an Ipod connected to a laptop? I'm asking this because Itunes on Mac is literally an order of magnitude more responsive than the PC version, and I'd much rather deal with it this way than sync stuff on PC.

If this is not possible, is there some other way to deal with this situation. Some external network drive solution where I could keep all the music, that I could see on PC dektop and mac laptop or something like that?

 

[Keylime]

The Airport Extreme does like 1 MB a second transfer if you're lucky. It's not worth bothering with.

This man speaks the truth. As a device it's great, but the internal network transfer speeds over wireless aren't nearly what I was hoping for.

...I have 2 extremes in my house, though! 1 as the main source of the intarnets, and another set up to take in the Wireless N and pump it over hardlines to my game consoles since none of them support N.

 

[Splash Wave]

I asked this in another question, didn't get any help:

How do I burn a DVD on my mac? I'm trying to make one run in a DVD player. I tried using iMovie, but it won't work. I also downloaded an open source program called "burn" and it's telling me that it fails to "author" the DVD. Neither the mpg or avi version of the file will work

 

[Phobophile]

Is it possible to keep all the music on a desktop computer HDD, and have it all as a shared library in Itunes, then when I see that shared library in my Mac laprop Itunes, have all that music sync to an Ipod connected to a laptop? I'm asking this because Itunes on Mac is literally an order of magnitude more responsive than the PC version, and I'd much rather deal with it this way than sync stuff on PC.

If this is not possible, is there some other way to deal with this situation. Some external network drive solution where I could keep all the music, that I could see on PC dektop and mac laptop or something like that?

A lot of these questions can be answered by just browsing the Preferences of various applications. Seriously, the best way to learn is just by clicking on everything you can, assuming you have the judgment not to change anything you don't know what it does.

 

[The Main Event]

I asked this in another question, didn't get any help:

How do I burn a DVD on my mac? I'm trying to make one run in a DVD player. I tried using iMovie, but it won't work. I also downloaded an open source program called "burn" and it's telling me that it fails to "author" the DVD. Neither the mpg or avi version of the file will work

Try it with Disk Utility.

 

[Keylime]

http://qkpic.com/62f67[img]
A lot of these questions can be answered by just browsing the Preferences of various applications. Seriously, the best way to learn is just by clicking on everything you can, assuming you have the judgment not to [I]change[/I] anything you don't know what it does.[/QUOTE]
I think the question there was really "can you sync an iPod to a shared library" instead of "can you share libraries".

I don't know if you can sync up your device with a shared library, but I would assume you can't.

 

[Phobophile]

I think the question there was really "can you sync an iPod to a shared library" instead of "can you share libraries".

I don't know if you can sync up your device with a shared library, but I would assume you can't.

Oh ok, I misunderstood the question a bit. Yeah I don't think that you can sync it, but I'm sure you can manually manage the iPod with the shared library.

 

[Buckethead]

Also for the fun > press CTRL+ALT+CMD+8

Back in the day in college, I'd solarize and invert the colors, take a screencap, move the dock, and set the screencap as background.

It was wonderful watching all the stupid girls who had no business being in my film program squeal.

 

[Killthee]

I asked this in another question, didn't get any help:

How do I burn a DVD on my mac? I'm trying to make one run in a DVD player. I tried using iMovie, but it won't work. I also downloaded an open source program called "burn" and it's telling me that it fails to "author" the DVD. Neither the mpg or avi version of the file will work

Have you tried Toast?

 

[StrikerObi]

I downloaded Tweetie after reading about it in this thread, and I like it so far. A couple of questions:

1. Is there any way I can see a list of all my followers and who i'm following?
2. How do I send a Direct Message if I cant see any of them? Lets assume I havent seen a single tweet from them yet.

1) I don't think the list is directly in Tweetie, but if you double click on your image in the top right corner and go to your profile, you can see the counts on the Info tab and click those to be taken to Twitter.com to see the full list.

2) The same way you do on Twitter itself. "d [username] [message]"

 

[Particle Physicist]

gah.. i cant read!!!

 

[infiniteloop]

I asked this in another question, didn't get any help:

How do I burn a DVD on my mac? I'm trying to make one run in a DVD player. I tried using iMovie, but it won't work. I also downloaded an open source program called "burn" and it's telling me that it fails to "author" the DVD. Neither the mpg or avi version of the file will work

There was an App called VisualHub that did it for cheap, but it's been discontinued.

 

[Lord Error]

A lot of these questions can be answered by just browsing the Preferences of various applications. Seriously, the best way to learn is just by clicking on everything you can, assuming you have the judgment not to change anything you don't know what it does.

I know about that library sharing option, I mentioned I'm using it to see the songs on my laptop - but can I sync the Ipod with those songs on the laptop is what I'm curious about. I know I cannot for example copy them to my laptops hard drive, I can only listen to them in Itunes.

I think the question there was really "can you sync an iPod to a shared library" instead of "can you share libraries".

I don't know if you can sync up your device with a shared library, but I would assume you can't.

Yeah, I never tried it, but I have a feeling it cannot be done. So I was wondering if there's some other way of doing this, other than having all the music on some external USB HDD and then bringing that over to laptop every time I want to sync (which would be so clumsy that I'd rather put up with Itunes on PC in that case).

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

You could add the songs to your laptop's library by "Add Files" (or whatever it's called) and pointing over the network to your desktop's files.

There's also an application called Mojo that will let you download from other libraries. You could use this to have your laptop download from your desktop and keep them both synced.

iTunes badly needs some shared household library or proper NAS support, but I figure Apple thinks it's just too niche right now.

 

[Lord Error]

You could add the songs to your laptop's library by "Add Files" (or whatever it's called) and pointing over the network to your desktop's files.

That's a very good idea. I'll give it a shot later today.

 

[permutated]

Do not use iTunes for mp3 playback the sound engine is horrible.

Use Quicktime, or VLC.

 

[LCfiner]

Do not use iTunes for mp3 playback the sound engine is horrible.

Use Quicktime, or VLC.

what? you mean someone shouldn't use itunes to play back their thousands of songs because the sound quality is slightly lower quality?

i don't think that's good advice for someone new to the mac. sorry

 

[biggkidd32]

This is really nitpickish question. But does anyone know how to streamline Safari's tab management without having to resort to CMD click? CMD click opens new links as tabs, but with Firefox on Mac this is seamless, no CMD clicking necessary and everything stays constrained to one Window. I'm a longtime Firefox user, but I'm impressed with Safari speed.

 

[Phobophile]

iTunes badly needs some shared household library or proper NAS support, but I figure Apple thinks it's just too niche right now.

I'd have to agree, until wireless LAN speeds can actually be worth two shits. I know that's what's preventing me from putting all my media files on a NAS drive.

 

[mrkgoo]

I have a Mac for almost a year and I just found out that if you hit the spacebar in Finder you can see previews of everything...

That was actually a high level featured addition to Leopard. It's called Quickview. Incidentally, developers can add more files to Quickview, and quickview is what is used during video/presentation/file view sharing during iChat.

Don't get hung up on this. If you use an application a lot, just leave it open and idle all the time. It's not Windows XP. It's not going to make your machine sluggish. You'll appreciate how you can instantly reopen your most used applications without having to wait for a reload.

Also, the red button only closes the window because OS X is window-based as opposed to Windows' application-based design. Cmd+W will always just close the current window, Cmd+Q will always close the entire application. Cmd+Tab will always cycle applications, Cmd+` (the key above tab) will always cycle between windows within that current application. (Or just use a mouse hot corner or your trackpad for Expose and just click on the window you want.)

Yup. When I first moved to Mac, I watched an avid Mac user, and he left pretty much all his applications open. Just closing them when he felt like it. It's a tough habit to break, to close apps when you;re not using them, but I'm sort of there. I still close most apps at the end of the day (I never shut my computer down), and I close iPhoto when I'm done, because early on, when it crashed, it would forget a lot of changes (I assumed it saved on close - that said, I haven't had it crash in ages).

Here's a tip I don't think I've seen: assume you're in Finder and have an MP3 and want to put it into iTunes, but iTunes isn't open. Start dragging that MP3 down to iTunes' dock icon, and while hovering over the iTunes icon, hit Spacebar. iTunes will now open while you still have the MP3 file being dragged. Then drop the MP3 file in when it's open.

You can also do this if the application is already open. If you have Photoshop open and want to open a JPG inside of it, just drag the JPG onto the Photoshop dock icon, and it'll open in it.

Dragging onto the dock is awesome. I believe the spacebar can be used as a sort of force open as well. I drag stuff on to apps on the dock all the time.

You can also drag things between windows in Expose. Start dragging something, open Expose (I find it's easiest to do this with a hot corner or with the keyboard button that opens Expose), and drop the file in another window while in Expose.

If you're on a multigesture laptop, you can click and hold the click and use the four finger gesture for all windows Expose as well. A reason why I think the trackpad is better than a mouse!

If you're using Safari, drag your mouse over a word and hit "ctrl+cmd+d" to open a bubble with Dictionary.

.

And if you keep ctrl+cmd held down, you can mouse over other words for their definitions.

And now for my favorite little trick for people new to OS X, and something I use literally all the time:

When buying something online or paying a bill, select Print, then hit the PDF drop down and choose "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder". The first time you do it, the folder will be created in your Documents folder.

This is so cool. Something so simple, but helps you out just that teeny bit. It makes you feel that Apple recognise how many people use certain features. (Of course the lack of other features can boggle the mind).

Is there a way, in iPhoto to select an event and change it's location? For example, i have an event for paris but it doesn't know that it's in paris, i want to set all pictures in that event to paris.

Also, again in iphoto, how do i easily set the picture i'm on as my "desktop wallpaper".

Kal stated this earlier, but to add: locations in events can be accessed by clicking the 'i', or just cmd+i. As far as I understand, editing an event location doesn't just append all the photos inside the event, but will tag the photo with the location event if it doesn't already have one.

Share -> Set Desktop.

Furthermore, unless you have a particular need (such as networking a library -not sure if this is possible for iPhoto - I assume it is), I STRONGLY suggest that if you are going to be using iPhoto as your main manager program, that you copy images to the library, and not reference them.

It's possibly better now, but traditionally, a LOT of iPhoto issues are because people try to mess around with the jpegs while iPhoto is looking after them. There really isn't much to be gained by trying to manage your own files either in iTunes or iPhoto. Just let the programs do their jobs, and you never have to look at the files again. Need a file? you can open iPhoto and do practically anything you want to from there.

 

[DEAD RABBIT]

This man speaks the truth. As a device it's great, but the internal network transfer speeds over wireless aren't nearly what I was hoping for.

...I have 2 extremes in my house, though! 1 as the main source of the intarnets, and another set up to take in the Wireless N and pump it over hardlines to my game consoles since none of them support N.

The extreme can pull off high speeds. I use the Gigabit version with the settings forced on wifi n (5 Ghz) and get a bit rate of 300 MBit. By chance, I read that the problem is with the b/g/n compatibility mode. If you use the b/g/n wifi mode, the extreme will downscale overal wifi speed to the lowest mode if there is a client for which that is the maximum speed. So if you have a laptop that is only b wifi and you have another computer with g or n, then the extreme will downscale the wireless network to b mode. This of course translates into much lower data transfer speeds over wifi to the g/n computer for which you expect those transfers to be faster. So basically, you either have to use an wifi n only setting (don't know the difference between 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz, I guess it limits interference from other b/g routers that work at the 2.4 Ghz spectrum) and more speed or more compatibility.

It's a good router, but there are some stupid problems that don't get mentioned. If you want an advanced router, I do suggest to chose something other than the extreme. Although, the only thing that really needs to be advanced for an intranet is the internet router, since Apple products are expensive as hell, and sometimes incompatible with consoles (like the Xbox 360 with internet sharing), you might as well be better off buying something else, something more common. Extreme also has had a terrible history consisting of many patch-jobs, although I never really experienced any of it.

 

[guise]

Helpful Shortcuts
CMD + SHIFT + 4 = Custom-Size Screencap

Didnt see anyone mention this yet...

Once you get the crosshair appear, press spacebar and the cursor will change into a camera, letting you screengrab a single entire window, complete with png transparent drop shadow (saved to the desktop).

 

[Evlar]

And now for my favorite little trick for people new to OS X, and something I use literally all the time:

When buying something online or paying a bill, select Print, then hit the PDF drop down and choose "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder". The first time you do it, the folder will be created in your Documents folder.

Whoa! I knew about creating PDFs from the Print dialogue but I never noticed it actually has a coded-in function for saving receipts to a dedicated folder! Guess everyone at Apple had the same idea for online receipts.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

This is really nitpickish question. But does anyone know how to streamline Safari's tab management without having to resort to CMD click? CMD click opens new links as tabs, but with Firefox on Mac this is seamless, no CMD clicking necessary and everything stays constrained to one Window. I'm a longtime Firefox user, but I'm impressed with Safari speed.

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/09/08/terminal-tips-force-safari-to-open-all-links-in-new-tab/

Put this in Terminal, then restart Safari: defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

 

[MrSeaneyC]

Apart from the NUMBER ONE UBER FAIL of Mac OS X already mentioned, the default behaviour of overwriting the contents of one folder with the contents of another with the same name, rather than merging (WHY WOULD YOU WANT THIS!!!!????) I have only one other tip, and that is to replace preview with JustLooking.

Just a much much better preview program, and supports some gesturing.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

I learned immediately that if you drag multiple files into a quicktime window it will combine them and play them all in a row (great for rips that are multiple parts). Then you can save the file for later use and it plays just fine. But importing that combined file into Handbrake or iMovie does not work. Any reason why?

And love most of the hints in this thread. Finding out lots of cool stuff.

 

[Phobophile]

Apart from the NUMBER ONE UBER FAIL of Mac OS X already mentioned, the default behaviour of overwriting the contents of one folder with the contents of another with the same name, rather than merging (WHY WOULD YOU WANT THIS!!!!????) I have only one other tip, and that is to replace preview with JustLooking.

Just a much much better preview program, and supports some gesturing.

I honestly prefer Preview to JustLooking. I only use JustLooking for viewing animated GIFs. Between Preview and Safari 4, Apple must really hate animated GIFs.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

The extreme can pull off high speeds. I use the Gigabit version with the settings forced on wifi n (5 Ghz) and get a bit rate of 300 MBit. By chance, I read that the problem is with the b/g/n compatibility mode. If you use the b/g/n wifi mode, the extreme will downscale overal wifi speed to the lowest mode if there is a client for which that is the maximum speed. So if you have a laptop that is only b wifi and you have another computer with g or n, then the extreme will downscale the wireless network to b mode. This of course translates into much lower data transfer speeds over wifi to the g/n computer for which you expect those transfers to be faster. So basically, you either have to use an wifi n only setting (don't know the difference between 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz, I guess it limits interference from other b/g routers that work at the 2.4 Ghz spectrum) and more speed or more compatibility.

It's a good router, but there are some stupid problems that don't get mentioned. If you want an advanced router, I do suggest to chose something other than the extreme. Although, the only thing that really needs to be advanced for an intranet is the internet router, since Apple products are expensive as hell, and sometimes incompatible with consoles (like the Xbox 360 with internet sharing), you might as well be better off buying something else, something more common. Extreme also has had a terrible history consisting of many patch-jobs, although I never really experienced any of it.

Well I was talking about its transfer speed when you plug a USB hard drive into it and try to use it as a NAS. It's just not powerful enough to do any more than 1 MB/s.

As a wireless N router, it's the best I've used.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Apart from the NUMBER ONE UBER FAIL of Mac OS X already mentioned, the default behaviour of overwriting the contents of one folder with the contents of another with the same name, rather than merging (WHY WOULD YOU WANT THIS!!!!????) I have only one other tip, and that is to replace preview with JustLooking.

This is fixed in Snow Leopard. It now shows a dialog asking if you want to replace the contents or merge them. (At least I think so. I swear I saw a screenshot showing this, but I can't find it now.)

 

[suffah]

This is fixed in Snow Leopard. It now shows a dialog asking if you want to replace the contents or merge them.

That's awesome. I also screwed myself when I first got my MBP. I foolishly assumed it would merge the contents a la Windows.

 

[Shanks]

Kind of a weird question but I was just looking around the system profiler to check out my systems specs. A few minutes later I noticed it appeared on my dock for some reason and it wont leave. I've tried dragging it to the trash and to the desktop but it wont leave. How do I get this thing off my dock?

 

[mrkgoo]

Kind of a weird question but I was just looking around the system profiler to check out my systems specs. A few minutes later I noticed it appeared on my dock for some reason and it wont leave. I've tried dragging it to the trash and to the desktop but it wont leave. How do I get this thing off my dock?

When you drag it off the dock, make sure it has the little puffy cloud (indicating it will disappear with a puff of smoke/dust).

Also, try right clicking or hold clicking and selecting "remove from dock".

 

[infiniteloop]

This is fixed in Snow Leopard. It now shows a dialog asking if you want to replace the contents or merge them. (At least I think so. I swear I saw a screenshot showing this, but I can't find it now.)

If you copy files into a folder, you get keep original, replace, keep both, but folders will just copy over like 10.5

 

[MrSeaneyC]

This is fixed in Snow Leopard. It now shows a dialog asking if you want to replace the contents or merge them. (At least I think so. I swear I saw a screenshot showing this, but I can't find it now.)

I'm to this very day astounded that this is STILL the default in what is currently the latest and greatest version of their OS. I can genuinely think of no practical reason why you would always want this to happen, instead of merging. Fortunately I was burned when I got my first iBook in early 2003 and learned the really hard way with stuff that looking back wasn't really that important. (Just a load of uni work. I never finished Uni.)

And i'm now especially mad at Apple after I found out last month that Tiger had awesome bluetooth phone compatibility with address book, and it was removed without a trace in Leopard.

 

[Mardil]

I don't know if you've already heard of this app, but it's called Jumpcut
http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/
It's basically a clipboard, it stores all your copied items. It's so useful, check it out, it's probably my favorite Mac OS X app.

If you are into torrent downloads, get Transmission. Simple interface, easy to use, decent speeds.

 

[Shanks]

When you drag it off the dock, make sure it has the little puffy cloud (indicating it will disappear with a puff of smoke/dust).

Also, try right clicking or hold clicking and selecting "remove from dock".

Got it! Thanks!

 

[NZNova]

One useful little thing I found when I got my first Powerbook is that when using Cmd-Tab to switch between apps, if you tab to an app and, while keeping Cmd held down press Q, the app will quit and you will remain in the tab menu. You can use it to quit a bunch of apps in a hurry if you wanted to do that

 

[mrkgoo]

One useful little thing I found when I got my first Powerbook is that when using Cmd-Tab to switch between apps, if you tab to an app and, while keeping Cmd held down press Q, the app will quit and you will remain in the tab menu. You can use it to quit a bunch of apps in a hurry if you wanted to do that

I hardly ever use cmd+tab, but that's pretty handy, especially since Q resides next to tab!

And just to make it known, swipe left/right with four fingers for those with four finger gestures enabled, is equivalent of cmd+tab - but you can swipe with two fingers to scroll through open apps, and tap with four to go to it. So, a quick swipe left/right with four fingers and then tap again with four will bring you to your last used app.

 

[Ashhong]

Apart from the NUMBER ONE UBER FAIL of Mac OS X already mentioned, the default behaviour of overwriting the contents of one folder with the contents of another with the same name, rather than merging (WHY WOULD YOU WANT THIS!!!!????) I have only one other tip, and that is to replace preview with JustLooking.

Just a much much better preview program, and supports some gesturing.

is there any way to have QuickLook be the default program in place of preview? preview takes too long just to load a simple picture or something, and i really like QL speed.

 

[mrkgoo]

is there any way to have QuickLook be the default program in place of preview? preview takes too long just to load a simple picture or something, and i really like QL speed.

Quicklook isn't an application. It's just for quickviewing.

 

[giga]

is there any way to have QuickLook be the default program in place of preview? preview takes too long just to load a simple picture or something, and i really like QL speed.

What did you do to your system? Preview opens in 1 second...

 

[Tron 2.0]

People using Tweetie, try Nambu. It's way, way better. http://nambu.com/

Also, it's not free ($10) but I recommend purchasing Little Snitch. It's a network monitor and incredibly worth it. http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

 

[Juice]

People using Tweetie, try Nambu. It's way, way better. http://nambu.com/

Definitely don't like Tweetie's interface. Separate window for new windows requires too much clicking and mousing. Sick of Twitterific's idiosyncrasies too.

I like Nambu if only for the Growl support, but I really just wish I could have Twitterific for Mac OS X

Also, it's not free ($10) but I recommend purchasing Little Snitch. It's a network monitor and incredibly worth it. http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Little Snitch is *awesome* when you're new to OS X and want to learn about how/what/when/why 1st and 3rd party applications phone home. I'm less paranoid than I was when I first started, so I don't use it anymore, but it was very educational and helped me visualize how apps used the network (OS X's pretty UI makes apps' networking feel very opaque at first)

 

[Ashhong]

What did you do to your system? Preview opens in 1 second...

maybe...but i still kind of prefer quicklook. i realize its not an application, i just like it.

 

[mrkgoo]

maybe...but i still kind of prefer quicklook. i realize its not an application, i just like it.

Well...couldn't you just use space for quicklook?

 

[StrikerObi]

Definitely don't like Tweetie's interface. Separate window for new windows requires too much clicking and mousing. Sick of Twitterific's idiosyncrasies too.

I like Nambu if only for the Growl support, but I really just wish I could have Twitterific for Mac OS X



Little Snitch is *awesome* when you're new to OS X and want to learn about how/what/when/why 1st and 3rd party applications phone home. I'm less paranoid than I was when I first started, so I don't use it anymore, but it was very educational and helped me visualize how apps used the network (OS X's pretty UI makes apps' networking feel very opaque at first)

Tweetie is awesome once you realize how awesomely keyboard driven it is.

 

[Ashhong]

Well...couldn't you just use space for quicklook?

yea...but i always forget because im just used to double clicking. oh well

 

[Deleted member 12837]

What's the best way to password protect a folder on a Mac so other friends and family members using the computer can't access its contents? It doesn't have to be super encrypted, I'm not trying to protect the stuff from hackers or really tech-saavy people or anything.

 

[infiniteloop]

What's the best way to password protect a folder on a Mac so other friends and family members using the computer can't access its contents? It doesn't have to be super encrypted, I'm not trying to protect the stuff from hackers or really tech-saavy people or anything.

Make a new encrypted sparse disk image in Disk Utility. I have one with resumes, tax stuff etc. incase my MBP ever gets stolen.