Archive for April, 2006

All posts written in April, 2006.

Apr
27
2006

fun with defaults write in Mac OS X.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Apple, General, HOWTOs

Ever since yesterday’s defaults write question and then post, I have been doing some fun research on what else is possible with defaults write
Note:Most of these changes require you to restart the finder after entering these into Terminal.app killall Finder.

  • change your screenshot file format: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleScreenShotFormat JPEG or TIFF or PNG or PICT
  • Disable outlines around icon names on the desktop: defaults write NSGlobalDomain Desktop.HasDarkBackground 0
  • Show trash on the desktop: defaults write com.apple.finder Desktop.HasTrash 1
  • Configure AFP to exclusively use SSH
  • Create a login hook
  • Finally…when someone is driving you completely insane and it is time to show them not to mess with tech support…defaults write com.apple.Finder AllowCutForItems true This neat trick takes everything you cut but not paste. Everything you cut goes into the trash and not to the clipboard. April Fools!

As you can see, there are endless cool things you can do with defaults write. Check out the defaults man pages!
[tags]defaults write, Finder, Mac OS X[/tags]

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Apr
26
2006

Show Hidden Files in Mac OS X

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Apple, HOWTOs

A Mac OS X/UNIX newbie asked me if there was any way to show all the hidden files in Mac OS X so that he could browse the UNIX directories when using the Finder. Since there may be others out there that have the same need/want I thought I would share an easy way to show and then hide all hidden files within the Finder.

To show hidden files: open the Terminal application and type: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE. In order for the Finder to recognize the change, restart the Finder by then typing: killall Finder.
To hide hidden files: open the Terminal application and type: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE. In order for the Finder to recognize the change, restart the Finder by then typing: killall Finder.

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Apr
25
2006

fusion radio chicago.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General

I like to listen to music all day long while working because it helps me get into a good groove. I have recently discovered a new internet radio station: Fusion Radio Chicago which helps during the mundane coding. If you like dance/electronica music give it a shot!
[tags]Fusion Radio Chicago[/tags]

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Apr
24
2006

rove on!

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General

LandRover

This past weekend was a great weekend. Nice weather, golf…and a new purchase…a Land Rover Discovery. A’s Civic was a hardcore car, but not something I wanted to drive, or something that I felt safe in. Time to upgrade to a Land Rover. I know…gas consumption…everything has pluses and minuses and I am fully aware of this. If you are from the Chicagoland area, I would highly recommend buying a Land Rover from Land Rover Hoffman Estates. We were treated with nothing but respect and there was no level of sleeziness at all. Some interesting facts I learned…

  • Land Rover was previously owned by BMW. Like a good parent when meeting their child’s date, I wanted to know what Ford’s intentions were for Land Rover and that little tidbit came out about BMW. Apparently, all the engineering is still done by the Germans, all the production is still in Great Britain, and that Ford is really only involved in buying materials at a discounted rate for Land Rover. *I am still a bit converned with the fact that they released the Freelander, but as of 2006, it is no longer made, so hopefully they learned their lesson.
  • The Queen of England is transported in a Land Rover. Whatever is good enough for the Queen…
  • Land Rover owners can get a free car wash at the dealership at any time.
  • There are driving courses that the dealership offers annually to teach owners how to drive through deep sand, water, snow, and on crazy hill slopes. (I should have had one of these when I lived in NY)

So far, so good. I am excited to see it in action this winter, and for the first time, I am not worried about my safety or A’s safety when we are in “her” vehicle.
[tags]Land Rover Discovery[/tags]

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Apr
21
2006

fluxiom: a beautiful digital asset manager.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General

Yesterday I happened to read an article on a new online digital asset manager called Fluxiom. (Using a reflection on a graphic will never get old for me.) I instantly was impressed by the UI (user interface) after reading the Vitamin review of Fluxiom and would recommend people taking a look at it as well. Fluxiom is a great example of how desktop application-like UIs are making their way to the web by using AJAX, amazing graphics and CSS. I cannot wait to check this out further when I get an account.
[tags]Fluxiom[/tags]

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Apr
20
2006

state of the blogosphere.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General

Technorati recently posted the “State of the Blogosphere” which shows the growth rate of blogs over the past three years. Technorati’s research showed that there is now, on average, a blog created every second of every day and the blogsphere is doubling every six months! Lots of interesting tidbits, so if blogging interests you, take a few minutes and read more (see link above).

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Apr
19
2006

gasoline and sweat.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General

Yard work…you either love it or hate it. After recently moving from a condo into a house, I am very pleased it is summer and I now have to mow the lawn, trim the hedeges, edge the sidewalks, weed whack where the lawn mower will not go, and fertilize the yard. That is what I did today after work. After a few hours of all that…I enjoyed a nice cool beer on the hammock. Good times.
[tags]none ;) [/tags]

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Apr
18
2006

cool tasks pro feature.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General, Web Development

I have been using some version of Tasks since 2003 and absolutely love it. Not only does it help me organize my thoughts and projects, it also provides me with a searchable database of all the solutions I have come up with for my projects.

For the last several months I have been using Tasks for all of my consulting projects so that I would have a record of what I did/what I needed to do and to have for my clients if there would be any billing disputes for hourly jobs. My clients can log in and see each task request, the task solution (with attachments and links if needed), and the time it took to complete the task at any time. Pretty slick.

Recently I realized that it would be very helpful to have a total time spent on a group of tasks so I would not have to manually count the minutes/hours…so I contacted Alex King and requsted this feature. To my surprise (especially after using tasks for three years now) the feature to calculate the time spent on sub tasks already exists. To see this calculation, all you need to do is click on the right most icon (Show Details) in the parent task. Rock on.

Tasks

Thanks Alex for the awesome software and your prompt response!
[tags]Tasks, Tasks Pro, Alex King[/tags]

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Apr
17
2006

feedburner.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General, jappler.com

Last Friday I decided to finally check out FeedBurner. I am now using their service for my RSS feed, so anyone who reads subscribes to my RSS feed will notice some changes.

Now via RSS, you are able to:

  • Email the post to anyone
  • Add the post to del.icio.us
  • Add comments
  • Read Comments
  • Check out related posts from Sphere

If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed, please do so by clicking on the FeedBurner RSS icon. I have also added an option to email readers when there is a new post in case there are some of you out there that still do not use a RSS reader but likes to keep on top of blog posts.
[tags]jappler.com,feedburner, del.icio.us, sphere.com[/tags]

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Apr
13
2006

top ten web design pet peeves.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General, Web Development

After working with HTML and web design for just about ten years, I have found a number of things that drive me crazy with other people’s designs/web sites…so here is the top ten in order:

  1. lack of cross platform and multiple browser QA
  2. lack of search
  3. a new window that when it opens, maximizes to the size of your screen
  4. too much flash (or all flash)
  5. upon page load, music/sounds begin playing
  6. pop-ups
  7. animated gifs
  8. 1997 era background images
  9. pages that have widths beyond 1000px (come on…wrap!)
  10. extrememly slow loading pages

[tags]web design pet peeves[/tags]

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