[Steven]

Wish I had grabbed Synergy now when it was given away on the xmas tree thing

Experimenting with iTunes menu bar controllers. At the moment using the first one linked in the thread

Did find an interesting one: Bowtie Quite limited right now but its got potential. Could do with having playlists support

[Tenex]

CoverSutra is quite good.

[Steven]

They say Bowtie is the same but with faster search
mattpat.net » Blog Archive » PowerSearch: Only in Bowtie

[Dean00]

Some great information here, thanks very much to those who have posted it.

Here's another few little things I use:

Mactracker - for the configuration of every item of hardware and software Apple have ever made, a great little app:
Mactracker

Whatsize - gives the size of folders and subfolders and lots of hidden stuff that you may want to delete.
id-design, inc. | WhatSize

Monolingual - frees up disk space by removing all unnecessary languages, you would be amazed how much of your hard drive they take up.
Monolingual

[ash]

Originally Posted by BabyBel

Seconded- great little app.

http://www.yousoftware.com/tunes/ Adds all kinds of extras to iTunes but the main one I use is the playback controls on the menu bar- handy little app.

What is the benefit of this? Doesn't your keyboard (assuming its a laptop/mac keyboard) have >>, << and play button on it?
Or am I missing something?

So is The Unarchiver the best programme of its type? I use UnRarX, but don't really like it much.

And also, when you want to delete an app, don't you just drag it into the Recycle Bin?

[Tenex]

The UnArchiver is far better and more reliable than UnRarX. I couldn't wait to dump that and I've used this for a couple of years now without a problem.

Dragging apps to the Recycle bin doesn't always remove all the apps pref files etc. AppZapper (paid) and AppDelete (free) do.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by ash

What is the benefit of this? Doesn't your keyboard (assuming its a laptop/mac keyboard) have >>, << and play button on it?
Or am I missing something?

The benefit for me is that I don't have to take my eyes of the screen to change tracks etc. Very handy in a darkened room.

Originally Posted by ash

And also, when you want to delete an app, don't you just drag it into the Recycle Bin?

You can but that doesn't remove any associated files eg. preference files. Programs like Appcleaner & AppZapper search for any files liked to the main app.

[David Mackenzie]

Bean. Nice simple free word processor. Faster and to-the-point, unlike OpenOffice.

[barrybarryr]

I've downloaded Caffine, its a great little program.

One problem I have is that even though I have checked the box for it to start on launch it doesn't. Is there anyway I can make it auto start instead of me having to load it each time?

[Steven]

If you go to system preferences > accounts you can manage startup/login items (can't remember exact term)

[Tenex]

Originally Posted by barrybarryr

I've downloaded Caffine, its a great little program.

One problem I have is that even though I have checked the box for it to start on launch it doesn't. Is there anyway I can make it auto start instead of me having to load it each time?

If you're going to start it every time why bother? Go sys pref > energy and switch the display to never go to sleep, saves having another app to negate the pref setting.

[barrybarryr]

I would just like it to be in the menu bar so that I can use it whenever I want without having to run it.

[Tenex]

Then go to Sys Pref > Accounts > Choose your a/c and then Login Items. Click the "+" and add Caffeine.

Though I have to say I have few items in there that DON'T start as intended for some reason.

HTH

[Tenex]

Growl Tip

new to me hope it helps

there’s a simple way to close all notifications at once—just hold the Option key before clicking on the first notification. Note that this trick will close all notifications, not just all notifications from one program.

[BabyBel]

Originally Posted by ash

What is the benefit of this? Doesn't your keyboard (assuming its a laptop/mac keyboard) have >>, << and play button on it?
Or am I missing something?

I have the different function keys (iTunes controls, brightness, Dasboard etc) disabled because I use two or three apps- Vue, Bryce, Parallels- where I need just plain old F1 to F12. That makes it much easier to change tracks or just pause playback.

Plus, not everyone has an Apple keyboard.

[MrSossidge]

Originally Posted by BabyBel

Plus, not everyone has an Apple keyboard.

[Stinja]

Yeah about 95% of the computing world

Cheers about the Caffine program. I love it, as i want to keep powersavings on mostly, but when sitting idle say watching a video i'd like to not to have to wiggle the trackpad every 3 mins, or fiddle in the system settings before/after each video.

Also tried a few others listed here, but i was wondering if anyone had an app to read and format HDDs to NTFS/FAT32/etc, or in fact any better diagnostic tools (bad sectors etc) over the default OSX ones? Tried SwissKnife V3 under Crossover but it wasnt having any of it...

[ash]

Originally Posted by BabyBel

I have the different function keys (iTunes controls, brightness, Dasboard etc) disabled because I use two or three apps- Vue, Bryce, Parallels- where I need just plain old F1 to F12. That makes it much easier to change tracks or just pause playback.

Plus, not everyone has an Apple keyboard.

Fair enough.

[MrSossidge]

Originally Posted by Stinja

Also tried a few others listed here, but i was wondering if anyone had an app to read and format HDDs to NTFS/FAT32/etc, or in fact any better diagnostic tools (bad sectors etc) over the default OSX ones? Tried SwissKnife V3 under Crossover but it wasnt having any of it...

Does this help?

[Tenex]

Here's one I hesitated to post above as it can have a significant impact on your Mac, but as I posted it in another thread it may as well go in here too. Make sure you have a backup …

Secrets

[PearlJam]

Can anyone recommend a good app for monitoring downloading/uploading over the course of a month ?

I've installed SurplusMeter today but it'll be Sunday (1st of the month) before I can use it properly.

Just wondered if there was a popular one being used by the folks here.

Cheers.

[BabyBel]

Originally Posted by ash

Fair enough.

Although I s'pose I should be honest and admit that I have two Apple keyboards!

[Tenex]

Originally Posted by PearlJam

Can anyone recommend a good app for monitoring downloading/uploading over the course of a month ?

I've installed SurplusMeter today but it'll be Sunday (1st of the month) before I can use it properly.

Just wondered if there was a popular one being used by the folks here.

Cheers.

I think that one was mentioned before on here, might be worth a search.

[Tenex]

Here's one that has been used for so long I'd forgotten it

JustLooking

Its a very small and efficient photo viewer it saves using either Preview or iPhoto to peruse photos in any given folder. Set it as the default by selecting any jpg then Cmd-I and set "open with" to Just Looking and then Change All.

Now if anyone knows of a photo viewer that will build a film strip-like preview let me know.

[Pbryanw]

For those who want iTune controls (back, fowards, play, pause) in their menu bar I recommend bytecontroller (free).

Also, if you want to disable your Mac's startup chime (the one it plays when you switch it on) I recommend startup sound preference pane (free).

For archiving, if you prefer a more powerful, winzip like interface, try BetterZip (unfortunately, not free - I got my copy with Macheist).

For a simple, free, game of Tetris try Quinn (also multiplayer).

And also Appfresh for program updates. Or if you want a dashboard widget that does the same thing, try App Update (both free).

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Pbryanw

Also, if you want to disable your Mac's startup chime (the one it plays when you switch it on) I recommend startup sound preference pane (free).

Thanks for that, I've always found the chime annoying.

I knew there was a terminal hack to disable it but this makes it a lot simpler.

[Tenex]

AppFresh is useful as an inventory maker too.

[P-P-S-S]

i have recently dowloaded the Caffeine app reccommended in the first page here. however i dont know what i have done but i now have 2 of the same icons on the top right bar on the desktop. is this supposed to happen?

I have been trying to delete one of them but no joy. I threw one of the files from the downloads folder to the trash but it still didnt work.

[Steven]

I like using this site:
i use this osx software: New Releases

Foxmarks for FF is great btw if you have 2 or more systems to sync bookmarks and rss feeds

[Pbryanw]

Originally Posted by LFC_SL

Foxmarks for FF is great btw if you have 2 or more systems to sync bookmarks and rss feeds

Also, it's now available for Safari on the Mac (and IE for Windows) so you can cross-sync your browsers. Unfortunately the Safari/IE versions don't support using your own ftp server, but if you use your Foxmarks profile then it works very well (I'm currently using it for syncing my bookmarks between Safari and Firefox).