Hackszine.com: Mac Archives

Archive: Mac

Page 6 of 7 << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>

February 16, 2007

Reduce Ambient Noise in Intel Mac Recordings

Ambient Noise Reduction.jpg

Mac OS X Hints reports on "a new and seemingly little-mentioned feature" in Mac OS X for Intel Macs:

It appears that the ambient noise reduction feature is designed to remove the background noise that the microphone would otherwise pick up. It should make a difference in any app in which you use the microphone, making your voice clearer while diminishing unwanted noises.

Just go to System Preferences-->Sound to enable this setting. I still need to fiddle around with the input volume to get the most out of the feature, but the effects are already pretty noticeable using the built-in microphone on my MacBook Pro:

(Thanks, David!)

Mail.app emlx to mbox converter

Make 345
Funny story, actually not so much - I "almost" lost all my data on my main system and a back up drive in a weird flood (water) incident and then a burnt out hard drive on the sole survivor laptop. Using a bunch of tools, hot air gun and coffee I restored about 99% of everything - but there were -some- email restoring issues.

Turns out you can't just drop the Apple Mail.app messages (emlx) in to your current Mail.app email or import them, it's bizarre. But you can convert the emlx mail to a mbox and then import them, all with a free tool - after that you're back in business. There might be a more elegant way of doing this, but it worked for me...

emlx to mbox converter - Link.

February 15, 2007

Reduce Vista's CPU Usage under Parallels

When Parallels first started supporting Vista, it would max out one CPU at nearly 100%, even when the virtual machine was essentially idle. With each release candidate, Parallels has improved greatly, and the CPU usage has dropped to about 40% on my (1st-generation) MacBook Pro. Posting in the Parallels Forum, feuerri has found a simple way to reduce this even further:

I just discovered that by changing the Start -> Control Panel -> Power Options in Vista Enterprise (running under build 3150), I was able to reduce the CPU consumption from 37-40% to about 17-20%.

It works for me, and a number of other people have reported success. No word on whether there's a noticeable slowdown with this setting, but there are a few settings you can experiment with and see how it works for you. Link

Related

Parallels Desktop for Mac Forum -- Link

February 12, 2007

External SATA for a Mac Mini

If you don't mind your Mac Mini being slightly less "mini," a big performance and storage upgrade can be gained by connecting a faster 3.5" SATA drive. Unfortunately, there are two big difficulties, namely: 1) there is no external SATA connector on the Mac Mini and 2) any upgrade has got to be in keeping with the machine's small form factor and slick looks. This particular hack addresses both issues.

Basically, I hacked up a NewerTech MiniStack enclosure to hold a 250gb SATA drive, which is connected directly to the internal SATA connector in the Mac Mini.

The author was kind enough to document two versions of his setup, a warranty friendly version that requires no serious modifications to your Mini, and a warranty voider version that requires a little dremel work to mount the eSATA connector flush with the Mini's case.

PowerBook Fever

Fried Egg PowerBook

Make Publisher and Hacks series chief Dale Dougherty brings us this anecdote cum request for hacks...

Stay tuned for (a la Rocky and Bullwinkle) "Jobs Really Made Fried Green Apples," Or "Why Am I So Hot I Could Cry?"

Make's Associate Publisher Dan Woods wrote that his son, Jack, had a fever over the weekend. "The kid was running hotter than a PowerBook with a recalled battery," added Dan. I know Jack will get over his fever but I'm not sure about my PowerBook. Dan's light-hearted comment made me realize he'd found the right metaphor for these PowerBooks, which run rather unusually warm. They really do seem sick. My relatively new Macbook Pro warms up to me in a way that makes me really uncomfortable. I've tried lap desks and pillows for previous PowerBooks but after a late-night session using my computer while sitting in a chair (or airline seat), I'm overheated and dripping wet. This isn't cool. And it can't be good design.

In addition, I find that the Macbook Pro doesn't want to go to sleep, either -- another sign of a sick child. Tonight I opened my laptop in the airport just before a flight from Oakland to LA and closed it when I was about to board. After about an hour, having arrived in LA, I got my briefcase down from the bin and the bag was really hot. The computer was actually too hot to hold, like a skillet. I actually kind of imagine it melting on me someday.

Makes me wonder if the iPhone will run so hot you can't hold it to your ear or in your hand. Third-party companies will sell iPhone mitts. In really cool colors.

So, Hack doctors, what's the cure for PowerBook Fever? And if can't be cured, can I learn to cope with this condition? Lastly, someone must have fried an egg on the back of MacBook Pro and taken pictures, don't you think?

(Photo note: it looks like Justin Lowery got a great one. Here's the original photo used at the top of this post, included under CC license.)

February 9, 2007

Turn Off iPhoto's Auto-Import

Make Magazine 0002
It freaks me out when any application does any thing automatically when media is inserted - a DVD, CD, camera, storage card - it doesn't matter, I don't like it. Perhaps it's because every auto-run type thing on my PCs were just attempts to install some weird software to do something awful. So, if you don't want iPhoto to automatically open when you insert a card or camera on your Mac just open up "Image Capture" and disable it in the preferences. I figured this would be in iPhoto, but it's not, so perhaps this is helpful for someone, or the Google.

February 5, 2007

Automate Your Backups

There's a classic horror story that keeps me from sleeping at night sometimes. I've heard it told a few different ways. I've even told the story myself more than once, but Phil's version that he posted yesterday morning was one of the most frightening:

A couple weeks ago a flood hit my apartment/office area and soaked the desktop system, monitors, equipment *and* back up drive (along with a ton of other stuff) - luckily I have a daily back up on a Powerbook. But, of course the Powerbook decided to completely stop working while at our ETSY event before that could be backed up too. Zapping the PRAM revealed the hard drive failed, so the usual steps of Disk Util, TechTool and then finally drive removal and DiskWarrior were attempted - for the most part the drive seems completely dead - there might be a chance to recover some data under linux, or from a data recovery shop, but it's not looking good.

According his latest update, the backup drives dried out okay and appear to be working fine, so I guess that means he's managed to survive the perfect storm, but it got me thinking - how many of us ever keep a regular, daily backup in the first place? I've suffered several near-misses in the past, and I'm still guilty of not keeping good backups.

Never Again
So, February isn't too late for a new year's resolution. Don't go another day without your important files backed up. Let's sit down for 15 minutes, right now, and set up an automated backup system for ourselves. All you need is an external hard disk or a remote server with sufficient storage for a couple copies of your data. Based on Phil's story, you might want to situate your backup system on an elevated surface and not beneath any water pipes.

We're not focusing on a perfect backup solution here, with off-site, fire proof, vault storage. Don't let the nay-sayers stop you with the long list of things that can go wrong with a simple back-up solution, or explanations of how to do it the "right way". In 15 minutes you are going to be significantly more protected from data loss, and this will give you the time you need to relax and find a good price on your fire proof vault.

Read full story

February 1, 2007

Show All Messages and Events in Google Notifier

Google Notifier

If you use Google Notifier on your Mac to keep tabs on your Gmail messages and Google Calendar events but are disappointed by the limit of messages/events the Notifier shows before banishing the rest to a "View more..." submenu, this hack's for you. MacInformant points to this useful Easter egg divulged by David Phillip Oster, one of the official Mac Software Engineers at Google, to change the limit to any number you'd like:

Pull down the Notifier menu (either Calendar or Gmail), hold down Command and Option, and click Preferences on the menu. You'll see a hidden settings editor.
Enter MaxMessagesOnMainMenu in the Key field (upper and lower case must be entered as shown) and 20 in the Value field, then click Set.
Quit Notifier and start it up again.

Now, when you pull down the Notifier menus, you'll see all of your messages and events at a glance, without submenus. If you want to change the limit again, perhaps back to the default, just open the hidden settings editor and change the value to whatever you want.

Like the folks at MacInformant, I'm on a Mac too, so I don't know if this works under Windows. Windows users, does Command-Ctrl do the trick?

Related:

Google Hacks, 3E

January 25, 2007

Use a Windows-only Printer on a Mac

A few months ago, I accidentally purchased a printer that only had Windows drivers available for it. By the time I realized my mistake, I had already unpacked everything, which meant it could no longer be returned without incurring the heinous "restocking" penalty.

Gutenprint to the rescue:

Gutenprint, formerly named Gimp-Print, is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX and Linux print spooling systems, including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4) and Linux systems that in many cases equal or exceed proprietary vendor-supplied drivers in quality and functionality

The list of supported printers is massive, and there's even a binary build for OS X, complete with standard installer. Install the driver, add your printer through the system prefernces panel, select the Gutenprint driver for your model, and you're in business!

January 23, 2007

Stream Music to Airport Express Without iTunes

You don't need to use iTunes to stream audio to an Aiport Express. You can use the Windows Media Player, WinAmp, Rhapsody, etc...

oAEP - Stands for ovesen.NET Airport Express Player. This small application records the music and sound played by your pc and streams it to an Airtunes enabled Airport Express. It has never been this easy streaming music and sound to your Airport Express without using ITunes.

Yes, you red correctly. You can use Media Player, WinAmp or another music player with your Airport Express.

Source included. Neat, this means you can also stream formats iTunes doesn't, like Ogg Vorbis (well, with a plug-in you can).

Related:

JustePort

(Thanks, Phil!)

January 17, 2007

Mount All Kinds of Filesystems on Mac OS X

MacFUSE is a framework for loading filesystem modules in userspace. This means that you need to install one kernel extension for all the supported filesystems (and there are a lot: sshfs, ftpfs, read/write NTFS, and more) and then load the modules for each filesystem as needed. This is a lot cleaner than having to load a different kernel extension for every filesystem and wondering whether they will cooperate with one another or figure out which one is crashing your Mac. The author of MacFUSE, Amit Singh, posts amazing things about Mac OS X internals at www.kernelthread.com and is the author of Mac OS X Internals.

January 13, 2007

Remove Boot Camp Partitions from a Three Partition Setup

A popular hack for Intel Macs involves creating a third FAT32 partition to hold your data, while using an NTFS partition to hold your Vista or XP installation. Problem is, if you want to undo this arrangement, Boot Camp won't cooperate. If you've got good backups, and you're brave enough to mess around with a couple command-line partitioning utilities, I found a way to restore your partitions to the way Boot Camp found them. Then you can use Boot Camp to put things back to a one-partition setup. Link

MacFUSE: userspace filesystems on the Mac
Install NTFS-3G under MacFUSE (Thanks for sending this one on, Brian!)
3-partition setup for Vista on a MacBook

January 8, 2007

Make Ubuntu Look Like Mac OS X

Love Ubuntu but wish it sported the Aqua UI of Mac OS X? Lauri Taimila's detailed tutorial shows you how to change themes and icons, wallpaper, desktop icons, fonts, and windows to make your favorite Linux distro look and feel like a Mac, as well as a few customizations for your applications to make them match.

(Thanks, Bill!)

Related:

November 12, 2006

Funny iSight Trick

iSight trick
Back in the day, you really couldn't call yourself a web-master unless you'd sent a few "newbies" to a web page that said something on the order of "I can see all your files," followed by a link to "file:///". I figured that joke had died a long time ago, but recently I came across a new variation that uses the iSight or other firewire connected camera on a Mac.

Yeah, it's more prank than hack, but it does serve as a quick intro into some of the cool things you can do with Quartz Composer and OS X. It's also motivated me to shave, comb my hair and wear proper attire before sitting in front of my computer, so perhaps it's an appropriate and on-topic life hack after all... - Link.

HOW TO - Give Front Row a new theme

Front Row Skinning
I've been toying around with my new iMac and so far my favorite new feature is Front Row, the simple movie theatre app that's enabled on the newer IR remote equipped machines. You may have heard about a hack to enable Front Row on older Macs, but that's not what this hack is about.

I wanted to give Front Row a slightly custom look and feel for when friends stop over to watch movies. Now, I'm not going to pretend I have even an iota of the graphical talent of an Apple designer, but with this hack I'll show you how to make your machine look a bit different. And different is cool.

Read full story

Page 6 of 7 << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>