Mac FAQ

A. One annoying thing about using Expose with a laptop is that the F keys that are assigned to do the Expose commands are assigned by default to Lower Contrast (F9) and Raise Contrast (F10).

I also use the F keys in Dreamweaver to refresh a site (F5) and preview in Browser (F12)
To deactivate the OSX defaults I used a freeware pref pane called uControl.
Released under the GNU public license it is free and worth having if you use the F keys on a laptop.
A. There are a number of things you can do to play non-QuickTime based video formats on a Macintosh.

First, install Flip4Mac codecs:

http://flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm

Next, install DivX codecs:

http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

Lastly, download and install Video Lan Client:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

After you do the above, your chances of not being able to play a video that you find on the web are GREATLY diminished.

Enjoy!
A. Choose Connect to Server from the Go menu in Tiger.
If you type in an IP address and do not specify which protocol, it will connect using afp://
A. A DVD is encoded as a MPEG-2 file which can only be played on a DVD player or computer with a DVD drive.

To import DVD content into iMovie you would first use a program called Handbrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org) to “Rip” the DVD content into a .MP4 format.

Once you have the video as an MP4 you can then import into iMovie.
A. Just type the ascii codes for the smiley that you want into the text box when editing away messages. It will not show up in your iChat window as a smiley but to everyone else it will appear.

e.g. for the cool smiley 8-)
A.Here’s something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:

1.Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”

Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”

Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages MUCH faster now!

Tip found at Free Repulic
A. You can see the sizes of folders in the Finder BUT enabling this feature will slow things down in the Finder.

You can do the same thing in the Terminal (I have mine in the dock because I use it all the time)
Click on Terminal and at the prompt type:

du -s -h *

the result displays the contents of the current directory with sizes in K (kilobytes) M (Megabytes) or G (Gigabytes)

If you are using Jaguar type:

du -s * (the -h option only works in Panther)

Jaguar results will be the files and folders expressed in blocks (not as useful)
A. You can find a step by step answer here:

http://www.googletutor.com/2007/01/24/syncing-google-calendar-with-ical/
A. Looking at this Meteorologist forum page…

http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1627291&forum_id=268087

…I found this fix:

Open up Terminal.app and paste this into it:

sudo curl http://lns.kicks-ass.net/temp-shit/weather.xml -o /Applications/Meteorologist.app/Contents/Resources/weather.xml

Press Return

Enter your admin pass.

It worked for me, but use at your own risk!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Meteorologist, it is a menu based weather application that displays city/temp etc. You can get it here: http://heat-meteo.sourceforge.net/
A. 1. Open iCal
2. From the “Calendar” menu, choose, “Find Shared Calendars”.
3. Click on the link for U. S. Holidays.
4. Mac OS X will ask you if you want to open iCal. Click “Launch Application”.
5. iCal will ask you if you want to subscribe, click “Subscribe.”

You should now see U. S. holidays in iCal.
A. 1. create a new eMail
2. for the To: field use listserv@nwoca.org
3. in the Subject: field type Apple List
4. in the Body of the message enter SUB Apple-L YourFirstName YourLastName
5. add a 2nd line with the command END

After a brief period you will receive an automated eMail with further directions, it is generated by the listserv program.
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