New OS X Tips!

Ever want to adjust the dock so more icons will fit without over clutter? Well instead of opening up the System Preferences, just use your mouse with a simple click and drag you're there. Or hey, ever burned a cd and wanted to add something to it once it's done, too bad right? Nope! OS X has a build in feature that lets you leave room on the disc for future burns, so you can add more documents, pictures, or videos later on! Want to know how do do it all?

Check out the OS X Tips page!

New Goodies

Yep, That's right I added another segment to my Goodies page! This time it's all about the Firefox extension Greasemonkey! Once you install this easy to use extension you can get scripts that do cool things for you like change the way you view websites, or it can even add functionality by adding a feature that lets you view friend pictures without having to load each page! Enjoy!

Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!

Awesome Photoshop Photo Illusion

Ever seen that optical illusion that has a black and white photo that has a weird filter so that when you roll over it you think you are seeing a color photo but when you move your eyes it's actually black and white... Okay, so that was confusing but you will understand when you just check out the image here.

Wicked Cool Timeline Clock

Check out this wicked cool timeline calendar and clock!

OS X Tips!

Ever want to take a picture of a window and not the whole screen or a selection? Hit Command-Shift-4 then hit the space bar to select which window to take a picture of.

Or how about maybe you don't know how to spell a word but you know what it starts with, well just start typing the word you want and then when you get stuck hit the 'esc' button and Apple will give you some suggestions. So type in sugg then hit 'esc' then you could select the first option in the list and you will get suggestions printed out on your screen. Pretty cool huh?

Want some more tips? Check out my OS X Tips section for a whole slew of other cool tips!

Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!

High CPU Loads!

I was recently re-encoding Pink Floyd's the dark side of the moon in a higher format, and while I was doing that I was watching a podcast with quicktime and I wanted to search something with Firefox. When I clicked on the Firefox Icon in my dock it took seriously over a minute to start up. This kind of confused me until I took a look at my iStat Pro widget and saw that my CPU load was REALLY high. I just thoiught I'd take a second to explain what that means and why it's bad.

So what you are looking at a set of three numbers; in this case they are 6.98, 4.93, 2.92. These numbers stand for the load percentage over the last minutes, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes respectively. What's that mean? Given the data above, over the last minute I was loading the processor 698% of the intended load over the last minute, 493% over the last 5 minutes, and 292% over the last 15 minutes.

A normal load set would be something like .42, .35, .38, meaning you haven't done too much that is processor intensive. It's very bad to stress your processor A LOT in a short time, but it's nothing to worry about every now and then. You generally don't want to make your machine have a higher load average than 5 for more than a minute or two at a time.

Moral of the story: try not to do too many things at once that are processor intensive (I.E. encode a cd while watching an H.264 video, while checking your email, while chatting away on AIM).

For more information on CPU Load Computing check out the Wikipedia article on the topic.

DownThemAll! is a MUST!

Since you're now using Firefox 2, and you probably download files now and again, you should check out how awesome DownThemAll! is. This is an awesome extension that is way more than just a downloader replacement, it speeds up your downloads... a lot.

Here's some proof... I went to the Apple Developer site and got a nice big file to download with both downloaders. Well, here's what happened:

On top is the DownThemAll! download window downloading at 2.76 MB/second and on bottom is the standard Firefox downloader downloading at .54 MB/second. The standard downloader took 26 minutes to download the whole 938.2MB file, while DownThemAll! took only 6 minutes. Wow, literally over 4 times faster.

How is that even possible? Apparently DownThemAll! downloads your file in parts, in other words instead of tackling the entire file at once it downloads 5 different parts of the file at the same time(5 is standard but you can change it to anything from 1-10) and puts them all together after they are finished.

Moral of the story, definitely check out DownThemAll! Read more about it, or if you're using Firefox 2 right now and you want to try it, click here to plug-in the file.

Firefox 2 is official!

Firefox is, hands down, the best browser available. That being said they just released their newest version that has, of course, tabbed browsing, Anti-Phishing capabilities, and the best part... the extensions! I just wanted to let everyone know about the new release, if you want to know about a bunch of really cool extensions that will give you tons of added functionality without cluttering up your browser check out this week's OS X Tips!

Overflowed Options

Have too many important apps to fit on your dock? Then you should check out Overflow, a virtual dock that stores and organizes any apps and folders you want. Just hit the F1 key to access the window and launch any app of open any folder just by typing the first few letters of it's name and hitting enter, or clicking on its icon.

My Dream App

Ever had an idea for an application and wished that someone would make it? Well MyDreamApp.com is the place that took that idea and ran with it. So 25 of the submitted ideas were chosen to be a part of the MyDreamApp contest. This contest was a 5 week long contest where each week anyone on the web could vote on their favorite application ideas. Each week the ideas with the least votes were kicked off and the next week voting would be on the remaining ideas. Today was the final day and the top three applications were voted in and they are going to be made. For a rundown on the winning apps, check out my Helpful Hacks page for this month!

iPod nano (Product)Red

Apple released an addition to their already popular iPod nano collection: the (Product)Red model. Apple states that for every (Product)Red iPod nano they sell they will donate 10 dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa.

Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!

AWESOME New Apple Zoom Feature!

First off, are you running OS X Tiger 10.4.8? If not, you should be for speed reasons. Secondly, if you haven't updated your system recently, or for some reason the apple updater didn't update you to 10.4.8, go to the apple menu and select "Software Update..."

Check out the new zooming features in the mouse section of the system prefs! Hold down Ctrl and scroll with your scroll wheel/ball, or trackpad and you can zoom into your screen to get a close up!

SeaMonkey

From the people who brought us Firefox, Mozilla now has this new project called the SeaMonkey project. This is a new browser, email client, irc client, and html editer... all-in-one!

Apple Update Fixes Speed Issue!

The recent 10.4.8 update seemed to have fixed a bug that was keeping us mac users from experiencing the full 'comcastic' speed.

(Left: 8.1 Mb connection, Right: 15.6Mb connection!!!)

As you can see from the results above, we are now able to get REALLY fast speeds with the Mac OS. Thank you Apple!

Free ADC Membership?

Most people probably don't even know what the Apple Developer Connection is. Well basically it's a membership where you, as a developer, get exclusive access to lots of geeky goodies. Such as most recent stable versions of Xcode (Wikipedia), Apple's IDE (Wikipedia), most recent beta Core Audio updates, and beta Java upgrades, and other fun apps Apple wants to have developers test.

I'm taking a class right now called Digital Programming, which is just C and C++ programming, and I needed an IDE to work with. Of course I went right to the best software developers in the world, Macintosh, so I could get something easy, fast, and powerful to use. When I first starting looking around it appeared that only Apple Developers could get access to the goods, and that I would have to pay like 400 bucks to become a member, which I wasn't going to do, or torrent the file. I was browsing one night when I stumbled upon this site that said I could sign up for a basic membership for free! So I checked it out, and it turns out all I had to do was fill out a form that explained who I was and what I needed to use the developer's kit for and they gave me a free basic membership, which includes all the downloads they offer to the paying members.

If you think you would benefit these super geeky features, then check out the Apple Developer page!

Comcastic?

Recently my suite-mates and I purchased a tv and high-speed internet package from Comcast because our school sucks and gives us nothing good... anyways, when we went to test the speeds we were quite surprized as to what we came accross...

----------------------------------------down ---------- up ---- ping delay

What you're looking at are the speed test results from speedtest.net (the coolest online speed tester we know of), the top result was from our Mac OS X running notebooks, and the bottom result is from a desktop with Windows XP. We were baffled to see that repeatedly we were getting the normal speeds on our Macs and somehow the XP machine was getting 17.3 Mb speeds, which is like downloading a file at over 2MB/s!!!

We think maybe the XP has some kind of hardware that is getting through the Comcast speed cap.

Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!

Firefox 2.0 Beta 2!

Geek or not, you should check this out, Firefox just released their new beta (Download Firefox 2 beta 2). They finally got tabs right and this beta version has a slick new theme! I give it a 7/10, I still can't wait until they release their 2.0 final version in October, that should be packed with goodies!

Core 2 Duo to MacBook Line On Sept 16th?

I saw this coming for a while, but I didn't think it would be this soon... The rumor going around is that Apple is going to upgrade their MacBook and MacBook Pro series to the Intel Core 2 duo chips at their annual Paris Expo on Sept 16th!

These Core 2 duo processors provide up to 40 percent speed increase with are 40 percent more energy efficient, which means GREAT for notebooks.

Great Advertising Ideas!

Wouldn't it be great if all advertising were interesting enough to make you laugh? Check these out, they made me smile!

College Mac Apps List

Going back to college and want to be all ready when school starts? Check out this week's OS X Tips page for a quick list of cool applications to get you going.

New Header, OS X Tip,

Check out the new header and logo... don't notice anything new? That's okay, it was just a small change. This installment to my OS X Tips page is about how easy it is to send an attachment using mail when it isn't even open yet, wicked cool tip!

SanDisk Cruzer Micro 2 GB Flash Drive

Check out my newest Review on the coolest flash drive made!

Want Awesome Desktops?

I'm very whitebread when it comes to my desktops: I like nice landscapes, peaceful sailboats with sunsets on the shimmering water, and other artsy scenes like a tagged wall in Geneva. If you're like me and you don't care much for the nostalgic photo desktops, you can find TONS of very classy/peaceful/artsy desktop photos all in super hi-res quality at out one of my favorite design sites, interfacelift.com.

GUI Scaling

Ever wish your iTunes window was smaller so it didn't take up so much space? Or maybe iChat. Maybe you know someone who's a little bit older and they need the fonts to be bigger so they can read it? Well before you go messing with the screen resolution and losing all kinds of space why not try using some commands built into OS X 10.4 Tiger?

To read this full article please visit my Helpful Hacks page.

Mighty Mouse Issue Finally Resolved

Last year I bought a Mighty Mouse and recently the scroll ball has stopped scrolling up, so I called Apple Care and well 3 times people told me that there's nothing I could do but fork over another 42 bucks for a new one. I found my warranty book for the mouse and it says that as long as you have bought the mouse within the past year you are titled to a full coverage warranty on parts/labor. So I called back one more time... and after some explaining and being on hold, more explaining, holding, serial numbers and more info, holding... FINALLY I got to talk with an upper level "tier 4 support" and damn, those guys have magic fingers, they can make anything happen. This guy just said "So I hear your Mighty Mouse isn't working properly, is this right?" then said "How about I just send you a new one?" I swear I almost cried, it was so beautiful to finally hear those words.

Anyways, the moral is that if you ever have to call 1-800-APL-CARE, and you know you're right, just keep pushing them and they will eventually push you up to their next level support team, and each upper level is easier and easier on you and more apt to just send you out a new device asap!

Flikr Has Added Badges!

Most of you have probably seen these before... like... say... over in my navigational bar :)... Text America previously cancelled all of their free accounts and made their cheapest account $49 bucks a year!!! So Flikr did the right thing and brought back our beloved flash based picture show-off-ers.

Surfboard Update!

Here's what I did today... I cut out the basic shape of my board-to-be!

August iMix

This month's playlist is all Classic Rock!

Get iMix

Archive:

It's now a new month and I've been using a new version of RapidWeaver for a few weeks now and well, I've been doing a lot of internal updating... Now that I have support for permalinks (wikipedia) I'm going to start doing an inventory of all the articles that I post! So if you want to see what I've been doing recently, or maybe what I did last December... Check out my new Archive page.

Thanks for your continuing support, I greatly appreciate it!

Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!

Songbird Sings!

So you're a Linux user and you can't wait for Apple to release a version of iTunes for you, or maybe you are just sick of the iTunes look and feel... Maybe it's time you check out Songbird. It's available for XP officially, and for Linux and OS X in a nightly build version.

Still need more reassurance? Songbird runs on the Firefox engine!

Quartz Composer--->RSS Screen Savers!

Today I said to myself, "Damn, my screen saver is boring and does nothing for my productivity..." And with that I was off in search of a new one. If you run OS X you know that a good screen saver (something informative, good looking, and useful) is HARD to come by. So I decided to make my own using Apple's developer tools known as the Quartz Composer. End result: an Apple-esque RSS Digg screensaver.

If you want to check it out and you're running OS X 10.3.9 or higher, download it here! Then add it to the "Screen Savers" folder within either your root Library or user library folder. Then just go to the Screen Savers preference panel and select the file you just added.

For more: check out my new Goodies Page!

Firefox 2.0b1

I've been holding off on using Firefox 2.0 Beta 1, the most recent release, because many of my favorite extensions weren't yet supported; that is, until now. I downloaded her this morning and she SCREAMS!

The updated speed boost is great, their new live updating bookmarks (RSS) work (I'll leave it at that), the browser is easily skinable now right though the tools menu > Add-ons, and finally now that most of the best extensions work in v2.

My final words are this: Officially you should wait until the full version of Firefox 2 is released to download it, but unofficially: just do it.

90's iMix

I just posted a new 'Classics of the 90's' iMix, as always, a decent list of cool tracks.

I post these iMixes to iTunes because it's an easy way to preview songs before you buy them, but if you don't want to spend money, or don't use iTunes, you can just download the songs using your favorite p2p or BitTorrent (Legal Stance).

Get iMix

Rivet Clip System Review

Check out my new Review on the Rivet clip system, these clips are rugged, practical, and can be customized to your hearts desire!

Firefox 1.504 Will Do You Best!

I know I've said it before, but recently it's come to my attention that, well, Firefox rocks. If you're using Konqueror (Linux), Internet Explorer version lower than 7 (Mac/XP), or any WebKit (Open Source Unix) based browser such as Safari (Mac) you won't be viewing my website correctly. Internet Explorer 7 (XP) and Firefox v1.504 and v2 beta (all platforms) work beautifully.
The skinny: be sure to use Firefox version 1.504, or the most current official version, in order to have the best online experience.

The subtle difference...

The first panel is Safari and Konqueror, things show up twice and there is no flash.
The second panel represents IE 6, the flash doesn't properly load.
The third panel is the correctly working version, in this case I used Firefox 1.504.

I don't really care if you can see all of my sidebar, but if you are experiencing some of these viewing issues then just think what other sites you may not be viewing properly either... Food for thought.

Tiki Boom Casual Friday?

Check out today's Rocketboom and you'll get a double shot of fun! Yes, Dr. Tiki, Lala, and Johnny Johnny made an appearance in celebration of casual friday!

Finally An Apple Media Center?

Of course it may just be a rumor, as all Apple gossip is, but wouldn't it be great if Apple put out a media center that sported a Blue-Ray player, the brand new multi-core Intel Conroe processor chip, CableCard 2.0 (supports HD content!), a 750GB hard drive for storing all your favorite shows, and wireless connectivity so you can stream any music, video, or photos you have on your computer right to your tv?

With Apple's next release of iTunes there will be support for HD video content. Starting with Disney they will be releasing full length HD movies. They already sell movies and this will just boost sales of video content, with the ability to store any videos you want on the huge hard drive, I think people will take advantage of this useful piece of hardware and someday soon we will see one in many homes!

New Boom!

Starting today a new Rocketboom host has joined the show! Joanne Colan, former MTV Europe VJ, will fit right in at RB, for a while she may get the hate mail, but I think her personality and determination will win over the fans all in good time.