As you probably know, I’m all about shortcuts and using the keyboard instead of the mouse to improve efficiency and productivity. Well, there’s a new shortcut in Leopard just for sleeping the display (I did have a hot corner setup, but this is faster and easier): Shift+Control+Eject
Popularity: 5% [?]
I think this may be a new Leopard (10.5) feature, but perhaps I just never noticed it: if you close your LCD display (sleep your computer) during a file transfer, the transfer will resume after the machine is woken up.
For example, say you’re transferring a 5GB file from your Macbook to your Mac Pro on the same network. Halfway through the file transfer, you accidently shut your LCD display and the computer goes to sleep.
Do you have to start the transfer over? No! Open the LCD display and wake up your computer — it will automatically rejoin your network and immediately resume the file transfer from where it was stopped!
The only caveat here is if your computer can’t rejoin your network. If, after shutting your display, you move to another network or loose your WiFi signal, the transfer will give up and produce an error about 10 seconds after waking up.
Popularity: 3% [?]
At first glance, Quicktime seems very basic. But I’m continually amazed at what neat little tricks it keeps tucked away. I just stumbled upon one such trick today when I was looking for an easy way to overlay text on a video (see previous post).
The overlay isn’t fancy, and I can’t find any way to customize the font or size or anything else – but if you want to avoid expensive programs and steep learning curves, just follow these 5 easy steps:
FYI… I’m pretty sure you need Quicktime Pro for this to work
1) In TextEdit, type the text you want to overlay and save as .txt file.
2) In QuickTime Player, choose File > Open File and then select the text file.
2) Choose Edit > Select All and then choose Edit > Copy.
3) Select the part of the movie you want to overlay with text.
4) Choose Edit > “Add to Selection and Scale.“
Popularity: 3% [?]
When using Screen Sharing or Remote Desktop to control another Mac on my local network, my biggest complain has always been the inability to use several important keyboard shortcuts. Things I frequently rely on, like toggling dock visibility, opening spotlight, and force-quitting applications, don’t work. Although all those functions can be accessed through other means, Application Switcher (which I use practically every minute) can only be accessed with Command+Tab.
The secret to getting full keyboard support is by running Teleport in conjunction with Screen Sharing. Teleport gives you the ability to use one keyboard and mouse to control other computers on your network.
With Teleport installed and setup, open Screen Sharing and connect to another computer on your network. Now move your mouse to the appropriate side of your display (while holding the appropriate modifier key) and “teleport” to the “screen shared” computer.
You now have full keyboard support; including use of your Function keys (for things like Expose, Dashboard, and ejecting), Command+Tab, and even Zooming (Control+2-finger-scrolling-on-trackpad)!
Watch this video for the full story:
Popularity: 6% [?]
Paranoid? Try Tor (free!), it bounces all your Internet activity around a network of thousands of other servers/proxies (people like you), making it impossible to track your location or activity.
Tor works on Tiger and Leopard, but it’s best if you’re using Firefox (because Tor includes a one-click enabler plug-in for Firefox). Tor installation is a breeze as the installer package actually installs and configures four smaller programs:
1) Vidalia – GUI for Tor
2) Tor – a system for using the Internet anonymously
3) Privoxy – a filtering web proxy that integrates well with Tor
4) Torbutton – a 1-click way for Firefox users to enable or disable the browser’s use of Tor
I tried both the Stable and Unstable Mac versions and they both installed correctly. According to the instructions, I should have been good to go (except they forget to tell you to “Open Vidalia”). I opened Vidalia, opened Firefox, enabled Tor within Firefox, and I was anonymous.
Popularity: 4% [?]
