corewerkz

Being a huge South Park fan AND Mac tech/geek/fan, I was delighted with tonight’s show. The whole country lost Internet access and went crazy. But the best part was seeing all the Macs — Randy mentioned the “Mac Store” and Safari was being used as the web browser on every computer (even the PCs!)! Plus, newbies learned one of the ultimate troubleshooting techniques, unplug and replug :)

South Park Computer (iMac):

Real Safari Screen:

Popularity: 2% [?]

Fresh Apps is a brief summary of the top applications I’ve discovered over the past week.

March 2008, Week 3

Mac Applications

• Miro :: Free & Open-Source
Stand alone application to search, watch, and download just about any video from the internet; including video podcasts, youtube, and google video.

• Screen Recycler :: Shareware ($25)
Use spare networked computer monitors as additional “virtual” displays for your computer; integrates perfectly with Display system preferences to allow screen resolution adjustments, very low latency especially on ethernet connection, includes free VNC viewer.

• Docker :: Donationware ($15 Suggested)
Quickly change all Dock related preferences; including changing icon sizes, toggling 2D/3D style dock, changing the “open application” indicator, changing position, toggling effects, and changing colors; Great for newbies.

• Inquisitor :: Freeware
Enhances Safari’s google search field with auto-complete and website suggesting – didn’t think I’d like, but I love it! A must have if you use Safari.

iPhone Applications

• SpringDial :: Freeware / installer.app
Native application which allows one-touch dialing from springboard (the home screen) to specific contacts; even displays picture of contact as icon.

• Poof :: Freeware / installer.app
Native application to hide any icon from the springboard since Customize doesn’t do it with firmware 1.1.3.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Apple claims 10.5 server is easy enough for anyone to setup; “no IT department needed,” they say. Well, anyone can tell you, it’s not that easy!

So, to help server newbies setup OS X 10.5 Server, I’ve made a basic installation procedure for newbies (that is: server newbies). Right now it’s not exactly “detailed” – just the basic steps to ensure success (although there are quite a few and you’ve got to have a basic understanding of os x and networking).

This setup procedure has worked well for me (especially at my home). It’s for a Standard Installation and we’ll be setting up the server to include Mail (local only), iChat, VPN, File Sharing, iCal, Web Server/Wiki, Apple Remote Desktop access, and Time Machine (which may not work well).

If you are a server expert, please let me know if I’m missing something that will help ensure this setup works as perfectly as possible on any system.

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

One of the most common Mac newbie mistakes is running an application from within a disk image. For some reason, this is most often the case with Firefox.

You can think of a disk image like a box used to physically deliver your application; you need to receive the box (download), open the box (double-click disk image), and move the contents out of the box and into your home (drag application icon into your applications folder).

Typically, when you download an application from the internet, it comes “wrapped” in a disk image. If you’re coming from PC land, a disk image is similar to a Zip file, in that both disk images and zip files contain several files within them.

Let’s use Firefox as an example of the correct way to install an application from a disk image. Go to the Firefox download page and click “Download Firefox” – you will see that the file you are downloading has a “.dmg” extension. This is the “disk image” extension.

Read more…

Popularity: 4% [?]