Recent Mac computers come with a handy remote control. This remote let’s you interact with programs like FrontRow, iTunes, iPhoto and it can even be used as a remote for Keynote.
However, if you have two or more Macs close to each other, both Macs will respond to any button pressed on the Apple Remote Control. This is because by default, your Mac will respond to any Apple Remote.
Luckily you can change this behaviour by pairing each Apple Remote with one specific Mac. You can do this by holding the remote close to the Mac you want it to pair to while pressing the Menu and Next buttons simultaneously for about 5 seconds. A remote icon should appear on your screen when the pairing process was successful.
One thing you might want to do is temporarily disable the IR port on the other Macs by going to System Preferences and the Security pane. On the General tab, there’s a checkbox option which allows you to disable the IR receiver on your Mac. When you’re done, you can switch the IR receiver back on by unchecking the same checkbox.
Does clicking a link and having Safari open the link in a new window annoy you? Then you’ll appreciate Dennis Stevense’s recent blog post which explains how to have Safari 3.1 always open links in a new tab instead of a new window, also called single window mode.
Please note that this tip won’t work with older versions or the Windows version of Safari!
To enable single window mode for Safari 3.1, open Terminal and enter the following command :
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
Restart Safari and every link which normally would open a new window should open in a new tab in your current window.
If you want to revert your changes and disable single window mode, enter the following in Terminal and restart Safari :
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false
In this small howto I’ll try and explain how I enlarged my Windows XP virtual hard disk under Parallels. Most of this information I got from the Parallels forum so all credits go to the original posters.
In case you haven’t heard of Parallels before; it allows you to run Windows (or another OS like Linux) side-by side with MacOS X on your Mac. There’s no need to reboot like BootCamp. Check out the Parallels website for more information.
One thing you might run into (like I did) is that the virtual hard disk you created becomes to small, which is why I wrote this little howto. I’ll show you how I resized my virtual hard disk from 64GB to 80GB and how I used a free open source tool called GParted to resize the actual Windows XP partition contained on the virtual hard disk.
Read More »
That’s right, over at Sitepoint, they’re giving away free electronic copies of the Ruby on Rails book “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications” by Patrick Lenz. After entering your email address, you’ll receive an email containing the download link.
But that’s not all. Also included in the email is a $10 voucher for use in their online store. Be quick though since the offer’s only for 60 days (59 days, 14 hours, 40 minutes and 51 seconds at the moment of writing).
The link to the 60 day offer is at: http://rails.sitepoint.com
The new iWork ‘08 release sure is a step forward compared to iWork ‘06. While Keynote was perfect, Pages was lacking any true wordprocessor capabilities and the lack of any spreadsheet application made it feel unbalanced compared to Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.
Luckily iWork ‘08 brings us more functionality, and best of all, Apple released an iWork ‘08 free trial download which allows you to try out the new features for 30 days.
Read More »
Yesterday at the Apple Special Event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled some great new Mac products like the new iMac and new versions of iLife ‘08, iWork ‘08 and .Mac. Although the event was for invitees (mostly press) only Apple put up a video stream of the presentation. It’s very entertaining and interesting so I recommend you watch it.
Click here to watch the Apple Special Event August 2007 (Quicktime MPEG-4 required)
The Wii received a small firmware update adding some new functionality to the Wii-menu and shopping channel.
Some notable Wii-menu changes :
- Digital clock added to the Wii-menu
- Forecast channel box now displays current weather condition
- News channel box displays scrolling headlines
- Address book entries can now be shifted (A+B key)
- The ‘accomplished today’ messages are now coloured white to differentiate them from other messages
- The area around the Wii Message Board button will now flash when a message arrives
Some notable shopping channel changes :
- It is now possible to search for titles by partially typing in the name
- Added a search by category option
- Genres and Publisher views added
- The welcome screen now shows you 4 recommended titles
Apparently to this source, Nintendo also added basic USB keyboard support to the Wii with this update. Right now the keyboard can only be used in the shopping channel, settings menu and message board, but not (yet) in the internet channel. I haven’t been able to confirm this yet.
Be careful though if you are using Freeloader because after the update it won’t work anymore.
The new iMac has arrived and it sure is beautiful. Like the previous iMac it’s an all-in-one design, but it’s thinner and more powerful. The frame is made out of anodized aluminium covered by a glass cover. It’s available in four configurations; two 20 inch (2.0Ghz and 2.4Ghz) and two 24 inch models (2.4Ghz and 2.8Ghz).
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This code snippet which can be added to Textmate as a command will convert PHP object variable instances to associative array variables (and vice versa).
For example it will convert :
$thevar->somevar->anothervar
to :
$thevar['somevar']['anothervar'];
This comes in handy while developing in PHP environments where both variable forms are used and if you mistakenly used the wrong form.
Here’s the code :
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| #!/usr/bin/env ruby
str = STDIN.read
case str
when /\$.+(\[["'].+["']\])+?/
print str.gsub(/\[('|")/, '->').gsub(/("|')\]/, '')
when /\$.+(->.+)+?/
parts = str.split("->")
print parts.shift + "['" + parts.join("']['") + "']"
else
print str
end |
You can add it to Textmate by choosing the menu item Bundles -> Bundle Editor -> Show Bundle Editor. Click on the screenshot below for more details :
Wednesday, Apple released an update to the QuickTime player and iTunes. One of the nicest thing about this update is the fact that the ability to play videos full-screen is now also available for the free QuickTime version. Besides the full-screen option there were some updates to the H.264 codec and some bugfixes.
The iTunes update addressed an issue with iTunes 7.3 accessing the iTunes library.
Below are the download links to the updates :
