Finder Tip
File browsing on OS X, is not always the most easy experience, but I have found some optimisations recently. I tend to find I have a Finder window open, a Bash shell open and at times need to locate files in an open-file app dialog. The first two (Finder & Bash) can be linked quite nicely with a simple script. And it turns out Finder and the Open File dialog can also be linked very conveniently. Here’s how:
When the file dialog is open, alt-tab to Finder. Then click & drag the folder or file you wish to select in the file dialog, and then alt-tab back & drop that on the bottom gray bar of the dialog. It will then be selected in the open file dialog, allowing you to select it, or deselect and pick a file around it. Neat!
The area where you can drop files from finder to select them
Installing Windows7 on a new MacMini Using Lion
Here are my steps for installing Windows7 from a DVD on a new MacMini via bootcamp, without needing an external DVD drive for that mac, as always YMMV.
You’ll need:
1. A windows DVD
2. Another Mac with a DVD drive, e.g. your MacBook Pro (if you need to make the ISO)
3. USB storage of 4GB or more (SD cards don’t work directly, but work through a USB reader).
Creating the Windows ISO
- Insert your Windows DVD
- Open ‘Disk Utility’ (if the DVD isn’t mounted, you’ll need to wait for it to mount, close and re-open ‘Disk Utility’)
- Select your Windows Disk in the list (the disk, not the drive)
- Click the ‘New Image’ button in the toolbar
- Select ‘DVD/CD master’ as the Image Format
- Press Save
Setup
Copy the ISO onto your MacMini however way you can.
Run Bootcamp, it will prompt you to select the ISO, and the USB storage, and take it from there.
Turbocharging git on Mac OS X
This weekend I discovered two awesome graphical tools to improve my git experience on Mac OS X:
The most awesome is KDiff3 (search for ‘Apple Mac OSX binary’ on that page for the Mac binary). This is a three-way merge tool with an editing panel below. Seriously where has this been all my life? Amazing.
Download it, and install – make sure it’s in your system PATH. Then simply run git config --global merge.tool kdiff3 to set it as your default merge tool. Now every time you get a conflict, your git mergetool command will actually be rather helpful! Basically you are shown the base revision (that both branches split from) in the middle, one branch either side, and an editor below allowing you to pick which side you want and/or edit the file directly.
The second tool I (re)discovered was SourceTree (Mac App Store DL Link). It is a Mac GUI client for git. I’m pretty comfortable with the command line, but what I love about this tool is it allows me to review my changes before I commit them (either staged or unstaged), discard hunks I don’t want, and of course open the file in question for editing. Very convenient. git diff is nice and all, but I love having that handy ‘discard hunk’ button in SourceTree so I can skip my silly changes. For me this is the most useful feature, though no doubt there are others. Oh and it’s free (it’s a bit confusing, as there is a “trial” period, but after the trial you simply register for free, and are given a license).
Review: Clarify (Mac App)
If you’ve ever had to explain a sequence of computer steps to someone, then you need the Mac App ‘Clarify’… my life is so much easier now :)
It helps you take a bunch of screenshots (or you can import any you already have via the clipboard, right click open, etc), then annotate the images and add text as well.
You can then export the result as a PDF or even upload it to their servers where you get your own custom subdomain.
One of the most useful Apps I have ever bought.
Some Useful EXIF Tools
Here are some useful EXIF (image metadata) resources:
Mac exif inspector client (works on Lion) EXIF Viewer
An online tool that seems pretty comprehensive (with an example).
Useful Mac Tools & Upgrade Musings
So my unibody mac has passed it’s one year birthday. Awesome piece of hardware (and software), been really great to me.
One complaint - occasionally my fan starts making abnormal noises. Not just the high RPM noise, but another more disturbing rattling noise. I may need to get it repaired, which I’m OK with – just not OK with the downtime…
Some useful tools I have found while running some MacBook health checks…
- smcFanControl – a cool tool shows you core temp, fan RPM’s and best of all lets you tweak the RPMs (I’m trying with setting a higher minimum speed to combat the rattle)
- Coconut Battery – sweet App that tells you how many times you have recharged your battery, and it’s current capacity (compared to new capacity). Remarkably, mine is 97%! This just saved me a few hundred bucks because I was thinking of replacing the battery to refresh it.
- iStat Pro – awesome dashboard widget showing you many vital statistics of your mac.
- Disk Inventory X – useful tool to show disk utalisation, cousin of WinDirStat
It was tempting to upgrade to the new Unibody 13″ Macbook Pro with it’s 7 hour battery. For me that is a very compelling feature, in that it greatly enhances productivity (more than a few extra CPU cycles or RAM). However it is hard to justify the ~$1000 upgrade price tag (assuming a good ebay sale).
The amount of times I had to stop work this year due to my battery being empty is probably only 2 or 3. Even on a long 9+ hour flight, I generally only clock a few productive hours working, and the remainder resting off the travel, or watching movies on the inflight entertainment.
This MacBook line upgrade was released in June 2009. My guess is they will next update the model on around June-October 2010 which seems to be their standard release cycle. I’ll upgrade then.
Command-Option-W
in finder will dismiss all finder windows. which is good because they seem to breed like rabbits – and can persist even when you reboot.
iPhone Video Mac
Two very useful tools for getting video on an iPhone:
KeepVid – Lets you download iPhone compatiable (and high quality) MP4 files direct from YouTube – just wack the YouTube URL in the box and you’re done. Thanks Pete.
MPEG StreamClip – it’s not often you find a useful and free video tool – but this is one. Drag-drop, convert to MP4 and click “iTunes” for one of the iTunes presets. Pretty straight forward. Mac only.
