Ask TUAW: iChat problems, keyboard control, SRS iWOW bugs, iPhoto desktops, and more

In this exciting round of Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about using the keyboard to control dialog boxes, getting iTunes to play when a Mac wakes from sleep, using selective iPhoto sources for an automatically changing desktop, port forwarding for iChat, using one Mac to control another Mac running Front Row, and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

OSXleopard2 asks

I and my friend both have Mac's (mine a penyron MBP with Leopard and hers a year old MB with tiger) we've tried time and time again to do an iChat video to each other from my house to her house with AIM and Jabber, but it always says there was a communication error. The funny thing is that I can talk to everyone else on my contact list, and she can do so as well. It's only between the two of us when we're at home. I might add that it worked when I was in town on a different wifi network. Are there some settings in my/her router that I can change to fix the issue???

Apple has a Support Document that lists the ports that need to be forwarded, though it is curious that it works with other people. In any case try forwarding those ports in your respective routers. Personally, I have often found iChat persnickety and find myself falling back on Skype which has been more reliable in my experience.

Adam asks

Is there any way when filling out a form online to tab into a drop-down box. I know I use to be able to do this on Windows though on my Mac when I try to do it it just skips over to the next type-in box. Usually I want to type out my address, then tab to the state, then tab to the zip code, however, if the state is a drop down box it just goes straight to the zip code.

Yes, there is a setting in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse Preference Pane. At the bottom under "Full keyboard access" change the setting to "All controls" (you can also just press ^F7).

Bob asks

The ability to work with dialogue boxes using the only keyboard is one of the very few things I miss about Windows. Is there a way to do so in Leopard? Sometimes it's possible to use the arrow-keys and enter/return to select options, but most times it seems impossible. E.g., the shutdown dialogue-box, or those boxes asking whether to save or discard changes to a document when exiting a word-processor or Excel. TextEdit is particularly annoying in this regard: the arrow-keys can move among the options, but pushing enter/return only ever selects the default "Save" option.

As one of the other readers noted you have to hit the Spacebar to choose the highlighted selection (i.e. the button with the blue "halo"). You can move between the buttons with the Tab key. If it's not already selected you may need to set the Full keyboard access as described in answer to Adam above.

Will asks

Is there a way to get iTunes to automatically start playing where it left off when the mac wakes back up from sleep? I am looking for a solution for both Tiger (Mac Mini) and Leopard (MacBook). I have tried a program called On Wake and have it run a script to play iTunes, but the program continues to crash everytime I start it in Tiger (before I have a chance to put the computer to sleep). Any other solutions out there?

I found this useful thread at MP3Car.com. I saw two solutions suggestions: one is to use the application SleepWatcher to run a script as you were trying to do with On Wake. Maybe you should try that first. Second, there are several AppleScripts on that thread that different people have written that will continually run in the background and restart iTunes any time it is paused. That may not really be what you want, however, since then you won't ever be able to pause iTunes. Nonetheless you could conceivably modify one of them to suit your purpose (e.g. just run the script right before you put the Mac to sleep).

Chris asks

I have an iPhoto question... I have my Desktop Image set to randomly scroll through my iPhotos (3000+). Some of the photos are work related, and they always bum me out because they are photos of broken equipment that I had to fix. So, how can I have TWO iPhoto libraries, one for personal pictures and one for work related pictures? I know that I could just remove the work pictures from the library, and store them somewhere else, but it is very handy to have them in iPhoto for quick editing, emailing, reviewing, etc.

You can easily use iPhoto with two libraries. All you have to do is hold down the option key while launching iPhoto and it will allow you to create a new library or choose among the ones you already have. However, I think there is an easier solution for you. In the Desktop tab of the Desktop & Screensaver Preference Pane you can choose specific albums for the randomizer to select from. So just create an album that has only non-work photos and choose that one. Or you can even do it the other way: you can put all of your work related photos in a specific album (e.g. "Work"). Then create a Smart Album as below with the condition "Album is not Work." Call that Smart Album something like "Desktops" and set that as your source album in the Desktop tab of the Desktop & Screensaver Preference Pane.

Jerry asks

I have a question regarding iTunes. When I turn on iTunes I can see in Activity Monitor that "genredetection" also launches and it takes some CPU power (Around 8.5% - 12%) and sometimes I have two of them open at the same time hogging some much needed CPU power. My question is: Is there a way to get rid of this other than just opening Activity Monitor and Force Quitting the Process?

From what I can tell the genredetection process is related to the SRS iWOW plugin and the multiple instantiation of the process seems to be related to a bug (e.g. see this comment at MacUpdate). So I would suggest seeing if SRS iWow has been updated, and if not you may have to remove it if you don't want to deal with this bug.

peter asks

For reasons which aren't particularly interesting i need to be able to set my MAC address (ethernet address) on my ethernet port to a specific value. On 10.4 it was simply a matter of opening Terminal and then:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx or sudo ifconfig en0 lladdr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

I now have 10.5 and currently have to dual boot into tiger to be able to change the MAC address. none of the command line stuff I have tried has worked in 10.5 - i pulled across my startup item and that ran without problems [eg no errors] but still didn't change the MAC address.... Can anybody see what is going on here? Any help is greatly appreciated.

This is a known problem with OS X 10.5 on Intel Macs. It is possible to spoof MAC addresses on interfaces other than en0 (e.g. Airport on en1), but right now it seems that en0 is a problem. There's one suggested work around on Mac OS X Hints, but it involves using a USB to ethernet adapter in Parallels and sharing it back to OS X.

jmello asks

I have a Macbook and old G4 Powermac, both running Leopard. The Macbook is my main computer, and I run the Powermac in a closet to act as a media server for XBMC and run Front Row, all connected to my TV. I don't want to use a remote or my wireless keyboard to control front row, so I have been using Chicken of the VNC to view the Powermac's Screen on the Macbook and pass on keystrokes to activate and control front row. I don't need to view the screen on the Macbook, it's right there in front of me on the TV. So, what I am wondering, is there a piece of software that, when activated, will pass on keystrokes from my Macbook to my Powermac to control Front Row?

Yes, the excellent utility teleport (donations requested) from abyssoft will allow you to share on Mac's mouse and keyboard with another Mac and I have confirmed you can activate Front Row with ⌘-ESC, use the arrow keys, etc. I know you say that you don't want to use a remote but I can't help observing that the Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row ($39) would seem just about perfect for this application.