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How to backup your Mac App Store apps
The excellent ReadNow application, which allows you to easily read articles from your Instapaper and Read It Later articles on your Mac, has been pulled from the Mac App Store "...because of an infringement letter." Developer Michael Schneider added "[i]n my current situation I'm not allowed to provide any further information." The good news is that if you have already purchased the app, you can still download it from the "Purchases" tab in the App Store.app even though the iTunes page for ReadNow now leads to the message, "Your request could not be completed." However, as I waited for the Mac App Store to load on my iMac this morning, I found myself wondering "What would I do if I couldn't re-download it from the Mac App Store?" Fortunately I have the app on my MacBook Air, so I could go to /Applications/ReadNow.app and then select File » Compress "Read Now" (or control+click the app and choose "Compress" from the menu). Terminal option If you wanted to make a copy of ReadNow (or any app) on the command line, I believe that your best option is using ditto like this: sudo ditto -v --keepParent -kc ReadNow.app ReadNow.zip (I don't claim to be a ditto expert, but I can tell you that worked for me. The -k option tells ditto to make zip archives. The --rsrc --extattr and --qtn options are all the default, so they don't need to be explicitly specified.) I then copied the 'ReadNow.zip' file to my Dropbox so I would have it, just in case Apple removes the option to download it. This should work for all Mac App Store apps (Xcode and "Install Lion" excepted), but may not work for other apps which use an installer and may install other files besides the ones in /Applications/. Show me all of my Mac App Store apps Speaking of the command line, if you want to see a list of all the Mac App Store apps that you have installed on your computer, you can run this command in Terminal.app:find /Applications \-path '*Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt' \-maxdepth 4 -print |\sed 's#.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt#.app#g; s#/Applications/##' Note: this won't show you Xcode, because Xcode is an unusual case. It is an installer which installs Xcode and then the installer is removed. An ounce of prevention There has been no indication that Apple will remove ReadNow from your list of Purchased apps, I just wanted to have a backup 'just in case.' Hopefully the "infringement letter" issue will be settled soon and it will be available again. However, if the iOS App Store is any indication, eventually jettisoned apps will become unavailable for re-download. Also, the upcoming sandboxing requirements may lead to some existing applications being removed. As always, it's good to have your own backups rather than relying on being able to re-download anything from "the cloud." I wrote a small shell script which will look in /Applications/ for any applications which have the Mac App Store receipt, and create a .zip file for each of them. (While I have tested it myself and it works for me, YMMV, use only at your own risk, etc.) To use it, download the script to your Desktop (or wherever) and then run: chmod 755 ~/Desktop/backupmas.sh And then run it via ~/Desktop/backupmas.sh (Obviously if you saved it somewhere else, use that path instead of ~/Desktop/.) It may ask for your administrator password. If so, that's the one you use to log in to your computer, not your Mac App Store password.
Mac 101: Encode media from Automator or the command line in Lion
There's an easy way in OS X 10.7 Lion to convert video or audio from one format to another, using a fixed suite of conversion settings. One approach uses Automator and can be launched from the Finder. The other uses the Terminal application and the afconvert (for audio) or avconvert (for video) command-line utilities. Behind the scenes, though, Automator is simply serving as a convenient front-end for the CLI tools. (You can also use the free Hoot app from the Mac App Store to do the same audio conversions.) The Automator method is the easiest to start with. Simply select the video or audio file you want to convert in the Finder. Under the Finder menu, choose the Services submenu, then "Encode Selected Video Files" or "Encode Selected Audio Files." You can also get to the Services submenu via the Finder's contextual menus; right-click the target file (or control-click, or on a trackpad, two-finger click) and the Services choices will be at the bottom of the pop-up menu. Finder menu / Services submenu Contextual pop-up menu Either approach will launch a dialog box where you can select your media conversion settings and the target file's destination. You can process one file at a time or, if you select multiple files, they'll be tackled in a batch conversion. The settings are slightly different for audio and video files, as appropriate to their media types -- you can experiment with the different settings to find the format that works for you. Video encoding settings Audio encoding settings For those of you more comfortable with the command line, you can use afconvert to encode an audio file from one format to another or avconvert to do the same with video. Type "afconvert -h" in Terminal to get a list of all the options you can use in the audio conversion. The avconvert tool is new in OS X Lion. Besides transcoding, it also lets you extract the audio or video track from a clip, change frame rates, add closed captioning and more. You read more about Automator video encoding and audio encoding at the Mac OS X Automation website. Additional information on the CLI commands can be found in Apple's Mac OS X Developer Library.
Daily Mac App: Go2Shell
Here on the Daily Mac App we love apps that do one thing really well. Today's app is no exception. Go2Shell is a tiny little 0.3MB app available for free from the Mac App Store that has the potential to speed up your work-flow if it involves Terminal. Go2Shell simply launches a Terminal session with the current folder you're navigating in Finder, or the folder that Go2Shell is located in, open for work. It even supports iTerm, iTerm 2 and xterm if you're not a fan of Apple's own-brand Terminal. It's so simple, it's almost beautiful and if you happen to have to modify files in Terminal, or any other similar task, Go2Shell could be just ticket to save you time. The best way to use Go2Shell is to drag it onto your Finder toolbar and from there launch it whenever you're in the desired directory. If you need something a little more advanced you should check out one of our previous Daily Mac Apps, DTerm, which gives you hotkey access, and a floating entry form into the Terminal session. Go2Shell is a great free download from the Mac App Store that does one thing and one thing well. So if you're a Terminal guru (even the app's preferences are accessed through the command line) then give Go2Shell a whirl. You might like it.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: DTerm
The Terminal is a Mac power-user's best friend. When you need to get something specific done, access the underlying system, modify files or change some settings, command line is often the best and only way to get it done. Instead of having to go to it, DTerm brings the command line to you. Working in the command line normally means stepping out of your current workflow and stepping into Terminal. Although it can affect anything on the system, and helps you get the job done, it's a very separate process. DTerm, which we covered back in 2008, makes Terminal access context-sensitive. From anywhere in any program you can invoke DTerm using a user-configurable global hotkey, from there you can run commands on the files you're currently working with. No need to manually go through and navigate to the correct file directory, DTerm takes your command line session right there, already set to your current working directory. You can even insert the currently selected documents directly into the command line making it quick and easy. You can run your commands as you normally would, right from the floating DTerm window and even copy them straight out of the prompt. Once you're done you can just hit escape, use the hotkey combo again or simply ignore DTerm and it'll automatically fade out. DTerm brings the command line to you, integrating it more effectively and quickly into your work flow. It's a free download from the Mac App Store and is compatible with Lion. If you ever find yourself in Terminal as part of your workflow, give DTerm a whirl and see whether it speeds up your command line sessions.
Hackinations: 5 really good Lion tweaks
Lion. We love the OS. We hate a few tiny details. Here are five extremely handy Lion tweaks that can improve your day-to-day use. Enable each by typing the supplied commands into Terminal. 1. Turn off those #*%(ing zooming windows Launch Safari or TextEdit and then hit Command-N a few times. Do you see how the new windows fly or "zoom" into place? You can disable that with this elegant tweak from TUAW reader Ryan Hauk. First, open Terminal and type the following: defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO Finally, quit and restart whatever app you're looking to de-zoomify. You do not have to set the defaults more than once, but the apps won't pick up the new setting until their next launch. 2. Enable key autorepeat. You won't be able to use those cool iOS-inspired, press-hold-and-select-an-accented-character feature, but you'll get back thissssssssssssssssss. Courtesy of belchak.com. defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false Interestingly, you can set this preference on a per-application basis. So you can enable key-repeat for, say, TextEdit but not for Safari by using e.g. com.apple.TextEdit instead of the global domain. 3. Make your ~/Library folder visible. This removes its hidden flag, so you don't have to keep using the option-key from the Finder's Go menu. chflags nohidden ~/Library/ 4. Disable spelling correction. When you want to be able to refer to "nethack" or "Megs" without it being autocorrected to "netback" and "Mess," you can turn this off from the command line -- or, if you prefer, get somewhat more granular control in the Text section of the Language & Text system preference pane (uncheck 'Correct spelling automatically'). defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool NO 5. Mandate scrollbars. Let scrollbars become a permanent part of your windowing experience. defaults write -g AppleShowScrollBars -string Always And 6. Add back the Finder's size information. (Via TUAW reader 1TallTXn) Open a Finder Window and use Command-/. Presto And 7. Disable mail animations. Chris Pirillo sent me link to his how-to write-up, which uses this command (discovered by "Adrian") to simplify visuals when replying in Mail. defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES Have you found more good prefs? Let us know in the comments! Some good places to check are the Preferences folders (global and local), the HIToolbox, and Core Services. Update: A reader pinged me to ask if I had come across any prefs that I didn't include because I wasn't sure what they did. Yes. Yes, I did. Here are a few for you to mull on: AppleUseCoreUI, AppleMagnifiedMode, AppleMenuSwipeDrivesMenuBar, and AppleUseSharedMenuBar. There are lots more like these in HIToolbox. Update: I'm asked if there's a way to disable autosave. I believe you have to set a default for NSDocumentAutosaveOldDocumentDayThreshold, which will probably only autosave beyond a certain time threshold. If you can confirm or test, please ping me at erica at tuaw.
Lion: Deleting apps in Launchpad, and starting clean
Launchpad in Mac OS Lion shares a key behavior with its iOS counterpart: deleting an app from the launcher also uninstalls it from the computer, as long as the app was purchased from the Mac App Store. Of course, it's quick and easy to redownload the MAS apps if they're needed. While this insta-delete, complete with jiggling icons, may be counterintuitive for longtime Mac users, it makes perfect sense to iPhone or iPad users where there's a one-to-one mapping between apps on the launcher screen and apps installed on the device. On other mobile platforms, that's not necessarily the case: both Android and Blackberry devices have the ability to hide or subset visible apps versus the full suite of installed programs. The flip side of this strong linkage between installation/removal and visibility of MAS apps in Launchpad is that non-MAS/conventionally installed apps cannot be deleted from the Launchpad UI. If you don't want all that app clutter, the only default options are to move the space-wasting apps into Launchpad folders (laborious) or move the apps themselves out of the Applications folder in the Finder (boneheaded, and actually won't work, per commenters). Even resetting your Launchpad (as Erica noted last week) still includes all your apps in the launcher's pages. There is another way, however, to blank out your Launchpad and start clean. Web developer Loren Segal points out the 'nuclear option' of deleting all the app records from the Launchpad database, which lets you select individual apps to include by dragging their icons onto the Launchpad dock icon (command-click to select multiple apps before dragging). He suggests backing up the relevant database file beforehand, in case of issues, and I concur. Here's the process in the Terminal, line by line: mkdir ~/Desktop/DB_Backup [makes a folder on your desktop to back up the data files] cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ~/Desktop/DB_Backup/ [copies the database] sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db 'DELETE FROM apps;' && killall Dock sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db 'DELETE from apps;' \ ' DELETE from groups WHERE title<>""; DELETE from items WHERE rowid>2;' \ && killall Dock [deletes the app records from Launchpad's database, and restarts the Dock process; you'll see your minimized windows pop back to the screen. Update: Loren posted a new version, as above, that fixes the folders issue.] Blank Launchpad! You may notice that any folders previously in Launchpad will still be there, albeit vacant. To get rid of them, simply load at least one app into Launchpad, then drag the app into & out of the folder. It will 'evaporate' when it's empty. If you do decide that you prefer the full-list Launchpad, you can either restore the database to its original location, or follow the tip in Erica's post to reset/rebuild and get all your apps back.
How to refresh OS X Lion's Launchpad contents
The young guys over at HaiTeq have been running into issues with Launchpad updating after installing software that wasn't bought on the Mac App Store. Because of this, they've figured out a workaround to force Launchpad to refresh its data base. Removing the database files from the user's Dock application support folder and restarting the Dock allows Mission Control and the Launchpad to re-build the database from scratch, updating the presentation with all the new applications. Here are HaiTeq's steps, with a few modifications on my part for safety. Admittedly, if you are not comfortable at the command line, this is not the hack for you. Launch Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal). Navigate to the Application Support folder in question (cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock) Open the folder (open .) and drag all the .db files to the trash. Restart Dock (sudo killall Dock, followed by authentication) I am not a Launchpad/Mission Control user and cannot verify these steps will reflect newly installed software. However, I did test them out for safety, and my Lion install is still working; my db file was instantly re-generated, and I did not find any harmful side-effects. Please share your experiences in the comments.
Open the Mac App Store in your browser
I was up late last night building a Mac App Store scraper. In the process I discovered how to browse the store in Safari. Without further ado, let me share the geek. It turns out you can spoof curl with the Mac App Store user agent to access its data. You'll need to use Terminal for this trick, so if you're uncomfortable with the command line, it's sort of time to skip to the next post. Still here? Good, let's go. First, grab and open New & Noteworthy page with the following commands: curl -silent -A "iMacAppStore/1.0.1 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6.7; en) AppleWebKit/533.20.25" 'http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGrouping?id=29526&mt=12' > ~/Desktop/foo.html; open ~/Desktop/foo.html Conversely, just open the front page: curl -silent -A "iMacAppStore/1.0.1 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6.7; en) AppleWebKit/533.20.25" 'http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/mac/id39?mt=12' > ~/Desktop/foo.html; open ~/Desktop/foo.html The front page doesn't always want to open properly, but if you load another primary page like New & Noteworthy first, it usually loads the way you're looking for. Some will want to ignore the HTTP status that appears at the top of the webpage -- but they'll probably be using the App itself, so it shouldn't be a problem for everyone else. Have fun!
Make a backup copy of the MacBook Air USB Software Reinstall Drive
Since it doesn't come with an optical drive, giving MacBook Air buyers a DVD of the operating system wouldn't be very helpful. That's why Apple's lightest laptop comes with the USB Software Reinstall Drive -- a very small white USB drive. Sometimes USB flash drives are referred to as "Thumb Drives," but this one is more like the size of a baby's finger. The USB stick that comes with the MacBook Air is the best way -- and in many situations, the only way -- to restore/reinstall your MacBook Air if something goes wrong. If you have the US$100 external USB SuperDrive, then you can try to use a DVD, but I found that my MacBook Air wouldn't even boot from my original Snow Leopard DVD. (I believe this is because the DVD's build of Snow Leopard is a lower version number than the Air originally shipped with, but I am not sure.) Since my MacBook Air first arrived I have been afraid of losing the USB recovery drive. According to someone on the Apple Discussion Forums, Apple may be willing to provide you with a new one, free of charge, if you lose yours, but what I really wanted was a backup. (I have done the same thing with my Snow Leopard DVD when I bought it, just in case it was lost or damaged.) In this case, I wanted to duplicate it onto another USB drive. I tried 'cloning' the Reinstall Drive using SuperDuper!, which completed without error, but after it was done, my MacBook Air would not boot with the new USB drive. Apple created the drive so that when it is mounted by OS X, it appears as a DVD, not a USB drive. This means that it was not available for me to use as a "Restore" source in Disk Utility. I could not find any way to make a copy of the disk image from Disk Utility. (If one exists, I'd be happy to hear about it.) That's when my GeekInstincts kicked in. If Apple wanted me to treat it as a DVD drive, that's exactly what I would do. In the past I have backed up my OS X DVDs using the Terminal, and I wondered if the same thing would work here. (Spoiler alert! It did.) Duplicating a CD or DVD the Unix way Rather than using a GUI program such as Roxio Toast or Burn, we're going to use the Terminal. Why? Because unlike those two programs, the Unix way is free, simple, and "just works." Plus, you end up with a disk image, which you should be able to use to burn an actual DVD on just about any computer. The steps are fairly simple: Create an .iso file of the official Reinstall Drive Mount the .iso file in Disk Utility Mount a generic USB drive Use the "restore" function in Disk Utility to copy the .iso file to the generic USB device. Save the .iso file in case you lose the Reinstall Drive and your generic backup. Note: you can do this same process with any CD/DVD and any Mac. In the past I have done it with Microsoft Office, iWork, and others. This article is addressing the MacBook Air specifically, but the same steps would work equally well for other media. The Disclaimer We are going to be using Terminal.app (found in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder in the Finder) to run a few commands. If you are not careful in the Terminal, you can do some serious damage. Then again, the same thing is true about a car. So, look both ways, stop if you aren't sure about something, and (whenever possible) copy & paste commands rather than typing them manually, to avoid typos. The command we will be using is /bin/dd, which I suggest you think of as "Data Duplication." Wikipedia says that it probably originally meant "Data Description," and it is often jokingly referred to as "data destroyer" or other scary-sounding names. Read slowly, take your time. There should be no real danger unless you are extremely careless. Don't proceed unless you know what you are doing and have verified your backups. Step By Step 1) Insert your Reinstall Drive and make sure it appears in the Finder 2) Open Terminal.app (in Finder press Command-Shift-U to quickly go to the Utilities folder) 3) In Terminal, type (or paste) these following commands: DEVICE=`mount | fgrep 'Mac OS X Install' | awk '{print $1}'` if [ "$DEVICE" != "" ]; then ; echo $DEVICE ; fi You should see something like "/dev/disk?s?" where the ?s are replaced by numbers. If all you get a blank line, something went wrong. Make sure the drive appears in Finder. 4) Still in Terminal, type/paste this line: diskutil unmount "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install" which should tell you "Volume Mac OS X Install on disk?s? unmounted" (again, where ? and ? will be numbers). This will unmount but not eject the drive. 5) READ this entire step, and make sure you understand it, before you do anything. Now we will tell dd to: a) read input from the "$DEVICE" named above. This is the "Input File" which is identified using if=/dev/disk?s? (where ? are numbers) b) copy what you read (in step 'a') out to a new file. This is the "Output File" which is identified using of=WhateverYouWant.iso (I went with airinstall.iso for simplicity and clarity). c) We also need to tell dd to use a Block Size of 2048 (this last part may not be 100% necessary, but I have seen it suggested and it is how I have done mine, and it worked). If you put all of that together, it should look like this: /bin/dd if="$DEVICE" of="$HOME/Desktop/airinstall.iso" bs=2048 WARNING: if, by some bizarre chance, you already have a file named "$HOME/Desktop/airinstall.iso" be sure to move or rename it before you enter that line. Otherwise it will be overwritten. (The Output File does not have to be saved to the Desktop, I just chose that because it is a place most people will notice.) If you see an error "dd: /dev/disk?s?: Resource busy" then the device did not unmount properly in step #4. If you copied my "DEVICE=" line above in Step #3, you should be able to use "$DEVICE" in the 'dd' line to automatically fill in the proper device. Note! the 'dd' command may run for 20–30 minutes, or longer. Don't panic. Just go do something else for awhile. nothing new will appear on the screen until 'dd' is finished. When it is done you should see something like this: 3738954 0 records in 3738954 0 records out The "records in" should equal the "records out" (although your number might not be the same as mine). 6) Assuming everything went as expected, you can now tell the computer to eject the Apple Reinstall Drive by entering this line in Terminal: diskutil eject "$DEVICE" It should tell you that the device was ejected. If so, it will be safe to physically disconnect the Apple Reinstall Drive from the USB port of your computer. 7) Open the .iso file in Disk Utility. If you used my /bin/dd line above, you can now enter: open -a "Disk Utility" "$HOME/Desktop/airinstall.iso" and Disk Utility will open and the .iso will appear in the left sidebar. Note: we are now done with Terminal.app. You may quit it and switch over to Disk Utility for the next steps. 8) You should see airinstall.iso in the left side of Disk Utility window. If you look at the bottom of the window you will see it is not mounted. Click the "Open" button on the top toolbar to mount the .iso file. NOTE: When you mount the .iso file, Finder will probably jump up and show you the window like an excited schoolchild. If that happens, just switch back to Disk Utility. This is what Disk Utility will look like after you mount the .iso: Note that the capacity it shown, and the open button is now a greyed out "Mount" button, and the "Eject" button is now available. 9) Insert your generic USB drive now. You will need an 8GB USB drive. I'm usng a SanDisk because it's what I already had. Here is Disk Utility showing my USB drive. A few important things to notice: Make sure the drive is formatted as "Mac OS Extended" or "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)." The "Name" of your drive isn't important. Notice mine is "USB_MOUNT" but the important thing is that I have it selected in Disk Utility. 10) We are now going to tell Disk Utility to "Restore" the .iso's "Mac OS X Install" to "USB_MOUNT" by doing three things: a) click the "Restore" button (see red box below) b) Control-Click ("right click") on the "Mac OS X Install" line, and select "Set as source" as shown here. You could also just drag the Mac OS X Install volume over to the Source: field in the right-hand pane. c) Control-Click on the "Name" of your generic USB drive (mine is "USB_MOUNT") and choose "Set as destination." Again, you could alternatively drag-and-drop the volume icon into the blank Destination field on the right side, per the onscreen instructions. 11) When you are ready to restore, it should look something like this: If everything looks correct, click the "Restore" button on the bottom right. Disk Utility will give you a "human readable" explanation of what it is about to do: Read through it to make sure that you haven't accidentally swapped the Source and Destination fields. When you click "Erase" OS X will prompt you for your administrator password. Once you enter it, the restore process will begin. This took 30 minutes on my MacBook Air, so it's a good time to take that Apple Software Reinstall Drive and put it somewhere safe. (I highly recommend putting it back in the box your MacBook Air came in. You kept the box, right?) Once the Restore Process completes, Finder will most likely mount the generic USB drive. Disk Utility will look like this: Now we're ready to test it, so quit all of your applications, logout, and shutdown the computer. The Proof is in the Booting The only real test that matters is whether or not you can boot your MacBook Air with the generic USB drive. After the computer id turned off, make sure that: the official Apple Softwware Reinstall Drive is not connected to your MacBook Air the generic USB drive is connected to the MacBook Air Then power the computer on and press the Option/Alt key. In a few moments you should a screen offering the option of booting from your hard drive or the USB drive. Choose the USB drive. When it finishes booting, it will start into the "Install OS X" screens and ask you to select a language. Don't panic. Select a language, and then at the next screen you can exit out of the installer. (If you want to set an Open Firmware Password, this would be a good time to do it, since you can't set it when booting off the internal drive, but if you do, remember that if you forget the password, a trip to the Apple Store is your only hope of recovering it.) That's it The USB drive won't work on any other computer, but it can add a little peace of mind to know that you have another copy of your restore drive in case you ever need it.
Force your Mac to update malware definitions (Updated)
You've updated your Mac with Security Update 2011-003, but how do you know if you have the latest malware definitions from Apple? Macworld had a nice technical note on how to force your Mac to update its malware definitions, so we thought we'd pass that knowledge along. To start, you can check to see how old your malware definitions are by launching Terminal (found in your Utilities folder in the Applications folder), copying the following code, pasting it into Terminal at the prompt, and then pressing the Return key: more /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.plist
Bridgestone builds world's largest e-paper tablets, shuns consumers (video)
If you thought the Kno was unwieldy, check out these A4 and A3 paper-sized AeroBee terminals from Bridgestone. The company, best known for its tire commercials featuring adorable animals about to get run over, unveiled two new tablets with 21-inch and 13-inch (underwhelming) color e-paper screens -- the largest available on the market. You can check them out in the video after the break, but don't get too excited, these beasts aren't destined for consumers. Instead, they're being marketed to businesses which will likely use them as in-store displays or kiosks. Next step: coffee table-book e-readers. Though, we suspect In the Shadow of No Towers would lose something in the translation.
Terminal Tip: Find out which files won't be backed up
Backing up is one of the most important things you can do on a Mac, and thankfully, it's a pretty trivial affair with Time Machine built right in. Of course, when you're looking at what needs backing up, people often overlook what doesn't need backing up (or isn't, but should be). A good example of this would be a rented media file, like a TV show rented from iTunes. It's only valid for 48 hours, so even if you do back it up, by the time you've restored your machine after a system failure, it's unlikely to play anyway. In essence, it's wasted space. Thankfully, OS X has a built-in system of defining what should and shouldn't be backed up using metadata, and for the most part, it happens under your nose without you even noticing. There are times when it would be useful to see what's marked for backup and what's not, however, and that's where we turn to Terminal.
Plugable DC-125 dock turns your solitary PC into a multiple workstation powerhouse (video)
We've seen a few docking stations 'round these parts that use the venerable DisplayLink technology to great effect, but nothing quite like this before. Plugable's DC-125 USB 2.0 Docking Client connects to your PC allows you to connect your display, speakers, keyboard, and mouse via one USB port -- small potatoes, right? Well, if said PC has a compatible multi-user OS (such as Windows Multipoint Server or Userful Multiseat Linux) you can daisy chain docks to add several terminals to the setup. Terminals! Now you can relive the dark, backwards days when you had to go to the college computer lab to get any work done -- in the comfort of your own home. Available now for $65 a pop. Get a closer look after the break.
Unclutter your Dropbox (or any folder) with Cloak
The good thing about iOS text editors and other programs which can sync with Dropbox is that you don't have to use iTunes to back up the documents that you edit on your iPad or iPhone/iPod touch. The bad thing is that almost all of them save their files in a specific named folder in your Dropbox. This can lead to a lot of folders that you probably never use on your Mac, but end up looking at anytime you open your Dropbox. OS X gives you a way to hide those folders, but it usually involves the use of a command line utility called SetFile, which isn't included with Mac OS X unless you also install the developer tools. That's where Cloak (free, 611 KB .zip download) comes in. Cloak will let you hide or show any file, either by renaming the file to start with a period, or by setting the "Invisible" Finder Attribute. Renaming the file will cause problems with the aforementioned Dropbox syncing, so you want to use the Invisible Finder Attribute. Read on for the nitty gritty...
Use Dropbox to backup a few folders every day
There's a nice little tutorial on Justin Schwalbe's blog for using a simple script to backup a few folders to a Dropbox backup folder every day. Why would you do this? Well, let's say you aren't always able to connect to a hard drive for Time Machine, but you have a couple of document folders you want to make sure are backed up off site every day. If you are traveling but have internet access, this script plus Dropbox will save your bacon -- or your files, at least. Note that you should be comfortable with bash scripting to successfully implement this backup solution. You can, of course, also keep folders in Dropbox itself, but Justin's scripted method allows incremental backups that keep versions from a few days back, so (sort of like Time Machine), if you find yourself needing a file from two days ago versus five minutes ago, you'll have that in a dedicated folder based on the date. If you're not comfortable with Terminal or scripting, consider carrying a USB drive with you and relying upon Time Machine, Apple's built-in backup solution. Update: As noted by Justin in the comments, this creates encrypted disk images. Also, Dropbox does have versioning that goes back 30 days, available on the Dropbox site. photo by Flickr user jm3
AirPrint: how to make it work for shared printers
Update: The clever fellows over at Netputing bundled the files together with a snazzy install/uninstall button to produce AirPrint Hactivator, which takes care of all the under the hood business for you. The same caveats apply: remember that you are installing obsolete/beta system files, use at your own risk, and if you'd prefer a supported product there are options. Mac OS X 10.6.5 was released yesterday, and one of the features it was expected to bring to the table was support for AirPrint, a new feature in iOS 4.2 that was supposed to enable wireless printing from an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Unfortunately, whether it's because of technical problems or patent trolling, Apple pulled support for this feature at the last minute. In its current incarnation, AirPrint in iOS 4.2 will now only work with specific printers that come with AirPrint functionality built-in... and you probably don't own one of those. iOS 4.2 hasn't been officially released yet, but some enterprising developers, Steven Troughton-Smith and Patrick McCarron, have already found a way to re-enable AirPrint functionality in Mac OS X 10.6.5. Apparently, three files from earlier developer builds of 10.6.5 were removed or altered for the final public release, and it's these files that are essential to restoring full AirPrint functionality. Click "Read More" for a walkthrough on how to enable AirPrint. The usual caveat: This procedure involves a moderate degree of peril, and TUAW cannot help you if you mess up your system. Proceed at your own risk.
Terminal Tips: bash cron script to keep an app running
Do you have some apps that you want to keep running all the time? If so, and if you're not afraid of the Terminal or the command line, I have a script for you. When I come home at the end of the day, Dropbox has stopped running on my iMac. I'm running the latest version, and it works fine on my MacBook Pro, but for some reason, this just keeps happening. The script has nothing to do with Dropbox itself; you could substitute any app that you always want running, such as LaunchBar, OmniFocus, 1Password, or any other app that you like. It's fairly simple: #!/bin/sh PATH=/bin:/usr/bin # Change 'Dropbox' to whatever app you want. Be sure to capitalize # it correctly and include any spaces. You do not need to add .app APPNAME="Dropbox" # if the app name _IS_ found in process list, exit ps xc|fgrep "${APPNAME}" >/dev/null && exit 0 # if the app isn't found, open it open -a "${APPNAME}" exit 0 That's it. Now, you save the file (I call mine "keep-my-app-running.sh"); I saved it to ~/bin/, but you can put it anywhere you want. Be sure to type 'chmod +x /Users/luomat/bin/keep-my-app-running.sh' (or wherever it is saved) to tell OS X it is an eXecutable file. (Thanks to Justin for reminding me about this in the comments below.) Now, we need to tell cron to run it. Some folks will tell you to use launchd, but cron works well and it's easy, so we'll use that. To do that, create a ~/.crontab file using your favorite text editor. If it already exists, just keep whatever's there, and add this line at the bottom: */5 * * * * /Users/luomat/bin/keep-my-app-running.sh Change "luomat" to whatever your login name is, and change "keep-my-app-running.sh" to whatever you named the script. This tells cron to check if your app is running every 5 minutes or so. You can change the 5 to something else if you want to change the frequency. The last step is to tell cron to load the new file you've created: crontab ~/.crontab If you want to verify that it worked, run 'crontab -l' to see if your crontab is listed properly. It may also be a good idea to run 'crontab -l' before you begin in order to make sure that there isn't anything already in there. Most likely there isn't, or if there is, you already know about it. Update: As noted in the comments, cron works fine, but launchd can be configured to relaunch Dropbox as soon as it exits. I've enclosed a picture of a Lingon screenshot below, or you can see the plist that it creates. Lingon is no longer developed, but it works fine for me under Snow Leopard. I tried to use launchd to run a script at 0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes past the hour, which I can do in cron using this: */15 * * * * /path/to/script.sh but launchd didn't keep that schedule (for example, it posted at 11:48 and 12:03). So I decided to keep using cron for that, although launchd is a much better option for the 'keep alive' purpose. %Gallery-105694%
How to replace iTunes 10's grey with eye-popping black
Several iTunes 10 users were less than thrilled with the new all-grey UI theme. I've gotten used to it, but I agree it was a bit prettier with the color icons in the sidebar. Here's how you can replace the grey entirely with an eye-popping, high-contrast black and white. First, quit iTunes. Then open up Terminal and enter the following: defaults write com.apple.iTunes high-contrast-mode-enable -bool TRUE Re-launch and pow! You'll be presented with the UI depicted above. It's definitely legible, and Macworld suggests that it looks best in List View. They also explain how to switch back. We don't know if the stark theme is better, but it is different.
iTerm 2 in early development
Power users of the command-line are no doubt familiar with iTerm, the free replacement terminal application. iTerm has been the go-to alternative for people who wanted tabbed windows and other advanced features. Development of iTerm has been fairly slow and irregular. The initial release was back in 2002 and the 0.10 release is almost a year old. A look at the version history shows very little has happened since 2006. A "fork" of the project is now available on Google Code and goes by the name iterm2. The current version, labeled "Alpha 6" was just released yesterday. On the surface it looks pretty much the same, until you get into the bookmarks, preferences, and profiles which have been completely rewritten. Thanks to TUAW reader Nikola Knezevic for sending this in!
Terminal Tips: Unfreeze your Mac
Look, it's nothing to be ashamed of, it happens to everyone: your Mac has frozen up and won't respond. I know, I know, for years we Mac folks used to love poking fun at Windows because it freezes up. Apple even made a commercial about it. As someone who has used both, I will say that I have seen this far, far less frequently with Macs... but it happens. When apps freeze, it's generally pretty easy to deal with. Control-click (or "right" click for you crazy kids with your multi-button mice) the app icon in the dock, and if it says "Application Not Responding" it will offer a "Force Quit" option. Hopefully that will do it. But what if it doesn't? Read on for your options...
