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Four short links: 19 November 2012

By Nat Torkington
November 19, 2012

Wing Man — Mac app for source control management with git, implements workflow rather than simply being a wrapper for git commandlines. CodeKit — Mac app for web developers, automates (invisibly, thanks to watching filesystem changes) much of the web …

Four short links: 28 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 28, 2012

Canada Wages War on Knowledge -- Library and Archives Canada is ending acquisitions, not digitizing material, dispersing its collection to underfunded private and public collections around Canada, and providing little in the way of access to the scraps they did keep. Apparently Canada has been overrun by Huns and Vandals. Imminent sack of Toronto predicted. (via BoingBoing) Cyberpunk Dress...

Four short links: 12 September 2011

By Nat Torkington
September 12, 2011

HP Emulates Next (BoingBoing) -- In mid-1993, a few months after CEO Steve Jobs had shuttered the NeXT factory, and was in the process of switching to an all-software company—a path that led to its later acquisition by Apple—the lights were turned back on in its Fremont, Calif., factory. NeXTWorld's rumor columnist, Lt. Sullivan, reported that the U.S. military...

Four short links: 7 July 2011

By Nat Torkington
July 7, 2011

Commodore 64 PC -- gorgeous retro look with fairly zippy modern internals. (via Rob Passarella) Designing Github for Mac -- a retrospective from the author of the excellent Mac client for github. He talks about what he learned and its origins, design, and development. Remember web development in 2004? When you had to create pixel-perfect comps because every element...

Four short links: 5 January 2011

By Nat Torkington
January 5, 2011

Multi-tenant SaaS Checklist -- if you're used to building single-site web apps, this is a simple overview of the differences when building multi-tenanted web apps. Nominally about Java, ending with a plug for its author's product, but ignore all that and it's still useful. (via Abhishek Tiwari on Twitter) Angel Investing: My First Three Years (Paul Buchheit) -- interesting...

Xcode 4 Preview 2 Now Available

By Andrew Trice
July 23, 2010

For those of you fellow iPad and iPhone developers out there, a preview version of Xcode 4 has been released. I'm personally looking forward to the integrated single window in the IDE, as opposed to multiple separate applications, the enhanced debugger, and enhanced code editing and navigation tools. Not to mention, the faster LLVM 2.0 compiler.

InDesign Font Hack...and Sweet Freeware

By David Battino
May 18, 2010

The printer called today with upsetting news: Three fonts were missing from the InDesign CS3 package I'd just uploaded for my new children's book — Bookman Old Style and two Japanese fonts. It didn't make sense; there were no errors...

Getting Ready for Macworld Expo & Conference 2010

By Jochen Wolters
February 2, 2010

With Macworld Expo & Conference 2010 mere days away, it is about time to stop worrying over what it means that Apple has pulled out of the show; to put aside the discussions about how revolutionary the iPad really is; and, instead, to focus on what will be happening at Moscone Center in San Francisco next week.

How dare Apple...

By Simon St. Laurent
January 28, 2010

The iPad repeats Steve Jobs' all-in-one vision of the 1984 Macintosh 128K in a shiny new package. Does this spell danger for creativity?

Four short links: 21 January 2010

By Nat Torkington
January 21, 2010

DD-WRT -- replacement firmware for cheap wireless router boxes that add new functionality like wireless bridging and quality-of-service controls (so Skype doesn't break up while you're web-browsing). Not a new thing, but worth remembering that it exists. Brain Dump of Real Time Web and WebSocket -- long primer on the different technology for real-time web apps. Conclusion is that...

Steve Jobs is the closest thing to Walt Disney since Walt Disney

By Mark Sigal
November 24, 2009

Steve Jobs is the closest thing to Walt Disney since Walt Disney, now forever bound by Pixar. If you believe in karma, how can you not think that it's pretty cool that Jobs ended up as the largest individual shareholder in Disney, an active board member who now is helping Disney re-boot its retail efforts!

Announcing O'Reilly Answers - Clever Hacks. Creative Ideas. Innovative Solutions.

By Allen Noren
November 4, 2009

We're launching the beta of O'Reilly Answers, and I'm inviting you to be part of it. In brief, O'Reilly Answers is a community site for sharing knowledge, asking questions, and providing answers that brings together our customers, authors, editors, conference speakers, and Foo (Friends of O'Reilly). O'Reilly is at the center of an amazing exchange of knowledge sharing and idea generation, and we want you to join us in changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.

The Right Stuff: Apple's Q4 Earnings Call

By Mark Sigal
October 20, 2009

The Fourth Quarter was Apple's most profitable quarter ever. Yesterday's earnings call was about two things. One, the iPhone Platform continues to deliver the goods. Two, the continued impressive growth of the Mac, especially MacBooks. As such, it was about the power of the platform as much as it was about the device itself. Read more...

Snow Leopard Is Location-Aware

By Brady Forrest
October 15, 2009

Shortly after installing Snow Leopard I saw the first evidence of the new location services built into the operating system. I got the new version of Clarke, a Fire Eagle updater. After the install a window appeared that asked me if I wanted to share my location with an application. Finally! So how is Apple doing it? The same they do on the iPhone.

Analysis: Apple WWDC Keynote - Punishing the Wizard, Part Two

By Mark Sigal
June 9, 2009

Fair or unfair, Apple has done such a good job of delivering technical wizardry over the years that when they merely execute, we hammer them because...well, we expect magic. With that in mind, this analysis of Apple's WWDC Keynote yesterday tries to make sense of the key storylines likely to play out for Apple in the coming months.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update Incorrectly Signed? Had to use Combo Update File

By Todd Ogasawara
May 12, 2009

My 1st generation MacBook didn't like the 10.5.6 update. And, now it doesn't like the 10.5.7 update. Fortunately, the Combo Update file for each release saved the day in each case.

Josh Clark on iWork '09: The Missing Manual

By Mary Rotman
May 6, 2009

I recently had a chance to catch up with Josh Clark, author of our newly released iWork '09: The Missing Manual. He had a lot to say about the new version of iWork, as well as a few tips & tricks to share to make the user experience even better. Click here to read our interview as well as Josh's favorite tips.

A Virtual "New" Tab for Movies in iTunes 8

By Jochen Wolters
March 27, 2009

In the comments to my blog post on adding custom genre artwork to iTunes 8, one reader asks if there is a way to add a "New" tab to the grid view for Movies. I am not aware of a hidden iTunes preference to enable such a tab, but its functionality -- list all movies I haven't watched yet -- can be achieved in other ways.

A Quicker Search of Almost Everything

By Jochen Wolters
February 9, 2009

Mid-January, yet another interesting software project was introduced by the Google labs: the Google Quick Search Box. According to its project page, Google Quick Search Box -- or "QSB" for short -- "is an open source search box that allows you to search data on your computer and across the web". That is a _big_ understatement.

One Year Later: Which Mac Apps Do I Still Use?

By Todd Ogasawara
January 27, 2009

After a full year+ of writing about Mac apps here, I took a look at which ones I still use. The process of going through my old blog items and figuring out which apps I use frequently, infrequently, and nearly-never was an interesting one. Here's what I found...

Macintosh Still Wisecracking at 25

By David Battino
January 24, 2009

Today is the Mac's 25th birthday. Watching this YouTube video of Steve Jobs pulling it out of the bag in 1984, I was amused to see how sound has been part of this computer from the beginning. The speech synthesizer comes in around 2:51. It sounds like FM synthesis; anyone have more details?

Why Obama gives geeks hope

By FJ de Kermadec
January 23, 2009

For the first time in years, the Mac has been widely publicised as being used in a governmental setting. For the Mac community, this can only mean great things are afoot, regardless of the technology choices made by the new administration in the long run. Indeed, while it is no secret that governments and governmental agencies have dabbled in Mac...

How do you like them Apples? Apple's Earnings Rock!

By Mark Sigal
January 22, 2009

In a very tough environment, where consumers (supposedly) aren’t spending and high-end products don’t get bought, Apple just took industry analysts’ projections out to the proverbial woodshed and gave them a good old fashioned whupping.

ClamXav Follow-up: Test with Live Malware

By Todd Ogasawara
January 20, 2009

I took a quick look at the free ClamXav anti-virus software for OS X last month. However, I didn't have any malware to test with it. Well, I found my archive of captive test malware and tried it out with ClamXav.

Punishing the Wizard: On Apple and Steve Jobs

By Mark Sigal
January 15, 2009

Steve Jobs is sick, and may never come back. Apple's a consumer company with high-end products in a bad economy. But the reality of why the company's being punished in the stock market may be nothing more than the Yin-Yang of Apple's Reality Distortion Field at work.

Networked Printers and Speakers with AirPort WiFi

By Derrick Story
January 14, 2009

The current AirPort base station combined with iTunes, Apple TV, the iPhone, a handful of printers, and powered speakers have enabled me to configure an "upstairs/downstairs" network complete with printing and remote-controlled music streaming. Here's an overview.

Using Windows 7 Beta on a Mac with VMware Fusion

By Todd Ogasawara
January 14, 2009

Windows 7 Beta runs surprisingly well on Mac with only 512MB virtual RAM allocated to Windows 7 by VMware Fusion. VirtualBox also works but has more quirks. If you need Windows on a Mac for a specific app, read on...

An AppleJack a Day

By Jochen Wolters
January 13, 2009

In the comments to my near-desaster story of last week, several readers suggested I should have a look at a utility called AppleJack. In hindsight, I cannot tell whether AppleJack would have been able to fix the problems that caused my Mac to refuse me access to my main user account. I sure wish, though, that I had it installed so I could at least have given it a try.

Freeware for networkers

By FJ de Kermadec
January 13, 2009

Reader Petra Hildebrandt recently suggested that I share with you a few of my favourite freeware applications. Since yesterday's post was about networking and troubleshooting, it seems only appropriate to continue in the same vein and look at a few tools that can neatly assist the budding trouble-shooter. Much like yesterday, none of it may be earth-shattering, but I find...

A Solid Macworld Expo Keynote Presentation

By Jochen Wolters
January 13, 2009

Once the news was out that Apple would pull out of Macworld Expo after this year's show, and that it was Phil Schiller, and not Steve Jobs, who would present the keynote speech, many assumed that there were no major announcements to be expected from Apple at this event. And still, I was surprised to overhear discussions about how "underwhelming," "boring," or simply "weird" the presentation was. After all, what Apple did announce were solid upgrades to existing products and even a bit more. Let me highlight three cool things presented last Tuesday.

Basic tips for smoother home networking

By FJ de Kermadec
January 12, 2009

Thanks to its UNIX underpinnings, Mac OS X is a remarkably robust network client. I knew not what this really meant until I had to build a QuickTime streaming server broadcasting all around France over a NAT-protected WiFi link crossing the Seine river and get it to play music in front of the national press. However, despite its outstanding resiliency,...

An Apple Genius Saved my Visit to Macworld Expo

By Jochen Wolters
January 10, 2009

In recent months, my MacBook has occasionally slowed down to a sleepy snail's crawl: applications would respond with a major lag, switching between applications would take a few seconds, and the time for launching another application -- including Activity Monitor for hunting down the culprit -- could be measured in minutes. I still have not found a general root cause for this behavior yet, but force-shutting down and rebooting would always get the machine back to its proper performance without any further problems. The last time I had to apply this remedy, though, I could no longer log into my main user account after the machine had rebooted. And this was just minutes after I had left Phil Schiller's keynote, looking at a full week of Macworld Expo '09 still ahead of me. Bad timing, really bad timing...

Installing Silverlight on Linux

By John Papa
January 7, 2009

The SIlverlight install experience on Linux is progressing ...

A Brief Guide for Mac Switchers/Try-ers (No Laments, Please!)

By Todd Ogasawara
January 7, 2009

Wow, CNET's Rafe Needleman sure raised a ruckus with his Mac switcher's lament article. If you are thinking about moving from a Windows PC to a Mac and want to avoid the feeling of lament, read on, I have some advice that might help you make the change.

Why Macworld is moribund — but not dead

By FJ de Kermadec
January 5, 2009

The current economic climate and the old-world flair of traditional trade shows are often blamed for Macworld's slow, and somewhat humiliating, demise. After its move back to Boston — a thinly masked prelude to the cancellation of its east coast edition —, its original version is now widely suspected to be on its last legs. Certainly, IDG has announced there...

Read AND Write NTFS Hard Drives Partitions on a Mac for Free

By Todd Ogasawara
December 31, 2008

I sometimes want to move large files (digital video home movies and virtual hard disks) between my Mac and my PC. Unfortunately, OS X can read NTFS but not write to it. Fortunately, the free and Open Source NTFS-3G combined with MacFUSE solves this issue very nicely.

Everyday Automation - Processing Downloaded Files

By Jochen Wolters
December 30, 2008

If you live a highly Internetworked life, there will likely be certain types of files that, after downloading them from the 'Net, you perform the same regular tasks on: say, archiving bank statements to a folder, printing electronic invoices, etc. You can highly automate processing such files by using Folder Actions attached to your downloads folder.

iPhone without Cocoa?

By Daniel H. Steinberg
December 29, 2008

There are a ton of people attracted by the iPhone gold rush who want to write iPhone apps without taking the time to learn Cocoa. Come for the phone but stay for the Mac.

Hawaii Power Blackout Emergency Preparedness Tech Grades: Is There an F-?

By Todd Ogasawara
December 28, 2008

I gave a tech scorecard for emergency infrastructure after a major earthquake here two years ago. I return to that scorecard for the island-wide power blackout we had over the weekend. The results aren't good. The only bright spot was Twitter.

VirtualBox 2.1.0 Released: A Look at the Mac Version

By Todd Ogasawara
December 24, 2008

VirtualBox 2.1.0 adds Intel VT-x hardware virtualization support as well as the ability to run 64-bit Guest OSes on a 32-bit host OS. I installed Xubuntu (based on Ubuntu 8.1.0) and brought in the previously built Windows 2000 Guest OS for testing. The results look good so far.

Some Apps They Like at Apple

By Jochen Wolters
December 23, 2008

Whenever there is a major Apple presentation, the demo machines are meticulously prepared, showing a well-managed list of documents and a sparkling-clean Applications folder. Some of the video tutorials on the Apple website, however, provide a more candid view at which applications Apple employees like.

Updated a moment ago

By FJ de Kermadec
December 22, 2008

The latest trend in interface design seems to be making computers speak like humans would. This is why many interfaces today have eschewed precise wording or technical terms in favour or lighter-hearted, vaguer words. We're no longer "processing data," we're "thinking about it," and a post wasn't made "seventeen seconds ago" but "just about now." Everywhere blogs and usability books...

Surplus, Scarcity and the iPhone App Store

By Mark Sigal
December 17, 2008

George Gilder once pointed out that when the availability of a given resource shifts from scarcity to surplus, a lot of wealth is created. In the technology realm, one can think of processing power, storage and bandwidth as the great “wealth exponential-izers” of first the PC era, then the Internet era, and now, the Mobile Broadband era (as these...

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update Doesn't Like my MacBook

By Todd Ogasawara
December 17, 2008

The recent huge Mac OS X 10.5.6 update happily, if somewhat slowly, updated my iMac. My MacBook, on the other hand, was another story...

The grand demo

By FJ de Kermadec
December 17, 2008

This news just in, Steve will not be gracing Macworld Expo 2009 with a keynote. For the past couple hours, the blogosphere has been quietly buzzing with unusually tame speculation about the meaning of this announcement and its potential effects on investor confidence. Overall, nobody seems unduly worried about the health or future of Apple's CEO, and a nice consensus...

Macworld Expo 2009 Ahead

By Jochen Wolters
December 16, 2008

With just three more weeks to go until San Francisco's Moscone Center opens its doors for Macworld Expo 2009, it is about time to start preparing your visit to the year's most important Mac event. This handful of resources is useful for planning your trip, but they may also come in handy in case you haven't made up your mind about attending yet.

No Jobs at Macworld?

By Daniel H. Steinberg
December 12, 2008

On the features page there's a list of all of the Macworld feature presentations. David Pogue is scheduled for Wednesday and Leo Laporte on Thursday by Leo Laporte. You'll also find the Macworld Magazine's Best of Show Awards on Wednesday. No keynote. Nothing is listed for Tuesday.

ClamXav: Free Anti-Virus for Your Mac - Help Protect Your PC Friends

By Todd Ogasawara
December 10, 2008

The consensus seems to be that Mac OS X does not need anti-virus software. However, I thought about anti-virus in terms of Windows running as a Guest OS as well as people running Windows XP/Vista with whom I exchange documents. So, I took a look at the free ClamXav (based on the Open Source ClamAV proejct) as an anti-virus tool.

A Mac Lovers Favorite Gift Guide

By Jochen Wolters
December 9, 2008

Still searching for that perfect gift for your favorite Mac user? The 2008 TidBITS Gift Guide is a Christmas list with a twist.

What it Means to be a "Social" Media Center: Boxee, Apple TV and Square Connect

By Mark Sigal
December 5, 2008

I keep waiting for the magical convergence box in my living room. You know the one; it’s the Web TV that actually works. In Boxee (social media center), Apple TV (iTunes in my living room) and Square Connect (iPhone/iPod touch based Universal Remote), I finally see the framing for a Smart, Connected Living Room to emerge. Never confuse 'Chicken...

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