Mac
How to Install RAM in a PowerBook G4
Matt Cone March 28, 2007
Installing RAM into your PowerBook G4 is the easiest way to breathe new life into your aging portable. This inexpensive upgrade can be performed by anyone in a matter of minutes, and after you’re finished, your Mac will run like new! RAM, or “Random Access Memory,” is a type of data storage used by your computer. RAM is a little like your hard disk drive, only there are no moving parts, and RAM is faster - a lot faster.
How to Backup Your Mac Using Rsync
David Miller March 26, 2007
Do you manually back up your Mac to an external hard drive? Do you know it is very easy to make automatic backups without spending any time or money on fancy applications? We’ll show you how to do it! Rsync is a wonderful backup tool that packs a powerful punch and is easy to set up. This free application is included with nearly all Unix operating systems – including Mac OS X.
Put Internet Images on Your Desktop With Automator
Wayne Linder March 25, 2007
Do you ever get tired of the same old Desktop image? Do you like cool images of space? Have you always wanted to play around with Apple’s Automator? Did you ever wonder if your dentist was the one out of four who didn’t recommend Trident to their patients who chew gum? Well, this article can’t help you with the last item, but if the others intrigued you, read on! In this article, you will learn how to change your Desktop background every day with an image downloaded from NASA’s Cool Astronomy Picture of the Day.
How to Control Cable Creep
Eric Buczynski March 23, 2007
Cable creep happens slowly. You buy your Mac, you setup the keyboard and mouse, and everything is fine. But then comes the digital camera, the printer, the iPod, the camcorder, the USB hub and everything else. Before you know it, you have a tangled mess of cables on your desk. Don’t become a victim of cable creep! Organize your cables early and often. How did it get so far? And how the heck is this systems administrator going to swap out a dead switch?
Stupid Apple Remote Tricks
Stephen Korecky March 19, 2007
If you’ve purchased a Mac recently, you probably have an Apple Remote. This nifty little device allows you to enter Apple’s Front Row interface and control your Mac from afar. It’s common knowledge that you can use your Apple Remote to play music, watch movies, and flip through pictures. This all comes in very handy, especially when you use your Mac as a full-blown entertainment center. What you might not know is that you can also use your remote to put your Mac to sleep, present a Keynote presentation, and lock your Mac.
How to Connect Multiple Monitors to Your Mac
Eric Buczynski March 19, 2007
Everyone knows that Apple’s Displays are cool - really friggin’ cool - but the high price tags are not. What’s a poor nerd to do? Buy a second display and connect it to your Mac. It’s one of the easiest ways to trick out your Mac! Working with multiple monitors gives you more visual real estate. You’ll really notice the difference when working on documents in multiple applications, and you’ll have an advantage when playing certain games.
Make an Encrypted Disk Image to Secure Files
David Miller March 16, 2007
Encryption satisfies one of the most basic, fundamental human needs: The right to privacy. By using encryption, you can be reasonably confident that your files will be protected from prying eyes. This is especially important if you work on computers that are shared with others, or if you frequent high-traffic computing environments, such as computer labs. Fortunately, the ability to encrypt files using disk images is a free feature built into every Mac running Mac OS 10.
How to Make a Favicon
Stephen Korecky March 15, 2007
Have you ever noticed those little icons in the address bar of your web browser? They also appear next to your bookmarks, and sometimes next to the items in your RSS feeds. These favicons - or “favorites icons” - are more fun to look at than they are functional, but almost every website has one these days. Now, your website can have a favicon, too. It’s easy to make these little icons with your favorite graphics editor.
How to Resize the Dock
Matt Cone March 13, 2007
The Dock is an application launcher that normally resides at the bottom of your desktop. Most of us know and love this integral part of Mac OS X, but sometimes the Dock gets in the way. Fortunately, resizing or hiding the Dock is easy. We’ll show you how to do it. This is the Dock. A black triangle under an icon indicates that the program is running: The Dock contains shortcuts to programs - you can even add your favorite applications and remove the ones you don’t use.
Roll Your Own Mac App
Matt Cone March 12, 2007
Have you ever wondered how Mac applications are made? Then you’ve come to the right place! This article was written for anyone wanting to get into Mac programming or interface design. We’ll be discussing Cocoa, Apple’s native object-oriented application programming environment for Mac OS X, which is (for the true nerds out there) one of the five major APIs available for Mac OS X. We’ll be using Xcode for all of this.