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Teleport’s Elusive Preference Settings

At long last, I’ve found the elusive preference settings in teleport for controlling the switching behavior.  Previously in the normal settings tab, these options are now available on a per-host basis and only revealed when mousing over the external hosts in the layout pane.

Teleport Options

See the extremely handy preference for limiting the switching by requiring that the Option key be held down.

Teleport Options Revealed

Teleport lets you use a single mouse and keyboard to control several Macs.  When enabled, you move the cursor to the edge of the screen and the mouse “teleports” to a nearby Mac.  After teleportation, this mac is controlled by the same keyboard and mouse. As a bonus, the clipboard can be synchronized and you can drag & drop files between the two Macs.

comment on this | posted in: Mac News Troubleshooting

Awesome settings screen over at Timehop

While reviewing my settings over the at the amazing Timehop service, I came across this gem of a setting: “Cursing Level.”  I think I’ll stay with “a little.”

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comment on this | posted in: News Webdev

MySpace is down

Way to go Myspace with the old-school messaging.  Love the sad face in the title attribute.

Our site has issues. Literally. W’re working hard to get things back in working order as quickly as possible.
-The Myspace Team.

Thanks to Peter for capturing this one.

comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Animated 404 Over at Spotify

...and we’re back with an exciting, animated 404 message from Spotify.  Make sure to click through to the actual page to see the little critter swinging from his teeth!

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comment on this | posted in: 404 News Webdev

Winter in Manhattan

It’s hard to believe this is a photo of the Hudson River Path in December.  What a beautiful day to be out on the bike.

Large Image
comment on this | posted in: Photos from iPhone

How to Expand all Open/Save Dialogs on MacOS X

Here’s another good fix for a MacOS X default-

How to expand all Open/Save Dialogs on MacOS X:


defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

comment on this | posted in: Mac Tips Unix

How to Enable AirDrop on Unsupported Systems

One of the more interesting features of MacOS X 10.7 Lion is the ad-hoc, wireless, peer to peer networking feature called AirDrop.  Unfortunately, this is only supported on the very latest hardware.  It turns out that you can easily enable AirDrop for many older Lion systems with a simple visit to the Terminal.

At the commend line, you need to enter:


defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1

Then, restart the Finder with the following:


killall Finder

Open a new finder window and you should now see AirDrop listed on the left-hand side under favorites.

comment on this | posted in: Mac Tips Unix

On Steve Jobs

From the my first computing experiences with the Apple ][+ to my current MacBook Air, Steve Jobs has inspired me.  Both my wife and I “grew up Apple.”  Nearly everyone who matters to me both professionally and personally has been influenced by his work.  His personality, conviction and attention to detail has been imprinted upon us all.  In his passing, I feel as if someone close to me has died, although I never knew him personally.

As I learned of the news on via an AP alert on my iPhone, I kept quiet not wanting to ruin the mood at the tech meetup I was hosting.  Secretly, I noticed that everyone in the room was receiving the news (from their Apple devices).  Finally, someone verbally acknowledged the news and silence fell among our group.  Gradually, murmurs and hushed conversation began, and slowly, our world of tech reluctantly moved on.

An era has passed and a historic luminary is gone. 

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

comment on this | posted in: Mac News

How to View the /Library after Lion Upgrade

After upgrading to MacOS X Lion 10.7, you’ll find that the system conveniently hides the Library folder in your home directory.  If you’re wondering how to view the /Library folder after the upgrade, here’s how.

Of course you can still view it by using the Finder’s “Go to Folder” feature.  Just type command-shift-g in the finder and enter:

~/Library/

But if you’d like to keep it visible all the time, you can change the hidden flags on that directory with the following command:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/


update: I just noticed that Dan Frakes over at Macworld has posted a completely over the top 18 ways to view the ~/Library folder in Lion.  I think this hint is now complete.

comment on this | posted in: Mac News Tips Unix

Using iTunes Auto Bit Rate Conversion To Save Space on iPhone

iTunes offers a bit rate conversion feature which allows you to load more music onto your iPhone, iPod and iPad devices by downsampling high bit rate audio files.  This was initially introduced with the diminutive iPod Shuffle, but has available for all devices since iTunes 9.1.

This iTunes conversion feature is most useful if you have songs that have been imported directly from standard audio CDs to Apple Lossless or other high bit rate formats.

bit rate conversion options

Upon enabling the “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbs AAC” checkbox in the device options screen, iTunes converts all music set to transfer to the iPod, iPhone or iPad.  This conversion happens during the sync process.  All original music is left intact in your iTunes library, and the compressed audio is stored solely on the device.

This conversion process does reduce the quality of your music, but you’re likely not to notice if you use Apple’s included earbuds or other inexpensive compact headphones.  It’s perfect for listening on the go.

comment on this | posted in: iPad iPhone iPod Music Secrets of iTunes Tips
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