CoverFlow is an album browser for OS X, using Cocoa and OpenGL. If you have OS X 10.4 you HAVE to download this now! [Link]
Category: Apps
Just downloaded a Firefox extension called Fasterfox. Basically what it does is it prefetches links and tweaks the network so pages load considerably faster. What impressed me the most other then the increase in performance was the quality of the extension. Fasterfox has a nice appealing logo and its menu options (located under preferences) are very simple and easy to understand. Pretty cool. [Link]
For those of you who don’t want to purchase the actual Pong Clock, you can have a free one if you own a Mac. Here is a link to the Pong Clock screensaver. [Link]
Bill Gates wanted to call Windows 1.0 “Interface Manager.” Marketing exec Rowland Hanson persuaded him that Windows was a better name. [More]
[via Cult of Mac]
Last month I purchased an old 300mhz Apple clamshell iBook. It had 32MB of RAM and was running OS 9.2 slowly. So I ordered a Kingston 256MB RAM stick for my iBook and it arrived earlier in the week. The first thing I did once I installed it was to replace OS 9.2 with Linux. The reason simply was I needed to be able to browse on the iBook and Firefox wasn’t available for OS 9.2 and I had heard OS X would run very slow on my Mac. So Linux was my only option and after over 1 hour of installing the OS I tried it out and was very disappointed. Although it was very responsive and it did have Firefox, I wasn’t very comfortable using it and I decided to give OS X a shot. If OS X turned out to be very slow then I would come back to Linux as my last option.
I formated the drives and proceeded to install Panther (OS 10.3) onto my ibook. Installation was brisk and in less then 30 minutes it was done installing and rebooting. When the OS launched again I played around with it a bit and I was shocked. Panther was pretty responsive and very very usable. It was not slow, there was no lag and I wasn’t even bothered by the 800×600 screen resolution. I was simply amazed at how well everything was running. I quickly copied Firefox and Adium from my main mac at home and proceeded to set things up importing my bookmarks and setting up my system preferences, everything ran extremely smooth and I even managed to install OS 9.2 in case I ever needed it.
After a week of using my iBook it has finally become my main Internet browsing portal. I am getting online from my living room while watching TV and I am really enjoying it. Sure I could be surfing from the living room with Nat’s powerbook but its not mine and even when I setup my own account on her powerbook it still always felt as if I was using HER powerbook. My previous Internet portal in the living room was my Audrey and I think I will have to find another place for it (maybe the bathroom) since because of my iBook I am no longer using it. This iBook is mine and I feel right at home with it… until the next generation of iBooks get released. So far its great and I even am posting from it right now. So in conclusion a Mac capable of running OSX smoothly cost me KD25 ($85) for the iBook and KD12 ($40) for the RAM. Unbelievable fucking cheap!
Bored of MacStumbler? Try iStumbler!
iSquint an iPod video conversion application. It’s up to 5 times faster than Apple’s method, works well with AVIs and MPEGs, and it’s free. [Link]
A while back I posted about ffmpegx on the Mac and how you could use it to convert movies you download to a format the iPod could play. Well many people haven’t been able to setup ffmpegx correctly and the videos are coming out messed up. So here is my preset file with the right settings. [ipodvideo.ffx]
A spoof site on why you should switch to FireFox. [Link]
This article discusses exactly WHAT hardware you want, WHERE to find the software, and HOW to install it. [Link]
Use an extended dektop with your iBook, iMac or eMac, not mirror mode, thats done by default, this link is to show you how to make it extended mode which Apple doesn’t allow you to do by default. [Link]
An easy to use “how to” on how to setup your Mac so that you can access it from anywhere. If you have an IP address that isn’t fixed then I would suggest the Dynamic DNS service from DynDNS which they mention because it allows you to basically keep track of your most recent IP while you are away from your home. I have been using it for some time now and its pretty cool. [Link]
The 10.4.3 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.
It includes fixes for:
– AFP, SMB/CIFS, NFS and FTP network file services
– AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access
– Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, and RAW camera support
– disc recording when creating and burning media
– .Mac sync services
– Spotlight indexing and searching
– Dashboard widgets: Dictionary, Flight Tracker, Stickies, and Unit Converter
– Address Book, AppleScript, Automator, Dictionary, Font Book, iCal, iSync, Mail, and Safari applications
– Disk Utility, Keychain Access, Migration Assistant, and Software Update
– compatibility with third party applications and devices
– previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: https://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n301984
For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website: https://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
The coolest update has to be Disk Utility: With Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, Disk Utility can verify your computer’s startup disk (volume) without requiring you to start up from another volume. This feature is called “Live Verification.” If Disk Utility discovers any issues that require a repair, you will need to start up from your Mac OS X Tiger DVD or CD and use Disk Utility on that disc to make repairs. (You can’t repair your startup volume while your computer is started up from it.)
Matt Mullenweg of WordPress has released a new anti-spam plugin for WordPress called Akismet. According to the early beta users its supposed to be incredibly accurate capturing 99.51% of the spam with no false positives. I personally won’t be installing it since I am using Spam Karma and it has been doing an incredible job catching in total over 10,000 spam comments since I installed it late September. Plus Spam Karma is free. [Link]