So I found the only way to correct the issue was to boot from the Install DVD. Create a new ADMIN user account and get rid of the old one.

Only problem was, when you delete a user account that has created all your folders and files, unless you create a user account with the same shortname, you will be kicked to the curb with nothing on but a pair of socks and your files laughing at you from the upstairs window. This has never happened to me in real life but I imagine it’s tantamount to the same thing… Ahem.

Here’s what you do to fix it. Change file Permissions.

2 ways you can do this. The beaatch way, which would be go to every single Get Info window and change them one by one, deleting the offending _unknown user and installing your own account with read & write permissions or, get a bazooka and do the lot all at once.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going for the bazooka every time. My bazooka? FileXaminer. First time I’ve danced with this lovely lady and we’ll see how many times she steps on my toes.

Well that was breathtaking! What would have taken me probably the rest of the weekend one by one took me about 2 minutes to complete. And that was lagging. If I had to “do it again”, 30 seconds max to change the User & Group Permissions & the Owner, Creation Date, Preview Icon… the lot. Amazing piece of software and as your Bazooka salesman, I highly recommend this fantastic piece of software which you can download from the lovely people over at Gideon Software. Or just click http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/releases/fex-leopard.dmg to download the software right away.

So now my permissions are all fixed. Hope you find this useful.

_theSheik

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But it’s setup to run only when you tell it to. Crap right? What’s the point of having an awesome personal robot doing stuff for  me if I have to tell it to do the stuff in the first place.

Here’s the fix. Get iCal to tell it for you. By setting up each Automator task as an iCal Alarm Plug-in… Let’s get to it.

1. Launch Automator, located in the Applications folder, and create a new workflow window.
2. Select the iCal category, located in the Library list in Automator. Select the Get Specified iCal Items action in the Action list and drag it into the workflow area on the right side of the Automator window. Click the + or Add button to specify the calendar or calendars from which you would like to retrieve events.
3. Add whatever cool task you want Automator to run below the iCal task in the daisy chain.
4. Select Save as Plug-in… from the File menu in Automator.
5. Name the plug-in something awesome like “WALL•E Clean Up My Open Applications”
6. Choose iCal Alarm from the Plug-in for popup
7. Click the Save button
8. iCal will be brought to the front, and a new event will be created for the workflow. Set the start time for the new event to whatever time you want. Configure the event to repeat every weekday.
9. Once the event has been configured, the workflow will run every time that calendar event tells it to. How AWESOME IS THAT!!!

_theSheik

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Well on a Mac it’s kind of different. The application itself is seperate from the windows, so you can have multiple windows open related to the application, close any one of them, and still have the application running in the background. Before the creation of “spaces” and even the utilization of window minizing, this was a nice way to close windows yet still have the benefit of the app running in the background. Take Mail for instance, You don’t necessarily need it up and in your face all the time, so by closing the window but keeping the app running, you still get to keep your mail coming in, but save the space. There are many more complicated benefits and uses for this technique which I won’t go into here, but you’ll get the hang of it once you tool around.

The best way to quit a Mac application is by using 1 of 2 different techniques.

1st Option – Using the Mouse

1. Go to the Menu Bar at the top of the screen
2. Select the Application Name in Bold ie: Mail or Firefox
3. Scroll down the menu to Quit “Application Name” at the very bottom, ie: Quit Mail
4. Apple does the rest.
5. If you have any open documents, web pages, or emails, Most applications will ask you if you wish to save the document for later use.

2nd Option – Keyboard Shortcut

1. Hit this keyboard combination Apple Key ( ⌘) + Q
2. Apple does the rest.
3. If you have any open documents, web pages, or emails, Most applications will ask you if you wish to save the document for later use.

Now… for those of you wonder why your beautiful Mac is running slow, I have a nifty trick you can add to the toolbox. Maybe it’s because you’ve got all those applications running in the background?

Check out my next article on creating an iCal Alarm to close those pesky brain drainers here.

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My dad is really, really good at email… and streaming public radio via iTunes… and using Voice Recording Software… and Skype, he’s really good at Skype… and leaving absolutely EVERYTHING OPEN. He never closes anything. He has had a computer since 1994 and yet for some odd reason, he never learned to Quit out of an open application. Now this is not exactly a skill I would put at the top of the must learn pile, but if you have a slow computer, and you have 25 OPEN APPLICATIONS, you might want to look into it. I’m just saying.

So here is an awesomely simple way to solve this age old issue.

1. First up, get a Mac.
2. Open Automator
3. Select Library in the left column
4. Select Calendar or iCal in the left column
5. Drag Get Specified iCal Items to the Main Window
6. Click the Add or + Button in the “Get Specified iCal Items” Window
7. Choose which Calendar you want to control your Techy Events. I created a new calendar called Tech Support, I think if you leave it blank Automator will create one for you called… Automator.
8. Now select Utilities in the far left column of Automator
9. 2nd column, scroll down to the Q’s and drag “Quit All Applications” over to the Main Window.
10. In the Main Window make sure Ask to save changes is checked.
11. In the Do not quit: window you can select applications you would like to leave open no matter what. I have selected my Mail, Firefox, Quicksilver, iCal & Skype. A quick way to get this combination right is to open all the Applications you love, close all the Applications you don’t and then select the Add current applications button
12. Select File > Save as Plug-in…
13. Give it a relevant name. I called my Quit All Applications. 10 points for originality.
14. Select iCal Alarm in the drop down menu.
15. Click Save.
16. Automator now opens iCal if it isn’t already open and adds a new event on the current date and time.
17. Double click the event to edit it’s guts.
18. Make it repeat however often you wish. For my father I selected it to run Every day at 9am. That way he starts fresh every morning. Set yours to whatever frequency you wish.
19. Click Done and you are away.

That’s all there is to it folks. No more sneaky applications chewing up your memory in the background without your knowledge. And no more excuses for the lazies, or the ones who just don’t know any better.

A final note. Remember to save and save frequently.

_theSheik

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TORRENTS
    Def: BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources. Instead, when data is distributed using the BitTorrent protocol, each recipient supplies pieces of the data to newer recipients, reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source, providing redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence on the original distributor.
    Basically, if you want to share a movie, you would do better to break it up into little pieces and send them individually through multiple connections, rather than trying to wedge the big sucker through the single pipe. Kind of like putting potato peels into the insinkerator. Better in pieces right?

To get into Torrents your first going to need to know where to find them. Essentialy, the online equivalent of a library. And there are tons of places to go. But as a Mac user, you’ll do best at Mac friendly places, ie: they carry Mac software. I’ve found the best places to start are…

1. http://isohunt.com/
2. http://www.mininova.org
3. http://www.piratebay.org
4. http://www.bittorrent.com

IsoHunt is by far and away my favorite. It has the largest selection and the most amount of active users.
Now users are important, you want to have a lot of people in the Torrent community because the more people that are maintaining active connections, the faster the file will download and the less time you will have to wait. However let me make this part clear, the Torrent community is a very bitchy place. Don’t expect to just come in and take what you want and leave. By this I mean, users are broken up into two different groups. Seeders & Leechers. Seeders are the users who are providing access to their files. They are the ones who you are downloading that file from. Leechers are those that are doing the downloading. Much better to be an active Seeder/Leecher than solely a LEECH. There’s a reason for the name and people have little tolerance for selfish behavior. So give just as much as you take.

So now that you’ve found the best library selection for you, and you’ve located the file you were looking for, you’ll now need software to help you do all this seeding and leeching. I recommend Azureus by far as the best software available. It’s free and incredibly customizable. You can set your up and download speeds which is critical if you hope to do anything else while you are downloading. You can download a copy for Mac OS X here at www.azureus.com.

So you’ve got the library, you’ve got the software and you are off and running. Enjoy. There’s a whole world of content out there just waiting to be Torrented. Remember to play nicely.

As a sidenote, in no way do I condone the downloading of illegal or copyright protected content. There is plenty of legal content available out there for BitTorrent download.

_The Sheik

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There is a mod_security rule on our servers that denies requests to the xmlrpc.php module.This has been implemented as an additional security measure, because xmlrpc.php is a common target for hackers who scan for outdated and flawed versions of the XMLRPC module.To solve the problem, please add the following lines to a .htaccess file in the folder that contains the xmlrpc.php file:<IfModule mod_security.c>SecFilterRemove 114</IfModule>The above lines disable only the mod_security rule which filters requests to xmlrpc.php. This way, you will be able to use your blogging application. Please also make sure that your xmlrpc.php module is updated to the latest version.      

And there you have it. Simply implement the above and all will be well.Just a note, your SecFilterRemove XXX may be a different value. You should check with your Host to be sure you are freeing up the correct security filter.Oh, and by the way, make sure to check out my comparison review of Blog Editors for OS X.

_The Sheik

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Enjoy. This is the best Mac software out there. Big thanks to opensourcemac.org for the research.

Web Browsing

Mozilla Firefox
The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world’s best browser.
Download Page

Camino
Based on the same Mozilla foundation as Firefox, Camino is a more native OS X app. Fast and simple.
Download Page

Video Player / Video Podcasting

Miro
Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than quicktime). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
Download Page

IM – Instant Messaging

Adium
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber. Beautiful, themable interface.
Download Page

Email

Mozilla Thunderbird
Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
Download Page

RSS

Vienna
Very nice, native RSS client.
Download Page

RSSOwl
Solid cross-platform RSS client.
Download Page

Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Cabos
A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
Download Page

Transmission
Very nice torrent downloader.
Download Page

Running Windows Software on Macs

Q Emulator
Run Windows programs on your Intel Mac at near native speed. Works on G4 / G5 Macs too, but much slower.
Download Page

Podcasting

Juice
Solid podcasting client.
Download Page

Video Playback

VLC
Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
Download Page

MPlayer
The interface and buttons are not as nice or as Mac-like in feel, but it may play even more video files than VLC.
Download Page

Perian
A plugin that allows quicktime to play additional video formats. (Included in Democracy Player.)
Download Page

iPod Ripping

Senuti
Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.
Download Page

iPodDisk
Copy music off your iPod in the finder, like a regular disk drive.
Download Page

DVD Ripping

Handbrake
DVD ripper and MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. Very simple to use.
Download Page

CD / DVD Burning

Burn
CD and DVD Burner.
Download Page

Privacy

Vidalia
This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using military-grade techniques. For use with Firefox see: TorButton.
Download Page

Word Processing / Office Suites

Bean
Very fast and easy to use word processor. Live word count, autosaving, more.
Download Page

NeoOffice
Built on OpenOffice.org. Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

AbiWord
A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

Wifi Scanning

KisMac
The best wireless scanner for Mac. Find wireless access when you’re on the go.
Download Page

Sound Recording

Audacity
Simple sound recording tool.
Download Page

Graphics, Photo, Publishing

Seashore
Based on Gimp, but doesn’t require X11.
Download Page

Xee
Fast image viewer and image browser.
Download Page

Gimp.app
Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features (requires X11).
Download Page

Inkscape
Vector graphics application (requires X11).
Download Page

Scribus
Desktop publishing. Complicated install, but a nice app.
Download Page

FTP / SFTP

Cyberduck
Very good all-around ftp program.
Download Page

OneButton FTP
Simple, fast FTP, with a focus on "advanced queuing".
Download Page

Fugu
Not as polished as Cyberduck, but has a side by side interface showing your files and the remote files.
Download Page

HTML / Text Editing

Smultron
Text / html editor. Integrates with Cyberduck for editing websites.
Download Page

Nvu
Visual tool for making websites (WYSIWYG html editor), comparable to Dreamweaver.
Download Page

IRC

Colloquy
Great IRC client.
Download Page Some more specialized free and open-source Mac apps. If you want too see proprietary apps too, check out BestMacSoftware.org

Media Center

Centerstage
Full-screen interface for playing audio, video, and photos. Connect it to your TV.
Download Page

Note Taking

Freemind
An innovative application for note taking and outlining. Takes time to get used to, but some people swear by it.
Download Page

Personal Finance

Cashbox
Simple, easy to use application for managing personal finances.
Download Page

Buddi
A personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background.
Download Page

MSN Chat

AMSN Messenger

More Web Browsing

Shiira
Fast, nice web browser.
Download Page

SunriseBrowser
Good webkit-based browser created with special tools for web designers.
Download Page

Seamonkey
Full-featured Mozilla browser, used to be called ‘Mozilla Suite’.
Download Page

PDF Viewer

Skim
PDF viewer.
Download Page

Screensaver

Electric Sheep
Immersive, trippy screensaver.
Download Page

More Filesharing

Tomato Torrent
Download torrents. Nice and simple.
Download Page Also see: Poisoned – Azureus

3D Graphics and Modeling

Blender
Powerful 3D Modeling software.
Download Page Also see: Persistence of Vision Raytracer – Art of Illusion – Wings 3D – Quesa – Open Media Toolkit

MP3 Management

iEatBrainz
Fills in the correct metadata (title, artist, etc) for MP3s in your collection.
Download Page

Planetariums and Outer Space

Celestia
Open-source 3D planetarium software. Akin to traveling through space (outer space).
Download Page

Stellarium
"Renders realistic skys in realtime." See what you would see if your city wasn’t so light-polluted. Used in real planetariums.
Download Page Also see: macORSA – Orbit Reconstruction, Simulation, and Analysis

Comic Viewer

Jomic
Read digital comics.
Download Page

Dance Dance Revolution

Stepmania
Dance Dance Revolution clone. Can connect to external dance pads.
Download Page

Games

Cube
Nice first-person shooter.
Download Page

Marathon: Aleph One
Engine for Bungie’s free FPS series Marathon. Play online, solo play with rich original story, many total conversions and thousands of maps.
Download Page

Zombies
3D zombie strategy game.
Download Page

Armagetron Advanced
3D Tron game.
Download Page

BZFlag
First-person tank game.
Download Page

Battle for Wesnoth
Fantasy / Strategy Game
Download Page Also see: Snes9X (SNES emulator), Frozen Bubble, PySol for Mac (card games), PLANESHIFT (3D Fantasy MMORPG), VDrift (drift racing simulation).

del.icio.us Client

Cocoalicious
Let’s you easily post to del.icio.us.
Download Page

Free File Hosting

CC Publisher
Host Creative Commons video or audio files for free on archive.org with this easy uploader.
Download Page

Quick Links

 Viewers Comic viewer: Comical
Comic viewer: FFView
OpenDocument viewing application: ODF Viewer

RSS and Usenet
RSS Reader: Feed
Cross-platform RSS reader: BlogBridge
RSS video podcast player: I/ON
Usenet Reader: OSXnews

IM, IRC, Chat
Multi-IM: Fire
Powerful IRC client: X-Chat Aqua
Videoconferencing client: XMeeting
PBX / Voip system: Asterisk

Graphics and Art
Draw on a moving canvas: Cosmic Painter
Image editor: Seashore
An artwork scaling calculator: Scaletron!
A Paint-like program designed for pixel-pushers: Pixen
A VRML/X3D Browser: FreeWRL
Video
Realtime Editing and Effects System: Jahshaka
Video transcoder: ffmpegX
MPEG convertor: MPEG Streamclip

Music and Audio
OGG Vorbis encoder (ogg is an open source audio codec): Ogg Drop
Music notation: LilyPond
Play and compose live music: Miraton
Max/MSP style realtime music and multimedia environment: Pd
Manage chords, lyrics, and projection: OpenSong

Wifi / Networking
Discover open wifi networks: iStumbler
A Prism/Prism2 driver 802.11: WirelessDriver
Fast, lightweight VNC client: Chicken of the VNC
VNC server providing remote access to the GUI, keyboard and mouse: OSXvnc

Utilities
Book management: Books
CD / DVD Burning: SimplyBurns
Disable sleep on a Mac: InsomniaX
Protect your laptop with a car-alarm style alarm: Multialarm
Remove extra languages from OSX to save disk space: Monolingual
System event notifications: Growl
System performance monitors: MenuMeters
Virtual desktop tool: Desktop Manager
Virus checker: ClamXav
Share mouse and keyboard between 2 or more computers: SynergyKM and Quick Synergy
Check available RAM: Memtest
Monitor CPU, RAM, battery, CPU temp, network, I/O, and more: X Resource Graph
Control your Mac via Bluetooth: Romeo

Writing and Typesetting
Screenplay writing and pre-production support: Celtx
Bibliography manager, BibTeX .bib format: BibDesk
Typesetting – TeX previewer for Mac OS X: TeXShop
Typesetting: iTexMac

Education
Education course management system: Moodle
Student information system: Focus / SIS
Another student information system: Centre

Programming
Development platform: Eclipse
SQL Editor: YourSQL

Math and Engineering
General purpose computer algebra system: Yacas
GNU S language: R
MATLAB style rapid engineering and scientific prototyping / data processing: FreeMat

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So you thought about signing up for Windows Live subscription. Which would give you easier access using the httpmail add-on to OS X’s Mail app but you decided against it.
That’s where If you are no subscriber, do not fret. Using MacFreePOPs interface translation tool comes in. It basically translates between web email interfaces and email programs allowing you access to your free Windows Live Hotmail right there in Mac OS X Mail.

To set up a free Windows Live Hotmail or MSN Hotmail account in Mac OS X Mail:

1. Install MacFreePOPs and make sure the freepopsd service is running.
2. Select Mail | Preferences… from the menu in Mac OS X Mail.
3. Go to the Accounts category.
4. Click + beneath the Accounts list.
5. Make sure POP is selected under Account Type:.
6. Enter "Windows Live Hotmail" under Account Description:.
7. Type your name under Full Name:.
8. Enter your Windows Live Hotmail address under Email Address:.
9. Click Continue.
10. Enter "localhost" (without the quotation marks) under Incoming Mail Server:.
11. Type your full Windows Live Hotmail address under User Name:.
    1. Mac OS X Mail probably has already entered your user name, and it’s enough to append "@hotmail.com" to complete the address.
12. Enter your Windows Live Hotmail password under Password:.
13. Click Continue.
14. Click Continue again, ignoring the error.
    We’ll take care of that in a bit.
15. Make sure Password is selected under Authentication:.
16. Leave Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) unchecked.
17. Select an existing mail server to send mail under Outgoing Mail Server:.
    1. You cannot send mail through MacFreePOPs. If you have no outgoing mail server through your ISP, you can use a Gmail or AIM Mail account’s.
18. Click Continue.
19. Click Continue again.
20. Now click Done.
21. Highlight the "Windows Live Hotmail" account in the Accounts list.
22. Go to the Advanced tab.
23. Enter "2000" (not including the quotation marks) under Port:.
24. Close the Accounts window.
25. Click Save.

And we are clear. Try it out. If it doesn’t work, try the tech support over at http://www.e-link.it/macfreepops/.
It’s donation ware so hook these dudes up.

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1. You have a Mac.
2. You love Aggregated Email.
3. You hate logging on to hotmail.com.

Following you will find instructions for those of use who refuse to pay $19.95 per month for free email. By the way, if you are a subscriber, maybe it’s time you thought about sticking it to the man and switching to any number of AWESOME free email providers. I detail the top 10 here.
If you don’t have a subscription and httpmail stopped working for you 2 years ago then check out the MacFreePOP’s service. I’ll tell how to do that here. It’s less comprehensive but still AWESOME.
Instructions after the jump.

To set up access to a MSN Hotmail account in Mac OS X Mail:

1. Make sure you have an MSN Hotmail Plus subscription for the Hotmail account you want to access in Mac OS X Mail.
2. Install httpmail for Mac OS X Mail.
3. Select Mail | Preferences… from the Mac OS X Mail menu.
4. Go to the Accounts category.
5. Click the + ("Create an account.") button.
6. Make sure httpmail is selected as the Account Type:.
7. Enter "Hotmail" (or something similar) as the Description: for this account.
8. Type your Hotmail address (something like "hmmzl@hotmail.com") under Email Address:.
9. Enter your name under Full Name:.
10. Make sure the Incoming Mail Server: is set to "hotmail.com".
11. Enter your Hotmail user name ("hmmzl", for example) under User Name:.
12. Type your MSN Hotmail password under Password:.
13. Select None under Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP):.
14. Close the Accounts window.
15. Click Save.

And you’re on. Fire up Mail and try her out. Let me know in the comments if it worked for you. Remember you have to have a Paid Subscription for the above to work. If you aren’t paying $19.95 per month to Microsoft then you’re not eligible. Check out the Free option workaround here.

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Don’t worry if you don’t know coding. An applescript is just like an application. You double click to open and Mac OS X does the rest.

• Remove Duplicate Email Addresses – download
• Remove Duplicate Addresses – download
• Remove Duplicate Phone Numbers – download
• Find Invalid Address Book Fields – download

_The Sheik

Tags: address book, os x, actionscripts, remove, duplicate

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