Sleep soundly with GeekTool via SleepWatcher

I'm sure everyone knows about GeekTool and how amazing it is. However, getting my computer to fall asleep with this application running is somewhat challenging -- because it is running shell commands every 15 seconds, OS X has a hard time believing that the machine isn't idle. As a result, the computer develops a case of insomnia. I have gone to great lengths to try and get my sleep working how I wanted it. I was developing a bash script that allowed the user to monitor CPU activity, HDD activity, and the most active process in order to determine whether the machine was in a "sleep-able" state. Then, a friend walks by and asks what I was doing. I explained my problem, and he came up with a brilliant solution: just turn off GeekTool. Sometimes, the simplest solution works best. This solution uses the ever-so-useful ...

published on Tuesday, the 21. October 2008, macosxhints

Reset the screen position of the Character Palette

When you connect an additional monitor to your Mac, and then drag the Character Palette (opened via the Input Menu icon in the menu bar) to that screen, you may end up in a situation where the Character Palette's top bar is off the top of your Mac's main display after you disconnect the external monitor -- making it impossible to move. To reset the position of the Character Palette, type killall CharPaletteServer in Terminal, then press Return. The next time you bring up the Character Palette, its position will be reset.

published on Tuesday, the 23. September 2008, macosxhints

Switch MacBook power on/off with its lid closed

If you want to use your MacBook as a desktop system, you can connect a USB keyboard (and of course, a monitor), and the internal screen will stay turned off that way. I rarely use my MacBook outside the office, so this setup is perfect for me. It also turns out that the Macbook fits perfectly between the stem and the panel of my Belinea o.display 24" -- which means that it does not use any valuable desktop space at all.Problem: In order to power-on the MacBook, I had to remove it out of its resting spot, to open its lid which is covering the on/off switch. Not a nice concept, Apple.Solution: I taped an old PCI slot cover to my MacBook, as shown here: Mounting 1 Mounting 2. The slot cover sticks out far enough, and can easily be bent a little bit (just about 1/4 inch), which presses the butt...

published on Tuesday, the 9. September 2008, macosxhints

Homemanageables app remotely controls automated home

Homemanageables today announced its iPhone app that will allow its customers to monitor or control devices in their homes. Users can control lights, setting them to turn on or off randomly between set time periods. Thermostats can be managed, lowering the energy needs while the owner is gone for extended periods of time. The Homemanageables iPhone app is for existing customers only, and will be ...

published on Wednesday, the 3. September 2008, macintosh-news-network

10.5: Toggle Spaces on and off via AppleScript

I use a big external monitor at work, and carry my MacBook around. I've found that Spaces is not much needed when I have two monitors rather than one. However, bringing up Spaces System Preferences panel just to toggle Spaces on and off is a pain. So I wrote a small AppleScript that toggels Spaces on and off: if (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.dock workspaces") is equal to "1" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool no;killall Dock" say "Space turned off" else do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool yes;killall Dock" say "Space turned on" end if

published on Friday, the 1. August 2008, macosxhints

10.5: Sleep all displays via keyboard shortcut

This hint is mainly useful for iMacs (I have just gotten a new one recently, thanks to this amazing website), where you cannot turn the brightness down to zero to turn off the screen as you can on Apple laptops, or to simply turn off an external monitor. I don't know if it's documented, but hitting Shift-Control-Eject (the keyboard key at top right) will turn off your screen (which is very different from putting the computer to sleep, and is very useful in my opinion). This provides a fast way to sleep the displays without using the hot corner provided by Apple in Leopard (in the Spaces & Expos?? System Preferences panel -- isn't that logical?). Also, there is a little program called Sleep Display that can do this for you, and it is useful because you can associate it with programs such as Remote Buddy to put your scr...

published on Friday, the 11. April 2008, macosxhints

ASUS hub offers HDTV-in for computer displays

ASUS has revealed the HDTV Suite-HDMI, a unique media hub that allows PC users to turn their monitors into Full HDTVs. The stand-alone TV box offers HD video up to a 1,920x1,200 resolution -- even higher than full HD, the company notes -- and will up-convert any signals it receives to 1080p. Source input selection is relatively broad as the Suite-...

published on Wednesday, the 20. February 2008, macintosh-news-network

10.5: One fix for a runaway syslogd process

After installing Leopard, I had a problem with the battery on my MacBook Pro running down very quickly. Looking at Activity Monitor showed that syslogd was consuming between 90% and 106% of my CPU. Killing the process didn't help, because it would just restart and pick up right where it left off. After shutting down every application and ending all extraneous processes, syslogd was still going crazy.It turns out that Time Machine performs some sort of logging prior to performing backup operations. I guess the process can get out of hand, which can cause some problems if you are running a laptop on battery. Fortunately, there's a simple fix:Disable Time Machine: Go to the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, then set the switch to Off and close System Preferences.Kill the syslogd process: Launch Activity Monitor (in /Applications » ...

published on Tuesday, the 13. November 2007, macosxhints

Of fuzzy monitors and the zoom feature

I've been a Mac user since the 512, yet this took me by surprise. Suddenly the type on just about everything on my desktop seemed a bit darker and a little blurry. I was convinced that my monitor was going ... or worse, the computer was not sending it the correct voltages anymore. I was minutes from getting it ready for repair, then I decided to look around a bit. Somehow I had hit a keystroke combination which barely engaged a zoom feature -- just about 1% or so, barely off of zero. I didn't even know I had a zoom feature! I went to the System Preferences » System » Universal Access, and turned Zoom off (how did it get turned on?). This immediately brought my monitor back to the razor-sharp images I had been looking at for years. Whew! A close call, based on a very simple thing that many of us forget is even there. [robg adds: The keyboard combo is Command-Option-Equals, and I think Zoom is enabled by default.]

published on Monday, the 7. May 2007, macosxhints

Use a MacBook with the main display off, revisited

There's an old tip here on how to use your MacBook with the main display off -- i.e. just using an external monitor. However, it requires that you have USB things to plug in, and it's a pain. This way is much easier. With your display on both main and external monitors, start closing the laptop lid, but don't close it all the way. Get it so that there's a finger's depth between the lid and the palm rests. The MacBook should go to sleep, thinking you've shut it. Now reach underneath the lid and start pressing some keys -- the right arrow key is easiest to reach. You may have to bend the lid up a bit, but as long as it doesn't turn at the back, the MacBook won't think you're trying to open it again. After pressing the keys a few times, the computer will wake from sleep and will reconfigure the display so that the main display is off. Now you can open the MacBook lid as far as you like -- I...

published on Friday, the 4. May 2007, macosxhints