Frank McPherson: Taking a Bite of the Apple

Wed, 13 Aug 2003 02:15:06 GMT

iPodRip takes music off an iPod and puts it back on a Mac, and then imports it into iTunes. This program basically makes an iPod an effective backup for iTunes music files.

Sun, 15 Jun 2003 19:00:07 GMT

Radio Userland seems to be designed to only work with Internet Explorer, at least on my Mac. Now that Microsoft has said they will no longer develop Internet Explorer for the Mac, I wonder what Userland will switch Radio to?

Sun, 15 Jun 2003 18:58:14 GMT

I've been checking out Mozilla Firebird. So far I have found it to be a dog performance wise, and I must of installed a buggy extension because now ever time I start Firebird up I get an error message.

Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:46:37 GMT

The reason why I ended up using iDVD is that iPhoto doesn't provide a way to create a CD slideshow from a photo album. iPhoto provides a way to create slide shows complete with background music, so I don't understand why Apple doesn't provide an easy way to create a slideshow CD from that album.

Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:40:48 GMT

I procrastinated this afternoon from working on the book to play with iDVD. I put together a nice slide show of pictures that Ruth and I took when we were in Colorado for Christmas. The software is pretty easy to figure out, and it's not too difficult to put together a nice looking DVD. One thing that I wish it would let me do, however, is select multiple songs from iTunes to play on the sound track for a slideshow. I look forward to playing more with this program.

Use LaunchBar to Maximize Safari Windows

Mon, 21 Apr 2003 17:04:32 GMT

I've figured out how to invoke the Safari Maximize Window script using Launchbar. The trick is to open the script and then save it as an application. Force Launchbar to re-scan the the folder where you saved the script, and then enter an abbreviation. (My scripts folder is in my personal library folder, so I had to add that to Launchbar's preferences before it would scan.)

Sat, 19 Apr 2003 16:04:48 GMT

One of the things I really want to play around with in Mac OS X is AppleScript. Mike Wendland provides a link to a bunch of AppleScripts that work with Safari. I am sure the one that I will use the most is the script that maximizes all Safari windows to the full size of the screen. One of the things that irritates me about Mac OS X is that it doesn't really have such a maximize function like Windows. Instead the "green button" opens a window to the largest size you ever had. So if you only ever opened a window to 6" x 6" that will be the maximum size unless you make the window larger. I suppose there is irony in my irritation. In reality I don't use "windows" I use screens, and toggle (Alt-Tab or Command-Tab) through them. Microsoft Windows' maximize button makes this easy enough that I suspect many people are like me and don't really use windows in Windows. Perhaps it should be called Microsoft Screens XP?

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 15:59:32 GMT

One of the things I feel is lacking in Mac OS X is a good file explorer like Windows Explorer. Phil Windley suggests Path Finder, which is better than Finder, but I am stil not sure it is as good as Windows Explorer.

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 15:01:50 GMT

Not a good sign. I started up my "12-inch PowerBook" this morning and the Bluetooth software is telling me that it can't find the Bluetooth radio. The radio is built in. Where could it have gone? Update: It looks like others are experiencing the same problem. I'm going to shut down and pull the battery and see what happens. Then I'll try resetting the power manager. It is interesting that this happened right after I was using the PB on battery power last night, and I started up on AC power this morning. Well, that is interesting. I shutdown and just pulled out the battery. Then I put the battery back in and when the PB booted it found the Bluetooth module. Now the final test is to shut down again, reconnect to AC, boot and see if the Bluetooth module is still with us. There is some definite wacky power mangement stuff going on here, consistent with other reports on 10.2.4. I wonder if 10.2.5 fixes this? Good deal... I booted the PB up on AC power and now it finds the Bluetooth module. That's easy enough to fix. Not that I am really using the Bluetooth module right now, but given how much I paid for this PB I expect everything to work!

Sun, 06 Apr 2003 02:34:59 GMT

Today I bought a license for Launch Bar. With Launch Bar I can quick start applications from the keyboard. This now makes two programs that I have bought for my Mac, the first was NetNewsWire.

Geeking Out

Sun, 23 Mar 2003 23:13:14 GMT

I've been doing some serious geeking out this past week. First I set up an IMAP mail server, which works well with Entourage. Next I installed a Belkin KVM switch that works with my Dell desktop and the PowerBook.

Wed, 12 Mar 2003 13:12:34 GMT

Here are some tips for taking screenshots in Mac OS X.

Mon, 10 Mar 2003 00:27:28 GMT

I have received word that Archipelago does not have the ability to specify categories for Radio Userland posts.

Sun, 09 Mar 2003 19:34:16 GMT

I have encountered what I believe is a rather odd limitation in OS X. Apparently file names can only be 31 characters long. I discovered this when I tried to save a Word document yesterday with the name "Prayers of the Faithful March 9 2003" (without the quotes). OS X didn't like that and suggested "Prayers of the Faithful Ma" as the file name, which was uselss to me. I find irony in this because Macs were the first personal computers to allow long (greater than 8 characters) file names. Now Windows allows long file names, which I believe can up to 256 characters. At least, I have never encountered a situation in Windows where I attempted to create too long of a file name.

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 22:34:31 GMT

Ok, I was able to enter a post. I wonder if there is a way to specify the categories for a Radio Userland post from Archipelago?

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 22:21:18 GMT

Hmmm.. I think I just configured Archipelago to work with Radio Userland. Let's see if this works.

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 22:18:51 GMT

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that the WYSIWYG tool that Radio uses does not appear in IE on the Mac.

Moving Radio Userland to a Mac from Windows

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 22:03:57 GMT

Ok, I think I have pretty much successfully migrated Radio Userland over to the PowerBook from my Dell notebook running Windows XP. Overall the process was pretty painless. Install Radio Userland on the PowerBook, then copy a variety of subfolders over from the Dell notebook. I am aided in the migration process by having a Windows 2000 server available to act as an intermediary between the PowerBook and Dell notebook. The only thing that remains to be installed is liveTopics. I have installed activeRenderer already, but for some reason the download page for liveTopics isn't resolving right now. Until I get liveTopics installed on the PowerBook there will be some macro error messages at the bottom of each post.