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Change From iCloud As Default Save Location In Text Edit Mountain Lion

There’s a simple Terminal command which will set the default to your local hard drive instead of the cloud, via iCloud. You can still save to iCloud; it just won’t be the first place that shows up when you hit “Save” while in a Text Edit (or other iCloud-enabled app).

To make this happen, launch Terminal from your Utilities folder, which is in the Applications folder. ONce Terminal app launches, type or paste the following command in:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSDocumentSaveNewDocumentsToCloud -bool false

Cult of Mac

The most important Defaults Write tip you’ll need in Mountain Lion.

Apple, you’ve tried your point. Can we go back to a regular sane OS now?

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Releasing Outside the App Store

Dealing with Xcode. You can only ever love Xcode in the sense that, after visiting the site of an ecological disaster, even your dilapidated, graffiti-covered, urine-soaked local park seems vaguely pleasant by comparison. A relation with Xcode is basically abusive, but I have nowhere else to go

Matt Gemmell

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The Future of ZEVO

“After the announcement was made that Ten’s Complement’s Don Brady is joining GreenBytes, we were overwhelmed with the volume of requests for clarity on the future of ZEVO. We wanted to take a few days to nail down the specifics, but we are happy to announce that beginning on September 15, 2012, GreenBytes will offer the ZEVO Community Edition as a freely downloadable binary!

As we approach the September 15th launch date, we will reveal more details about the functionality in the ZEVO Community Edition — and you should expect enhancements from the prior commercial version!”

GreenBytes Blog

Great! Waiting patiently for September then.

For those of you that don’t know what ZEVO is, ZEVO is the Mac port of the ZFS File System, a highly advanced filesystem which focuses on Data integrity and “magical” features as single-disk data redundancy (( which means that by reducing the “size” of a disk in half or thirds or more, you get several copies of the same file magically linked so that no error will make your data unreadable )) , multiple disks spanning logical volumes (( just add an additional disk and the “volume” grows in size without you worrying where stuff is placed )) and a gigantic maximum possible size. ((Zetabytes. Look it up )) Mac OS X was supposed to get this in Leopard and Snow Leopard but for some reason, we were left with HFS+ only, which has the same problems that any decades old file system has.

I have looked at ZEVO several times before, considering wether to purchase the cheapest paid product (which was meant for a single external USB disk) but if it is coming in September with full features and free, i couldn’t be happier.

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NeXTStep Origins

As Apple releases a new iteration of Mac OS X, it’s interesting to see the origins of such powerful system, and realize that what we’re currently using (we as in we Mac users) is in fact NeXTStep OS. Also, we could probably use a NeXT computer as easy as if we were using a Mac if we somehow stumbled upon a working NeXT machine today.

In 1994 i was having a MS-DOS introductory course in the old Portuguese Youth Institute. God, what would I have done if I could instead play with a machine like this.. Looking back it seems as if I was in the Medieval times while Steve came from the shinny 21st Century.

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10.8 Mountain Lion

And in case you didn’t knew, Apple has released a new iteration of its flagship Operating System, Mac OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion. Go read The Review to understand what it is all about.

Also, avoid updating until 10.8.3, somewhere around Christmas time. Let some one else do the beta-testing and bug fixing for you. (( Unless you really want to play as i do. But remember then that you will find some bumps on the road and your work can suffer from those. ))

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Growl’s response to Notification Center

“- Growl is not dead – Growl is alive and kicking – We are still actively working on shipping two future versions of Growl. Our understanding from press reports at this point is that Notification Center is only available to apps from the Mac App Store, which effectively locks out the entire class of applications that aren’t or can’t be in the store.”

Growl’s Blog

Seems reasonable. I hope they won’t go away but if the Notifications API ever goes “public” for all applications, AppStore or not, Growl will find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

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The Keychain’s Hidden Powers

“The Keychain can also store secure notes. These are just snippets of text, but because they’re part of your Keychain, they’re safe from prying eyes. To create a secure note, click on the Note icon in the toolbar. Give the note a name; then type your note text or paste it in from another application, such as TextEdit, Microsoft Word, or your e-mail client (see “Don’t Pass This Note”).

A secure-note item works much like a password item: you can see information about the note in the Attributes panel at the bottom of the Keychain Access window. By selecting the Show Note option and providing your account password, you can view the note itself.”

The Keychain’s Hidden Powers | Macworld

Was considering to write a simple tutorial for the use of the Keychain, as many don’t even realize it exists but of course the Macworld has already done such a job.

I love the possibility of writing small notes/pieces of text and keeping it secure and encrypted. I use it many times for storing personal data other than passwords and many times for keeping a “handwritten” backup of the passwords itself.

So, do yourself a favor and go read the quoted article about the keychain. You’ll be surprised with what the keychain can do and what time&life saving features it has.

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How to use services in Mac OS X

“One of the little-known time-saving features of Mac OS X is services—hidden, single-feature commands that you can access from a special Services menu, or, sometimes, from a contextual menu. These features are generally provided by applications—built-in OS X applications or third-party programs—and let you quickly preform actions that usually require launching additional programs and taking many steps. Here are answers to frequently asked questions about how to find, use, and manage services.”

Working Mac – Macworld

One of my favourite things in Mac OS X. And if you’re geekish and bold you can even use Automator or an Applescript to define a workflow and set it up as a service, thereby avoiding you wasting your time doing some menial, time-consuming and repetitive tasks.

I strongly recommend that you take some time to read through the Macworld article. And stay tuned as the second part is coming soon.

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Printer catalog

BRCL9440

Want to see something really cool?

Open Finder, select your Mac hard disk on the left, then select the /Library folder on your disk top level. Now type “icns” on the Search field (upper right corner of finder window) and select “Search: Library” and “File Name”.

You should now be watching a Finder window filled of magnificent icons representing real life printers, plotters, scanners and other assorted hardware.

Zoom in to the maximum. Scroll down. Now say “Ahhhh!”.

The realism and detail level on these things is amazing. You can actually recognize any physical printer that you use, down to the numbers on its keys. And there is an endless supply of them. I thought the nice icons i usually see on the printer preferences pane was only done to for the high price / office grade printers i usually use but it’s for all of them. Brother, Cannon, HP, you name it. On my case i can even see the Texas calculator i use.

Of course, many of these icons are in fact pictures converted in to icons (512×512 pixels max), but there are also drawn icons and pictures converted to drawing. All in all, an amazing attention to detail, even on the simpler icon level.

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Quicklook your install packages

 

One of my biggest complaints and pet-hates are the Install Packages many developers feel they must include. (( I always have the impression they’re just Windows developers that transitioned to the Mac without fully understanding it. ))

The problem is that Install Packages are a security and abuse issue waiting to happen. You are required to go back to the “dark ways” and just mindlessly click “next, next, insert password, next…”

 

to go through screens of useless information while the installer package can simply be wiping out your home folder and installing a key logger on a system level and you will never even know what it did.

A possible solution to this is a Quicklook plugin called “Suspicious Package“, a very apt name i must add. With it you can simply invoke Quicklook (( through pressing the space bar on finder or right-clicking it and selecting on “Quick Look filename” )) on a Install Package and see what its contents are.

You will now see where the installer will install files, if it haves any install scripts (and you can look through these if you understand them) or if they require an Admin password or a full System Restart to install. All without even executing the file once.

 

a quicklook on MAMP install package

A QuickLook on the MAMP install package.

The installation of the plugin itself is very simple and you just need to drag the plugin to your Quicklook folder on YourUserFolder/Library/Quicklook . If no such folder exists just create it with the exact name of “Quicklook”.

It should be noted that although Mac OS X is a very secure system, it is no more secure than any other when it comes to the user allowing suspicious applications to run with the elevated privileges of a Administrator. If an application has that privilege, because you gave them to it by typing your admin password, then the app can do as it pleases with your system. So, always go for the paranoid side of things, specially the ones that you are not fully sure of its character. Better safe than sorry…