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Archive for October, 2007

I’m sure there are quite a few Mac users who like the 3D Dock in Leopard but can’t stand the glowing dot indicating application that is running. I’m also sure that quite a few users would love to see the return of the black triangle indicator to the Dock.

triangle_dock.jpg

It’s possible, and in fact fairly easy. Ready to do some drilling into the OS X ?

First, you need the triangle, of course. Download indicators.zip and unpack it on your Desktop. The files are:

  • indicator_large.png (42 x 14 pixel)
  • indicator_medium.png (32 x 11 pixel)
  • indicator_small.png (14 x 8 pixel)

Why three of them? You will notice later that, continue reading…

There are a few ways of using built-in Dictionary in Mac OS X

You can simply open the Dictionary from Applications folder and key in your search criteria:

d_app.jpg

When in Cocoa applications, such as Safari or Mail (but not Firefox, Camino, Thunderbird), you can hold Ctrl+Cmnd+D on your continue reading…

Some users have experienced the blue screen of death while installing Mac OS X Leopard. Installation goes fine until your Mac reboots, but then you are stuck with the blue screen, with your mouse pointer being the only thing working.

A cold restart doesn’t help either, you come back to the blue screen again. Some users have contacted Apple and have been told to wait for 2 – 3 hours and the installation will continue (oh, yeah right!), but this seems to be going nowhere.

The problem seems to be a process or an application that loads at start up and then hangs. In many cases, including myself, the application causing this problem is Application Enhancer (you had the Clear Dock installed, haven’t you?).

If you are reading this before upgrading your computer, go and remove the Clear Dock now. If you are already at the stage of pulling your hair – worry not, there is a bit of work to do, but it’s likely to be fine after that.


Reboot your Mac while holding Cmnd-S on your keyboard. Your computer will boot into the single user mode, no graphics, only the good old command line.

To modify files you need to type the following

/sbin/fsck -fy (then press return)
/sbin/mount -uw / (then press return again)

You can either go straight to their respective folders to delete these four files, or you can do it in one go by typing the following commands and pressing return on your keyboard after each line:

rm -rf /Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

Now reboot your Mac from the installation DVD, open Disk Utility and repair the permissions. Reboot again, this time your Mac should boot into Leopard.

Unfortunately Finder has no option to show hidden files. But if you open the Terminal and ask your computer nicely – it will display the hidden files. This is how you do it.

Open ~/Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

and press return. Then restart the Finder by either typing

killall Finder

and pressing return, or hold down Ctrl+Option while clicking on Finder icon in the Dock and select Relaunch.

Relaunch OS X Finder

To disable displaying the hidden files, just repeat the process above, only replace the word true with false.

The two Best Skins Ever (BSE) sets for our two iPods have finally arrived today. There is no retail package, each skin comes on two sheets in the envelope, with an invoice and the URL to “How to install” page on BSE website. There is also a warning not to store them face to face, because they’ll stick.

The first step was to make the solution, basically the soapy water. I used 100 ml cold water and few drops of the liquid soap, just enough to make things somewhat ‘slippery’ continue reading…

Just got a new iPod touch yesterday and already had a bit of trouble having it in my pocket all day today while out with the family. I was freaking out every time I drop the keys into my pocket, even tough I checked first that the iPod is in the other one, like three times …

ipod touch and ferrari model car

So the task for this evening was to find some protection for the new toy. After I nearly bought a leather case, I came across BSE website and surprise, surprise… the iPod touch skin is already available. Sweet. So I placed an order for two iPod touch Total body skins (one for me and one for my wife… our iPods that is).

Good thing is that the skin is very inexpensive, normally $7.99 (USD) but BSE have them on sale for $5.99 each. The postage is also not a killer, only $1.50 for the lot to Australia, and if you order three skins then the postage is free to anywhere in the world.

Update 18/10/2007: The skins have arrived today, read my review here.

So, if you are after the new skin for your iPod touch, head straight to BestSkinsEver website and get some.