Feb 2008

Joseph A. Cote Homepage | Mar 2008 | Jan 2008

Dock Library

February 29, 2008

Dock Library is a really cool application that lets anyone using Leopard to catalog and change their dock theme easily and quickly.

You just have to head to over to LeopardDocks.net or Dockulicious.com, and download any theme you like, then click the import dock button and select the .zip file then select it and hit set dock. Couldn't be easier!

Tags: Tech tip, Freeware

MacBook Pro Penryn Update

February 27, 2008

Finally Apple released the Penryn based MacBook Pro!

The 17" now comes with an LED backlight screen option. Both 15" and 17" models support gesture tracking, and sport the new NVIDIA 8600M GT 512MB graphics card. I can't wait to get my hands on this newly updated 6MB cache 800MHz frontside bus over my 5 year old 167MHz FSB 2MB cache 1GHz PPC with 1 GB ram... soon he will have a new home.

Tags: Apple

Firefox 3 Beta 3

February 13, 2008

I'm wicked excited for the final version of Firefox 3 to be released, which should be sometime before April. Until then though, the Beta releases will have to do... and I must say that the most recent release (Beta 3) is pretty awesome.

Other than the new Leopard-metal-rounded look, other features include: the newest version of Gecko (1.9) which is the rendering engine, cool new add on manager, the address bar also will now search your bookmarks and history as you type, and my personal favorite... over 350 memory leaking issues were fixed! As with most pre-releases, this version breaks a lot of add-ons, but the most important ones still work for me. Everyday developers are updating their add-ons to work with the most current versions too, so that's a plus. Download your copy here.

Tags: Free web service, Firefox

TimeMachineEditor

February 05, 2008

If you are like me an have an old, yet still Leopard compatible, computer you have probably noticed that Time Machine slows up your computer during its hourly backups. Well TimeMachineEditor lets you edit how often Time Machine backs up!

Your options are at an interval of specified hours, once a day at a given time, once a week at a given day and time, or once a month on a given date and time.

Tags: OS X, Tech tip

New iPhone and iPod Touch Sizes

February 05, 2008

Today the Apple store went down for a little while, as it usually does on Tuesdays, but today we were graced with an actual update! The iPhone is now offered in a 16GB model and the iPod Touch is offered in a 32GB version, both for a premium price mind you.

We'll just have to wait around a little longer for a 3G version though I guess .

Tags: Apple

How to download a tv show you missed

February 03, 2008

This article will walk you through how to download a tv show you may have missed via means of torrents. As a light disclaimer, this is not legal per sé. It is very rare that anyone ever gets in trouble, but that doesn't mean you have no chance. So proceed at your own risk... Now that the nitty gritty is said and done with, download Transmission.

Then go to tvrss.net then click on "Search"

Enter in, for instance, "House" into "Show Name" and check the "Exact" check box so that the search does not include shows like Desperate Housewives or Run's House. Then hit return, or click search. You will see a list of what shows they have available.

For most circumstances you'll want to choose a feed that is not 720p quality, so choose a file that is any other option as listed under the "Quality" column. Then click on the file you'd like to download, and save the file to your desktop. The file should look like the following:

If the file looks like that just double click on the torrent file from the desktop and it will open Transmission and It will start downloading the actual file. If it looks different, right click on it and select "Open With" and select Transmission.

For optimal downloading go to Transmission in the menubar and then click on "Preferences" click on the bandwidth tab and set your settings like this:

This will ensure that your internet speeds won't go down while you're downloading, which will keep everyone else on your network happy . Any further questions? Contact me!

Tags: Tech tip

LowKey Stand

February 01, 2008

The LowKey stand is awesome for anyone who uses a cinema display with a laptop because as you may know the cinema display is about 3/4" lower than the screen of a 17" PowerBook or MacBook Pro, on a standard laptop stand. This means you have to put something under your screen to raise it up so the two screens are level. (in my case a Rosa Parks children's book and an empty dvd case is just the right height!)

Although on the pricey side of $59 bucks, this is awesome for keeping your desk clean and the your screen at the right height, plus easy access to 4 USB 2.0 ports! Not to mention it is a very study aluminum to match the metal of the display of the cinema displays and iMacs.

Tags: Hardware

iPhonesque Growl style

February 01, 2008

Usually I'm pretty disappointed with the OS X notification system Growl styles and I just default to a plain black semi-transparent Growl style, but then came along iPhonesque.