Afloat Goes 2.0
. Until
Afloat
2.0 was released just recently! The old Afloat was great, but it
was broken when Apple upgraded to 10.5 Leopard.
Afloat is an app that lets you make windows transparent and adds
various other superfluous effects to all cocoa
apps.
A quick FREE download and you'll all ready to go! Just open up any cocoa application (Safari and iChat for example) and click on the "Window" menu item. Any option with a little cloud next to it is a special Afloat add on.
Leopard Volume!
"Sure, you can use the volume key on your MacBook or Apple keyboard to do quick volume changes, but that doesn't adjust the volume that precisely. If you want to fine tune your volume, you have to either open System Preferences or click on the volume icon in the menu bar. However, you can also tweak the volume by holding down the option + shift keys and tapping the volume up/down keys on your keyboard.
As an additional note, you can also hold down the shift button
while pressing the volume keys to mute the "pop" that you hear when
pressing the volume key.
If you want to permanently silence the volume-adjust beeping, uncheck "Play feedback when volume is changed" in the Sound Effects preference pane and it won't bother you again (helpful for podcasting or other situations when you might need to adjust your volume on the fly)."
Calibrate Your Screen
Macworld has this slightly old, yet still accurate article on how to set up your screen quickly and accurately. It was a great help when trying to match my two screens so they were similarly and accurately displaying color.
Syslogd Process
Or you could write an Applescript that says the
following:
This is what I do because I use the scripts menu item and I can
access and run this and other commonly used scripts with just a
quick click. I like menu items a lot, what can I say? 
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
In short, it's a gorgeous application that lets you organize and
edit your photos, create awesome slideshows, prints, or webpages to
show off your photos. This
video
will show you what Lightroom is and the quality of photos you can
make and edit.
Click here for some cool video tips on how to get started and use some of the more advanced features.
Evernote
VMware Fusion
Oh, you see a few distros of Linux up there you say? Yeah, Fusion
can handle any OS you throw at it... 32 or 64 bit! That includes
any distribution of Linux, Windows 3.1 to Vista plus server
editions, Solaris, Novell NetWare, Free BSD, and pretty much any
other OS that can run on an Intel processor.
With VMware Fusion you can enable Unity, which lets you run Windows
apps right on your Mac desktop right along side your Mac apps. You
can then minimize them to the dock, use them with Spaces and
Exposé. You can actually save programs to your dock just like
normal Mac apps and when yo want to open them you just click on it
like a regular application and it opens on your desktop just like
normal. Above you can see my desktop running the Windows version of
Firefox and Minesweeper right alongside with Apple Mail, Adium, and
iTunes.
You should really check it out, there's a free demo on the
VMware
site, and I found my copy for $39 on Amazon.
Sofa Control
Sofa Control
($14.90)
(or use the key in iSerial)
lets you control everything on your mac with your Apple remote.
Keynote, Preview, iPhoto, VLC, Quicktime, DVD Player, Finder, Mail,
you can even control the mouse with your remote! Plus over 60 more
applications. When you start it up for the first time Sofa Control
shows you how you can use it with a very interactive presentation
using your remote right off the bat.
This app is really awesome and the only thing I wish they would add
is support for more applications.
Above is what this what you see overlaying the desktop when you hold the menu button for 2 seconds. You get a global menu that gives you access to a whole bunch of the Finder native options. (i.e. dashboard, exposé, front row, screensaver, sleep timer, shut down, restart, also you can open any application or file).
TimeMachineEditor
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.
iPhonesque Growl style
These guys have done a great job at creating something that looks
great, not customizable at all, but looks awesome!
Missed an article? Try looking on the Archive page!
QuickLook
To install: open your hard drive/Library/QuickLook and put the component file from inside the zipped file in this folder and log out. When you log back in QuickLook into a folder and check out the goodies!
iTunes Sleep Timer
For this you'll need an application called Script editor, you will have it in your applications folder inside a folder called Applescript, unless you were trying to save space one day and threw it out, any script editor will do for this very small task though if you did trash it.
1. Create a folder called “Scripts” in the
“Users/you/Library/iTunes/”
directory.
2.
Open the Script Editor located in
“Applications/AppleScript/” folder.
3. Type the following code:
Tell
application “iTunes”
Delay 3600
Quit
End tell
*note that you can change the delay time to any other time in
seconds.
**also note that you can change the "Quit" to "Pause" if you
like.
4. In the File> Save As… menu save the script as a
application, deselecting the Startup Screen and Stay Open options.
Save it to your newly created “Scripts” folder with
whatever name you want.
5. Open up iTunes. You’ll see a new menu that will give you
access to all your iTunes AppleScripts.
The only issue with this little trick is that once you tell iTunes
to start a script it won't let you do anything within the program
until the script is done. So if you change your mind, you'll have
to force quit iTunes.
Time Machine Backs Up Too Often!
Here's how you do it:
Navigate to: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons. There you'll find a
file named com.apple.backupd-auto.plist. Copy this file to your
desktop and then open it with any text editor (or Apple plist
editor if you have it!) and look for this section:
Change the 3600 number to some other time interval in seconds, Save and quit, then replace this file back into the LaunchDaemons folder, you'll need to be an admin. Restart your machine you'll have a new Time Machine's backup interval!
Dock Separators
Dark 3D Dock in Leopard
Get your dock looking like this by going to the
Goodies
page!
Guest Login
Guests can login and are allowed to do only the things you predefine. But instead of restricting your friends, you can pretty much let them do whatever they want because when they log out the account is expunged, and the next time it's logged into it's as if it's a brand new account again. Apple reinstalls the user each time you log into this special guest account, that way no matter what your guests mess with, they'll never do anything to your computer!
Leopard
Check out some of the recent screenshots taken right from the most recent developer build that showcase some awesome new features and a great new look.
No More Dotted Lines!
Go to about:config and filter down the results and look for browser.display.focus_ring_width, then click on the on the parameter on the right and set the value to 0 (zero). This will get rid of that annoying dotted line and make your browser much nicer on the eye when clicking links!
Free iMovie HD 6
Multiple iTunes Libraries
All you have to do is choose the "Create Library..." button and you
are given the option to choose a place and a name for it.
What you need to know about what this means: This gives you the
ability to have two separate libraries on one computer under one
user. You can NOT open iTunes and use both libraries at the same
time. This option simply lets you make, or choose am iTunes library
where your music is kept. Preferences for each library are kept
completely separate. The only downside I see with having multiple
libraries is that whenever you open iTunes you will have to hold
option and choose your library.
For those of you with more than one person using the family
computer, this is a rather viable option if you don't want to have
different user accounts.
Front Row Hack
Wherever you fall, you probablty don't use Front Row. I know I don't use it very often, but it's a nice thing to have as a wow factor, and on occasion it's fun to use. Well, if you fell into the last category, my newest Helpful Hack tip is a quick and easy way to get front row running on your machine in 5 minutes and you only need to get to get your hands a little dirty for this one.
Note: This hack only works if you have an apple mouse plugged into your computer.
