declutter your dock with quicksilver
Posted on April 15, 2008
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im a big fan of quicksilver. it’s the app i use every day of every week - all-day-long. this post isn’t about how i’m a quicksilver fanboy or anything, it’s just about how i use it to de-clutter my dock. if you are a mac user and dont know what quicksilver does check these tutorials out.
so basically i use quicksilver as a launcher throughout the day. since there is no real need for the dock then, i have removed 90% of what i used to keep on it. a year ago you would have seen a dock with easily 30-40+ icons. today i only have 8 [not counting the finder or trash icons], i will most likely scale that number down as well. Here is what my dock looks like right now.
so, here is the list of what’s there..
- 1. finder icon
- 2. firefox beta 3
- 3. quicksilver
- 4. trash-it
- 5. skitch [only showing because its on for the screen capture
- 6. dockables
- 7. file cabinet
- 8. downloads directory
- 9. junk drawer aka temp folder
- 10. servers [rdc shortcuts to the servers i work with]
- 11. trash
i am actually going to be looking for a way to remove the finder icon from the dock [if there is one]. for me it seems pretty useless. the finder is always on, i dont need to see the icon.
next i have firefox [beta 3], i leave this on the dock since its always open anyway. plus quicksilver crashes every once and awhile for me and, it always seems to happen when i need to launch a website. lately, i have been trying to use quicksilver to launch my browser and sites. im using beta 3 since i have had horrible luck with the last two versions of firefox.
quicksilver is always open, so this icon is always showing.
trash-it, a great little utility for the times the trash wont empty, or when i want to secure delete something. this icon is relatively new. i keep it in my dock to remind me to use it as needed. eventually i’ll ditch the icon and open with quicksilver when needed.
skitch is a great screen capture app [in beta at the moment] its only open so i can take the capture of the dock image. otherwise its closed till i need it.
dockables, these are easy to use shortcuts to things like restart, set screensaver, lock screen etc… most of these commands can be launched from quicksilver. the reason i keep it here is for the lock screen icon. for some reason i cant use quicksilver for that command anymore.
filing cabinet [stack], this is where all my files are stored. everything has its own folder and is sorter pretty well [for me at least] since everything has a folder it is easy for me to navigate through the structure with quicksilver. i leave is there in case quicksilver crashes.
downloads [stack], this is where i sort all my downloaded files. i also leave it there incase quicksilver crashes.
servers [stack], this stack contains a number of servers i connect to on a daily basis via rdc. i leave it there since its easiest for me to launch these from the dock.
lastly we have the trash icon. that is always there =)
hopefully, you see there is no need for the overstuffed dock if you use a launcher like quicksilver.
how to go paperless and declutter my life part one
Posted on April 13, 2008
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it’s sad but true, but i am a pack-rat - and i am trying to cleanup my act. one of the things that has annoyed me is filing paperwork. our lives are inundated with paper. it seems that everywhere i turn around there is more of the stuff. our hon filing cabinet at home is packed with paperwork, as are the couple of file piles that are scattered around the home and office. in the closets, in the attic and in various drawers you will find sheets of paper, magazine clippings, recipes, receipts, bills yada-yada-yada. i even have some of my dad’s collections of paper [seriously i do] from the 40’s - 50’s in a box under one of my desks at home. this collection is from when i had to go though his stuff after he died. papers that he felt were important enough to save for 50+ years. i tossed most of the papers he saved, but these are things that i knew were rather important to him.
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quicksilver crash fix
Posted on April 11, 2008
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this morning i was using quicksilver [one of my favorite mac apps] and it started crashing over and over upon launching. after some research i found that inside ~/library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Shelves there was a 600 mb history file for the copy/paste utility called QSPasteboardHistory.qsshelf. after deleting that file, quicksilver stopped crashing and started working much faster again.
i would suggest that if quicksilver starts acting up, try deleting this file. it will start to rebuild itself next time you copy something.
remove dot-underscore files
Posted on April 10, 2008
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last night i had to upload some pdf’s to a website for my wife. i was on my mac, and zipped the pdf’s an ftp’d them over to the site, dropped in a link on the webpage and called it a night. well this morning the wife gets about 50+ calls emails that the files are all messed up on the website and the zip must be corrupt. well, it was those dang dot_ files that caused a panic. most of the people her company deals with don’t have a clue about macs.
well i found this little tip on lifehacker & macworld. its a neat little terminal command that joins the dot_ files with the actual files.
1password review 1coolapp
Posted on April 9, 2008
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tonight, i wanted to write a little about one of my super-favorite-most-awesome mac apps… 1password. this is one of those apps, that i don’t know what i would do without it. 1password is so ingrained into my daily life that its almost a digital extension of me. i cannot say enough to express just how amazing the app is. aw heck, ill try anyway.
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how to get flv files to play on windows server 2003
Posted on April 8, 2008
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recently i had to figure out why flv files wouldn’t play on one of our windows 2003 servers. i had a feeling the server wasn’t sure how to handle the mime type. sure enough i was correct. here is the fix…
resetting ram in os x
Posted on March 27, 2008
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ive been having some issues with ram lately, and found a solution on apples website that has helped. i hope this might come in handy for someone else.
force os x to empty trash
Posted on March 26, 2008
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sooner or later you will run into a point in time, where os x will not allow you to empty the trash. sometimes this is due to a locked file, incorrect permissions etc…
well you can use a nifty freeware apple script called trash it or you an open the terminal and use the following command.
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
make sure that the command above is typed exactly as shown or you may screw your drive up pretty bad [i.e. delete everything on your hard drive]. so use caution when using this command.
kill the .net log-in
Posted on March 26, 2008
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i hate that .net framework requires you by default to login to your windows machine. anyhoo, i found this tip somewhere on the net awhile ago, and figured i would share… sadly, i cannot remember where i found it.
If you’re the only person using your computer and you’ve installed Microsoft’s .Net Framework upgrade, you can no longer boot into Windows without stopping at the log-in screen. To remove this step, select Start, Run, type “control userpasswords2″ and press Enter. In the User Accounts dialog box, select your own log-in name from the four listed (the others will be Administrator, ASPNET, and Guest), uncheck “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer,” and click OK. In the resulting dialog box, make sure that your log-in name is in the user name field, leave both password fields blank, and click OK.
cloning your boot camp partition using winclone
Posted on March 24, 2008
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ok, so you have xp/vista installed on your mac. after getting xp/64bit installed and everything working, i really don’t want to risk having something wacky happen to the partition. well after doing some searching i found a pretty cool little app that can help clone your boot camp partition. its called winclone and its free!
(DONATIONS ACCEPTED)
here are some of the features…
« go back — keep looking »* Clone Windows XP or Windows Vista with ease.
* Clone to your Bootcamp partition either on a separate drive or on the same that contains your Mac OS X partition.
* Creates image documents that can be stored on any media and double-clicked to open in WinClone.
* Verbose logging so you know what is going on
* Built on the open source ntfstools, which are included in Winclone, so you don’t have to install anything else.
* Fast: Restore a 10 GB image in less than 10 minutes.
* Create a Bootcamp partition from within Winclone.
* Do it all from the boot drive: You don’t need to boot from a Firewire drive to clone the Windows partition.
* Clean and uncomplicated interface