Format Jump Drives For Windows & Mac Compatibility

Here's how to use Disk Utility to format jump drives that will work in both Microsoft Windows and Mac.

Step 1: Plug in the jump drive and open Disk Utility.app. (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app)

Step 2: Select the jump drive in the sources column on the left. (Do not select the indented portion.)



Step 3: From the top half of the window, select "Partition".



Step 4: Change "Volume Scheme" to your desired number of partitions.



Step 5: Enter in a name for your partition(s).



Step 6: Change "Format" of each partition to "MS-DOS (FAT)".



Step 7: Click on the "Options…" button under the partition arrangement section.



Step 8: Select "Master Boot Record" from the window that appears.



Step 9: Click the "Apply" button and confirm your new partitions. (If you get an error saying that the disk cannot be ejected, eject the disk in Finder then reinsert it.)

Play Alerts Through Alternate Audio Device

You can change which sound-output device your aural alerts come through in System Preferences:

Step 1: Go to the Sound preference pane. (On laptop Macs, you can hit Option-Volume_Up to open System Preferences to the sound pane.)

Step 2: Go to the "Sound Effects" section.

Step 3: Under the list of available Sound Effects, there is an option for, "Play alerts and sound effects through:". Select your preferred sound device.

Disable Front Row Plugins

If you have an administrator's account, it is possible to remove Front Row plugins:

Step 1: Open Finder and go to Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app.

Step 2: Right click on Front Row.app and select "Show Package Contents".

Step 3: Go to the Contents folder.

Step 4: You'll probably want to create a backup folder for the plugins you don't want. So open up Terminal.app and run this command and enter your admin password:

sudo mkdir /System/Library/CoreServices/Front\ Row.app/Contents/Disabled_PlugIns

This will create a folder called "Disabled_Plugins" in the Contents folder.

Step 5: Go back to Finder and move plugins from the Plugins folder to the Disabled_Plugins folder. You should be able to use drag and drop. When moving the items, you'll have to enter in your admin password.

If you haven't launched Front Row since you last logged in, you should now be able to launch Front Row and the plugins you removed will be gone. If you haven't, use the following command to quit Front Row:

killall 'Front Row'

[Via]

Force Empty Your Trash

When you empty your Trash, hold the Option key. This will force your trash to empty ignoring whether files are locked or not.

Pool All Your Downloaded Podcast Episodes

Here is how to get all your downloaded podcast episodes into one playlist:

Step 1: Create a new smart playlist.

Step 2: Add a "Podcast is True" argument.

Step 3: Save your playlist and go!

Welcome2Mac: Controlling iTunes and Locking Your Mac

Welcome2Mac is The MacTipper Blog's weekly tip where all the people new to Apple's latest operating system can get Mac tips to help them better use Mac OS X.

In this week's Welcome2Mac, we'll be taking a look at controlling iTunes and securely locking your Mac.


Controlling the basic functions of iTunes is really easy. The spacebar plays and pauses the music and the left/right arrow keys skip to the previous/next song. Selecting a song and pressing enter will play that song. What you probably didn't know is that hitting Cmd-Option-Right_Arrow will skip ahead a bit and hitting Cmd-Option-Left-Arrow will skip back a bit.


The most secure method of securing your Mac is to go to the fast user switching menu and select "Login Window…"

Get the Source of Webpages in AppleScript

There is a shell program that allows you to get the source of a page called curl.

To use curl in a script, just use:

set the_source to do shell script "curl http://www.theurl.com"

Obviously, replace the URL in the above sample with the URL you want to get the data from. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with every site, such as Google search results.

Once you have the source, you then need to use AppleScript's text item delimiters to parse the text.

Take Apart Your Mac

iFixit.com has complete instructions on how to replace hard drives, fans, and all sorts of other stuff in your Mac. Just make sure your Mac is out of warranty first!

Find Current Warranty Status

You can find out your current warranty status by visiting Apple's Online Service Assistant. Just enter in your serial number and follow the directions.

To find your serial number, go to the Apple menu and select "About This Mac". From there, click on the grey text under the large "Mac OS X" until your serial number is displayed.

[Via]

View Verbose Boots at Your Own Pace

If you want to read the verbose boot sequence on a Mac (hold Cmd-V after the boot chime), film the screen with an HD camera then watch the resulting video.

Run Shell Commands as Different User

You can use the "su" command in Terminal to run shell commands as a different user. For example, if I wanted to use my "coolkid" account, I would use:

su coolkid

You'll then need to enter in the user's password.