Small list of useful Mac stuff.

Computer issues and app recommendations
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JQW
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Postby JQW » 06 Jul 2006, 19:27

Balboa wrote:
Balboa wrote:Given that I am on the brink of buying an Intel mac and one of the primary uses will be copying DVD's (some with copy protection), will I be faced with a problem? If I cannot download MTR, what can I do?


Can anyone give guidance on this?


If stuck for a copy of MTR I can find one for you. It's still up on some FTP sites. It won't be a universal binary, of course.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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The Prof
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Postby The Prof » 06 Jul 2006, 22:00

Balboa wrote:
Balboa wrote:Given that I am on the brink of buying an Intel mac and one of the primary uses will be copying DVD's (some with copy protection), will I be faced with a problem? If I cannot download MTR, what can I do?


Can anyone give guidance on this?


No one on this site copies DVDs with copy protection. That would be a bit naughty, but if they did - I guess they would type "mac the ripper" into google and see what happened.

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Balboa
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Postby Balboa » 07 Jul 2006, 09:31

Classic Prof wrote:
Balboa wrote:
Balboa wrote:Given that I am on the brink of buying an Intel mac and one of the primary uses will be copying DVD's (some with copy protection), will I be faced with a problem? If I cannot download MTR, what can I do?


Can anyone give guidance on this?


No one on this site copies DVDs with copy protection. That would be a bit naughty, but if they did - I guess they would type "mac the ripper" into google and see what happened.


Of course. And many thanks to both yourself and JQW.
Of course, I was mostly stoned at the time.

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JQW
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Postby JQW » 12 Jul 2006, 17:36

iSpazz - iTunes visualisation plugin for models with a keyboard backlight.

http://web.mac.com/keindesign/iWeb/Site/iSpazz.html
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby The Prof » 15 Jul 2006, 10:07

JQW wrote:iSpazz - iTunes visualisation plugin for models with a keyboard backlight.

http://web.mac.com/keindesign/iWeb/Site/iSpazz.html


bit of an unfortunate name, but then again, looking at what it does it's kind of appropriate.

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Postby JQW » 20 Sep 2006, 17:13

I've removed iSpaz as it caused problems in iTunes when not even the active Visualisation doobry, making the keyboard light go out between tracks.

Here's a handy tool for Intel Mac owners with Core Duo processors- it monitors the CPU temperature and tells you your CPUs current speed, which may be less than the actual speed to save power.

http://macbricol.free.fr/coreduotemp/
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby JQW » 04 Oct 2006, 15:57

Perian - a free Quicktime plugin for handling extra video file types.

http://perian.org/
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby bhoywonder » 04 Oct 2006, 17:18

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboar ... lator.html

Cracking English to Pirate translator widget. I say cracking, it's actually quite shit.

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Postby JQW » 22 Dec 2006, 10:49

http://download.ninjakitten.us/Snjor.dmg

Free snowfall screen hack.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby JQW » 06 Jan 2007, 15:05

http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/

This is a continually expanding collection of free screensavers which first appeared on Unix systems around 15 years ago. There's now over 200 of them. Quality varies considerably.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby JQW » 07 Jan 2007, 13:07

The Apple Developer Connection has a beta preview of Dashcode, the Dashboard Widget generation tool that will be shipped as standard with Mac OS X 10.5. The widgets created with the preview will work with Mac OS X 10.4.

http://developer.apple.com/tools/dashcode/index.html

I've just grabbed it and in a minute or so have built a widget for automatically playing a particular podcast automatically.

You need to register an account top be able to download it. Registration is free.
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Postby The Prof » 16 Jan 2007, 13:03


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Postby JQW » 25 Jan 2007, 00:39

iLinkPod - free tool to unhide the audio files on an iPod.

http://www.ilinkpod.com/

I've just used it to restore the contents from ancient 10GB iPod.
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Postby JQW » 31 Jan 2007, 14:33

A clever screen saver for Mac OS X 10.4:

http://www.objective-cocoa.org/fenetres ... ex_en.html
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Mac OS upgrading?

Postby Hag-man » 03 Feb 2007, 00:32

Friend of mine has a base-model (bought about 4 years ago) Mac, running OS 9.

She needs to upgrade to OX 10, according to her potential broadband supplier.

I know nothing about Macs, and she knows even less.

What's the deal? Are there various stages of OS X? "Tiger" appears to be the latestone. I don't think she even has a DVD drive in her machine - should I find out the specs before deciding on a version?

And once decided, should she buy a copy from an Apple store, or are there other ways around it? :wink:

Any advice would be welcome.
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Postby JQW » 03 Feb 2007, 00:57

Mac OS X 10.4 is the current version. Tiger is the code name for that release, previous ones have been Panther, Jaguar, Puma and Cheetag. Leopard is the code name for 10.5, due to be released soon.

Retail copies of Tiger only come on DVD, but there's a coupon inside the box to allow you to swap the DVD for CDs. However if the machine's only got a CD drive it's probably not up to spec to run Tiger. There's a minimum spec for each release which limits what it can be installed on. For example 10.3 will only install on a Mac with integrated USB.

What model Mac is it (including CPU speed), and how much RAM has it got?

If it was bought 4 years ago it probably came with Mac OS X 10.1 or 10.2 pre-installed.
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Postby Billy Bodega » 03 Feb 2007, 02:06

I think you're still reasonably safe running the older versions, as long as you exercise a little caution with regard to where you go (websites and such) and what you download.

Any news of a release date for Leopard, yet? I'm buggered if I'm buying a new machine, then paying again in a few months for a new OS version... :lol:

(soz, wrong thread really :oops: )

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Postby Hag-man » 03 Feb 2007, 07:34

JQW wrote:What model Mac is it (including CPU speed), and how much RAM has it got?

If it was bought 4 years ago it probably came with Mac OS X 10.1 or 10.2 pre-installed.


It's an iMac - PowerPC G3 - 350mHz - running OS 9.0.1.4, with a CD-ROM drive only. Not sure on the ram - had to find this info by remote control. The machine may in fact be older than 4 yrs....

Assume a ram upgrade would be economically do-able if needed - otherwise she would stick with it as is and forgo the benefits, if any, of a step-up to OS X.
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Postby JQW » 03 Feb 2007, 12:31

Hag-man wrote:
JQW wrote:What model Mac is it (including CPU speed), and how much RAM has it got?

If it was bought 4 years ago it probably came with Mac OS X 10.1 or 10.2 pre-installed.


It's an iMac - PowerPC G3 - 350mHz - running OS 9.0.1.4, with a CD-ROM drive only. Not sure on the ram - had to find this info by remote control. The machine may in fact be older than 4 yrs....


It can take up to 1GB, then. It'll be a model using the second style of case, I think, so it'll take two PC100 DIMMs in the slots accessible by lifting the panel on the underside at the rear. Older iMacs were far harder to upgrade as you had to remove the whole logic board.

As for the release of Tiger, it probably won't be for at least a month or two. There is an Apple event scheduled to take place in just over a two of weeks at which they're going to launch some new products. Leopard could appear here along with new releases of iLife and iWork, or it could be used to announce new hardware. For certain iTunes 7.1 is due anytime, as the Apple TV box needs it, and this will most likely be included with iLife.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

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Postby JQW » 25 Feb 2007, 12:50

Leafcutter John has a tool called Forester on his website. http://www.leafcutterjohn.com/

It will take an audio CD an create an infinitely evolving trance/drone composition from it.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell


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