Apple Krazy

Most all web developers, most certainly those who work with Firefox, are familiar with Firebug. This tools nevers ceases to amaze me, the ability to change information (for example style attributes) on a webpage as your are viewing the page, is amazingly useful. Version 3.x of Safari now includes the option to enable a Firebug like debugging tool called Web Inspector…

You won’t find access to Web Inspector in your default installation of Safari. However, making the necessary configuration changes is as easy as running the following command from a Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

If you prefer, you can use the Property List Editor to set the WebKitDeveloperExtras property in the Safari property file, which is located here: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safai.plist (use Finder to locate the file and double click to open). You’ll need to restart Safari after making the changes to enable Web Inspector.

To open the Web Inspector, right click and choose Inspect Element as shown in the figure below:

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Jailbreaking and unlocking are terms that are bandied around the iPhone community. People don’t always take the time to explain what they are or why they are valuable to users, so we thought we’d sit down and explain why they are still beneficial to the community at large.

Jailbreak

“Jail” refers to file system limitations put in place by Apple on standard iPhones. These limitations restrict iPhone read and write access to just a small part of the media partition. You cannot access system files at all and you cannot use the disk directly as you would with an iPod with disk mode enabled.

“Jailbreaking” opens the entire iPhone file system for use. Once jailbroken, you can read and write to system files as well as media files. You’ll be able to use SFTP, AFP, and other standard file access protocols to read and write data. For example, you can use a client like Cyberduck to move data onto and off from the iPhone.

Jailbreaking also allows you to install third-party software (typically via Cydia) without using App Store and to access the Unix command line via OpenSSH. This lets you install software that otherwise cannot be obtained through App Store such as MMS clients, video recorders, and more.

Unlocking

As for unlocking, most phones (here in the US, anyway) are “locked” to a particular network. In the iPhone’s case, that’s AT&T for the US, O2 for Great Britain, and so on. Should you want to use your iPhone with another GSM carrier, you need to unlock.

Unlocking lets you place calls with any GSM carrier by inserting different Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) into the phone. Normally these SIMs from unapproved carriers won’t work. When your iPhone is unlocked, just buy a local GSM-compatible SIM, place it in your phone, and make your calls. You’ll be able to use your iPhone around the globe without paying exorbitant roaming fees.

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We all know that installing 4gb of RAM will speed up a Macbook and make the whole experience that little bit more smoother and quicker - but what can you do NOW for FREE that will help speed your bundle of joy along and keep it’s user happier? I will tell you 6 things that will help.

1. Remove files from the desktop

Each time that OS X loads it has to index the contents of the desktop, create thumbnail icons for each file and catalog the contents of each folder there.

Do yourself a favor and move those files to the relevant folders they belong in. This will increase the speed at which your desktop loads and therefore make your Macbook faster.

2. Remove unwanted start up applications

Go into System Preferences and User Accounts. View the list of applications that have been set to start against your user name and remove (untick) any that you don’t need any longer.

It’s great to have iChat start automatically - but not essential.

You can view a list of applications running in the background by using the top command from the Terminal window or by using the Activity Monitor application.

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You can change your display contrast by using a simple keyboard shortcut:
Ctrl + Option + Cmnd + period (or >) to increase the contrast, or
Ctrl + Option + Cmnd + comma (or <) to decrease it.

If you are working on something (outside of your browser) and you need to get more information, the first thing that comes to mind is to search the web. Mac OS X has a very nice feature to search from the Dock, using Safari.

Let’s imagine you are writing a document about Napoleon, and you just can’t remember where he was born, so you want to ‘Google it’. Highlight the word ‘Napoleon’ and drag it onto Safari icon in Doc. Safari will open, search Google and return the results nearly instantly.

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Just came across an interesting discussion on Whirlpool, where a poster asks why there are no viruses for OS X. The quick and obvious answer by a few “enthusiast experts” was that the market share of OS X is so small that nobody really bothers writing any malware for Mac.

Yes, this is the most common answer you get from people who also answer “right-click” when asked what Macs can’t do that Windows can. Sigh!

I liked the reply by the user TwoFruits, so I thought I’d share his very down-to-earth analysis of the malware absence phenomenon on Macs.

There is no silver bullet answer as to why not, its a combination of reasons :-

1. OS X is built on UNIX. UNIX was a multi user system with a security architecture built into it at the beginning. WINDOWS came from a single user architecture with security and multi user capability as an after thought.

2. UNIX had networking built into it from the beginning, again in Windows this was bolted in at a later date.

3. Windows built Internet Explorer into the O/S at a very deep level, and allowed code execution within the browser. In OS X the browser is a completely separate application, its not a integral part of the OS. IMHO, this is the fundamental screw-up Microsoft made, as they created so many hooks into which someone can attack the OS.

4. In earlier Windows everything ran as the system user, so the capability to compromise an entire system was easier. (see reason 1)

5. Microsoft’s backward compatibility mantra doesn’t do them any favours as to run old software they need so many old APIs, all of which can have holes in them.

6. OS X has no registry. IMHO, second fundamental flaw Microsoft made.

7. OS X asks for your password before allowing you to run new software or install something. Not fool proof, but at least fool resistant.

Personally I don’t buy the “lack of market share” reason. Consider that in pre OS X days Macs did have viruses. Also interesting, that at that stage Macs were suffering point 1 & 2.

No system is totally safe, but Macs have a lot of architecture working in their favor.

Another jaw-dropping feature of Mac OS X when showing off to your friends - open the Terminal (~/Applications/Utilities/Terminal ) and type say command, followed by any text.

For example type: say I love Islam and press return. Can your PC do that?

Dictionary - With Dictionary as a part of Mac OS X (10.4) there is a feature that not too many Mac users know about.

When in any of the Cocoa (Mac native) applications you can hover your mouse above the word and press Ctrl-Cmd-D on your keyboard. You will get the Dictionary description for that word. Just move your mouse over to any other word and the Dictionary description for that word is displayed instantly.

And no, you don’t need to have Dictionary open at all.

A few examples of applications where this works are; Safari, Mail.app, MacJournal, TextEdit, Text Wrangler, Comic Life, iWeb. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with any of the Mozilla applications, including Firefox, Camino and Flock.

Invert screen

Another function that not too many Mac users know is “Invert screen”. Just press Ctrl-Option-Cmd-8 on your keyboard and see your Mac invert its colours.

This would be funny if you go to the Apple shop and do it so you can watch the salesperson freak out.

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Bill Gates Praising Apple