Stop the startup sound on a Mac

Maybe the first thousand times I enjoyed the start up sound on my mac and now i'm just over it.

This lovely little freebe will have you starting your mac in silence.

-> http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/StartupSound/index.en.html

Review of NVU, KompoZer and Aptana Studio

To date I have not found an intuitive, fast and visual way to make web pages and internet applications.

I have used Adobe Golive, Macromedia Dreamweaver and some free apps I have found online.

NVU and KompoZer are from the same open source code and I really want them to do well but so far the programs fail. Expect crashing, unexpected bugs, very slow operation. Maybe they will get it together in the future but for now I would skip these 2.

Aptana studio is also free for the unsupported version and this program may just be the ultimate player in the web design and programming world. I just started using it so I can't say anything other than I'm optimistic that it may meet my html, css, php and other basic online programming needs.

Aptana can be found here -> http://www.aptana.com/

Saving your hands and shoulders stress

One simple tip to lessen the tension placed on shoulders and hands while working at the computer.

Switch the mouse to the other hand at regular periods.

Not only will it spread the work load on your body it will also improve your ambidexterity. Doing the same action in different ways is a known way to stimulate the brain to also think in different way thereby helping you find new solutions to problems.

Microsoft Office replacement FREE

A lot of you might think Bill Gates and Microsoft has made enough money for themselves. I agree and have been looking for a word and excel substitute.

Open Office delivers!!!

I have now been using it for over a month and now like it better than using Microsoft Word.

The biggest benefit is that it is FREE! I also like that the interface is easy to use and can read and write back to MS Office if you need to. In my opinion Word has gone down hill with too many palettes and has always had bugs that have cost me losing papers. So make the switch! Welcome to the open source community which is what the web initially tried to do. In addition do your part to help others get what they want and we will all be happier :)

Go here to learn about and download Open Office Suite which includes Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations and more -> http://www.openoffice.org/

Itunes must have - Menu Bar Controller!

When you are working do you ever want to quickly rate a song or see who is playing without leaving the window you are on?

This is the answer and it fits neatly in the un-used portion of your top menu bar.

You control Tunes is a must have application if you love music while you work as much as I do.

I have tried other software attempting to do this like GimmesomeTune and they fail because they do not give you quick, clean access to what you want. For instance rating songs is one of my top techniques for organizing my music. You Control Tunes gets that and puts the rating one click away with no submenus to navigate. This is also donationware which means you can try for free but should you love the program throw these programmers a bone eh :)

For more info and download links go here -> http://www.yousoftware.com/tunes/tunes.php

Don't be afraid to register this program I have not recieved any spam because of doing so.

zip through your browsing history

In Firefox and possibly other browsers you can go forward and backward through your web history by pressing OPTION and SCROLLING your mouse wheel!

Try it! Much easier than searching for the back button or going through the history sidebar.

Mac Tip - Sharing your screen

When you want to show someone how to do something on a Mac a picture often helps out quite a bit.

I was using the included utility GRAB as it will capture your screen shot. My frustration with this is that it saves the image as a .tiff and then you have to open it with another program and do a save as .jpg

Tiff is a high quality file, yet very large and not good for emailing and useless for posting in blogs.

JPG is a compressed file that is much smaller than a .tif and will display in any web browser or email.

So here is the hidden shortcut that will save your screen shots as .jpg

use keyboard short-cuts:
APPLE-SHIFT-3 for your entire screen exactly as you see it
APPLE-SHIFT-4 to select a region using cross-hairs to draw a box.

Your new screen shots are now stored in your Pictures folder under SCREENSHOTS i.e. HOME/PICTURES/SCREENSHOTS

The pictures will be named sequentially and this is a fault with this method as you don't get to name each picture as it's made.

You may need to run a program named TINKERTOOL one time to set the screen capture format to .jpg
Tinkertool can be found here http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html and it's free.