Posts tagged as:

mac

VirtualHostX – manage virtual hosts on OSX

by Dave Foy on January 17, 2009

I have to admit to being completely bowled over by VirtualHostX. VirtualHostX is a utility I found quite by accident, whilst looking around for a way to easily create virtual hosts in OSX. read more »

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Sync a file. Any file.

by Dave Foy on December 20, 2008

Finally! Evernote allows syncing of any file attached to notes. The missing link no more.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

VisualHub discontinued!

by Dave Foy on October 6, 2008

I can’t believe the news that VisualHub has been discontinued! I only found out today whilst cracking the app open to convert some movie footage sent by a client, via the ’software update’ mechanism.

I absolutely love VisualHub – it works beautifully, and is a key part of my work toolset, especially as more and more clients are demanding video on their websites. I can have most movie formats in FLV format in no time.

Whatever the reasons, I just want to say thanks VisualHub – all the best to the developers in future ventures.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

‘My Book’ woes over

by Dave Foy on September 26, 2008

I’ve used a Western Digital ‘My Book’ 250GB external drive for a good while now. Connected to my Mac Book Pro, it takes a bootable clone backup of my hard drive each night plus houses my 60GB iTunes library. It’s been no problem at all.

Recently I’ve noticed iTunes freezing up plus the Finder becoming completely inaccessible, even after a forced relaunch. It didn’t take long to figure out that simply unplugging the Firewire cable to the hard drive solved the issue (albeit with scary warnings about unplugging the drive without ejecting properly first).

So, something amiss with the My Book drive. At first, I presumed the thing was dying (as all hard drives eventually do) but a cursory Google search uncovered lots and lots of folks experiencing the same problem.

Long story short: it’s down to the Button Manager software that’s installed with the drive. Apparently it’s buggy and causes this very issue, but as I hadn’t until now even realised there was a Button Manager it was probably safe to uninstall.

So uninstall I did, and I’m pleased to report that all the problems are over (and in fact my whole machine, from bootup and beyond) is now zippier than ever! Yipee!!

Open up the Terminal and type:

sudo /usr/bin/uninstall-WDButtonManager

Put in your admin password, and the job is indeed a good ‘un.

Oddly, the 500GB model I have attached to the Mac Mini in the living room is fine.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Applejack is back!

by Dave Foy on September 5, 2008

Yes!! My absolute favourite Mac troubleshooting utility is now available for Leopard.

Don’t know what Applejack is? Basically, it’s a utility you can run without a Mac OS X installation DVD, particularly useful if your Mac won’t boot and you can’t use (or don’t have) the DVD. read more »

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

For the love of Things

by Dave Foy on July 11, 2008

My love affair with Things (a desktop GTD app for Mac OS X) is no secret. I use it in almost every moment of every single day, just love it. read more »

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Mac maintenance tasks myths uncovered

by Dave Foy on June 4, 2008

Sure changed my mind about quite a few aspects of keeping a Mac tickety-boo.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

ExpanDrive

by Dave Foy on May 6, 2008

I’ve been struggling with finding a way to work on files on a remote server, as if they were local. I use Textmate as my text editor and although I can control-click remote files in Transmit and open them up in Textmate, it takes a fair bit of trickery and patience to open up files in tabs, as if part of the same project, and be able to work on them properly — without dropping the connection and typically having to start the whole frustrating process again.

So it’s with great delight I’ve discovered this little gem: ExpanDrive. read more »

{ Comments on this entry are closed }