Snow Leopard Thoughts/Mac Hacks

Hey,

Sorry I haven't had time to write in while (been really busy w/ school and work).

First I'm going to be talking a little about the new features of Snow Leopard (the useful ones), some bugs and then I'll talk a little on how you can make your Mac even more awesome than it already is!

So what is Snow Leopard? If you haven't already noticed, Snow Leopard simply adds the word 'Snow' to Apple's previous OS, Leopard, signifying the refinement-type OS, rather than a new-feature OS. Despite this, Mac OS X designers couldn't help tossing in a few new features such as:QuickTime X: basically QuickTime Pro with a new UI, this new App allows users to edit movies, watch in full screen (easier and default), movie, audio and screen recordings, and native compatibility with other file types like .wmv and RealPlayer (.flv).Resize icons: you can now make icon sizes up to 512x512 pixels (pretty big, yeah).
Like i said, save QTX, there aren't many new features. Mail, iChat, Address Book, iCal, and a few other programs have been updated 1 version, all now written in 64-bit mode.

Now because of this 64-bit-ness, some programs aren't compatible with Snow Leopard. It is gonna happen when a new OS comes out, so don't worry if your programs don't all work. Just something App developers will have to fix. With the Alu MacBooks and the MacBook Pros with the Synaptics ClickPads, there is a little bug or change that Apple added. When you four finger swipe up or down, and don't remove your fingers from the pad, then pull your fingers in the opposite direction and release, the command will be replayed. For example: I swipe up to show desktop, don't release my fingers, and swipe back down to show the active window. After i remove my fingers from the pad, the windows bounce back up again. Not a current fix for this as far as I know.

Now lets go over some terminal hacks to customize your Mac.

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Makes hidden applications' dock icons translucent. type NO where the word YES is to reverse.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
This allows you to drag widgets out of Dashboard onto the desktop. Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter. Now, if you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard and press F12 to return to the desktop, the widget won't disappear with the rest. Put NO at the end to reverse.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Shows hidden files in the finder. Replace TRUE with FALSE to hide hidden files again
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -backgroundDisplays the currently chosen screen saver to be shown as the desktop background. Press Control-C or Command-. to stop. Make sure that there is NO SPACE between /Resources/ and ScreenSaverEngine.app/ That should be like this: /Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.appNot like this: /Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app

Ctrl + Option + Cmd + 8Cool tip...inverts screen color. No terminal hack, but a cool trick. :D

First, go here in Finder: /usr/share/emacs/22.1/lisp/play
In Terminal, type "emacs"and hit enter/return. Then press Esc and X. Now type one of the things that you found in the directory I just gave you. Games like Tetris and other cool things.

Those are just a few of some Terminal hacks for all you Mac fans. I'll try to add some more in the future. Enjoy!

Isaac :)