Art Of Geek

Time Machine & AirPort Update breaks 10.5.2 Combo Update [Update 2]

[Update 2] So I recently attempted to re-apply the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo update to my MacBook Pro in the hopes that it would fix an annoying little bug that is preventing the contents of my Desktop folder to get dynamically updated. To my surprise, when I went to select my boot volume to install on, the Installer wouldn’t let me continue stating:

“You cannot install Mac OS X Update Combined on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.”

At first I thought my OS installation was corrupted, but before I reached for my Leopard install DVD to do a clean install I decided to investigate whether one of the recent Apple software updates may have caused the problem. Read on to see the results of my investigation.

Continue Reading 14 comments March 25th, 2008

Classic Lode Runner, on your Mac OS X Dashboard!

Mention “Lode Runner” to any veteran computer user and chances are they’ll not only be familiar with it, but they’ll have fond memories of playing it. It’s been remade so many times and for so many platforms over the years that many younger gamers are probably familiar with it as well. It was after the topic came up with a friend and fellow computer veteran earlier today that I became determined to find a version of the game I could run on my Mac. While there are one or more Lode Runner-like shareware games for Mac OS X, it became clear to me after a bit of searching that if I wanted the original Lode Runner, I was going to have to run it under emulation.

The world of emulators on the Mac is very diverse. I had a lot of choices available to me of which version of Lode Runner I wanted to run, on which computing platform and using which emulator. I ended up choosing the original Lode Runner game running on the Apple II, and rather than using a traditional emulator, I decided to go with one that came packaged as a Dashboard widget, that way I could quickly jump into a game of Lode Runner no matter what I was in the middle of doing, and just as quickly put it away when I’ve had my fill. Following these step by step instructions, you’ll be able to get your Lode Runner on too.

1. Download the AppleIIGo Dashboard widget from the developer’s website and then click “Install” and “Keep” when Mac OS X prompts you asking if you want to download and install the widget.
2. Download the Apple IIe ROM image from here. Extract using Stuffit Expander.
3. Download Lode Runner for the Apple II from here and unzip it.
4. Call up Dashboard, and click the bottom right hand corner of the AppleIIGo widget where the little “i” is.
5. On the backside of the AppleIIGo widget, click the “Disks” button, followed by the “ROMs” button. Two Finder windows will open. Click the “Done” button to flip the widget over.
6. Drag the file APPLE2E.ROM file that you unstuffed in step 2 to the Finder window named “ROMs”.
7. Drag the file named loderunner.dsk that you downloaded and unzipped in step 3 to the Finder window named “Disks”.
8. Call up Dashboard again and click on the little “i” to bring up the AppleIIGo settings again.
9. Select “loderunner.dsk” from the “Disk Drive 1:” popup menu, and then click the “Restart” button.
10. Play Lode Runner.

Here are the controls:

A more complete list of controls and commands are available here, including editing commands for creating/modifying your own levels.

Hit any key to start a game. Collect all the barrels until the exit ladder appears, then climb up the ladder to move onto the next level, all while avoiding the bad guys chasing you. Remember that bad guys will pick up barrels they walk over, which they will drop sometimes on their own or when they fall into one of the holes you’ve dug.

The only two caveats with playing Lode Runner like this is that there is no sound (the AppleIIGo emulator doesn’t support sound), and the screen can be a bit small. Those shouldn’t really get in the way of some good old school fun though, since the sound isn’t important to gameplay, and the graphics are simple enough that you shouldn’t have a problem seeing all the detail you need. Of course, you can theoretically play any Apple II game using the AppleIIGo Dashboard widget. If you successfully get any other classics running, tell our readers about it in the comments!

Have fun, and let me know what level you manage to reach. So far, I’m up to level 5.

13 comments March 3rd, 2008

Set Safari’s window size with one click of the mouse

OK, here’s a hint I think a lot of you Windows switchers are going to love, and I’m sure more than a few long time Mac users will appreciate as well. I love Safari. I think it’s the best web browser out there. My primary Mac is a MacBook Pro that I use in a dual monitor setup at home, connected to a 24″ widescreen monitor, and on it’s own when at work or on the road. I use Safari all the time, no matter where I’m at, and one thing that can be annoying is having to manually move/resize my Safari window whenever I switch between single and dual monitor set up. Since Safari is always running, this is something I have to deal with at least twice a day.

For the longest time I got around this by using an AppleScript, which I placed inside my ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Safari/ folder (where “~” represents my home folder). Then whenever I’d switch monitor setups, I’d simply run that script from within Safari via the AppleScript menu on the top right side of the menubar. The AppleScript menu can be enabled using AppleScript Utility located in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder. For those interested, this is the script I used:

tell application "Safari"
set the properties of front window to {bounds:{1, 23, 1200, 1194}}
end tell

You can copy and past that code into Script Editor and save as a script with an appropriate name like “Set Window Size - External Display”. Just substitute your own values inside the curly brackets. The values correspond with x,y screen coordinates measured in pixels from the top-left edge of the screen, and indicate the location of the top left and bottom right corners of the window. In this case, my script told Safari to set the top left corner of the front window to 1 pixel from the left and 23 pixels down (to accomodate the menu bar), and the bottom right corner to 1200 pixels from the left and 1194 pixels down.

This script has worked well for me for several years, but it wasn’t quite as convenient as I would have liked since it required me to navigate and click on the Script menu, then click on the script I wanted to run. Being the lazy computer user I am, I’ve longed for a solution that would take one less click and would be even easier to activate. Then one day, I came across a useful hint in the ehmac.com forums about this simple javascript that you could save as a bookmark that would make Safari’s window full-screen:

javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);

This was in response to a Windows switcher who really missed a simple way to make his browser window go full screen like Windows does when you click the maximize window. Thought it was pretty handy, so I added it to my Safari Bookmarks bar and called it “Full Screen” and left it there untouched for several weeks. Turns out I never want my Safari window to fill my screen since my displays are all fairly large and wide.

I guess today I had an epiphany. Lightning had just struck my brain (that had to hurt)*. If a Javascript can set my window full-size, then it should be able to set the window to any arbitrary size. Looking at the full screen javascript, it was ridiculously obvious how to modify it to fit my needs. Simply substitute the desired width and height in the resizeTo section like so:

javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(1200,1170);

You could even specify a custom window position by changing the x,y coordinates in the moveTo section if you wish.

This in itself is quite brilliant, but still a bit inelegant having bookmarks named “Full Screen” and “Big Monitor” taking up all that space on your Bookmark bar. So I came up with some nice simple bookmark names that visually represented what I wanted to accomplish in a way that would look a bit like an icon, and take a minimal amount of space on my bookmark bar, as seen in the image to the right. So from left to right, I have |-| to resize the Safari window for my small display, |+| to resize the window for my large display and |‹›| to resize the window full screen.

This is how they appear in my Bookmarks window:

Just to clarify, the “|” character is achieved by pressing shift+\, and the ‹ › characters are created by pressing shift+option+3 and shift+option+4 separated by a space on a Mac. These symbols are smaller than the standard less than and greater than symbols “< >” and make for a nicer looking icon in my opinion. I was also trying to make all three “icons” appear as similar in size as possible for consistency sake and to strengthen the illusion that they are icons. What you name your bookmarks doesn’t make any difference to how they work, so be creative if my choices don’t fit your likes or needs. If you think you’ve improved on my names, let me know in the comments!

Having one-click access to these controls directly within the window is not only more convenient, but also more intuitive. It may not seem like a huge improvement over my previous AppleScript solution, but when you do the same operation multiple times a day, every day of your life, all those clicks really add up. Sometimes, it’s the little things that make all the difference.

5 comments February 29th, 2008

iNdependence 1.2.1 enables YouTube on non-AT&T activated iPhones

The iPhone development community has released iNdependence 1.2.1, an update to the iPhone activation/hacking tool that now enables YouTube functionality on non-AT&T activated iPhones. I’ve tested it and it works beautifully. This program is in my opinion the most important tool for hacking the iPhone using a Mac.

You can download the latest version from the iNdependence project page.

Add comment September 15th, 2007

Reason #1,687,592 why Apple ROCKS

I have been on a quest for the ‘perfect’ mobile phone for several years now, buying a new one every 6-9 months, but never being quite satisfied with any of them. I think the quest started back in 2003 when I bought a Sony Ericsson T68i, my first BlueTooth equipped phone, and was able to synchronize it wirelessly with my Mac using iSync. Every phone I bought since then could sync contact names and phone numbers with Mac OS X’s Address Book, and appointments with iCal but I have been forever plagued by a desire for a phone that can sync full addresses and contact notes with the same simplicity. In other words, I wanted something that could finally allow me to ditch my Palm PDA in the garbage forever.

Back in November of last year, a friend of mine IM’d me and told me about this new smartphone he had purchased. I told him what I was looking for in a phone, and he told me his phone would do all that, and synchronize contact photos to boot. I was skeptical, because I was starting to give up hope that any device could live up to my high expectations, short of Apple making a phone of their own*. But I was curious to see what benevolent creation my friend possessed. That phone was a Nokia E61, and after a short demonstration and a bit of a test drive, I was convinced. The next day I bought an unlocked Nokia E61 from a local reseller, and kissed my Motorola RAZR V3i and Palm TX goodbye.

The latest version of Mac OS X’s iSync at the time didn’t directly support the Nokia E61, but a free plugin available off the Internet quickly solved that problem. I just had to drag the plugin into a specific location on my hard drive, and iSync suddenly recognized and worked with my phone, like they were designed for each other from the beginning.

So last night, the Mac OS X 10.4.9 update dropped via Software Update, and I quickly went about downloading and installing it. The installation went without issue as expected and I was quickly back up and running with no muss or fuss. But this morning, when I went to launch iSync to sync up my phones with my MacBook Pro, I was greeted with this message:

My first thought was, “where the heck did I install that plugin?” My second was, “oh no, I might not be able to sync my E61 until an updated plugin gets released!” Well, looks like Apple’s iSync developers read my mind because they seem to have anticipated my concerns and dealt with them ahead of time. I proceeded to click on the little arrow to the right of the plugin name in the dialog box, and was pleasantly surprised to see a Finder window pop open with the offending plugin highlighted. All I had to do was drag the file to my Desktop to disable it. Then I relaunched iSync, re-added the Nokia E61 to the list and it was instantly recognized. Seconds later, I was syncing it without issue. I no longer need to use a third party plug-in because iSync now has built-in support for the Nokia E61.

Once again, Apple has exceeded my expectations by obsessing over the little details so I don’t have to waste my time. After this positive experience, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like had I gone through the same ordeal on Windows or Linux. Having used and supported the former for years, and dabbled a bit with the latter, I think I’ve got a pretty good idea what that would have been like.

*Of course, we all know Apple has decided to make their own smartphone, the iPhone, which is slated for release in the US in June. No firm release date has been given for Canada, although Rogers Wireless has apparently said they would be the exclusive carrier in the Great White North. For the record, as much as I do like my Nokia E61, I do plan on replacing it with an iPhone as soon as they arrive north of the border. A mobile phone that is as well thought out as Apple’s other products is, will be utter mobile nirvana.

1 comment March 14th, 2007

Blog Sighting: Display The Date In The Mac OS X Menu Bar

Any Mac user knows you can display the current time in the right side of the menu bar. Most even know you can set it to also display the day of the week, and that clicking the clock will pull down a menu which displays today’s date.

If you’re like me, you often want to know what today’s date is, and you find having to click the clock or bring up Dashboard to check the Calendar widget to be a tad inconvenient. Sure you could leave iCal running, which will display today’s date in it’s Dock icon, and you can’t be sure you’ll leave it running all the time.

Today I came across a great hint on Macinstruct (by way of MacDailyNews), which explains how to get the date to display with the time in the menu bar, by customizing the time format in the International preference pane. Click the following link to read the full step-by-step instructions.

Macinstruct Tutorial: How to Display the Date in the Menu Bar

Macinstruct seems to be a new website, so they don’t have too much content up yet, but I’m going to keep my eye on it as it looks like it might be a great resource for useful Mac OS X hints in the future. They have a few other hints and tutorials in their How-Tos section, so check it out!

3 comments February 20th, 2007