Locked out of a Mac because Remote Desktop has suddenly taken a crap on you? Want to remotely enable Screen Sharing (Apple’s fancy name for VNC)? Well, as long as you have SSH active, you can enable Screen Sharing on Mac OS X 10.5 by following these easy instructions.
Want to fast forward 30 seconds at a time (commercial skip) on your Motorola 6416, 6412, or 6408 DVR? I’ve got a Motorola DCT 6416 DVR, which is used by Insight Cable here in Northern Kentucky and elsewhere, and by Comcast elsewhere. Both cable companies have kowtowed to the networks on this issue, disabling the feature. Fear not! The days those annoying ads that interrupt the TV shows you’ve already paid for are over! Continue reading
Wii is currently one of the world’s best selling gaming platform, having sold 6.3 million units in 2007 and a cumulative 7.38 million units. The unique nature of its input devices makes it so. The motion-sensitive wireless hand held controller and sensor bar combine for a unique combination of twisting, turning, pushing and pulling game play that lets players mimic movements for bowling, tennis or sword-fighting. Continue reading
Multi-touch interfaces are taking the computing world by storm. While not completely new (multi-touch research has been around since the 80’s), researchers such as Jeff Han are hard at work bringing it to the forefront of computing interfaces.
Traditional touch screens allow only one point of contact at a time. Apple’s iPhone utilizes a technique that allows for two. Han’s technology allows for multiple *people* to use all their fingers, simultaneously. Multi-touch computer screens may herald the end of the point-and-click mouse. Continue reading
I’m sitting at my Mac this morning, facing a window that looks out onto the street in front of my house, working on a web site.
I hear the throaty growl of an accelerating engine, and look up just in time to see the smear of a black car flying past. Simultaneously, I hear an enormous BOOM, and see pieces of my car showering all around. Continue reading
Here’s a cool tip from The Distant Librarian on how to silence the audio feedback you get when using the keyboard to increase or decrease the volume in Mac OS X.
Hold down the shift key while depressing the volume keys will silence the auditory feedback while raising and lowering the volume, but still show the visual cue.
Hold down option while clicking one of the sound keys to access the Sound system preferences.
Get more granular volume control by holding down shift-option while clicking one of the sound keys to increase/decrease volume in 1/4 the normal increments. Normal, the Mac provides 16 volume levels. Holding down shift-option gives you 64 increments.
Your choices for screen capture on Mac OS X are increasing, both in quantity and quality. Screen capture and screen casting is cake using these low-cost (and sometimes free) applications:
Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) changes how web sharing is set up. Thankfully, they’ve moved us all to Apache 2 codebase (a good thingâ?¢). But in doing so, they’ve disabled the ability to serve web pages contained in your home Site directory.
If you turn on Web Sharing from the System Preferences panel, it works for the main computer (http://localhost) but not for user accounts (http://localhost/~username/). Most perplexing is that Apple’s graphical interface confirms that web sharing is turned on for your personal account, but it doesn’t work. This is *very* un-Apple.
Even if you turn on web sharing from the System Preferences panel, you’ll still receive the dreaded 403 Forbidden. You don't have permission to access /~username/ on this server.
Thankfully, it’s a simple oversight on Apple’s part. Your options are two-fold. You can either set it up to activate the Sites directory in all your user accounts, or just for individual ones. I’ll cover both. Continue reading
Next time a telemarketer calls, use this slick routine to teach him/her a lesson:
Since the release of Apple’s 10.4.10 update, users (including me) have been complaining to Apple that their third-party USB web cams have lost audio capabilities. Although a bug report was issued and acknowledged (ID #5285354) by Apple, no fix has been forthcoming. In fact, Apple has stranded a large number of users in a void where iChat AV no longer has audio and video chat functionality. Continue reading