Exporting iPhoto to Windows Media Center

Found Phoshare - exports EVERYTHING from iPhoto to a folder, putting EXIF data in too!

Brilliant!

Use Finder to mount smb://lounge/Users, and export into that.

But latest version 1.4.2 doesn't run for me. Logged an issue on Google Code. Tried updating ExifTool from 7.x to 8.4.3. No difference.

Update: developer fixed it and 1.4.4 works perfectly! Took 30 hours or something, but future updates won't take so long.

Help for scripting it here.

Sync contacts with gmail - no phone sync'd

Once I removed the Sony Ericsson from iSync, Google contacts no longer syncs. That's dumb. Turns out it it was a 'feature' only reversed in Snow Leopard.

Tried to set up so that sync happens without it:

http://lifehacker.com/393855/enable-google-contact-sync-without-an-iphoneipod-touch

There should be a plist file with the interval between syncs in it, but I don't have it. Someone suggested recreating the Google sync settings.

Tried to create a new address book entry and see if it syncs in the morning.

Copy iTunes music to SMB drive

Using rsync it is possible to copy only changed files to the BT Home Hub, once it's mounted using Finder->Connect To Server...

This command does it:

rsync -v -a -h --progress --delete --size-only --no-times /Users/Shared/iTunes\ Music/ /Volumes/Disk_a1/Music/

However, there is a problem in that the Home Hub, like all SMB servers I think, thinks you've made a typo when you use all capitals, but rsync is case sensitive.

This command line should do a fuzzy match (not clear from man file what that is precisely, but it looks for similar file names and sizes I gather), and delete files only after the transfer.

rsync -v -a -h --progress --delete-after --fuzzy --size-only --no-times /Users/Shared/iTunes\ Music/ /Volumes/Disk_a1/Music/

Finder in OS 10.5.7 doesn't copy to SAMBA!!!

Found this forum discussion, scroll to bottom and it turns out that others had the same problem I have - that I can't copy to a SAMBA network drive using finder. But I can save files there and I can edit files there.

It turns out that the problem probably lies with the .DSStore files that OS X is trying to create, being vetoed by the BT Home Hub.

Squeezebox Server not indexing

Found that in scanner.log (get from http://localhost:9000/settings/index.html), it was always stopping at a song from an album called Golden Gate Breaks. When I moved it out of the way (delete it in iTunes), which is being indexed (though I had turned off iTunes indexing and was only pointing it at the iTunes folder), it indexed much further.

Suggested on Forum that I could upload a file or two.

Update 21 Oct: I uninstalled it cos it's now running on the Joggler. Used these instructions.

Forcing a re-index of Adventure in Spotlight

For some time now I've not had any new Applications appearing in Spotlight, and I think other things too. Found this advice from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2409?viewlocale=en_US

on a forum. Tried adding the Adventure HDD, and it seems to have worked.

VNC for Joggler

Using Chicken of the VNC on OS X and TightVNC on Windows XP, connecting to Joggler is very straightforward. See System Tools (I think) / Remote Desktop and enable things in there.

However, don't see the desktop or the UNR menus, but everything else seems to work as I'd expect. Think it's probably configured to run without transmitting the desktop, to save bandwidth?

Google Tasks in a window

Installed the Firefox Prism addon, and made this URL into an application to get Google Tasks on my desktop (since iCal sync doesn't work).

https://mail.google.com/tasks/a/provendelivery.com/ig

Other options are Fluid (fluidapp.com)

iPhoto crashing Hackintosh

iPhoto frequently crashes the computer, bringing up the shutdown dialog but then it just crashes within a second or two, shutting down. Could be that the temperature is rising too high, and self-protection cuts in.

Installed CoolBookController again to monitor temperature.

Opened it up. Cleaned out loads of dust, and it runs about 20C cooler now.

KeySnail plugin for firefox

I found that Ctrl-Left would go back when I was editing in Firefox - closing whatever page I was editing on and losing all my changes.

Installed KeySnail plugin and it fixes this problem rather nicely, if I configure the right keys. Also get Home and End keys doing what I want now.

Keychain Integration Plugin for Firefox on Mac

This addon integrates keychain with safari - seems to get keys okay.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13509/

ClamXav anti virus

Installed OS X client for ClamAV. Installs ClamAV for you and works just fine.

Glims Safari plugin

Adds more search sites and preview of top N search results.

Undo accidental close of a tab!

Restores Safari's state on reopen!

Allows separators in bookmarks, and right click to add a new folder to the bookmarks toolbars.

Very good so far!

Update 24 June: uninstalled cos it seemed to make Safari unstable. Hard time doing it - had to find / -iname *glims* and remove everything I found, rather than trust their uninstaller.

Update 21 Oct 2010: found one I missed, in Library/LaunchAgent. Perhaps it was causing all the glims-related error messages in the console (think they were saying glims couldn't be started - what was it doing trying to start glims when safari wasn't running. Very devious software).
Eventually found that even uninstalling AdBlock didn't stop Safari hanging up - so switched to Firefox and now there is a plugin for Keychain Integration.

Spark - keyboard shortcuts on mac

Spark V 3.0 allows you to make keyboard shortcuts for loads of different things. Works v well with F1->F5 mapped to iTunes keys.

OS X Password Assistant

Create random passwords using Keychain's built in dialog box, but stand alone.

http://www.codepoetry.net/products/passwordassistant

Another, better display mirroring solution

http://www.fabiancanas.com/Projects/MirrorDisplays/

Put that in Utilities, use Spotlight to find it if the display gets garbled, you're away.

Potential help on 10.5.8 upgrade

http://www.hutsby.net/2009/09/msi-wind-updating-to-1058-on.html

Basically looks like video drivers get hosed, so need to reinstall the kernel extensions.

Projectors in os x on Advent

I found that when I connected a projector, display went all garbled. Found suggestions that this was the 'mirrored display' mode of OS X, which is known to be broken in the graphics drivers on the Wind/Advent 4211.

There was a suggestion to enable the "show display settings in menu bar" or somesuch, which I did, and then hover the mouse button over the icon when plugging a projector in, press down twice, then enter. That disables mirror mode, which seems to be enabled by default when a projector is plugged in.

Did that. It works.

Then had to use DisplayConfigX to remove the 100Hz settings that the monitor didn't like, reboot, mac says it's now at 1024x768 60 Hz, projector says 1280x768 (it is 1280x800 native), everything looks about right in terms of aspect ratio.

Recovering Safari crash at startup

Found that Safari wasn't starting up after one of the annoying crashes I have had lately. Google turned up an article that proposed deleting a whole host of files. In the end I just had to delete com.apple.Safari.plist from ~/Library/Preferences/ and it came back to life. The file did look like it had non-ascii garbage at the front before it was deleted, but the fresh version didn't (though it had some at the end).

Had to reset home page, plus settings like opening up browser pages in a new tab, fill in usernames and passwords when known, in Safari->Preferences.

MacFuse

A while back I installed MacFuse from Google. Now I want SFTP installed. But after downloading binaries from googlecode's page as suggested, it was a bit tricky to get the right settings.

Macfusion helped, because it does it all via a GUI. I initially thought I had to do it by the command line using -p 2222 and adding the defer_permissions option, because when I didn't have that option it thought everything was unavailable. See this page. Then I found that I could add -o defer_permissions to the SSHFS options in MacFuse, for that connection. Now it works fine!