Bring Back the Old Dictionary Behavior in Snow Leopard

In Snow Leopard, every time another app requests a definition from Dictionary, it opens in a new Dictionary window. Type "defaults write com.apple.Dictionary ProhibitNewWindowForRequest -boolean yes" without the quotation marks into Terminal to bring back the old behavior so that as you spotlight terms and hit "return", each one will open in the same window like the olden days.

X-Ray Your Folders w/ QuickLook in Snow Leopard

Type "defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders -boolean yes" without the quotation marks into Terminal, then restart Finder (I like to use TinkerTool to add the "Quit" item to the Finder menu, so a simple "command-Q" will do the trick).

Now, when you QuickLook a folder, instead of a bland folder icon, you will see a motion-picture x-ray of its contents. It's more eye-candy than utility, but still. Macs are kind of both.

Paste Your Second-to-Last Clipboard Contents

...or the contents from 50 clipboards ago, with the elegant Jumpcut.

My only caution is that if you use it to copy and paste passwords, you should probably clear its contents at the end of your day.

Intelligently Renaming Tons of Files at Once

Name Mangler smoothly helps you rename whole batches of files with lots of neat options. Free to use, donations requested. In fact, everyone should donate to these folks so they'll release a 64-bit version. (It works fine as it is, though, to be honest.)

MacWorld Feb. 9-13 in San Francisco

I'm considering going (only $25 for the Expo only pass - why not take a little trip down to the bay area to see my aunt?). Details here. Do me a favor and use priority code LS16300.

Have your MacBook lock itself when you get up to order coffee.

I work out of coffee shops all the time. It would be nice if my MacBook would just know when I stand up to go to the bathroom or order coffee - I don't need people mousing over to my bank website or iChat window when I turn my back on my computer, ya know? But it's not just that; I would love it if the minute I sat down, my Mac would just know I'm back and unlock itself.

Done and done, with Airlock. You install a preference pane and in 5 seconds it pairs with your iPhone via Bluetooth. You walk away, your Mac locks. You walk back, it unlocks. Not bad for $7.77.

[UPDATE: $7.77 gets you one license, but it's good for up to THREE Macs!]

It lets you set the radius of the lock/unlock boundary, and it lets you set the duration of time between each scan it makes to determine the proximity of your phone, and it even lets you assign any number of other tasks to have occur when you leave or return to your Mac (you can have your Mac say "goodbye" when you leave and "welcome back" when you return, etc.).

In my tests I had to set the range really tight and the responsiveness all the way up for it to behave in a way that could be useful. I also anticipate that running Bluetooth all day could drain a person's battery pretty fast - on both the MacBook and the iPhone or iPod Touch. But hey, I mooch off the cafe's electricity, so who cares? When I need to run Bluetooth, I have access to an outlet. No problem for me.

There is room for improvement, however. I would love a menu item that would enable me to turn Airlock on and off. I would love the general stability and responsiveness to improve (maybe Bluetooth isn't the ideal protocol to use? Have you tried the infrared sensor?). With a little imagination, one can begin thinking of other features that would be useful (not to mention a little more support on the website - a knowledge base or forum or something). I also wonder if this same technology could somehow work on a Bluetooth-enabled USB drive or other device that could function as a proximity key to my Mac. I'm sure it's in the works.

Now all I need is to get Network Location to automatically turn Bluetooth and Airlock on when I go to a cafe and off when I leave. That will be one of my next indulgences.

OS X Hint: Using Apple's built-in but secret application options

Did you know that most of your Apple-made software applications come with built-in, advanced options? If you hold option and open iTunes, you get the choice to choose a new iTunes library or create a new one.

If you command-option-open iPhoto you get a whole list of options for optimizing your iPhoto library.

I try to option-open or command-option-open any given application every once in a while just to scope out what options it gives me.

Got AppleCare? Got Snow Leopard? Get the new TechTool Delux, son.

TechTool Delux is the version of TechTool that comes with AppleCare. It's not as cool as it sounds - it's more for diagnosis than anything else. Still, you paid for it, you might as well have the Snow Leopard-compatible version on hand, right?

1Password Touch Pro Free in iTunes!

The Agile folks are just giving away their 1Password Touch apps through November. I love 1Password and 1Password Touch Pro, and I paid for both of them and I have no regrets. Just pure love. At any rate, go get your free software!

$50 off Office for Mac Friday through Monday

At Mactopia.

Compare Two Files

If you have two versions of a spreadsheet, text, HTML, or other file that you want to compare line by line, you can use either of two pretty sweet, free programs. They line up the two files side by side, line for line, and highlight the differences. Then they give you some tools for editing and merging and stuff.

• DiffMerge, or
• FileMerge, which is Apple's own Developer utility. You can get all the Developer tools for free from your install DVD, or the latest version of them for free by signing up for the Apple Developer Connection program.

Apple's Black Friday Sale

Apple generically advertises its Black Friday sale, whose exact history supports Boy Genius' supposedly leaked pricing details.

Does anybody know if Apple discounts its education pricing on Black Friday?

Run OS 9 on your Intel Mac

This genius has put together a "Classic OS" download for us Intel Mac users who still have an OS 9 program we would love to run. I have successfully downloaded it and run it and installed StratCon on it and it works just great.

The download is in "Torrent" form, meaning you have to have a special kind of program to download it. I recommend Transmission.

If you have questions or problems using Transmission to download "Classic on Intel", or figuring out how to run "Classic on Intel", I might be willing to help.

[PS: If you need a good web browser to use from within the OS 9 system, I recommend the trial version of iCab, which allows you to not have to use Internet Explorer, and it is still being supported. I hear iCab for iPhone and even iCab for OS X are good too, but I haven't bothered with them.]

Sleek, Useful New Web Browsers

Stainless boasts parallel sessions, meaning you could open up two windows and be logged into two different Facebook (or other) accounts at once, and session- aware bookmarks, meaning when you bookmark your comments feed on your wife's Flickr, Stainless respects that as a different bookmark than when you bookmarked your own Flickr comments feed. Good idea.

Cruz allows multiple pages to be opened in panes within one browser window, and it allows you to control where new links open up. You have to watch the short videos at the bottom of the home page I've linked to to see just how useful this can be. It has some other goodies built into it too.

Office '08 Update Patches Major Vulnerability in Word and Excel

This page explains how to download the critical update to Office 2008 for Mac that was released yesterday. You can download it manually from Microsoft's website, or go to Help -> Check for Updates in any Office application.

The Microsoft Security Bulletin says:

The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

And an additional bulletin says:

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

LAST DAY: 6 Free Apps + Free VirusBarrier

Today is the last day to nab the MacHeist nanoBundle, which includes 6 free Mac apps. I'd never used any previously, but I like to tinker around with new apps whenever I can. Part of the joy of MacHeist is the aesthetic experience of browsing their website, downloading new apps, and getting to see lots of pretty colors and smooth graphics. At any rate, if you share it on Facebook, they let you have Intego's acclaimed VirusBarrier for free. I've been thinking about paying the $70 or so for VirusBarrier for a long time, and now I don't have to. This alone is far worth the effort.

Logos 4: Feature Parity

Logos 4 just came out and it brings feature parity to the Windows/Mac versions, and it looks slick. The Mac code is officially considered to be in "Alpha", but it will self-update every two weeks or so until it catches up not too long from now. Still I hear it's worth the upgrade price.

Beta Test Slick iPhone Recovery Software

My company loves Orbicule's Undercover for Mac, and the other day I noticed their request for beta testers of an Undercover iPhone update, so I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Devastating But Rare Snow Leopard Guest Bug

Apple recently acknowledged that in certain cases, users running Snow Leopard find that some of their files have been accidentally deleted by the system after they had logged in and out of their "Guest" user accounts.

How could something like that possibly happen? Well, the Guest account deletes any files created in your guest's home folder so that you don't have to clean up after your friends. Snow Leopard reorganized a lot of system folders under the hood of OS X, and there is probably some mix up that can occur in certain cases that causes the Guest account clean-up activity to mistakenly delete content in another user's home folder.

If you don't need the Guest account, it might be wise to disable it until Apple sends an update through that fixes the bug. But if you're like me and use undercover recovery software that requires something like the Guest account to be enabled, you might try the following.

According to prominent Mac security software manufacturer "Intego", the solution to the Snow Leopard Guest account bug may be in disabling the Guest account, and then re-enabling it. That's my plan, and I recommend a restart in between.

[UPDATE: Apple recently released an OS update that, among other things, claims to fix this bug.]

Google Chrome for Mac (Developer Beta)

If you're like me, you're curious about Chrome and want to download it, but aren't a developer and so don't follow any developer blogs like Chromium (the developer blog for Chrome).  So you are probably interested in this link, but didn't know about it until now.  You're welcome.

Office 2008 on Snow Leopard Fixes the Spaces Bug

In late August Microsoft announced that Office 2008 is ready for Snow Leopard, and the Spaces bug is fixed!