Force Microsoft Office Applications to Respect Systemwide Keyboard Shortcuts

And/or make your own shortcuts in system preferences:

The 6 WordPress Plugins I use

• Akismet (spam protection for comments)
• All in One SEO Pack (sets up your blog with great SEO settings by default, and gives you control over every factor if you want to tinker)
• Blogger Importer (which works - use it like this)
• Subscribe to Comments (allows people to do so)
• wp-Typography (gives you fine-grain control over how WordPress handles your typography)
• WP Super Cache (speeds up loading time and lightens the load on your server a bit)

Move Blogger to WordPress

Got a blogspot.com blog? Want to move to a WordPress blog, as hosted on your own personal domain? Don't want to lose your link juice?

You need to 301 every post to its corresponding post, and redirect your feed.

Follow this tutorial.

Use your Mac with MULTIPLE Monitors, TV's, etc. in full 1080p HD

With the Diamond BVU195 HD USB Display Adapter. I've never seen anything come close to this.

Use your Mac Mini as a DVR for under $100

The Elgato EyeTV One Computer TV Tuner 10020311 plugs into a USB port, and allows you to plug your antenna into it. It's corresponding software lets you watch TV on your Mac and use it like a DVR.

You can actually get pretty much everything online now, so it's not for everybody. But if you want to catch shows on their actual air date/time, can't find that one show you want to watch online, have cable without a DVR, or might prefer using your Mac as a DVR, then EyeTV seems like a very elegant, functional solution.

One nice thing about it is that you can get DVR functionality for basic programming without having to pay for cable. With a Mac Mini and Boxee, Hulu, Plex, and other software, you can get almost anything in an extremely functional, beautiful interface, and with an EyeTV, you get DVR functionality for live TV, and all you've done is paid for hardware you now own. None of this $30-50/mo businesss (think about it - 2 years of even cheap $30/mo. cable is already over $700, and you don't even own any hardware to resell, and you're stuck having to continue paying monthly).

An Alternative to the Time Capsule

If you value beauty, simplicity, convenience, customer care, and power, then the Time Capsule is the way to go.

But if you don't mind (or even enjoy) taking some time to configure your hardware, having advanced setup options available to you, and price, you may want to consider something closer to the following:

For about $400, you can get the Cisco-Linksys WRT610N plus a Western Digital My Book Studio II - 2 TB, which would give you all the basic functions of the Time Capsule as well as the aforementioned missing features.

-CNET

A dollar late and one second short on that prized eBay auction? Never get outbid again. At least, not for lack of putting in your max bid at the last second.

This thing, "Auction Sniper" will automatically put your bid in at the last second. You get some free "snipes" for signing up for free (and I do to if you use my link), but later snipes will cost you a little. Worth it, though, if it wins you auctions and saves you money.

eBay sniping software
to help you win more items.

The Only Free Auction Tools for eBay Sellers

Some Mac-Based Entertainment Center Options I'm Considering

My wife and I have a pretty nice, fairly big, analog TV with nothing but RCA inputs. We like to watch Hulu using the Hulu app on my computer. But since I am doing a lot of contract SEO work lately, I could be working during these times (she clips coupons, so we don't count it as "quality" time necessarily). The problem is getting Hulu onto our TV. In addition to this consideration, we also want my wife's amazing but technologically inept mother to be able to access whatever entertainment upgrades we make, and when we rent our house out for IronMan, we want our renters to be able to use our cool new toys, too. Sometimes bragging about your entertainment center gets you renters secured for the next year faster, or gets you a higher price for your house.

I thought a lot about the old Apple TV + Boxee, but I can't tell if Netflix and Hulu will actually work on Boxee when it's hacked up onto the Apple TV. The new Apple TV is really cool, but content is still too rich for my blood. I want Hulu. And Netflix instant content too if possible. So if I'm going to run content from an Apple product to my TV it needs to be either my MacBook Pro or a Mac Mini (which, the new ones are really sweet and have HDMI outputs built in).

Here are the scenarios I've cooked up to try and get me Hulu on my TV so I can free up my computer to do SEO work while we watch our shows:  

SETUP #1 - The ideal setup for everybody (renters, Mum, Wife, and Me), lots of perks, but expensive.

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$699 Mac Mini (brand new)

$4.49 HDMI cable

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$1040.49

SETUP #2 - Same as #1, but an older Mac Mini, sacrificing some performance for savings.

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$355 Mac Mini (used older model)

$5.23 Mini DVI to HDMI adapter
$4.49 HDMI cable

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$701.72

SETUP #3 - Just adding an old Mac Mini to our current TV. Still all the functionality, and usable by everybody, but not as elegant, space-saving, or cool. We could add the TV later (effectively upgrading to SETUP #2).

$355 Mac Mini (used older model)

$69 Apple wireless keyboard

$69 Apple wireless trackpad or mouse

=====

$493

SETUP #4 - New TV, but no Mac Mini - just hookups for our laptops. Great for us, and very elegant, but not usable by Margaret or renters. We could add the Mac Mini later (effectively upgrading to SETUP #1 or #2).

$199 23” flatscreen (may want to wall mount)

$7.70 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter

$4.49 HDMI cable

=====

$208.72

SETUP #5 - No new TV or Mac Mini - just hookups for our laptops to our current TV. Gets us Hulu on our TV, but nothing for Margaret or renters, and not guaranteed to work. Cheapest of the options.

$9.51 Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter

$0.66 VGA to RCA adapter

=====

$10.17 There are more expensive converter boxes that are more likely to work, but for their prices ($200+), SETUP #4 is a better deal by far.

With one of the new TV setups, we could potentially sell our old TV to offset the cost. Which makes #4 very attractive, since it does the trick I was initially looking for, is fairly affordable (especially given the chance to sell our current TV), and is fully upgradable to my ideal (#1), should I ever run into more expendable money.

What do you think? Do you have any advice? Do you need any advice? Do you run a Mac-based entertainment center, and if so, what's your rig?

[iPhone TIP: Mobile Mouse Pro does a bang up job at transforming your iPhone into a mouse and keyboard for your Mac, which is just dang cool.]

Orbicule Incognito

Adding to my Safari 5 Extension collection: Orbicule's Incognito, a free extension that prevents your browsing information from being collected by Google and Facebook.

The 5 Safari 5 Extensions I Use

• Shellfish (sends your current page to Delicious)
• Clip to DEVONthink (clips your current page to DEVONthink)
• Add to Amazon Wishlist (adds the feature of your current page to your Amazon Wishlist)
• Shortly (sends your current page through bit.ly)
• Sessions (manages your browsing sessoins)

I found them all on Apple's extension gallery so I know they're safe (right?). Some of them are a little nicer than their bookmarklet predecessors, some of them are exactly the same, and some of them are a little buggier.

What Safari 5 extensions do you use? What would you like to see developed?

iTunes 10 Icon Drama, a personal email from Steve J. and how to change your iTunes 10 icon back

Steve J. defends the new iTunes 10 icon in depth of detail in the body of a personal email to a random critic (you know he gets the email from sjobs@apple.com right?). This article made me erupt in (brief) laughter in the cafe where I do my work.

I have to admit I do skip over the new iTunes icon in my dock every single time I go looking for it, as the old one is so burned into my consciousness.

If you want to change your iTunes 10 icon back, see this.

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

How to Choose an Email Address, Part I: Everything After the "@"

Cf. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_address

Have I ever told you about Mail Unread Menu?

If not, there is this thing called Mail Unread Menu and it sits in your menu bar and… tells you how many unread messages there are in your Mail. Not much to it. But if you're like me you want every bit of relevant information pushed into your field of vision to minimize switching tasks unnecessarily.

Get Growl Notifications for RSS feeds

RSS Growler enables you to manage Growl notifications for RSS feed updates. It's just the ticket if you are collaborating on a platform like Base Camp and want Growl notifications of updates so that your subconsciousness is aware of what others are working on (which is one of the great things about using Dropbox for collaboration - Growl updates so you always have an idea of what your teammates are working on).

Multiple Dropbox Accounts

This works like a charm.

Login to Facebook chat from iChat

1. Go to your profile on Facebook and copy your username, which looks like this: http://www.facebook.com/your_username (in bold).
2. In iChat -> Preferences -> Accounts, click the plus (+) to add a new account.
3. Use in these settings:

Account Type: Jabber
Account Name: your_username@chat.facebook.com
Password: (your Facebook password)
Server: chat.facebook.com
Port: 5222

You're welcome.

StarCraft II glitch fixed by Apple update

"Resolves an issue that could cause Aperture 3, or StarCraft II by Blizzard, to unexpectedly quit or become unresponsive."

- http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4286

Flash and Office Security Updates

Flash security update info and download.

Office 2008 security update info and download.

Office 2004 security update info and download.

Keep 1Password Automagically Synced on Your iPhone and Mac All the Time

The guys at Agile are simply brilliant. In your 1Password iPhone app, you can enable Dropbox syncing, so if you store your 1Password file in Dropbox on your computer (If you don't use Dropbox yet, you should.), all 1Password installs on all your devices will automatically stay synced through the cloud without you ever lifting a finger. Details here.

For now, this only works with 1Password Touch Pro (the functionality will be added to other versions soon), and there isn't support for multiple 1Password keychains in the same Dropbox account, but I'm sure that's coming.

Thanks, Agile!

2 Tools for Using German in OS X

• German Dictionary & Thesaurus plugins
• Keyboard layout editor

Have iCal open events in their own windows, instead of pop-ups

At some recent point (Leopard? Snow Leopard?) iCal started opening events "inline" in little pop-up type menus. This would have been fine but editing required an extra click and became annoying. Some recent update to Snow Leopard added the ability to bring back the old behavior in iCal's options.

Before:

Option:

After:

Disable individual application dock icons...

...with this bad boy. Super easy. Great for Hardware Growler.

Most Recent MobileMe App Overhaul: Calendar

Here. There is no use telling you about it when you can read about it yourself. But you might not have known about it had it not been for my blog!

BusyCal users watch out, though. Don't go get the MobileMe calendar beta just yet. (If you need to downgrade from the beta, go here.)

Don't let people spy on your searches with Google SSL Beta

When you Google something, anyone else on the network can see what you Googled. When you Google something from this Google site, nobody can see what you Googled, because the information exchanged between your computer and the Google server is encrypted with SSL.

Read about SSL here, and how to hack SSL (it is not foolproof) here.

Dropbox Tip: Sync Files & Folders Outside Your Dropbox Directory

(If you don't use Dropbox yet, you should.)

The gist of it is to type this into Terminal:

ln -s /path/to/folder/name_desired_folder/ ~/Dropbox/desired-folder

or

ln -s ~/Dropbox/desired-file /path/to/folder/name_desired_file

You can also choose to put the original file or folder inside your Dropbox folder, and then create links in the other direction.

The information comes from here, and you can read about symbolic links in Unix here.

Use Your Apple Remote With Hulu!

Hulu’s Mac desktop application is pretty slick anyway, but the fact that it allows you to control Hulu with your Apple Remote makes it all that much more worth it.

Where is the iBookstore app?

Upgrade your iPhone to iOS 4? Looking for the iBookstore? You have to download it. Here.

PS. There are tons of free eBooks to download, like Aristotle’s “Ethics”, Lewis Carrol’s "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland", and more.

OS 10.6.4 Ships w/ Old Flash

Someone forgot to update the Flash Player with which OS X launches to the newest version, and so even if you’ve updated yours, so long as it was prior to upgrading your OS to 10.6.4, you now have an older, buggier, less secure Flash Player. Get the newest version here

Use Dropbox?

If you don't use Dropbox yet, you should.

If you do use Dropbox, you should use some of your votes on this feature request (you get 9 votes per month!).

Microsoft Releases Security Update to Office: Mac

Details here.

New OS X Spyware

This spyware program installs on your computer and sends tons of info back to its home base without you knowing it. You can unknowingly install it by downloading software from major sites like MacUpdate and Softpedia.

Your iPhone PIN is basically worthless right now. Keep an eye on your phone.

...plugging an up-to-date, non jail-broken, PIN-protected iPhone (powered off) into a computer running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx will allow the people to see practically all of the user’s data—including music, photos, videos, podcasts, voice recordings, Google safe browsing databases, and game contents. The “hacker” has read/write access to the iPhone, and the hack leaves no trace.

-iPhone security flaw: Using a PIN won't help you
Posted on May 28, 2010 11:30 am by Sarah Jacobsson, PC World

How to change the default application that opens files of a given type.

If you want to open a file with an application other than the default one with which it opens, simply context-click (right-click or control-click or two-finger click) on the file and navigate to the "Open With" menu, then click on the application with which you would like to open the file.

If you want a file to always be opened with an application other than the default one with which it opens, simply hold option while you perform the above.

If you want all files of a given type to always open with an application other than the default one with which they open, pull up the Get Info window for a given file of such type by context-clicking and selecting the "Get Info" option (or select a file and press command-i), and under the "Open With" section of the Get Info window, press the "Change All..." button and follow instructions.

I believe OS X stores "Open With" information in three places: your Launch Services Database, the preference file for each application, and somewhere in the metadata associated with each particular file. Many Tricks' "Open-With Manager" provides a nifty graphical user interface for editing the relevant fields in the preference files of your applications so that you can easily see and change which applications will show up in the "Open with..." menu that appears when you context-click on files of certain types.

Agile's "Knox"

One of my all-time favorite companies, Canada's Agile Web Solutions just acquired Knox. Knox creates and manages standardized encrypted volumes. These function just like any other disk, except that they are "soft" disks, meaning that you can store them on your hard drive just like other files and folders. And they are encrypted so that when they are "closed" nobody can see or figure out what they hold unless they have the password.

Knox uses one of the same types of disks that Apple's Disk Utility uses, and so in that way it is unnecessary. However Knox is prettier, easier to use, and gives you some neat options for managing your disks (you can control whether the disks stay open across restarts, whether each disk is indexed and searchable by Spotlight when it is open, etc.).

TrueCrypt is the open-source alternative to Disk Utility and Knox, and it has a lot more functionality, though it is not as pretty or easy to use.

If I had a need to use multiple encrypted volumes of this kind regularly I would probably buy Knox, which is currently half price to celebrate it's acquisition by Agile. Frankly I am a little bit disappointed that I don't have a good excuse to buy it, since it runs so smoothly and looks so pretty and it is such a joy to use Agile software (or visit the Agile forums and knowledge bases, etc.).

The New Apple OS X Security Guide

Can be found here.

Keeping your Mac secure from viruses, hackers, thieves, crashes, and drops.

I just upgraded my wife’s and my security/anti-virus software to Intego’s suite of programs, "SecurityBarrier X6". One license will cover 2 Macs. The SecurityBarrier suite includes several programs, only 2 of which interest me. The first is ContentBarrier, which nicely filters porn. The second is VirusBarrier X6, which does a lot more than the previous edition (X5). The previous edition had to be paired with NetBarrier in order to block people from hacking your computer, but X6 combines the two (VirusBarrier + NetBarrier), so the new program blocks every kind of threat the experts at Intego know about (it also has tons of cool control panel gadgets built in that are fun to tinker with). It comes with 12 months of service, and then will stop working after that. Below is a link to the website at which to buy it, and two different types of reviews of VirusBarrier.

Buy SecurityBarrier

Does auto-expiring security software make sense?
Intego VirusBarrier X6 Review

To be honest, these programs are not necessary. You can get free accountability software, and Mac viruses and hacking/ID theft risks are rarely exploited. If money is tight, don’t feel obligated to get any of this stuff.

That said, I work in coffee shops with open networks very often, and I do all my work, banking, etc. on my computer (though one should never access banking websites from open networks). For me, even the smallest likelihood of getting screwed with represents a huge risk, because of what’s on the line. So in addition to backing up my HD every day using Time Machine with my Time Capsule, having recovery software installed (Orbicule’s “Undercover” for Mac), AppleCare, a laptop rider on my homeowner’s insurance, security cable, and a decently well-informed set of habits (never send sensitive information by chat or email, no matter how tempting it is - it's just so easy to read other people's chats and emails that you should assume all of yours will be read), the SecurityBarrier software still seems like a good idea for me. My computer needs to run, and it needs to run correctly and securely.

[PS - for those of you who got VirusBarrier X5 for free from MacHeist last year - you can use that license to upgrade to the SecurityBarrier X6 suite, which covers 2 macs, for $49.95 (saves you $30 off retail).]

[PPS - by default SecurityBarrier blocks all secure traffic, so if you ‘ever’ check your banking, etc. information online, you will have to be sure to uncheck this box in ContentBarrier’s control panel when you first set it up.]

Print envelopes or labels or even a mini-address book!

Did you know that the print dialog in Apple's Address Book contains all kinds of options? You can print envelopes, mailing labels, or even make a mini-address book. You can control which fields are printed through the print dialog, but you have to select which records you want to print by hand before pressing command-d or selecting "Print..." from the File menu.

Make Links Always Open in Tabs - Safari 4 ("Single Window Mode")

1. Open Terminal (it's in Applications -> Utilities).
2. Cut and paste "defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true" into Terminal without the quotation marks.
3. Press "enter".
4. Restart Safari.

Now when you click a link it will open in a tab in your current window, unless you control-click and select "Open Link in New Window".

"The problem with buying things with your privacy is you really don't know how much you're paying."

- Daniel Lyons

Google Buzz forced on all Gmail users, security & privacy nightmare.

Intego explains and the New York Times reports on the security and privacy flaws in Buzz. To turn it off, go to the bottom of your Gmail page and click "turn off Buzz". It isn't clear whether simply turning Buzz off will be enough to keep your contact list private or mitigate the vulnerability created by the security flaws, but it's a start.

Pretty Sweet RSS Reader for Free

I read a lot of blogs. And various blogs are related to each other and to various topics in unique ways. And what's more is that I read some blogs for work, and others for play. At first I made use of the RSS functionality in Safari, and then I tried that within Mail. But my needs exceeded what Apple was able to offer me.

And then I fell in love. NetNewsWire is a FREE OS X application solely dedicated to RSS feeds. It functions as something of a cross between Mail and Safari, in that it reads the feed XML, but can display the actual webpage as well. You can organize your feeds into folders and smart folders, archive read posts, view a whole folder's worth of feeds in one integrated stream, and more. It integrates well with Growl, Delicious, Mail, Safari, and others. But somehow it is remarkably simple to use and most of its advanced functionality is out of the way.

If you follow more than 5 blogs or other feeds, I highly recommend downloading NetNewsWire for free and organizing your feeds into it.

A Versatile Information Management App for Businesses and Scholars (and others)

A while back in one of their free software bundles, MacHeist gave away a personal license to a program called DEVONthink. It sat in my Applications folder for a long, long time. Until the other day when I had some time and I got started on a research project concerning William Lane Craig's handling of transfinite cardinalities in the Kalam Cosmological Argument. I had emails, PDFs, URLs, and documents that were all interrelated in complex ways, and my needs began to exceed what Finder is able to offer. I began exploring the uses of DEVONthink.

Quite frankly I am now about as overwhelmed as I am impressed. I plan on upgrading to DEVONthink Pro 2 as soon as I understand DEVONthink Personal a little better (and can afford it), and I am looking into DEVONagent (which is essentially a very specialized personal search engine that runs as a native application in OS X).

What exactly can one do with DEVONthink? What are its benefits? Well it seems to be something of a cross between Finder, a web browser, a text editor, wiki software, and a data analysis engine, which is highly flexible, customizable, and extensible. It's arguably impossible to concisely summarize the theme of its unified benefit or function. One can organize information (folders, smart folders, tags, and on beyond Zebra). One can create information. One can interlink information. One can view documents of almost any type, RSS feeds, websites, and sheets. One can create multiple replicants of one's files (like glorified aliases that all access and change a central file). DEVONthink can simply reference these files in Finder, or import them entirely into its database. One can even create multiple databases. It's just simply incredible.

DEVON's website is choc-full of tutorials, examples, videos, forums, downloads, and even contact information for local consultants who each appear to function as something of a cross between a business consultant and a DEVONthink trainer. Some even write custom plugins to extend the functionality of the program to meet the specific needs of one's business.

DEVONthink makes use of systemwide shortcuts, the service menu, folder actions, AppleScripts, widgets, bookmarklets, Automator workflows, menu items, and more (including Growl notifications and something of an iPhone app). And these functions don't feel contrived - I can imagine a power user saving hours and hours every day if he knew how to make efficient use of all of DEVONthinks goodies.

The feature set is so bountiful and the interface so flexible that it is, once again, overwhelming! I can imagine its utility for manifold projects and such strength is also its weakness, as it greatly increases the learning curve and makes it difficult to imagine how one might best make use of it.

But powerful things take time to learn. I personally will enjoy getting to know this program and the company who makes it more over time, and I couldn't resist telling you about it.

The most recent betas for DEVONthink Pro and Personal, and DEVONagent, appear to be extremely stable and currently look like their functionalities aren't restricted at all. You can download them here if you're interested in checking them out.

If you have 20 min. to spare, check out the DEVONthink introductory video to get a cursory understanding of DEVONthink and to get your creative juices flowing.

Facebook Growl Notifications

FMemu provides a menu icon with shortcuts to anything you could want on Facebook, and the program provides customizable Growl notifications for any Facebook activity you could want to be notified concerning. This way you will spend less time on Facebook finding out what's new, and more time doing your SEO keyword research. 64-bit, Snow Leopard compatibility, too!

A Trick for Selecting Multiple Files in Finder

Sometimes you want to select multiple files in Finder. You can do this my clicking and dragging to make a box with the pointer, in which case everything inside the box becomes selected. You can also do this in list or column view by clicking on a file, holding shift, and clicking on another file below it, in which case all of the files in between will become selected as well.

But did you know that if you hold down command instead of shift, you can hand-pick which files get selected? This is useful if you want to select every third file in a list or files that are not right next to each other in icon view.