Digital Scrapbooking Software – Which to Select?
Approaching digital scrapbooking for the first time, your immediate challenge is most likely to be – what software should I use? This article aims to help you understand the different types of digital scrapbooking software available, some of the “must have” functions, and how to match up the many options to best fit your own personal working style.
So, how should you decide which digital scrapbooking software to use? From a bird’s eye view, there are 3 types:
Scrapbook Layout Programs
Photo editing packages
Online photo album creation services
For folks coming new to scrapbooking, or simply seeking a quick way to share simpler designs with friends and family an online photo albums can be a quick and easy way to start.
However, if you prefer an outlet for your creative skills, or if you’re an experienced paper scrapper, you’ll probably want to have greater control over all aspects of your design, and be looking for the highest artistic functionality from your digital scrapbooking software. Then you should consider either Scrapbook Layout software, or full function Photo Editing software.
Let’s recap the basics…For digital scrapbooking, you “must have” methods to:
upload photo images to your computer
manipulate your photos
create pages which may include graphics, photos, journaling text, audio commentary, video clips
save pages easily, safely and securely
share your pages using the media of your choice
1. Digital Scrapbook Layout Programs
Layout programs allow you to easily and quickly assemble digital scrapbook pages from pre-made graphics, photos, and journaling. They also help organize your digital photos, page themes and journaling.
Here are some examples:
MemoryMixer from Lasting Impressions ($50 PC & Mac)
My Memories Suite from Polaroid ($40 PC & Mac)
Scrapbook Factory Deluxe from Nova ($40 PC only)
Digital Scrapbook Artist Deluxe from Serif ($50 PC only)
However, do look closely at the product descriptions. Some layout programs are still missing functions that most digital scrapbookers need. For example, some don’t support transparent PNG files, are not capable of at least 200ppi for quality printing, or they do not have the ability to place shadows. If these are important to you, check carefully.
2. Photo Editing Programs
These are more powerful programs for editing photos and they work well for creating digital elements, but you’ll probably find they take longer to learn. Some popular examples:
Adobe Photoshop Elements ($75) PC & Mac, or Adobe Photoshop CS4 ($250)
Corel Paint Shop Pro ($100 PC only)
Ulead Photoimpact ($100 PC only)
Apple Arpeture 3 (Mac only) ($200)
If you feel a photo editing program is the right way to go, we’d recommend Photoshop Elements since its very widely used, available on PC and Mac, and and has more tutorial support available than any other digital scrapbooking software.
Genie Balfour is the founder of the elegant scrapbooking website ScrapbookingGems.com and writes on paper and digital scrapbooking topics. Click this link for more info on Digital Scrapbooking Software, free digital scrapbooking templates and layout ideas.
5 Secrets to Recording Audio From Home
Everyone wants to learn audio recording don’t they? It’s so easy and, as it turns out, inexpensive to do. You can do everything from transferring cassettes and records (remember those) to CDs, create audio books, voice-overs, put great audio onto your video files instead of the crappy audio that usually comes from camcorders. You can release a CD, start your own record company, be a 1-person band, etc. Audio is everywhere. Have I convinced you? Good, now read on:).
Before you do anything else, read the rest of this article. It will be your shield against the advice you might get from a salesman at your local music store, or from some other audio experts. Here are the five secrets:
You DON’T need to lay down a bunch of money to get started.
Try this just for fun. Walk into your nearest musical instrument store (the kind that has a “recording” department) and ask them what you would need to get started recording audio from home. My guess is that you will be told you need a condenser mic, cables, mic stand, computer interface and special software; all of which will end up costing at least $500, but more likely, over $1000, and you still won’t know how to use it! The only other option, you’re told, is to go to a commercial recording studio, which will cost around $50 per hour plus the hassle of getting there with all the stuff (or all the people if you’re in a band) you’ll need. Most people believe those are their only two options. Well the truth is you probably don’t need to spend a dime on gear, OR a studio. All you need is a computer with a soundcard (just the onboard one will do for starters), the microphone that probably came with your computer (which you can get for $4.00 at Target if you didn’t get one), headphones (the kind you use with your mp3 player will do), and an internet connection. I’m betting most folks have all that stuff RIGHT NOW. It just takes a little knowledge about how to get the most out of what you have….which brings me to the next point:
Knowledge is far more important than gear.
Fact: you can still make bad recordings with top-notch (read: “expensive”) gear. This is extremely common. Just pick up a copy of “Recording Magazine” and look at the “Readers Tapes” section some time if you want to see for yourself. Their reviewer is constantly dumbfounded at the great recordings that come in with cheap-to-modest gear, as well as the crappy recordings that are produced on high-end gear costing up to $10,000 (or more) most of the time! Fact: now that the technology is available to virtually anyone with a computer, the world is flooded with really terrible-sounding audio. That’s because most people (and I do mean like 80-90 percent here) don’t know the basic principles of audio recording, mixing and producing. With so many amateurs cranking out audio, the only real discriminators that will set YOU apart from the rest are “content” (your song, your podcast, etc.) and “know-how.” Fact: if you’re just starting out, and you have $300, you will produce better recordings after spending the $$ on knowledge than if you buy any equipment or software..
You don’t need to know HOW a television works in order to learn to USE it.
What? Said another way, you don’t have to know how to rebuild an engine in order to drive a car, do you? What you DO need to be taught can be learned very quickly (about a minute in the case of a TV). You could go your entire life and not know what a “catalytic converter” is, and it wouldn’t stop you driving the car. Heck, I’ve been watching television for 35 (or moreJ) years, and I STILL don’t know what a “cathode ray tube” really was. I didn’t even notice when you didn’t need one any more! The same is true for recording. Having gone through this as a beginner, I can tell you that MANY of the “experts” you’ll find on the newsgroups or forums will offer beginners some version of the following statement: “You can’t really learn recording overnight, or from books; you just have to do it over and over again for years to really learn it.” This is simply not true, and it stops a lot of people trying. It’s a little like saying “you can’t really understand how a TV works unless you go to TV-repair school, or at least have an electrical engineering degree.” That’s true, but I don’t NEED to understand all that stuff! I just want to change the channels! It will depend to large degree on what kind of recording you are trying to do (spoken-word, music multi-tracking for a CD project, or full-on CD mastering), but a large percentage of folks can learn to do ALL they NEED TO from in less than an hour from the right teacher. Many beginners take one look at, say, a mixing board (or its virtual counter-part), get information overload, and run screaming from the room. Heck I still do it after 30 years in this business! The bottom-line truth is…you really only have to learn 4 or 5 of those 80 or 90 buttons and scary commands to do what you need to do to start! Then as you choose to go deeper down the rabbit hole, you’ll have to learn maybe 15 more…seriously! I’ve engineered hundreds (probably thousands) of audio projects over the last 30 years, and I estimate I probably only know about 1/5th of what my programs and gear can do!
You DON’T Need a Mac!
Oh, this one goes back to the 80s. When every-day people started to buy computers (yes, kids…there was a time when households did not have a computer! And a short time before that, they didn’t even have televisions! Shock, Horror….sorry, I’m better now), the early Macs had some built-in features that made them better-suited to music-production. But over the years, things have evened out, and the recording landscape is about 50/50 on the issue. It’s like Pepsi and Coke. Some people prefer on over the other, but one is not INHERENTLY better than the other overall. Our tutorials are geared toward teaching skills REGARDLESS of the OS. But DON’T be talked into buying a MAC for audio just because a salesman tells you their better. It’s just not true anymore.
You Don’t Need “Pro Tools”
This is another myth that persists from the “old days.” There was a time, in the late 80s, when the software program called “Pro Tools” was only available for the Mac. Early versions for PC were often unstable. That was pretty-much fixed by the mid-late 90s. But since Pro Tools was marketed directly to the professional market from the start, on the Mac, it sort of became standard to associate “good” recording software with both Pro Tools and the Mac. Pro Tools is still regarded as probably the most commonly-used audio software in the world. But in the 21st century, “common” does not necessarily mean “better,” and it ABSOLUTELY does not mean “mandatory.” In order to use Pro Tools, you not only need the software, but also very specific hardware as well! The program will not work without one of several approved hardware interfaces. At the time of this writing, the least expensive Pro Tools system available is “Pro Tools M-Powered,” combined with the M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface. Total cost: $450. Compare that with the minimum cost of gear/software I mentioned above, which comes out to…..hmmmm…let me think….oh yeah, $0.00! Will that budget get you EVERYTHING Pro Tools can get you, in terms of capability or quality? No. But it will get most folks what they NEED, right NOW. Then when you need the next steps up in features and capability, there are incremental steps to climb (like $50 for the first 3 jumps) so you don’t pay for more than your need. Why buy a Lexus when you only need a bicycle? One day you may want a Pro Tools system. But for Pete’s sake, don’t dive right in with Pro Tools! Now go forth and record! And start today…without the 2nd mortgage:). Cheers!
Jake Weston
Home Brew Audio Website: http://homebrewaudio.com
Home Brew Audio Blog: http://homebrewaudio.com/blog
Are You Ready To Develop iPhone Apps?
Regardless of whether you like it or not, it is indisputable fact that the Apple App Store has gained great success.
While this venture might be a successful cash cow business model for Apple, how does business fare for the app developer? Pretty good, it turns out.
Joel Comm’s success story has become a typical case of successful app development among app developers.
He developed an iPhone app named iFart that is well-known to all iPhone users. The sales volumes for this little app beat its competitors with no difficulty, with sales of 113,885 downloads during a two-week period in December three years ago.
113,885 download during a two-week period is a big incentive especially when you stand on a verge of unemployment. What if you are a poor developer, what are you going to do? Develop your own app?
Not so fast, bucko.
Develop iPhone apps is not the business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. It also needs your financial and time investment. You will need an Intel-based Mac computer with Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard for developing your app, as well as a couple of test devices (preferably both an iPhone and an iPod Touch). Plus, you must be a registered member of the Apple iPhone Developer Program, which costs $99 for the basic edition. The usual proverb is “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Even the simplest iPhone app will take a considerable amount of time to develop. Yes, you could blow a simple app out your posterior in about two weeks’ time, but a true sales contender could take a couple of months for development, testing, and distribution.
Let us take a hypothetical case: you don’t have sufficient fund and have to cut down expense to lower cost. You could be a rogue developer and rely solely on the iPhone SDK iPhone Simulator for your app testing. You could harvest the extensive library of Apple sample apps for your code. You could just “blow on your arm” for your app content. Even after all of these cost-saving efforts, however, you are still going to need an Intel-based Mac and a subscription to the Apple iPhone Developer Program.
In the first place, we need to spend some time setting up a development platform at the lowest cost to support the iPhone SDK app development environment. Notice, we aren’t going to set up the illegal version of “Hackintosh,” a non-Apple-branded Mac OS X clone computer — rather, we are going to bundle the lowest-possible-cost Mac computer development platform. Please note, this project will void your warranty.
At first time I developed an iPhone app development platform on a sixteen GB CompactFlash card. You can get through this because a lot of sites have guides or tutorials to teach you step by step. Unfortunately, this system wasn’t stable enough to reliably code a major iPhone app.
I developed an iPhone app development platform successfully a few days later. More importantly, what I need is to spend time on it, because I already had some of the equipments available. I will write down them in detail in another article for developing your own iPhone app development platform from the very beginning.
If you want more information on develop iPhone apps on Windows, don’t read just rehashed articles online to avoid getting ripped off. http://www.developiphoneappswindows.info/
MacKeeper Vs Cleanmymac Vs Onyx
I am approaching this article from the viewpoint of a new Mac user. MacKeeper, Onyx and CleanMyMac are the three most popular utilities for maintaining, cleaning up or just generally getting a Mac system to run faster and more efficiently.
Lets start with Onyx. As a self-confessed geek, I really like Onyx! The user interface is nothing to talk about, but it is very clean and usable. Onyx lets you get deep within the Unix structure, if you dare. Now, this is good if you really know what you are doing, but if not, you can really mess up your system. Sometimes, the lesser you know, the better it is. Onyx is remarkably good value for a free software. But the EULA clearly states that, should anything go wrong in using it, you cannot hold anyone but yourself responsible. For a newbie int the mac world, this is definitely not reassuring.
CleanMyMac by MacPaw is one of the nicest ‘looking’ Mac apps currently available. But, like the name says, that is exactly what it does – Cleans out your Mac. It also allows you to uninstall apps efficiently, removing all traces and preference files, and also erase files permanently. Overall, it is a really nice app for the functions it states to perform.
MacKeeper by Zeobit, in my opinion is the best of the lot. It does all of the above, and a whole lot more, very efficiently. It packs in a GUI which is very similar to the OSX finder layout. This makes it very intuitive to get around. Every function also has a detailed video tutorial which clearly explains everything you need to know. The major advantage that MacKeeper has, over the others, is that they have a 24/7 support team to assist you, should you face any difficulties.
So in my opinion, MacKeeper is a definite winner!
For more details on MacKeeper, please click here.
Wireless Home Network Troubleshooting
Using the set up CD to set up a new wireless router is easy enough for most people. It’s usually later when they start making changes and adding new devices to their wireless network when things can go wrong. It’s easy to become upset and frustrated when this happens. It’s always best to maintain a cool head and start with a methodical series of checks before giving into the urge to throw everything out the window and start from scratch.
When things start going wrong here are some things to check:
SSID
Did you type your SSID in correctly? This is a very common and easy mistake to make because the SSID field is case-sensitive. As far as your wireless devices are concerned “MyWifi” and “MyWiFi” are two totally different networks.
Security Key
Make sure the security key you entered into your WEP, WPA or WPA2 setting is correct. This is especially true when you’re using WEP and Windows XP. When using WEP you need to understand the difference between your pass phrase and WEP key. They are two different things. Normally you enter your pass phrase into your router and it’s automatically converted into a hexadecimal WEP key. Many people make the mistake of typing that same pass phrase into your Windows XP wireless adapter properties. XP will not automatically convert a pass phrase to a WEP key like your router does. You need to type in the actual hexadecimal WEP key into your Windows XP wireless adapter properties otherwise it won’t work even though you’re certain you entered it correctly.
Hidden SSID
Check to make sure you are broadcasting your SSID. Many people like to hide their SSID as a security measure but this can make connecting new devices to a wireless network difficult.
MAC Address Filtering
If you’re using Mac address filtering check your MAC address settings. Many times we’ll go through the trouble of setting up MAC address filtering and then forget all about it. Later when associating a new device or wireless adapter to the network we go through the steps of setting everything up correctly and nothing seems to work. I’ve done this myself several times. Usually some random thought will cause me to remember I had MAC address filtering set up. Once I turn it off my new device suddenly works like magic. It’s then just a simple matter of adding that new devices MAC address to our MAC filter and turning it back on again.
Drivers and Updates
Personally I hate this but I’ve found it’s a necessary evil. It’s a good practice to occasionally wander out to your wireless device manufacturers website and see if there are any new firmware or device driver updates available. Manufacturers will often add new features and functionality as well as fix many problems with updates.
Of course the question that always comes to mind is: “It worked fine before so why not now?” One reason for this is there may have been changes or upgrades made to your Operating System or service pack level. Now all of a sudden things no longer work because the new Service Pack on your system requires features your device doesn’t have without a firmware or device driver upgrade.
If all the previously mentioned troubleshooting steps don’t work it’s time to go to your manufactures website and make sure you have the latest device drivers and firmware upgrades for your equipment.
Faulty Equipment
There comes a time when it’s a good idea to stop beating your head against a wall and blaming yourself. The sad truth about wireless networking gear is in order to make such sophisticated equipment affordable to consumers certain quality control steps can be skipped or eliminated in order to streamline and economize their production. That’s why it’s always a good idea to purchase wireless gear from reputable merchant with a good return policy and keep your receipts.
Testing “Known Good” Devices
The question is how do you determine when something is bad or not? Now is a good time to save your routers configuration settings to a file and reset it to its original factory configuration. This is typically done by inserting a pin or paper clip into a small hole on one side of the device, holding it for a few seconds and then power cycling (Turning it off and back on again.) the router. Many routers make this easy with a reset button you can click on in the web interface. If the issue is resolved after you reset it you know the router is good. There may have been a conflict with some of the settings you added or the configuration file may have simply become corrupt. If the issue is not resolved you either have a bad router or one of the devices you’re connecting to may be bad or mis-configured. Swap out other devices on your network with “known good” devices. If a device you know is good is still not working you may have a problem with your router.
This article is by no means an all-encompassing tutorial on wireless network troubleshooting. The types of Operating Systems you use also play a big part in how you troubleshooting a wireless network. That’s topic for another article. Hopefully you now have a better insight as to what to do when you run into problems when adding devices to your wireless home network.
Setting Up A Wireless Network?
J Richard Jones has been supporting computers and networks for over 15 years. Visit his site to learn more about setting up a wireless network.
Finding a wireless router that meets your needs can be difficult. Visit this site to find the wireless router deals that are best for you.
Converting From Windows to iMac – A Story That Needs to Be Told
Finally after twenty plus years of using Windows, I decided to take the plunge and switch to Apple’s new iMac Computer. I really didn’t have a legitimate reason for switching but after years of hearing how Apple made Windows look anemic, I decided it was time to see for myself what it was all about.
I did my homework before purchasing the iMac. The biggest challenge I saw was protecting my investment in Windows software that I used in business and my personal life. I researched the various ways to run Windows under MAC OS and decided that VMWARE was my best option. VMWARE allows you to run a guest operating system (i.e. Windows) under a host operating system (i.e. Mac OS). I also determined that I needed to purchase a bootable copy of Windows. My current computer did not ship with a bootable copy of Windows. It had an image on a partitioned drive. Therefore I could not load it under VMWARE. I decided to purchase Windows 7 Premium Edition. My last software purchase was to be EyeTV, a cable TV interface unit that connects to a USB port on the iMac. My current Windows computer had a built in TV interface. I enjoyed watching TV in the privacy of my office and I wasn’t about to give that up.
I purchased the iMac 27 inch I7 with 8 gigabytes of ram from a local computer dealer. It was twice the price of a comparable Windows computer. This gave me pause but I decided to take the plunge anyway. The staff was young, courteous, conversant in MAC, but they didn’t talk Windows. I do not speak MAC. I thought I was in a foreign country. I decided that it would be best if I researched, on my own, the questions I had.
I started my conversion efforts by listing all the software and peripheral drivers (e.g. network printer) I needed to retain and/or update from my current Windows computer. Next I moved all my Windows personal data files (including Outlook e-mail files) to my network drive. At the same time I moved the files, I also cleaned up the folder structures. This was something I had been promising myself to do for a long time. Finally I backed up my entire Windows Computer. I did this because I would be de-installing practically all my Windows software and without a recovery strategy, I would be vulnerable to an interruption in my business activities.
I got my new iMac home and quickly set it up. There are only three parts: a 27 inch monitor (system unit included), a wireless keyboard, and a wireless mouse. I found it a bit difficult to locate the on/off button which is flush mounted in the rear of the unit. However, once turned on, my iMac did a fine job of setting itself up, locating my home network, and connecting to it.
I had no experience with the iMac internet browser Safari so I only used it to download and install FireFox, my internet browser of choice. Next I downloaded and installed all the peripheral drivers I needed. The iMac drag and drop model for installing software was a welcome and pleasant surprise. I was even more surprised when both my network printers and my network scanner performed without any problems. I felt a warm tingle of satisfaction.
All the while I was downloading and installing, I was familiarizing myself with the iMac user interface without the benefit of taking the tutorial. I found the keyboard cumbersome to use. It is simply too small for me and does not have the layout that I am used to. Second I found the iMac anchoring of the application menu bar (e.g. file, edit, etc.,) to the top of the screen somewhat irritating. In Windows the application menu bar is anchored to the top of the application window. Neither were big drawbacks but after several hours hitting the wrong keys I decided that I needed to get a full size keyboard which I purchased the next day.
My final challenge was the installation of VMWARE, Windows 7, and the software products I needed to run under Windows. I installed VMWARE and Windows 7. I was amazed at how quick and simple the effort was. Lastly I removed each software application from my current Windows computer and installed them under VMWARE. MS-Office 2007 Professional, MindManager from Mindjet, Cisco Network Magic, and Adobe 8 Professional were the big ones, and they all installed with no problems. I found it remarkable that all the software functioned properly and that all peripherals worked. Even Cisco’s Network Magic seemed happy with the new arrangement. I credit VMWARE for this success.
I was feeling pretty sure of myself at this point and so I decided to purchase and install Office 2008 for MAC. I wanted to begin my transition from caterpillar to butterfly as quickly as possible. I downloaded and installed Office 2008 without problems and checked it out. I found it worked more like MS-Office 2003 than MS-Office 2007. Then came the biggest disappointment. The was no MS-Access in Office 2008 and MS-Outlook was replaced by Entourage.
I looked Entourage over and figured I could live with it and began looking for ways to import MS-Outlook pst files. I ran into a major road block here as Entourage does not directly import MS-Outlook 2007 data. I researched the internet but did not find any conversion software that met my needs. I was finally forced to install MS-Outlook under my VMWARE Windows, something I did not want to do, and populating it with my pst files. I am presently keeping MS-Outlook as an archive and using Entourage moving forward. I had to upload my contacts from my Blackberry into Entourage. I still cannot believe that Microsoft would permit something like this to happen within their own product line.
The last piece of software I installed was EyeTV and again I found the installation effortless and the TV worked well.
The conversion is now complete and my Windows computer has been shut down for good. In conclusion I found the overall conversion experience was good. I am finally getting used to the iMac interface and probably do 75% of my work under MAC OS. However, I still question the conversion cost (approximately $3,500) and I am still searching for the productivity gains.
Jim Pickens is the the managing partner for DMAIC.com.
dmaic.com is the complete online resource for Six Sigma consulting, training, software, books, and events.
Macintosh Terminal Power
Yes, we all love the Macintosh interface but there are times when it can get in the way. Under the hood of that interface is a powerful Unix based computer that can swiftly perform many tasks that are, slow difficult or downright impossible in that shiny GUI.
So, go to the Utilities menu and fire up Terminal.
Early days
When you’re using the Terminal you can get mighty tired of typing those long file and directory paths. Instead click and drag on a file or folder and drop it in the window – you get the path and name typed for you.
By the same token it can be murder to click through twelve levels to get to a folder in the Finder that you are looking at in Terminal, not to mention most of the really neat folders are hidden by default. “open .” at the prompt opens the current folder in the Finder.
Do you find yourself running on a local machine and using SSH to talk to several others? Keep them sorted by changing the Terminal window’s title for each. Shift-Command-T opens a dialog to set the title and once you’ve typed it Command-W closes the dialog.
The one problem we have to make sure we take into consideration is that in Unix a space will often separate parts of a command so they can cause problems in file names. Surround file names (and shell variables containing file names) with quotes like “My File”, alternately you can use a ” to escape just the space like so : My File.
Quick bash tips
Just a couple of bash tips to get you started. Before you go too far I also recommend you visit The Linux Documentation Project where you can find some good bash tutorialsl. When ready a thorough read of the man page can also be helpful. You will also find the ‘man’ command useful. Just type ‘man’ and the command name at the prompt to see the manual page.
CDPATH is your friend. It won’t take long before you learn about the PATH special variable that tells the shell where to look for applications. The CDPATH variable tells the shell where to look for directories when you type “cd name”. By default it is set to “.” which searches just the current directory. If you set it to something longer you can quickly change to other directories, I personally use “.:~:~/dev:/usr:/” which searches the current directory, my home directory, my development playground off my home, /usr, and the root of the system in that order. I tried including “/usr/local” but found that confused things too much with /usr and /. Just add the line below to .profile in your home directory (if it doesn’t exist yet go ahead and add it, you’re sure to put other things in there before you are finished.)
CDPATH=”.:~:~/dev:/usr:/”
By the way, the .profile file is run every time you fire up a new window in terminal, bu only then. If you add to it or edit it your change is not reflected in the current terminal session so after a change type “~/.profile” at the prompt to run it again.
Speaking of cd – “cd -” takes you to your last directory – great for toggling between directories. If you are about to navigate away from a directory and know you are going to return then “pushd” instead of “cd” will push the current directory onto a stack and change to the specified directory, “popd” will take the top entry off the stack and change to it, “dirs” will list the stack.
Colour can also be your friend. I find it hard to see where my commands are when scrolling back through the terminal. So I set my bash prompt to blue. Add the line below to your .profile
PS1=”[033[34m]h:W u$[033[0m] “
While we are fiddling with bash let’s also improve its ability to read our mind. Here’s a few more things to think about adding to .profile
# this makes bash check for common spelling erros in a path
shopt -s cdspell
# this one writes your commands to the history file every time
# so a command in one window can be used in another
shopt -s histappend; PROMPT_COMMAND=’history -a’
What to do
Before we get too far I’m sure you want to view the man pages for the commands I’ve already mentioned. Don’t you want to see them in Preview where they look nice and can be easily printed or saved? Add this function to your .profile
manp()
{
man -t $* | open -f -a /Applications/Preview.app/
}
Now when you type ‘pman ls’ at the prompt you get the man page opened in Preview.
Perhaps you want to read them in your web browser? Then you need bwana. This allows you to open a man page in your browser by typing “man:command” as a URL. The joy of this one is that it hyperlinks all the other commands mentioned so when you go “man:ls” and it says “SEE ALSO chmod(1)” it gets turned into a hyperlink and a click opens the chmod man page. If you want to know why Unix Wizards spend years attaining their status try just “man:” as a URL and look at the list of commands available to you.
So what are my favourite Unix commands. Start with the obvious; ls, chmod, chown, ps and top. Of course we all know about man and apropos. Add to those which and whoami. Oh and if you aren’t up to speed with vi (now improved to vim) give vimtutor a whirl.
Now for some Mac specific commands. Foremost of these, for me, are ‘open’, ‘defaults’, ‘PlistBuddy’, ‘plutil’, ‘scutil’ and ‘dsconfigad’ and ‘dscl’. Check out the man pages for these and you go a long way to knowing how to manipulate the Mac from the command line. The hard part with defaults and PlistBuddy is knowing what to set and unset. I often save a copy of a preference file or plist, do the changes in an application or system preference and compare them using diff to discover what is changing. New with Spotlight metadata are mdimport, mdls and mdutil.
Other you might like to check out include ditto, osascript, dirt, hdiutil, say, and script.
Further Study
If you’ve had a good look at the tutorials I’ve mentioned and read the tutorials on bash and bash programming then you are well on the way to understanding the power of Terminal. If you would like a large list of preferences that can be altered or read using ‘defaults’ then I recommend http://secrets.blacktree.com/. For other useful commands try a look at Clix from Rixstep which offers a GUI to the command line and a large database of example commands to perform a number of tasks.
Tony Williams has been involved inthe IT industry for 25 years as a programmer, magazine editor, software support technician, system administrator and IT Manager. He is currently Macintosh systems administrator at a major Australian University and founder of Macintosh Tech People [http://www.mactechpeople.com/], a web site for Macintosh sysadmins and tech support folk.
Sick of Windows? Here Are Some Good Alternatives
Although the majority of computer users around the world use the Windows operating system to interact with their computer, few know that there are a few solid alternatives to this.
But what is an operating system, and why might you want to use a different system than Windows? Basically, and operating system is a piece of software that interacts directly with your computer’s hardware. You might think of a computer system as having four levels. At the lowest level there is the hardware, then the operating system, then the applications, and finally the user. As the user, you interact directly with the applications. The operating system is the intermediary between the applications and the hardware.
Many people have been turning away from Windows because they are unhappy with its lack of user-friendliness and its lack of stability. If this describes you, here are a few popular alternatives to the Windows OS.
1. Mac OSX
As Apple’s computers continue to gain market share, so does the OS associated with those computers. OSX is rated highly for its attractive interface, its ease of use, and its stability. The downside if you are switching from Windows is that many of your own programs may not work. On a Windows, all of your applications are usually.exe files, but these won’t work on a Mac. Macs use.dmg files for their applications. The good news is that most major applications also have a Mac version available. Unfortunately, Apple requires that you run Mac OSX only on a Mac computer. The reason they require this is because their hardware and software is designed to seamlessly interact with each other. On the other hand, there are guides and tutorials you can find if you want to attempt to install this software on any Intel computer.
2. Linux
Linux was first created in 1991 by Linus Benedict Torvalds. He started Linux basically as a hobby because he wanted to create a free operating system. Although Linux has always been a relatively small player in the operating system market, its popularity continues to grow every year. Linux is completely open-source, and therefore there is no “owner” of Linux. However, companies are allowed to use the code to create unique versions which they can sell to the public. The most popular of these is an operating system called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is designed with the non-programmer in mind, so it is pretty easy to set up and get started even if you aren’t a computer geek.
3. Solaris
Solaris was originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1992. It was since been released for free to the public under the OpenSolaris project. This operating system is most popular among businesses that use it on their networks, but there is also some desktop variants available. Like Linux, Solaris gives the user a lot more control over their computing environment than the closed-source operating systems do, but a lot more technical know-how is required.
So if you’re fed up with Windows, there is more that you can do than curse at your screen and complain about it all the time. You may want to look into the many alternatives to the Windows OS which are available. So toss Windows into an outdoor trash can and just be done with it! Rubbermaid trash cans are particularly good for this purpose.
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