Mac Stickies FAQ: Can I save Mac Stickies? If so, how? Also, is there any way to sync Mac Stickies between multiple computers?
This Mac Stickies question goes from simple to bizarre faster than any Mac FAQ I've ever been asked. I'll walk you through what I just learned, so please bear with me, answers are in here.
Dropbox syncing FAQ: How do I know when Dropbox is syncing my files?
On a Mac, you can tell when Dropbox is syncing your files by looking at the Dropbox icon in your Mac menu bar. When Dropbox is not syncing your files the icon will have a little check mark on it, like this blown-up image:
Netflix bandwidth usage FAQ: How can I control/throttle/limit the network bandwidth that Netflix uses?
If you happen to live in an area like Alaska, where you have to pay for "excess bandwidth", the network bandwidth that a service like Netflix streaming movies uses can be very important to your monthly network bill. After digging around and experimenting for a while, I've found a way to significantly reduce my Netflix bandwidth usage, so I thought I'd share this tip here.
Mac iCal event reminders FAQ: How do I configure a Mac iCal reminder to remind me of birthdays, due dates for bills, and so on?
If you're new to the Mac world, and want to be able to set up reminders for various things like birthdays, pay bills, or attend events, the good news is that you can do this with the free software already installed on your Mac. The iCal Mac calendar application is just what you need.
iPhone ring length FAQ: Can I change the iPhone ring length, or number of rings? My iPhone doesn't ring long enough, and often goes to voicemail before I can get to it.
After digging into this, yes, it looks like you can change your iPhone ring length, and there are at least two ways to do this.
First, the safest option is to call AT&T customer service, or visit an AT&T store, and they can do it for you.
iPhone/iOS FAQ: How can I check how many “minutes used” and “minutes remaining” I have on my iPhone plan (with AT&T or Verizon)?
As I was digging around for some other information I just saw how to check my AT&T iPhone minutes used. Since the iPhone operating system (iOS) is supposed to be the same across carriers, I’ll assume this works for Verizon as well as AT&T.
Summary: A Drupal API/functions experiment - A searchable collection of Drupal projects to demonstrate Drupal API function examples.
I just started a new Drupal API examples experiment recently. The basic concept is to make it easier for Drupal programmers to be able to find working, real-world Drupal API programming examples as a way to help document the available Drupal API functions.
iTunes album list AppleScript FAQ: How can I create a list of iTunes album names (a unique list of all iTunes album names)? (Also written as: Can you help me create an AppleScript to list all iTunes album names?)
As mentioned in my previous article, for a variety of reasons I'd really like to be able to generate a unique list of iTunes album names. For some reason iTunes doesn't let you do this well, so in my previous article I showed how to create an iTunes album list using iTunes.
iTunes album list FAQ: How can I create a list of iTunes album names (a unique list of all iTunes album names)?
When I listen to iTunes, I often like to listen to a complete album at one time, rather than a mix of songs from different albums. I especially like to do this when I'm working, because the music and volume level is consistent. It's always surprised me that Apple doesn't provide a simple iTunes album list view, where you can see all your albums, then click a button to listen to one album or another.
A friend of a friend has created a documentary titled "This Is Why We Still Sing The Blues", and with my own interest in the Blues (I'm listening to them now), I thought I'd share a few banners leading to his website. Here's the first one:
MacBook battery life FAQ: How can I improve my MacBook battery life (or MacBook Pro or MacBook Air battery life)?
I've written about MacBook battery life before (see the links below), but with a new MacBook Air, I've become increasingly interested in MacBook battery life. I just did some more battery life research on the Apple website, and here's what I found.
Unix/Linux redirection FAQ: How do I redirect Unix STDOUT and STDERR to the same file with one command?
To redirect both STDOUT and STDERR to the same file with one Unix/Linux command, use this syntax:
my-shell-script.sh > /dev/null 2>&1
As you can see in this command, I'm redirecting STDOUT to /dev/null as normal, and then the special 2>&1 syntax tells your Bash shell to redirect STDERR to STDOUT (which is already pointing to /dev/null).
Unix/Linux find "patterns" FAQ: How do I find files or directories that don't match a specific pattern (files not matching a regex pattern, or filename pattern)?
In my case I just ran into a situation where I needed to find all files below the current subdirectory that are NOT named with the filename pattern *.html . Fortunately with the newer Unix/Linux find syntax this solution is pretty easy, you just include the -not argument, like this:
Drupal FAQ: How do I set the favicon.ico icon file for my Drupal website?
There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the best ways is through the Drupal admin interface. From there you can upload your favicon.ico file and it won't be clobbered whenever you update your Drupal website.
To add a custom favicon.ico file to a Drupal 6 website, go to Admin > Themes > Settings, which in the case of one of my websites using a version of the Austin theme resulted in this browser path (URI):
Mac task scheduling FAQ: Is there a simple way to schedule a task/job on a Mac OS X system to run on a certain date and time? (For Linux/Unix users: Like running a Unix job with the crontab facility, but in a GUI?)
In an earlier article I detailed how to run Unix jobs on a Mac system in this Mac OS X crontab (launchd) tutorial. But today I was looking for an easier way to run Mac programs at certain times, or to schedule email reminders to be sent to myself, preferably using a Mac GUI client.
A Mac, RSS, and Email tip: How to create a Mac app (free) to mail an RSS news feed to yourself (or anyone else) from your Mac.
As I keep digging deeper and deeper into the Mac Automator application, I've found a way to do something I've been thinking about for a while: Mail RSS news feeds to myself. Sometimes during the day I get very busy and forget to even look at the news, so I thought it would be nice if I mailed myself one or more RSS news feeds.
Mac OS X images FAQ: Can you recommend a small Mac app that scales Mac images fast, and is preferably free?
I've been creating a lot of scaled images for my One Man's Alaska website lately, and since I always scale them to a width of 600 pixels I've been trying to find the fastest, easiest way to create these scaled images.
I have been using the Gimp to do this, but it's really a little cumbersome and overkill for this. Another app named EasyCrop is closer to what I want, but it has a number of drawbacks as well.
iPhone 4 screen cleaning FAQ: How do I clean the front screen on my iPhone 4 (the iPhone 4 glass)? Also, what kind of iPhone 4 cleaning cloth can I use?
I just bought an iPhone 4 a few days ago, and the front glass screen and oleophobic coating is pretty awesome. I used it for a while without noticing any smudges on the glass. As soon as I got a little bit of a smudge on it this morning I began to wonder, how am I supposed to clean the iPhone 4 screen/glass?
Twitter iPhone App 'trending' FAQ: Help, how do I stop that insanely annoying trending bar in the latest Twitter iPhone app?
If you use the Twitter iPhone app, and find the new "Trending" bar to be insanely annoying, you can't seem to get rid of it, but you can at least slow it down a little bit.
Linux file permissions FAQ: Can you share some examples of the Unix/Linux chmod command? (Also written as, "How do I change permissions on Unix files and directories?")
The chmod command name stands for "change mode", and as that name implies, the chmod command is used to change the mode of Unix/Linux files.
I'll start with some simple examples, then add some more details as we go along.
