This shortcut command will allow you to quickly hide/show the Mac OS X dock.

⌘-option-d

Pressing it once will hide it, pressing it for a second time will show the dock again.

It doesn’t make it go away permanently, this command only activated / disabled quick hide dock.

Find a design you like, http://leoparddocks.net has some real beauties

Then just follow these instructions

1. Click the ‘Download’ button above the image of the dock you want

2. Open the folder System/Library/CoreServices/

3. Control-/right-click on Dock.app and choose “Show Package Contents”

4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/

5. Make a backup of all of the “scurve” .PNG files and then get rid of them from that folder (authentication may be required)

6. Copy the contents of the downloaded file into this folder.

1. Open up Terminal.app and type “killall Dock” (without quotes)

This is how mine looks at the moment, I have decided to go for old school matrix feel on my macbook : ) suits me down to the ground.

Change the Login Screen Wallpaper Image in Snow Leopard 10.6 (also works for Leopard 10.5)

Launch the terminal and issue the following commands:

* cd /System/Library/CoreServices
* sudo mv DefaultDesktop.jpg DefaultDesktop_org.jpg
* sudo cp /path/of/image.jpg DefaultDesktop.jpg

Of course, change /path/of/image.jpg to the path of the image file you want to use. Basically what you’re doing here is moving to a folder, backing up the old “DefaultDesktop.jpg” by renaming it, and then copying in the new image and naming it “DefaultDesktop.jpg” instead.

Edit: Don’t pay for apps that do this for you, the method above works great and it’s totally free, If you are like me you will change your desktop wallpaper quite frequently and also you can now change the boring login window within OS X : ) enjoy!

So simple and it actually works!

You will need Xcode installed to install this way, there will be no need for gmake or sqlite.

In a terminal windows run:

svn co http://trac.aircrack-ng.org/svn/trunk/ aircrack-ng

You will notice lots of files downloading, now we need to edit the common.mak file.

Browse to aircrack-ng folder by using the following command

cd aircrack-ng

Open up the file (I will be using nano to do this)

sudo nano common.mak

Enter your password to edit the file.

Look for this line:

CC = $(TOOL_PREFIX)gcc

and replace with:

CC = $(TOOL_PREFIX)gcc-4.0

Then find this line:

CFLAGS ?= -g -W -Wall -Werror -O3 -Wno-strict-aliasing

and replace with:

CFLAGS ?= -g -W -Wall -Werror -O3 -Wno-strict-aliasing -arch i386 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk

Press ctrl o to write out the file, and then ctrl x to return back to terminal

Now type: The first line may error if you are already in the folder

cd aircrack-ng

make

sudo make install

All files should have been placed in /usr/local/bin/ directory

It seems to be happening to me, I am being sucked in by all the social networking sites you can imagine, not only social networking either. The three logos at the top are the three killers for me, Twittering, Facebooking and Blogging! Twitter is the most used site I use followed by a close second to my blog then coming in last is Facebook which I seem to have gone off.

I once deleted my facebook account but found myself logging back in to reactivate and then disabling it, I just couldn’t stay away from it. It’s kind of like an addiction that is really hard to give up, not sure what it is about these three platforms but it really has me under the thumb, if Twitter told me run around the streets naked I probably would.

I wake up in a morning and within 30 minutes of opening my eyes I always check these.

Not in any particular order but always within 30 minutes these are checked and then checked probably every couple of hours after that throughout the day until I go to bed and that is just a couple of the sites I check regularly.

Throughout the day I usually check on the following sites:

Now I know the above aren’t exactly social networking sites but still, you can communicate with other users from around the globe and share information so I guess it could be classed as social networking but not the same as sites such as twitter and facebook.

The after a little longer i’ll probably go back and check them over and over again, I find myself becoming obsessed and searching the internet for different sites, reading thing that don’t even interest me, writing about things that I don’t really know about, checking out forums, reading tutorials, looking for something that I want to have (a recent example of that is setting up my own short custom URL service) http://rzy.me

It’s more like an addiction and there is nothing that I can do about it!

For all you bloggers out there this icon may/may not mean the same to you as it does to me.

WordPress (which is used to power my blogs) is starting to take up more and more of my time the more I use it. I used to go through stages on how many blog posts I would write, when I find something really interesting I blog about it, If I have a rant I blog about it. Sometimes I just don’t blog at all no matter what is or what isn’t going on.

I’ve set my self a task now that I am going to write much better posts / interesting posts and at least 1 post per day if not more. I do have quite a few websites on the go at the moment and find it difficult to know where to start / which I should start with and how far I should go there always seems to be something else that needs doing / updating / fixing.

I’m not sure if blogging would come under the social networking category either but it certainly connects you to the world.

Those are just a few of the sites / applications I use and check on a regular basis throughout the day and that’s not even mentioning the other email accounts I have or logins for other sites / forums.

Before I forget also, the latest trend that seems to be out there at the moment:

Yep thats right, Google Wave, as good as it is, I also find myself checking this more and more often as I start to use the service more and more, this is even while it is in preview mode and not even gone live…meaning none of my friends are currently on, so you can only imagine how much hammer it is going to get when they finally get on and ride the wave!

I put this all down to one thing and one thing only:

The iPhone! My most valued possession, the one thing I would really feel lost without, the one thing I never leave the house with, the one thing I have a charger for in my car, my house, at work and also always carry my USB sync cable around with me at all time just incase I need to charge from my laptop / computer or even someone else’s computer.

It really is true what Apple say, there really is an app for everything! Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave, Email, reddit and digg plus much more that I use!

I often ask myself what I would do with my time if I didn’t use any of these services or even the internet!

I searched the web to try and find plugins for Front Row to integrate YouTube, BBC iPlayer, 4oD and all of the usual catchup TV channels as an alternative to live streaming, my search was unsuccessful and just found various forums of everyone wanting to do the same.

I then came across Plex for Mac OS X, one word describes this software, PHENOMENAL!

It’s very similar to Front Row, Act’s like Front Row and is better than Front Row! This piece of software does everything you could want from a Media Server plus much more. Here is a few things that it allows me to do:

• Stream AVI files
• Stream MP3 files
• Allows me to Browse my TB HD over Airport Extreme to access my media
• Browse my Photos
• Browse iTunes Media
• Stream Media from BBC iPlayer
• Stream Media from 4oD
• Stream Media from HULU (Although not available in the UK)
• Stream from YouTube
• Stream from Google Videos
• Watch free South Park Videos

It does so much more, tons of streamable media over the internet you can add from the built in App Store. The App store is an amazing place and allows you to browse lots and lots of different streaming channels and allows you to integrate them all within Plex.

Why do you need to turn your Mac into a TV when there are so many Streaming channels available, with TV choice right at your footstep, the only thing that could make this application better for my is if they add the ITV player to the App Store! I will be keeping a close eye on the App Store to see if it is added!

Certainly 12/10 if I could rate this app!

Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

Last week I discovered a program for Mac OS X called “Waveboard“ a must have for all Google Wave users who are running Mac OS X, No windows version available HA!

Check it out http://www.getwaveboard.com/

There is also an iPhone version coming out that is currently waiting to be approved!

I can’t wait until the iPhone version is available then i’ll be able to wave while on the move!

There are plenty of updates coming out for the Mac OS X version which to me show the dedication of the developer and just isn’t jumping on the band wagon for Google Wave! It really is a great Application! It’s that good I even have it to start up at login!

I reckon if it wasn’t for this App then I wouldn’t check my Google Wave account as much as I do now!

The best part….. It’s Free!!!

It has a nice Dock Icon that continually tells you have many unread waves you have:

Also at the status bar at the top, it has the Waveboard icon that goes blue when new waves are available to read.

Overall I give the developer a 10/10 for this GREAT application!

Apple Magic Mouse

The above is just a little about the new mouse, this certainly got me thinking of the wireless mighty mouse I have upstairs on my iMac and how much effort Apple has put into this new Magic Mouse.

For just £55 I believe this is a great price for such a fantastic piece of tech, I have just placed an order for one of these for my Macbook and should be here within 5 – 7 days. Photos to follow as soon as I receive the mouse from Apple.

A little bit more from Apple : )

The magic is in the Multi-Touch.

The new Magic Mouse redefines what a mouse should do. In addition to its smooth, seamless top-shell design that acts as one button or two, Magic Mouse features a Multi-Touch surface with gesture support. Scroll vertically, horizontally and diagonally — a full 360 degrees — simply by touching anywhere on the top surface. With a greater surface area for scrolling, you can get around a long timeline in iMovie, through a lengthy web page in Safari or around a set of images in iPhoto more efficiently. You can also swipe through pages in Safari or photos in iPhoto with two fingers. It’s the most advanced Apple mouse ever made.

I find the menu options a little confusing but I guess I will figure them out within time, the application is called MacJournal and it does exactly what it says on the tin, it really is a Journal for Mac.

Some of the features I like are:

1) Being able to manage and write to multiple blogs all from within the application
2) Insert images which upload perfectly
3) Full text editor
4) Offline writing / Publish later
5) View all posts ever written within the application and see which have been published

There is also so much more.

MacJournal is a great little app which I have now installed on my macbook for when travelling and also on my iMac in my office. I find it’s a much better way to type up blog posts and also find myself taking my time when writing / over using the web browser to type up posts.

I know I have trouble with spelling and also with writing blog posts, most of them are just sometimes rants (which I will continue to do) after all a blog is a place for thoughts and rants….plus it’s my blog so I will post what ever I like

Check out the MacJournal website for more information!

http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85

Have fun and happy blogging!

Anyways I installed bootcamp and installed Windows XP with Service pack three blah blah and everything was working great, I found a great little utility to quickly let me switch from Mac OS X and boot into Windows, the App was called “QuickBoot”.

I booted to Mac OS X and booted into Windows multiple times without any issues, this is where the problems came.

I wanted to copy files to the Windows Partition from MAC OS X but I only had read access, after reading up on the internet I suddenly found out that it was due to the fact of how the partition was formatted and this is the norm that Mac OS X cannot write.

Grrr there must be away, yup, there sure was, I installed an App called “Paragon NTFS For Mac OS X“ After a simple reboot after Paragon had installed I tested I could copy files to the Partition, YES! Success, after the files had copied over I decided to switch back over to Windows to install the files I had just copied over, so I quickly launched ”QuickBoot“ and drats, it would only find my Mac OS X installation….the drive was still there, I could browse all the Windows Directories and everything, it was no longer bootable though….after searching the internet and still had no luck in finding a resolution I gave up and decided to reinstall Windows again…….

1 hour later when it was installed and all the Bootcamp Drivers had been installed I booted back into Mac OS X and guess what? Still no change!!! I still couldn’t boot back into Windows from OS X!

I decided to read through the installation and user guide for Paragon and this is what I read….

As you can see it is a known fault….

I quickly followed the instructions and to my amazement….it worked, bloody hell! So that is why you should always read instructions!