By Amit Gupta:
But one day, pretty soon, you’ll realize that you haven’t used your laptop in days. That you tend to grab your iPad first whenever you need to visit a website or answer email. That your laptop never leaves your desk anymore.
It starts tomorrow.
I want an app that will dim all windows other than the currently active window.
I’m not used to using a two monitor setup on one computer. I tend to leave google calendar or gmail open on one monitor and articles to read on the other.. both in Google Chrome. The problem is, the gmail window will have the focus while i am reading an article in another window. When I press Command + W to close the article i’m done with, the gmail window closes.. very annoying.
The only app i found that kind of does what i want is Think.
It puts a shade over every app except for the one you choose.
The shade is customizable as to opacity and color.
Think requires you to manually set this shade. I want something that will automatically shade all but the active window. Also Think leaves all windows in the selected app un-shaded.. which does not solve my problem.
One thing… there is a preference pane for mac called MondoMouse that will at least make the window under the cursor active… interesting utility.. not sure how i feel about it.. still want the dimming…
Perhaps it would be good to have the dimming on inactive windows without having mouse-over making them active…
This way you would still use the same clicking behavior to make windows active, you could just be more aware of window states, and what actions keyboard shortcuts will have when you use them.
I have an Acer LCD I got from Target hooked up to my MacBook.
I either have the it hooked up to the external display at my desk, or on my lapdesk on the futon. So I disconnect it/reconnect it about once a day generally.
Today.. i hooked up the display, and my MacBook was no longer giving it the normal 1366x768 resolution, but a larger res like 1600 by something. Strange.. i tried powering the monitor on and off, reconnecting the display cable.. no dice.
In the display preferences, it was giving me this looong list of possible resolutions.. not the standard group of 9. Also, the proper resolution for that monitor was not even in the list.
I rebooted the mac… no change.
Finally.. i thought.. i wonder if the cable is only partially connected to the display on the back of the display… That was it.. i touched the cable and it fell off.
After reconnecting it, my mac immediately knew it was the 1366x768.
I think it’s interesting that it didn’t know what display was connected, but still knew that a display was somehow connected.. and was sending a signal.
So.. the moral of the story..
Is your Mac no longer properly detecting the external display resolution?
Check your connections… If they are solid.. is it possible that your display cable has a short or break in it? Try another display cable.
PS
This is a pretty boring post, huh?
My hope is that someone googling looking for an answer to their problem finds this article and it helps them. :)
Predictably Irrational (via marco)
This makes me want to throw something away.
I love the beginning of this song.
I like to use the the side bar [1 in pic] and the tool bar for shortcuts to frequently used locations in Finder.
But, to my dismay, I found that a few items would not allow themselves to be placed there. For example i cannot put the top level of a network share in the side bar. I can place any of its contents there, but not the top level of the share itself… why?
I have no idea…
Workaround? Place it as a button in the toolbar.
This for some reason is allowed when the other is not.
Another thing…
Moving things to the Trash. I have the option of:
What I would prefer is if I could move something to the trash within the finder window, then i don’t have to use the keyboard or play the find the sliding trash can in the zooming hidden dock game.
Simple right? just drag the trash icon into the side bar.
Nothing happens.
Okay.. i learned a trick earlier in this blog post.. drag the trash into the tool bar?
No go.
But there is something you can do.
Navigate to the trash folder… it’s hidden, so in the finder use the Go menu, and the Go to Folder… option. [shortcut is shift + command + G]
In the box, paste this:
~/.Trash
This is a shortcut to the trash for the user you are currently logged on as.
Once the you are there, you will see all the stuff in your trash.. great!
Now drag the icon of the trash folder at the top of the finder window into the tool bar, as shown below. Yay! Try throwing stuff away. It works!
Now… those extra credit types out there will notice that the folder icon is just a normal folder icon and not a trash bucket. Yes, you can change the icon to a trash bucket, but unfortunately, it changes back to a normal folder icon. This happens when the trash is emptied, if memory serves. I had the idea to make an alias of the trash and change the icon of that.. but i was unsuccessful.
I hope this helps someone! :D
Totally unscientific, but i have a MacBook from early 2007 running Snow Leopard.
I have this pattern in Safari i play out again and again where i open an assload of tabs and they sit there not being read.
At this point, safari is slow, and opening a new tab, closing a tab, switching to a new tab… it’s all really slow. Safari is responds in a tar-speed like manner.
Well I opened up Chrome, which i haven’t tried since it was pre-beta for mac.
It works really well.. and it’s snappy, while Safari is still bogged down.
Perhaps this is just a memory issue.. or perhaps since Safari has been running for a week, and Chrome 3 or 4 days, Chrome has an advantage.
But it’s awesome.. and i am really liking Chrome.
One thing I like about Safari that Chrome does not have… Safari can view PDFs in the browser.
I am so excited about the rumored Google phone…
If Google is really going to directly sell an unlocked phone… that means no contract.
If they are selling it without a contract… i am guessing it will be cheaper than many would anticipate… this is google… this is going to change the way things are done…
If anyone can just go buy a kickass GSM phone for fairly cheap with no commitment…
I’m not sure what the implications are, but this is not the way the cell phone industry for the most part works… you only get the fancy phones by paying a lot of cash and paying a lot of cash every month…
If I wanted to try the google phone out… i could:
anyway.. i’m just thinking off the top of my head here… so exciting.
My advice regarding library organization is always unpopular and always ignored, but hear me out here: delete most of your music.
It’s a convincing argument — especially the external hard drive option.
This is good advice [that i need to follow] for an iTunes library, but it’s also good advice for most everything else.
The dichotomy between having it all and throwing everything away is one I struggle with.
On one hand, you want to have everything, be prepared for any situation, be able to solve any problem with things.
On the other hand, you want to be free mentally of clutter to have the capacity to tackle any problem.
Physical [and digital] stuff creates mental clutter. It seems wrong that you have to make the choice, but you do. If you choose to horde everything, it’s going to limit you mentally, due to the mental distraction and physical processing time stuff takes. On the other hand if you can learn to let go of things, it opens you up to possibilities that were prevented from existing before.
