Mac Morsels and Other Useful Stuff
There are many different ways to make your User Library folder visible in OS X Lion, from Terminal.app to utilities that change the settings for you. If you’re looking for an easy way to make the folder visible when you need it, but keep it hidden when you don’t, and all without system hacks, here’s how I do it.
This method doesn’t require opening Terminal or using any special app. All you need is to add a quick setting to your Keyboard System Preferences. [Read more...]
Here’s a little hint for the WordPress users that smacked me square between the eyes yesterday in one of those “a-hah!” moments while dinking with the theme files for my site.
A lot of people will tuck an “All content © 2003-2011 So-and-so” or similar notice in the footer of their site. If you’re one of those who do, and you’re bugged by the fact that you have to change (or forget to change) the latter year every time a new year rolls around, there’s a quick and simple solution for you.
It dawned on me, since WordPress themes are based on the PHP language (this works with any PHP based template system really), why not just tuck the date function into my template footer in place of the latter year? That way it will automatically change when it’s supposed to, and I won’t have to remember anything. So, in place of the following:
<p>All content © 2004-2011 jimmitchell.org</p>I simply did this:
<p>All content © 2004-<?php echo date('Y') ?> jimmitchell.org</p>
Yippie! No more having to remember to change the footer on January 1st.
Overly simple? Yes. Painfully obvious? Only to those further along the path to web development enlightenment than myself. To the other neophytes like me, it’s one of those moments where we start to wonder “If I can do that, could I do this?” I hope this helps to bring one of those moments to your own work, be it for fun or profit.
Fix slow start-ups in OS X
Sometimes after adding new system components or otherwise changing the hardware configuration of your system you may find that the OS will load rather slowly. Usually this will only happen after the first restart as the system configures the kernel extensions needed for the new hardware; however, there are times when it can persist.
Via MacFixIt
A decent semi-advanced troubleshooting article from MacFixIt that covers troubleshooting slow start-up issues in OS X.
If you’re somewhat Terminal.app savvy, it’s worth looking at. For those who shy away from the nerdy underbelly of OS X (a.k.a. Unix), I plan to add this to the system cache cleaning routines of Yasu in the very near future.
There are many times when in our articles we will mention “General Maintenance” as part of a troubleshooting routine. If you are having software issues, either with third-party applications or the Mac OS itself, giving the computer a virtual scrub-down will many times help, or at least give you a cleaner slate upon which to do more in-depth troubleshooting.
Via MacFixIt.
A good general maintenance article from MacFixIt, which includes a mention of Yasu. Worth a read if you’re at all in the dark about how to maintain that beautiful new Mac you just switched to.
Is it a software or hardware issue? You may not be able to determine this with certainty before troubleshooting. Troubleshoot software before hardware unless the issue prevents any software troubleshooting. See Mac OS X Troubleshooting: How to Isolate an Issue for more information.
A good Apple support article outlining a smart way to deal with system issues. Every Mac user should learn how to troubleshoot like this.
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