I receive a lot of e-mails from students, and even though I always tell them to send me PDF files, they almost always send me the source files for their documents instead (.doc, .docx, .odt, .pages, …). This semester we have started with electronic submission of term papers at our department, and even though it said everywhere that PDF was the file format to submit, of course all sorts of other formats turned up.

I have been annoyed by the fact that OSX leaves .ds_store files in folders that you open. This is ok on the mac, but not so on the countless network volumes I open every day. Google helped me find a quick solution to get rid of the problem, by typing the following in terminal: <code>defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true</code> {.zemanta-pixie} {.zemanta-pixie-img}

My blog has been down for a few days, so I have a few entries that have piled up in the drafts folder of my ScribeFire, while waiting to be published. Here is a trick I learned to turn the entire gui negative in OSX: ctrl+option+apple+8 Very useful for situations were darkness is better than light (yes, it is winter solstice today). {.zemanta-pixie-img}

Linux Mint has become my favourite Linux distribution as of lately. It is built on Ubuntu but with the added benefit of native installation of lots of extra drivers, audio/video codecs, and small programs that make life a lot easier. This is particularly important as Linux is not my main platform, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time and effort to make everything work when I install a new system.

I have been teaching at the International Summer School in Systematic, Comparative and Cognitive Musicology 2009 in Jyväskylä, Finland the last week. For that reason I found the need to update some of my software, and have new builds for both Mac and Windows for AudioAnalysis, AudioVideoAnalysis and VideoAnalysis. I have also made a simple recorder called AudioVideoRecorder, to help people without QuickTime Pro to quickly create a video recording on their computer.

Videonotetaker is a small java/quicktime-based application for writing text-based annotations of a video file. It is very simple, and I can’t get the keyboard controls to work in OSX, but it works well and provides the most basic features. For more advanced annotation it is better to use a tool like Anvil, but I think Videonotetaker can be very useful for students. {.zemanta-pixie} {.zemanta-pixie-img}

The latest beta version of Skype (for OSX only, apparently) offers something called “Skype Access”, which makes it possible to pay for access to commercial WiFi networks through a per minute basis using your SkypeOut account. I recall reading this when I downloaded the latest beta a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t think much about it before I opened my MacBook at the Brussels airport last week and saw a “do you want to pay using SkypeOut” message on screen.

It has probably been around for a while, but I just discovered FreeSMUG (FreeSoftware Mac User Group). The idea os to select and bundle various free software for OSX, covering everything from web and office applications to games and media. I already use a lot of the software, but a few new and interesting ones also showed up. While it is possible to download a CD image with the installers for all of these programs, it would have been even easier for the end user to have a general update system (ala Fink), but I guess this might be something they are working on.

I have been using Leopard for a while, but hadn’t discovered some of the new features yet: Image adjustments Create alpha channels in images Combine PDFs Small enhancements, but they make for saving a few minutes here and there. Now I don’t have to open Photoshop or GraphicConverter to do simple image manipulation.

I had my first go at restoring a file using Time Machine today. Looking for a Keynote presentation, I realised that I had kept only the PDF of the presentation and not the original presentation file. Not really sure how that happened, but, anyway, the file was lost. I have had Time Machine running on my computer ever since I upgraded to X.5, and have been wondering whether it would be worth the extra CPU peaks that appear every hour or so when it activates and copies changed files.

One solution to avoiding that chime on booting your mac is to hold down the F3 key at startup. A more permanent solution is offered through the StartupSoundPrefPane which is described in more detail here.

I tried to update to 10.4.9 yesterday, but got an error message, and when booting everything hangs. I haven’t found a good solution yet, but at least I came across a list of useful startup keys, some of them being: C : Forces most Macs to boot from the CD-Rom drive instead of the internal hard drive. Only works with Apple ROM drives and with bootable CD discs. D : Forces the first internal hard drive to be the startup disk.

I learn new things every day. Gisela just sent me a hint about putting those super-long URLs between brackets to avoid breaking the URL when the line is wrapped in an e-mail application: <http://www.somesite.com/a/really/long/url>

Macworld: Mac OS X Hints: Set headphone volume level on Intel Macs If you’ve got a new Intel-powered Mac, here’s a feature you may not have even known you had. For years, all Macs have had the ability to have different volume levels for different inputs. Plug in a USB-powered iMic, for instance, and you can set its output volume level independently of that of your internal speakers.