Tag Archives: mac

Automatically virus scan your downloads folder

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Okay, so there are not really any Mac specific virus threats, but there are tonnes for Windows… and you don’t want to be passing these on to your PC owning friends right? Best be safe…

  • Download and install ClamXav
  • Launch ClamXav application
  • Go into preferences and click the Folder Sentry tab
  • Drag your Downloads folder from the Finder to the Folders Being Watched pane
  • Check the Launch ClamXav Sentry when you log in to this computer option
  • Log out and log back in to your account and you will see a new item in your menu bar indicating that Sentry is monitoring your Downloads folder
  • The Sentry uses Growl notifications if it finds anything suspicious

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Parallels for $49, offer ends today!

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Good deal from Mac Heist: get Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac, half price. Be quick, offer ends today!

Mac Heist

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Firefox 3 released: still looks dodgy on Mac

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Using Firefox 3 is really a different experience from using OS X. It’s not Windows, it’s not OS X and it’s not Linux. It’s something else.

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Installing PEAR on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

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PEAR was removed by Apple from 10.5 for one reason or another. Here’s how to get it back:

Pre-requisties

Make sure you have a php.ini file in /etc/. This isn’t available by default. To create one enter the following:

sudo cp /etc/php.ini.default /etc/php.ini

PEAR Install

  • cd
  • curl -O http://pear.php.net/go-pear
  • sudo php go-pear

This starts the interactive install script.

  • Press Enter to start install
  • Press Enter to use no HTTP proxy
  • Type 1 and press Enter
  • Enter /usr/local/pear as the path and press Enter
  • Press Enter to confirm the install directories
  • Press Enter to install PEAR_Frontend_Web-beta,
    PEAR_Frontend_Gtk2, MDB2 by default

The installer will also alter the include_path in your php.ini file to include the new installation directory, so just press Enter when prompted

The PEAR Package Manager

To make using the command line tool easier, we are going to modify our shell path. Add the following line to the end of your ~/.profile file:

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/pear/bin"

After saving your .profile file, log into a new terminal and type the following to confirm that everything is working

pear version

If all is well, you should see the following output (or similar):

PEAR Version: 1.7.2
PHP Version: 5.2.5
Zend Engine Version: 2.2.0
Running on: Darwin glen-scotts-macbook.local 9.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 9.3.0: Fri May 23 00:49:16 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.18~1/RELEASE_I386 i386

For more information on using the manager to install and maintain packages, see the PEAR manual for the command line installer.

Clean up

rm go-pear

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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My favourite Safari Extension

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Inquisitor is a fantastic search add-on for Safari, and it’s recently been updated to version 3. Basically, it enhances the Safari search box by suggesting results and allowing searches on sites other than Google. Pretty essential, I would say.

Inquisitor

Inquisitor

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Useless Mac Applications #1 : Sherlock

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Bundled with Mac OS 8.5 – 10.4, the Sherlock search tool became less and less useful as time went by. Apple claimed that Sherlock was “dramatically better than standard web browsers at retrieving and displaying some of the most practical and useful information available on the internet” without ever explaining why. The US-centric content was pretty much useless, and so it always remained a curiosity. That it even made it to OS X was a surprise, it was finally made obsolete by Spotlight and Dashboard and removed completely from 10.5 Leopard. Good riddance!
Sherlock

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Update your Facebook, Twitter and IM status from one application

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MoodBlast
MoodBlast is an excellent little app that allows you to update your status from one place. It currently supports the following services:

  • Skype
  • iChat
  • Adium
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pownce
  • Jaiku
  • Facebook

Unfortunately, MoodBlast is Mac-only, but there is a web application called HelloTxt that looks like it will achieve the same thing.

MoodBlast
HelloTxt

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Yahoo Messenger for Mac adds Voice capabilities

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The new beta 3 version of Messenger for Mac allows you to make voice calls to other Messenger users for free:

Mac Version – Yahoo! Messenger

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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Essential third party Mac apps

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So, I’m now in the process of getting my new MacBook up to speed in terms of applications. Here are the apps that I decided were essential and needed installing:

Bingo!

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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EyeTV Hybrid

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I’ve been meaning to get hold of one for ages, but finally I’ve got my hands on an EyeTV.  I’ve chosen the Hybrid version as I’m planning on digitising some analog video at some point in the future.

Initial impressions are very good:

  • The USB device itself is very small, as is the bundled aerial.
  • The EyeTV software (version 2.5.2) is excellent; it includes a free 1 year subscription to the tvtv service which provides a comprehensive programme guide.
  • Digital picture quality is excellent, even in full screen mode, although unfortunately I don’t get the full range of Freeview channels.

EyeTV Hybrid INT

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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