Author: The Webernets

Bring back one tap dragging in Mac OSX Lion

The Webernets0 comment

One Tap Drag LockSomething else that has been bugging me lately about OSX Lion is that “One Finger Tap Dragging” has changed to “Click and Drag”. By default, you can’t just move the cursor to the windows top bar, tap once and drag it around the screen. It’s really difficult to break the habit if you have been a Mac user for several years. Thankfully, it is still available in Lion, but it is REALLY hidden away.

I spent ages going through every aspect of the “Trackpad” preferences pane, and watching all the little videos on gestures, but it turns out that this feature isn’t even in there. To turn One Tap Dragging back on, you need to go into “Universal Access”! How do you like those APPLES! Thanks APPLE!

Universal Access Preference PaneOnce you have opened Preferences and clicked Universal Access, click the “Mouse & Trackpad” tab, and then “Trackpad Options” towards the bottom.

Trackpad PreferancesNow, by checking one simple checkbox, all of that anguish and suffering will go away! Simply check the box next to “Dragging” and One Tap Dragging is restored. And if you were used to the “Drag Lock” feature in previous versions (where you have to tap again to release”, you can also restore that feature in the drop down to the right of “Dragging” as well.

Dragging Check Box

Below is a screen capture of an option I would REALLY like to see Apple implement in coming versions of their operating system.

Trackpad Option Recommendation for future OS's

How to stop OSX Mac Mail threading/grouping emails and conversations together

The Webernets20 Comments

Grouped Conversations in Mac MailMac Mail has a feature now that groups emails with the same subject line together into a collapsed “forum thread” like manner, which saves space when you are looking at your inbox. The problem I find with it is that there just aren’t enough bells, whistles and foghorns to catch my attention when a new email arrives and its a reply to something in that thread. I need more than just the number in the bottom right corner incrementing. As a result, I have lost/not read some emails lately.

Thankfully, there is a solution for this, but it requires a bit of patience to implement as it is not a global fix. For some reason, emails are grouped by default, and you have to ungroup on a thread by thread basis…….Thanks Apple.

To do so, highlight the thread you want to ungroup, then in the menu bar select “View” and uncheck the option that says “Organise by Conversation”

Turn Off Email Grouping

Now you will see each email as a single item in your inbox again, and new and unread emails will go back to having that little blue dot to the left. If you want to continue to see threads from specific contacts in an ungrouped way, you can just ad a rule (in the rules tab in mail preferences pane) to highlight email from them with a unique background colour.

Ungrouped Email Conversations

Again, as I said, this isn’t global, its thread by thread. So if you REALLY hate this feature, a quick way to start making it go away is to select all messages in your inbox simulataneously (Highlight one, then click command and A) and then uncheck “Organise By Conversation”.

Change All Threads

If you are using Mac Mail as an RSS reader, this method also works to ungroup new posts on sites you are following.

If you have any other idea’s on how to work around this annoyance, please reply in the comments.

Disable and stop that annoying delete confirmation dialogue box in OSX Lion

The Webernets0 comment

delete-dialogue-boxI know that dialogue warning boxes are there for a reason, and they protect us from accidentally deleting stuff we don’t really want to delete, but I work with dozens of files, and dozens of versions of files at a time. If you are someone who has the need to delete files a lot, and likes to see the “Empty” trash can icon (like me) it is possible to disable that annoying “Are you sure you really want to empty your trash can, even though you just specifically right clicked on the icon and purposely selected the “empty trash” option?” dialogue box.

Click on your desktop to activate the finder, then under the “Finder” menu, select preferances.

delete-confirmation-dialogue-boxOnce you have selected “Preferences” and the preferences pane is open, its just a simple matter un-checking the “Show warning before emptying the Trash” option.

delete-confirmation-dialogue-box

Its only a little thing I know, but if you are a true “Power-User”, this is a godsend that can save you a lot of extra clicks.

 

Clear the list of Recent Email Addresses on iPhone

The Webernets8 Comments

Clear Recent Email AddressesOver time I have sent a lot of email from my iPhone, and it seems like iOS4/5 remembers every one of them fondly. As soon as I start typing an address it offers me a list of all of those email addresses that I sent one email to 3 years ago, instead of the one I want, and use regularly. In this post I am going to show you how I cleared that list on my phone.

As you would expect, you need to download a third party app and hack into the bowls of your phone to do this. And if you do decide to do this, you do so at your own risk ok!

I found a program called iBackUpBot, which lets you modify a number of aspects of your iOS4/5 device. Its not a free program, but there is enough functionality in the trial version so you can clear your recent emails list though. There is a Windows and a Mac version, so the procedure will work on both systems. Download and install.

Once you have downloaded, plug your phone in, and open iTunes. The first thing you need to do is make a back up, because its the back up files you will be working on. To force a back up, Right click on your device in the iTunes side bar and select “Back Up” from the context menu.

backup-iphone

Once the back up is complete, you can close out of iTunes, but leave your phone connected. Now open up iBackUpBot. You will need to select the back up file you just created (by device name, date and time) and click it. It will then start analyzing your back up file. Once it has finished analyzing you will see a whole bunch of entries appear on the right. Dont worry about these, as we wont be using them for this procedure. The next step is to select “Plug In” from the menu, and then select “Recent Email Addresses”.

recent-email-addresses

You will be confronted with a window that prompts you to purchase the program, you can click the cancel button to make it go away. Once it disappears, a window called “Recent Email Address Viewer” will pop up and you will see the list of recent email addresses stored in your phones memory. You can now go through the list and delete the ones you don’t want to see any more, and keep the ones you do. Just click on the offending address then hit your delete key. Once your finished, click the “Close Database” icon to save your changes and close out the window.

close database

Now it’s time to reload your modified file back to your phone. Click the “Restore Backup To iPhone” button to begin. You will have to click OK/Accept in a dialogue box, and it will take a little while, so be patient.

restore-backup

Once everything is finished, you can close iBackUpBot, disconnect your phone and try it out!

Ahhhh…….No More irrelevant email addresses……….

Furcode High Tech Pet ID Tags

The Webernets2 Comments

FurCode.comOver the years since I began Dogs With Blogs, I have received a lot of emails from people with all kinds of weird and wonderful new ideas. I recently heard from Furcode.com about their High Tech Pet ID Tags, and this is one idea I really want to get behind. I think its a great product!

Now, I really cant take anything away from Micro Chipping, because it is always with the dogs. Even if the dog slips its collar off, they can still be identified. I do now however see Micro Chipping as a secondary or “Back Up” means of identification. For INSTANT pet identification (with no need to take the animal to a vet or shelter to have the chip read) you cant beat FurCode.com High Tech Pet ID Tags.

My initial thought on the QR Code was that it might not mean anything to a “non-techie” person, but it is definitely a technology that is going to grow and become more main stream, no doubt. What I really like about these tags is the unique web address that comes with every tag. Once you receive the tag, you log in to your web page, and you can type in ALL your dogs details. Now, if your doggy busts out, whoever finds them can look at their web page, and contact you IMMEDIATELY.

Now, you might be thinking “doesn’t an ordinary dog tag do that?”, and the answer is yes, but that’s all it does. What if your doggy is hurt, and needs vet attention, but is allergic to specific medication? By logging on to the dogs web page, the person who finds it knows instantly not only who owns the dog, but who it’s vet is, allergies, dietary needs, medications, conditions, vaccinations, and a swag of other important information that can keep your doggy safe and alive.

What if your phone breaks? Or you are out of town? If your pooch is wearing a Furcode Tag when he/she escapes, you can ALSO be contactable via your Mobile/Cell, alternate phone numbers, email, Facebook and Twitter! Imagine trying to jam all of that onto a regular tag!

The best part about this, its just SO easy to update. No forms, fees, trips to the vet, just log in to your online account and make the changes – simple!

Furcode Comparison ChartIf you have an iPhone, I can’t recommend “Scan” QR Code Reader highly enough. Its free, simple, and just works! You can check it out on iTunes HERE or on QR Code City’s web site HERE.

 

Check out FurCode.com HERE.

 

VMWare Fusion 4 Black Screen Workaround on OSX Lion

The Webernets3 Comments

VMWare Fusion Black Screen in OSX LionIf your like me and run Windows on your Mac using VMWARE Fusion, you have probably been getting really frustrated lately at the blank black screen you see when you try to run your virtual machine. I haven’t found a permanent fix for this, and I hope the folks at VMWare are looking into it, but I have found a workaround, which has worked for me.

TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK – I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU BREAK SOMETHING – THIS IS MERELY A RECOUNT OF HOW I WAS ABLE TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE – YOUR RESULTS MAY BE VERY DIFFERENT!!!

I have performed this workaround not only on my Macbook Pro, but on my Mac Pro as well – it worked in both instances.

To begin, I went back to VMWare’s site HERE and re-downloaded VMWare Fusion 4 (I use the lite version without McAfee)

VMWare Download ScreenOnce the download was complete, I mounted the .dmg and tried to simply drop the app icon onto the Applications Folder……..FAIL!

VMWare Install Fail

I cant stress enough, I accept NO responsibility if you try this and it fails for you ok!

At this point I opened up my Applications folder and dragged the VMWare app to the trash – I had to type in my admin password before the system allowed this. Initially I was worried that my license would get deleted as well, but I had a hunch the license would be stored elsewhere deeper in the bowels of my Mac, so I pressed on.

Move To TrashAfter the app was successfully moved to the trash, I was able to drag the VMWare logo from the .dmg into the Applications folder. Again, I was asked to type in my Admin password.

Once it had completed copying, I unmounted the .dmg, and clicked the icon in my dock to boot my Windows XP Virtual Machine. An alert popped up telling me that VMWare had to update some resources, and again I had to type my Admin password……………..AND THEN…..

XP-Boot-Screen

LOOKIN GOOD……………….

Running AgainYES! Back in the game!

Since I discovered this workaround about 10 days ago, my Mac Pro hasn’t skipped a beat. I updated my Macbook Pro last night with new iCloud features, and my Virtual Machine Black Screened again this morning. So I re-tried the work around for the creation of this article and It worked again for the second time.

I know its a pain to perform, but it did work for me, and if I have to choose between not using my Virtual Machine at all, or spending three minutes performing the workaround to get going again, I know what I would prefer to do.

Lets hope the folks at VMWare sort this one out soon!