In Part 2, we looked at how to play Internet Radio on a web browser, but at home you are more likely to have iTunes installed, which is a better way to listen in my opinion.
With iTunes open, look down the left hand side, and find the word “Radio”.
Bet you didn’t even know that was there did you! Give it a click, and behold the staggering amount of music you have access to that you didn’t even know was there!
Towards the bottom of the list you will find 80’s Flashback. Expand this category by clicking the triangle to the left, and way down the bottom you will find 181FM 80’s Hairband.
Give it a click, and it will start playing.
To avoid having to do the search each time, just grab the listing for “181FM 80’s Hairband” and drag it to the playlist area and drop it.
It will create a link to the station, so next time you want to listen, all you need to do is click the playlist, and it will start playing immediately. Cool Huh!
Earlier today I tried to copy a large file I had made in Photoshop and I was told that the operation couldn’t complete because there wasn’t enough room on my hard drive for it. So, I needed a way to get a lot of space back, but I wasn’t sure what was taking up all of the room. I set about looking for ways to see what was going on on my drive and I happened upon some really great tools to help you visualize all your files. The process is called “Treemaps”.
I managed to find free Treemap programs for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. For Windows users, you need to get a copy of WinDirStat (Windows Directory Statistics) HERE. Once installed, you can start it up and tell it to either analyze your whole drive, or specific folders. Here’s how it looks.
There is two options for Mac users. Grand Perspective (Gets up and going really quickly, easy to use) and Disk Inventory X (Longer to scan but a more thorough and detailed interface). Here’s how Grand Perspective looks.
And this is how Disk Inventory X Looks.
For Linux users, you can get KDirStat HERE. I havent tried it yet, but it looks very similar to WinDirStat. This screen capture is from their site.They are all fairly easy to use. Just roll your cursor over the big ones and the filename appears in the bottom left corner of the window. You can then decide which files you want to delete, and start enjoying some free space on your hard drive again.
From time to time most of us see something on Youtube that we would like to download and save.
In my case this week, I found a Youtube channel that has the video broadcast from every NHRA drag racing event of the 2012 season. As my wife and I flew from Australia to attend the Sonoma round of racing, it makes a really great souvenir for us to have the video broadcast. The problem is though, Each days racing is split into about 9 or 10 pieces, and it was a three day event. Thankfully though, KMan2100 has arranged the videos into playlists, so they can be viewed in order.
Now, you could download the videos one at a time using the method described in my post about Video Download Helper HERE, but that will take a LOT of time. If you want to download all of the videos in a playlist quickly and easily, you need to make a download list, then download them all!
To do this, you need to be using the Firefox web browser. Its free, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and if you are not already using it, you should be. You can get it free HERE.
With Firefox open and running, select “Add-ons” from the “Tools” menu in your menu bar. The first Add-on you need is the one that takes all of the videos in the playlist and turns them into a series of links. It is called BYTubeD, Bulk Youtube Downloader. To get it, type “BYTubeD” into the search bar in the top right corner.
Click the “Install” button to the right of it when you see it in your “results” list. This will download and install it. When this is finished, go back to the search bar and type “Download Them All”. As before, click the “Install” button to the right to install it.
To make your new add-ons active you need to restart Firefox. To do this, simply click the text that says “Restart now”
Once you have clicked restart, you can close the Add-ons window, and any other windows that may have popped up.
And now the fun starts!
To get downloading, go to Youtube and find your channel, and click the playlist you want to download.
As you can see, there are 28 videos on this playlist. To download them all, open your “Tools” tab on your menu bar and select “BYTubeD”. It should be at the bottom. This will open a new window.
**BEWARE** – Not only does this window contain info for all the videos you want, it also contains the info for other playlists and videos that are on this page that you may not want as well! As highlighted below, you can see the Sonoma videos I want, but I am not interested in Phoenix or Gainsville etc etc…..
For the next step, you need to tell BYTubed which videos you DO want to keep. To do this, simply highlight them. To select multiple videos (Which is kinda the point of this article) hold down your control key, then click each one if your using Windows, or your command key and click if you’ve got a Mac. Once you have highlighted the videos you want to download, click the start button.
BYTubed will now chew through the playlist and open up a new web page with links to all your videos.
Now’s where the magic happens. To download them all, open “Download Them All” from your “Tools” menu in your menu bar.
All that is left to do now is to check mark (click the circles to the left of the names) the videos you want to keep, choose your download location (I usually download to my desktop) then click “Start” to watch those babies start loading down!
From time to time we all come across videos on Youtube that we really want to download and keep on our computers so we can watch at anytime, or to re-encode so we can watch and keep them on our phones or ipods and ipads to. A simple way to download videos is with Video Download Helper.
In order to use Video Download Helper you need to be using Firefox browser, so if you are not, you probably should be, and you can download it free HERE.
Now you have Firefox open and running, you need to get the free Video Download Helper Add On. To do this, select this “Add-ons” from the “Tools” menu in your menu bar. Once the Add-ons window opens type “Video Download Helper” in the search box in the top right corner.
Video Download Helper should be the first result, so when you see it in the list, click the “Install” button to right of it. Once it has finished downloading and installing, you will need to restart Firefox to make it active. To do this, simply click the “Restart now” text.
Once Firefox restarts, you can close out of the Add-ons window and any other windows that have popped up, and you should now see a new icon in the top left.
This means you are all set to go! Now when you wake up at 2am and worry that Gangnam Style is going to be taken down and you will never see it again, you can open it up in Youtube, click the little black upside down triangle next to the colored logo (when its gray out it means there is nothing to download on the page – when its colored, there is a file it can retrieve for you) and select the quality of the file you want to download.
Once you have selected your preferred resolution and format, its just a matter of confirming with the “Save File” dialogue box, and your good to go!
Video Download Helper has a swag of other cool features as well, but we’ll cover those another time as I know you just CANT WAIT to go and run your new Gangnam Style video up on your home theater system!
Not sure what a pretty lady who can afford and appreciate a good cup of coffee has to do with horse riding though? Ahhh Who Cares……..Opp-Opp-Oppan Gangnam Style Baby!
I am sure there are dozens of methods, and dozens of programs and apps that do wonderful things for your Mac computer running OS X Lion/Mountain Lion, but in my opinion, the folks at Apple have built in the best, quickest, and easiest way to give your Apple computer a boost. It’s called “Repair Permissions”.
A few years ago I was involved heavily in editing high def video for a motorsport operation, and it never ceased to amaze me how much quicker and happier my mac pro was after a permissions repair.
**NOTE** – It can take a while for this operation to complete, so make sure you have plenty of down time before tying up your computer with this procedure.
The good thing about OS X Lion/Mountain Lion is that you don’t have to go and find your install disk to do this anymore (Like you used to have to do with Snow Leopard, Leopard and Tiger). When you installed Lion/Mountain Lion, it created a rescue partition for you, and to access this partition, and speed up your mac, all you gotta do is hold down your “ALT” key, and turn your mac on! Once you here the “BONG” sound, you will see this:
When your Mac boots, it selects the regular hard drive automatically. But when you hold down the ALT key, your telling your Mac that you want to see what other devices you can boot. Lion/Mountain Lion creates a very small “Virtual” hard drive, that you can boot into instead of your normal hard drive and operating system, that lets you perform maintenance operations. To restore your permissions, click the arrow for “Recovery HD”. Your computer will boot from this second partition, leaving your main partition unmounted, so you can perform maintenance.
Once your computer has booted up from the Recovery Hard Disk you will see Utilities Window.
To get started, select the “Disk Utility” option, then click continue in the bottom right corner. The Disk Utility will now open.
Select/Highlight your main hard drive partition (the one you want to speed up) in the left side of the window, and click “First Aid” to get to the repair window. Here you can verify/repair the condition of the disk. I usually just hit “Repair Disk” and let it do its thing. This can take a bit of time, so go put the coffee on!
You will see all kinds of activity, but the only thing you need to worry about is that green text that says the disk is ok, and that the repair is complete. The next step is to click “Repair Permissions”. Again, this may take some time, but when it is complete it will tell you down the bottom of the window in bold font.
When its done, Quit out of Disk Utility using the “Disk Utility” menu bar option.
Then Quit out of the Utilities Window from the Mac OS X Utilities menu bar option.
The final window/step is to click “Restart” from the “Choose Start Up Disk” Window. As we didnt permanently change the start up disk, there is no need to change any other parameters here, just click Restart.
Your computer will now restart (It may take a little longer than normal to do so – so don’t worry if it does!) and hopefully you will notice a pleasant increase in performance!
UPDATE – **I HAVE TESTED THIS METHOD WITH OS X MAVERICKS AND IT WORKS GREAT!**
This tutorial was written using Mountain Lion as an example, but it works for Mavericks as well – just follow the same process
Just like OS X Lion, it is really important to save your OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks “Install File” BEFORE you install it. Without it, you can not make an install disk, and it is deleted automatically once you install your new operating system.
Once you have purchased Mountain Lion or Mavericks, your purchase/price button will turn into a “downloading” button.
A short time after, your launchpad may spring open and show you the downloads progress.
You can leave it open and watch the progress if you want. Close it up when your finished watching, or when the file has completely downloaded.
**CRITICAL** – When the file has finished downloading, a window will pop up and ask you if you want to go ahead and install the new software. QUIT THE INSTALLER IMMEDIATELY! This can be done by clicking the file menu and selecting the “Quit” option.
Don’t worry, you are not going to loose the program you just bought, you are just telling your computer that you want to install later. Once you have closed out of the installer, open a new finder window, then open your “Applications” folder. Inside this folder you will see your OS X Mountain Lion or Mavericks Install File.
Right click and “Copy” the installer file, then “Paste” it onto your desktop.
Once the file finishes copying to the desktop, you can go back into your applications folder and double click and run the installer, if you are ready to install your update.
If you want to make a bootable install DVD disk or a USB Key, the easiest way to do this is with Disk Maker X (Formerly called Lion Disk Maker).
Go to the Disk Maker X web site HERE and download the latest version of the program. Once downloaded, unzip and run the program.
TO MAKE A DVD DISK:
With Disk Maker X open, select Mountain Lion to make a Mountain Lion DVD, Or Mavericks to make a Mavericks Install DVD.
Once you select your Operating System, the program will try to locate the install program automatically. It doesn’t matter if it uses the one in your Applications folder, or the one on your desktop. In my case, it found the one on my desktop.
The next step is to tell Disk Maker X if you want to make a DVD or a USB key. Keep in mind, if you want to make a DVD you will need a 8.5gb Dual Layer DVD, and a Dual Layer DVD Burner, as the installer will not fit on a single layer 4.7gb DVD.
Click “Burn A DVD”. Disk Maker X will ask you to select your Burner.
You will now be prompted to insert a disk, and begin the burning process.
TO MAKE A USB KEY:
With Disk Maker X open, select Mountain Lion to make a Mountain Lion USB or Mavericks to make a Mavericks install USB key.
Once you select your operating system, the program will try to locate the install program automatically. It doesn’t matter if it uses the one in your Applications folder, or the one on your desktop. In my case, it found the one on my desktop.
The next step is to tell Disk Maker X if you want to make a DVD or a USB key. Keep in mind, if you want to make a USB Key you will need a 8gb thumb drive, due to the size of the installer. Click “Create a Boot Disk”.
Next, Disk Maker X will ask you about your Thumb Drive. In keeping with the recommendations of the makers of the program, we will select “8gb USB Thumb Drive”.
(My understanding is, that this option will completely erase the entire USB drive, and ALL existing data will be over-written. If you have a larger drive, which is divided up into partitions, and you do not want to erase the whole drive, use the “Another kind of disk” option. IF this is incorrect, or there is also another reason, please reply in comments.)
You will now be asked to confirm your drive selection, and its location.
One last warning! Your thumb drive will now be erased COMPLETELY!
Disk Maker X will now begin crunching files to make your USB Installer.
During this process, particularly towards the end of the process, a lot of new windows and “Get Info” dialogues will pop up, and disappear. This is normal. This is just your computer acknowledging the creation and mounting of new drives and volumes.
Once it is all completed, you will hear Homer yelling “WooHoo!” and see your new USB drive ready to go!
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In Part 2, we looked at how to play Internet Radio on a web browser, but at home you are more likely to have iTunes installed, which is a better way to listen in my opinion.
Bet you didn’t even know that was there did you! Give it a click, and behold the staggering amount of music you have access to that you didn’t even know was there!
Towards the bottom of the list you will find 80’s Flashback. Expand this category by clicking the triangle to the left, and way down the bottom you will find 181FM 80’s Hairband.
Give it a click, and it will start playing.
To avoid having to do the search each time, just grab the listing for “181FM 80’s Hairband” and drag it to the playlist area and drop it.
