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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 164. Apple re-launches .Mac Webmail. Apple updates DVD Studio Pro to 4.1.1. 2G iPod Shuffle now shipping. Apple releases iTunes 7.0.2. Apple releases new Boot Camp BETA 1.1.2. First Apple Store in Scotland? New macBook Pro loses iSight indicator, sorta. Apple tech doc typo stirs the iPod video pot. Apple offers a 30-day Aperture 1.5 “test drive“. Bigger (RED) Nano. 7th Son Promo. Additional tools for locating large files on your Mac. Zip compression built into OS X. Confirmation from listeners on MacBook cosmetic issues. More iTunes Store “workarounds”. What are permissions and why do we need to repair them? Formatting an old mac or hard drive for sale. Make album art stick on 4th Gen iPods. Advanced subscribing to Podcasts in iTunes. A new store in the UK for Apple products. Speeding up Photo Booth picture taking. Ways for remotely accessing your Mac. Tip for incrementally backing up iTunes using smart playlists.My other Podcast, Mac Roundtable.
Promo for the Gadgetboyz podcast.
I play hockey and I fornicate, ’cause those are the two most fun things to do in cold weather. — Mystery, Alaska
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Adam: In your response to the photographer wondering about remote access options, I was surprised that you didn’t mention the process for enabling personal file sharing and windows file sharing. Being able to access your mac’s files remotely via IP address or domain name is a very useful thing. Of course, DHCP and routers can make this difficult, but for many people who want to access their office mac (typically with a static or persistent IP address) simple file sharing is great! Chicken of the VNC is a great solution for remote control–glad to hear you recommend it.
I just purchased a second gen Shuffle. Fit and form, the new Shuffle is very cool! This was covered extensively in the Podcast.
What was not address and very important to me is the fact that many, including myself, are hearing hissing in the play mode. The sound quality is not what it should be.
I know being cool is ….. well, uhm, Cool! More importantly, it is about the music. In this case, the music suffers. That is not cool.
The new Shuffle is not ready for prime time. It could be a question of quality; the three function input plug (headphone, power and file transfer); or the new Samsung chip. I don’t know.
I was really looking forward to the new Shuffle. I am returning my Shuffle.
Regarding repairing permissions, I have used a little app called Macaroni to automatically perform routine Mac and Unix maintenance (http://www.atomicbird.com/macaroni). I did this based on your frequent mention of repairing permissions. This app also performs UNIX daily maintenance and helps you remove unnecessary languages to save space. It worked very well for me but I’m wondering if you (or anyone) could comment on the necessity of performing these various functions given what you have learned following the article you referenced. Thanks for the MacCast!
-t
Just to add re Remote controling a mac..over the Web.
Remember that this is rather insecure…. so manypeople use a secure VPN type system. This may sound complex but I use Hamachi.
Hamachi is a zero-config VPN utility for WINDOWS But there is a command-line version for MacOS X and Linux. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as the Windows version but it works. It’s a real pain to install, you REALLY need to *CareFully* read the Hamachi Mac forum. Anyway it solves the problem of security (uses 265bit AES), NAT / Router transversal and variable IPs. I mostly use to to connect to PCs (in Canada…and I’m in the UK) and use Chicken of the VNC to control those (with RealVNC on the PCs), Samba & AFS works, as does iTunes Music sharing (yes, right now I’m listening to a friends iTunes on Windows > and I’m over 5000km away!)
Hamachi is now, unfortunately, owned by LogMeIn so there hasn’t been any updated Mac / Linux client in about 2 months…but oh well..it works.
http://www.hamachi.cc and http://forums.hamachi.cc
http://www.logmein.com
Adam said something alone the lines like he, “had one hell of a week”.
And I noticed he sounded kinda ‘sans-spunk’, or without his usual blast of full on energy.
Hope everything is alright.
Peace.
Here’s another great feature I found out about the redesigned .Mac service. It may have been a feature before but now its more publicized. You can access your iDisk from any internet connected computer. Mac or PC, go to http://idisk.mac.com/yourmembername (where yourmembername part in the URL is replaced with your .Mac user account name). It will pop-up a box and you enter your username and password. Then you can upload/download files to and from your iDisk with having to install any software on the computer your using. I think its perfect for when your using public access machines at work, school or internet cafes. It also works a lot better in my opinion than the iDisk Utility for Windows that you have to download.
Dave, you’re right, internet access to your iDisk from any computer with an internet connection has been part of .Mac since day 1. Pretty cool huh? :-)
The information you gave concerning the size of swap files is erroneous. You made it sound as though the size of the swap file is related in some way to the size of the boot volume. It’s not. If you look in the directory /var/vm, you can see the actual swapfiles on your system. On my G5 quad (230GB boot disk), the swapfiles take up about 3GB. On my PowerBook (80GB), the swapfiles take up 2GB.
Your mileage may vary — the size of the swapfiles depends more on the amount of physical RAM than anything else, but your assertion that one should allow 10% of your boot drive space is ludicrous.
With regards to the photographer wondering about remote access, I think Screencastsonline offers a very good video tutorial on how to remotely access macs/pcs with the use of Hamachi (a zero-config very secure VPN tool)…
I’ve been using hamachi for a long time now, and its like seeing the other computers as if they were in my LAN… Hamachi is the app of the decade…
http://www.screencastsonline.com/sco/Shows/files/SCO0065_SpyMe_Hamachi.html
Here’s a photo of the site for the new Apple Store in Glasgow: http://www.survivingcinemas.org.uk/apple/
A part of town I know very well, as I went to university round the corner… unfortunately I now live in Ireland, where despite the fact they make a whole bunch of Apple hardware in Cork, there’s no Apple Store anywhere in the country :/
Loved the trick about buying US series and movies in a European country. I tried it out and was downloading my first episode in minutes:
http://wordpress.37hz.net/?p=45
Love the show, byebye,
Hens