March 25, 2006
Virtue: Virtual Desktop Manager
I have recently changed my virtual desktop manager to Virtue and I have been very impressed. Virtue is an open source developed program available on Sourceforge, which is also being regularly updated (using Sparkle developer plugin, previous blog article). It is quite complete with the ability to bind applications to different virtual screens, use multiple visualizations for screen changes and even has a popup pager that shows all the desktops in a glance with the different applications running on each. Overall it is a very clean and well put together software package.
Links
Virtue Sourceforge Home page
Sparkle: A Developers Application Update Component
Sparkle is a great little plugin that allows OSX developers to add automatic update features to their applications quickly and easily. So rather than forcing users to go and check websites for the latest version or even just notifying users that they are using an old version, sparkle can notify of new updates, download the updates and install them all through a very easy to use interface. I have already seen this plugin working in the Virtue virtual desktop application that I use. I expect that with the introduction of sparkle we will see more and more OSX applications with the same looking update components which is also a good thing for common look and feel across the Apple Platform. If only apple would allow third party developers to easily hook into the OSX Software Update Application.
Links
Sparkle
March 22, 2006
Broken Hard Disk?
Do you have a hard drive that is broken and no longer wants to mount or you believe that you have lost your files? You have tried Fdisk and it can not see the partitions anymore and now you are at a loss because you really want to get the files back. This is the situation that one of my friends was in but then found a nice program called TestDisk, which allows you to recover data off drives even when they no longer can be read by other programs and operating systems. TestDisk is available for a number of operating systems and can understand lots and lots of different file systems so if you have a broken disk and not sure what to do then give this program a go. The same developers have also created another program called PhotoRec, which has been developed for recovering photos off memory cards that are used in digital cameras. PhotoRec comes with the download of TestDisk so you might as well keep it too.
Please Note: Both TestDisk and PhotoRec are command line applications so they are not meant for the basic user.
Links
TestDisk Home Page
PhotoRec Home Page
March 20, 2006
Q: Windows on Mac Emulator
Q is an emulator to allow OSX users to run other operating systems on their Mac within a virtual machine environment. Q is a Cocoa port of the QEMU system. The system even allows you to emulate other hardware platforms other than x86 (PCs) such as ARM or even PPC. There is even an intel universal binary version although this is still being developed and is buggy. For those who have previously used Virtual PC then you can import the virtual machine images. Overall it is not too bad but the wonderful price of FREE you can not really go wrong. This project is definitely one to watch as it develops.
Links
Q Home Page
Q Downloads
QEMU Home Page
Cocoa Developer Handbook
If you are interested in developing applications for Apple's OSX operating system but do not know where to start then this is a good place. It is a free handbook to Cocoa development.
Links
Become and Xcoder Book
Dateline: Simple Calendar on your Desktop
Here is a great simple little OSX application that displays the current month's calendar on the desktop in a simple and unobtrusive manner. It is free to download so give it a go and see if you like it.
Links
Dateline Application
March 18, 2006
Dual Boot (OSX and Windows) on Intel Mac
It looks like we are able to dual boot a new Intel Mac with both Apple OSX and Microsoft Windows. However the solution is involved and does require a great deal of computer background knowledge and another PC. The additional PC is used to create the installation CD ready for installing it onto the intel mac therefore you can always just borrow a PC to complete these steps.
Links
OSX and Windows Dual Boot Article
Dual Booting Wiki on osx86project Site
Download Dual Boot Instructions
March 14, 2006
DHTML Goodies
Here is a great website for all of your DHTML needs. If you are developing a website and want to add some dynamic capabilities to your client side web pages you are going to have to start playing around with DHTML, which is essentially the use of JavaScript (or other client scripting language) to manipulate the browser's Document Object Model (DOM) of your HTML page. If you have done this before you know how much of a pain it is especially if you are trying to support multiple web browsers due the slight differences between DOM objects and HTML rendering engines. DHTML Goodies is a cool little sight that will help you get a head start by providing lots of good little DHTML scripts that you can plug into your pages and customise for your needs.
Links
DHTMLGoodies Site
March 12, 2006
AJAX Frameworks and Toolkits
After reading about the IBM AJAX toolkit that i just posted I thought that I would have a longer look around the web and see how many different AJAX development frameworks and toolkits were available. What I found is the following:
AJAX Frameworks:
Dojo
Zimbra AJAX Toolkit
SAJAX
Rialto
Microsoft Atlas (codename for part of ASP.NET 2.0)
Other Information:
Ajaxian Blog (All things about Ajax)
Ajax Toolkit and Framework Roundup from June 2005
IBM Releases AJAX Toolkit
IBM has released a toolkit to help developers create web applications that use the AJAX connection technique to allow web pages to open a connection back to the originating server and request more data. AJAX therefore allows developers to create web pages that can provide more dynamic page behaviour with additional data controls without having to continuously reload the page, which takes time and bandwidth. The IBM toolkit is available from the alphaWorks site as part of the Emerging Technologies Toolkit (ETTK) and has been proposed as an Eclipse Incubation Project.
Links
IBM AJAX Toolkit Framework
Online Editing of Pictures - Pixoh
Here is a great little site that allows you to edit pictures using interactive editing tools within your own browser. This is great for people who want to quickly edit an image but do not have any graphics tools installed or are working in an Internet Café.
Link
Pixoh
March 09, 2006
Sony DRM Packager and HID Editor
I own a Sony Ericsson K700 mobile phone on the Vodafone network and have wanted to set an MP3 as my ringtone, but it has never worked and I did not know why. Well I have just found out that Vodafone disable the ability for MP3 files to be set as ringtones unless they have DRM information. Vodafone do this to force you purchase ringtones from their Vodafone Live service. Well now sony has released a development kit that allows you to add your own DRM information to MP3 files so they can be uploaded to the phone and actually set as your ringtone. The application is simple to use and on a mac where you can use the bluetooth file browser to upload the DRM'ed MP3 file the whole process is extremely easy.
The other Development tool sony has released for the mac is an HID editor. The HID are definitions for the Bluetooth remote control feature that Sony has on a number of their phones that allows users to connect their mobile phone to a mac and control different applications.
Both the DRM Packager and HID editor are available from the Sony Ericsson Developer site (see below)
Links
Sony Ericsson Developer Site
Apple Address Book contact on Gmail
So you are a mac fan and you want to move all your Address contacts over to Gmail so that you can use it there. Well the wonderful people at google have allowed their web based email to upload files in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. Ben Borofka has create a small little application that downloads all your contacts and creates a singe CSV file to quickly and easily move all your contacts over to Gmail. Give it a go for yourself.
Links
A to G Homepage
March 05, 2006
People Love Lego Too Much
Here an article on the top 10 strangest lego creations. The image to the right is just a taste of the different creations, it is also my favourite of them all.
Links
Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations
March 01, 2006
Intel Mac Mini Released
I am sure if you are a mac fan you have already read all the rumour sites and the announcements for the new Intel-based mac mini that was released today. If this is news to you then you are in for a treat, because amazingly a new mac mini has been released, YAY. To add to the excitement this new version also supports the Apple Front Row software and comes with the cute little remote making this the perfect addition to any home theatre setup and truly fulfilling Apple's vision of having the Apple computers and iPods as the centre of your home media world. The new computer comes in both a single and dual core and can support up to 2gig of RAM, making this a serious contender for a desktop machine for nearly anyone.
Links
Apple Intel Mac Mini Page
