Archive for the 'Mac' Category

Published by JT on 28 Jun 2010

Sharing via iTunes Playlists

201006282028.jpg Now that I’ve pretty much ended my quest for a great calendaring solution for the family, I’ve turn my attention to sharing our media. Like a lot of families, I have a ton of music, pictures, and video scattered acrossed a number of machines. I’ve corralled a lot of this data to one SAMBA share on my Ubuntu server. This is good – as now I have one central place for all data that my family can now avoid on purpose. “What server?”, “uh, where can I find that movie/song/pic?”, etc. No matter, I will win them over soon (well… eventually.)

In any event, my wife asked me last night to put some new songs on her iPhone as all she has is older music – her musice dated back to circa 2009. Biting back the first sarcastic comment that came to mind (“You can find it on the server..”), I said sure. This little exercise was going to eat through my evening. Just because everything is in one location, everyone has their own iTunes database and none of them are up to date with the contents of collection. I thought I would have to blow away her iTunes database and import everything in the library again, or I would have to at least manually add every new song. However, I found a neat little procedure that save a ton of time and thought I would share it.

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Published by JT on 15 Apr 2010

OS X 10.6.3 Updates

happymac.jpg Ahhh.. thought I forgot about you? No, no, my poor little blog, I haven’t forgotten. Look what I got. Yes, it’s new content. Yes, I know how much you like new content.

Seriously, it’s been some time since I’ve updated the blog. Shame on me, there were a number of opportunities that were perfect for the blog. I’ll start small and see if I can keep additional content coming. Out of the gate – I’d like to talk about my OS X 10.6.3 upgrade.

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Published by JT on 19 Oct 2009

IntelliType Pro and IntelliPoint for the Mac version 7.01

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Great! It’s finally here! IntelliType and IntelliPoint v7.01 is now 64-bit compatible with Snow Leopard. I can finally go back to my Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 setup.  

The only issue is that it took literally 30 minutes to find the software. Microsoft’s site kept pointing me to an older version (v6.x) of the software no matter what combination of keyboard/mouse/desktop options I selected. The first 50 websites I found on Google pointed me back to Microsoft’s site.

I was able to find it finally on softpedia’s site, and it was mis-labeled. Here is the link. The page is labeled as Microsoft IntelliType v7.01, but it contains the desktop programs. This means that both IntelliType Pro and IntelliPoint are included in the package.

-JT

Published by JT on 11 Oct 2009

Fixed the Dell Mini 9 Keyboard Itch

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Finally had to fix the Dell Mini 9 keyboard. If you’ve played with one of these netbooks or have one, you’ll know that the quote/apostrophe key is located in the wrong spot when compared to normal US keyboards. The key is located to the bottom row of keys and takes some getting use to.   

Well I thought I could get use to it. It started to become one of those minor irritants that you can’t seem to correct. Sort of like an itch you can’t scratch. The other night I had enough of that itch.

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Published by JT on 26 Sep 2009

Daddy’s Got a “New” Keyboard

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Okay, I couldn’t wait the couple of weeks more before Microsoft came out with their next version of Intellipoint. If you’ve been following along you’ll know that I’ve recently upgraded to Snow Leopard on my big machine. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t have a 64-bit version of their Intellipoint software for my Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000. The keyboard still works, but none of the special buttons. Especially the remapping of the Windows and Alt keys – this basically makes the Windows keyboard layout like a Mac keyboard.

It took me a week to remember but I did remember that about two years ago I bought a USB Bluetooth dongle along with a bluetooth headset. Since I really didn’t need the USB Bluetooth dongle, it sat in a box in the basement. Plus the two aging iMacs in the kid’s study room have been shutoff since they got laptops, thus their bluetooth keyboards were not in use…

I made the jump. I’m now typing this useless blog entry about a new keyboard on the newly setup Mac Wireless Keyboard on my Hackintosh. Not a lot of special buttons… ooo an Eject button… woohoo… However, there are 16 function buttons. Not sure what to do with all of them, but I’m sure I’ll find a use. Most importantly, the keyboard layout is perfect. The only complaint I have is that the keyboard is stark white, which really doesn’t go with the silver and black layout I have. Oh well, having the right keyboard layout is that important to me.

Now if I could just get the apostrophe key moved on my Dell Mini 9

-JT