Garmin fiasco

Garmin came out with a new (since 2009 :) line of products, called BaseCamp. The good part is that this product has a Mac version as well as a Windows version. Mapsource was only windows.

Now the question arises: what do you need for proper mapping under OS X?

1. Install BaseCamp from Garmin (free)
2. Download MapConverter for Windows (free), install
3. Run MapConverter
- it will you which maps are Mac compatible already (any recent map will be)
- it will offer to convert the others to Mac format
4. For those need converting: provide folder, press next, next, finish. Copy them to the media being read by your Mac
5. For those already compatible: simply copy them to the media you want to exchange them on with your Mac
6. Download and install Garmin Map Manager for MAC
7. Open Map Manager, select folder where your converted or copied maps are, select your maps one by one
8. Copy your GPX and GDB files over, BaseCamp can open those for you

Enjoy :)

Locking screen under Snow Leopard

Long time ago I got this figured out already once:
- either set "Show taskbar icon" in Keychain Access' preferences where there is a lock option
- or drag ScreenSaverEngine.app to the dock to be able to start expilictly

from http://www.infinityandbeyond.tabert.com/posts/2009/09/lock-screen-quickly-in-os-x-snow-leopard

iTunes 10 song link redirection

To redirect links next to songs to iTunes Library instead of iTunes store:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES
to restore
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool No

To disable links completely:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool FALSE
re-enable:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool TRUE

via beszeljukmac

Display full path in Finder title

Terminal command of the day: 

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

Displays full path in Finder window title.

If you ctrl click the title you can navigate within path.

How to enable OSX to have a different input keyboard for each window

In the "Text Services and Input Languages" screen (where you define the keyboard layouts and set the default one), go to the "Advanced Key Settings" tab. There you can assign a different hotkey per input language (=keyboard layout).

OSX Snow Leopard 64 bit operation

Surprisingly Snow Leopard runs in 32 bit mode as a default operation. To switch to 64 bit use this guide:

http://www.overclock.net/mac/564147-how-enable-64-bit-default-os.html

Hide menu bar icons in OSX

Hold down the Apple key — also called the Command key or the propeller — then click on the MobileMe icon in the menubar and drag it off the menubar. You should see the icon change to semi-transparent as you drag it off the menu bar, then disappear in the puff of smoke when you release the mouse button.

You can use this same Apple+drag trick to rearrange most of the other icons in the menubar.