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.

Start/Finish workday script

from OSXHINTS again

Toggle hidden files in Finder under OSX

(from OSXHINTS)

Launch Automator and choose Service as your template. Drag the Run AppleScript action from the Utilities library to the work area on the right. At the top right, select Finder.app from the second drop-down box, then No Input from the Service Receives drop-down.

Copy the following code and paste it into the Run AppleScript box (between the lines beginning on run and return input):

if (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles") is equal to "0" then
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1"
else
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0"
end if
tell application "Finder" to quit
tell application "Finder" to activate
(As you copy and paste, make sure the apostrophes and quotes come through as plain text.) Save the Service (as Toggle Hidden Files or whatever you like) and exit Automator.

How to read you Google Docs in Office 2007?

I tumbled over this accidentally. Never though I'd need this, but who knows.

http://www.labnol.org/software/open-google-docs-in-microsoft-office/8696/

Virtualization issues

Since I had a perfectly good Virtualbox image under Linux, I did not want to reinstall the whole thing when moving to VMWare. I found this article on how to migrate. Will give it a try.

Also there's a product called VMWare Converter, available for free. It supposedly capable of migrating both physical and other virtual machines as well to VMWare's format.

3rd Option:
VBoxManage clonehd |
{ -format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW| }
{ -remember }
format: Allow to choose a file format for the output file different from the file format of the input file.
remember: Keep the destination image registered after it was successfully written.

We'll see which way is best.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom catalog conversion between platforms

Since PS LR is using an SQLite database it can be manipulated to go between PC and MAC. The basic scenario is:
- pictures are stored in d:\my documents\my pictures on the pc
- ligthroom dir is d:\my documents\my pictures\lightroom on the pc
- pictures are stored in /Users/_username_/Pictures the mac
- ligthroom dir is /Users/_username_/Pictures/lightroom on the mac

Replace _username_ with your actual username on the mac. Adjust directory length according to path differences in substr functions.

From PC to MAC:
update AgLibraryRootFolder
set absolutePath = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/'||substr(absolutePath,29,1000)
where absolutePath like ('D:%');

update AgLibraryRootFolder
set absolutePath = Replace(absolutePath,'\','/');

update AgLibraryFile
set robustRepresentation = 'A'
where robustRepresentation like ('W%');

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/' where name = 'AgImportDialog_destinationFolderPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/Backups' where name = 'AgImportDialog_backupDownloadFolder';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/Backups' where name = 'backupDownloadFolder';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/'||substr(value,29,1000) where name = 'Adobe_lastScannedCatalogPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = Replace(value,'\','/') where name = 'Adobe_lastScannedCatalogPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = '/Users/_username_/Pictures/' where name = 'AgImportDialog_missing_copyToPath';

From MAC to PC (not tested yet):
update AgLibraryRootFolder
set absolutePath = 'D:\My Documents\My Pictures\'||substr(absolutePath,23,1000)
where absolutePath like ('/Users/_username_%');

update AgLibraryRootFolder
set absolutePath = Replace(absolutePath,'/','\');

update AgLibraryFile
set robustRepresentation = 'WD:\My Documents\My Pictures\'||substr(absolutePath,23,1000)
where robustRepresentation like ('A');

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = ''D:\My Documents\My Pictures\'' where name = 'AgImportDialog_destinationFolderPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = ''D:\My Documents\My Pictures\'Backups' where name = 'AgImportDialog_backupDownloadFolder';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = ''D:\My Documents\My Pictures\'Backups' where name = 'backupDownloadFolder';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = ''D:\My Documents\My Pictures\''||substr(value,29,1000) where name = 'Adobe_lastScannedCatalogPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = Replace(value,'/','\') where name = 'Adobe_lastScannedCatalogPath';

update Adobe_variablesTable
set value = ''D:\My Documents\My Pictures\'' where name = 'AgImportDialog_missing_copyToPath';


You can use SQLite Admin from http://sqliteadmin.orbmu2k.de/ to do this. It can only run one statement at a time so paste the complete text relevant to your direction in the sql text box. Press F9 to execute then remove the topmost statement. Repeat until done.

If you're not sure just start over again as you had a backup, right?

First post

The inevitable first post...