 Well, I bit the bullet and built a Mac mini media center. As with most things Mac it was very simple after doing some basic research. Based on that research, to create this monster, I used a Mac mini, VIZIO 32 inch TV/Monitor, Apple wireless keyboard, Mighty mouse, Scientific Atlanta digital cable box, EyeTv TV tunner and various cables. Once I had all the componets in hand I hooked it all up in the following way. Mac mini to TV via RGB, cable box via composite video to the TV, sound via 1/8 male to male from the Mac mini to the TV. To hook up the cable TV, screwed in the incoming 75 ohm cable to the splitter and then one out went to the TV and the other to the EyeTv tuner on the mini. The keyboard and mouse are connected via wireless, as you might have guessed. Network connection is provided via Airport Extreme. Originally, I had it connected via Linksys WRT54G, but the set up begged for “N” speed, so I updated the router to an Airport Extreme multi channel router. That did the trick, the network flying now! All this could have been done with many other computers, but there are very few that provide the power of the mini with a near zero noise level. This is very important when you realize this is in a bedroom. Also, there were many other ways to hook all these components up, but I went with the most standard setup I could, given the components that I already had. Future updates, will be to move components to HDMI and a hardwired gigabit ethernet connection. Ripping 100+ DVDs stored on some sort of central storage to be shared across the network. Possibly via the USB port on the Airport Extreme? This was a truly enjoyable project that just allows the enjoyment to keep going and going.
Scientific Atlanta digital cable box
Two three feet sections of 75 ohm cable
Note: Links are for illustration only and do not reflect where the components came from.
written by Blake
Do you ever need minimal quick system info for a Mac? Maybe it is available on the login screen. Yep, the login screen. Just click below OSX on the login screen and you will scroll though many key pieces of information. The following shows all available information besides the one that had my serial number.
  
  
written by Blake
 Need to know quickly what the color values are somewhere on your screen? If you do check out DigitalColor Meter. It is in the Utilities folder. Once you open it up, all you have to do is choose how you want to display our values, then just hover over the spot that you would like to identify the color. It is just that easy. 
written by Blake
WOW, where has this been? I have needed something like this for quiet sometime!
 iQuickText This is a handy tool that will allow you to do something that you would have expected to be built into the iPhone. This is especially handy when you do not have time to compose a message in SMS. This allows you with just a few clicks to send a stored SMS message to anyone in your address book. You can also save new messages, you are not limited to the messages that come with iQuickText. Another great tool from MerckTech. Get your copy here.
written by Blake
Remote Synchronization, aka rsync, is a very handy tool for setting up automated backups for your Mac.
First this is not designed as a definitive guide. But I hope, it is enough to get you going if you need a good way to automate your backups.
I use it to backup this website, among many others, to a local machine, then I have that machine backed up to an offsite service. It is available for Unix, Linux, Mac, and PC. It is native on all but the PC. In order to use it on a PC you will need to follow the instructions at the following website, PC setup instructions. Below are the basic steps to get this up and running on a Mac, Linux, or UNIX system. Once up and running you can backup between any two systems, Mac, Linux, Unix, or PC, at this point it becomes platform independent.
- Obtain a external drive, Firewire is best but USB will do. Configure it as /Volumes/backup . There is a great writeup on Dave’s Logbook on how to do this.
- Setup SSH Instructions here
- Then to backup your home directory from a terminal window execute the following command
- rsync -aE –delete ~ “/Volumes/backup/”
- parameter a = archive mode
- E = copy extended resources
- –delete = remove any files on the receiving site , files that have been removed since the last sync
- Put the rsync command above in a cron or create an Automator script and run it from iCal. I’ll cover cron and iCal launching in a future article, but until then you can google “Mac cron” or “iCal launch Automator” and find all the info you need to setup and run the command from cron.
Questions/comments - Contact Blake
written by Blake
This function has been much improved! If you are using dual monitors you now get two pictures, one for each screen. Each picture also has a unique name. This is very helpful if you go to move all your captures into one folder. This is a really useful update.
The only thing that I could not find is how to save the captures to a specific folder, so I created an Automator task to handle that. Below is the flow for that workflow.
 Application to move screen captures. written by Blake
 iVandal Well MerchTech has done it again. This is a super app for filling time and just having fun! The best thing of all is that you can take care of anyone or anything that needs it! Check it out on the AppStore.
written by Blake
 Icon Composer is a must have if you are building applications. It comes as part of the Apple Development Kit. You can download a copy of the developer kit from the Apple Developer site. You will just need to register. There is no cost for the basic account. Once you have the kit installed then go to Spotlight and type in icon, it will pop up and you can launch it.
You will then see a pallet displayed with five boxes of the following sizes 512, 256, 128, 36, and 16 pixels. To create your icons, just drop the picture that you want to use in the 512 box. Icon Composer will now resize in to all the other options. Then choose File, Export, and save. When you open the saved file you will see copies of all your file in the various sizes that you can now use. Just drag and drop them to where they are needed. They will be in tiff format, but that can be changed by just opening and saving as another format.
This is a simple but very useful tool when you need any of these specific sized icons and you will as you progress doing development for the various Apple platforms.
written by Blake
\\ tags: Development
Well, with the 3GS now in the wild, I must say that it seems to me that the first generation iPhone is getting a bit long in the tooth. I am still using mine but will upgrade to a 3GS soon. I skipped the 3G because I wanted a storage upgrade and it just was not there for the 3G as my first generation is a 16 gig model.
I feel certain that 3.0 will be the last major upgrade for the first generation iPhone. It is just beginning to feel so far behind. The first generation does not have the hardware to carry a new feature like voice commands among other things. It is also three generations back on connection speed, well at least it will be, when AT&T rolls out the upgraded 3G network over the next year.
So I think it will be time to retire my first generation iPhone to jailbreak duty. That is my plan, as soon as the new 3GS is in hand. I am going to jailbreak and have it laying around for quickie searches and maybe even a call or two via Skype.
I am glad that I skipped the 3G, but boy, I sure am ready for this 3GS!
written by Blake
Wow, for all the gnashing of the teeth there sure was a whole bunch of points to take in from the WWDC keynote. There was virtually not a sole that predicted the updated MacBook Pro line. I did not see where anyone predicted the update or even came close to predicting the addition of an SD slot. Not that it is a streatch to think it would be possible, but you can event build a boot image and boot from the SD card. Pretty cool! Check out the SD booting article at Hardmac article.
Looks like Snow Leopard will also bring a pretty good bump in performance with the rewriting of most of the remaining Carbon code. Not a lot of eye candy, but it really looks like when you pop the hood the updates are significant. They also really want eveyone to upgrade based on the price. While I am talking about price, well this is probably more in the marketing department, but the family pack is just great! I sure do wish others would adopt this idea.
All the talking heads iPhone predictions were pretty close with the exception of things like the logo lighting up on the back. Who could even belive that one? Apple fights to squeeze every electron from the iPhone battery, so why anyone would believe this one, I just do not know. On a side note, based on the new Palm’s battery live, Apple has gotten it right. Background processes as nice as they might be, just kill the battery. I am seeing and hearing this from the new Palm. Its battery just does not last.
The 3G did not have enough goodies for me to upgrade, but the 3G S surly does. I will be opting for the 32 Gig version, which will give me the amount of memory that I have needed from day one.
All in all, I think this keynote was a good balance, several surprises, and much of what we had already deduced. I will have to give Apple a solid “A” for this presentation. Now if I can just make it until Wednesday so I can get the prod release of 3.0. New hardware will be a month or so away for me.
written by Blake
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Well, I bit the bullet and built a Mac mini media center. As with most things Mac it was very simple after doing some basic research. Based on that research, to create this monster, I used a Mac mini, VIZIO 32 inch TV/Monitor, Apple wireless keyboard, Mighty mouse, Scientific Atlanta digital cable box, EyeTv TV tunner and various cables.
