Tips, tricks, hints and tweaks
There is however, a way to delete old or unwanted addresses from the auto-complete list. Once the old address is removed and you subsequently use the new one, it will be remembered and the auto-complete feature is again as useful as ever.
To remove an email address from the auto-complete list in Apple Mail:
If you want to save an email address rather than remove it, you can do so from the same Previous Recipients window. On the right-hand side you will see the Add to Address Book button which enables you to add the selected email address to either a new or existing contact in your Address Book.
There is a new trend emerging in the field of credit card scamming and it preys upon our efforts to protect our computers.
MacGuard, an entirely bogus piece of software, claims to clean up your system and remove adware, spyware, and trojans. It doesn’t. Not only does the software make no effort to protect your computer, but the companies that sell it are merely scamming your credit card details. MacGuard claims the following:
“Macguard’s high-tech system scanner will search your hard drive for malicious objects such as Adware, Spyware and Trojans, cleaning your files, eliminating the threats, and securing your privacy in just a matter of minutes. Its real rime smart protection will also ensure new threats will not even reach your desktop.”
It is interesting to note that Winiguard claims exactly the same thing … word for word. These are both totally bogus products. Do not visit their sites. Do not click the download links. Do not enter any credit or debit card information.
On the MacGuard site, nothing actually downloads when you click the product’s download link which is a big clue that something is wrong. Fortunately, like most virus vandals out there, they have not figured out how to break in to the unix-based kernel of Mac OSX. On the Winiguard site, a nasty virus does, indeed, download. WiniGuard hijacks your desktop and typically displays exaggerated or false spyware claims to frighten the user into paying for the program. This is digital terrorism, nothing else.
Aside from this, the real scam here is undoubtedly your credit card information. By purchasing this software you are happily giving your credit card numbers and billing information to a bunch of crooks. It is very likely that you will subsequently find additional charges on your credit card. Sadly, ArsTechnica report that more than 30 million people have already been scammed in this way.
Our advice is to avoid purchasing software from a company you have never heard of, or who has no references, or whose web site is vague and imprecise.
We all know that security and viruses are a serious risk when using a computer and especially the internet, but one should not blindly trust a web site just because it is out there. Putting up a website is pretty straight-forward if you know what you are doing. Before buying any software online, check it out with someone trustworthy: Mister Geek, a tech blog or magazine for example. You’ll find out more than you think with a good internet search. As the Roman’s apparently said: caveat emptor, meaning buyer beware. This goes for absolutely everything you purchase online, but even more so for anything claiming to protect you.
If you have found trouble in your computing environment and need advice or action, whether it be XP, Vista, OSX or Linux, please contact Mister Geek and we will be glad to help.
Why would you want to? Well, one of the most useful facilities in the Debug menu is one that lets you change the User Agent. This enables you to tell the website you are using different browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape and Mobile Safari. This is useful for website development testing. In addition, as a result of lazy and inadequate development, some sites are blocking visitors who are not using Internet Explorer. By changing your User Agent you can bypass these stupid restrictions. Anyway, here’s what to do:
To disable the debug menu, repeat the process but replace the 1 at the end of the terminal command with a zero.
If you are working with confidential files and you may want to make sure they are erased from your Time Machines backups when you delete them as well as your live file system. It is, fortunately, very easy to do so. Launch Time Machine, then navigate to and select the file you want to erase. Now select the Action menu and choose Delete All Backups of XYZ (where XYZ is the name of the file you are erasing).
One of the neatest new features in Apple OS 10.5 (aka Leopard), is Quick Look. The feature enables you to take a peek at most files from within the Finder window, including images, text files, PDF documents, movies, Keynote presentations, email attachments, Microsoft Word and Excel documents. Just select the item and tap the space bar to see a file in Quick Look or press Command-Option-Y to launch Quick Look in full screen mode.
So you want to use your favourite MP3, or a part of it, as your ringtone? Why pay Vodafone, O2 or anyone else for a second-rate offering? All you need is an Apple computer, iLife (06 or 08) and a mobile phone that supports MP3 ringtones (that rules out the Reliant Robin disguised as a Ferrari, aka iPhone!) to which your computer can send files using bluetooth or USB.
iTunes will automatically take focus and start playing your ringtone. All you need to do now is send or copy your newly made MP3 file to your mobile phone and set it as your ringtone. Please note, you are not legally entitled to distribute your new ringtone to anyone else.
Apple OS 10.5, aka Leopard, was released last Friday and is full of new features. The best review we have seen is from John Siracusa, it is very deep and covers pretty much everything there is to know. For a higher level quick and slick overview, check out Apple’s guided tour. As with any software, particularly operating systems, there are some bugs. One or two of them are significant including a Windows-esque blue screen of death in some upgrade circumstances. Unless you are in a position to do a clean erase and install, our advice is to wait until Apple has had time to offer patches or verified procedures to correct these problems. REMEMBER: When attempting any kind of upgrade or fresh installation, mirror your startup disk to an external drive before doing anything!
To capture a screen image in Apple OS X, you have two options. Firstly, to capture an image of your entire screen, select Command-Shift-3. You will hear a camera click sound and a PNG file will be created on your desktop containing the image. To capture a particular section of your screen, select Command-Shift-4. Your cursor turns in to a crosshair, now just click and drag your mouse to select the part of the screen you want to capture. When you let go of the mouse button, you will hear the same camera click sound and, as above, a PNG file will be created on your desktop containing the captured image.
When using groups in the Address Book, you may want to see which contacts are not assigned to any of your groups. This is a pretty convoluted method but until Apple provide a smart group option in Address Book to accommodate this requirement, you can do the following:
At this point, you have a group called Z which contains all your contacts except those listed in Group1. Repeat steps 4 thru 7 for all your remaining groups and you will end up with group Z containing only those contacts not assigned to any other groups.
To quickly cycle through open applications in MS Windows, hold down Alt and repeatedly press Tab. Just let go of all keys once the desired application is highlighted. Similarly, in Apple OS X, hold down Command and repeatedly press Tab. Another option in OS X is to use Expose. Press F9 to invoke it and then just select the desired window with your mouse. However, if you have Spaces enabled in OS 10.5 (aka Leopard), Expose will only show you open windows in your current Space whereas the Command-Tab method will cycle through all applications across all Spaces.
If you ever used a System 7 Mac, you will probably remember the character palette. Just like the character map in Windows, you can find all sorts of symbols that are not easily reproduced on a keyboard. Strangely, this feature seemed to have disappeared in OS X. However, it does still exist, it is just not a standalone application any more, now it is really a component of each application. You can find it in the Edit menu of nearly all applications and it is called Special Characters. You can also launch the character palette using Command-Option-T.
It is pretty straightforward to take a screenshot and bring it into a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. But that is longer than necessary, you will end up with an additional file on the desktop and the website in your presentation will not update automatically. A more dynamic way of doing this involves loading the website into your presentation but unfortunately, this only works with Keynote and not PowerPoint. To accomplish this, you simply drag the small icon that is on the left side of the url in your web browser over to the Keynote presentation. You can then be sure that your Keynote presentation will stay current no matter when you show it. Even if you do not have internet access, it will simply show the latest downloaded version. One other small caveat to note is that this only works with Safari and Camino, so no Firefox.
What are known as shortcuts in Windows environments are called aliases in Apple OS but, frankly, the process of creating them can be a pain. When you use the Make Alias menu item or Command-L shortcut in Finder, it creates the alias in the same folder and adds alias to the name. You then have to move it around and rename it. However you can create an alias while dragging it to another folder. You simply have to hold down Command-Option while dragging it. An arrow will appear showing you that you are indeed creating an alias and not moving the original file. This is faster not only because you will not have to subsequently move the alias but also, Finder does not add alias to the title so you do not have to rename it.