I just picked up a cool little program (pref pane) named Visage so I can go beyond custom desktops, etc.  I love it.  For 10 bucks I can have the ability to change the login screen background and both the Apple logo and “Mac OSX” graphic in the login window.  I have seen tutorials on how to do this manually, but for $10 I’d rather have a nice, super convenient preference pane to handle quick changes.  Now when I whip open my computer, I’m greeted by my family.  Nice.

The program:

http://www.keakaj.com/visage.htm

Marc

One thing I do on every new Mac is to set the System Preferences ‘Display’ to 2.2 gamma. That’s just a bit darker than the Mac’s default setting but the contrast is easier on my eyes.

Danny Boy - 03 October 2005 01:25 PM

One thing I do on every new Mac is to set the System Preferences ‘Display’ to 2.2 gamma. That’s just a bit darker than the Mac’s default setting but the contrast is easier on my eyes.

Wow! It never occurred to me to fiddle with the screen settings on my PB 17. Based on your post, I went through the prefs and the ColorSync Utility settings and was startled by the sheer number of options offered. I usually preview my web graphics using Fireworks’ nifty “Windows Gamma” option, but this ... well, it’s a whole different world. I’m going to have to go fiddle with it now. Thanks—

Two things I use only rarely, but find invaluable:

HistoryHound, which indexes the content of all web pages I visit and allows me to search for half-remembered words and phrases, much like Spotlight does with your local drive. (Not as fast as Google, but it is more specific, as it only knows about pages I have seen.) For instance, come December I could search for “half-remembered words and phrases” and it will pinpoint this page.

MacLinkPlus Deluxe, which can determine the nature of almost any odd file I get. It can usually translate docs so they can be opened by some app I own, and if nothing else, it can give you a peek at the file’s content.

Can anybody suggest a good file-rescue program? Something that can retrieve data from damaged files? I used to use CanOpener, but it’s gotten pretty out of date.

- DragThing (best utility ever)

I’ve seen people praise Drag Thing several times on the site.  What is so great about it?  I downloaded and played with it for a while, but it didn’t seem like it was worth 20 or 30 dollars.  Am I missing something?

Does anyone use any “themeing” programs?  If so, which is the best?

Robert Campbell - 20 October 2005 07:52 AM

- DragThing (best utility ever)

I’ve seen people praise Drag Thing several times on the site.  What is so great about it?  I downloaded and played with it for a while, but it didn’t seem like it was worth 20 or 30 dollars.  Am I missing something?

Not sure what the problem is with DT. It’s easily the best Mac utility I’ve ever used. Always there, out of the way. Can’t beat that.

FWIW, I’ve found a few tricks with the Finder’s toolbar. You can customize the toolbar using the built-in tools, but you can also drag other application icons to the toolbar. It works the same as dragging icons to the left side column of the Finder. Sweet.

Robert Campbell - 20 October 2005 07:54 AM

Does anyone use any “theming” programs?

We’ve been playing around with the Unsanity application called ShapeShifter for the last week.  I find most of the themes are dull or hard to use.  I did land on this one theme which has been a gas to mess with—its like OS X possessed with Windows XP.  Crazy to watch on my screen!  It doesn’t appear to cause a performance hit.

Another fun dorky little interface trick is this iCursor thing that attaches a OpenGL animation to or near your cursor.  It is totally funny to watch the cursor appear to be on fire.  It causes some applications to slow down when high frame rates are set in iCursor.

On the “personal” side, I’m hooked on these things that always make the Mac more personal (still not sold on widgets):

MenuCalendarClock—a calendar in the menu bar with iCal content.
Meteorologist—the weather in the menu bar.
You Control Tunes—iTunes in the menu bar.
NO-IP.info—an internet service/tool to update my dynamic IP via a background daemon.
SallingClicker—Mac control via my Bluetooth mobile phone.
SpiritedAway—auto-hides configured applications not used after a set time.
SnapperHead—serve a realtime screenshot of your desktop.

These are fun!

Personal, fun and mine!!!!

Even if i posted this earlier, the clutter product is way too much fun. Think of all your records (ok, cd’s….) scattered all over your floor. Well, this lets you take the itunes albums you have and throw them around on your desktop.
When you find the one you like, click on it and clutter starts playing it (actually it is itunes which is playing it). itunes creates a playlist for clutter.
Also, I use clutter to grab all my record covers…. works great.
Clutter has a small music browser available, but nothing like itunes.

Clutter is free and findable here:
http://www.sprote.com/clutter/

I had to do a video project for college a while back…The camera I used was very very bad!
I didn’t have timecode at all.  So instead of using FCP I just poped open iMovie and did it in that.
It worked fairly well, got an A…and no one was the wiser

I also use Hot corners!
gotta love them!
One is all app windows, the other is desktop(and dashboard[i dont use the one by the apple logo{i hit it too often}])
I used my friends iMac once and felt like i was not on a mac(he just got it)
I tried to use the corners, but forgot he didnt set it up, so i used the F9-F11 instead

The first thing I always do whenever I set up a Mac. Mine or anyone elses, I feel that this is important for everyone; I put the Applications folder in the Dock. The reason for doing that is so that you can click and hold on it for a pop up window of all of your applications and utilities. I also have Firefox as a back up browser in my dock. PhotoShop and Dreamweaver appear in my dock as well.

NewWaveDave - 30 October 2005 07:18 PM

The first thing I always do whenever I set up a Mac. Mine or anyone elses, I feel that this is important for everyone; I put the Applications folder in the Dock. The reason for doing that is so that you can click and hold on it for a pop up window of all of your applications and utilities. I also have Firefox as a back up browser in my dock. PhotoShop and Dreamweaver appear in my dock as well.

I do something similar to that. In the Dock for OS X I put the Desktop, Home Directory, and Applications Directory. Then, in the Applications Directory, I create an empty folder. In that folder I put an alias to all my major applications and utilities. Then I drag that folder to the Dock, too. It’s one ‘click and hold’ and I have every application and utility only a click away. Oh, the price? Free.