Category: Macs


  • Skitching 9000 Spams

    I just noticed that we have reached 9000 spam comments.

    Thanks to the wonderful Akismet they are all caught and dealt with appropriately…apart from those that I cut out and keep to preserve their wonderfulness.

    I captured the image with Skitch which has just been acquired by Evernote who have made it available for free.

    Setting the [wikipop]FTP[/wikipop] upload to your own domain (as opposed to the built in Skitch offering) took a couple of attempts.

    The Directory setting requires yourDomain/directory and the Base URL requires the full URL to find the images. The above example assumes you have created a directory called images to store them in. Skitch uploads the image then reads the full URL for you to copy to the clipboard….http://www.yourDomain.com/images/someImage.jpg


  • Apple! What were you thinking? And other one star rants.

    With the arrival of Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) the App Store has seen a flurry of one star reviews…some of the more lucid ones consider all changes a personal affront and complain that they break the industry standards…

    Alas the opportunity for such one star rants has not existed for very long so we need to fill in the blanks from the past…


    I have just purchased [wikipop search=”Macintosh 128K”]the new Macintosh computer[/wikipop]. Where are the arrow keys and control key? How am I supposed mark out and edit a block of text? These Control key combinations are an industry standard…

    I have just purchased the new [wikipop search=”iMac G3″]iMac[/wikipop]. Where is the [wikipop]floppy disk[/wikipop] drive? What use are these new fangled [wikipop]USB[/wikipop] ports? Will anyone ever develop any
    peripherals for them? Why can’t we have industry standard [wikipop]SCSI[/wikipop] and [wikipop]Serial ports[/wikipop]?

    Etc. Etc. You get the idea.

    Just over a week ago we installed Lion on our modest iMac (2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB) and the MacBook (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB). Apart from the lack of AirDrop on the iMac all seems as expected. No slow downs or crashes as some one star reviewers have seen. Even the 2TB Western Digital external drive continues to chug away. Natural scrolling seems natural although the addition of a trackpad is probably a good idea… Which seems to be the point some people are failing to get. [wikipop]Steve Jobs[/wikipop] likes to quote the ice hockey player [wikipop]Wayne Gretzky[/wikipop] “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been”. Watch a young child using an iPad

    and it is pretty clear (never mind the sales figures: iPads=9.2 Macs=3.95 Millions in the last 3 months) just where the puck is heading. Of course some people may prefer marking out and editing blocks of text with some obscure control key combinations.. so perhaps this process started with the first Mac which failed to provide such keys to force programmers to think in the new graphical way rather than continue with what they already knew. Today’s children will grow up finding the idea of dragging a mouse around on a desk to manipulate something on the screen as equally silly and archaic even if it was once an industry standard…


  • Wireless MIDI controlling GarageBand

    NOTE: This post is from 2011 An updated 2023 version is available here.

    MIDI controllers control MIDI devices. They do not make sound no matter how high the volume is set.

    One of the main requirements for having an app distributed through the App Store is that the app should work as described. So one star reviews claiming “it does not work” should be ignored.

    If you have a Mac you have everything you need:

    1. Launch your MIDI app (in this case Pad MIDI on an iPod Touch)
    2. Launch the Audio MIDI Setup utility (found in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder)
    3. If you are seeing the Audio window select Show MIDI Window from the Window menu
    4. Double click the Network button to show the MIDI Network Setup Window
    5. Join a Session by connecting your device
    6. Launch GarageBand which will find all MIDI connections
    7. Play the app to play Garageband

     


  • Then It Bash Me…. HTML Porn Arched In Their Heads.

    Not sure which was the more surprising; that someone should charge for an app to Learn HTML (presumably for people who are unable to type HTML Tutorial into Google) or that it should only be available to adults because of its…

    Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity, Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor, Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence, Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

    But never mind all that nonsense we have the spam comment of the day to entice us:

    There be obliged be a through for my kids to practice at familiar with what they learn in class. Then it bash me – songs!! Come down with a refrain common hoop-shaped and arched in their heads and they’ll not in a million years forget detract a ado for each of my English games, using (Insert link to your product here) merely the idiolect used in distinction! This is the first it! How are you?


All original content may be freely copied. Illustration on packaging may not match content.
Batteries not included. Suitable for vegetarians. Open at the other end.