Here is how you can shorten URL using Quicksilver. Jason Snell has made a handy Applescript and I’ve modified it a bit so it can handle a long weird URL as well and you can grab it here then put the script under /Applications/ folder.
The script will grab any URL of Safari’s frontmost page and send it to TinyURL to be shorten and it’s automatically recorded in your clipboard.
Just watch the video so you will have a better understanding.
Today, we have a customer who have installed the ZTE Modem 626 on her brand new Macbook.
The thing is, when she installed it, everything went smooth and no problem found. But, after you reboot it, you’ll find the spinning gear forever.
This is due to, a poor driver collecion by ZTE, which replaces the original /usr/lib/libcurl.4.dylib with it’s version which has no 64 bit version in it.
So, if you want to install the ZTE,
1. first backup the /usr/lib/libcurl.4.dylib file,
2. do the ZTE installation
3. before you restart, replace the /usr/lib/libcurl.4.dylib with your backup.
If you have installed it, and you can’t boot the Snow Leopard, here is what to do,
I always impress my buddies by showing off the Quicksilver way of doing things instead of the regular way, the drag and drop way.
For example, if you want to send bunch of photos to your friends, but first they need to be resized and compressed,
1. you can simply select them all (the files),
2. trigger the ‘Quicksilver’s Command Window with selection’ tool. All the files are selected and ready for the next action, so now we want to resize them to 800 pixel width, so we type:
3. sca then hit tab to enter the size. You can enter 800×600 or 80% or something like ‘800 as high progressive jpeg’ then hit enter. The resized files are already selected for your next action
4. Now we want to compress them using tgz, so we hit the tab and type compre, tab and type tg and press enter
5. Now the compressed file is selected and you could do anything with it, like move, copy, alias, rename, etc. In this case, wa want to email it to someone, so you tab and type send, hit tab again to select your contact from address book.
While B57 is out for Snow Leopard, This B54 is still the best built for Snow Leopard in terms of performance issues.
Finally, the Quicksilver is back in my Snow Leopard faster than ever! I’m disabling Google Quick Search Box for now. B56a7 will work on your Snow Leopard machine, but most of the features won’t play well on it or slow.
Here is the tricks.
First you have to download 2 versions from http://blacktree.com/, the B54 and B56a7
If you have previous installation, I recommend to delete them all:
Install the B56a7. It will crash when you open in, don’t worry. Just go to
Quicksilver.app > Show Package Content > Content > QSDefaults.plist (double click it, it will open the Property List Editor app)
Look for Use effect at the bottom, and uncheck (disable), save and close the Property List Editor app.
Now, open the Quicksilver.app, and you should see the welcome screen. Edit the preferences, this is very important, since you won’t see this preferences screen next time.
After everything is setup, close Quicksilver, and replace the Quicksilver.app with version B54 and say yes to use this version when the system asks.
Now, you have a working Quicksilver. You can edit Catalogs, Trigers, Plug-ins using this version (B54), but not the preference.
If in any case you want to edit the preferences, you need to move the Quicksilver.app to different place, and put the B56a7 inside /Applications folder and edit the preference using this version, after that, you need to put back (replace) the B56a7 with B54 again.
Here is the plug-ins that works for me:
When the plug-in causes you a crash, just go to: ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/PlugIns/ and delete that plugin.
Well, when you delete files in your USB flash drive using Commad + Delete or drag them to the Trash, the file is actually not being deleted, but instead it is being hidden. Wow, but that’s true. So from now on, if you really want to erase data from the USB flash drive, make sure you empty the Trash as well, or someone can see your hidden files when they plug it in to a PC.
Or for the paranoids (and it is recommended once in a while), go to Disk Utility (Press Command + Spacebar and type disk utility + enter). Select the USB flash drive on the left side of the panel, and click on the Erase tab and choose ‘Erase Free Space…” You can select which method to erase (reclaim) the “empty space”.
Remember that the ‘Erase’ button on your Disk Utility window is a whole different kind of story, so do not press that one, unless you want to reformat and erase the whole data.
And remember that your Volume Format will probably be MS-DOS (FAT) file system which is fine since you might bring this thing into a friend’s PC . So my suggestion is that don’t use this ‘Erase’ button if you don’t know what you’re doing. (I learned the hard way, I reformatted the USB flash drive to MS-DOS (FAT) using my Mac on the other day, and now the PC won’t recognize it and it needs to be reformatted under PC )
If you find a bit disturbing by a bounching icon when it’s starting up, go to menu > Dock > Dock Preferences… In the Dock Preferences uncheck ‘Animate Opening Application’.
Now you have a pulse spot underneath the icon as the application opens.
You can hide the application that is running by clicking Command + h. This is very handy when for example the iTunes application. You can still listen to the music and hide the iTunes out of your desktop.
But what about if you just want to see only 1 application that you’re working on, while you want to hide all others in second? Some application will have the ‘Hide others’ feature. Right click the icon on the dock and press Option, you’ll see the ‘Hide’ menu will change to ‘Hide Others’.
And when you want to go to other application and keep the desktop clean, just press Option + click the icon on the Dock Now you have a very clean desktop.
In Leopard, stack will come in handy for managing files. When you set the stack as a grid or a fan, you can drag the file out of the stack directly.
Just click the icon in Stack and select the file and drag it to any folder, Mail.app, desktop, etc.
As a bonus while you are at stack, click the stack icon and press Command + a to highlight the application beginning with an A, Command + s for file beginning with S, and so on. You can also move around the stack by the arrow keys and press Return/Enter to open it.
When you empty the trash, the trash icon surely looks like it is empty. Is it really gone? Well, not really. By using an application that is specially design to recover the deleted files from a hard drive, it can be restored.
That notion is not accepted by a certain group of people especially the paranoid or the FBI, CIA, etc. But thanks to Mac OS X to include the feature to erase those files out of your machine forever. So when you absolutely, positively 100% sure that you want to erase these files forever, just go to Finder menu > Secure Empty Trash…
Thi process will take a little bit longer than usual, though
Stickies.app in Leopard can become very handy if you know how to activate it within any application. for example, if you’re on Safari.app, just highlight any text and press Shift + Command + Y.
You can drag any image, song, application or even a movie to this Stickies.app. For me it is best to arrange it on top of the Desktop Click Windows > Collapse (or Command + M), and make it run on start up.
Where is the startup feature in leopard? In PC, whatever you put inside the Startup feature, the application will be running when you start the PC. In Mac, you will find this feature inside System Preferences.
How? Go to System Preferences > Account > Login items. Click the ‘+’ sign to add application that should run when you start your Mac, and check the checkbox if you want to run it in the background.
Now, if you need to temporarily disable this feature, meaning you don’t want this applications to run when start up, press the Shift key when you start your Mac, and release it when the Apple logo comes out. This start up wil take longer, though, about 3-4 times longer than usual. This is very handy if you need to trouble shoot your Mac.
When you open an application by double clicking or Comand o from the Finder, you can close the Finder as soon as the application is launched.
Press Option key when you are opening an application from the Finder. This will open the application and close the Finder automatically.
And just for the fun, while you are it, after you highlight the application name press shift + option + command + o. This will do the same as above, but in slow motion.
This is due to, a poor driver collecion by ZTE, which replaces the original /usr/lib/libcurl.4.dylib with it’s version which has no 64 bit version in it.
. So my suggestion is that don’t use this ‘Erase’ button if you don’t know what you’re doing. (I learned the hard way, I reformatted the USB flash drive to MS-DOS (FAT) using my Mac on the other day, and now the PC won’t recognize it and it needs to be reformatted under PC 
)
