Have Another Apple

It is common knowledge to the “geek world” that when you delete a file, it is not actually removed as such from your hard drive, simply the link to the file is removed, and at a certain stage, it is over written with your new data.

On PC, there are numerous programs to ‘permanently delete files’. However, all this does is creates a random document and replaces your existing data with dummy text. There are programs for Mac also, however there is one built right on into Mac OS X.

Remember that after you permanently delete files, there is no chance of recovering them, even with programs that allow you to recover items you have deleted.

In Mac OS X, you can overwrite these files 7 times from the trash. Move the items you wish to permanently delete to the trash, open the trash, then select Finder - > Secure Empty Trash.

You will then be prompted with a warning, read this carefully, you can’t go back!

Then you will have a normal emptying trash screen. Be patient, securely emptying the trash can take a long time.

Please comment and digg.

For those users using iCal and would like to upload it online, yet don’t have a .Mac (or now MobileMe) account, then this step-by-step tutorial should help you.

First, in cPanel 11 (not supported in 10 or below, as it requires WEBDAV support), select the feature entitled “Webdisk” found under the “Files” subheading.

Continued after the jump…

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When you first booted up your Mac, you would have been welcomed by a classy presentation with "Welcome" written in a bunch of foreign languages.  Unsure what these videos are? Watch the demos at the bottom of this article.  If you want to watch this video again, follow these steps for Tiger and Leopard.

Open up finder and Click Go->Go to folder. Type this in:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant/Contents/Resources/TransitionSection.bundle/Contents/Resources/

A folder should pop up, and two files should be inside:

intro.mov
intro-sound.mp3

As you can see, unfortunately they are two separate files. To fix this, simply put them both in iMovie and watch it that way. You may need to trim the audio track as it may go for longer than the video!

For a demo, here are two video files (click the image of the video you wish to see):
 

Thanks to Annie for the Tiger video and audio file.

Photo Booth, whilst having no ‘useful’ purpose, can be a fun tool for kids and adults alike. With version 2.0.1 the program gives the user the ability to use different backgrounds; such as fish, the Eiffel Tower or one of your own pictures. These pictures however sometimes look distorted or have your original background start to appear in the photo.

Here are the five most common reasons for this:

1. Your background is too dark. Turn on a light or open the curtains, let the camera pick you up properly.

   More common problems found after the jump…
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 Leopard has a fancy new feature for Dashboard: Webclips. Webclips allows you to view many webpages at once, or parts of them, through dashboard. However, one feature that is missing is refreshing the webclips automatically. This requires you to update them manually, and here’s how:

Click once on the webclip you wish to update.

Press Command+R.

The webclip should now have updated.
 

As a default, Microsoft Word for Mac adds automatic paragraphing, so when you press return, you will go to a new paragraph apposed to a new line.   This comes a unique, welcome feature for some users, but for others it is seen as a nuisance.  This article will explain how to turn off this feature.

In Word, press “Format” in the menu bar, followed by “Style”.

The rest is after the jump… Continue reading »

 Don’t like the default folder, documents and harddrive icons in Mac OS X? Neither do I. Here’s one option with how to change them.

First, you may want to find some snazzy icons from InterfaceLift to replace your current ones with.

Once you have found the one you like, you need to Copy (Command+C) the icon file, then right click on the icon you wish you change. Click ‘Get info’.

Following this, click on the folder icon in the top left, and paste (Command+V).

Enjoy.

 If your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air is not charging fully and only to 95-98%, there is a way to fix this problem.

One common view is to unplug your MagSafe adapter and let it drain to 10%, and recharge. While this works, you only need to let the battery drop below 90%. This will save you a whole battery cycle on your MacBook.

Enjoy.

Wanted to come home from work and have your Mac ready to use, yet don’t want to leave your computer running or in sleep? Well this feature, built right into Mac OS X without the need of an additional program, can allow you to do just that. This feature is called Energy Saver Scheduler.

Find out how after the jump.

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Leopard was released with a bunch of new, exciting features for user’s to use. One of these, while used by many Mac users, is Spaces. However, there are a lot of little tips and tricks for Spaces that you may not already know and just how useful they really are.

First, let’s turn on spaces. In System Preferences, hit "Expose and Spaces". As you can see, I have four spaces set up. Now, I already know how I want to arrange my spaces. Space one is to be for my internet, space two for MSN, space three for Mail, and space four for iTunes. Therefore, I set up application assignments for this. This is very important for MSN, as you may find that while you are surfing Have Another Apple, a MSN window appears in the wrong space. Assigning it to one space will prevent this from occurring.

Now for the tricks (after the jump)… Continue reading »