iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Music Store

Some help here on why iTunes sometimes cannot connect to the iTunes Music Store. In this case with a MacBook…

http://www.kenjun.com/blog/?p=115

Remove duplicate files on a Mac - software review

See this review of software that remove duplicate files on a Mac

MacOSX Compact Sparse Image…

One useful OS X feature is the ability to create disk images. A disk image is a single file that, when double-clicked, appears like a typical hard drive to the operating system. (Most software you download comes on a disk image.) Disk images a great way to store related files that you don’t need to use often, as they can be “out of sight” until you need them. They’re also useful if you want to store something securely, as you can create encrypted disk images that require a password to mount.

There are essentially two types of disk images—a normal disk image and a sparse disk image. With a normal disk image, the disk image will consume as much drive space as its size, even when empty—i.e. a 40MB normal disk image requires 40MB of drive space, even if you’ve never used it. Sparse disk images, on the other hand, are disk image files that require just as much space as their contents require. So a 40MB sparse disk image will only need 40MB of drive space if you’ve saved 40MB of data onto it. The disk image will grow automatically as space is required.

What isn’t so obvious is that a sparse image won’t shrink automatically. Check out the link for a handy article on how to compact a sparse image.

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2007/06/compactsparse/index.php

EyeTV - can’t record the live buffer - shame!

There is one feature I think is missing from EyeTV though, has got to do with recording and time-shifting. EyeTV always keeps a buffer of a few minutes, so you can rewind live TV incase you missed something. Very handy for when something happens quickly or you swore you saw something but didn’t’ believe it. However, you can’t record what’s in this buffer to save it for later, which is what you usually want to do if something weird/funny/odd happens. I’m sure the boffins at Elgato are working hard on integrating it into EyeTV 3.

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=25496

Erase and reburn a CD-RW on a Mac

I have been using CD-RW disks on my Apple MacBook Pro, and while I have figured out how to use a Burn Folder to create the disk in the first place, how do I rewrite the disk with newer content without having to buy something expensive like Roxio Toast??

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/erase_reburn_cdrw_on_mac_os_x.html 

ffmpegX failing to convert .MOV to .avi mpeg4…?

On my MacBook I dropped in a .MOV file into ffmpegX, selected DivX AVI and clicked Encode… with no luck.

The error message I kept getting finished with:

“ Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.”

The solution was to go into Options and change Scaling method from Fast Bilinear to Bilinear.

Plenty more discussion on this here:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/encoding-finishes-immediately-when-using-flv-source-t316847.html 

Enabling .htaccess in MacOSX

Enabling .htaccess in OS X

Out of the box, the Apache Web server that comes with OS X does not take any notice of .htaccess files (used to set passwords, rewrite URLs, point to custom error pages, etc).

This article shows you how…

http://www.clagnut.com/blog/350/

Installing Ubuntu in Parallels on the MacBook

Finally got Ubuntu installed in Parallels on the MacBook.

My specs were:

Ubuntu 7.04 - downloaded from here - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Parallels build 3122

MacOSX 10.4.10

Here’s the guide I used:

http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/04/27/how-to-install-ubuntu-feisty-fawn-in-os-x-using-parallels-a-complete-walkthrough/

The only problem I ran into was that 2GB of disk space was not enough and I had to do a restart.

SSH Client on MacOSX…

This is the first SSH client running on MacOSX I’ve seen that operates along the lines of SecureCRT, Putty or Poderosa but on a Mac.

http://www.abraxor.com/products/sshconnections/

The trial version I tried lets you create bookmarks so you can connect directly to the server of your choice. Very neat!

Modifier keys for MacOSX

Long list of modifier keys for MacOSX…

E.g. by using Command (the Apple key) you can then do the following:

• Click on dock items to show in Finder
• click on spotlight results to show in Finder
• Drag items out of the dock to created copy in Finder
• Open link in new tabs in Safari, including forward and back buttons.
• Open Finder folders in a new window. This works with sidebar items as well.
• Drag toolbar items to remove or reorder in toolbars.
• Drag menu bar items to reorder them or remove them completely.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070415081451932