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(Almost) Hidden Secrets of OS X


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Try calling Expose and widgets up while pressing shift. It should produce a slow-mo effect. Don't ask me how that's useful... Maybe there were a series of customers for whom the suddenly popping up widgets created a migrane, I don't know..

Edited by Gradual Decay
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yay! =) i use my logitech usb wireless keyboard on osx tiger ppc on the mac mini.. sometimes it does not work (like when osx is trying to read a cd/dvd that is badly scratched).. in that case, i open terminal and type in "disktool -e" and all removable media is ejected. also, dragging the volume folder to trash ejects media.

 

-p

 

dragging mounted image from finder anywhere else unmounts the image (f.e. desktop)

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Hidden tetris game

 

1. Open the finder

2. Open Applications

3. Open Utilities

4. Open Terminal

5. type "emacs"; click enter

6. Press ESC + X at the same time

7. Type "tetris"

 

have a fun

 

LOTR history

 

1. In the "applications" folder, open the "utilities" folder.

2. Open the terminal

3. type

cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history | grep "LOTR"

 

enjoy :offtopic:

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i share my MP3 collection between iTunes for WIndows and iTunes for Mac by going into both apps' preferences (in OS X it's on the iTunes menu, on Windows it's on the Edit menu) and on the Advanced tab, I uncheck to keep my folder organized and to copy items to my music folder. Then from the File - Add to Library, pick the folder with the MP3. Doesn't matter if it's on an NTFS share; the database for the app is kept in the default location (which in OS X is ~/Music/iTunes). So now I know i'm not wasting any disk space with duplicate copies of my MP3.

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Hey everyone. This is my first post on OSx86, although I've been frequenting this site a lot. Anyway, if you like the expose effect, check out the new Novell Xgl videos. This stuff looks a lot like Mac OS X and some features, like 3D desktop switching and transparent windows, are nice too.

Here's the link

 

enjoy

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To put an eject icon on the top bar, go to /system/library/coreservices/menuextras and double-click on Eject.menu

Thanks for this one Metrogirl - I've been looking for how to do this.

There are a whole bunch of other menu extras in the same folder which you can add. Some are not compatible with x86 (for example 'Classic' will tell you that your system is not set up to run OS9 classic apps...)

Anyway, I was looking around to figure out how to remove or rearrange menu extras. By holding 'command' (or Alt by default on a windows keyboard) you can drag items off the menu or rearrange them. More info at http://guides.macrumors.com/Menu_Extras

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Ctrl+F2 when the mouse isn't working. You can use arrow keys to navigate the menu bar and press return when you highlight the item you wanted.

 

Ctrl+F8 AFTER having pressed Ctrl+F2, it selects the right side of the menu bar. Why you can't get at it otherwise is a bit obtuse for me.

 

Unless you have discovered what key on a PC keyboard maps to "eject," the following aren't too helpful for you: Cmd+Ctrl+Eject = Reboot; Cmd+Alt+Ctrl+Eject = shutdown.

 

The "sleep" key on some PC keyboards will bring up a special dialog box on OS X by which you can select to sleep, restart, or shutdown (and cancel).

 

Cmd+Alt+Esc will force quit an app. If you do not see the force quit dialog, try choosing that from the Apple menu. If this still doesn't work, see if you can activate another application first by clicking a window or clicking an app in the dock that has a black arrow pointing up at it (this is a running/loaded indicator).

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Other usefull tricks:

Open a Finder Window

Hold down 'Cmd' and click on a window title

You will see the hierarchical structure untill tnis folder, and can navigate up

Mount a CD or dmg image

Hold down 'Option' (Windows key) and drag the mounted image or disc. You can copy all contents of the mounted volume as a folder to the new desired location

If you are mounted a .dmg image to install something, the mounted volume will be opened as a simple window (without button bar and left pane). Click on a the above right button in a simple window and it becames a normal Finder window (with button bar and left pane). You can drag now the application direct in the 'Applications' folder located in the left pane.

Hope to understand my poor English.

Enjoy!

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  • 1 month later...

heres my favorate. i have never heard of anyone mention it before and it is not mentioned on apple website or in help. And it is very usefull.

 

In quicktime, hold down shift and press up arrow key to increase volume more than normal. this is very useful for low volume videos.

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When using Firefox 1.5.0.2 :-

 

Holding apple when clicking on a link opens it in a new tab.

Pressing space scrolls down one page.

Pressing shft + space dcrolls up one page.

Apple + option + left or right moves between tabs.

Apple + T opens a new tab.

Apple + W closes the current tab.

Apple + [ goes back.

Apple + ] goes forward.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is how convert plist binary files to plain text files (or XML files editable on Text editors) and viceversa:

 

From binary to text (XML):

 

plutil -convert xml1 some_file.plist

 

From text or XML to binary:

 

plutil -convert binary1 some_other_file.plist

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Here is how convert plist binary files to plain text files (or XML files editable on Text editors) and viceversa:

 

From binary to text (XML):

 

plutil -convert xml1 some_file.plist

 

From text or XML to binary:

 

plutil -convert binary1 some_other_file.plist

 

Cool tip! Thanks!

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Here are some more cool tips:

 

It was already mentioned that if you press Apple Opt and 3 you capture the whole screen to a file on your desktop, and if you press Apple Opt and 4 you get to select the part to capture, but if you press Apple Opt 4 and then press the spacebar, you get to capture any window just by clicking it, even if it's mostly covered up.

 

If you turn on Full Keyboard Access in System Preferences, you can tab between buttons and select then with your spacebar. The glowing blue button waits for the Enter key, but the normal button with the blue glow around it tabs and responds to Spacebar.

 

At startup you can press the T key to turn your computer into a Firewire drive. Hook it up to another computer, not just a Mac either, and you can use your Mac's optical drive and hard drive on the other computer. (Note that Windows will not see a Mac formatted drive by default though.) You, of course, need a firewire cable too.

 

=)

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I'm surprised that nobody put in OS X's hidden Tetris and Text Adventure

 

To play OS X's hidden tetris, you:

 

1. Open the finder

2. Open Applications

3. Open Utilities

4. Open Terminal

5. type "emacs"; click enter

6. Press ESC + X at the same time

7. Type "tetris"

8. Play Tetris! Use the arrow keys to move and rotate the blocks, and press the space to make the blocks fall.

 

To play the Text adventure, you just type Just type "emacs -batch -l dunnet" (without quotes) into the terminal and it will bring up and old school text based game.

 

I think the OS X developer's were REALLY bored when they made it.

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I think the OS X developer's were REALLY bored when they made it.

 

Those are both emacs easter eggs, not OS X. Starting with Mac OS X the developers were no longer allowed to hide easter eggs, since being hidden they are never tested and could cause bugs.

 

emacs is an included Unix app, Apple did not write it.

 

=)

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:D

 

I forgot an important bit with the widgets drag tip for OSx86 -

 

For the drag/F12 trick to work, first you have to open terminal and type:

 

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
(return)

 

You might have to do this as root or sudo the command.

 

Then either logout and login again or reboot and your widgets can now be dragged onto the desktop. Sorry I forgot this vital bit of information.

 

-S

 

 

Ok now I've got this on my desktop...

 

picture15ta.png

 

But I don't know how to close it? Dashboard can't do anything with it anymore...

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Ok now I've got this on my desktop...

 

picture15ta.png

 

But I don't know how to close it? Dashboard can't do anything with it anymore...

 

No problem, Pippin. Start to drag the widget and while you are still moving it quickly press F12. The dashboard will open and you can then stop moving the widget - it will now be restored to the dashboard. You must still be dragging it when you hit F12 - if it's not moving it won't be affected.

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As previously posted holding down F12 ejects

Alt + F12 ejects 2nd drive if you have two.

 

Hold Ctrl + F12 = shutdown prompt

Hold Ctrl + Windows Key + F12 = reboot

 

Shift + Scroll Wheel = scrolls left to right

 

Firefox

Ctrl + Scroll = navigates back/forward

Windows + Scroll = increase/descrease text size

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Those are both emacs easter eggs, not OS X. Starting with Mac OS X the developers were no longer allowed to hide easter eggs, since being hidden they are never tested and could cause bugs.

 

emacs is an included Unix app, Apple did not write it.

 

=)

 

Actually, Mac easter eggs stopped around OS 8 or 9. Before that, the Mac OS was riddled with them. They are in OS X, but they are usually text files, like the Mrs. Fields cookie recipe

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