It’s been a while since my last post and in the mean time I came across lots of great software. Yet nothing is quite like this one. If I’d been full of praise for Synergy and its properties of controlling multiple desktops (of different machines) at the same time (and place), this newly discovered package takes multitasking another step further. How to add a third screen to an already existing dual-monitor setup? “Buying” a triple-head video card is of course one way to do it, but in theory, it should also be doable by assigning a portion of (real) desktop to be accessible via VNC or a similar remote desktop client. For it to be actually useful, one could find a way to artificially extend (i.e. double the size of) an existing desktop, then view this extended chunk in a VNC client on a completely different machine – whose monitor preferably sits next to your dual-head setup.

And that is EXACTLY what folks at JINX from Germany did. Their ScreenRecycler is an absolutely fantastic piece of software – its drivers allow for a virtual extension of your desktop – in fact creating a whole new desktop that acts as a regular one. After installing the driver, rebooting and launching ScreenRecycler app, the new display shows up in Tiger’s Display Preferences. You can select its size/resolution and positioning against existing desktops:

My setup is a 12-inch G4 Powerbook (64 Mb VRAM) with 1024×768 primary desktop, external 1400×1050 desktop, and a Windows XP machine with 1152×864 monitor and RealVNC (recommended) installed. After starting Screenrecycler (as sort of a VNC server), launch Real VNC client in WinXP, type in Mac’s IP address on a local network…

…and Mac’s third desktop shows up on PC’s own monitor:

Totally awesome. Jinx is definitely getting my dollars for this brilliant piece.

There is a useful tool out there that will make including of your Mac into the corporate scheme less of a science fiction. Ok, so you already know that Mac Mail connects to your Exchange account to deliver your mail without a fuss. Yet other elements of Exchange are left behind (tasks, meetings, to-dos, contacts etc.). Groupcal 3 handles those and synchronises them seamlessly with iCal and Address Book. Sure, you might keep all your contacts on the phone and import or synchronize them with Address Book occasionally via iSync, yet tasks are a different story. That’s why Groupcal is so welcome here – if you want to import, create and handle tasks and meeting on your Mac as well, this is a tool for you. Before Groupcal i used to connect via VPN and Remote Desktop to my PC at work to check the meetings next week, now i simply use GroupCal for syncing iCal with Exchange. Trial version will only sync a limited number of tasks, but even that is useful enough. Check it out for yourself.

A week ago I had a conversation with another Mac enthusiast (our web designer of course) about all the cool software that is available for Mac. Naturally I went exploring a bit afterwards and just by incident I happened to run into the coolest thing I’d seen on Mac in a long time.

The thing be named VirtueDesktops and is some kind of a predecessor to what’s coming in October with the Leopard OSX package -> Spaces, that is. VirtueDesktops is now a discontinued project (I’m wondering why), yet 0.54beta version is enough to get a grip how multiple desktops will work in Leopard. I must admit I hadn’t expected this to run nearly as smooth, but even on a 12″ G4 Powerbook it runs like a dream. It allows for 3 (maybe even more, this seems to be enough for now) desktop setups, with unbelievably smooth transitions between them – as in Keynote 3, there are flips, cube rolls, slides, warps, and many other jaw dropping effects. If you felt like 12 or 13-inch Macbooks’ monitors are a bit tiny, VirtueDesktops will expand horizons for you. Not just that this looks awesome, it also runs unbelievably smooth, and what’s most important – it’s useful. A quick check at the Activity monitor will reveal VirtueDesktops’ CPU usage to be: under 1%.

Desktop switching using Cube effect (my favorite):

(picture taken from Lifehacker)

Switching between open apps (Dock, Command-Tab) will flick-open the desktop on which a certain app is running. You can also move open apps from one desktop to another. Command-H (Hide) an application, switch to desired desktop and unhide the application back there. And download? Here.

Ever felt like two keyboards and two mice on a desktop, controlling two different machines, are two too many? With Synergy, you can control all computers around you with a single keyboard and mouse. All you need to do is set the controlling computer up as a Synergy server and the rest as Synergy clients, regardless of whether these clients are Macs or PCs. And you will instantly get a feeling as if you’re working on a two, three, n-monitor setup. Set the server-clients in a desired order – according to how your monitors are positioned – just like in Display Setup:

Run both server and client and you’re done. No more keyboard switching. Enjoy!

Oh yes….download Synergy at Sourceforge.

I was about to make a post some time ago about Audio Kontrol 1 (Native instruments) being faulty (after the first-glance enthusiasm had passed), yet it was a good thing to not to do so.

What was happening? In a brief examination of its performance I’ve noticed that hardware was ’spiking’ the otherwise idle CPU every 5-7 seconds or so to 75% or even more. Obviously it had something to do with a buggy driver (then version 1.9.8).

After a few months I decided to check for an update. Not too easy to find, but there it is all:
1. an Audio Kontrol 1 firmware update
2. a new NIUSBAudio 2.0.0 driver

Download here.

Now it works like it should have worked from the start. No more CPU spikes. Steady solid performance under Logic Pro 7 and of course Traktor 3.

Now I can safely take Audio Kontrol gadget with me to DJ gigs (w/Powerbook 12″ 1,33GHz). No need for a DIY DJ cable kit (huh?).

Thanks to NI for this update!

It’s been a while since I’d last used Quicksilver. I remember it as a nice app, yet in my effort (read posts on optimization) to get all the “unnecessary” stuff out of the system, Quicksilver (then version beta36) came on the dump list as well. Now here’s beta51, my Tiger is crammed with all sorts of apps which I cannot fit into Dock anymore, so I decided to give Quicksilver a second shot.

With all of the recommended plugins installed, I can now launch any application, open any folder, mp3, address book entry, video, mail, by squeezing a Quicksilver trigger (F12 in my case) and typing in a few letters. Quicksilver will remember the letter sequence which you use most frequently for launching a certain application (for example VIRT can stand for VirtueDesktops or VirtualPC, yet if you’re launching mostly VirtueDesktops, Quicksilver will remember this as a preferred selection).

Same goes for music – type in BRO (as Browse) and:

Forget the Dock. I love my Quicksilver . Download: http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Sometimes my G5 iMac (first version) just starts acting weird when doing processor hungry tasks. And while already optimised to quite some extent, there are some extra tricks to keep load off CPU and lets you squeeze those last bits out of your mac, especially if it’s a ‘vintage’ one.

First thing is to free as much RAM as possible (I only have 768 megs), therefore when doing heavy stuff, such as Logic Pro audio processing, the default Tiger’s eye candy won’t help you much.
You’ve already done all the stuff mentioned in my previous article, but there’s more to do – in fact these practices made Logic Pro load fall from 80% to 55% (on a certain project) which is not at all negligible.

1. Use a proggy called Shadow Killer – run it and window shadows are gone. Run it again and they’re back up. Download here

2. Stash (not necessarily trash) all the junk on your desktop. Create a folder somewhere else on the hard drive and put the stuff in (except HD mounts etc. which obviously you can’t). With only a few icons left back there, a task named Windowserver won’t have a lot to look around for when you move the mouse cursor around.

3. Might help if you turn off font smoothing at a certain font size (System Prefs -> Appearance), for instance, at size 9 or 10.

4. Turn Dock magnification off.

5. In Logic Pro, turn font Anti-aliasing off, as well as other visualities (gradients, resolution of waveform definitions etc.)

6. When launching Logic Pro, make sure it’s a ‘clean’ launch (the first application after booting the system up). No other apps should be running. Check out (before restart) also the Accounts section in System Prefs and remove all “unnecessary” startup items (Adobe version Cues, Salling Clickers etc).

7. When Logic Pro is up, click on Finder in the Dock and quit it (Command-Q).

8. Some claim that using thousands of colours instead of millions helps the performance (try it out yourself).

9. Background desktop images – use solid colours.

10. Screen saver – use 1×1 pixel image (black, grey, whatever).

Tell me how it’s working out for you.

If you didn’t get your Mac together with the Front Row remote (like me), there is an even cooler alternative to control the center of your digital life (your Mac, that is). Get Salling Clicker. It allows you to control a variety of apps with your mobile phone, thus no extra remotes are required. Salling clicker works by pushing a java app to your phone via Bluetooth. You’ll use bluetooth also to control your computer, obviously. The app comes with scripts that will launch and control Mac apps like iTunes, VLC, DVD player, Powerpoint, Keynote, Quicktime player, iPhoto and even Mail and News (I’d rather do the latter two behind the actual computer and not from my couch). For example, in iTunes you are able to keyword find tracks you want to listen to without having to browse through your library, artists, etc, control volume, skip tracks, fast forward/rewind them, all in an extremely usable and intuitive way, plus you can easily set up your menu and shortcuts. This app is just great and even better than that for true slackers.

All right. Some of us Mac users like to think of ourselves as a modern bunch with some sort of attitude toward what’s cool, vibrant, on-the-move. Forget what I just said. In this article I’d like to explain a rather simple solution how to lace a Mac laptop with a couple of modern mobile phones (just one in fact but you get the point) to get what’s out there via a GPRS connection (or any other, for that matter). When open WI-FI networks are not around, of course.

So you have a couple of alternatives to connect the gadgets. First would be via USB cable, but you wouldn’t want to mess with the cable, the next is infrared connection, but you might not have a IR port on your Powerbook/Macbook (dunno about this one), so I’ll just go straight to Bluetooth. It’s a welcome thing, since you can still keep mobile phone in your pocket.

Obviously you first need to turn Bluetooth on on both devices, make sure they are discoverable, paired etc.

Then you’ll (in some cases) need drivers for your phone model, in my case Sony Ericcson k750i (flashed to w800i).

Once you have the drivers, it all gets easier. Enable Bluetooth in your current network connection:

Then configure your Bluetooth connection. There is one catch: enter APN password in the field for the telephone number:

Under PPP options – uncheck all the advanced options:

Then, in the Bluetooth Modem tab, select the script for your phone (that you have downloaded from and copied it to /Library/Modem Scripts/). In the case of Sony Ericsson k750/w800 it will be “Sony Ericsson GPRS CID1″. Select a script that has matching CID to the CID of your mobile phone.

The open Internet Connect (from Applications or from the menu bar, if you’ve placed it there).

Connect. You’re online!

Of course GPRS isn’t anywhere near broadband, but may be useful for checking email and doing some browsing while away from the office. Make sure of course, that your mail client limits what is downloaded. In other words – leave those attachments on the server.

Well, we’ve all heard stories about Macs ruling out PCs in terms of usability and performance. But after a while comes a time for a reality check. Sure, Macs work great, but every now and then they just seem to come into that somewhat sluggish mode – spinning beach balls, choppy video, slow window scrolling….After all, even a Mac is just a computer, and if you thought you’d never have to deal with the ugly thingy like the Windows Task Manager, you’re wrong, or you are using your Mac for mostly basic tasks (net browsing, text editing etc.). Power users quickly come to discover the Activity Monitor and mark the tasks that are messing with their CPU.

So basically, there are a couple of things you should do to put the weight off processor (in Tiger OS X):

1. turn off Spotlight – surely, you are using the Spotlight to scan through the mess on your hard drive. There is a thing when you turn off Spotlight – it won’t find anything on your disk via Finder. The alternative I use is the Cocoatech’s Path Finder 4 and is a way better app than Finder. Check it out anyway. To turn off Spotlight, use a program called Spotless. Then use Path Finder to find anything on your hard drive – or more of them. It works FAST.

2. turn off animations and other unnecessary stuff. You might as well use the latest version of OnyX for such. It’ll turn off your Dashboard (which you are not using anyway ), turn off the genie effect (use Scale effect instead) and animations when opening/closing apps, make Finder quittable (good for getting that final squeeze when lauching games), make Safari launch and performance faster, repair disk permissions and so on. Basically, it’ll do anything except fix up Spotlight, that’s why you’ll use Spotless for.

3. turn off zooming in Universal Access – that will put ease on the cpu when switching windows or moving the mouse pointer around.

You may as well turn off other eye candy, such as Dock icons magnification and desktop background, but then it wouldn’t all look that good anymore, and it’s not what you bought Mac anyway, now is it?

One thing to look for is also to use apps that simply work better. That’s why I replaced BitTorrent with Transmission, for example. It has extremely low CPU usage, better reliability and performance. I haven’t found an alternative to aMule yet, or I haven’t even searched, but the 2.1.3 version simply sucks. Delivers the goods though, after all.

Check your best friend, the Activity Monitor, for apps acting weird, and find a way to get them out of the system.

So now you’re done and ready for some serious, say, gaming? Open a game while holding the Option key. Quit Finder. Launch the game. Notice the difference.