…because someone needs to.
Software
Keep Quicktime on Top in Mac OS
Mar 12th
It’s been annoyance to me ever since coming over from the PC world (though actually I still play in both), but in Windows You can make Quicktime always stay on top of other windows. Logically, you would think that since Quicktime is an Apple product this nifty little feature would have been standard. Well you would be wrong.
No matter, because now there is Afloat. Afloat is a great little utility for mac that lets you keep windows afloat (pun intended) on top of all others. Afloat is easy to use and adds more windows management features to most Mac applications.
Using afloat is easy. Once it’s downloaded and installed just click on your application (for me it’s Quicktime), and go the the Window Menu. At the bottom of the menu you will see several new options with clouds by them. To keep your window on top of everything else, just click “Keep Afloat” or if you are a keyboard shortcut junkie like me then press control+command+A.
You can also adjust the effects to make it visible on every desktop of spaces, make it opaque or even just make the window and overlay so you can still click on what is under it. I’ve left some pros & cons below.
Pros
- It does what Apple left out of Quicktime, simple and easy
- It’s free. And we all love free apps right?
- In addition to keeping the window on top (afloat) you can adjust the transparency, make it an overlay, move or resize from any location on the window, keep it on all desktops and pin the window to the desktop.
Cons
- It won’t work if you use filevault. OR maybe it will but you’ll have to get pretty nerdy and what not to do so.
- No application memory. You have to set the application “afloat” each time you use it. You can view this as a pro or a con I suppose but it was annoying for me.
Overall it’s a fantastic addition to mac and can be used with either Leopard or Snow Leopard. For more info or to download try the ∞labs page for afloat. If you liked this app or find something I’ve missed then leave it in the comments!
Tech Tool Must – GETTSCIP
Apr 17th
I love command line tools! Don’t ask why, maybe I enjoy being “old school.” Either way. We use Terminal Services and Citrix here. Sometimes users login from a computer and sometime from a Winterm or dumb terminal. I use Microsoft Terminal Services Manager to help users remotely and often it’s really nice to know the client’s ip address.
Well Thanks so much to the peeps over at Ctrl-Alt-Del It Consultancy for their great set of Terminal Services command line tools. The tool that is perfect for this job is called GETSCIP. Take this file and put in in the %system root%\Windows\System32\ folder on your Server and then from any client session open up the command prompt and type GETSCIP. There, in glorious CLI fassion, will be the current sessions client ip address!
Enjoy & here is a direct link to download: GETTSCIP zip download
Tech Tools Must – Autoruns by Sysinternals
Apr 14th
Not a lot of time to blog today but I did want to recommend a little utility called Autoruns by Sysinternals (which is now, sadly, part of Microsoft.)
Either way, this is a very cool little utility that tells you what will run on your system at start-up. IT has by far the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-start location on a p.c. that I have seen. I have removed some very pesky viruses & spyware thanks to this utility. Auto runs will allow you the power to either disable or delete any start-up entry.
Tip… If you have a very pesky virus that keeps coming back after each boot, start up in safe mode and then uses Auto-runs to remove the entry. I know it sounds simple..and it really is, who am I kidding.
Here is a direct download link: Autoruns Zip file(490Kb)
“beep”ing Terminal Service!
Mar 1st
Silly issue… actually. It won’t be a problem that keeps you from working, though if your not used to hearing it it might drive you mad! After our recent upgrade to Windows 2003 (for Terminal Services) and Citrix Presentation Server 4, users kept complaining about a “beep” that would happen all the time. For example, if you were going to close a Microsoft Word document without saving it you would hear a “beep” sound when the message box pops up.
It’s a fairly easy fix and you can deploy it a number of ways. Modify the following key on the Terminal Services server using regedit:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound]
“Beep”=”no”
“ExtendSounds”=”no”
Now since this is a registry setting for the current user you will have to have it applied to all users who use this system. Now I did this by making a simple reg file and referencing it in a bat file that I put in the “All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.” Users will have to log on & off …then back on… to notice the change but still…no beeping.
Also to make this effective for new users either just keep the bat file there forever or change the same keys in this location:
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Sound]
Hope this helps someone.
Firefox 2…showing closed tabs
Feb 20th
One reason I enjoy using Opera at times, is because it if I close it with 5 tabs open and then open it back up then all five will open back up again. The fact that I couldn’t get Firefox to do this was most always a bother. Well it seems now with Firefox 2 you can.
Go to Tools >Options and in the “Startup” area select the drop down box beside “When Firefox starts” and select “Show my windows and tabs from last time.”
I noticed that when Firefox closed unexpectedly it prompts you about whether you want to reopen the start page or all the tabs you had open. A little searching revealed this. By the way…nothing against Opera, I still enjoy using it at time…but overall I prefer Firefox.
Enjoy
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