Walt’s Desktop – Page 4

Fixing Duplicate Menu Items

When duplicate items appear on OS X’s Finder’s Open With pop up menu, there’s something you can do about it. Enter this command…

I’ve recently bumped into a problem where, on occasion, I get duplicate menu items in my right-click pop-up on the OS X desktop, when I select Open With.

Turns out this is merely an indicate that the database for LaunchServices needed to be fixed.

And, in fact, this was covered over at Mac OS X Hints a while back. But, given that I had need to look up the command more than once, I present it here.

Inside Terminal, enter:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

You don’t even need to enter your administrator password, nor do you need to reboot.

OnyX allows you to also rebuild the LaunchServices by going to the Maintenance / Reset panel. Though there are a number of other ways to reset launch services for each version of OS X.

[Also see: Technical Note TN2017]

Great XSLT Tool for OS X

Found an awesome tool for performing XSLT transformations on Mac OS X. It’s called XSLPallette, and it worked flawlessly where web browsers fell down hard.

While working on some XML and XSLT stuff, I ran into some strange problems where transformed XML content was making Firefox spin its wheels forever and Safari was having problems rendering XSL variables.

I wasn’t engaged in a browser war shoot out, I just wanted to know that the XSLT was correctly transforming the XML into the desired output. As various tools were slowly slipping from my fingertips, I figured I might just have to go back to the command line.

But then I discovered XSLPalette. It’s a “free, native, XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 debugging palette” for OS X (and it’s a Universal Binary).

All I have to say is that, as a developer, I’m impressed with the ease this tool provides for trying different XSLT engines. I does basically one thing, and that one thing very, very well. I like that in developer tools.

You give the palette an XML file, and XSLT file, select the engine, and it does the transformation, showing you messages along the way, in addition to the transformed output, a collapsible view, and a browser-like rendered view.

Walt gives XSLPalette a thumbs up!

Over 55 Hand Picked Apps for OS X that You Must Have

I’ve hand selected over 55 applications that represented the best-of-the-best software for OS in over 15 categories, providing links to every one.

This list of over 55 hand-picked OS X applications represents what I consider the best-of-the-best software for the Apple Macintosh. And it all runs on the new Intel systems.

Believe me, there are many more applications that did not make the cut. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but a Walt’s personal favorites that have shown high quality, value, and utility. This is the ultimate selection in Walt’s Desktop for OS X.

I cover productivity, security, customization, photography, multimedia, movie production, drawing, business applications, browsing, communication, file sharing, astronomy, cameras, cataloging, and software development. Everything the ubergeek would want.

Please note, I have not limited the software to just free, shareware, or open source. Commercial packages are included as well, and I recommend supporting them, obtaining legal licenses – they’re worth it.

Enjoy.

Walt gives the software on this list a thumbs up.

…if you happen to have a favorite package that you think is better than what I’ve posted, perhaps I don’t know about it. Drop me a line.

Walt’s Desktop: SYSINFO Like Detection

Walt gives Belarc Advices a thumbs up, as a sysinfo tool for his desktop of recommended software.

Back in the good old DOS days there were several software packages that would provide system information such as what hardware was in the machine, what drivers were running, what TSRs had crept into memory, and what applications you had. My all time favorite was SYSINFO, it was the magical hardware probing that I was after. I’d create a special boot disk and instantly be able to tell what was in a friend’s machine.

Problem is, as Windows got bigger and “better” that kind of direct hardware probing became forbidden by the operating system. I’ve been searching for its equal ever since for the Windows world.

Sure, there’s a handful of tools that come with Windows or Office, but all seem to be lacking, and nothing that just generates a single pretty report. systeminfo and msinfo just don’t cut it for me.

A friend turn me on to Belarc Advisor. This thing is amazing. It will do everything from tell me what kind of memory is in which slot on my motherboard to exposing the software keys to the software I have installed. It produces a sleek report viewable by any HTML browser, very nice.

Walt gives Belarc Advisor a thumbs up!

If you happen to know of any other favorites that do the same kind of thing, I’d love to hear from you.

Tired of Windows Bubbles in XP?

I hate the annoying pop up bubbles that say “click here to fix me.” Here’s how to get rid of them.

Tired of Windows bubbles that tell you that you have updates waiting, that tell you that your firewall may be wrong, or that your antivirus isn’t up to snuff? You are if you know what you’re doing, and you hate these little pop-ups that appear in the bottom right of your screen.

Here’s how to turn them off.

Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Security Center — then select “Change the way Security Center alerts me” (it’s in the text on the left). Uncheck the boxes you don’t want, and click OK until the dialog boxes are gone.

Note, if you don’t find Security Center there, it sometimes appears under Start / Settings / Control Panel / Security Settings.

Protecting Windows XP

While I no longer support Microsoft Windows, here is list of Walt’s recommended software to help keep your machine safe.

Just having this alone software won’t protect you, it must be used properly, and frequently, with liberal doses of common sense.

Spyware Blaster
This protects a running system from getting infected, grab updated and enable them frequently.

Spybot Search and Destroy
This finds all kinds of evil stuff in your system and removes it. Update frequently, imunize, and scan.

Ad-Aware SE
This looks for a lot of stuff as well, but different kind of things – works great with Spybot.

Anti-Virus Guard Free Edition
A very good virus protector — I use it over Norton and McAfee.

Registry Mechanic
Scrubs the registry for when things don’t uninstall correctly.

Peer Guardian 2
An active firewall for catching -outgoing- traffic!

FireFox
A richly featured, free replacement for the horrible and vunerable Internet Explorer. Be sure to snag the Update Notifier, AdBlock and Adblock Filterset.G Updater extensions.

Other tips —

Turn your Windows firewall on.

[ Start / Settings / Control Pannel / Windows Fire Wall / On ]
Update your computer often, using custom (not express), so you get all the updates.

[ Start / Windows Updates ]
Make regular system restore points

[Start / Help and Support / “Undo changes to your computer with System Restore” / Create a Restore Point ]
Defragment your drives often.

[Open My Computer, Right Click C:, Properties, Tools, Defragement Now… / Defragment ]

And, in all seriousness, consider moving away from Windows — look at OS X, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core. If you can get past “Oh no, it’s not Windows! I’m scared! It’s unfamiliar! I quit!” and just try it, you’ll see it’s not as complicated as you fear, and installation and use is actually easier than Windows.

I’ve literally seen a 4 year old use OS X without instruction and use various apps.

I’ve observed a 13 year old girl who wasn’t computer savvy install Linux and immediately start web browsing, drawing in Gimp, writing in OpenOffice, talk via Instant Messaging, and playing videos …all without being taught or trained.

Walt’s Desktop: Alertbear

From Walt’s Desktop, he shares that he uses Alertbear to stay on top of a swamp of RSS feeds, giving the application five stars.

Today’s nifty desktop utility spotlights on Alertbear, a RSS news reader for Microsoft Windows.

Most RSS news readers give you a pile of feeds, and then within that a pile of stories, and then when you select those you get content. The interface assumes you’re giving the application full attention, and that you have time to read everything.

Alertbear works differently; it knows that news is a firehose of content with a shelf life. More importantly, it realizes you’re going to be in the middle of something, and you may, or may not, want to stop what you’re doing.

When a pile of news articles are ready, they pop up in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you ignore them, they go away in a second or two. If you move the mouse over them, you can scroll through the list, clicking on stories that are interesting. If you’re using FireFox, these will appear as new tabs in your browser. When you right click, the list goes away and you can resume work, coming back to your browser when you’re ready, having all the choice material at your disposal.

I find Alertbear a great way to stay on top of breaking news and technology announcements without having to break my workflow or attention span.

WALT GIVES ALERTBEAR FIVE STARS.