Synchronize and backup Address Book contacts with Dropbox

         OS X      address book · minitip

A nice way to synchronize contacts between your Macs without having to buy a MobileMe account is to have them on your Dropbox. Basically, it boils down to moving the folder containing your Address Book data on your Dropbox, then adding a symbolic link to it so Address Book will know where to find its data. Let's go on bash! Move the folder: $ mv -v ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook ~/Dropbox/ Add a symbolic link:

Application icons

         OS X

Just a quick follow-up to this post about changing application icons: Someone actually found this post by Googling for “creepy preview icon osx”. I love it. :D You can find an astonishing number of great icons on DeviantArt. There is actually a whole category for Mac OS X icons, and given DeviantArt usual level of quality, most of these are insanely good. Hats off to this nifty little customization for nostalgic users by the way.

Alfred: it's like Quicksilver, but better

         OS X      alfred · quicksilver

I recently started to use Alfred, first along Quicksilver, then as a full replacement. For those of you who never used any of these two, they act like Spotlight on steroids: invoke them with a shortcut, type in a few letters, and let the fun begin. Quicksilver lets you do the basics (launch programs, open folders…) and way, way more. A simple example? You can type a picture name, then use Quicksilver to resize it at your will, then re-invoke Quicksilver to send it to someone in your Address Book.

A keyboard shortcut to change files colours in the Finder?

         OS X      minitip · OS X

My usual habit (some would call it an intermittent OCD, but meh) of sorting and organizing files and folders to a great extend and my almost as severe relentless longing for optimisation recently met in an existential question: is it possible to colour files in the Finder through a keyboard shortcut? OS X lets you add colours -or “labels”- to a file by right-click or in the Finder's File menu. GUI are cool, but get in the way of efficiency once you know your keyboard inside and out.

Seitunes 1.0

         OS X      OS X · Seitunes

Seitunes v1 is here! I think everything I need it to do is in here. I'm not planning on adding new features in the near future - if anything, I'll concentrate on optimizing performance. Sei what? Seitunes is a command-line interface for iTunes. It allows you to see what's playing in iTunes and control it (play, pause, set volume, toggle shuffle, select a playlist, set song rating) from your terminal.

Fix ncurses in OS X 10.6.3

         OS X      curses · OS X

In response to my blog post about the issue affecting arrows under OS X 10.6.3, Jonathan Groll pointed out that copying the ncurses libraries from an old 10.6.2 install would fix the problems. It works, but manipulating libraries in that way still feels a bit wrong to me. And that's without even mentioning the security implications of getting these libraries from “somewhere on the internet” if you don't have them laying around anymore.

Tunneling iTunes through SSH

         OS X      itunes · linux · OS X

If you want to listen to your music library on the go, you can tunnel iTunes through SSH in a few easy steps. First of all, you have to enable sharing in iTunes: iTunes > Preferences > Sharing > Share my library on my local network. This will announce your library on your local network using multicast DNS, provided by Apple's implementation of zeroconf: Bonjour. The library can then be accessed on port 3689 of the computer mDNS announced.

Slim down applications: Trimmit

         OS X      itunes · OS X

Applications on Mac OS typically include a lot of stuff most people won't use daily, especially translations in foreign languages and builds for different architectures (x86, x86_64, PPC and PPC 64 bits). A handful of utilities exist to trim down applications. I personally use Trimmit, a free-as-in-beer software that gives excellent results, as long as it's used carefully. For example, let's take the latest version of iTunes (v9.1) under Snow Leopard.

Changing an application icon under OS X

         OS X      minitip · OS X

I don't like the default icon for Preview.app in OS X. The sight of that child, giving me this creepy grin, sitting here in the Dock while I'm browsing pictures, is just weird. There are two ways to make him go away. The hard way I call this method the hard way because it involves having another .icns file (the filetype for OS X icons), and navigating through folders supposed to be hidden.

Seitunes v0.8

         OS X      OS X · Seitunes

Version 0.8 of Seitunes is here! Apart from finishing implementing the core functions, I focused on code clarity and performance enhancements. Code All major Applescript interactions with iTunes now go through separate C functions instead of “oh hey just do it here in main()” as before. These functions act as wrappers to access iTunes, and can be re-used for any other project. I could even put them in a separate file and call it a library :)