When it comes to operating systems, I’m not an early adopter. Part of this is work — our support for the most recent Mac operating system tends to lag a few months behind the official release as we wait for software and network partners to replace upgrades that run with the OS. I’m also gun … Read more
Nuketown now has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/nuketownsf. The goal of this page is two-fold: promote Nuketown, and figure out how to use Facebook pages. As I discussed previously, although I’ve been using social media for years and have 975 followers on my NukeHavoc account, Nuketown was sadly unrepresented.
This created problems with my day job as the goal becomes marketing the college via social media, rather than networking as an individual. I don’t have a lot of experience with tracking social media analytics or setting up a write-once, publish-multiple times mechanic. Getting this setup — first one Twitter, now on Facebook — is an essential part of the redesign.
It’s amazing what a little free time can do. Back in Autumn 2011 I worked hard to come up with wireframes, design comps, and an HTML build out of the new Nuketown. It was built on HTML5 and CSS3 and it was all going swimmingly … until I looked at it in Internet Explorer 9.
The entire design fell apart. IE9, which I thought had better standards support than its predecessors, simply didn’t understand HTML5 elements like “nav” or “figure”. It refused to style them, and without the formatting, the design collapsed. About the same time work got nuts, and most of my free time was devoured by work projects. I probably could have pressed ahead with Nuketown, but truth be told I just didn’t have the energy to fight the good fight.
Flashforward a few months. My big projects are complete, and I finally found some time to figure out what the hell was going so wrong with IE9. An hour of searching and experimentation revealed the answer: IE9 mode.
You see, Internet Explorer has a long history of “modes” — ways of operating that supported (or broke) certain standards. It was quirky to say the least, and I’d forgotten about it. By default, Internet Explorer 9 operates in compatibility mode, which apparently means it tries to display everything as a sucky old browser would, while choking on the latest HTML5 standards.
One of the things I enjoy about my Mac is stumbling across different applications (or uses for applications) that I never knew it had. Some of these are legacies of earlier versions of the OS, introduced before being supplanted by some later software, while others are simply obscure, lurking in the corners of your Applications … Read more
I recently did a full restore of my my Mac from Time Machine, Apple’s built-in backup utility for OS 10.5 (Leopard). I had to undertake this radical step because Boot Camp refused to create a Windows partition, complaining about “unmovable files” that could only be eradicated by reformatting the drive and reinstalling Leopard. Overall, I … Read more
Updated 12/27/2022 – Way back in 2005, I bought an HP 1020 LaserJet printer. It’s a solid, dependable printer that’s been my family’s printing workhorse for over 17 years. The only problem is that while the printer works great with Windows computers, it’s always been challenging to install on macOS computers. The key problem is that … Read more
One of my goals this fall has been to get my calendars under control, and to do a better job of keeping track of what I’m doing (and where I’m supposed to be doing it). Somedays that works better than others (Monday, in which I forgot my wife had yoga, would be one of the … Read more
I spend a lot of time on the Mac — at work, at home, when I’m dreaming. These are the hacks that I use almost every day to get the most out of my computers.
Zoom in on anything
For a zoomed in view of anything on your computer, hold the CTRL key and then brush upwards on your trackpad with two fingers. To zoom out, hold the CTRL key and brush downwards with two fingers.
Get Google Talk working with iChat
There is no Google Talk client for the Mac, but you can access its instant messaging capabilities by setting up Jabber in iChat. This will not support voice chat, but it works just fine for text. Learn how to set up Jabber via this Google help page.
Fast launch applicatons from the dock
Sometimes you want to quickly browse your full list of applications without delving into the Finder and clicking on the “Applicatons” folder (or following a shortcut from the Desktop).
A hack I learned by visiting the Apple Store was to drop a shortcut to my Applications folder. Under 10.4 Tiger, you could then right-click on the folder and see a full list of all your apps. Then select the one you want, and it launches.
November is coming. And that means so is National Novel Writing Month. In years past, I’ve watched and read as my friends fought their way through it, some succeeding, some failing, all glorious in the pursuit. I’ve sat, thought, considered and ultimately come up with one excuse or another not to do it. There’s always … Read more
My new MacBook Pro arrived Friday, and the first thing I did (after basking in the beauty that is a new Mac) was to start loading my “must have” applications on it it. Of these, the Quicksilver fast app launcher is probably the single most important tool I have — using it has become as … Read more