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Find total number of iCal events #
John Maisey kindly shared the following AppleScript to find the total number of events in iCal: 
set myText to "Count of events in iCal's calendars." & return
tell application "iCal"
  repeat with myCal in calendars
    set myText to myText & return & (name of myCal) & ": " & (count events of myCal)
  end repeat
end tell
display dialog myText

/mac | Sep 01, 2010

OS X: Mount disks as read only or block automounting altogether #
Aaron Burghardt's open source Disk Arbitrator provides a simple GUI for changing OS X's automount behavior. Automounting can be disabled completely (especially handy for drive imaging / data recovery via ddrescue, etc) or mounts can be forced as read-only (for forensics, etc, though a hardware write-blocker is still recommended).
Disk Arbitrator
This little app replaces the following hacks I've been using to prevent automounting of USB / Firewire drives in OS X:
  • biovizier's sudo chflags uchg /Volumes
  • Ryan Kubasiak's backup and removal of /etc/mach_init.d/diskarbitrationd.plist for Tiger. This one was new to me, and Ryan kindly informs us that it is the only way to disable Disk Arbitration under 10.4.
  • Charles Edge's launchctl stop 0×10abe0.diskarbitrationd for Leopard
  • Matt's sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist for Snow Leopard. This method (and probably the one above) has the unfortunate side effect of disabling diskutil: "Unable to run because unable to use the DiskManagement framework. Common reasons include, but are not limited to, the DiskArbitration framework being unavailable due to being booted in single-user mode."
UPDATE 1: Aaron kindly replied to my email, pointing out that the "stop" command (since removed) isn't necessary in the fourth method above and that pausing/resuming diskarbitrationd with SIGSTOP and SIGCONT offers another option (though it too disables diskutil): 
   $ sudo launchctl list | grep diskarbitrationd
   188 -   com.apple.diskarbitrationd
   $ sudo kill -SIGSTOP 188 # pauses diskarbitrationd, disabling automount
   $ sudo kill -SIGCONT 188 # resumes diskarbitrationd, reenabling automount

UPDATE 2: More on disabling Disk Arbitration from Apple Examiner.

/mac | Aug 17, 2010

OS X: Get OS version info in Terminal #
$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.6.4
BuildVersion:   10F569
$ sw_vers -productVersion
10.6.4
Especially handy when resetting a password in single user mode, since the method varies based on which version of OS X is running.

/mac | Aug 14, 2010

OS X: Printing in grayscale #
A quick search turned up a number of guides on how to print in greyscale under OS X, but they all entailed saving to PDF first and then opening in Preview. The following method worked directly from the print dialog in Snow Leopard (image) with a printer driver that did not include a native grayscale option:
  1. Paper Type/Quality
  2. Color Options
  3. Grayscale
  4. Black Print Cartridge Only
For easy access in the future, just click the "Presets:" pop-up menu and save as "grayscale" or what have you.

/mac | Aug 07, 2010

Safari 5 hearts OpenDNS #
There is no shortage of reports on Safari 5's interminable page load times: The "fix" seems to be switching DNS servers to OpenDNS. In my own informal testing, Safari 5 was basically unusable with Google's Public DNS: pages would either refuse to load altogether, or would take much longer than usual. Simply switching to OpenDNS servers fixed the problem instantly. Switching back and forth between Google Public DNS and OpenDNS (along with testing page load times via Webmonkey Stopwatch) confirmed Safari's bias.

/mac | Jun 30, 2010

Send To SFTP for Mac OS X #
There have been a number of Send To FTP/SFTP apps for Windows, but Nick Jensen's OneWay is the first OS X option I've seen. It allows quick and easy (S)FTP uploads via the Context Menu:

OneWay - SFTP uploads via the Context Menu

(via Hacker News)

/mac | May 12, 2010

Safari 4: Bookmark all tabs in all windows #
Sometimes you might end up with 4 or 5 Safari windows, each with 10 or 15 tabs. In order to bookmark and save them all into a single new folder, simply click Window > Merge All Windows > Add Bookmark for These n Tabs...

Mac OS X Hints hosts several AppleScripts for bookmarking all tabs as well.

/mac | May 01, 2010

Transfer large files directly between computers on the Net #
There are a number of free, third-party solutions for transferring files directly from computer A to computer B across the Internet:
  • Gigatribe - "allows you to share all your documents, movies, pictures, directly from your hard drive with your friends over the Internet"
  • Hamachi - "a hosted VPN service that securely connects devices and networks"
  • Opera Unite - "share content directly with friends, without having to upload anything to a Web site"
However, these services have several issues:
  • You and your fellow sharers must trust the service provider
  • You and your fellow sharers must download and install the appropriate client software
  • You and your fellow sharers must sign up for accounts with the service provider
Here is a quick and easy alternative for Mac users which involves no signups or third parties:
  1. On server: System Preferences > Sharing > check "Remote Login"
  2. On server router: Forward port 22 to server
  3. On client: Use a SFTP client (either the included CLI sftp or a GUI-based app like Transmit, CyberDuck, YummyFTP, etc) to connect to the external IP address of the server - instant file sharing!
Opening ports and enabling services can expose your network to additional risk. See also: Hardening SSH and Mounting Remote Filesystem in OS X Finder via SSHFS.

/mac | Apr 28, 2010

Shrink PDF file sizes with ShrinkIt #
ShrinkIt 1.1 [181K] Strips needless metadata from PDFs to reduce file size.  Screenshot

/mac | Apr 27, 2010

The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. #
Boot Camp offers some really bad advice when it can't partition the disk:
The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.
A much more helpful message would be:
You've got some big file(s) I can't move. Find 'em (find ./ -size +100M) and get 'em off the disk, or just use iDefrag instead.
No, actually this is what the message should read:
You need to move big_file.iso to another disk before Boot Camp setup can continue.

/mac | Apr 27, 2010

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