I don’t know why, but I recently remembered ASCIIquarium. It still exists! (You can also find it in an easy-to-install hombrew package) Thank me later.  

The original art was by Joan Stark and was grabbed from Geocities. 

Kevin Cheng twittered recently "Cannot find any iTunes solution that lets me have an external master library, laptop w/ synced subset, and synced ratings/metadata."

Ahh.. the holy grail. I've been pursuing it for some time because I often orbit between 3 or 4 machines. I'd go further. I also want my iphones to share the synced data and to be able to sync on multiple computers. It can be done! Here's how.

Assumptions: I assume Macintosh. I assume normal locations for your Music folder and for the iTunes folder. I assume matching usernames on all the computers. I have 2 sets of instructions the first is for a fresh start (new library), the second set is for converting an existing library. Most importantly I assume a Dropbox account (they're free).

There are a couple of issues we have to get around:

1. Ratings and playlists are stored in local iTunes databases.
2. Song/Video metadata is stored in the actual media files.
3. iTunes tries to limit your syncing w/ iphones & ipads to a single library and freaks out if you switch libraries.

The solution is setting up a shared space that is automatically synced across computers and storing shared songs and metadata on the shared space.

OPTION 1: CLEAN START
Creating a clean Library from scratch.
(for an existing library scroll to the alternative method)

Step 1: Start Fresh.

a. Back up your iphone/ipod etc. by connecting it to iTunes and selecting the device while holding down the control key (choose 'Backup' from the menu.)

b. Quit iTunes and rename your iTunes folder 'iTunes-old'. This will serve as a backup if something bad happens (Remember I didn't make you do this! To restore everything, just rename the new iTunes folder that will be created 'iTunes-new' and rename the old folder 'iTunes'.).

b. Start iTunes and a new empty database will be created in your iTunes folder.

c. Uncheck "Copy iTunes files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library" in the advanced prefs.

d. Quit iTunes.

Step 2: Set up shared space.

I use Dropbox. You'll need enough space to hold the subset of the collection you want shared on your satellite computer. Windows Live would probably also work. Some of the Macfuse based finder-ftp solutions might work. The important thing is that your shared space is indistinguishable from a normal Mac directory.

If you don't care about ratings or playlists and only care about metadata, then you're done. Just keep media files you want to share between computers on dropbox. Add the files manually to iTunes and the data will be synced on all computers automagically, but that's not what you want, you want more!

Step 3: Move your itunes database to dropbox:

If you want your ratings and playlists to match across machines, your database will have to live on the dropbox. To do this:

a. Copy your newly created iTunes folder to your dropbox folder. Right now it should be empty (no songs).

b. Create an alias of your iTunes folder, it should be named 'iTunes copy'.

c. Move 'iTunes copy' back to your Music folder and rename it 'iTunes'.

d. Now start iTunes. Go to preferences and look at the iTunes Media folder location. It should be something like '/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Dropbox/iTunes/iTunes Media'

Step 4: Add your music

Add your music/videos/etc, by dragging folders onto itunes. To add all your old music drag the 'iTunes Music' folder within 'iTunes-old' to the iTunes window and everything will be imported (or choose import from the File menu). These media files will be available locally.

For music you want to share across machines, create a folder called 'iTunes Everywhere' on Dropbox and drag folders of music into it. Anything not on dropbox will only be visible locally. If the music has been added to iTunes already you don't have to re-add it, you just have to move it, if it hasn't been added, you will have to add it.

When you are on a satellite computer, you will be able to play global files and files you add from that computer. Files on the main computer will have the little grey exclamation point next to them, but at least you can see them and see their ratings. You'll have access to all your playlists etc, but of course only local and global files will be able to play in each context (I recommend keeping a playlist of all your global files to keep things straight). Purchased music will be saved on the dropbox and available everywhere, unless you move it.

Step 5: Deal with your iphone/ipad/ipod

If you started fresh your phone will think you are on a new computer which means it will want to erase everything. You could copy your backup library id's over in a hex editor to fool itunes into being reasonable, or you could do a 'Restore from Backup' (control click the device in iTunes. The restore option is on the contextual menu). Either way it's a hassle.

Once your iphone is back up, you should select "Manually manage music." This will allow you to add files from the shared space or either computer. It's important to remember what context you are in when you are adding files. If you add a playlist from a satellite computer you must make sure that computer has access to all the songs on the playlist.

ALTERNATE METHOD: CONVERTING YOUR EXISTING ITUNES LIBRARY

Use this method if you want to convert your existing library, you'll need need to move your library files over to dropbox.

Step 1: Back up.

a. Quit iTunes.

b. Duplicate the following files in your iTunes folder and put them someplace safe: iTunes library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel,iTunes Music Library.xml. .

c. Start iTunes and uncheck "Copy iTunes files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library" in the advanced prefs.

Step 2: Set up shared space.

a. I use Dropbox. You'll need enough space to hold the subset of the collection you want shared on your satellite computer.

b. Create a directory on dropbox called 'iTunes Master' move the iTunes library files (iTunes library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel) to it.

c. Create aliases for these files and move the aliases back to their original positions in your original iTunes folder.

d. Rename the files removing the "copy suffix". This fools itunes into thinking the files are in their normal location.

e. Start iTunes, kick the tires a bit, everything should be normal.

Step 3: Manage Your files.

For music you want to share across machines, create a folder on dropbox called 'iTunes Everywhere' and drag folders of music into it. Anything not on dropbox will only be visible locally. If the music has been added to iTunes already you don't have to re-add it, you just have to move it, if it hasn't been added, you will have to add it.

When you are on a satellite computer, you will be able to play global files and files you add from that computer. Files on the main computer will have the little grey exclamation point next to them, but at least you can see them and see their ratings. You'll have access to all your playlists etc, but of course only local and global files will be able to play in each context (I recommend keeping a playlist of all your global files, and playlists of files on each computer to keep things straight).

Step 4: Your iphone/ipod/ipad.

Select "Manually manage music" on your main iphone/ipod/ipad screen. This will allow you to add files from the shared space or either computer. It's important to remember what context you are in when you are adding files. If you add a playlist from a satellite computer you must make sure that computer has access to all the songs on the playlist.

It's not pretty, but it works (Earth to Apple: please make this easier!) If everything worked, you now have: A place where you can put music that is accessible globally, the ability to view all your playlists and ratings everywhere, and the ability to add songs and sync your phone/ipad from all your machines. As it should be.

Caveats: This setup works for me. It might not for you. I always shut down iTunes when leaving one computer for another because I assume things could get wonky if I have multiple live machines and multiple machines are syncing files in rapid succession. I back up religiously.

Do you have a better way to do this? If so, let me know? Edits? Leave a comment!

Just discovered this Macpaint file collecting screenshots of various early Mac icons (some finder icons, some in-application icons, some resedit icons). Most are circa 1985, although several are later. 10 points to the person who can name them all.

Need a cheatsheet? Check out the insanely detailed Vintage Mac Museum which not only has icons, but also houses screenshots, of many — but not all — of these apps.

Want the story the sad mac icon's birth: Read here.

Imagine how much more fun the iOS video camera would be if it had a pause button. In camera cuts!

Like everyone else, I'm pretty exited about the iphone. But I won't be head over heels excited until I find out if 3rd parties can develop apps for it, because a slick phone would be neat, but a real version of OS X with 3rd party apps would be like cherries every day. This list of "I want" apps came to mind almost immediately. What's on your list?

1. I want to be able to find photographs on the net geotagged to my current location with a scroller that goes back chronologically. Imagine standing at a particular spot, and instantly be able to see what happened there last week, last month, last year. (idea originally from Jakob Lodwick)

2. I want fingerpainting. (allowing you to choose between watercolors, gouache, oils, etc... and with paint running down the screen based on the phone's orientation)

3. I want an intruder alert. In other words you lock your phone with a special code, and if someone picks up your phone it starts taking pictures, recording sound and sending you an email with photos and the recording. Also it should have a siren.

4. I want an alarm clock set to one of my itunes playlists.

5. I want Netnewswire.

6. I want a portable antfarm with virtual ants.

7. I want a timelapse function for camera where a series of images is taken at a preset intervals and turned into a movie.

8. I want the phone to read me my mail if I'm in the car.

9. I want to be able to record my phone calls with a click..

10. I want voice annotated email... yeah it would just be voicemail via email, but it would mean I could send a voicemail to someone without a phone.

11. I want to be able to transfer files user to user via wifi or bluetooth... if iphone really runs a flavor of OS X this should be no problem. We can always email files anyway, and not allow auto-discovery via rendezvous.

12. I want the option to connect a small keyboard. Will this be possible via the ipod socket? Probably not, but we can keep our fingers crossed.

13. I want to be able to set custom mail sounds for different users.

14. When someone in my address book calls, I want to, with a click, have access to recent email from them while we speak.

15. I want an open API for the document viewer so I can view files in a variety of formats including word, excel, etc...I know most of these document types are viewable through the web, but wouldn't it be nicer to have this native?

16. I want to run skype or to be able to do voice chats when I'm connected via wifi.

17. I want to be able to directly sync any folder on my computer to any folder on the phone with a push of the button and without going through .Mac or some other third party.

18. I want to be able to share a calendar with selected people so we can all sync whenever we are online.

19. I to play games with the the person across from me on the subway via wifi.

20. I want play a song for a friend over wifi. ("Hey listen to this.")

21. I want subway maps. With real time arrival times/traffic reports.

22. I want the Oxford English Dictionary.

23. I want a local copy of wikipedia.

25. I want to be able to take a picture of a barcode, have it scanned and understood, and find out what the best price for that product is online.

26. I want directions when I am lost.

27. I want to be able to call in and with a secret code have the phone tell me where it is, so I can find it when I lose it.

28. I want to be able to access files on my home computer when I forget something.

29. Did I mention fingerpainting?

30. I want it now.

If you own a late model Powerbook, or a Macbook, your machine has a motion sensor inside to shut off the hard drive in case of a tumble. Two hacks taking advantage of of the sensor in inventive ways have recently made the rounds of the Macosphere. Light Saber, turns your mac into a light saber, and SmackMac which ties into the excellent Mac virtual desktop utility Desktop Manager to allow you to smack your way through desktops. Both hacks are based on the work of Amit Singh a writer/programmer, who was the first person to publicize methods of using the sudden motion sensor creatively. These hacks led me on a search for other hacks which use the mac motion sensor. As of yet there are only a couple but I assume more are in the pipeline... (onscreen dice anyone?, how about a 'jiggle your dock icons with a bump' hack?)

Amit Singh's original proof of concepts:
Rotate D triggers screen orientation rotation.
HID Device turns the movement of the screen into an input device. Singh put up a nice page describing how to use HID Device to control games.
Tracker simply prints out the movement data.
Visualizer shows the orientation of your mac in 3D.
Stable Window is a cool little hack that puts up a window that tries to compensate for the rotation.

Erling Ellison's Smackbook Hack is described here (look in the comments for complied versions) (and as a sidenote, Ellison's blog is only 2 entries long and already looks promising... I haven't seen a good Mac Hack blog in a long time).
Smack Exposé and Bump Tunes both riff off SmackBook and are self explanatory.

Smack Exposé and Bump Tunes both riff off SmackBook and are self explanatory.

Dash Level is a dashboard widget that turns your mac into a level.

iAlertU is perhaps the most useful use of the motion sensor, it basically gives you a car alarm for your portable... if someone tries to move it, it goes off. Multialarm and Theft Sensor basically do the same thing.

MacSaber (your mac as a light saber in case you haven't downloaded it yet) can be found here. When my wife saw me giggling and playing with this, she stopped dead in her tracks, sputtered "Oh my god, you are such a nerd" and quickly left the room.

To turn your motion sensor off follow this hack.

All the googling for mac motion sensing led me to isight based motion sensing (ie motion sensor triggered video) which led me to iSight hacks.

Evocam has been around for a while and is still my favorite motion sensor video app. It's relatively cheap. I've yet to find a free alternative. With it you can produce motion sensor triggered video like this.

Motiondetect allows you to add motion detection effects to iMovie.

Miracle sight uses motion triggers to turn your mac into a magic mirror.

And speaking of magic mirrors, there are a number of iSight connected quartz composer hacks. The video basically goes through a filter and is output into quartz composition file. You can read these qtz files in Safari or use them as screensavers (just put them in Library/Screensaver) If you have a newer mac, you've seen this kind of effect in Photobooth (if you have an isight camera connected to your mac, click here to see a demo). The best of these can be found here:

Tatsuo Unemi's Crazy Mirror
Matthew Turk's Gravity Lens
& Sam Kass' Hack Page

Apple puts out a cool quick and dirty capture utility called Whacked TV. MulleSight is a similar small capture app and duhsoft creates a simple photo capture widget for the Dashboard.

EvoBarCode turns your iSight into a bar code reader and intergalactic allows you to capture images from the command line.

Finally if you are tired of video chatting in iChat you can check out Adobe's Flash based conferencing product Breeze (iChat is leagues better). I found it worked quite well with iSight.

And last but certainly not least is iGlasses which tweaks iSight's video output. This is most useful if you use iSight in dark rooms as it allows you to brighten up the image, change the contrast, etc.

That's quite a few... did I miss anything great?

If you use Entourage 2005 on OS X 10.4, Microsoft has quietly released a major upgrade.

Once you've installed the update, start the program, nothing looks different, but go to the preferences and select Spotlight and click the option to "include entourage items in Spotlight search results' and hit the rebuild button.

Whammo. Your old email just got much more useful. Now instead of waiting minutes for entourage to churn through your email when you hit find, you can have results in seconds in spotlight. Your email database has just gone from being an inert repository to an incredibly rich resource. Of course it depends on how long you've saved your email (I have religiously upgraded my databases since pre-internet all text BBS days) but even if your database is small it's nice to have instant access to everything by plugging in a few search terms.

Another benefit, you can now sync Entourage with the Address Book and iCal. Yippee.

John Siracusa my favorite writer about all things OS X notes that OS X is five years old. In honor of this anniversary I thought it might be fun to dig up one of my old web columns written in January 2000 a year before the official release OS X release. The writing style is annoying, but it's fun to see what I got wrong and what I got right. I've reposted it here. Note most of the links are dead, so just ignore them.

I keep seeing lists of 10 must have Mac programs, but the lists is they are well known can't-live-without programs like Launchbar and Windowshade already installed on Machead machines. Here are some slightly more obscure programs I use every day:

1. Inquisitor. Inquisitor adds live search to Safari. You start typing it starts searching/suggesting. 90% of the time I never even have to go to the google results page because I find exactly what I am looking for right in the search window.. After installing this program Safari will feel better, smarter, better looking.

2. Saft. Saft is another Safari enhancement that adds the function of many of the most popular Firefox extensions to Safari. Think fancy ad filtering, tab restoration on quit, history search etc. My favorite addition: the ability to drag tabs from one window to another. This + Inquisitor have brought me back to
Safari after a several month hiatus to Firefox.

3. Flip4Mac is an extension that allows you to view unprotected Windows Media Player content within Quicktime. Why would you want to use this when Microsoft provides a free player? 1. Because it's better than the MS player. 2. Because the MS player is now discontinued and Microsoft is now supporting the flip4mac extension.

4. AppleJack. If you're lucky you'll never have to use Applejack. It's a little utility that hides in the bowels of your machine and gives you simple non-techie access to most of OS X's built in maintenance routines. What does this mean to you? If your computer starts acting funky you can boot up with command-S and type in "applejack" and repair a host of common OS X problems. It can be a lifesaver.

5. Growl is a utility that gives you translucent status messages from background applications. That description is deeply unsexy, but once you start using Growl, you'll forget what it was like to work without it. Basically it will tell you when downloads are done, what song is playing, etc without you having to move from your work.

6. Chax adds a host of large and small improvements to ichat.

7. Screensavers are never essential, but Soundstream is at least sort of fun. It's a screensaver that responds to the ambient noise in the room. Fun when the stereo is blasting. [Short aside] Here's the screensaver I want: Screensaver captures images from your iSight camera at defined intervals and then plays the images as a looping movie onscreen. When you return to your computer you see what happened while you were gone.

8. Are you a keyboard navigator? If so Witch will make you happy. It lets you jump from window to window easily without touching your mouse.

9. Sbook is a little notepad with smarts. Type in an address and it knows it's an address. A phone number is a phone number etc. Handy.

10. Delicious Library is probably the least obscure item on the list, but I'm surprised how few people know of it. This program lets you scan your book, cd, and dvd barcodes looks up info about the media (title, cover, etc) and stores it all in an easy to use database.

11. Here's an 11th one for free. Jumpcut allows you to keep multiple clipboards. It's simple low weight and it just works.

Update: Someone in the comments reminded me of Texpander. I use this program so organically I had forgotten about it. Texpander allows you to create abbreviations that expand as you type them. So instead of typing my name into forms I just type rrgg and it instantly expands into my full name. You can add bits of text (and images) at will. Darned useful. Also the sBook site is back up.

A Canadian by the name of Neil Bruce Lee has been compiling G5 optomized versions of Firefox. If you are a Mac G5 person, you want to use this. The speed (especially on duals) is almost startling. There are still a few bugs (the google search box is dead on my machine), but the speed is worth the tradeoff. And while you're optimizing, why not check out fasterfox as well.

Hardcore Mac geeks read on, everyone else: as you were.

Recently I've been tormented by some mysterious preference files that keep showing up in my system folder with jibberish names. Tracking down which app has been writing these files as been difficult. Also my hard disk has been spinning seeming at random when I'm not doing anything. This too was hard to troubleshoot.

FSEventer to the rescue. This little program opens up a graphical display window that shows you every file written to disk (including invisible files) and gives authorship information with a click. Despite the esoteric name it features a friendly interface and is fun to watch (to see it go nuts fire up a browser and hit some MS sites which write a million cookies). I managed to track down both of my mysterious problems in minutes. This is a good little program for your toolbox.

It's big and heavy.
It's loud. Sounds like an old Volvo.
It's fast (65meg/sec transfer), but not nearly as fast as the 90meg/sec claimed by LaCie.

If I had to do it over again I would have probably bought a 2 500s.