Automator lets you do things that are very repetitive with a single action.
It is not just a pretty face for Applescript. It will not do the powerful things
that Applescript will let you do, but it is a lot easier to learn than applescript.
There are two places to go to learn about automator (i'm sure there is more on google)
www.automator.us is a good place to start.
Mac break had an episode with Sal Soghoian from apple showing off automator. download movie
My first demonstration will be re-creating the workflow on this page. This will let you batch rename files, something that is hard to do in a GUI OS.
There is a way to download pictures from a webpage and add them to Iphoto.
I made a simple script to backup files into separate archives. Download
There is also a script that will make a backup of your documents and put it in their own archive with the date.
all you have to do is change what backs up in the first pane, and where it goes in the last pane, then Save as an Application.
If you want to run the backup every day, there is a little program called PiTime that will let you schedule the backup. Download here
Corpus Christi has free internet throughout most of the town, the problem is that you can't usually get a strong enough signal at your computer!
List of items to buy
The belkin wireless f5d7050 can be had at walmart for around $40.
Farm Utility Light at Wal-mart for $7
A plastic or wooden ruler, metal will upset the signal!
Tape and a rubber band
Use the rubber band to fasten the base to the ruler
Tape one side of the ruler to the heat lamp
Tape the other end of the ruler to the heat lamp and your finished with the hardware.
Presto! you now have a directional wi-fi antenna for around $50. Normally a good antenna is $50, without the wireless access card, which is another $60.
DRIVERS
The problem is the belkin f5d7050 does not have mac drivers, but you can dig
around the internet and find some.
I had version 3000 of the device, I downloaded the ‘rt71’ driver
for mac on
http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm
for 2000 download the 11g-RT2500 driver on the same page.
if you have version 4 of the f5d7050 download the ZyDAS zd1211 driver, and that
is on this page
http://www.zydas.com.tw/downloads/download-1211.asp
Belikin’s website had a driver that does not work! it can be had here:
http://web.belkin.com/support/download/downloaddetails.asp?download=1624&lang=1
Once you install the driver, you can not use the built in airport software to
configure the device. Once you plug it in it will automatically launch the wireless
utility. Keep clicking the rescan button while pointing the antenna in different
directions until you get a good signal, then you can change to link status for
fine tuning.
If your trying to use the free internet from Corpus Christi, remeber to run
Internet explorer first so you can hit ‘I agree’ Then you can crank
up safari and enjoy the free internet!
You can download the gimpshop Here
The Gimpshop is a photoshop replacement based on the Gimp, which is notoriously
hard to use! Someone took the Gimp, and put a friendlier user interface on it
and calls it the Gimpshop. It’s also a universal Binary making it blazing
fast on an Intel Mac. And if you don’t like it, you can download the source
code and fix the things that aren’t quite right.
One problem with the Gimpshop is that you need X11 to run it. If you don’t
know what X11 is don’t be suprised. X11 lets you run programs made for
XWindows without making it specifically for the mac.
If you have tiger, you need to install it from your tiger DVD. Run optional
installs, and click on the Applications triangle, and X11 is on the bottom.
If you have an older OS, download X11 from apple’s website to get it.
The first time you run the Gimpshop, it will take you through a small installation. You will notice that the Gimpshop does not look like an ordinary mac application. The menubars are on each window, and to select tools on the pallets you will have to click twice. But you can not beat the price, which is free, and it has quite a few of the features of photoshop.
There is an office clone called Open Office
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/
It works very well but it has the same problem as the gimpshop in that it runs
under X11
There is a new office called the NeoOffice, that is an aqua port of OpenOffice,
it does not run at all on Intel macs yet but that is comming soon.
http://www.neooffice.org/
It will let you open Power Point Presentations, Word documents and Excel Documents.
It is also free.
A mac user made a song with GarageBand called I love my mac.
You can check it out on http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/