Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Display rotation, iTunes libraries, Time Machine backups, screen sharing and more
This time in Ask TUAW we'll be taking questions about screen rotation, managing iTunes libraries, transferring Time Machine backups to new machines, screen sharing, application deletion and more.As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
jakus asks
im going to be hooking up a second monitor to my powermac G5 (running leopard) and i want to be able to easily switch it from landscape to portrait mode, via a keyboard shortcut or something simple and quick? Also Will any monitor be able to be rotated or do i need a specific make/model?
Screen rotation is generally speaking a feature of your video card more than your monitor. Practically any modern LCD should support rotation if your video card supports it. The default way to change rotation is in the Displays Preference Pane, but fellow reader Ben pointed to the handy Display Rotation Menu which adds a menubar item and keyboard shortcut for activating the rotation.
Shiva asks
Is there a way to take time machine history with you to a new machine ? I'm on an old (relatively speaking) G5 2.1Ghz iMac. If I give in to my urges and upgrade, will I have to lose my time machine history?
This depends on what you mean by take it with you. The Time Machine backup disk can be browsed like any other mounted disk so if you plug your external disk into your new Mac you can browse that disk for old version of your files (or search for them with Spotlight). However, you probably will not be able to use the Time Machine interface to recover previous versions (unless perhaps you clone the drive from the old machine to the new one).
emjay asks
I have my iTunes library on a hard drive connected to Time Capsule. I do this so all my computers (iMac, MBP - both 10.5.2) have access to the library. Almost every time I launch iTunes on my MBP, it asks me to find the location of the library (I think it's when the drive is awaken from sleep). Is there a way to automate finding the library? I have the correct location in my iTunes preferences and I have the drive mount as part of my Login items.
If the iTunes preferences are correct I'm not sure why it's doing this. However, I do have a suggestion. Place an alias to the Time Capsule iTunes library in your ~/Music/ folder and change the iTunes preferences to point to that alias. Now as long as the remote disk is mounted it should transparently follow the alias (then again, I don't really know why it doesn't do that already).
Mike asks
I have a newer iMac 2.8Ghz running Leopard and have ordered a new Mac Mini. I'd like to be able to completely control the Mini from my iMac and not attach a monitor, keyboard or mouse. I see this referred to as "headless". There seems to be several ways to remote control the Mini from the iMac; Apple Remote Desktop and various VNC apps seem popular. Is it also true that Leopard in its native form (no add-in app) will also allow me to do this? If so, how do I set it up? Are there any limitations? What I'm ultimately after is to be able to run the Mac Mini in a "window" on my iMac with complete access and control just as if I was sitting at the keyboard of the Mini.
Yes this is built-in with Remote Management / Screen Sharing in the Sharing Preference Pane. There you can turn on control with a VNC client like Chicken of the VNC. MacFixIt has a handy tutorial that goes over the options (like iChat screen sharing) and will get you started.
Mok asks
I have a huge iTunes music library on a 500GB disk. It's getting full. I want to add another disk, but I can't figure out how to combine them so that iTunes sees both disks as one big library. How is this done? Is it possible? I don't like the idea of having to change the prefs to the other disk when I want to access the other half of my library...
One thing to do would be to make combine the two disks into a single logical volume (Concatenated Disk Set) with a software RAID using the Disk Utility. The downside to this, however, is that if either disk failed you'd lose the entire volume. If it were me, I'd buy a large enough second disk to copy over everything from the first disk and just use that one.
Jesse asks
Is there a way to completely delete an application and all of its support files without going through library to find them all?
There are several applications out there that do this. Perhaps the best known is AppZapper ($12.95) which requires you to drag the application into it. AppDelete is a donationware alternative. Personally, I use Hazel ($21.95) which automatically prompts you to delete support files when you drag an application to the Trash.
shiznit0587 asks
I remember there used to be a utility to have audio output sent out to different sources on a per application basis, such as Adium to system speakers and iTunes to headphones. I had it about two years ago, but cannot for the life of me remember what it was now. Any ideas?
Yes, it was Detour from Rogue Amoeba. Unfortunately, they have stopped development and it is only available for PowerPC machines running 10.3 and 10.4. I dearly wish it would be resurrected, but that's now apparently not possible.
Eric asks
Are there any programs that can make my HTML account work with Mail. The address is a website that runs through Squirrel Mail. I used to be able to receive my information on Outlook, but can't on Entourage or Mail. I prefer to use Mail, but would love to be able to get this @work email to function in the program.
So far as I can tell, SquirrelMail is a PHP client with "built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols." This means that your actual mail server is IMAP, and therefore you can set it up directly in Mail.app. You'll just need to get the server settings from your ISP or administrator.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Brian Allen said 1:13PM on 4-01-2008
Your Time Machine comment should be expanded to indicate that if the machine and drive names are the same you can move backup and point to it and see it as your backup.
I have done this to bring the history with me from one machine to the next.
Reply
Brian Allen said 1:17PM on 4-01-2008
The Mac Mini with VNC solution will have problems because the computer does not have a monitor. It will only give you access to a 1024x768 screen or less. You need to connect the DVI to VGA adapter and crossover the 4,7,and 11 pins to make it think it has a larger monitor connected.
Every time you reboot, it will keep thinking their is no monitor so a temporarily connected monitor will not fix it.
Reply
The General said 1:34PM on 4-01-2008
Also, Leopard has screensharing built right in, so there's really no need for VNC at all. Just find your Mac Mini in the Finder and hit "Share screen" at the top right.
Pete said 1:35PM on 4-01-2008
I think this was taken care of with Leopard. If you connect to a mini out of the box via Screen Sharing, it will let you bump up the resolution all the way to 1680x1050. YOu won't need the adapter or to change any pins.
Tom said 4:51AM on 4-02-2008
The headless Mac Mini problem isn't completely solved with Leopard. It does work to a degree with Screen Sharing, but only at (IIRC) 800x600 and 1024x768. Also, some apps (incl. EyeTV) don't like the fact that there isn't a monitor connected. Strangely, desktop icon alignment gets screwy too.
I stuck a 75 ohm resistor between pins 2 and 7 of the DVI-VGA adaptor that comes with the Mac Mini. This opens up all resolutions, and fixes the other problems.
This is on a 2GHz C2D Mac Mini.
climbingcolorado said 1:35PM on 4-01-2008
I listen to talk radio all day, via actual radio stations' websites thru Firefox on my 10.5.2 2.4GHz iMac. Most of these radio station websites stream typically on a Windows Media Player window, which I use Flip4Mac to hear.
I want to record these radio programs and listen to them on my iPod. Ideally, all these programs would just be podcasted from the radio station, but they aren't. Is there a program that will allow me to record streaming audio into some sort of mp3 file?
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Dave said 2:09PM on 4-01-2008
You should try Audio Hijack Pro from http://www.rogueamoeba.com/
They also have an app called 'Radioshift', you might want to check that out too.
Peace!
dv said 2:23PM on 4-01-2008
http://www.pure-mac.com/audio.html
Look under "Audio Routing". I use Jack, personally, but it may be overkill...
notsharp said 6:05PM on 4-08-2008
iShout is pretty good as well..
http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/ishout/
climbingcolorado said 9:31AM on 4-02-2008
Dave . . .
dv . . .
notsharp . . .
. . . you guys rock.
templestark said 1:41PM on 4-01-2008
Here's a question oh kind TUAW.
I take a lot of screenshots, for copy editing purposes and others.
It used to be in OS9 that the default location for them was the harddrive, now it is the Desktop which creates massive clutter and requires me to create multiple folders to organize them.
Is there a way to change the default location for these screenshots? To either the harddrive or a specific folder?
Thank you.
Temple
Reply
byaah said 2:05PM on 4-01-2008
If you download Onyx, the freeware system maintenance program, the Parameters pane will actually let you choose the destination folder and naming scheme of screenshots.
Chris said 2:09PM on 4-01-2008
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050824073301844&lsrc=osxh
templestark said 3:04PM on 4-01-2008
TYVM indeed Chris and byaah. TUAW is my new favorite site. I'm following on twitter now, too.
Temple
Brian Allen said 1:48PM on 4-01-2008
Leapard didn't fix the screen size issue on my Mac Mini or PowerPC that I remote into at my house.
Reply
Jake said 1:49PM on 4-01-2008
Chicken of the VNC is about the slowest, poorly running, cludgiest client there is. Should you need VNC, I recommend the real deal. You can download the for pay Mac Server/Client and just install the client. Have used it for months to get into Windows machines and works very well.
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Unseelie said 1:56PM on 4-01-2008
You can migrate from a Time Machine backup as well.
Reply
Chris said 2:08PM on 4-01-2008
Better options (FREE!) for removing all system files when deleting are AppCleaner ( http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/index.php ) or for similar action to Hazel try AppTrap ( http://konstochvanligasaker.se/apptrap/ )
Reply
Cycomachead said 6:52PM on 4-01-2008
or here's my favorite:
run a spotlight search in the finder to find all the files. You just (as of 10.5) need to make sure you have the Show System Flies option set to include. To do this click the + below the search field and the go to the menu at the left and click Other. Then when the menu pops up scroll to system files (check the checkbox if you'll use it often) and you're done.
The reason I do it this way A) I often delete an app and forget about the support files and thus the automated app deleters don't work - or I haven't yet found a free one. B) it's free C) I know what happens. I want to mess with the system and screw it up myself that way I know what went wrong. Okay, deleting app support files for an app can't actually screw up the system in 98% of the cases, but you get the point.
Lcs said 2:10PM on 4-01-2008
You can also use AppTrap to completly delete an app. It works the same as Hazel, except this is a freeware app and does only that (not the other things Hazel does).
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/apptrap
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