Ask TUAW: Bypass the registration screen, install Leopard Server on the new Mac Mini, iPhone 2G AppleCare options and more

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I have a question. Thanks to Google Sync, I've successfully synced my Google "My Contacts" and Calendar to my iPhone. With Calaboration, I've been able to sync my Google Calendar to iCal. It's working perfectly. Whenever I update any of the 3 calendars, all 3 update almost immediately. But I haven't found a way (other than MobileMe - which I don't want to pay for) to sync my Google "My Contacts" folder with my Address Book on my Mac. 3-way syncing would be ideal, but as I usually add new contact info on my iPhone, I'd even be happy with the Address Book only working as a backup - one-way syncing from Google to Address Book. Any ideas? Thank you.

I have a unibody MacBook Pro with the latest version of Leopard and an external Dell monitor. Is there a way I can automatically disable spaces and move everything to space one when I plug in the external monitor, then automatically re-enable spaces when I disconnect my monitor? It's extremely annoying to deal with the coupled spaces that OSX creates.

Thanks for any help.

I'm a Graphic Designer w/ mac pro and macbook pro.

what is the best way to synchronize files on 2 separate computers - like drop box only a ton more. only I have 1TB of files and maybe a few GB change daily. I would like a web-based solution like dropbox. I have 25mbit/5mbit cable - so it wouldnt be a big deal. Lugging back and forth a HDD is pretty lame & silverkeeper isnt the most accurate at syncing - it sometimes misses stuff completely.

Also, as the IT guy at work, it wouldnt be an issue to 1-to-1 NAT my Mac Pro and leave my laptop on at home DMZ. If they needed to reach eachother. Or If I needed to install a mac or PC app to serve this whole mess, that is totally do-able.

Also, I want an affordable VPN software that will connect me to a sonicwall soho3 firewall. The one that I have gotten to work is very very expensive.

I have the same last name being appended to "Mom" problem... My friends enjoying laughing at me for that...

I have a syncing problem which appears too simple for any software I can find (except perhaps rsync). I have Adobe Lightroom import my RAW files into a yyyy/mm-dd folder structure. I want to be able to run something to back up new files/folders in that structure to another drive.

The key thing here is the files will never change. I want them to be copied to the other drive purely on the basis of they don't exist there. Also, I have already copied my existing collection of approx 100Gb and I don't want it being copied again needlessly as it takes a loooooong time (over 802.11n).

All it needs is "is the file there? No? Copy it". I've been trying rsync with -r and --ignore-existing options but it still wants to copy everything.

Another question:

I'm really annoyed by Spotlight indexing at startup as it really slows things on my first gen Intel iMac. Is there a way -whether it is a trick or an utility- to make Spotlight indexing when turing off my Mac ? If there an Apple Script guru around here, is this something which could be done with a script ?

And just out of curiosity, I wonder what is the benefit of having Spotlight doing its thing at launch rather than at turning off...

The DVD-ROM/CD drive on my work Windows computer can rip a music CD into iTunes amazingly fast (less than 2 minutes). My iMac at home, and all of my Macs for that matter, at best are able to import at approximately 10x speed - which takes 5 to 6 minutes. I'm assuming it is the read-speed of the drive that makes them different, as opposed to the processing power of the computer.

Is there a Mac-compatible external drive that can import that fast? I'm also interested in getting a Mac Pro. Is there an internal drive I can install into Mac Pro that can import that fast as well?

I've just recently made the switch to a Macbook after years on Windows, and am so far loving it and most things are easy to discover. One thing that is not - PKI for access to DoD and other government websites. I have found numerous iterations of the instructions for accessing a PKI protected website using a DoD CAC, and am not able to get it to work. I can access the card reader, and can see my certificates, I can even import them to my keychain, but neither Safari nor Firefox appears to pass them to the website for authentication. Some of the posts I've seen seem to indicate that this is something that worked on 10.5.3, but hasn't since. Is there a good resource, or good person to ask at Apple about this?

Macbook (2009) with 10.5.6

A question for next week:

Currently in system preferences' security pane, i can require a password when the computer wakes from sleep or screensaver. I would like a way to require a password when the computer wakes from sleep, but not to require a password for just the screensaver. Is there a way for me to accomplish this? Thanks.