The Mac Admin's Blog

The word disc always refers to an Optical Media, which is external and commonly known as CD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, or DVD-Video disc. When unmounted, they come out of your machine physically. The term Disk is used for magnetic media such as hard drive (internal or external). A disk is always rewritable in nature and can be reused multiple times. Another characteristic that keeps it separate from discs is its nature to be further divided into multiple partition. Not of very great use, but I am sure this post will add a little to the knowledge bank that most of us have.

The problem with Mac OS X is that like a PC it does not have add remove programs menu which can be used to get rid of the application or software you want to. There are different steps which can be used to uninstall the application. Few of them are mentioned below: Method 1 Steps to uninstall applications in Mac OS X: 1. Click on Macintosh HD 2. Click Applications icon , it displays all the applications installed on your system 3. Select the application to be removed , hold ‘CTRL” key , it will bring the options and actions 4. Select the operation ” Move to trash” Method 2 Just dragging the application you wish to remove, to the trash bin in the dock will delete it. Method 3 You can also uninstall the applications and related preferences with the shortcuts using the third party applications like AppTrap. Method 4 If you ran an installer to install an application, you may wish to try running the installation program a...

iPad2, the most awaited device of the year was launched on Mar 6, 2011 and the with stunning new features. A lot more to do, a lot to enjoy and a lot more to learn – iPad 2 is really faster than the older version. Tablet integrates a series of radio communications such as Wi-Fi module A1395, A1396 GSM and CDMA A1397. Apple iPad 2 is thinner by 33% over the first version and use that HDMI port given to it so users can easily connect to Internet. Given the sensitive screen from scratches, Apple has decided to offer a protective case with magnetic fastening, very elegant. 1024 x 768 screen capacitive type IPS 9.7 inches diagonally (1024 x 768 pixels) and LED lighting. Apple does not say much about the specifications of its products but still find that its performance is behind the A5 dual core processor. The two cameras on both sides aplasia can provide quality images and the possibility of appeals. Apple does not say much about the specifications of its products but still find that...

The idea to write this post came to my mind this weekend when I was planning my Mac training and had to connect the iMac 24” to a projector so that it is visible to my 14 people class. If you want to connect your iMac to an external projector or display you can do that, but you need to have a VGA Digital Adapter. You can find this adapter on Apple Store at a price of $29.00. This adaptor gives you the possibility to connect your iMac through its Mini Display Port with a projector, an LCD which has VGA cable or connector or an analog monitor. Before you buy this product you have to be sure that your external LCD monitor, display or projector supports at least one of your iMac’s resolution and if it doesn’t you will not be able to see at the external monitor. Now you know a couple of ways to connect your iMac to your TV . Don’t forget about the image adjustment in order to have a better view you can adjust the image from your monitors control panel. And once you have connected yo...

Blast some tunes, have a movie night, show off your HD movies and photos, or crack up watching that piano-playing cat on the web. Now the music, photos, and video on your iPad can stream wirelessly to your HDTV and speakers via the new Apple TV.* You have great HD videos on your iPad and some friends on your couch. Or you’re in the middle of an epic action scene that could use a little more screen. Just tap the AirPlay icon on your iPad and see it on your HDTV. Make sure your iPad and Apple TV are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, and the AirPlay icon appears automatically. Give your photos the big-screen treatment. When it comes to sharing photos and video, AirPlay lets you go big. Widescreen TV big. Just open the Photos app and tap the AirPlay icon to relive your adventures on the widescreen. Watch a replay of your niece’s first steps. Flick through photos or watch video and prove to everyone in the room that you really did go backstage at the concert. DJ wirelessly...

Lock down Are you afraid that the contents of your iPad might fall into the wrong hands if it’s stolen or lost? You’re not alone. As a simple security measure, you can set a passcode that must be entered in order to unlock the machine. Go to the Settings page, open the Passcode Lock section, and tap Turn Passcode On at the top of the page. Type in the four-digit code you want to use, type it in again, and you’re set. The downside is that you’ll need to enter the passcode every time you wake up your iPad—but at least your data will be more secure. To be doubly safe, you can turn on the Erase Data switch (located on the same page) so that the system will erase its entire contents after 10 unsuccessful attempts to enter the passcode. Just make sure you have a good backup on your host computer to rebuild your iPad if its contents do get erased. Multiple mailboxes The iPad can accommodate multiple Web-based and server-based e-mail accounts. Let’s say you want to keep your busi...

Wi-Fi connection problems A Wi-Fi network is the only free way to connect an iPad with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, there are many potential connection snags. The iPad’s Wi-Fi range is more limited than that of most notebooks—the iPad has a maximum range of about 65 feet, while most notebooks manage over 100 feet—so if you’re having problems, getting closer to the router will help. If your connection gets dropped repeatedly, try renewing the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) lease. Go to the Network section of the Settings page, click on Wi-Fi, and then tap the little blue arrow on the right side of the row for the network you want to use; click on the Renew Lease button to refresh the connection with the router. If that doesn’t help, use static IP addressing instead of DHCP. Create an IP address that isn’t being used by the router—it will have the prefix 192.168.1.xxx. (I generally pick a number at the top of the router’s range to avoid conflicts with DHCP IP a...

Security has always been a concern for all of us, specially when we are in our office. For which it is necessary that we lock our machine whenever we leave our workstation. Were you been on a PC, you would have tried Ctrl+Alt+Del and clicked on Lock Computer or Windows+L can do the job. Being on Mac very few of us actually know how to lock the machine using shortcut. Let’s learn it here Open up the System Preferences and open the Security section.  Now make sure that you have set you computer to require a password once the screen saver begins or once the computer has woken up from sleep as below. Now when you hold down the keys Control+Shift+Eject your screen will go black and after 5 seconds your computer will then require a password to log back in.

To run this command line, first open up Terminal from Applications > Utilities. Within Terminal type the following: sudo softwareupdate -i -v -a This script will run and do the following: First it will invoke the software update tool, it will then install any available updates using the -i modifier, it will also install all of them using the -a modifier. Finally the -v modifier will tell you what is happening. In short, look, download, install. If you want to use this tool but you don’t want to install anything. You can let the tool list any downloads available to you. To do this type the following: sudo softwareupdate -l The, -l, modifier will list any updates. It may take a while for anything to appear, its best to let it run. You will get something similar to the image below if any updates are available. A simple and useful command, that is quite interesting. If you want more information on this tool, type the following into Terminal. man softwareupdate

Don’t know how useful this command would be for an end user but yes, if you are good at Terminal, you would love to use this. So lets start, launch the Terminal. Navigate to the zip file you want to have a glance at, by using the “cd” command and type the path to your file. For example cd ./downloads , this file can be any any where on your Mac. downloads can be replaced by the folder on your Machine. Here comes the magic bit, copy and past the following into Terminal. unzip -l "$@" MyFile.zip Where text.zip is the name of you zip file you want to view. You need to have the at and dollar symbol for the text to be displayed on screen. You should have something similar to the image shown below. Very handy where you can see the size of the file in bytes, the date is was created and the name and location of the file. You can send the information found in the screen shot to a text file. You can use this to keep a log of a text file or as a backup to send to someone els...