Craigmac Productions

I recently saw a post on Inside Aperture where the author showed a photo of his setup. As you can see, he had his workflow set up on the laptop screen and had a full screen preview on the extra screen. I thought I would do the same, then post a tutorial on how to do it. So without further adieu…

Detect Displays

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The first thing you have to do when you plug an extra monitor into your computer is detect displays. You do this inside the System Preferences under the Displays section. You might also need to set the resolution of the extra monitor.

Aperture Settings

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Open Aperture and select a photo.
In the bottom right hand corner of your workflow, you should see a little icon that looks like a computer monitor. When you click on it you should see a list of view options.
Choose Show Multiple for the Primary Viewer, and choose Mirror for the Secondary Viewer.
You should now see a full screen version of your selected photo on your secondary monitor.

This is extremely useful because you can see the changes that you are making up close and full screen. It also helps when comparing photos.
Try switching the view modes around to achieve different results.

A couple of recent photos.

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My gorgeous dog, Vana (short for Nirvana). She was trying to get me to pat her.

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Taken while at work the other night, a couple of my mates wanted me to take some photos of them dressed up as gangsters. This was my first try of post production within Aperture too. I like the way it turned out.

I really need to get out and take some more photos. It’s hard when fuel costs so much…

Jim over at The Artistic Outlaw has written a very interesting post about being a better client.

As he says, there are plenty of bloggers out there posting about being better at your job and making more money, but no one is giving tips on being a better client… until now.

Head over to The Artistic Outlaw to read the article!

It arrived today. Earlier than I thought it would really. The supplier told me it would arrive on the 20th.

I’m really happy with it so far. It’s soooo fast!

Stay tuned for a 101 post on Setting up your Mac.

I’ve always run my MacMini’s internet via Ethernet. I just always figured that it would be faster than using the Airport.
I used to use Airport only on my Powerbook, and thought that it was slow. But I now realize that this was probably because my Powerbook was only 500mhz.

I decided to give my room a bit of a clean up yesterday, and decided that there were too many wires going across the back of my desk. So I thought I would get rid of one and start using the Airport in my MacMini. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the results.

Setup

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As I expected, there was no setting up to do. I don’t have any security running on my router as I believe in sharing my internet, and I’m pretty sure none of my neighbors know what a wireless network is anyway. I simply turned on the Airport in my MacMini and away I went.

Performance

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Wow… I thought that my Internet would be a little bit slower using the Airport instead of the Ethernet connection, but to be honest with you, after using it like this for a couple of days, I haven’t noticed any drop in speed at all. Everything seems to be running as normal.

I thought it was too good to be true, so I decided to start streaming the March 08 keynote from Apple’s website. Not one single glitch the whole time. Amazing…

I haven’t had a chance to test out copying of files over the network as yet, because I’m still waiting on my new MacBook Pro to arrive, but I’ll update this post when I can.

Closing Comments

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I should of done this sooner. I know for sure that when I’m setting up networks for friends from now on, I’m going to make them throw out their Ethernet cables!

Or at least clean your desktop!

Programs like Firefox, soulseek, Adium, etc will save files to your desktop by default.
When you need to save a file really quickly, it’s easy to just save it to the desktop; the problem is that you never get around to removing it. Pretty soon you end up with a cluttered desktop which is horrible to look at, and even harder to function.

Here’s a few tips on keeping your desktop clean and uncluttered.

Firefox - Though this procedure focuses on the Firefox program, the same basic principles will apply to most programs that store downloaded files.

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First you want to create a folder on your hard drive called Downloads. You can add this folder to the Dock, the finder side bar, etc.

Go to Firefox > Preferences > General

Under the Downloads section, choose Save Files To… and browse for the folder that you created earlier

If you want to be asked where to save your files each time then choose that option, otherwise they will always be saved to your download folder.

Finder

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Desktop Icons

In the Finder, go to Finder Preferences > General

You can choose what items are shown on your desktop. Obviously the less items you choose the less cluttered your desktop will be. Remember you can always find items like CDs, External Drives and Connected Servers in the side column of your Finder windows, so there isn’t any real need to have them cluttering up your desktop as well.

With the Finder open, go to View in the menu bar.

Here you can choose what size the icons on your desktop will be and what information will be shown with them.

If you must have a folder for clutter and temporary items, create one in the Home directory. never save anything to your desktop!

The Dock

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If you’re using Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) then you can use it’s new feature of Stacks in the Dock. I’m getting my new MacBook Pro in a few days so I will give a more detailed description then.

However, if you’re like me then you’re still using Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and thus don’t have the luxury of new features. You can however still setup folders in the Dock that house important files.
You might want to drag your Downloads folder into the Dock for easy access.

Applications in the Dock

I know it’s hard to believe but I often see people (usually the ones who are beginners to the Macintosh OS, leave their applications on the desktop. If you are one of these people, please stop.
You can install applications by dragging them into the Applications folder in your home directory.

Once you’ve installed your applications you can drag them into the Dock for easy access when you need them.

Overflow

If you find that your Dock is beginning to overflow with applications, you can always download a program called Overflow from Stunt Software.

Overflow houses your applications, files and folders and makes it easy for you to access them without taking up any more space in your Dock.

…well, I love the one I’m registered with.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently dropped my old PowerBook. I was very sad.
Then I decided to ring the insurance company that I’m with to find out if dropages is covered.

Well after about a week of phone calls and quotes, it turns out they’re going to replace my 6 year+ old PowerBook with a brand new MacBook Pro!!!

The order was placed yesterday and so the laptop should be arriving in the next week or so.

When it gets here I’ll be writing a new post all about setting up a new Mac. Stay tuned..

So I thought that because I haven’t been out and taken any photos of late, due to a lack of fuel and money, I would write a review of some software I recently found.

Cold Rain by Idle Type on Flickr.

I drove into the city today and while waiting for a friend to finish some business, I decided to wait at the library. I found myself drawn to the computer section. I don’t know how but this always seems to happen; even in a library that I’ve never been to before.

I found the book “Lifehacker” by Gina Trapani. The book, for those who haven’t heard of it, is a series of “hacks” that you can do in your everyday life try and take the load off and make things easier and more productive. It seemed very interesting, and I have heard of the Lifehacker brand before, so I thought I would borrow it out.

Just scanning through it, I’ve already found a useful application to help me be more productive.

Noise, by Blackhole Media is a program that generates a constant sound of noise, much like you would hear on your television when you get no signal.

The program is designed to block out any unwanted noise, whether it be the washing machine, annoying co-workers, or the neighbor’s 18th birthday party at 2am.

To me the white noise reminds me of rain hitting the roof and windows of my house; others may find it reminds them of the waves on a beach. In any case, Noise is a peaceful application that allows you to concentrate better on your work by blocking out all other audible distractions.

Noise is free for download at Blackhole Media