Show or hide invisible files in Leopard

To display all hidden files, open up the terminal and type,
        defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Change “TRUE” to “FALSE” to hide the files

Then restart the Finder
        killall Finder

Update Apparently this first method no longer works with the newer update of Leopard, so I’ve added a couple of alternative methods.
1) In Mac OS X, files and folders can be hidden by putting a “.” (without the quotes) in front of the file name.

2) Open up the terminal and type,
        mv ~/Desktop/File ~/Desktop/.File
An easy way to get the paths is to type mv (don’t forget the space), drag the folder or file you want hidden into the terminal twice, and using the arrow keys add a . before the last file name.

3) Open up the terminal and type,
        chflags hidden ~/Desktop/File
Again, you can get the path using the drag’n'drop method. Also, this method doesn’t hide the file in the terminal. To reverse it use nohidden instead of hidden.

Opaque Menubar for Leopard

To change the transparent menubar of Leopard to something solid via the terminal,
        sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0.63
Note – The “0.63″ can be changed to any number from 0 to 1.
Then restart your computer.

To restore the original menubar,
        sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables'
Then restart your computer.

[via ars technia]

2D or 3D Leopard Dock

To change the 3D dock to a 2D dock, open up the terminal and type
        defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
Note – Change “YES” to “NO” to restore the 3D dock

Then restart the Dock by typing
        killall Dock

iTunes

Transferring my music and podcasts was extraordinarily easy. Just copied the iTunes folder, ~/Music/iTunes, from my eMac to the same location on my iMac. Replacing the folder already there. All done.

Mail

I thought about trying Thunderbird for a while, but we’ll give the new Mail.app a chance first. To transfer my email, I first created folders (on my eMac) called TempInbox, TempSent, TempDrafts, and TempTrash. I then took all the mail from the Inbox, Sent, etc and transferred it into those folders. This way all the emails are in one folder that I can transfer and import. I took the “Mailboxes” folder, ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes, and transfered it to the iMac.

On the iMac, I sent up my account as it wanted, and then went to File>Import Mailboxes. Then I choose the Mailboxes folder that I transfered. Dragged the emails from the Temp folder’s and now my email is back in place.

I initially had a message saying “Mail can’t verify the identity of mail.xyz.net”. This would show up each time I opened Mail, but by clicking Show Certificate and checking the box Always trust, I don’t see this anymore.

Firefox

First thing I do is to open up Safari and download Firefox. Safari quit supporting OS X 10.3 when it was only one version behind and so I switched to Firefox. They say Safari is faster, but I’ve never noticed a problem with Firefox. Firefox is also open-source and easily customizable with extensions and themes.

To transfer your old settings, take your Firefox profile and transfer it to the new computer. The profile folder can be found in ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles. (~ means your home folder) If you haven’t changed anything, the one you want to copy is the folder that ends in “.default“. Put this in the same location that you got it from, but on the new installation, replacing the one that is there. Now you have all your bookmarks, passwords, settings, and extensions transferred.

I added an extension to my list. Firefox Extensions It is called Snap Links. It allows you to open up multiple links in new tabs by dragging a box around them. I couldn’t get it to work right before, but now it seems to work fine. I turned of “Auto-scrolling” in the Firefox preferences and set Snap Links to use the middle button.

Now all I need to do is clean up my bookmarks.

iMac

Well, I finally upgraded. Was running an over-clocked G4 eMac running Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther). Now I have a 20 inch, 2.4 GHz iMac running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Stats – 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB Ram, 320GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO, 20 inch Screen, iLife ‘08, and Leopard.

While shopping around, I found one at MacMall with $75 off, free shipping, free Parallels, and free printer. All after a total of six rebates. Too much. Called MacZone and they had everything but the $75 off with only one rebate. That sounded much better. They even shipped it so that it arrived in two days. Much faster than I expected.

Then, after unpacking and rearranging my setup, I booted up, completed the registration, and put it the Leopard Upgrade DVD. It came with 10.4, which I was kinda happy about, since I now have a copy of every system from 10.2 on.

After starting the upgrade, the first thing it does was show me how to put batteries into my wireless mouse. Except that I didn’t get a wireless mouse. Seems that for the initial install, you have to have the keyboard/mouse connected directly to the computer. (I had a USB hub in between.) Everything went fine then. Choose to erase the 10.4 system completely and then choose not to install the extra languages and all the print drivers, other than the Epson and HP one. Then I ran the installer for iLife ‘08 (Bundled Apps) from the 10.4 installer disc. Now, after a long wait on the installers, I’m running 10.5.

2007 Fall Harvest

Well, our harvest is done. Alex, an exchange student with my aunt, finished it up for us. We harvested somewhere around 500 acres this fall. The corn had an overall yield of 87 bushels per acre and we estimate the beans at 35 bushels per acre.