can't use it

Here’s what I had been looking for some time, surely it would be of use to everybody.

Multiclutch lets you assign shortcut keys to some multi-touch gestures in applications, so let’s say in Safari when you put 3 fingers and swipe left, instead of going back-forward, you could configure it to switch tabs. Similarly you can configure rotate gesture to for example implement back-forward.

It’s a bit tricky to configure it on Snow Leopard, here’s how it works:

http://blog.prashantv.com/2009/multiclutch-fixes-instructions/

Don’t forget the last step, if you don’t do it, Firefox and some other apps might crash.

Lets you move objects not in whole pixels but in sub-pixels, great for making Apple-style indent or emboss effects.

http://johndunning.com/fireworks/about/CustomNudge

I installed Wireshark for my Networking course on Snow Leopard and had some difficulties.

After copying the command line utilities, if the folder you copied into wasn’t there before, it’s probably not in the include path. To edit the include path:

1. Open Terminal
2. sudo nano ~/.bash_profile
3. Add such a line:
   export PATH=/opt/wireshark/bin/:$PATH
   adjust name of the folder according to where you copied the files.

Secondly, I was instructed to put ChmodBPF in StartupItems, but got the following error when I restarted:

“/Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF” has not been started because it does not have the proper security settings.

I observed that there was something wrong with the ownership of those files. To solve it,

1. Open Terminal
2. Go to /Library/StartupItems/
3. chown -R root:wheel

This will fix the problem.

Then I got the following errors when I ran Wireshark:

The following errors were found while loading the MIBS:
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `IP-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `IF-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `TCP-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `UDP-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMPv2-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `RFC1213-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `IPV6-ICMP-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `IPV6-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-COMMUNITY-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-MPD-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-NOTIFICATION-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-PROXY-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-TARGET-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-USER-BASED-SM-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-USM-DH-OBJECTS-MIB’
-:0 1 module-not-found failed to locate MIB module `SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB’

Apparently there is a problem with include paths. Solution:

1. Click OK on error message.
2. In Wireshark window Edit > Preferences > Name Resolution.
3. Click SMI (MIB and PIB) paths edit button
4. Click New
5. Add the path /usr/share/snmp/mibs/
6. OK and close Wireshark, also close X11.
7. Restart Wireshark

Two things to do after upgrading:

1. Upgrade your Flash player because the one that comes with Snow Leopard is old. It gets choppy with HD videos, for example.
   Flash Player update and Snow Leopard
2. Follow the instructions on this forum post to clean caches
   http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=778819

UPDATE: I found out that the real problem was caused by extensions that weren’t compatible with Snow Leopard thus were giving errors and re-launching every few minutes (thus the beachballing). So open the Console and check your logs. When you identify the offending extensions from the Log, uninstall them if possible.

If you see launchd complaining that it can’t find something,  a handy script called “Consultant’s Canary” may help you see where they are configured so you can go ahead and delete the launcher scripts.

This is quite annoying for Spotify/Hulu users. Even if you have iTunes closed, when you try to play music in Spotify by pressing the play key on the keyboard, iTunes launches and starts playing too. Essentially hijacking the key.

Solution is, keep QuickTime X open (without any files) when iTunes is closed. Then iTunes won’t launch when you press the play/pause keys.

Another excellent workaround is provided with a Python script which is essentially an iTunes launcher which doesn’t launch the application if Spotify is running. It is found here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2122639&start=30&tstart=0

Solution: install the Fireworks CS4 upgrade from Adobe’s website.

Adobe – Fireworks Support Center : Downloads : Updaters

Then Fireworks will start crashing after quitting, but that’s not such a big problem :)

I don’t know why, but after transferring my account from my old Macbook to the new one, 3-finger and 4-finger multi-touch gestures stopped working (in Snow Leopard). To solve this, just reset the PMC. The following procedures is for Macbooks which have internal batteries.

• Shut down your computer normally.
• Press (only once and shortly) left shift + left control + left option keys and the power button.
• Wait 5 seconds
• Turn the computer on. The sleep light should blink shortly.

After doing this the 3- and 4-finger gestures started working again.

Flickr has changed their buttons with flat ones instead of the thick-bordered ones they had before. I didn’t like the new ones very much because they lack the affordance of being “pushable”:

Here’s a crude version on how I’d make them more button-y

Also, I think UI-wise the buttons could lead the user to do the more desirable action for Flickr. In this case, they have placed a Preview button so users would read what they write and end up leaving smarter comments :) Why not highlight it a bit?

or then in the style that Facebook has introduced:

It’s good to provide users guidance in the form of defaults actions in forms and dialogs. A good example is Mac OS UI’s dialogs such as:

I found a great library that makes FBJS more similar to real javascript by adding functions like getElementsByClass and getElementsByName, while also borrowing some prototype/jQuery syntax and extending $(’..’).show() etc. syntax to objects. Map and collect as a bonus! :)

http://github.com/gdeglin/inigral-fbjs-library/tree/master

Turkcell’s web page for managing mobile phone subscriptions not only annoys customers with superfluous captcha and password aging, they do not provide a ‘back’ button in their error page as well!

They probably expect the customer to return to the previous page using the tab. However, it should ideally not be a link and should have the same content in every page, as they don’t have any secondary navigation.