Category Archives: OSX

Follow Up on Things I’d Like from Apple

It’s been a long time since I last wrote in this space and the blog had another name at the time. So it’s time to get back in the saddle. The world was in a much different place in April of 2021 than it finds itself in in June 2023, but some things remain constant, like the things we’d like for Apple to gift us with on iPhone, iPad, Mac and all the other Apple platforms.

Among the things I was asking St. Apple for in 2021 were the ability to use Excel formats natively in Numbers, a capability for the Apple TV make and receive FaceTime calls (with the use of an attached mic and camera), and an Apple display that did did not cost $5,000. So how did I do with my wish list? I score it 1.5 out of three.

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Posting to Self Hosted WordPress in Mac

So you bought a Mac and you love it but are dismayed that the software for posting to your self hosted WordPress Blog is so darned expensive. Fear not, I have a reasonable alternative that works mostly like an application.

The alternative is the built in WP editor in its own Safari window with an application icon in the dock. The trick is an Apple Script saved as an application that opens the WP editor in its own window and a custom WP icon.

First the script.

Open the Apple Script editor and create the following script substituting the url for the url to your post-new script on you WordPress Blog.

tell application "Safari"
	make new document at end of documents with properties {URL:"http://yoururl.com/wp-admin/post-new.php"}
end tell

Compile the script and save it as an application to a directory of your choice. Change the icon to a WordPress Icon, here is a link to a nice WordPress icon you can use. Last drag icon to your launcher or to the applications folder for easy access. When you launch the application it will open a new Safari browser window ready for you to write a blog post in.

Finder Woes Solved (Mostly)

I am pleased to report that I am much happier with Mac Finder (the Apple not-quite a file manager) as of today than when I first started using it. My happiness comes from two sources. First an internal finder tweak. The finder main menu, under View provides two items that can be unhidden, the status bar which gives the file count in the current folder and total remaining space on the disk at the cost of no extra room consumed in the window, and the path bar which shows the full path to your current location from the root down and allows you to change your location. This last is much more important and while still not as good as having an address bar to type a location in is much better than nothing as a navigation tool.

More important than those two tools is a free add-on for Finder called XtraFinder. XtraFinder installs inside Finder (so to speak) and you still use finder as before, except it now has some totally sane additional capabilities. What capabilities you ask? How about permitting you to make folders list before files (there is not much more annoying than searching for a folder through a long list of files). Then there are tabs, yes a tabbed interface so you don’t have to clutter your desktop with finder windows. And dual pane goodness is a command-u away.

Things are definitely looking better.

Switch to MacBook Air from ASUS Zen Book

The Zenbook is a great machine, slim and light with a 1920X1080 display with a matte finish, all aluminum construction, an Ivy Bridge dual core processor, 4 gigs of ram and oodles of sex appeal. So why ditch it? For the most quotidian of reasons and for some that are a little more highbrow.

The drab mundane truth of the matter is that Mac’s appear to excell in three unexciting areas. No windows laptops I have ever held in my hands, no matter the price (and I’ve always bought expensive laptops), the maker or the heft of the machine have come close to Mac standards in these areas. They are as follows: