Traceroute is an important part of any IT experts toolkit who’s worth his salt.. Traceroute enables you to track down potential routing issues between your Mac/PC/Device to your Router/DNS Servers/Web Host.
If, like me you migrated over to Mac from a PC, you will be used to launching a command prompt and firing off the tracert command. However, in OS X the command is slightly different. Some may say it makes more sense..?
To use OS X Traceroute you need to launch a new terminal session, to do this open Applications > Utilities and click terminal.
When the terminal has launched simply type Traceroute followed by the address you want to trace the route to. So for example, if you wanted to check how your devices browser gets to Google.co.uk you would type:
1 | Traceroute www.google.co.uk |
Your mac will then resolve Google.co.uk to it’s IP address, and then trace each ‘hop’ from your device to the address. This can be very handy when trying to figure out if the routing issue is your equipment, your ISP’s equipment or the web host it’s self.
I came up against a bit of an issue today, I realised my Xcode was stuck on version 4.1 and the AppStore wasn’t detecting the update available to v4.2. Now normally this wouldn’t be an issue, however version 4.1 doesn’t include the iOS 5.* SDK’s.
So I decided the only way around the issue, would be to completely remove the old version, then install the fresh version 4.2 straight from the AppStore.
This seemed to do the trick for me:
- Open Finder
- Open the Utilities folder
- Open a terminal window
- Copy and paste the following line in:
1
sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools –mode=all
- Press return
- When prompted, enter your password
- Press return
Xcode should then eventually uninstall. This may take some time depending on the speed on your machine.
TimeMachine has saved my ‘bacon’ on many an occasion. However, when trying to stream movies over wireless in can sometimes get in the way, and cause the film to stutter whilst it backs up.
Now, the easy way around this is to disable TimeMachine before you start your film, and then start it again afterwards. However, if like me you forget to do so – and you Mac is set up for SSH access, you can do this easily via your phone.
SSH into your Mac, logon with your credentials and run the following command:
1 | Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean NO |
Entering your password when prompted. This should ensure no further interruptions whilst you watch your film.
Once you’ve done, turning it back on again is just as simple:
1 | Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean YES |
All that without having to get up out of your comfy chair! Perfect!
One of OS X Lion’s most raved about features is the ability to switch (certain) applications into their very own ‘virtual desktop’ full screen environment. Even OS X Lion’s terminal application contains the required arrows in the top tight hand corner. Hitting the arrows will switch the application or terminal in this case, into it’s own ‘full screen’ virtual desktop.
This enables complete, uninterrupted use of the application.
If however, the app you want to run in full screen does not sport the double ended arrow then you can download and use Maximizer this nifty little app uses SIMBL to force unsupported app’s into touch!
Not sure what you would use full screen for? Well how about… Full screening Safari, then hitting the ‘full screen’ button in your word press post editor for a truly uninterrupted typing experience!
To switch back to your other apps, you can either use ‘cmd’ & Tab or ‘ctrl’ & arrow keys.
To exit a full screen, either hit the double headed arrow again, or press ‘ctrl’ & ‘cmd’ & f in the full screen view. This will return your full screen app to it’s normal sized window version.
Do you use Full Screen for something else? Or do you hate it with a passion? Let me know in the comments below!
Mac OS X Spotlight search is a powerful beast, returning all types of search results in seconds. However, if you don’t use it to launch apps, or find files then it can take up precious CPU cycles for no good reason.
As with all features such as this, if you don’t use it or use alternatives such as QuickSilver then switch it off. Doing so will prevent Spotlight index service from indexing the drives on your machine, thus meaning it will return no results when used.
To switch off the indexing open a Terminal window and type:
1 | sudo mdutil -a -i off |
NB: You will be prompted to enter your admin password.
If you change your mind about Spotlight, and decide to give it another try, then it’s just as easy to switch back on as it was to switch off.
Again, in a terminal window type the following:
1 | sudo mdutil -a -i on |
NB: You will be prompted to enter your admin password.
