You might also want to look at lsof.

pbcopy – reads from stdout and copies the output to clipboard. Similar to what clip does on Windows. e.g.

ls | pbcopy

will paste the output of ls to clipboard.

pbpaste – does exactly the opposite of pbclip, i.e. pastes the contents of clipboard to stdout which you can then pipe through other commands. e.g.

pbpaste | sort -r

open – finally a command that you can use to launch a file/application – e.g.

open .

will open the current folder in Finder.

At first I thought it was something to do with Snow Leopard and HP’s printer drivers (the printer was an HP LaserJet P3005). However, even after installing the latest HP printer drivers the two-sided print option remained disabled.

It so happens that the printer driver was unable to automatically detect if the printer supports duplex printing and has to be “told” that the printer is indeed capable of doing so.

I went to System Preferences → Print & Fax. From there I selected the HP printer (the only one installed on my system). I then clicked the Options & Supplies button and in the resulting dialog, selected the Driver tab.

The checkbox that marked this printer as a Duplex Unit was unchecked so I checked it.

Next time when I tried printing, I got a Two-Sided checkbox. Also the Two-Sided drop-down, that would allow me to pick which edge I wanted to choose for binding, was also enabled.

• ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [universal-darwin10.0]
• Python 2.6.1
• perl, v5.10.0 built for darwin-thread-multi-2level
• svn, version 1.6.2 (r37639)
• Apache/2.2.11
• PHP/5.3.0
• Java SE 6 (javac version 1.6.0_15)
• SQLite version 3.6.12
• gcc 4.2.1

And then you can also install XCode 3.2 or download the iPhone SDK.

I wish Apple also bundled MySQL/PostgreSQL.

Once you’ve installed XCode, you should also be able to compile a lot of open source software. I had an issue while compiling erlang where during the ./configure stage things would hang with the message:

checking for unreliable floating point execptions…

but it turns out that I was using an old R11 release, downloading the latest R13B01 release from erlang.org fixed that.

There is always MacPorts for those of us who don’t want to tinker with configurations, makefiles and such.

For those of us wanting to stay as close to our Linux production environment as possible, there is always the option of using a Linux virtual machine.

“Aperture 2.0 or later is required to install this update”

Next I went to Software Update and tried installing the update from there. However, Software Update didn’t show any updates either.

So I uninstalled Aperture 2.1 from my machine using App Cleaner, downloaded and then installed the full Aperture 2.1.4 30-day trial (sign-up required) and then activated it using my retail key.

Aperture 2.1.4 now works like a charm on my fresh Snow Leopard install.

And here is what the Weather Widget in Snow Leopard gives:

Copying the old widget from Mac OS 10.5 doesn’t help because it still ends up fetching the list of cities from the new provider.

Start here.

I recently helped my parents move to a Mac Mini. Here are some observations:

1. Power Adapter: The machine was purchased in the US. While Apple’s notebook line comes with univesal adapters that work both in India (220V-240V AC) and the US (100-120V AC), the power adapter that comes with a Mac Mini is geography-specific. Which means that I had to arrange for a 220V to 110V step-down transformer so that I could use the Mac Mini brought in the US in India. Also the adapter is quite big – almost like a brick. You’ll never see it in Apple’s Mac Mini marketing material.

To be fair to Apple, the specs clearly mention the voltage rating – it’s just that given my past experience with several notebooks (Apple and non-Apple) and iMacs, it didn’t occur to me to check if Mac Mini had a US specific voltage rating.

2. Video Adapter: Mac Mini has both Mini-DisplayPort and Mini-DVI video connectors. It comes bundled with a Mini-DVI to DVI convertor. That might be fine if you have a relatively new monitor but if you purchased your monitor 2-3 years ago, there is a good chance that it’ll only support VGA input. Since we had an old Samsung 17″ LCD, we had to buy a Mini-DVI to VGA adapter separately.

3. Keyboard: Microsoft makes and sells PS2 keyboards to date. While their mouse line has moved to USB and comes with a USB to PS2 adapter, that is not the case with a lot of their keyboards that are sold in India. Although we had brought a new Keyboard just last year, it had to be discarded because it only came with a PS2 interface (no PS2 ports exist on the Mac Mini).

4. Ethernet: For some weird reason the Mac Mini’s Ethernet port was incompatible with the old MTNL branded ADSL modem that we had at home. At first I thought that the machine had come with a DOA (dead on arrival) Ethernet port – since the old machine was working fine with this modem. Connecting the Mac Mini to my MacBook over an Ethernet cable quelled that doubt (I am used to using a cross-over cable for connecting two PCs from my PC days, but for some reasons both Macs could “see” each other on a normal Ethernet cable without any issues! See this Apple KB article for more details.) So our modem had to go as well. Its replacement – a relatively recent, Beetel ADSL2 modem, worked like a charm.

All of these things meant that the slender price advantage of getting the machine from the US ($599 = Rs. 29,950 @ Rs. 50 to 1 US$ vs. Rs. 33,530 – the retail price in India) came to nought. Not to mention a day spent troubleshooting/acquiring the various pieces.

Moral of the story – if you are thinking of moving to a Mac Mini, do your research. If the reason behind your move to a Mac Mini has anything to do with the squirrel’s nest of wires behind your desktop, seriously consider an iMac.

The new line-up of MacBook Pros announced by Apple at their World Wide Developer Conference in June 2009 is now available in India. They continue to cost 16 to 20% more than they do in the US. So if you have a friend/relative/colleague visiting India, you know how it works…

Here are the prices (assuming a relatively pessimistic conversion rate of Rs 50 to a US Dollar):

Do check our detailed, side-by-side spec comparison sheet if you need help picking a model.

Here some tips for working with text in Mail.app.

a.) If you select a block of text while reading an email, and hit Command+R to reply to it, Mail.app will automatically “quote” just the selected text in your reply.

b.) You can paste selected text from a web site or another document into your email in 3 ways:

1. By using Command + V – which will paste the selected text with its original formatting

2. By using Command + Shift + V – which will quote the selected text in your message

3. By using Command + Alt + Shift + V – which will strip off all formatting from the selected text and paste it using your message’s formatting (this is like pasting plain text into your message).

Google Maps now supports  “Get Directions” on its map application both on the web and the iPhone. I have tested a few routes and they are fairly accurate bar a few shortcuts I know of. Please test it in your cities and leave us a feedback if it works for you.

It works well for showing car routes but could not list any known public transport routes.

Google maps on iPhone (driving across multiple cities)

Google maps on iPhone

Google Maps Directions in India

Hope you won’t have to ask for too many directions in new places now!