500th blog post. There we go: clone a CD/DVD with Disk Utility - Nice

"Disk Utility makes it easy to make an exact copy of a CD or DVD that can be stored on a hard drive as a disk image, or burned to a CD or DVD for future use. First, insert the CD or DVD you want to backup into your Mac. Next, drag the icon of the CD or DVD to the Disc Utility application (which is usually stored in the Applications Folder > Utilities Folder.) In other words, drag and drop the CD or DVD icon on top of the Disk Utility icon.

Disk Utility will launch, and then it will immediately open a window asking you to name the new disk image, and where to save it. Go ahead and save the image to your desktop.

In the Image Format drop-down menu, choose DVD/CD master. This is especially important if you want to burn a copy of the disk, and have it function as an exact clone of original CD or DVD you hope to backup.

Now click “Save.


A new disk image will be created on your Desktop, with the extension “.cdr,” It may take a few minutes to create this file.

If you click on the disk image, you’ll see it works just like a CD or DVD. You can store this new disk image on a hard drive. If you want to burn it to CD orDVD, you should again use Disk Utility. Otherwise, you’ll only be burning a copy of the disk image, and not an actual CD or DVD master.

To burn a CD or DVD master, open Disk Utility and look for the disk image of your CD or DVD, on the left side of the window. Usually it’s at the bottom of the list of drives. Now, simply select the image, and then click “Burn.” Follow the directions to burn the disk."

taken from: http://blog.smalldog.com/article/450/use-disk-utility-to-copy-cds-dvds

© Fred Händl - 2010

Three iPhone wallpapers...

© Fred Händl


www.jazzappa.com/
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Mac's Image Capture In Combination With Dropbox versus iPhoto

As a Mac fan, I tend to like 'all things Mac'. And, well, I pretty much do, actually. I simply love how iWeb enables me to easily (but most of all quickly) helps me with getting a webpage laid out. Yes, of course, it's all templates and stuff, but so often time is a critical factor and you need to get something done quickly and post it online. iWeb's your best friend.

And of course, all the other absolutely helpful (and great) features of my Mac have made my life very much easier. But most of all, it has made the time I spend at the computer so much more enjoyable.

But still, I can not get used to iPhoto. iTunes I never really liked, but I kind of managed my way about it and although I feel there's a lot that can be improved, I've given up the fight and joined the club. Not liking iTunes, says maybe more about me than it does about iTunes, but - pardon my French - I think it pretty much sucks when it comes to organizing and tagging my music. I could post a whole entry about it, but I will not. Since, as I said before, I have capitulated to iTunes.

But iPhoto. That's a different story. I take a lot of pictures. Well, a lot, I take about twenty (recreational) pictures day. Of my beautiful baby girl, on my way to work, while waiting at the tram stop, in the train and when just walking about. Importing them in iPhoto ... well, you know. It creates events per date, and all that jazz. But I can't seem to figure out how to make new events, while I'm splitting up several pictures from one event. Creating albums I don't like, because those are albums and the images are taken from the actual events ... and I lose track of where the source pictures are.

Still, I must give credit to iPhoto for all the great options it sports.

But! There's always a but.

Since two months, I have been using the free services of Dropbox . And with Image Capture, I transfer all my iPhone images automatically to my Dropbox folder as soon as I connect my iPhone. What I do, is create my own subfolders in my Dropbox folder, by date and/or event. I so much like the possibilities to arrange my pictures that way - not having to be dependent on iPhoto's whims.

While typing this, I have actually no idea why I am bothering about it at all, but I like it. And this is my blog, so ....

Dropbox and Image Capture. One comes with every Mac and the other's free. Give it a try. It did the trick for me.

Have a good day, and stuff.


© Fred Händl - 2010

The Apple iPhone 4 and antenna-gate ... a reflection

iPhone 4 -  A reflection

Dear people,

Although I vowed not to post anything about it, I just had the urge to do so anyway. And since I am not a robot, but a human (at least I like to think so), I feel I'm entitled to change my mind. And well … so I did.

Here goes.

After all the fuss about the iPhone 4's antenna's reception (and after reading about it, seeing the press conference and God knows what about it), I have drawn my personal conclusion in the 'gate'. If you don't care or don't even want to care, please feel free to click here and have some honest fun.

Still here? Great!

In short:

Apple created (once again) the best smartphone ever. The iPhone 4.

Apple supposedly knew about 'the flaw'.

Apple kinda groveled over it and offered each and every purchaser a free case.

I am an Apple fanatic. So, yes, I tend to be on their side. But hey, don't blame me for that! I survived Windows since 1996, so cut me some slack.

Agreed: Apple should've played with open cards, which they didn't. But then again, was all the criticism justified? Did any other company ever had to endure so much bullcrap over a flaw in the design of one of their products? A loose screw in a Samsung washing machine? No. No because there weren't any loose screws, but because the media didn't find it interesting enough.

And so, Apple had to bite the dust. Unrightfully so, if you ask me. And so you did.

Can't wait for my white one, though …. it has been delayed. Bastards!

© Fred Händl - 2010

[re-post] Tetris for iPhone - Two Thumbs Down.

Yes, I’m a GameBoy Tetris-addict. Since 1988, that is. For those who know what I’m talking about, my high score (a game) is 425,912 and 84,831 (b game). I daresay that I pretty much lost years of my life to the game. Great achievement!! Hurrah.

I was more than reluctant to buy the iPhone Tetris, but did so anyway, a few weeks back. And I am more than disappointed. EA Games did their best (and succeeded) in completely ruining all that was so nice about Tetris. And I mean ALL. Only thing that’s the same, is the objective of the game. For the rest: Tetris has been murdered. For 5 dollars.

• Original music has been replaced by an awful sounding, well, whatever t is, it’s not even a tune. The so called: great graphics and sounds are exactly two things that didn’t need to be improved. It was fine as it was.
• The gameplay sucks (controls are very inaccurate and swiping results mostly in a disaster (especially on the higher levels, starting 5).
• The added “items” … man, what the fuck?! Items in Tetris? Bubble wrap, a hammer… I wish they’d never started. Why does everybody think they can Remake Tetris and by doing so making it better? Whoo!! I am NOT, and repeat NOT against progress or modern times, but this is utter nonsense here. Tetris. Yuk!
• And then the idiotic question if you want to play the tutorial or not. EACH time you start and/or restart a game, you have to hit: skip. If you accidentally (trust me, that WILL happen), you have to either wait the tutorial out - there’s no: back to menu button or something like it - or close the game and start it again. ANNOYING. Funny thing, too: there’s a bug that won’t let you play the tutorial listening to your own music, which EA warns you for with the words: If your personal music is playing, launching the tutorial might interrupt it. How that? Why not to fix that?!

Okay, I’m done. I love EA, I really do .. but they’ve killed my favorite game. I wonder why it got so many raving reviews.

Luckily for me, my GameBoy still works fine.

(c) Fred Händl

_______

Put a smile on, those are free.

Must haves !! iPhone App Coasters ... check 'm out!

 

\\ More info here:  http://www.iphoneappscoasters.com/  //

© Fred Händl - 2010

Automator. My new friend.

DVD to MP4 ripper - Mac

http://www.applemacvideo.com/howtoconvert/dvdmac/dvd-to-mp4-mac.html



© Fred Händl - 2010

Downgrade OS4 to 3.1.3

http://jaxov.com/2010/04/downgrade-firmware-4-0-to-firmware-3-1-3-on-mac-easy-way/

http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/ - recovery mode

Hold menu button, plug cable in, hold top button - iTunes starts click Restore WHILE HOLDING Alt. Man ... what a hassle.

It works, though, thanks to The Wizard of OOk

--> http://bit.ly/ddCRIw <-- in case it doens't :-)


© Fred Händl - 2010

Create ringtone with iTunes from any song.

Create ringtone from any music file, using iTunes.

Here's how:

1. Open iTunes
2. Browse to and select the song you want to extract a part from to use as ringtone
3. Click Advanced
4. Create Apple Lossless Version
5. Right Click the newly created file and choose Get Info
6. Click the Options Tab
7. Check and set Start Time
8. Check and set Stop Time (max 40 secs.)
9. Click Apply ⁃ Make sure the song indeed only plays the selected part
10. Right-click the excerpt and Open in Finder
11. Change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (click use .m4r when prompted)
12. In iTunes, delete the excerpt - remove but keep file!
13. Double click the file in Finder to open it 
14. In iTunes, the file is now a ringtone and is located in Ringtones

You're all set!

© Fred Händl - 2010

Reset to factory defaults - MAC OSX

• Put the OS X install CD in your drive
• Reboot holding the 'C' key.
• At the first screen, 'select a language' go to the installer menu and choose Disk Utility. 
• Click on the Erase Tab
• Select your hard drive from the menu on the left
• Click on the Security Options button (at the bottom of the window)
• Select 'zero all data'
• Click OK 
• Click Erase.
• Wait a long time (takes at least 30 minutes), and all data is gone and zeroed.
• Quit the Disk Utility, and choose to continue the installer. 
• When that is complete, shut down instead of setting up the system (press CMD-Q, and select the option to exit the setup and shutdown).
• When the computer is booted next, it will return to that setup screen for the new user.

© Fred Händl - 2010