Mac Hacks: Tips & Tools for unlocking the power of OS X

330 Pages·2013·57.84 MB·english

by  Chris Seibold

Mac Hacks
Chris Seibold
Mac Hacks
by Chris Seibold
Copyright © 2013 Chris Seibold. All rights reserved.
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March 2013: First Edition
Revision History for the First Edition:
2013-02-28: First release
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information contained herein.
ISBN: 978-1-449-32558-9
[LSI]
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1. Before You Hack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Hack 01. Create a Great Backup 1
Hack 02. Create a Bootable Flash Drive 5
Hack 03. Partition that Drive Nondestructively 8
Hack 04. Get to Know Your User Account 14
Hack 05. Home Folder to Go 20
Hack 06. Fun with PLIST 28
Hack 07. Troubleshooting Mac OS X 33
2. Mountain Lion Hacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Hack 08. Copy the Mountain Lion Installer to a Flash Drive 41
Hack 09. Resurrect Web Sharing in Mountain Lion 46
Hack 10. Make Notification Center Less Annoying 49
Hack 11. Quick Hacks for Mountain Lion 55
Hack 12. A Clean Install of Mountain Lion 61
3. Customize Your OS X Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Hack 13. Tame Your Browsers 65
Hack 14. Blog with Your Mac 70
Hack 15. Host a Web Page on Your Mac (and Get at Your Files Anytime) 76
Hack 16. Change the Startup Sound 83
Hack 17. Full Screen for (Almost) Any App 91
Hack 18. Create Custom Icons 94
4. Hacks for a More Informative Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Hack 19. Quit the Finder 107
Hack 20. Move a Widget to the Desktop 112
iii
Hack 21. Turn Your Desktop into a Fount of Useful Info 116
5. Make It Automatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Hack 22. Getting Things Done with AppleScript 121
Hack 23. Create a Service with Automator 128
Hack 24. Customize the Services Menu 131
Hack 25. Speed Things Up with Keybindings 137
Hack 26. Eject iTunes 140
6. Fun with Unix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Hack 27. Harmless Unix Tricks 143
Hack 28. Install Homebrew 149
Hack 29. Get Things Done Safely with the Command Line 153
Hack 30. Manipulate Images with ImageMagick 158
Hack 31. Customize the Dock with Terminal 163
7. Lock Down that Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Hack 32. Achieve Network Anonymity 169
Hack 33. Monitor Your Network Traffic 174
Hack 34. Protect Sensitive Files 180
Hack 35. Encrypt a USB Drive 187
Hack 36. Add Physical Security Measures to Your Mac 192
8. Other OSes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Hack 37. Run a Minecraft Server on Your Mac 201
Hack 38. Play Wii Games on Your Mac 207
Hack 39. Manage Your Devices with Profile Manager 211
9. Networking Hacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Hack 40. Optimize Your WiFi 227
Hack 41. Secure Your Wireless Network 231
Hack 42. Use Your Mac as an Access Point 241
10. Multimedia Hacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Hack 43. Turn Your Mac into a DVR 245
Hack 44. Master Torrents 249
Hack 45. Move Your iTunes Library 252
Hack 46. Get Free and Better-Sounding Music for iTunes 256
11. Hack Some Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Hack 47. Have Your Mac Automagically Recognize You 261
Hack 48. Squeeze Some Speed out of an Aging MacBook Pro 266
Hack 49. Give Your Polycarbonate Mac a Dye Job 273
Hack 50. Get that iMac out of the Way 278
Hack 51. Use a Wiimote with Your Mac 287
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hack 52. Turn Your MacBook into a Tablet 291
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Preface
Ostensibly, you buy a computer to get something done. The something might be as
simple as listening to MP3s you’ve ripped from your CD collection or as challenging
as editing a full-length feature film. Apple is happy to sell you products to meet your
needs. The trouble is, your needs aren’t exactly the same needs as the next guy, and
that’s where hacking comes in. With a little (or a lot) of effort, you can make your Mac
and software perform in the manner you wish them to. Macs that do things exactly
the way you want makes the Apple experience that much better.
There are over 50 hacks in this book, and a passel of quick tips and tricks. Some are
simple enough—you’ve probably already pulled them off—while others are a bit more
challenging. All, to the right person, can be fun and useful.
So what can you expect? There is a wide range of hacks here. Get your iMac to hover
with a VESA mount, swap in an SSD for that tired hard drive, hear a different sound
when you start your Mac, and a lot more. Tired of the look of OS X? Discover ways to
tweak interface elements. Worried about your Mac’s security? You’re covered.
How to Use This Book
This is a book about hacking, so deciding how to use this book is completely up to
you. You could, if the inclination hits you, use the pages for interesting origami projects.
If you want to use the book in a more traditional manner, just start reading—it doesn’t
matter where. Each hack is as self-contained as possible (and points to other hacks
when not) so there isn’t any reason not to crack open the book at random and start
reading. Chapter 1 contains some hacks that provide background for a lot of the other
hacks in the book, so many people will find that a useful place to start. Others might
leap to the specific chapter that seems most interesting. A lot of the hacks depend on
the command-line interface available via the Terminal program, so Chapter 6 is a good
place to start if you haven’t used that in a while.
vii
How This Book Is Organized
This book isn’t a mere tips-and-tricks compendium that tells you where to click, where
to drag, and what commands to type. It takes advantage of OS X’s flexibility and new
features, recognizes that there are specific tasks you want to accomplish with the
operating system and related hardware and software, and offers bite-size pieces of
functionality you can put to use in a few minutes. It also shows how you can expand
on their usefulness yourself. To give you this kind of help, the book is organized into
11 chapters:
Chapter 1, Before You Hack
This is the place to start. It covers the steps you need to take to protect your data
and prepare your Mac before your start hacking.
Chapter 2, Mountain Lion Hacks
Mountain Lion is the Mac’s latest and greatest operating system, but just because
it’s the newest version of OS X doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Make your Mountain
Lion experience better by investigating this chapter.
Chapter 3, Customize Your OS X Experience
Your Mac is yours, so why use it exclusively the way Apple intended you to? Dis-
cover slick ways to blog, change the startup sound, and make (almost) any app
full screen.
Chapter 4, Hacks for a More Informative Mac
Want to get information delivered right to your desktop? Want constant access
to a widget? Stop by this chapter and keep yourself up to date on the world
around you.
Chapter 5, Make It Automatic
Computers are great at doing things without your intervention. This chapter ex-
plains how to make your Mac automatically do drudge work for you.
Chapter 6, Fun with Unix
There’s a ton of power hidden on the Unix side of your Mac. In this chapter, you’ll
learn how to safely tap into this power.
Chapter 7, Lock Down that Mac
Security isn’t just a good idea—it’s essential. Learn how to protect your Mac from
prying eyes (and sticky fingers) with the useful hacks in this chapter.
Chapter 8, Other OSes
Got multiple Apple devices? Learn how to manage them from a centralized loca-
tion. Ever fancy playing a video game made for a Nintendo on your Mac? This is
the chapter for you.
viii PREFACE