Clean Mac Keyboards

The Mac Aluminum keyboard really is an awesome thing. It's thin, sleek, clean... well, at least until its dirty. If it's surface dirt, you can detach it use a damp cloth to wipe it down and let it dry. Though it's rare, dirt can get in between the keys.

One fella in 2007 discovered that poping off may keys are not as easy as PC keyboard keys.

To remove the keys, you can pry them off by digging your finger nail under the top of a key, then prying up on it while pressing down on the bottom side of a key. To replace, set in it's spot, jiggle it around till the lower half sets, then press the top in slowly. If you break the mechanism, a new keyboard can run you $49-$69.

Another gent at MacRumors lifted up on the spacebar and found that the mechanism is not like the other keys, so I wouldn't recommend lifting up in teh same fashion. He managed to stick the nozzle of compressed air under it and blew the gunk out.

Happy spring cleaning, and while your at it, get a keyboard protector and save yourself some trouble.

http://skeltoac.com/2007/10/22/apple-keyboard-aluminum-keycap-removal/

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=404530

Firewall and AntiVirus for Windows

I mostly use mac, so it can be easy to forget about firewalls and antivirus software. Anyhow, I reloaded my windows based laptop and started searching for free software. Here's what I found:

For free firewalls, the best in early 2010 are:
1) Comodo
2) Online Armor
3) ZoneAlarm

For free antivirus, the best in early 2010 are:
1) Avast
2) Avira
3) AVG

The best paid antivirus programs for windows are:
1) BitDefender
2) Kapersky
3) Norton

For Mac's, the best antivirus programs are:
1) Norton
2) VirusBarrier X5
3) ClamXav <-- free


My findings are based off of reviews from CNET, PCMag, PCWorld.

Of Mice and Hands

On December 16th I gave in and ordered a Magic Mouse from Apple. I didn't get it till 3 weeks ago (supply shortages and all). I can confidently say it was worth the $70 of a gift card (though my MS optical is still attached).

Abnormally thin for a mouse, I'm more used to the bulge on a table to rest my sore, beaten, blood splattered hands... Pretty much only my index finger, thumb, and side of my hand touch it. Most of my hand is arched above it naturally.

Clicking is the same as anything, except that you can only have one finger on it when right clicking (i'm used to using my middle finger for that). The smooth, glossy surface is awesome for scrolling, especially sideways and diagonally like in a photo. I use the back and forward swipes for web-browsing all the time.

I haven't yet loaded the driver to try it on windows yet, but it's on my to do list... as soon as I get life insurence from AARP by the Hartford, and oh, fix that cabinet door...

Changing programs to open files - Mac OSX

If you use any variety of office, photo, or video software, sometimes they may change the way your computer opens file types. For example, my Photoshop opens all the .jpg files on the computer. I don't know about you, but I'd like to get to view the images quickly, and not have to wait for Photoshop to load.

On a mac, it's easy to reclaim this:

Highlight a file of the file-type in question; for example, a .jpg.

Then on the menu bar, go to "File > Get Info" or hit ⌘ + i

A window will pop out, go to the "Open With" arrow and in the drop-down, select the program you want, and hit "Change All".

A confirmation dialogue pops up, confirm, and voila! .jpg's are now back to opening with Preview and not Photoshop anymore.

Vivitar FD Rear Lens Cap

I've had my Canon EOS Xti for awhile now. I don't change the lenses very much but it's straight forward.

I just got a Canon AE-1 with the original 50mm Canon FD lens, and an accompanying 28-135mm Vivitar FD lens. AE-1 seems to work well.




I love the viewfinder split rangefinder and microprism ring (wish modern cameras had this).

When I tried to remove the Vivitar's rear lens cap to change the lenses... I couldn't! I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to! I started searching forums, high and low to no avail. Finally I got so fed up, I simply entered "FD rear lens cap" into Google, and a little 'ol post from Yahoo questions poped up...

On the Vivitar FD lens, the ring with the red dot on it rotates clockwise, independent of the rest of the lens! Simple solution for a silly design. Attaching it to the camera, it doesn't lock down like the Canon FD lens; it just tightens.

Yahoo Lifesaver

Trackpad App for Macbooks

Wacom. Touch drawing tablets for all. Really useful stuff, but you have to buy the pad and drag it around with you. Not a mobile ideal.

The company Ten1 has been making stylus pens that work with touchscreens like the iPhone/iPod Touch and the Blackberry Storm.

Where does this tie in? Ten1 has recently come out with an app for Macbooks called Inklet. Glide the pen across the trackpad, and leave your paper and scanner behind.

Wacom's base pen tablet: $70
App + Pen = $40

Chyron DB Link Macro

At work, I use a Chyron Duet system to operate live graphics for TV shows. Recently we needed to create nearly 200 full screen (F/S) graphic pages for an awards ceremony. We had all the information in an Excel spreadsheet, and setup a F/S with template fields. We linked the template fields to fields in the Excel document, but we couldn't figure how to automate the process of linking all the rows.

I was browsing the Chyron forums for the longest time and ran across a macro that when activated, calls up as box where the user enters the excel row, and the template field will look at that row. Enter the following in the script tab:

RowNum=InputBox("Enter Excel Row Number:")
set pnode=ActiveCanvas.Scene.Node(Q)
set pelm=pnode.Element(W)
set dbl=pelm.DBLink
dbl.RecordNumber=RowNum
set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.SendKeys("%el")

The "Q" in the second line of code corresponds to the layer number in the message page. The bottom most layer is layer 0. In the following example, the text layer where my templates are in is the third from the bottom, so I would put the number 3 in place of the Q.

ex.
[ ] 2D Text 4 Layer
[ ] Global Light
[ ] Camera

The "W" in the third line of code corresponds to the template field number with the DB Link (you can check the DB Link in the template properties window to see what number is assigned to the template field). Change the W to the number of the field you need to update.

jzimmerlin (on chyron forums) suggests that you select the macro you've created from the "Auto Execute" drop-down menu (not sure what that means) and save this macro as a numbered .lyr file (ex. 02351241.lyr) in your default messages directory.

Me, I made a folder called macros in the directory and I assigned a hot-key combo to it. This way, when I use the hot-key, the window pops up and I use it similarly to calling up messages... just... within a message... When I call up the profile, I use "File > Open" to open the macros folder. Remember, I'm a newb, so do what you feel is best and play around with it.

Here is a video from Chyron explaining how to create DB Links.


(2005 macro credit: www.jeffzimmerlin.com)
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