one digital life

Look inside zip archives with QuickLook

For me, QuickLook is one of the killer new features in Leopard. QuickLook allows you to select any file (or folder) in the finder, hit the space bar, and get a usable preview of that file without opening it.

I think QuickLook is pretty awesome right out of the box, but today it got a whole lot more useful, thanks to Japanese developer, Taiyo.

Taiyo developed a free QuickLook plugin that allows you to view the contents of a zip archive, instead of just the icon (the default behavior for zip files in QuickLook).

I’ve always been annoyed that in the default installation of OSX, there is no way of seeing what’s in a zip without extracting everything. That’s just stupid! I’ve tried other shareware apps that claim the ability to browse zip archives without opening them, but they either didn’t work, or didn’t work very well. Thank you Taiyo!

One note… I’ve read that for some people the plugin kicked in immediately after installation. I personally needed to logout for it to start working. You could also just force-quite the finder.

Taiyo also developed a QuickLook plugin for folders, which shows the contents of folders, instead of their icon. If you spend most of you time in either list or icon view, this could be very handy too.

via TUAW

Freeware Pic: “Timeous” - Excellent Project Timer

I’m a full-time freelancer and keeping track of my billable hours is an important task. Under Mac OSX 10.4, Tiger, I used a nifty little widget called, The Daily Grind. I really liked it a lot, but I’ve had some problems with Dashboard since upgrading to Leopard. So, I had to find an alternative. I dug through quite a lot of freeware and shareware timers and project management apps. I had a hard time finding something that was just right. Either they did too little, or way too much. Then, I found Timeous.

Timeous is actually a very simple application, but it makes keeping track of your time on multiple jobs a snap. You basically create a tab for each project, or task. You then just stop and start the timers as you work. Timeous logs each start and stop of each project’s timer, and keeps a running total of the time you’ve spent on that job. You can also enter an hourly dollar amount for each tab, and Timeous automatically calculates what you’ve made so far.

Once you finish your project, Timeous can export the logs as a text file, so you ‘ll always have a record.

Timeous is a Universal Binary so it works on both Intel and PPC Macs. The site doesn’t specifically mention Leopard, but the only problem I’ve had is when I re-order the tabs (via drag-and-drop), they revert back to their original order when I quite and relaunch the app.

One feature that I really like is Timous’s icon changes when the timer is running. It’s a small feature, but it’s very handy because you don’t need to keep The app visible to know the timer is running. you can just look in your dock.

If you looking for an application that can track your expenses, generate invoices, etc… keep looking. But, if all you need is a basic multi-timer app with a few extras, I highly recommend Timeous. You can’t beat the price… it’s FREE!

Oh, and if you’re into developing Mac software, the developer of Timeous, Kevin Wojniak, has made the source code available. Thanks Kevin!

I’m lovin’ my new Macbook Pro

I’ve been using my new Macbook Pro (and Leopard) for about a month now, and I’m totally lovin’ it. Although I haven’t had any serious video jobs since getting it, I think it will hold up nicely. I think I made the right choice going with a portable as my primary machine.

As soon as I make a little time I’ll be posting some specifics on Leopard, apps, and Windows on a Mac (it’s new to me just upgrading from PPC).

Leopard Tip: iCal Widget gets new feature

The built-in calendar widget that comes with Mac OSX 10.5, Leopard, sports a new events pane. Simply drag the calendar widget to you desktop, click the large day number to bring out the month view, click the number again to bring out a pane listing the events for that day. Clicking on an event opens it in iCal.

via MacOSXHints

Leopard Internet Connection Problems

As a followup to my last post, here’s one of my Flickr Pages in both Safari 3 (left) and Firefox 2 (right). As you can see, Safari just won’t load the images. Where Firefox had no problem. The error listed in Safari’s Activity Window is, “Can’t find host”.

I’ve discover that this is not just an issue with Safari. In Leopard, I’m having problems with all of Apple’s applications that talk to the internet (Safari, Mail, Dashboard Widgets). Even though my connection to the internet is strong, all Apple apps have intermittent connectivity.

Is anyone else having this problem?

UPDATE (11.05.07): Thanks to a comment by Matt Smith, my connection problem is fixed… for the most part. I let the migration assistant bring over my network settings, but it apparently didn’t bring everything over. I was missing some DNS Server information (in the Network Preference Pane). Once I replaced those numbers things started working properly, almost. I still have some occasional connection problems, but they are much less frequent, and they appear to be more related to my router. Although everything is (almost) working, I think we’ll still be seeing an update from Apple on this issue. It’s odd that only Apple applications seem to need those numbers.

Leopard Woes

I’m still in the middle of what is now a two day Leopard migration, and things haven’t gone as smoothly as I would have liked. I’ll go into that a little later. For now I wanted to mention 3 issues I’m having, and ask if other Leopard up-graders have experienced any of these problems…

Dashboard:
I’ve been having a lot of problems with Dashboard under Leopard. One minute everything will be working fine, the next all my widgets will freeze up, and the only way to get them working again is to logout. While they’re frozen I can pull-out new widgets, and drag all the widgets around, but non of them are actually functioning.

I found a lot of people over on the Apple Discussion Boards having problems with Dashboard, but many of them relate the problem to Apple’s new Parental Controls. I haven’t activated Parental Controls so I don’t think that’s it. In my case it appears to be related to non-Apple Widgets being installed. I’ve finally been able to make Dashboard a little more stable by going through this procedure:

1. I used Dashboard’s built-in Widget Manager to delete all non-Apple Widgets.
2. I deleted the Widget cache files at ~/Library/Caches/DashboardClient/.
3. I deleted these preference files:
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.client.plist
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist
   All pref files starting with widget-com…
4. Logout

After that Dashboard seems to be working normally. But, if I try to add Widgets back in, the problems start back up. This sucks if third-party Widgets can break Dashboard. Has anyone else had this problem?

Repair Permissions:
I was having some weirdness, so I tried repairing permissions. The process now takes several minutes, and I end up with a long list of errors (about 50). Every error is the same, except each refers to a different file or folder… They all start, “ACL found but not expected on…(path to file or folder)”. Disc Utility cannot repair the problems. I don’t know if this is a serious problem or not, but I don’t like it.

Safari:
One minute Safari will be a speedy browser that renders beautifully. The next it’s a tired dog that hesitates to do anything. In fact, at times it actually refuses to connect to a site, telling me that I’m not connected to the internet. Given that Firefox on the same machine will load the site, I’m pretty sure I am connected to the internet.

I did install Inquisitor. It’s supposedly Leopard-ready, but I’m not so sure. I can’t actually tell though if the problems I’m having are related or not. Has anyone else had problems with the new Safari?

At this point I’m debating on wiping the drive and starting over, or accepting these as known bugs and waiting for Apple to come out with a patch. Has anyone else had these (or other) problems. Have any solutions to share?

New Trojan Horse targets Mac users

SECURITY ALERT: A new Trojan Horse called OSX.RSPlug.A that specifically targets Mac users by prompting them to install a QuickTime Codec.

Read the full Story on MacWorld

Flash plugin not totally compatible with Leopard

Apparently the latest version of the Adobe Flash plugin is not totally compatible with Leopard. From what I can tell, you can play Flash in your browser, but some functions won’t work… specifically Flash uploading.

For instance, the photo-sharing site Zooomr.com uses a Flash tool to upload photos. They’ve posted a message on their uploads page that states Leopard users will NOT be able to upload photos to their account until Adobe fixes the Flash plugin.

Luckily, I can’t think of any online tools I use that use a Flash upload tool, but it’s something people considering upgrading to Leopard should be aware of.

via Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection