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Open the Console Application from Applications > Utilities > Console.
From the left menu, view the System.log
Entries listed in the log as "System Wake" show when your mac was turned on from Sleep.
Showing posts with label how-to. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how-to. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
How to tell when your Mac turned on
Open the Console Application from Applications > Utilities > Console.
From the left menu, view the System.log
Entries listed in the log as "System Wake" show when your mac was turned on from Sleep.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Steps to Burn a DVD Movie Copy on a Mac
Getting Started Burning a DVD Movie
In the Parallels application:
Combining the MDS/01, 02, 03, 04 Files
Normally DVD Shrink will make an ISO file, but since we are using a virtual windows machine and saving the ISO to a mac hard drive, it's going to split the ISO file up into several smaller chunks to ensure that it will work on different hard drive formats.
To recombine the pieces into the ISO, we'll use the mac application MISO-J.
Combining the part files into an ISO should take 5 minutes or less. If it takes longer, MISO-J may be frozen and you might have to try it again.
Remember: Don't run processor intensive stuff (Hulu, games, Parallels) when using MISO-J.
Burning Your ISO File
To burn your ISO file, close Parallels, insert a blank DVD, and open the Disc Utility application on your mac.
In Disc Utility, go to Images > Burn.
Navigate to the ISO file.
Before burning the ISO to a DVD, make sure to select a speed at least a little slower than the maximum speed of the drive. (Burning discs at the maximum speed can cause write errors.)
For an 8x speed drive, I've never had problems burning at 4x speed.
Burn your disc. Go to something else for a while, because the burning and disc verifying will take about 30 minutes.
Using DVDFab for Stubborn DVDs
If DVD Shrink showed bogus video and subtitle streams, close DVD Shrink and follow these instructions for DVDFab.
Things to Remember
While the disc is burning, don't run anything that is processor intensive (Hulu, any games, Parallels, etc.) You can run anything you want after the actual disc burn is done and the disc is just being verified.
Don't forget to delete the full DVD rip folder after you've burned the copy if you used DVDFab. Each full DVD rip will be 6 to 7 GB.
Don't forget to delete the folder with the MDS and part files after burning your ISO to a disc.
After you've burned the ISO file, don't forget to delete this also, as each one will take up 4.5GB of hard drive space. If you think you'll want to make 2nd copy of the same movie soon, keep the ISO to save time and burn it later.
In the Parallels application:
- Open AnyDVD to run it in the background.
- Insert the DVD movie you want to copy (wait a few moments to let AnyDVD scan the disc.)
- Open DVD Shrink.
- Use the 'open disc' option in DVD Shrink (analyzing will take about 1-3 minutes).
- Look at the audio languages and video streams. Do they look normal? (If you're not sure, see my previous post How to Tell if AnyDVD Will Handle Your DVD's Copy Protection. If the audio/subtitle tracks look weird, you'll need to use DVDFab to rip the full disc.) See my instructions further down for a DVDFab walk through.
- If they look normal, remove the extra audio tracks you don't need.
- Open the 'extras' folder on the DVD by clicking on the little plus icon next to it.
- Remove all the previews by selecting a clip and choosing 'still image' from the dropdown menu on the right. (Don't worry about clips that are less than around 20MB, the size is small enough that it's not really going to affect the quality of the copy, unless there are many of them.)
- After removing the extra languages, preview, and any special feature clips you don't need, click on the 'Backup' button. (To check the quality of the main movie copy, click on the main movie folder to check the quality percent. Anything over 70% will be pretty good, anything aboe 80% is usually hard to tell from the original disc.)
- When the window appears, make sure the backup target is set to 'ISO Image File'.
- Choose to save the ISO to a destination folder on your mac, since we'll be burning the ISO file on the mac.
- Click 'ok' to begin simultaneous ripping/shrinking. (It takes about 30-35 minutes to rip a movie with an 8x speed drive. It will be faster if there is less compression, meaning a higher quality percent, and if there are less extras to wade through.)
Combining the MDS/01, 02, 03, 04 Files
Normally DVD Shrink will make an ISO file, but since we are using a virtual windows machine and saving the ISO to a mac hard drive, it's going to split the ISO file up into several smaller chunks to ensure that it will work on different hard drive formats.
To recombine the pieces into the ISO, we'll use the mac application MISO-J.
Combining the part files into an ISO should take 5 minutes or less. If it takes longer, MISO-J may be frozen and you might have to try it again.
Remember: Don't run processor intensive stuff (Hulu, games, Parallels) when using MISO-J.
Burning Your ISO File
To burn your ISO file, close Parallels, insert a blank DVD, and open the Disc Utility application on your mac.
In Disc Utility, go to Images > Burn.
Navigate to the ISO file.
Before burning the ISO to a DVD, make sure to select a speed at least a little slower than the maximum speed of the drive. (Burning discs at the maximum speed can cause write errors.)
For an 8x speed drive, I've never had problems burning at 4x speed.
Burn your disc. Go to something else for a while, because the burning and disc verifying will take about 30 minutes.
Using DVDFab for Stubborn DVDs
If DVD Shrink showed bogus video and subtitle streams, close DVD Shrink and follow these instructions for DVDFab.
- With the DVD movie still in the drive, close AnyDVD.
- Open DVDFab Decrypter
- Choose the full movie option
- You may need to choose the source (disc folder)
- Choose the destination for the ripped folder and make a folder inside of the Parallels VM (folder icon and folder location at the top of DVDFab window.)
- Rip the full dvd to the a folder inside the Parallels VM (because you'll be using DVD Shrink to compress these files shortly). Ripping on an 8x speed DVD drive takes about 35-45 minutes, depending on how many files (audio/extras/etc) the disc has on it.
- After DVDFab says the 'Process completed successfully', close DVDFab and open DVD Shrink.
- Use the 'Open files' option this time to analyze the full ripped movie folder.
- You'll need to remember where you told DVDFab to rip the disc). Point DVD Shrink to the VIDEO_TS folder inside the movie folder.
- After the analyzing is complete (much faster DVD Shrink doesn't have to be slowed down by reading a disc), start from step 6 in the instructions at the top of this post.
Things to Remember
While the disc is burning, don't run anything that is processor intensive (Hulu, any games, Parallels, etc.) You can run anything you want after the actual disc burn is done and the disc is just being verified.
Don't forget to delete the full DVD rip folder after you've burned the copy if you used DVDFab. Each full DVD rip will be 6 to 7 GB.
Don't forget to delete the folder with the MDS and part files after burning your ISO to a disc.
After you've burned the ISO file, don't forget to delete this also, as each one will take up 4.5GB of hard drive space. If you think you'll want to make 2nd copy of the same movie soon, keep the ISO to save time and burn it later.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
How to Email a Text Message
How to email a friend a text message or send an email to any cell phone [that can receive text messages].
1. Determine which wireless carrier your friend uses (Verizon, Alltel, AT&T, etc.) and use the corresponding email address for that phone.
Alltel
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
AT&T
10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Cellular One
10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Metro PCS
10digitphonenumber@mymetropcs.com
Nextel
10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint
10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile
10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Tracfone
10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
US Cellular
10digitphonenumber@email.uscc.net
Verizon
10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
Remember to keep your message short and to the point, just like a regular text message.
Anyone who can send text messages from their cell phone can also send you an email, just have them send the text message to your email address.
For a complete list of cell phone carrier email addresses, see the list at EmailTextMessages.com
1. Determine which wireless carrier your friend uses (Verizon, Alltel, AT&T, etc.) and use the corresponding email address for that phone.
Alltel
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
AT&T
10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Cellular One
10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Metro PCS
10digitphonenumber@mymetropcs.com
Nextel
10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint
10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile
10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Tracfone
10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
US Cellular
10digitphonenumber@email.uscc.net
Verizon
10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
Remember to keep your message short and to the point, just like a regular text message.
Anyone who can send text messages from their cell phone can also send you an email, just have them send the text message to your email address.
For a complete list of cell phone carrier email addresses, see the list at EmailTextMessages.com
Saturday, July 24, 2010
How to Copy DVDs with Arccos protection
To successfully copy and compress DVDs with ARccOS protection, including Casino Royale, Stranger Than Fiction, and others, you'll need two free programs before beginning:
1. DVDFab (download the free version here)
2. DVD Shrink (download here)
For burning, you'll need a program than can burn ISO files to disc. Nero for PC has this feature. You can also use the free programs DVD Decrypter or ImgBurn to burn your compressed ISO to a blank DVD.
Rip the Full DVD to your Hard Drive with DVDFab
Use the Full Disc option in DVDFab to rip the disc contents to your hard drive. This will create a pair of folders called VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS that contains all the video files for the DVD movie. Only the VIDEO_TS folder will have files inside of it.
On my late 2007 2.2GHZ MacBook Pro with an 8x superdrive (running Windows XP virutal machine in Parallels 5), the ripping took 30 minutes. The ripping time will vary depending on the speed of your disc drive and the full size of the disc.
Most fully ripped discs will be 6.5 to 7.5GB in size because commercially produced DVDs are dual-layer and can hold up to 8.5GB of data.
Compress the Ripped Files in DVD Shrink
Open the DVD Shrink program, Click on the icon to "Open Files".
Navigate to the place on your hard drive with the folder where you ripped the full disc of Stranger Than Fiction. Select the Stranger Than Fiction folder.
DVD Shrink will take about a minute to analyze your DVD movie files to see how much compression it needs to apply.
You're now presented with two panels, the DVD Structure on the left and the compression settings on the right.
The first step will be to remove any unneeded audio languages. This movie only has French as the additional audio. Some DVDs will have French, Spanish, Chinese, etc. After you uncheck the extra audio tracks, notice how the quality percentage of the main movie has increased.
Don't bother unchecking extra subpictures (subtitles). Removing them won't really impact the quality of the copy, so they can be left alone.
DVD Shrink produces very good quality copies at 70% or more. If you can reach 80% or more for the main movie folder, you'll have a copy that is very hard to distinguish from the original.
To get the quality up to 70% or more, click on the plus sign by the Extras folder in the left panel. Remove all the movie previews on the disc. To see which files are previews, select one of the files and then click on the play button below to review it. (You can drag the slider to seek through the video file quickly.) To remove any segment from the DVD, select the file in the left pane and then change "Automatic" in the drop down menu in the right pane to Movie previews are usually files that are 40-80MB in size. Sometimes they are bundled together in files that are much larger like 100-300MB.
Remove any special features from the disc you don't want.
If you want to keep any special features on the disc, I strongly recommend selecting them individually and setting a custom compression ratio to reduce their quality. Think about it, you'll probably watch the features once and never see them again.
To check on the quality of your disc after removing previews and special features, select the Main Movie folder in the left pane and look at the quality percentage that displays in the right pane.
When you're satisfied with the quality you've got (I recommend 70% or higher), click on the Backup! icon.
The output options you choose here are important for burning, don't breeze past these.
For the Backup Target, select ISO Image File. For anyone new to this process, an ISO file is one file that includes all the contents of a disc.
You can leave the rest of the settings alone.
After double checking that your backup target is an ISO image file, click on Ok.
DVD Shrink will now compress the video files and create an ISO image file that is ready for burning. It will take about 10-15 minutes, depending on the speed of your hard drive.
1. DVDFab (download the free version here)
2. DVD Shrink (download here)
For burning, you'll need a program than can burn ISO files to disc. Nero for PC has this feature. You can also use the free programs DVD Decrypter or ImgBurn to burn your compressed ISO to a blank DVD.
Rip the Full DVD to your Hard Drive with DVDFab
Use the Full Disc option in DVDFab to rip the disc contents to your hard drive. This will create a pair of folders called VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS that contains all the video files for the DVD movie. Only the VIDEO_TS folder will have files inside of it.
On my late 2007 2.2GHZ MacBook Pro with an 8x superdrive (running Windows XP virutal machine in Parallels 5), the ripping took 30 minutes. The ripping time will vary depending on the speed of your disc drive and the full size of the disc.
Most fully ripped discs will be 6.5 to 7.5GB in size because commercially produced DVDs are dual-layer and can hold up to 8.5GB of data.
Compress the Ripped Files in DVD Shrink
Open the DVD Shrink program, Click on the icon to "Open Files".
Navigate to the place on your hard drive with the folder where you ripped the full disc of Stranger Than Fiction. Select the Stranger Than Fiction folder.
DVD Shrink will take about a minute to analyze your DVD movie files to see how much compression it needs to apply.
You're now presented with two panels, the DVD Structure on the left and the compression settings on the right.
The first step will be to remove any unneeded audio languages. This movie only has French as the additional audio. Some DVDs will have French, Spanish, Chinese, etc. After you uncheck the extra audio tracks, notice how the quality percentage of the main movie has increased.
Don't bother unchecking extra subpictures (subtitles). Removing them won't really impact the quality of the copy, so they can be left alone.
DVD Shrink produces very good quality copies at 70% or more. If you can reach 80% or more for the main movie folder, you'll have a copy that is very hard to distinguish from the original.
To get the quality up to 70% or more, click on the plus sign by the Extras folder in the left panel. Remove all the movie previews on the disc. To see which files are previews, select one of the files and then click on the play button below to review it. (You can drag the slider to seek through the video file quickly.) To remove any segment from the DVD, select the file in the left pane and then change "Automatic" in the drop down menu in the right pane to Movie previews are usually files that are 40-80MB in size. Sometimes they are bundled together in files that are much larger like 100-300MB.
Remove any special features from the disc you don't want.
If you want to keep any special features on the disc, I strongly recommend selecting them individually and setting a custom compression ratio to reduce their quality. Think about it, you'll probably watch the features once and never see them again.
To check on the quality of your disc after removing previews and special features, select the Main Movie folder in the left pane and look at the quality percentage that displays in the right pane.
When you're satisfied with the quality you've got (I recommend 70% or higher), click on the Backup! icon.
The output options you choose here are important for burning, don't breeze past these.
For the Backup Target, select ISO Image File. For anyone new to this process, an ISO file is one file that includes all the contents of a disc.
You can leave the rest of the settings alone.
After double checking that your backup target is an ISO image file, click on Ok.
DVD Shrink will now compress the video files and create an ISO image file that is ready for burning. It will take about 10-15 minutes, depending on the speed of your hard drive.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
How to Select Blocks in Text Wrangler
Hold down the option key while selecting text to activate the block selection mode in TextWrangler.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Roundup: Legal secretary skills
Legal Secretary Careers - Legal Secretary Career Profile
- job duties, skills, etc.
Proud To Be A Legal Secretary
- Must be an expert at time management, juggling many activities and roles at the same time
- Must possess psychological skills, dealing daily with many personalities
- Must possess excellent judgment to make dozens of critical decisions and
- Must have talents as a travel agent, personal shopper, living calendar, telephone directory, and mentor.
- job duties, skills, etc.
Proud To Be A Legal Secretary
- Must be an expert at time management, juggling many activities and roles at the same time
- Must possess psychological skills, dealing daily with many personalities
- Must possess excellent judgment to make dozens of critical decisions and
- Must have talents as a travel agent, personal shopper, living calendar, telephone directory, and mentor.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Backing up Delicious Bookmarks
With the recent data loss from the social bookmarking site Ma.gnolia, it just goes to show that online data should also be backed up periodically.
I wouldn't recommend using a newcomer to social bookmarking, or a site that is not one of the top services in it's category. The major bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg probably have multiple backups of user data and use huge data centers with several layers of protection.
It's unlikely that a larger entity providing a service will suffer a major data loss and be unable to recover user data.
To backup your delicious bookmarks, go to Settings > Export/Backup Bookmarks.
The backup will let you save an HTML file with all of your bookmarks, including the tags and notes.
My backup of just over 3,000 bookmarks (all the bookmarks have tags and some have notes) is only 700k. Even on a slower DSL connection, this would download in under a minute.
I wouldn't recommend using a newcomer to social bookmarking, or a site that is not one of the top services in it's category. The major bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg probably have multiple backups of user data and use huge data centers with several layers of protection.
It's unlikely that a larger entity providing a service will suffer a major data loss and be unable to recover user data.
To backup your delicious bookmarks, go to Settings > Export/Backup Bookmarks.
The backup will let you save an HTML file with all of your bookmarks, including the tags and notes.
My backup of just over 3,000 bookmarks (all the bookmarks have tags and some have notes) is only 700k. Even on a slower DSL connection, this would download in under a minute.
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