Hold down the “option” key and then go to the “Virtual Machine” menu option. You’ll notice that the options switch from “Shutdown” to “Force Shutdown” when you hold down the “option” key.  Simply choose your required “Force” option and you should be back in business!

    NSNumber *valueForDisplay = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:
              [self valueForDisplay:clockName]];

    NSNumber *totalDays = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:
             ([valueForDisplay doubleValue] / 86400)];
    NSNumber *totalHours = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:
             (([valueForDisplay doubleValue] / 3600) -
              ([totalDays intValue] * 24))];
    NSNumber *totalMinutes = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:
             (([valueForDisplay doubleValue] / 60) -
             ([totalDays intValue] * 24 * 60) -
             ([totalHours intValue] * 60))];
    NSNumber *totalSeconds = [NSNumber numberWithInt:
             ([valueForDisplay intValue] % 60)];

The above assumes that valueForDisplay contains the total value in seconds.  Enjoy.

Unfortunately my laptop is used for work and isn’t always at home, so I can’t just share my library and play music etc over the air (this doesn’t work for movies anyway).  So I’ve come up with a solution that works really well, and is completely automated.

Step 1: Buy a Mac Mini

Yes, I could have bought a nice Apple TV – but why buy a cut down Mac Mini when you can have the real thing for only a couple of hundred more $$? I bought the bottom of the line Mac Mini with a Bluetooth and Wireless Mouse from JB Hi-Fi (local retailer here in Melbourne, Australia) and now I have a fully functioning internet enabled PC in my living room.

Step 2: Synchronise the Mac Mini with my iTunes Library

Now that I have my Mac Mini setup and hooked up to my stereo and TV, I need my master iTunes library (on my laptop) on my Mac Mini. 

To do this you need to perform a few steps:

Enable File Sharing on your source

Firstly, you need to enable file sharing on your computer with the master iTunes library.  You should be careful when you do this not to share anything you don’t want to.  I only allow sharing for people who know my username and password (me).  To enable file sharing:

1. Click the Apple Logo in the top left-hand corner of the screen
2. Choose System Preferences
3. Select Sharing
4. Check the box next to File Sharing
5. Now set your file sharing preferences.  I only share for myself and turn off all other access (so you need my username and password to access my music)

File sharing is now enabled on your master (for me this is my Macbook Pro)

Mount your source from the Mac Mini

Now that file sharing is enabled on your master you need to connect your destination Mac (Mac Mini for me) to your master.  To do this, open up Finder.  Your master should now appear on the left hand side below the heading Shared.  Select the master, and then click the Connect As option in the top right-hand corner of the finder window.  Enter the username and password for the master.

You should now be able to browse to your master iTunes library (usually in /Users/accountname/Music/iTunes).  You have now mounted your source library from the Mac Mini!  Now to get the music across…

Sync your music!

Okay, so you’ve bought a shiny new Mac Mini, enabled file sharing on your iTunes master, and connected the Mac Mini up to your master.  Now for the fun part – synchronising your music between the master and the mini.  To do this, you need to issue a command in the terminal application.  To open the terminal, do the following:

1. Open Finder
2. Click Applications
3. Choose Utilities
4. Select Terminal

A window will appear with a command prompt.  If you have never access the command line before, don’t freak out!  It’s not scary, just very powerful.  We need to find out what the path is for your master (which you’ve just connected to).  Type the following:

cd /Volumes
ls

This will list all the connected volumes on your Mac Mini.  One of them should be something like “firstlastname” – whatever your username is on your master PC.  Type:

cd accountname/Music/iTunes
ls

(Replace accountname with your username) – you should see folders like Album Artwork and iTunes Music.  If you do, great!  You’ve just found the path to your master iTunes library. Now follow these steps to open up your Mac Mini’s iTunes directory (this is where we are going to copy all the music into):

cd ~/Music/iTunes

Then type the following command (this will take a while) to start copying all your music across to your Mac Mini:

rsync -a -v --progress --block-size=12800
    /Volumes/accountname/Music/iTunes .

This will take a while (two hours for me) while the Mac Mini copies all the music across from your master computer.  Remember to replace ‘accountname’ with your path on your master.  Once complete, all your music is now on your Mac Mini!

Now anytime you want to resynchronise, simply run the command above and only the new music/videos will be copied.

Step 3: Sign into the iTunes Store

Now that you have all your music on the Mac Mini, you need to sign into the iTunes store with your details from the master.  This will authorise your Mac Mini to play any music and videos you have purchased from the iTunes store.

Step 4: Press the Menu button on your remote!

Now that you’ve signed into the iTunes store, its time to press the Menu button on your Mac Mini’s remote – because you can now use Front Row to listen and watch all the music from your master!

My newly discovered solution:

1. Select message(s) to move
2. Click on the Help menu in menubar
3. In Search (which is selected already) just type some letters of the folder I want to move it to
4. Because of super-cool menu-search built into help, it it finds my folders matching, and down-arrow+enter does the move

Its fast. And faster if you use Help’s shortcut key (shift+command+?).

(Thanks to John C for this tip!)

“An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie.”

I’ve searched everywhere for a solution, and couldn’t find one in forums or tech hint sites.  However I think i’ve just solved it – for me atleast.  I just installed VLC Media Player for Mac OS X.  Upon installation, my movies work!  I couldn’t be happier – I think VLC is a little more forgiving if your media format is malformed.

Either way, I can now watch my videos – so I’m a happy camper.

To remove these, do the following at the command line:

find . -name "._*" -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf

That will remove all the files and you will have a clean linux hierarchy!

www.opensourcemac.org

It’s a simple and easy to view list of all the best open source (free) applications for Mac OSX. I found a few new ones I hadn’t even heard of here, so have a look!

Microsoft Confusion
Microsoft provides a tool called Remote Desktop Client for Mac which provides this functionality.  Unfortunately, this is still in beta and the current version has expired – with Microsoft promising a new version in May. This delay has caused much confusion in the Mac community, and personally I’ve found the tool to be quite buggy (yes I know its in beta).

CoRD to the Rescue
Thankfully, the open source project CoRD provides much the same functionality, including file and printer sharing between computers, and personally I think it has a far better user interface.  The bookmark bar on the side is much more like other Mac Applications I use (CyberDuck for instance), and in general is much more Mac like:

Personally, I’d forget the Microsoft Beta for now and download CoRD today!

Everything went fine with the Boot Camp installation – until I started installing the Apple drivers (after Windows XP had completed installation).  After successful installation of the Bluetooth and Ethernet drivers, the Wireless Drivers started installation -  and suddenly I recieved a Blue Screen of Death.

I attempted to install the drivers multiple times, however the Blue Screen of Death appeared each time at the same point in the Apple Driver installation process.

After much Googling I discovered others who were having the same problem and realised I was using my Mac Mini Leopard CD instead of my new MacBook Pro CD.  It turns out that the new MacBook Pro’s have different driver versions for windows, and attempting to install the old drivers causes a Blue Screen of Death in Windows XP!

Solution: Use the correct MacBook Pro CD for installation of the Windows Drivers! Idiot!