MacHouse - A World of Video Tutorials

There are many websites where you are required to register an account though you aren’t at this MacHouse weblog. The number of websites on the Internet is increasing exponentially. So one major problem that you and I may be facing is how to manage all accounts comprehensively.

From time to time, we mention a Mac shareware title called PasswordMaster. It allows you to store accounts quite effectively. We like it a lot. A problem is that this shareware title is no longer updated. So Intel Mac users won’t be able to use it natively.

Let me spend a few minutes showing how PasswordMaster works. If you want to add an account, first, click on the Add button at the bottom. Then enter a service name, username, password, and URL. (See Screenshot 01.) If necessary, you can write under Notes additional information like an e-mail address used to register an account. If you are finished, then click on the Save button.

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Screenshot 03

PasswordMaster lets you enter a URL under Website. And if you click on the button to the right (See Screenshot 02.), the default web browser will open and forward you to the URL you have entered. (See Screenshot 03.) That’s quite neat.

Now, as shown in Screenshot 04, I have quite a number of accounts stored with PasswordMaster. It would be nice if I could classify these accounts into several categories. In this way, it would be easier to find a particular account quickly.

Screenshot 04

Screenshot 05

Anyway, for some reason, if you have to back up password data, simply go to Backup Data under Tools. Then PasswordMaster will export a folder containing three files. (See Screenshot 05.) The application itself is replaceable. So, next time, whether or you have reinstalled PasswordMaster or are using the same copy, all you have to do is to choose Restore Data.

So are there alternatives to PasswordMaster? I wasn’t really looking for one. But yesterday I ran into a freeware title called sharedsecrets from ELKOSOFT Software in Germany. So let me show you how sharedsecrets works hereafter. (more…)

app4mac’s CutX is an extension plug-in for Safari web browser (Mac only). It allows users to censor websites. It’s only good for parental control on kid’s Internet surfing. Or will it also stop users from accidentally downloading malicious files from websites in the blacklist?

One tool that they offer with CutX is ‘Banned Words.’ You can customize a list of banned words for your needs. If CutX spots a webpage with any of the banned words, it will block access.

I can tell you at the beginning. Censoring websites with banned words is not going to work no matter how you do it. That’s from our experience with one of the ad companies we are affiliated with. We started having porn text ads at our SEO blog website around June 20 because of this ad company. (See Screenshot 01.) We asked them not to deliver porn ads. Then they told us to consider removing one particular article. As you see Screenshot 02, there is nothing wrong about it. What, we can’t mention sex or pornography on our websites? But their website also mentions child pornography. (See Screenshot 03.) We can’t even say something like ‘Avoid this porn website’ or ‘we do not condone child pornography’?

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Screenshot 03

Setting up

Anyway, let’s see how app4mac’s Safari extension works. Safari extension… Right, it will run only with Safari we browser. (more…)

We know that in general FireWire-connected hard disk drives have faster data transfer rates than USB-connected drives. That’s what we always hear at Apple’s Discussions except we have never seen actual numbers compared. If true, how faster are FireWire-connected hard disk drives, anyway? Those questions must have been raised 8 or 9 years ago. But let’s revisit this topic again. Another question that you may have is whether or not USB-connected hard disk drives are so bad that one should avoid buying them.

Screenshot 01 - Source: coneco.net

Screenshot 02 - Source: coneco.net

USB-connected hard disk drives are a lot cheaper than FireWire-connected ones. There’s a good Japanese website called coneco.net where you can compare prices of electronics products. Let’s look up 320 GB drives. The cheapest USB-connected drive that we find is Maxtor OneTouch III USB 2.0. (See Screenshot 01.) The price is 7,980 yen. It’s about US$74. And the cheapest FireWire-connected model for 320 GB drives is Maxtor OneTouch III Firewire 400 / USB 2.0. The price is 13,000 yen. It’s equivalent to US$120.40. (See Screenshot 02.) (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - It’s been only one month since Apple, Inc. released the last security patch. Yesterday, the company released Security update 2008-004 for Mac OS 10.4 Tiger. Meanwhile, Apple also released the software update for OS X 10.5. Details are unknown for the security patch.






Click on the button for more information on Security Update 2008-004 for OS 10.4 (PPC).
Click on the button for more information on Security Update 2008-004 for OS 10.4 (Intel Mac).
Click on the button for more information on OS X 10.5.4 Update (PPC & Intel Mac).

iMac G5 2 GHz (Ambient Light Sensor) has been our main machine for the past two and a half years. We have whipped it and made it compress close to a thousand QuickTime and Flash videos. Life is never easy for this iMac. We expected that its life expectancy would be short. So we thought the zero day would come pretty soon.

In the meantime, we use an external FireWire hard disk drive to back up files while the internal drive only contains Mac OS and application files. In this way, we can access important files even when our iMac dies.

Screenshot 1 - Network Status

Screenshot 2 - Network Configurations

Day 1

Something unexpected happened yesterday. Suddenly, our iMac refused to connect the Internet. Checking on the Network Status, the light was yellow as opposed to green. (See Screenshot 01.) Instead of 192.168.0.10, the local IP address was shown as 169.254.220.4, according to the Network preference pane (See Screenshot 02.), which could be traced to a private layer through nLayer Communications, an Internet service provider in Illinois, USA. Hmm, bizarre… I could manually enter the local IP address. In fact, the the color of the network status turned into green by doing so except that iMac continued to refuse to connect the Internet. (more…)

Alien Skin Software develops commercial plugins for graphic effects. We have used Eye Candy 5: Nature and Eye Candy 5 Textures before. This time, we decided to try out Alien Skin Software’s Exposure 2. (more…)

It seems that one of the plug-ins was causing guests to be unable to post comments. So we have disabled it. If you had trouble posting comments in the past, please accept our apology. In the meantime, some of the video tutorials are open to guests again. (more…)

The Zip format has been around for quite some time even in the Mac community. It was never a popular archive format until 3 or 4 years ago. Those days, people were still using either disk image (.dmg) or StuffIt (.sit) more than Zip (.zip)

Some people still use StuffIt to pack a group of files. How do they pack files in the sit format? They use Smith Micro Software’s StuffIt Deluxe.

There are a few useful features that have made StuffIt Deluxe unique. No. 1, StuffIt Deluxe lets users split large archive files into parts. No. 2, StuffIt Deluxe allows users to preview files packed in archives before they unpack them. No. 3, StuffIt Deluxe allows users to password-protect archive files.

Compared with StuffIt, how far can we go with Zip archives? Actually, using a relatively new Mac shareware title called BetterZip, you can have those 3 useful features that StuffIt Deluxe offers even with Zip archives. (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - Microsoft has released a few files for Mac users. One of the files is Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0, which, according to the company, allows users ‘to convert Open XML files that were created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows.’ Such files will be compatible with earlier versions of Microsoft Office. (more…)

In this 2-part video tutorial series, you will learn how to use QuickTime Pro to prevent Internet users from downloading original screenshots. All you need is a Pro (registration code) upgrade to your existing QuickTime copy. We also use Adobe Dreamweaver to edit HTML documents and Fireworks to edit graphic images. But you can use any HTML and graphic editors your choice.

We have finished encapsulating screenshots with QuickTime Pro. In the 2nd video tutorial, we only use Adobe Dreamweaver to create and edit HTML files. (more…)