Breaking news: check this out

I am sure this is a pleasant surprise, please check the sister site of this blog for the details.

1 comment January 28th, 2006

it is too hilarious

no matter you like politics or not, you should not miss this year’s state of union speech here. Link

Add comment January 28th, 2006

Great news to announce

there will be some great news to come in the next few days, check back soon!

Add comment January 27th, 2006

1 cent/min calling plan, better than skype?

vbuzzer service just launched. 1/cent to a lot of places (include China, HongKong and Taiwan), sounds skype just got another competitor?

Add comment January 23rd, 2006

mac OS X keyboard shortcut

some very cool things to improve the productivity.

Keyboard Control

The inside cover of Mac OS X Power Tools contains a list of selected keyboard shorcuts in OS X. Below is a more complete list, divided into sections based on where they are applicable. For mouse/keyboard actions, check out the “Modified Mousing” link to the left. (Letter keys are printed here in CAPS for clarity — you do not need to press the shift key unless explicitly instructed.) (NOTE: This page is in the process of being updated for full Panther compatibility.)

Startup and Login (see Chapter 3)

command+option+O+F	Invoke Open Firmware
command+option+P+R	Reset PRAM
T	Startup in FireWire Target Disk Mode
option	Invoke Startup Manager
command+S	Invoke single-user mode
command+V	Invoke verbose mode
C	Boot from CD/DVD
X	Boot into OS X (if you previously booted from OS 9 on the same volume)
shift (immediately at startup)	Safe boot
shift (after boot screen, until login screen)	Override auto-login
shift (after login screen)	Safe login
option+escape, then click on a user	Present name/password login dialog instead of list of users

System-wide (various chapters)

option+volume up/down/mute	Open Sound preferences
option+brightness up/down	Open Display preferences
command+space	Cycle through active keyboard layouts/scripts
F12	Eject CD/DVD drive (hold down for two seconds)
return or enter	Select default button in dialog (OK, Open, Save, etc.)
escape or command+.	Exit/cancel dialog
command+shift+Q	Log out
command+option+shift+Q	Log out without confirmation dialog
power button (laptops) or control+eject (desktops)	Bring up Restart/Sleep/Shut Down dialog
command+option+eject (desktops)	Sleep computer immediately
command+option+escape	Bring up Force Quit window
command+control+eject (desktops)	Restart immediately (chance to save changes in open documents)
command+option+control+eject (desktops) or command+option+control+power (laptops)	Shutdown immediately (chance to save changes in open documents)
command+control+power button	Force restart (no chance to save changes in open documents)
hold power button	Force shutdown (no chance to save changes in open documents)

Universal Access (must be enabled in Universal Access preferences) (see Chapter 3)

command+option+8	Toggle zoom (screen magnification) on/off
command+option+=	Zoom in
command+option+-	Zoom out
command+option+control+8	Toggle display inversion (white-on-black) on/off
shift (five times)	Toggle Sticky Keys on/off
option (five times)	Toggle Mouse Keys on/off

Full Keyboard Access (see Chapter 3)

control+F1	Toggle Full Keyboard Access on/off
control+F2 (or control+M)	Focus keyboard control on menu bar
control+F3 (or control+D)	Focus keyboard control on Dock
control+F4 (or control+W)	Focus keyboard control on active Window or cycle to next window
control+F5 (or control+T)	Focus keyboard control on toolbar
control+F6 (or control+U)	Focus keyboard control on palette (utility window)
control+F7	In windows and dialogs, switch focus to text boxes/lists/controls
arrow keys	Navigate active item
return, enter, or spacebar	Select highlighted item
return or enter	Select default dialog control (OK, Yes, No, Save, Open, etc.)
escape	Cancel action, menu, or dialog

Finder: General (see Chapter 5)

command+J	Open View Options
command+shift+delete	Empty Trash (with confirmation dialog)
command+option+shift+delete	Empty Trash (without confirmation dialog)
command+F	Bring up Find dialog
command+K	Bring up Connect to Server dialog

Finder: Files and Folders (see Chapter 5)

command+shift+N	New Folder in active Finder window (including the Desktop)
arrow keys	Navigate items in active Finder window
tab/shift+tab	Select next/previous file or folder (alphabetically)
type name of file/folder	Select that file/folder
return	Edit file/folder name
command+O	Open selected item(s)
command+I	Open Get Info window for selected item(s)
command+option+I	Open File Inspector window
command+D	Duplicate selected item(s)
command+L	Create alias(es) for selected item(s)
command+R (for aliases)	Show target of selected alias (”reveal original”)
command+T	Add selected item(s) to Favorites (creates alias in Favorites folder)
command+delete	Move selected item(s) to Trash
command+down arrow	Open item(s); add option key to close current folder
command+up arrow	Switch to enclosing folder (if no windows are open, opens new window to Home); add option key to close current folder
option+right arrow/left arrow (folders in list view)	Toggle disclosure triangle for selected folder(s) open/closed
command+option+right arrow/left arrow (folders in list view)	Toggle disclosure triangle for all folder(s) open/closed

Finder: Windows (see Chapter 5; Application shortcuts, listed below, also apply to the Finder)

command+N	New Finder window
command+1/2/3	View active window as Icons/List/Columns
control+tab or control+I (in list view)	Change column sorting; cycles columns left to right (add shift key to cycle right to left)
command+B	Show/hide window toolbar for active window
command+shift+C/H/I/A/F	Go to Computer / Home / iDisk / Applications / Favorites in active window (a new window will be opened if necessary)
command+shift+G	Bring up “Go to Folder” dialog in active window (a new window will be opened if necessary)
command+[ or command+]	Go back or forward in window view history
command+W	Close active Finder window
command+option+W	Close all Finder windows

Finder: Volumes/Media (see Chapter 5)

command+E

Eject volume/disc

Open/Save Dialog Shortcuts (see Chapter 5)

tab	Switch between browser and text fields
arrow keys, page up/down	Navigate in browser
command+N	Create new folder in the current directory
command+D	Change directory to Desktop
command+shift+A	Change directory to /Applications
command+shift+C	Change directory to Computer view (list of volumes)
command+shift+F	Change directory to Favorites folder
command+shift+H	Change directory to Home folder
command+shift+I	Change directory to iDisk (mounts iDisk if necessary)

Dock (see Chapter 6)

command+option+D	Toggle Dock auto-hide on/off
command+tab	Cycle through active applications; each tab press while holding command changes the application once. Add the shift key to cycle backwards. As long as you keep the command key pressed, you can also quit or hide applications as you cycle through them.

Applications, including the Finder (see Chapters 6 and 7)

command+H	Hide current application
command+option+H	Hide all other applications
command+M	Minimize active window to the Dock
command+option+M	Minimize all windows in active application to the Dock
command+`	Cycle through current application’s windows (add the shift to cycle backwards)
command+,	Open application preferences dialog (not universal yet, but becoming more common)

Screenshot (see Chapter 7)

command+shift+3	Full screenshot
command+shift+4	Crosshair to allow selection of screenshot area
command+shift+4, then spacebar	Camera to capture specific screen object

Text-related shortcuts in Cocoa applications (see Chapter 7)

Type bindkey <RETURN> in Terminal for complete list (in the list, ^ means the control key).

Add comment January 22nd, 2006

thinkpad runs Mac OS X

This is very promising. I might try this when my thinkpad harddrive has some free space (that means never )

Add comment January 21st, 2006

blog url change

new url is http://blog.tigeryao.com, please update your bookmark or RSS feed.

Add comment January 17th, 2006

Beaware XP disk backup trap

tried to upgrade one xp box to use a bigger hard drive today. I did the same thing several times before, don’t remember any problems, but it failed on me today when I tried to do on Jane’s computer. After the disk clone, the XP on new hard drive rebooted fine, but once logged in, it automatically logged out, then prompt me to log in again.

Did some research, it seems the problem resides in the way I made the clone, when both hard drive were present in XP, OS marked the main drive vs 2nd drive in HD’s MBR, so when just the 2nd drive (new bigger drive) was used, XP would still think it is 2nd drive, to fix this, just use this command when you have win98 boot disk with a fdisk.exe program

fdisk.exe /mbr

then it worked magically, wow, it took 3 hours and 20 computer reboots for me to figure this out!!

Add comment January 15th, 2006