command line idiot » apple

Hide Mac Desktop Icons – Free!

command line idiot — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:56:30 +0000

If there are two things I love, its scotch and making my life easier. I decided to take the scripts from my previous post, and roll them into clickable apps. Click to download these zip files, and inside you’ll find two basic, basic apps. Click one, and your desktop icons go away. Click the other, and they show up. Stick them in your dock for simple desktop management goodness.

Desktop Hide-Show

Hide your Mac Desktop

command line idiot — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:22:35 +0000

If you’re anything like me, the crippling shame of your father’s disapproval has defined your entire life. As a result, you compensate by drinking more alcohol than is strictly healthy, and by posting vidcap tutorials to win the love and respect of your peers. As a result, you may find it useful to occasionally hide all the crap on your desktop before you begin.

Sure, you could shell out literally dozen of dollars to do it with deskshade, but wouldn’t you rather roll your own? I know I would! TO THE TERMINAL!

There is a simple terminal command that will kill all of your desktop icons. Check it:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false && killall Finder

BOOM! Just like that, all of your icons are gone. You’re back to that deep, deep emptiness that only comes from zen-like simplicity or chemical realignment of your brain functions. Once you’ve finished doing your business, you can reload the icons with the following command:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true && killall Finder

If you’re a code ninja, wipe that Cheetos™ dust off your fingers and drop this command into your .bash_profile list of shortcuts. Add the following lines, each on it’s own line, of course.

1.
alias deskdown='defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false && killall Finder'


2.

alias deskup='defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true && killall Finder'
Now you can hit all that icony goodness just by opening the terminal and typing "deskdown" and "deskup".
Enjoy. Give love in the comments.



iPhone 2.2 … really?
command line idiot — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:51:15 +0000
Scrolling through the server logs, I ran across this:
Apple iPhone OS v2.2.1 CoreMedia v1.0.0.5H11
Really? There are really people who just haven’t bothered to hit “update” on their phones yet? I guess I just don’t understand people who don’t install software updates. If only there were some way of punishing that habit, say with code that exploited the unpatched software they refused to update, and making it do bad things. That might be a way of correcting their bad habit!



Apple Mail, Gmail IMAP, play nicely!
command line idiot — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:21:39 +0000
Every so often, my blissful rage against linux is interrupted by some obnoxious hassle in my apple/google world. Mail connects via IMAP to gmail? Check! But what’s this? Mail automatically downloads all of my shitty spam from gmail? Cannot have! Do not want! Other syntax memes employed!
The solution is buried deep in google labs, and by deep, I mean one layer down. Here’s the fix:

Cut a hole in a box
Login to your gmail account, go to “settings” then “Labs”
Under Labs, enable “Advanced IMAP Controls”
Then, go to “Labels”. You’ll find a brand new check box next to each label, asking your permission to show that label when accounts sync by IMAP. Uncheck the spam box.
Profit!

Ahhhhh, bliss. Now I can go back to loathing how Ubuntu renders on-screen fonts. Uggggggh.