Create an AirPlay Speaker

If you’ve been reading Kibbles and Bytes over the past few months, you might have noticed I’ve written more than once about power…

If the sadness and shock of the terrorist attacks in Paris were not enough, I was in shock this week as Islamaphobia and fear overwhelmed politicians and citizens. Some politicians were tripping over themselves to stoke the flames of fear by turning on the Syrian refugees. I don’t know about you but if I lived in Syria and there was a war in my neighborhood with madmen from both sides going berserk, I’d be a refugee, too. Oh, by the way, did you know that Steve Jobs father was a Syrian refugee?

This was seemingly fueled by what turns out to be a very sketchy report that one of the terrorists posed as a refugee. That has since been discredited but the conclusion jumping was already in full swing. Some politicians tried even to separate their distain for refugees by religion but there is no religion that makes terrorism its creed and there have been terrorist from many religions. It is when hypocritical fanatics of any religion feel that they can impose their will upon others that conflicts arise.

Way back when the USA was young, our friends in France sent us a gift. The Statue of Liberty proudly stands by our shores with the inscription that defines who we are as a nation:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to be free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

When we succumb to the fear the terrorists win. When we change who we are, the terrorists have won. When we let prejudice trump common sense, the terrorists have won. We must lead by example and the example of shunning refugees is the wrong one. In the height of the worst terror since WWII, President Hollande of France recommitted to taking Syrian refugees saying “We have to reinforce our borders while remaining true to our values.”

We cannot change who we are – unless you are a native American, you are a descendant of refugees and immigrants. This anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-refugee wave of fear is unAmerican and is born of ignorance and hate.

How do you feel about this trend towards exclusion of refugees and immigrants? Share your opinion at our blog – blog.smalldog.com

End Soapbox

I have been doing more onsite installations and lessons down here in Key West. So many times as I start to help a…

What image do you have behind the login menu when you start up? Classically, depending on the exact version of Mac OS X you are using, you have one of the “universe” images. This image can be replaced on your system with a picture of your choice. To replace the image you see as the default desktop behind the login window, find a .jpg file that you want for your new back round.

Duplicate the image, preferably an image the same resolution as your machine default display resolution, and name the new file “DefaultDesktop.” Open a new finder window and navigate to *(NameofyourHD) > System > Library > CoreServices.* Drag and drop your new DefaultDesktop image into the Core Services folder.

When you release, you will be asked if you want to replace the existing file first and then to authenticate as an Admin User secondarily. The next time you restart and before you log in, you will see that image behind the login window.

Apple says:
end what’s on your Mac screen to an HDTV wirelessly with Apple TV. Mirroring is great for classrooms, conference rooms, and your living room.

Are you one of those people who have old iOS devices laying around your house just waiting to be brought to the recyclers or given to a friend in need? I have always kept my old devices as a backup in case I ever need to send my new one out for repair.

For those of you planning on upgrading your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch soon, you might rethink selling or recycling it, and instead, turn it into a home security system. Huh? Yes, you heard me.

With a new app by “*People Power*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presence-by-people-power/id618598211?mt=8 you can easily make an old iOS device your new home security system. The system supports the iPad 2 and newer, iPod touch (5th gen.) and newer and iPhone 3GS and newer.

The app is called “*Presence*;”:http://peoplepowerco.com/products/ it’s free and it has some seriously great reviews. All you need to do is download the app on at least two devices, connect over Wi-Fi and set up your device in the desired spot you wish to watch. You can then set up specific alerts for when motion has been detected.

The alerts might be for when your kids get home from school, if someone breaks into your apartment, or maybe you have elderly parents who you’d like to make sure are up and moving that day. Throw a waterproof case on the phone and you can set it up outside and get video clips to see what kind of animal is eating your freshly sprouted blueberries.

People Power will soon have a subscription, allowing you to upgrade to Presence Pro for more storage and added features. Even if you don’t feel the need to monitor any activity going on, it might be fun just to play around with the app since it is free, and who knows, you may just find a cool use for it!

I love Lion. So far it is my favorite iteration of Mac OS X, but it does have some annoying features. In my internet wanderings yesterday I came across an article with instructions on how to get rid of the rubber-band effect which occurs when you scroll to the very bottom or top of a page. This effect will make the page scroll a little bit past the end point then bounce back. It’s a nice little bit of eye-candy, but not really necessary.

You can easily turn this effect off by entering a simple Terminal command (which I’ll list below) and then press “enter”. As always, do this at your own risk. Mucking about in Terminal can cause irreparable harm to your OS if you do something you shouldn’t. Make sure you have a good backup before you make any changes like this to your system. Here’s the text you need to enter:

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

You can revert to the original setting by entering the following and then press enter:

defaults delete -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding

You’ll need to relaunch any applications that display the rubber-banding in order for this to take effect. Unfortunately, it will not affect Safari. Should I find a way to get rid of the rubber-band in Safari, I’ll update this article.

You can read the original article here.