Choosing a Drive to Burn to in iDVD 5

From my latest Mac Help Article, Choosing a Drive to Burn to in iDVD 5:

With the release of iDVD 5.0 (in the iLife '05 suite of Apple's apps), Apple finally enabled disk image burning and burning to external drives. Unfortunately, you cannot currently choose which drive you'd like to burn your DVD to if you have more than one DVD-burning optical drive. According to a reader of this website, the Hack/Easter Egg I explained here fulfills this role!

If you would like to choose which drive to burn to on a multi-burner Mac with iDVD 5.0, please read the following directions. iDVD will remember your drive selection, so you need not follow these procedures every time you'd like to do a new burn (unless, of course, you need to switch drives).

For the rest of the page (including step-by-step instructions), click here.

Show and Hide Drive Icons on Mac OS X Desktop

I was recently asked via email:

"I have a quick Mac question. Is it possible to hide the hard drive icon from the desktop? In both OS9 and OSX. If you can, how can the administrator access it or restore it?

This is, in fact, very easy to do. When you are in the Finder (click on the Finder icon in the Dock to be sure), click the "Finder" menu and select "Preferences...". Once the preferences window shows up, click on the "General" button at the top. You can control what you see on your Desktop by checking or unchecking the items under "Show these items on the Desktop:".

You can choose to view or hide Hard Drive icons, CDs, DVDs and iPods, and Connected Servers.

This may be useful for you if you like a perfectly clean Desktop or if you would rather not have a user see the hard drive or other media connected to your Mac (maybe, say, your child or a friend who is using your computer). There are also many other useful options you can choose in the Finder Preferences, including how long it takes to open spring-loaded folders, what view windows open in by default, Finder window sidebar options, and more.

Search Mac Help for "Finder Preferences" for more information.

Use Your Old PowerBook or iBook's Trackpad for Scrolling

In addition to SideTrack and uControl, you can now install a replacement mouse driver on a pre-2005 G4 PowerBook or iBook and scroll using the trackpad the same way you would with a new PowerBook G4:

From Apple.com:
"Scrolling through web pages or large documents on a trackpad can challenge even the most nimble fingers. That’s why every PowerBook G4 features a new trackpad with scrolling capability. Just drag two fingers over the trackpad to scroll vertically and horizontally or pan around any active window. Change this feature to suit your needs: Customize your trackpad settings or turn off scrolling completely via System Preferences."

If you go to this website (iScroll2), you will find a downloadable installer that enables this new scrolling functionality on older iBooks and PowerBooks, as long as you have a new kind of trackpad (use this utility to check if you have a supported trackpad). To install the trackpad driver, go to this website and follow the directions for downloading and installing the driver found on the page. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it works great for me! I love being able to scroll horizontally using the trackpad like I can with my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 while I'm at my desk. Kudos to the author of that web page!

Review: Assignment Planner (for school, work and more!)

About one year ago, I found a gem of an application. I was browsing apps on MacUpdate.com when I noticed one app that looked promising: Assignment Planner. I downloaded a beta version, and, although it was fairly rough at the time, it looked nice and was helpful for me.

The App

I emailed the app's developer, Logan Rockmore, with some suggestions I had (things like allowing people to use the keyboard to create new entries and enter information, tabbing between fields, making it integrated with iCal, etc.), and Logan was very appreciative of the help and worked with me to squash every bug I found and implement every feasible feature I could imagine. This app is free -- it shows a 'please donate' screen when you start it up for a few seconds -- and it runs very well on any Mac I've used it on.

It is very easy to manage your courses, your GPA, your assignments, and integrate everything with iCal (enabling iPod-syncing!) using this program. I have been using it for over one year now, and I have only had occassional problems with the spinning beachball, but most problems have been solved with the version 1.3 release; those that have not been solved will be soon enough, I'm sure, because Logan really does care about this app, and he tries to make it the best Schoolwork management app possible. Here's the app's description (from MacUpdate.com):

"This simple application stores all of your Courses and Textbooks, and allows you to add homework assignments to any of them. Easy completion is included, so you only have to view what homework you have left to do. You can even integrate your assignments with iCal and move them to your iPod, for carrying around school. This is a simple and easy-to-use application thats great for College or High School students."

The Verdict

I agree 100% with everything he has to say. It is a simple app that takes up very little space and works like a Mac program should. It is a must-have app for any student who uses a Mac and needs to keep track of assignments. You can download the program here.

Microsoft Employees - Favor Apple iPod Over Dozens of MS-Compatibles

From Wired News:

"Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

I think it's a good sign that the iPod is better than any Windows-Media-Compatible devices when the employees of the competing company use it! I personally attest to this fact. I would not trade my iPod for any other player, for the simple fact that it is so easy to use, and it stores a complete backup of every document I have on my system (besides the video stuff, which takes up nearly 150 GB of space right now...).