20 leopard tricks (and some oldies)

I was inspired by some of the recent postings of iPhone tips and tricks to post some for Mac OS X, most of which appear to be relatively unknown. This list includes the Dock, Application Switcher, Spaces, Screen Capture, Menu Extras, and Exposé. Most of these are new to Leopard, but some are oldies, but goodies that few people seem to know about. In completely chaotic order:

1. Dock springing. If you drag a file and hover over Dock items, various useful things happen which are similar to Finder springing. If it's a window, the window un-minimizes from the Dock. If it's a stack, the corresponding folder in the Finder opens. If it's the Finder, it brings the Finder to the foreground and opens a window if one doesn't exist already. But the coolest (and most hidden) springing trick is if you hover over an application and press spacebar, the application comes to the foreground. This is great for things like grabbing a file from somewhere to drop into a Mail compose window. Start with your Mail compose window up on the screen, then go locate the file, hover over the Mail icon, hit spacebar, and Mail comes to the front for you to drop the file into the compose window. Note you have to have springing ON in Finder Preferences (or use spacebar).
   
2. Drag switching in spaces. If you drag a window to the edge of the screen and pause for a moment, it will switch to the space in that direction. A great time saver that avoids using the keyboard.
3. You can drag and drop files onto application icons in the Application Switcher. Pick up the file, hit Command-Tab, drop onto the application. Can be really useful if you have tons of items in the Dock and you know you want to open something with an application you have running.
4. Exposé springing. This has been around for awhile, but few people know about it. In All Windows or Application Windows mode, you can hover over a window while dragging a file, pause for a moment (or hit space bar) and that window will spring to the foreground.
5. The Exposé All Windows mode works in Spaces overview mode. Hit F8, then F9 to see minimized versions of all your windows in all spaces.
6. Combining #4 and #5 is another great trick. Drag a file, hit F8 to go into Spaces overview mode, hit F9 to Exposé all the windows, hover over the window you want and wait a moment or press spacebar, and both that space and that window come to the foreground, ready for you to drop the file.
7. Using the Mighty Mouse scroll button can be a great Application Switcher. Configure this in Keyboard and Mouse preferences. Then, press the scroll button to bring up Application Switcher, scroll to select the application you want, and hit the scroll button again to switch. Very quick and easy. Double-click the scroll button to quickly switch to the previously active application.
8. Shift-drag from the Dock separator to quickly move the Dock to different sides of the screen.
9. Hold down Ctrl+Shift to temporarily toggle the Dock's magnify setting. This can be useful in both directions.
10. Hit Ctrl+F3 to enter the Dock's keyboard access mode. From there, you can use type-ahead to select an item and Return to open it. This works on applications, documents, and stacks. Also, various keys like the arrow keys, home, end, and many others can be used. Use Esc to exit this mode. Can be interesting to use as a quick application launcher, especially if you change the keyboard shortcut to something easier to hit.
11. Option-click an item in an open stack to keep the stack open.
12. Type ahead, Tab, and arrow keys can be used to select items in open stacks. Hit Return to launch them.
13. Ctrl-click on a stack to reveal a wide variety of configuration options.
14. Holding down F9, F10, F11, or F12 for an extended period of time, then releasing the key, allows you to briefly enter that mode and leave it without having to press the key again. Very useful for Dashboard in particular.
15. After pressing Command-Shift-4 to enter Screen Capture mode, space bar will select an entire window (and the resulting screenshot will have a nice drop shadow), holding down space bar will allow you to move the selection rectangle after you've dragged a selection, and option and shift will constrain the selection rectangle around a center point or vertically/horizontally as you drag the selection.
    
16. Command-drag menu extras to rearrange them or remove them from the menu bar.
17. Command-drag a window in Spaces will drag all windows associated with that application to a new space. Ctrl-drag will do the same thing, in addition to preserving the same screen position in the space in which you drop the windows.
    
18. In Exposé mode (F9 or F10), hitting Tab repeatedly will cycle through windows for one application at a time.
19. Holding down Command while dragging an item to the Dock will temporarily disable the Dock trying to make space for the dragged item.
20. Ctrl-click on the Dock separator to bring up a menu with configuration options.
    

Enjoy!

embarrased to live in mountain view

The Mountain View city council, trying to protect us from horrific injuries and almost certain death, has decided to ban Segway scooters from city sidewalks:

Segways banned on Mountain View sidewalks

Next up is apparently a possible ban on bicycles on sidewalks. What about Razor scooters or people running? I bet either of those could get up in the neighborhood of 12 miles per hour. What about people in wheelchairs?

Or, more importantly, what about retaining even the most minuscule shreds of freedom that remain in this terrified-of-everything, lawsuit-happy country? I guess it's better and safer that we all just drive in our cars instead and not get any exercise and continue to use as much gas and oil as possible.

Just like the ridiculous cell phone ban, this is another attempt to make it illegal to do something that MIGHT hurt someone or MIGHT be a crime. I suggest that we stick to going after ACTUAL crimes, a concept that appears lost on even a supposedly progressive town like Mountain View.

deflation: a fate worse than death

The latest danger the government (with the help of the media) is trumping up is the so-called 'danger' of deflation (i.e. prices falling). Deflation is bad for government, because it unravels the houses of cards and pyramid schemes that they cleverly call 'government programs' or 'investments'. With deflation, people will pay less actual dollars in taxes (because wages won't rise and prices for products with taxes on them won't rise), so it's a huge danger only for government or other entities or people that are massively in debt. With inflation, it's easy to pay back debt because dollars in the future are worth less than dollars were worth at the time you created the debt.

Don't believe the latest in a long string of scare tactics (the threat of international terrorism, the worst financial crisis since the great depression, the loss of millions of jobs if the auto industry fails, etc) that are engineered to convince you to give up more of your rights and more of your tax dollars to line the pockets of politically powerful interests.

obama pros and cons so far

I have to admit I'm surprised by some of Obama's early moves after winning the election and most of the surprises are not good ones, although the alternative most likely would have been worse.

Positive surprise:

1. His plan to give trials to all Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Score one for the Constitution and for humanity in general.

Negative surprises:

1. Wants to bail out the auto industry, which is failing because of their inability to see trends that 8-year olds could have seen coming decades ago. If he cares about renewable energy and climate change (as he says he does), let planet-destroying companies fail and the void will be easily filled.
   
2. Plans to use executive orders to reverse Bush administration executive orders. The right way to do this is with Congress passing bills and for the President to sign them. The balance of power needs to restored to prevent future Presidents from abusing power.
   
3. He believes the neo-con lie that the biggest threat to the world is international terrorism. Until we get over this nonsense, we won't be able to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries, which will perpetuate the hatred fostered during the past 60 years under both Democrat and Republican presidents (mostly Democrat, not to be partisan, but it sometimes surprises people to realize that fact).
4. The inauguration will have "free speech zones" just like the Bush administration was famous for (and profoundly criticized for). Now, there's no outrage because a good guy is in charge. Hypocrisy. I suggest the whole country be designated a free speech zone like in the good old days of 8 years ago. Oh, I forgot, we face the threat of international terrorism!
   

The litmus test for granting government new powers should be: How would you feel about granting this power to George W Bush? If you wouldn't, then don't grant it to Obama or Congress or the Judiciary, because at some point down the road, one or more of the branches may be controlled by people with no humanity. That's why the Constitution is a brilliant document that we should start following again.

my townhouse renovation is complete

In a previous posting, I talked about my planned renovation of a townhouse in Santa Cruz where I used to live.

I've put up some stunning before and after photos of all the rooms in the house. It's currently available for rent, so contact me if interested!

vote NO on everything by default

Every election cycle, California and other states put propositions on the ballot. The best rule of thumb, in my opinion, is to vote NO by default unless you have read and analyzed the entire text of the proposition and all the arguments FOR and AGAINST. As with almost everything associated with government, the primary goal is to take money from taxpayers and to funnel it to those who funded their campaigns, as well as their friends, family, and business associates. So your best bet is to vote NO by default, since most of them involve spending huge amounts of money over decades (mostly interest). Here's how I plan to vote:

• Proposition 1A - High Speed Rail: NO. Mass transit is great and we need more of it, but regional transit is significantly more important and our money is much better spent getting people to and from work every day than on transporting people across greater distances. Even if the proposition were focused on our severely lacking regional transit, the proposition is an open-ended spending of money with no actual plans, timetable, or promise of completion. There is no mention of an open bidding process, which is a red flag that the money will be funneled to companies chosen by legislators not based on merit.
• Proposition 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals: YES. I'd much rather see a proposition that required companies to fully disclose everything about their operations and allow public visitation of all their facilities at any time, because that would quickly bankrupt the inhumane companies and the problem would solve itself. In the absence of that, I would support this because it allows farmers to compete on a level playing field, and I think that's one area that government can serve a useful and positive purpose without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
• Proposition 3 - Children's Hospital Bond Act: NO. Adding to an already huge mountain of debt so that morally corrupt corporations can get another windfall of money (like with the recent federal prescription drug bill) is something we can't stand for. The fact that the proposition authors use children as bait so they can line their pockets more is pretty twisted.
• Proposition 4 - Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy: NO. Government and abortion should have nothing to do with each other. The nation will always be deeply divided on the issue, which means the government should stay out of it.
• Proposition 5 - Non-violent Drug Offenses: YES. People should never be incarcerated for victimless 'crimes' and this is a modest step in the right direction.
• Proposition 6 - Police and Law Enforcement Funding: NO. We don't need to waste taxpayer money throwing more people in jail for victimless 'crimes'. This proposition has some of the most asinine shit in it, like requiring gang members to register with local law enforcement. If you want to reduce crime, legalize drugs and all other victimless crimes. When someone harms someone ELSE or their property, that's a crime.
  
• Proposition 7 - Renewable Energy Generation: NO. We'd all be using renewable energy for everything by now if not for government involvement. If we stop subsidizing oil and stop subsidizing government-selected replacements which all suck (ethanol, hydrogen, etc), there will be a level playing field and renewable energy will win because it's better, cleaner, and cheaper (when it's not competing against subsidized alternatives).
• Proposition 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry: NO. Government can't take away human rights unless another person is harmed.
• Proposition 9 - Criminal Justice System. Victims' Rights. Parole: NO. This is completely unnecessary. We have a court system and it's imperfect and you just have to accept that, no matter how horrific the crimes are that people sometimes commit.
• Proposition 10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy: NO. Same reasoning as voting NO on Proposition 7. We'll have an amazing future of alternative fuel and renewable energy if the government stays out of it.
• Proposition 11 - Redistricting: NO. Redistricting should not be intertwined with politics.
  
• Proposition 12 - Veterans Bond Act of 2008: NO. Life sucks for many people, regardless of whether they served in the military or not. If I get shot as an innocent bystander in a drug-related shooting, where's my low-interest loan? Government shouldn't be involved in slippery slopes.

So, for the first time in many years, I'm actually voting YES on some of the propositions. One day maybe we'll have a proposition that mandates a balanced budget and a fixed timetable for paying off all state debts. Then, we can create an endowment with the budget surplus and know that future generations will have a better life rather than a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it.

both parties are to blame

Yet more evidence that both major parties are the same and both are to blame for everything that's a major screwup in the last century is this article from the New York Times from 1999, which explains the origins of the subprime crisis:

Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending

The key point here are that it was under pressure from the Clinton administration that this took place, which flies in the face of the typical knee-jerk Democrat response that everything in the last 8 years in Bush's fault. Freddie Mac was created during FDR's presidency with a strongly Democratic congress. Fannie Mae was created under Nixon with a Democratic congress. The takeover of them recently as well as the bailouts of various banks and investment firms were supported by both parties. Both Presidential candidates support the bailout. The Bush administration supports the bailout. The Democratic congress supports the bailout.

Both parties are to blame and it's the unholy alliance of government and private corporations (or pseudo-private corporations) that is the cause of the problem and their solution is a stronger unholy alliance between government and selected giant corporations. How fair is that to companies that play by the rules and don't risk the loss of their customers' assets and homes in the relentless pursuit of profits? Companies that make stupid, selfish decisions should go bankrupt, not be propped up. Then they get bought up by smarter companies and life goes on. The scare tactics of saying there will be a global economic meltdown will only lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy as the media parrots this in every article about the bailout as if it's fact. If everyone panics, we WILL have a global economic meltdown.

A very telling event during the debate in the House this past week was the shouting out of how far the Dow was dropping as dissenters were airing their opinions on the House floor. Further proof that the bailout is about Wall Street and juicing up the stock market and not about preventing an imagined global economic meltdown.

The bailout will pass, it will cost far more than projected, it will never pay for itself, and we'll need another unholy alliance in the next decade to fix the mess it created. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yet another reason to completely reject both parties (who have melded into one) and vote third party in this and future elections.