• Mac OS X

    Speed Up ScreenSharing

    Screen Sharing over a WAN can be a bit slow. But you can send less data and receive a less latent connection. To do so, you are going to augment the controlObserveQuality key of the com.apple.ScreenSharing.plist property list. If you set the key to a 1, which I see commonly suggested then it will be black and white, which in todays world is another way of saying practically illegible. Instead try the number 2, which sets it to grey scale, which is pretty good (that’s what I use). To do so run: defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing controlObserveQuality 2 You can also set the controlObserveQuality key to 3, 4 or 5 which…

  • Mac OS X

    Advanced Features of the Mac OS X Calculator

    The Calculator application in Mac OS X is pretty handy beyond the basic 10-key functions that most people use.  As with many things from Apple you can make things much more complicated than the easy to use, basic screens that Apple provides.  For example, did you know that Calculator can perform binary, hexadecimal, ASCII and Unicode conversions?  To do so, click on the View menu and select Programmer (or use Command-3 to open the view.  You can also stop carrying around that old TI-85 you’ve been using for years (to some degree) to calculate those random tangents from time to time. One of the best parts of Calculator is that…