If you have been a regular user of Spotify (on desktop), you should know that it caches your playlist in the local hard disk so it can quickly playback the songs without having to stream from their server again. However, if you are running low on hard disk space, you might want to clear the cache to make way for more important documents. The Spotify desktop client doesn’t come with a way to clear the cache. Here is how you can clear Spotify cache in Windows, Mac and Linux.
While I was looking some video related to Linux I’ve found this video of gotbletu an user that I follow on Youtube, related to a small player to listen music directly from the terminal: pms AKA Poor Man’s Spotify.
I like lightweight clients, and so I’ve gave it a try, these are the results.
Note that this is a Python script, and therefore should run on any platform that has Python 2.7 or 3 installed.
OS X includes a number of commands in various system and application menus which give you quick access to file and windows management. In addition to these, there are also hidden options which can be found by holding the “Option“, “Shift and ”Command” keys with the various menus open.
Along with all these commands, there are several useful, but somewhat unfortunately hidden behaviours which can be beneficial to some people. These behaviours include information about various system controls, manipulating items in Spotlight and moving windows around on screen.
We’ve compiled 8 of the most useful tips for Mac OS X, so check them out:
This thread contains information on the buggy XBMC version 12.3 for OS X, and a couple of suggestions for reverting back to XBMC 12.2, which will fix the problem for now. This issue does NOT appear to be present in Linux versions of XBMC 12.3.
This is the program we always install first in any new Linux-based installation, and if for some reason we can’t install it, that system tends to get blown away and replaced by a different version of Linux (or whatever) almost immediately. Not being able to install Midnight Commander is kind of a deal-breaker around here.
File browsing in a Linux terminal is alright, but it could be so much better. Midnight Commander is the program you’re looking for – it gives you a two-paned file browser that makes working in the terminal so much easier. And the best part? It’s simple to get and use.
We’ll just add that even some Mac OS X users are apparently lost without Midnight Commander, since an older article on installing it under OS X is still one of the most popular on this site, even though for day-to-day use, we would think that most OS X users would be happier with the more recent versions of XtraFinder, which now includes dual pane functionality (and it’s free!). As for Windows users, there is always the venerable Total Commander.
When you first attach a hard drive to your Mac, it should automatically mount and be ready to use; however before relying on it, you should consider taking a couple of precautionary steps to ensure that the drive continues to work as expected.
Note: This guide is for those whose drive isn’t really working with their Mac, or those who want to set up their drive to work specifically work on OS X. By default, most drives should work with both Windows and OS X unless specified otherwise.)
We’re all incredibly reliant on our internet connections these days, but sometimes those connections aren’t so reliable. Whether it’s due to an ISP failure, a router being down, someone tripping over a cord somewhere, or whatever other occurrence, it can be frustrating to wait for a downed internet connection to come alive again. We’ve all known users who simply hit the “refresh” button on a web browser repeatedly to see when things revive, but there is a better way. Users who are comfortable with the command line can use a better solution, which utilizes the ping tool to detect an active internet connection and the text-to-speech say command to verbally announce when things are live again. Be sure to have the volume turned up on the Mac to use this.
It should be noted that with only slight modification you could use this same technique to monitor a specific site that is down, and notify you when it comes back up. The article and reader comments also show how to receive other types of notifications, in case you are in a situation where you can’t hear a voice alert, or it would be unappreciated by others nearby.
Perhaps you have noticed that they don’t make monitor power switches the way they used to – in the past they were a large button prominently featured on the front of the monitor, but on newer models they tend to be small and harder to locate, and sometimes difficult to press. But since LED monitors draw very little power in sleep state, many people simply go into the Energy Saver settings, and set the Display Sleep value to something relatively low. But for some users, that’s an imperfect solution, because if you set it too low it might cut out on you whenever you take a brief pause from whatever you’re doing. On the other hand, if you set it too high, it might display an image when you don’t really want it to.
Another solution for OS X users is to use Hot Corners, one of which will put the display to sleep instantly. But some users hate Hot Corners, because it is much too easy to inadvertently activate one. Fortunately, for those users there is another solution, and it is found in a program called Sleep Display. While the description of Sleep Display might lead you to believe that the last supported version of OS X was Snow Leopard, we can attest to the fact that it works in Lion (though you need to press a key, such as the shift key, to wake up the display – moving the mouse won’t always do it), and there’s probably no reason it wouldn’t work Mavericks. All you do is click on the apps’s icon and the display goes to sleep. In case you wonder how it works, it’s probably just an updated version of this.
The only thing we didn’t like about Sleep Display is that it had a generic application icon, but since changing icons in OS X is easy we just created a new one in a graphics program and used the free lite version of Img2icns to convert it to proper OS X icons. Unfortunately, we can’t share it with you because it includes an image of a copyrighted cartoon cat sleeping on a pillow (which we placed in front of the image of a monitor screen, so the sleeping cat blocks the view of the display, just as a real cat might do), and even though the image we started with can be easily located using a Google image search, we don’t have the deep pockets of Google and we’d rather not get sued. It’s kind of sad that even a mashed-up icon might be lawyer bait these days, but such are the times we live in.
In case you have the opposite problem, and your display goes to sleep even when you don’t want it to, just go into the Energy Saver settings and set the Display Sleep value to Never (or a high value, such as 3 hours, if that works for you). That will stop OS X from putting the display to sleep after a short fixed delay, so it will never put the display to sleep when you don’t want it to, but you can still put it to sleep instantly any time you like using the Sleep Display app.
And just to avoid confusion, we are talking about putting the display to sleep here, not the entire computer. That feature is sometimes called “hibernation” and while that’s also an option for some users, there are others that need to leave the computer on 24/7 even if they don’t want the display on constantly. It’s this latter group that this article is aimed toward.
BONUS HINT: If you bought a new monitor on Black Friday and it has a bright pixel, a.k.a. a stuck pixel, you might be able to fix it without returning it to the store. We are not saying this is a good idea, but if you are very careful not to use too much force, it’s sometimes possible to fix the pixel yourself, and if not then you can probably still return it:
The only thing we would say different from the advice given is that you should never put any hard object directly against the display, since you might scratch it or worse. In our case, when the software method failed to produce results (always try that first!), we used a rounded pencil eraser and placed a (non-perfumed el cheapo) facial tissue over the screen so the eraser could not touch the screen directly, and tapped lightly in the area of the bright pixel a few times, and it cleared the pixel (we also had a software fix running over the pixel area at the time, specifically this one). The trick is to use a light touch, so that you do not make things worse! If somebody in the next room says “What’s that tapping noise?” then you are doing it much too hard! And you certainly don’t want to mess up the display so badly that the store won’t exchange it.
[notice]The use of services such as Tunlr, that provide access to geographically-blocked websites and services you might not normally be able to access, may be illegal in some jurisdictions. We are not lawyers, so cannot comment further on this. You are responsible for knowing your local laws.[/notice]
Tunlr is a service that describes itself as follows:
Do you want to stream video or audio from U.S.-based on-demand Internet streaming media providers but can’t get in on the fun because you’re living outside the U.S.? Fear not, you have come to the right place. Tunlr lets you stream content from sites like Netflix, Hulu, MTV, CBS, ABC, Pandora and more to your Mac or PC. Want to watch Netflix or HuluPlus on your iPad, AppleTV or XBox 360 even though you’re not in the U.S.? Tunlr lets you do this.
If you are in the U.S., Tunlr may allow you to access certain sites in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. It does not yet allow access to sites in Canada (pity). Again, we are specifically not saying that it is legal to to this, since were are not lawyers and cannot give legal advice.
You utilize Tunlr by setting your computer’s or router’s DNS addresses to Tunlr, but Tunlr does not want you to do this except when you are actually accessing content. As their FAQ explains:
Why you shouldn’t set your DNS permanently to Tunlr
For speed, stability, privacy and security reasons we do not recommend to permanently set your computer’s or router’s DNS addresses to Tunlr. Setting the DNS permanently to Tunlr also puts a heavy strain on Tunlr’s network infrastructure. In order to render the permanent use of our DNS resolvers less attractive, we’re artificially delaying responses to DNS queries. What this means is that your Internet surfing experience will be a lot slower than if you’d just use your Internet service provider’s DNS resolver. However, your ability to download/stream audio or video content is not affected by this delay. To sum it up: do not use our DNS resolver for day to day web surfing.
The FAQ shows “links for more ideas about how to temporarily use our DNS resolver” and they do show some suggestions for OS X, but at this writing none of those links show the easiest way. When you use the method described below, you will be able to simply click on the Apple logo in the top menu bar and select Tunlr as your DNS, or switch from Tunlr back to your usual DNS, like this:
Selecting Tunlr DNS from the Apple dropdown menu
Note that when you switch DNS servers in OS X your network connection will be momentarily interrupted, so you probably don’t want to do this while you have downloads or uploads in progress.
So, how do you set this up? It’s relatively simple. Go To System Preferences (which is another selection in the Apple menu shown above), and when it comes up, in the Internet & Wireless section click on Network. You should then see a screen similar to this:
System Preferences | Network settings
This image is from a system with only a wired ethernet connection – you may see additional connections. But in the left-hand menu you want to select the connection you’ll be using while using Tunlr, which is probably your wired (en0) connection unless you use wireless exclusively.
Before you go any further, click the Advanced button in the lower right corner, then on the next screen click the Proxies tab at the top:
Advanced Network settings, Proxy tab
What you want to see is what’s currently in the “Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains” text box. If there is anything in that box, copy it and save it somewhere – you can open a TextEdit window and paste it in there temporarily if necessary. Next, at the top, click on the Location dropdown and it should give you the option to Edit Locations, so select that:
Adding a new location
Next you should see a popup window showing your existing locations:
Popup to add new locations
Click the + in the popup and it should let you enter a new location, so enter Tunlr:
Adding new Tunlr location
Click Done and the new location will be added. At this point it is not configured so you will likely be thrown offline, and you’ll see something like this:
New Tunlr location created but not yet configured
Next click the Advanced button and go to the DNS tab, then click on the + and add the two Tunlr DNS addresses (69.197.169.9 and 192.95.16.109) as shown here:
Network settings, DNS tab with Tunlr proxies entered
After adding the two Tunlr proxies, click OK and then click Advanced again and go to the Proxies tab. What you want to do here is paste in any proxy information you copied from your original network connection back into the “Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains” text box. So, copy that from TextEdit or wherever you saved it and paste it in here — it should look exactly as it did for the original connection:
Advanced Network settings, Proxy tab
Click OK and you should be taken back to the main Network settings window. Now it should show the two Tunlr DNS addresses:
Network settings, Tunlr location with Tunlr DNS addresses configured
The last thing to do is click Apply, which should enable the Tunlr location and start using the Tunlr DNS:
Network settings, Tunlr location configured and connected
Note that the dot next to your network connection should have changed from yellow to green. Now open your web browser and go to the Tunlr status page (you can just click on that link). You are looking for the section near the bottom of the page headed Tunlr activation check, which should tell you whether or not Tunlr is activated.
Note that even if it says that you need to restart your device or computer after you change the DNS address, that is NOT true when you use this method. Instead, when you want to access geographically-locked content that Tunlr knows about, you simply go to the Apple menu and select the Tunlr location, and when you are done accessing that content you go back the the same menu and select the Automatic location (or whatever your default location is called). Just keep in mind that any time you change locations, any in-progress communications (downloads or uploads) will be interrupted, and depending on the software and/or protocols used, you may need to restart those connections.
Mosh(mobile shell) is Remote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo and line editing of user keystrokes.
Mosh is a replacement for SSH. It’s more robust and responsive, especially over Wi-Fi, cellular, and long-distance links.
Mosh is free software, available for GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Android.
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