mark.bockenstedt.net » Mac

How to Move, Copy in Leopard with Drag and Drop

Mark — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:11:03 +0000

When you’re moving files around in Leopard, there’s no real consistent way that the files get moved. When moving files locally, they seem to move on when dragged around. When putting files onto a remote location, they seem to get copied by default. Here’s two ways to override those defaults.

Copy

While you’re dragging something, hold down the Alt/Option key. You should see a plus sign appear by your cursor. Hold that key down until you release the mouse to copy files.

Move

To move files, hold down the Command key while dragging and dropping. You shouldn’t see a plus sign near the cursor when moving files.

Disable Bonjour in Cyberduck

Mark — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:32:49 +0000

Every time I load up Cyberduck, I get flooded with Bonjour Growl notifications. Since I never use Bonjour with Cyberduck, I figured it’s acceptable to disable it. It’s a simple Terminal command, like so many other things are in the Mac world. To disable Bonjour, fire up Terminal and execute this command:

defaults write ch.sudo.cyberduck rendezvous.enable false

If you want to re-enable Bonjour, do the same command but change false to true.

VMware Fusion VMs as Apps

Mark — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:54:40 +0000

Mac OS X: Last week I showed how to create VirtualBox VMs as applications. This week, I’m trying out VMware Fusion to see if it’s better or worse than VirtualBox. I’m trying to shoot for the same experience as the VirtualBox machines, so I needed to figure out how to create an App using AppleScript so I could put the VM on the Dock.

Create VM

This step is obvious, but necessary. Get everything in your VM set up how you want it, including opening it in Full Screen mode if you wish. Fusion seems to remember your last view, so killing your VM while it’s in full screen will open it next time in that mode. Plus, it saves on AppleScript that I really don’t like (setting delays before going to fullscreen).

Write Script to Create Application

If you remember the script for VirtualBox, it was very short:

do shell script "vboxmanage startvm Ubuntu"

The script for Fusion is slightly more complex, but still not too bad:

tell application "System Events"
    if UI elements enabled then
        open "~/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Ubuntu.vmwarevm"
    else
        display dialog "Can't start VM"
    end if
end tell

In order for this to work, you need to have the “Enable access for assistive devices” box in System Preferences -> Universal access checked. I’m not sure why, but you just do. The else clause here is just so you have some feedback in case your VM doesn’t want to start.

Once you’ve entered the script above (substituting the correct path to your VM), save it as an application. I save all my custom apps to /Users/mark/Applications, but the path is arbitrary.

Change App Icon (Optional)

Check out this post on how to change an application icon.

Put on Dock (Optional)

I don’t think I have to explain how to do this if you’re messing around with virtualization.

VirtualBox Icons for Ubuntu, Windows

Mark — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:21:06 +0000

After creating my VirtualBox applications and slapping them on the Dock, I decided that I didn’t like the default VirtualBox icon for those apps. The problem was exacerbated when I put them next to each other, making them indistinguishable at a quick glance. I figured out how to change the icons for those virtual machines, and here’s how I did it.

I downloaded these two transparent .png files, then converted them to .icns files using img2icns. Once I had the two .icns files, I was able to open the info panel on the virtual machine apps I created using Command-I (I as in Info). The final step is to drag the appropriate .icns icon file over the current icon in the upper left of the information panel. I wasn’t sure how to refresh the Dock’s icons, so i just whacked them from the Dock and put them back on. Voila, I’ve got nice fancy dock icons.

Icon Files:

ubuntu-logo-transparent128.icns

windows-logo-transparent128.icns

Create VirtualBox VMs as Apps

Mark — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:00:03 +0000

Mac OS X: If you want to launch a VirtualBox machine directly as an application, you’ll need to know some basic AppleScript. Open Script Editor and enter the following:

do shell script "vboxmanage startvm Ubuntu"

Substitute Ubuntu for the name of your virtual machine. If you’ve got a machine with a space in the name, you’ll have to escape the space with the \ character. Then, save your script as an application instead of a script. You don’t need to check any of the three options boxes. When you’ve saved your new app, you can drag it to the Dock, change its icon, etc as if it’s just another application.

Follow-up: If you want to change the icons for these apps, check out this post

mark.bockenstedt.net » Mac

How to Move, Copy in Leopard with Drag and Drop

Copy

Move

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VMware Fusion VMs as Apps

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