computer history
Weekly Tips, Tricks, Gadgets, and Goodies #1
I think I’ll try and start a weekly tips, tricks, gadgets and goodies post. It will cover the neat-o things in the tech world that I come across during the week that don’t have a whole lot to do with history, but are fun nay-the-less.
Tip #1: Custom Leopard stacks and drawer images
Tutorial for customizing your stacks icons.
make a new folder, name it “0000″ for sorting by name, or “touch -mt 2020010101 foldername” for sorting by date added.
copy the image from Get Info, paste int onto the Get Info for the new folder.
Add your own image to your drawer using the steps shown here at usingmac.com.
And you get something like above.
Goody #1: Geotag your photos
Check out the Geotag application which is helpful for spatially locating your great photographs when your camera has no GPS built in.
New face, new forum
For the one or two besides me who actually visit the site, you’ll notice a change in looks. I stumbled upon this theme a few days ago, and thought to give it a try. Historically speaking, well actually it’s very forward thinking, this theme employs a cool idea. The theme is funded by a couple of sites, and all they require is to have their links un-obtrusively available in the footer at all times. So, you can use the theme free if you become a billboard for the funders. They are not inappropriate sites, so I don’t mind using the theme.
You might also notice a new page tab towards the top called DigitalMaps. This links to a forum I set up for my Hist 798 class at GMU this semester. We’re going to make an atlas. Check out the forum for our class ideas and progress. We’re going to present our work at THATCamp (mentioned in the previous post). Should be lots of fun.
History of Slashdot, parts 2 and 3
Slashdot posted part three of the their history today. I missed part 2, so here is the link to both.
History of Slashdot.org Part 2
History of Slashdot.org Part 3
Evolution and history of the computer interface, Macintosh style.
Appleinsider is my go to source for Mac news. What I really like about their articles are the in depth, historical explanations of Mac’s new OS features. Some places just tell you what’s new, but appleinsider gives you the background and history of what led to this change or feature. It’s really pretty nifty.
Here are a few favorites about:
The Doc
Virtual Desktops (Spaces)
The Mail application
TimeMachine (backup up utility)
Good to know what to look forward to, and how it came to be.
Slashdot’s history
Something I’ve wondered, and even dreamed of doing, has just been done. Slashdot is ten years old this year, and one of the creators has written a short history, part 1, of the creation.
http://meta.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/02/1553218&from=rss