Andrew’s Mac Tips Weblog

Convert To MP3 is another of those handy “Well” applications where you drop a file on its window and it processes it without asking for parameters.

In this case you are dropping a movie file (MOV, MP4, whatever) and it is extracting the audio from the file and converting it into an MP3 file.

It then saves that MP3 file with the same name as the movie, and in the same folder.

It actually uses the power of iTunes and QuickTime to accomplish this, so it pays to have the latest versions of those apps installed. When you drop the movie it opens iTunes which imports it and then converts to MP3. The MP3 file is then moved back out and the movie is deleted from iTunes.

If you are wondering about those non-standard icons seen above: The MP3 icon is achieved by hacking the default iTunes MP3 icon, with the help of CandyBar. While the film-clip icon is achieved by copying a frame from the Enzo movie, with the help of the Quick Play contextual menu plugin, from Pixture Studio.

Learn more about Convert To MP3

I’m doing my best to keep this blog updated and relevant, but I have to wonder if there’s anyone actually reading it. So, if you are, and you have a moment, drop me a line in the comments.

Even if it’s only to say, “Get a real job.”

Anyone?

I suddenly found that Safari would quit if I clicked a button or control on a Web 2.0 site like LooseStitch or Back Pack.

A while back when I was trying Getbuzzword, an Adobe installer popped up and installed a new player plugin, so I suspected that; dreading the thought of somehow reverting to an earlier version.

Turns out though that the fix was to re-visit the PithHelmet preferences where I recently switched the block mode from Safer to (the less safe) Faster.

That’ll teach me to be impudent.

Hark at me with all the panicking– this is the first glitch I’ve had in months!

A long time ago I decided to add a new section to the Mac Tips site called Web Based Services. I chose at the time to give it a look that was different to the main site; a lot of the elements are called from the same javascript files, but presented in a different style.

I wanted a clean Mac interface look for the new section so I reverse engineered the iTunes interface.
 

 
The main body was pure white and the buttons and links were as subtle as I could make ‘em. Revisiting it now though, it looks a little dreary. I wanted to “crisp” it up a little; make the sidebar more different from the body, while at the same time not draw too much attention to it, and make the buttons more distinctive.

I tinkered with colors and spacing and so on in the CSS, all the time zeroing in on a look that ended up quite like (you guessed it) iTunes. I guess you can’t beat the classics.
 

 
It’s not a carbon copy if iTunes though; the shade of blue is less in your face and the dividing line is more discrete. Right now I’m pleased with the result. So pleased that after some more tweaking I might revamp this Wordpress blog to the same style, so as to be less massaged Kubrick and more watered down Mac OS.

Andrew’s Mac Tips — Some Great Web-Based Services

Getbuzzword, a stunning looking online word processor, should be renamed GetBroadband. On my dial up network every time I click on an element another progress bar (should be a sun dial) pops up. I could have installed Microsoft Flight Simulator on a Celeron PC (including all of the world scenery) in the time it’s taking me to write “Hello World” into this thing.

Hopefully all of these progress bars are indicating something of the back end that is going to stay on my drive for a while. I can’t envisage going through this torture every time I visit the site.

A nobel prize should go to the inventor of multi-tasking…

…Oh, heck. Safari just crashed. Don’t get me wrong; what I did see of it was very pretty. It’s just another item to go on my When I get Broadband list.

Getbuzzword

If you don’t want to launch iPhoto just to show off your latest images it’s very easy to set up a smart folder in the finder that will show just those images, and give you a one-click slideshow solution.
 

 
Notice how one of the parameters is “Keywords.” If that wasn’t there then the smart folder would also include iPhoto-generated thumbnails and duplicates and they would spoil your quick presentation. So, make sure that all your images have at least one shared keyword.

Let’s say you are on a dial up connection and you are using Safari to download an mp3 file. Depending on the file size, it might take several minutes, or even hours. You can preview the file while it’s downloading to see if it’s actually what you are after.

In your Downloads folder (usually the Desktop) you will find an icon for the download in progress. If you Ctrl-Click (or Right-Click) on the icon and choose Show Package Contents from the context menu then a new folder window will open that shows the partial mp3 file and an info file. Don’t double click on the mp3 file as that might import it into iTunes; instead, Ctrl-Click (or Right-Click) on it and choose Open With… to launch it in QuickTime.

Now you can preview the file that you’re downloading. This doesn’t work with all media types; some need to be complete or QuickTime will show an error message.

Another little side-tip: If the status bar is showing in Safari when you see a cryptic button or link on a webpage (something along the lines of “View Now” or “Listen”), hovering your pointer over the button should show the associated file in the status bar. If it’s a QuickTime compatible file like an mp3, mp4, mov etc., you might want to drag that button or link to your download window to start downloading the actual file rather than simply clicking on it and having it play (or sit forever while buffering and then play in fits and starts; remember, we’re talking about dial-up users here).

 
Just started playing with this. It’s still in alpha, but works great, and looks gorgeous. Jumping in phase over. Now to find out what iusethis is all about…
 

“AppFresh helps you to keep all applications (third-party and Apple), widgets, preference panes and application plugins on your Mac up to date, from one place. It works by checking the excellent iusethis.com for new versions and lets you download and install available updates easily.”

AppFresh - All Software Updates for your Mac in One Place

I added two great bookmarklets to my Safari Bookmarks Bar today. The first is Convert Me (Don’t click this link yet! Read on…). If you’re looking at a video in a YouTube page, simply click on the bookmarklet to Zamzar’s site where you choose the file format you’d like and enter your email address. They then convert the file for you and email a link to the download. There are a few stand-alone applications that will do the same thing, but this is much less hassle.

The second bookmarklet is Mobilize Me which takes the complex, slow to load page that you happen to be viewing and sends it through Google’s conversion thingie and reloads it as a simple cellphone-friendly version.

Not familiar with bookmarklets? Simply make sure that Safari is showing the Bookmarks Bar, then drag the links above to the bar to make the buttons; each one uses javascript to look at the URL of the current page being viewed to work its magic.

Both of these bookmarklets were found here. I talk about some other useful buttons at my Some Great Web-Based Services page.

Micro Persuasion: Bookmarklets for the Web 2.0 Jedi Master

Plug the address of your website into this and have a go. I certainly learned a thing or two.

“Website Grader is a free tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like webite traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.”

Website SEO Score Tool