Software Archives - my quick fix

Open a Folder or File in a new VS Code window on Mac OS

Problem: When opening a new folder in VS Code (Mac OS), I want it to open a new VSCode window, and not add the folder to the already open window. I’m used to the Atom IDE behaviour from years back.

Fix: There are two settings that help here:
window.openFoldersInNewWindow controls whether a folder should be opened in the same window or a new one.

window.openFilesInNewWindow does the same for Files, i.e. when you open just a single file.

These settings can be found in the ‘Code > Preferences > Settings’ menu item. OR easier still, with the shortcut ⌘, (or ‘Command’ plus ‘comma’ keys, if you can’t see the shortcut to the left here)

Once in Settings, start typing window.openF and you should see both options there. Set one or both to on for the desired behaviour. Can’t remember if you have to restart VS Code or not after changing this. Try it!

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Remove all account data, stored mail and attachments from Postbox app (Mac OS)

The problem with stored Postbox data

I use Postbox, the Mail Client as a tool for checking problems with customer’s email accounts, and migrating mail data. When I have finished using it I don’t want to retain their data, nor do I want it taking up space on my machine. Just removing the ‘accounts’ doesn’t actually remove the data, it sits in Application Data forever (well maybe not forever, but a long time).

The solution might be user profiles

While searching for the location of stored mail data, I chanced across the Postbox Profile Manager. This allows complete profiles to be added and removed. Continue reading “Remove all account data, stored mail and attachments from Postbox app (Mac OS)”

Uploading / Configuring a Laravel 4 app on cPanel type hosting ( public_html )

Problem: This morning I wanted to quickly move a little Laravel test project onto my live server. The default file structure of Laravel stores all the framework resources in a vertical tree of files and directories, and then the ‘public’ directory is adjacent to these. Like so:

- [app]
- [bootstrap]
- [public] etc

To host it on my CentOS box running cPanel I want to adhere to the following (standardish) structure:

- [.htpasswds]
- [etc]
- [mail]
- [public_ftp]
- [public_html] etc etc varies depending on server

I could just upload everything in my Laravel project to the ‘public_html’ directory… but then to run the app I’d need to browse to http://example.com/public/. Worse still, my whole framework file-structure will be visible if I browse to http://example.com

Solution: With a little path remapping in two files, this can be easily achieved. Here’s what I did:

1) Create a new directory called ‘laravel4’ adjacent to ‘public_html’ so that your remote file structure now looks like this: Continue reading “Uploading / Configuring a Laravel 4 app on cPanel type hosting ( public_html )”

cPanel Monthly Licensing in the UK for Rackspace Cloud Server

Problem: Ok not really a problem, but I’m trying to create a server set comprising as much UK based kit/software/support as possible. The server is on Rackspace’s UK Cloud arm.

Fix: After searching about it looks like LicensePal is a UK company.

Help me: If you found this link useful, and you’re about to order, please visit License Pal via my Affiliate link (you’ll get one also as soon as you buy anything from them): – Cheers!

Intel Rapid Storage Technology alerts to Google Apps account

Problem: Intel Rapid Storage Technology allows for system warning and error alerts to be sent to an email address (or several if you want). In the mail settings it does allow for the port to be set, but there aren’t any authentication options.

Solution: Contrary to my previous beliefs, Google DOES seem to allow you to send unauthenticated on port 25 as long as it’s addressed to an address in your own domain. So I set:

FROM address to ‘app@mydomain.com’

TO address to ‘myaddress@mydomain.com’

Port to ’25’

Host to aspmx.l.google.com

Searching between dates in GMail

Problem: I’m doing my tax return 🙁 And need to frequently look for emails sent and received in the 2010/11 tax year.

Fix: Gmail is really powerful when the text search box is used. There are various advanced search operators but the ones that help here are ‘before:’ and ‘after:’. When twinned with ‘from:’ or ‘to:’ it returns exactly what you want. Continue reading “Searching between dates in GMail”

Launch Google Chrome Incognito from the terminal or a shortcut in OSX

Problem: Ok not really a problem, but I want to be able to launch Google Chrome straight to Incognito mode from a shortcut. This is useful when logging into multiple bank accounts, Google Apps accounts, or testing session based websites. etc etc etc.

Fix: Thankfully the Google Chrome.app can be launched with the –incognito switch to do just that. The terminal command to do this, assuming the browser is sitting in /Applications/ is this:

open -a /Applications/Google Chrome.app --args --incognito

Note: –args has to be passed to satisfy the ‘open’ command’s arguments first.

Launching it from a shortcut: If you want to create a shortcut to do this, open AppleScript Editor and enter the following:

tell application "Terminal"
	activate
	do script "open -a /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args --incognito;"
	delay 1
	quit
end tell

Note: The space in the Google Chrome.app name must be double-escaped with two backslashes like that to work. Also, without the delay I found that the script exits too quickly or something like that, and it doesn’t work.

Save the above script as an Application, and call it something like ‘Incognito’. Running this app will launch Terminal, Chrome Incognito, then exit Terminal. Bingo!

Giving your Incognito app an Icon: I’ve added the app to my Dock, and given it a special icon (see below for a downloadable PNG icon). To do this:

Open the image you want to use as the icon – it should be a 512×512 24bit PNG if possible – and copy the image to the clipboard. If you are using Preview to view the image, do cmd+a to select all, then cmd+c to copy it… this works for most other graphics packages also.
Locate the app you created above in Finder, then press cmd+i to bring up the info window (alternatively right-click the app then select ‘get info’).
In the resulting pop-up, click on the icon at the top to highlight it like so (notice the blue halo around it):
Then use cmd+v to paste the new icon from the clopboard into the icon area and it should look like this:
Close the info window, and it’s done. You should now have a nice looking shortcut that opens Chrome Incognito with one or two clicks!

Feel free to use this icon. It’s just the standard one with some ‘colour replace’ work to make it blue. You could paste some tacky sun glasses over it if you wished 🙂

Launch Google Chrome in ‘Incognito’ mode from a shortcut

Niggle: I use Google Chrome’s Incognito window mode regularly to view multiple Google Analytics accounts at the same time on one PC. It’s very useful – it means I don’t have to keep signing in and out of my primary google account – but what annoyed me each time was having to open chrome, then open a new ‘incognito’ window from there, which leaves the old ‘normal’ window open in the background.

Solution: Since Chrome came out of beta, the ‘−−incognito’ command line switch has been available.

So, to get this switch working with a short cut, do the following:

Copy the existing Chrome shortcut in your quicklaunch bar, desktop, or start menu.
Rename the shortcut to something obvious, I called mine “Chrome Incognito”.
Right click on the shortcut, and select ‘properties’.
The Properties window opens, and you can select the ‘Shortcut’ tab as shown below:

Note the ‘Target’ path field

In the ‘Target:’ field, add the switch ‘ −−incognito’ to the end of the target path, as shown below:

incognito ‘Switch’ added to target path

Click ‘OK’ to save your changes.

There, all done, that shortcut will now open Chrome in incognito mode window. If you have other normal chrome windows open, they will not be effected by this window. For example, you can stay logged into a google account, a live account, or any other persistent cookie/session driven system. Incognito windows are also great for logging into online banking sites if you’re a bit paranoid.

Note: If you have a 0.* version you will need to upgrade to v1.* or higher.

Unable to Subscribe to Podcasts in iTunes store – Greyed Out Buttons?

Problem: You can’t subscribe to any Podcasts in iTunes music store because the the buttons are greyed out. An example is shown below:

Fix:This happens when the ‘Podcasts’ item is not enabled in the iTunes library. To enable it, follow these steps:

Open the iTunes Preferences. To do this, either press ‘Ctrl+,’ (that’s the control key, and the comma key at the same time); or Go to ‘Edit’ in the top menu, and then ‘Preferences’.
Select the ‘General’ tab, usually on the left most.
Tick the ‘Podcasts’ item in the ‘Show:’ options list (highlighted below):

Once you say ‘Ok’ to the Preferences box, the ‘Podcasts’ item should appear in the top-left-hand side of the iTunes window. If you now view links to podcasts in the iTunes Store, they should be clickable.

If you have any corrections or alternative solutions to this problem, please leave a comment!

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