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Scott McNulty

- http://blog.blankbaby.com/

Scott McNulty is a techie with an English degree. His first Mac was an iMac in the summer of 1999 and he hasn�t looked back since. Considered an expert by few, and an annoyance by many Scott takes it all in stride. When not writing in the third person about himself, he can be found taking care of several Windows servers and more Windows desktops than you can shake a stick at (hey, a guy's gotta make a living). He also maintains a personal website; Blankbaby, and is "Philadelphia's Most Influential Blogger", a title which is self-proclaimed and entirely unfounded.

Filed under: TUAW Business

Scott McNulty, signing off

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 31st, 2008

I'm not used to writing about myself here on TUAW. I'm usually not the story, but just this once we thought it would be appropriate to break with tradition.

After 3.5 years here at TUAW (here's my first post), and serving as lead blogger for a good portion of that time, I will be moving on to other things (perhaps bigger, if I'm lucky, but it is hard to think that they will be better. If they are just as good I'll count myself as a lucky fellow indeed).

TUAW's destiny is now in the very capable hands of Dave Caolo and Mike Rose. TUAW will continue to grow by leaps and bounds under their leadership, and it will bring you all the great tips, tricks, and Mac news you have come to expect.

Read on for more of this treacly goodbye post.

Read more →

Tags: scott, scottmcnulty, so-meta, tuaw-business

Filed under: OS, Mac 101

Mac 101: organize Spotlight results

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 30th, 2008

Welcome to another entry in our series for new Mac users: Mac 101. This installment brings us to the preference panel of Spotlight, OS X's integrated search that makes finding that needle in your hard drive's haystack as easy as pie (clearly, it doesn't protect against mixed metaphors).

You're familiar with the way Spotlight returns results, but did you know that you can change the order in which those results are shown? Read on to find out how (and why you might want to do this).

Read more →

Tags: mac101, spotlight

Filed under: Bad Apple, MobileMe

MobileMe update: mail restored to 1% of users, syncing issue resolved

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2008

Good old David G., the mysterious author of Apple's MobileMe Status blog, has good news for that unfortunate 1% of MobileMe users who couldn't use their email accounts. All email services, including 'historical messages,' have been restored (it is unclear if this means all messages are back in their right place).

Apple has set up a special MobileMe Mail Dedicated Chat Support to help those folks who had email issues sort everything out. If you were one of the chosen few, head on over there to discuss what happened with a friendly, and helpful, Apple support tech.

In addition to resolving the email issue, David G. says that nasty syncing issue (you remember, the one that was wiping people's iPhones of any and all contacts) has been corrected as well. Most MobileMe users didn't see this issue, and for the few that did it seems to have sorted itself out, however, if you're still having this issue check out Apple's KB article for the solution to your syncing woes.

Hey, David G., since it looks like you have MobileMe under control can I report a bug about the MobileMe Status blog? Thanks! There is no way to link directly to a post, like the post I'm talking about right this second, which makes it hard to make sure people see the entry I'm talking about. I'm sure you just forgot to click a button in iWeb or something.

Tags: mobileme

Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends

Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nano

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2008

Beverly Hills, 90210 is a show that is near and dear to many people's hearts... at least I assume so, because how else do you explain this Beverly Hills, 90210 limited edition iPod nano? CBS is selling 2000 of these suckers for $269. For your money you get an 8 gig iPod nano engraved with a picture of the 90210 cast and a slogan of your choice (as long as it is 30 characters or less) and all the normal accessories that come with an iPod nano. If a 4 gig iPod nano is more your speed, you're in luck because you can get one of them for $219.

I think I'll be passing on this iPod nano, but CBS has a whole line of iPods branded with various shows. They have everything from CSI iPods to Amazing Race iPods. I will pay good money for a Barney Miller iPod nano (which I have helpfully mocked up to the right. Oh, Wojciehowicz, you card!).

[via Engadget]

Tags: barney-miller, beverlyhills90210, cbs, ipod

Filed under: Software

Adobe ships Lightroom 2

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2008

Adobe announced today that Lightroom 2, a major update to their photography workflow app, is now available. Lightroom 2 will cost you $299, with an upgrade price of $99, but it includes a host of new features, improvements, and general whizbangery.

The biggest news for Mac users is that Lightroom 2 is Adobe's first native 64-bit app for OS X. Also new in Lightroom 2:
  • Libraries can span harddrives
  • Customizable print templates
  • Smart Collections to automatically organize photos
And much more. The Lightroom 2 Learning center has a nice list of new and improved features. And to help you Lightroom 1.0 users decide whether or not to upgrade Adobe has a comparison of Lightroom 1 vs. Lightrooom 2.

Lightroom 2 requires OS X 10.4 or above, and a 1 GHz G4 processor or better.

Tags: adobe, lightroom, lightroom2

Filed under: OS, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips

TUAW Tip: exclude your Time Machine disk from Spotlight indexing

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2008


Just the other day I noticed an odd thing: the Spotlight magnifying glass on my MacBook Pro had that little pulsating dot in it that means it is indexing something. That was odd, since I hadn't added any large files to my Mac, nor had I connected an external harddrive. Or did I?

As you might be able to guess from the picture above, Spotlight was dutifully trying to index my Time Capsule's harddrive every time that drive was mounted by Time Machine (which is once an hour). This process was making my backups take a little longer than I wanted them to, so I simply excluded my Time Capsule from Spotlight's indexing.

Here's how you do it:
  1. Launch System Preferences (or you can open the Spotlight preferences from the Spotlight dropdown menu).
  2. Click on the 'Privacy' tab.
  3. click the little plus icon ()
  4. Choose your Time Machine disk (as you can see mine is cleverly named)
That's it! Now Spotlight will ignore your Time Machine disk, your backups will run a little faster, and there will be a spring in your step.

Update: As some commenters have noted, this tip does mean that you won't be able to use Spotlight to search your Time Machine backups. That's fine for me, since when I'm using Time Machine I'm restoring a file that I noticed is missing, or an entire folder. I don't need to search for something, however, if you find yourself routinely searching your Time Machine backups via Spotlight this tip isn't for you.

Tags: spotlight, time-machine, tuaw-tip

Filed under: Retail, iPhone

Apple stores issue 'golden tickets' for iPhone 3G buyers

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2008

People are still lining up at Apple stores to pay iPhone 3G's. Clearly, people are crazy about Apple's new phone, but what is Apple doing to make it a little easier to get your hands on a shiny new iPhone? Our friends at iPhone Central note that Apple stores have new, extended hours to pack the people in. Apple stores are now opening at 8am, for you early rising iPhone seekers.

Apple retail staffers will also be roaming the lines and prequalifing people for iPhone purchases. Once you've been prequalified you are issued a ticket that is good for an iPhone 3G. You can use the ticket right then and there (when it is your turn, of course) or return later in the day.

Sounds like a pretty fair system to me. Have you stood in line for an iPhone lately? What do you think of Apple's new methods?

Tags: iphone, iphone3g, tickets, willywonka

Filed under: Bad Apple, Apple, MobileMe

MobileMe: the case of the vanishing iPhone contacts (Update)

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 28th, 2008

Another day, another new way for MobileMe to anger folks. Today we are hearing lots of grumbling about people seeing their contacts and calendars disappearing from their iPhones after a sync with MobileMe. Luckily, it looks like it is only the iPhone that is wiped, the contacts/events are still on their Macs.

Wyn called Apple support and they suggested disabling automatic syncing and manually syncing to clear up the problem. That gives a new definition to push.

This seems like a good time to remind people to back up your data before you enable any sort of automatic syncing. Read on after the jump to see how to backup your Address Book and iCal events, just in case.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in and thanks to FailMe for the graphic.

Update: It is 8:30pm on the east coast of the US, and Apple has just posted this note on the MobileMe System Status: "Some MobileMe members may be unable to sync new, edited, or deleted contacts, calendars, and bookmarks over the air between computers and mobile devices (iPhone and iPod Touch). Service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Read more →

Tags: mobileme, please-dont-push, syncing

Filed under: Software, Software Update

Aperture 2.1.1 now available

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 28th, 2008



Apple has just released Aperture 2.1.1, the latest update to their photo workflow application aimed at pro photographers. The description, as usual, is terse. It would seem this update 'supports general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.' Sounds like it fixes some bugs and adds MobileMe support.

The update is available via Software Update, though Apple hasn't posted it to their website as of yet.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Tags: aperture

Filed under: Mac 101

Mac 101: Safari tab tricks

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jul 25th, 2008

I've found myself using Firefox 3 more and more as of late, though there is one feature of Safari that I miss dearly. Picture it: you have a bunch of tabs loaded up in one window of your browser. For some reason you decide that you would really like to see one tab in its very own window. In Safari all you have to do is click on that tab and drag. As you can see to the right, a little picture of the website you're viewing appears and you can drop that picture anywhere on your screen. Once you drop it, the picture expands into a Safari window displaying that website.

This cool feature is a little tough to explain in words, so read on for a brief video demonstration.

Please note that I'm using Leopard and Safari 3.

Read more →

Tags: mac101, safari

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