Check Maintenance Scripts On Your Mac

Hey

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of days University has been really busy. Anyway today I am going to take to you about the maintenance scripts that your Mac runs. Every day, week and month your Mac runs a script to keep it healthy and hopefully running. These scripts are quite easy to locate and I am going to take to you about how they run, and if needs be if you need to change the time in which they run.

There are three main scripts that you Mac runs, daily, weekly and monthly. They take care of cleaning out log files, junk files and scratch files. The weekly script takes care of log files which don’t need to be deleted daily. The monthly files runs along the same lines. To check that they have run open up Terminal and type:

ls -al /var/log/*.out

You should see an output similar to the one below.

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  271239 15 Mar 04:30 /var/log/daily.out
-rw-r–r–  1 root  wheel     906  1 Mar 06:50 /var/log/monthly.out
-rw-r–r–  1 root  wheel    4200 13 Mar 06:50 /var/log/weekly.out

If you have found that they haven’t run you can type (again in Terminal) the following:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

or

sudo periodic daily

were you can replace daily with weekly or monthly.

Normally these scripts run at round 3:15 in the morning. However if your Mac is shut down or asleep it wont run. So it may be worth changing this time. To do this you need to edit the LaunchDaemon which is responsible for running the scripts. These are located in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons and are called com.apple.periodic-daily.plist, com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist and com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist if you open up the file you will notice there is a couple of lines or specific code, such as the following found in the daily file.

<key>Hour</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>15</integer>

This sets the daily file to run at 3:15am. You could change this file to something like 17:20, so it runs in the evening. I do however have reason to believe that the LaunchDaemon protocol counter only runs when your Mac is awake. So you may find that the script runs at random time and setting the values differently may cause them not to run at all. A solution to this is to keep your Mac awake (using an app such as Caffeine) on the first day of the month and every Saturday.

Hopefully you have understood the way the maintenance scripts work. The only variable in this little experiment is when they run as the LaunchDaemon process doesn’t run off system time, rather its own time. I will try and do a bit more testing in this area over the next couple of days and if I have anything conclusive i’ll update this post.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave one below.

Want to catch up on the latest Tweets about this site, join the MacTricksAndTips Tweet RSS Feed.

Check Maintenance Scripts On Your Mac

Related posts:

1. MainMenu – Tasks From The MenuBar
2. Location Of Your Words File
3. Hide The MenuBar or Dock In Specific Apps

TomTom for U.S. and Canada updated with real time traffic and more

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch

We told you it was coming, and now it has arrived. The popular US$59.95 TomTom app is ready to hit the road with real time traffic available as an additional in-app purchase.

Included with the 1.3 update at no additional charge is Google local search, revised map data, music fading, automatic day and night mode based on your location, and the ability to add locations from other applications.

The real time traffic option has some nice features. Updates are received every 3 minutes. If a delay along your route is found, you will get notification from the app and automatically be re-routed. The not-so-great feature is that the traffic info will set you back $19.95 for 12 months of information. By contrast, when I reviewed the live traffic option on the Navigon app in November, it was a one time price of $19.95. The Navigon app itself is 10 bucks more expensive than the TomTom app that includes the U.S. and Canada, but those yearly fees from TomTom can add up.

All the navigation app developers are loading up their products with more and more features, and iPhone owners are lucky to have the chance to agonize a bit over which app to get. There are worse problems to have.

The TomTom nav app works on an iPhone or an iPod touch but using it with the iPod touch requires a car kit. Including Canada and the U.S., the app costs $69.95.

[Thanks Jared for the tip]

TomTom for U.S. and Canada updated with real time traffic and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TomTom for U.S. and Canada updated with real time traffic and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

CoPilot live is updated and continues 30 day free trial offer

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

A new version of CoPilot Live enhances and fixes a lot of issues in the previous versions. According to the company, the app now includes improved guidance at complex intersections, Facebook status updates, free local search, and the latest maps of North America. More than 15,000 miles of roads have been added, 73 completely updated counties and hundreds of map improvements submitted by the CoPilot Live User Community.

If you want to try a sophisticated nav app but don’t want to shell out any money right away, ALK technologies is continuing to offer a free version of CoPilot Live Directions for a month. The app is full featured, and includes things like voice guidance and 3D mapping.

If you decide not to buy the app, you’ll lose the voice guidance and 3D, but still will have use of turn by turn directions throughout the U.S. and Canada. If you want to upgrade after the 30 days, the app charges U.S. $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year. You can get more details on the free app deal here.

Continue reading CoPilot live is updated and continues 30 day free trial offer

CoPilot live is updated and continues 30 day free trial offer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CoPilot live is updated and continues 30 day free trial offer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

How-To: Stop iTunes Web Links From Opening iTunes

A piece I wrote last week on the impact of iTunes web preview pages on App Store SEO brought up a little side conversation about how many people found it annoying that the links launch iTunes automatically. Sometimes you don’t even have any warning that the link is going to launch iTunes if you click on a shortened link. There are a few simple steps that you can take to stop this behavior and suppress iTunes in its eagerness to run and take you to the page for that app (or other iTunes content).

Below, I have outlined the steps for Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.

The Basic Concept

The iTunes preview pages run a JavaScript function that attempts to load iTunes by opening an ITMS file. This file will launch iTunes and direct the application to open the iTunes Store to the specified content. I did not want to recommend just disabling JavaScript because that would interfere with a lot of websites that rely on the interactivity that is possible with JavaScript. We will prevent iTunes from opening by changing the way that these browsers handle the ITMS file. This approach will allow you to manually launch iTunes when you desire. In the case of Chrome, we can selectively disable JavaScript for iTunes links.

Safari

Safari uses the helper applications as defined in the “Get Info” dialog box for each file type. In Snow Leopard, Mac OS X relies solely on the file’s extension to determine the default application. This may behave differently in 10.5, which still respects the creator code attribute.

Create a simple text file on your desktop. The content of the file does not matter. Rename that file to “test.itms” and confirm that you do want to change the extension. Now select that file and pull up the “Get Info” dialog box (Command-I, right-click, or File » Get Info).

The “Open with:” section should show “iTunes.app (default)” at first. Click on the pull down menu there, select “Other” and then pick Safari. You will have to enable “All Applications” in the file selection dialog box. Clicking “Add” will return you to the “Get Info” window. Be sure to click “Change All…” to have that behavior work for any ITMS file, including ones you may download from iTunes web links in the future.

You must log out and back in for these changes to take effect. Restarting the computer would accomplish the same result.

You can still launch iTunes by clicking on the “View in iTunes” button on the preview page.

To reverse the setting, go back to the ITMS file (or create a new one) and change the “Open With” entry to iTunes.app and then click “Change All…” to make sure it will be used in all cases.

Firefox

Firefox uses a different method to define the helper app. Open a new browser window or tab and type “about:config” into the address bar. After dismissing the warning, you will be presented with a long list of options. Fortunately, we can use the search box at the top of this window to filter the results down to just the option we need. Type “itms” in the filter box and you will see an entry for “network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itms” as the only result (if you don’t get any results, keep reading for a solution). Double-click on the “false” entry below the “Value” column and change it to “true” and then close the window or tab. Restart Firefox to make sure the change is saved and used the next time you launch Firefox.

Now you should get a dialog box asking you what you want to do about this content type when you go to page. Click “Cancel” to prevent iTunes from opening or click “OK” to launch iTunes into the iTunes Store. Do NOT check the “Remember my choice for itms links” box or iTunes will automatically launch in the future. Unfortunately, I did not see this dialog box come up consistently, but here is what it should look like.

What if I don’t have an an “itms” entry in about:config?

If you do not have an entry for “network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itms” in the “about:config” page, do not panic. You can add a new entry by right-clicking on the page and selecting “New: Boolean” from the pop-up menu.

Type “network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itms” into the preference name field and click “OK” to create the entry.

The next step is to make sure the boolean value itself is set to “true” so that Firefox will ask what you want to do with iTunes links.

Additional Measures

If iTunes still launches automatically, check the settings in the applications tab of the Firefox preferences window and search for “itunes” in the filter box. If any content types are set to open with iTunes, change those settings to “Always Ask” and this should stop iTunes from opening. To double-check, do another search on “itms” and make sure it is set to “Always Ask” here as well.

To reverse the setting, return to the “about:config” page and double-click on the “true” entry for “network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itms” to change it back to “false” and disable the dialog box asking you what to do.

Chrome

Chrome has not implemented the “about:config” settings in Chrome for Mac, but it does have a nifty feature to disable javascript on specific sites. Open Chrome’s preferences and click on the “Under the Hood” tab.

Click on “Content Settings…” and then select the “JavaScript” tab.

Click on “Exceptions” and then use the “+” button to add “itunes.apple.com” and make sure this site is set to block JavaScript. Now when you load an iTunes web link, the site will report that iTunes cannot be found because the JavaScript function that is looking for it has failed to run and return a result.

While this solution works to shut down iTunes, it also means that you cannot click on the “View on iTunes” button on the page to launch iTunes manually. If you really want to get to the iTunes Store, copy the URL from the address bar and open the same page in Safari, or simply launch iTunes manually and search in the store.

To reverse the setting, return to the list of exceptions and delete the entry for “itunes.apple.com” by clicking on the “-” button.

No More Autolaunching!

Automatically launching applications and slowing down my computer is almost as annoying as websites that start playing background music when you visit or DVD’s that play ads for soft drinks that cannot be stopped when all you want to do is watch a movie. Well, not nearly as bad as the stupid discs that will not let you skip to the movie, but still annoying. The steps above will help you take back control.

Source:[tuaw]

Instapaper Enhancements Just in Time for the Release of the iPad

Instapaper Pro has long been a great way to load your iPhone with content that you can browse at leisure–even if you don’t have a wireless connection. Now they’ve enhanced it in version 2.2 with pagination, dictionary (Wiktionary) lookup, an in-app browser, and email support.

Instapaper lets you download web pages into your iPhone so they can be viewed offline later. A simple add-on to Safari and Firefox adds a "Read Later" bookmark to select sites for Instapaper. It does a good job of extracting the text so you don’t have to worry about trying to pinch-zoom or accidentally side scrolling. You can easily change the font size for easy reading. In the past, you had to either set the pages to scroll continuously or use the "tilt-scroll" feature. Tilt scroll is admittedly sexy, scrolling the page slowly as you tilt the phone. But like most eye-candy the fascination wears off quickly. The new pagination feature works like most e-readers; just touch the bottom or top of the screen to turn pages.

Reading the latest article from Wired and stumped by one of the new buzzwords? Now you can just tap a word to highlight it and click to look it up; the word’s entry in Wiktionary pops up. For those without iPhones, Instapaper also added the ability to send the page to your email rather than your phone.

The real value of Instapaper is for those getting iPads with WiFi support only. Now, you can load your article in the iPad and read it on the large screen without needing 3G support.
Source:[therawfeed]

Diamond-studded iPad says "I’m an idiot, but a rich one!"

The Apple iPad is reasonably priced. If that bothers you, feel free to spend $19,999 on a diamond-studded iPad ("hand-set in a micro-pave styling," whatever that means). You'll feel like an idiot when the newer, faster iPad inevitably comes out within a year. (Props to Engadget)

Posted via email from Mike Elgan’s Lifestream

Source:[therawfeed]

GDC 2010: Ngmoco’s Neil Young on how freemium will change the App Store world

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone, iPad

On the third day of GDC 2010, Ngmoco’s Neil Young took the stage in one of the largest rooms at the conference to talk about what his company had “unlearned” in its time in the App Store. Ngmoco has become a large and polarizing figure in the world of App Store development — after starting out with a big investment from the iFund, it’s moved quickly to become one of the biggest iPhone-only developers, and after starting out with a few premium titles like the very successful Rolando, have recently made waves with its “freemium” business model. Young talked about the company’s history so far, and went in-depth on Ngmoco’s plan for ruling the App Store and why he believes it’s the “most significant shift and opportunity for [game developers] since the birth of this business.”

We’ve summarized Young’s long address in this post. It was pretty incredible — not only did Young lay out his idea of a clear plan for building and developing a large portfolio of very profitable App Store titles “at scale” (the company plans to release twenty new freemium products on the iPhone in the near future, as well as six titles on the iPad), but he made it very clear that he fervently believes that freemium and the model he’s structured is the future of the video game business.

Continue reading GDC 2010: Ngmoco’s Neil Young on how freemium will change the App Store world

GDC 2010: Ngmoco’s Neil Young on how freemium will change the App Store world originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Ngmoco’s Neil Young on how freemium will change the App Store world originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

Graveck Discusses Using the Mac Exclusively for Game Development

While at the Unity booth, we ran into a few of the developers at Graveck games. You may be familiar with one of their popular iPhone games, Skee-ball. It hit the #1 paid apps spot during the holidays and is still hanging out in the top paid apps list. What started out as a part-time side project for the developers turned into a surefire hit. Now, the company is gearing up to prepare for the April launch of Apple’s iPad.

Jonathan Czeck, the director of technology and co-founder of Graveck, believes that the iPad will really open up the possibilities of mobile gaming. "It would be a great platform for a simple RTS (real-time strategy game)," he says. "This is the first time you can [play] with all ten fingers. Frankly, that sounds fun."

In addition to praising the iPad, the Graveck team are also heavy users of Unity, a game development tool used to create 3D video games for Windows, Mac, Wii and the iPhone, as well as browsers that have the Unity web player plugin installed. They also use Macs for all of their game coding, and Czeck cites himself as one of the first users of Unity, back when it was released in 2005.

Check below for a video showcasing one of Graveck’s games developed with Unity.

Source:[therawfeed]

GDC 2010: Civilization V probably Mac-bound (eventually)

Filed under: Gaming, Software

GDC 2010: Civilization V probably Mac-bound (eventually) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Civilization V probably Mac-bound (eventually) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction

Filed under: Multimedia, Internet Tools, iTunes, iPhone, Music

The problem is, we just don’t know where they’re going. In a Saturday blog post, the company announced it is “…taking a new direction” and won’t be offering their current apps to new users.

SimplifyMedia has been offering free software for computer-to-computer and iPhone-to-computer music sharing over the internet. Using the iPhone app, you could connect to your computer at home and stream albums, playlists or songs without any complicated firewall setups. A newer version of the software also allowed remote access to your iPhoto library.

It also looks like the company is going to slowly sunset current customer accounts but will continue to keep them functioning for at least another 3 months.

The Simplify iPhone app has been removed from the App Store, and the company says new account creation will be disabled soon.

I don’t have any idea where the company is headed, but the current product will be missed. SimplifyMedia was offered for Mac, PC and Ubuntu.

[Thanks to Robert for the tip]

Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source:[tuaw]

Next Page »