Thursday, October 05, 2006
A Couple Nifty OS X Utilities
Watched a video podcast today from MacBreak extolling the virtues of working with a completely blank desktop. No wallpaper (actually all-black wallpaper). No icons. No menu bar.
No menu bar?
Turns out there's an application, MenuShade that will hide the menu bar until you mouse-over it. (Am I the last one to know about this?) Sort of like hiding/unhiding the dock. You can also have the menu bar faded out instead of completely gone. You don't reclaim the pixelspace for applications, but the emptiness at the top of the screen is kinda cool. I miss the clock, so I don't know if I'll keep the app long term, but I'm not hating it right now.
I found another handy program from the makers of MenuShade: MoviePod, an application for prepping movie files to the iPod. I've tried several others, but had had no luck transferring some old Steve Taylor videos (bottom of linked page). MoviePod handled all but the "credits" .wmv file like a dream. Don't know why it choked on that one, but I'm glad to have the rest on my iPod. (Windows version available, too.)
Need either an uncluttered desktop or movies on your iPod? Visit Nullriver Software.
No menu bar?
Turns out there's an application, MenuShade that will hide the menu bar until you mouse-over it. (Am I the last one to know about this?) Sort of like hiding/unhiding the dock. You can also have the menu bar faded out instead of completely gone. You don't reclaim the pixelspace for applications, but the emptiness at the top of the screen is kinda cool. I miss the clock, so I don't know if I'll keep the app long term, but I'm not hating it right now.
I found another handy program from the makers of MenuShade: MoviePod, an application for prepping movie files to the iPod. I've tried several others, but had had no luck transferring some old Steve Taylor videos (bottom of linked page). MoviePod handled all but the "credits" .wmv file like a dream. Don't know why it choked on that one, but I'm glad to have the rest on my iPod. (Windows version available, too.)
Need either an uncluttered desktop or movies on your iPod? Visit Nullriver Software.
Mikesell
1 Snarky Remarks:
I'll have to check those out. I've seen stuff about word processors that give you what looks like the old DOS blank screen to type on -- the idea being that you're not distracted by all the nifty stuff on your desktop. But I've never heard of the menushade, either. So that makes ME the last to know about it. :)
lindaruth, at 8:18 AM
