Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Tips from Rick "RickMacMerc" Yaeger, your Apple Lifestyle Coach

Aug 25 2010

Teleport …and a Feat of Geek Strength

If you don’t know about Teleport from Abyssoft, you should. It’s a donationware application that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control many Macs—a virtual KVM switch of sorts. In the video below, I show how I am able to drag a single folder from one iMac across the screens of two other Macs to a fourth Mac situated across the room from the mouse I’m using to control it.

You probably have no use for such a Feat of Geek Strength, but one situation where I’ve used Teleport with great success is when I’m sitting at my desk using my iMac for some serious video rendering while my MacBook Pro sits in front of the iMac’s screen. I use the mouse and its built-in keyboard to control the MacBook Pro and also use them to control the iMac. With Teleport configured to let me move my mouse to the top of the MacBook Pro screen as the portal to the bottom of the iMac screen, the interface is slick and seamless.

I have to admit and caution that, when using Teleport to control another iMac to control a MacBook to control another MacBook as I did in the video, it can become very easy to lose your cursor and become confused as to which Mac is in control at any given time. But, hey, that’s why they call them Feats of Geek Strength

Have you accomplished any Feat of Geek Strength? Let me know in the comments. Better yet—challenge me!!

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

By RickMacMerc • Featured, Geek News, hax0r, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, osx, productivity, tips • 2 • Tags: Abyssoft, configured, cursor, desk, feat, Feat of Geek Strength, Feats, Feats of Geek Strength, iMac, interface, keyboard, kvm switch, mouse, screens, situation, slider, sorts, Switch, Teleport, time, use, www youtube

Aug 24 2010

Automated DVD and Blu-Ray backup, encoding and tagging… right to iTunes

First written back in October of 2009, this post on the Handbrake forums is the backbone of my AppleTV home theater setup.

While it takes a bit of fiddling to set up, it allows me to use my old MacBook Pro as a “Media Mac” that backs up my DVD collection while also making that media available via iTunes and shared across my network to my AppleTV.

Using the system is simple: I insert a DVD and the Batch Rip Dispatcher Automator action asks if it’s a DVD of a movie or a TV series¹ , it copies the contents to an appropriate Batch Rip Folder and renames it automatically. Then, in the wee hours of the evening, an iCal action springs into…well…action and summons Handbrake to encode everything for iTunes. An Automator action kicks in to add metadata, cover art, and the correct title for the resulting files and then Hazel moves it all to my backup folders and adds the movies to iTunes. Once in iTunes, the regular update process propagates the media to my AppleTV making them available for viewing.

It all works like a well-oiled machine. Every time I slide in a disc, my mind reared on Looney Tunes cartoons can’t help but start me humming this tune:

0 Automated DVD and Blu Ray backup, encoding and tagging… right to iTunes

Automated DVD and Blu Ray backup, encoding and tagging… right to iTunes

this can be set to auto-run if you plan to rip a bunch of movies [↩]

By RickMacMerc • elsewhere, Featured, hax0r, minimediamac, News, tutorial • 1 • Tags: action, apple tv, AppleTV, auto run, Automate, Automated, backbone, batch, Blu, blu ray, collection, cover art, Encoding, HandBrake, hazel, home, iTunes, late at night, looney tunes cartoons, meta data, network, series, setup, show, summons, tv home, wee hours, well oiled machine, www youtube, tv

Aug 23 2010

EpicWin!

This is new. I don’t mean that in a “it just came out” sort of way…though it basically did. I mean, I have tried a lot of productivity, task management, to do list and GTD¹ applications in my time and this is the first time I’ve tried one that actually hides within the disguise of an RPG.²

EpicWin! is an iPhone app that allows you to assign yourself tasks, schedule repeating chores and set priorities like any other task management app, but it does so by rewarding task completion with XP³ and “loot.” Your tasks are categorized as feats of strength, stamina, intellect, social or spirit and you can set the priority by the amount of “Epicness” the task is worth upon completion.

You start EpicWin by creating your character: choose its race, its name and then you send it out on quests…like “Do the laundry”…”Mow the lawn”…or “Pick up the dry cleaning” As you complete those tasks your character levels up and acquires treasures which your friends on Twitter and Facebook can receive announcements about if you wish.

It’s a really imaginative idea and I hope the folks at SuperMono develop it further. I’d like to see them offer an online database for you to store your tasks and your progress like Remember The Milk and the ability to compete and share progress with other EpicWinners. Maybe they could allow multiple players to share a task together as an EpicWin epic quest!

The app sells for $2.99 US for the iPhone. What do you use to get things done?

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

Getting Things Done [↩]
Role Playing Game …get to know your acronyms!! [↩]
Experience Points [↩]

By RickMacMerc • apps, Featured, gaming, iPhone, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, productivity, productivity • 1 • Tags: amount, character, character levels, chores, completion, dry cleaning, Epicness, EpicWin, experience, experience points, feats of strength, GTD, imaginative idea, intellect, iPhone, progress, race, rewarding task, role playing game, slider, Social, sort, spirit, task completion, task management, twitter, way

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Teleport …and a Feat of Geek Strength

Automated DVD and Blu-Ray backup, encoding and tagging… right to iTunes

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