mouse

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

Photoshop Quick Tip 8– On-target Cloning

Photoshop’s Clone tool works on a two part process. First you tell Photoshop what area you are going to use as source material for cloning. Then, when you are actually cloning, you tell Photoshop, by painting, where you want that source material cloned.

To get "down to the pixel" accuracy when cloning one area to another, choose the Clone Tool (S) and hold down the Option key. This will turn your cursor into crosshairs and afford you greater accuracy in pinpointing the exact pixel from which you would like begin cloning. Click with the Clone Tool’s crosshair cursor to specify your source point. Once you have done that, release the Option key.

Now you will notice that, when you released the Option key, you went from pinpoint accuracy to the vague area within the perimeter of chosen brush; your cursor changed into an outline of the brush you currently have selected for the Clone Tool. Not very useful for accuracy!

To fix this, we can do one of several things:

  1. Go to the Preferences (Command-K) and choose Display & Cursors from the top pulldown menu (or hit Command-3). From here you can choose "Precise" which will make all cursors that had formerly been displayed as the outline of the currently selected brush change to a crosshair by default.
  2. Adobe Photoshop CS2, you can go to the Preferences (Command-K) and choose Display & Cursors from the top pulldown menu (or hit Command-3) and leave the cursor as the brush outline, but add to that by checking the box beside Show Crosshair in Brush Tip. The best of both worlds in one cursor.
  3. To give yourself a crosshair cursor only when you need it, activate the Caps Lock key on your keyboard and deactivate it when you no longer need the crosshair.
  4. Finally, you can simply keep the Option key held down while you target where you want to lay down the cloned information and release the Option key only when the cursor is directly over that desired spot. This is the way I have accurately cloned imagery for years. The trick is to keep the mouse still between releasing the Option key and pushing down the mouse button to start Clone Stamping.

By admin • Articles, Graphics Tips • Comments Off • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

The Ultimate DV Editing Station – Part 1– Setting Up

By: Brian Burnham

It is important to start smart when setting up an editing station. Choices made now will avoid frustration later, so follow closely.

For those of you following along at home, here’s what you will need:

  1. A 867 MHz G4, fresh from Apple $2499
  2. A Matrox RTMac $999
  3. Final Cut Pro 2.0 $999

Optional:

  1. Contour ShuttlePRO $125
  2. Macally 2 button scroll optical mouse (i-optinet) $49

First off, I want to say that this tutorial is a free service. Anything that might happen to you, your Mac or anything you happen to have near it is in no way the fault of MacMerc or me in particular. Just be smart, okay?

Getting it Together

Well, we’ve got all the boxes unpacked and the smell of fresh poly carbonate plastics is making us a little woozy but I’m hoping you managed to put together the basic components of your Mac. We’ll pick up at the installation of the RTMac card. Open the side panel of your G4 and pick a PCI slot. Don’t forget to ground yourself by either touching a big piece of metal or putting on a ground strap. Pop it in and connect it to the desktop breakout box (via cable). Don’t worry about plugging it in to the wall, your Mac powers the box.

Software

Now we are ready to start installing the software that will make this sweet, fast new Mac fly. At this point, if you’re anything like me, you spend several minutes poking and pushing the front panel of the SuperDrive, until you snap out of your stupor and read the directions. As noted in the directions that I read AFTER I had figured things out, there is no "eject" button on the tower of the new G4. You have to use the keyboard eject to get the thing open.

Whew! That was a close one, but don’t worry, we won’t be referring to the directions again. Now that we’re rollin’, we’ll install Final Cut Pro (choosing the RTMac version under the "custom install" option). Enter in your serial numbers (they are in the documentation, on a separate sheet of paper). Now, I realize that you love to see your name in print, but you’ll notice that, in the QuickTime registration panel, you must use "QuickTime Pro" as your name, or the code will not work. After running the two installers, stop by the Apple web site for the Final Cut Pro 2.0.2 update

RT and VM

The temptation to restart your Mac and start playing with your new system is almost unbearable, but stay with me. You see, the RTMac doesn’t work with virtual memory on, and by default, your new Mac has it turned on. So, make a quick pit stop by the Memory control panel. Now is also a good time to note that RAM is at an all time low in cost, and you do need more than the default RAM provided by Apple.

Toys

Now, there are a couple of optional gadgets that will make your life as an editor easier. The two we chose are Macally’s two-button, optical wheel mouse — a must for any professional Mac, and Contour’s ShuttlePRO. This second tool will provide us with a more video-like interface, adding shuttle and jog capabilities to your Mac. After installing the drivers for your Macally mouse (provided on the CD), you will need to download your custom Contour drivers configured to work with Final Cut Pro.

This is as far as we will get in this installment. You now have a viable nonlinear editing station, ready to use. In the following tutorials we’ll look at optimizing, troubleshooting and customizing your workstation!

On to Part 2: Optimizing & Troubleshooting

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