One of the things I put too much effort into is keeping my computers organized. Having too many things on my desktop or dock always frustrates me and it doesn’t take long before I ‘clean’ up my system.

Despite my interest in keeping things structured on my computer, I also understand the need to be able to quickly access the files and applications that are stored throughout your system.

It looks like individuals from the Google Mac team also feel this way as they’ve provide a simple application that sits on your dock and lists all the applications in your Application folder.

For more details, check out the Official Google Mac Blog: AppMenuBoy and download the application Google Code website for Appmenuboy.

So, if you haven’t already started using Spotlight or Quicksilver to launch your applications, then this may just be the addition to your Mac experience that you were looking for.

For new Mac users, this may be as close to the windows Start menu that you’ll get on you Mac.

A couple of weeks ago I was testing out some software updates on my shiny new Mac Pro. After I was finished testing things out I noticed that the Mac was slow, very slow. I fired up the Activity Monitor to see what was going on. Turns out a background process called syslogd was running up the CPUs. Syslogd is the Apple System Log Server. It gathers logging statements from all the various running applications and saves them in case you need to look at them later. If you open the Console Applications from the /Applications/Utilities folder, you can read the logs created by syslogd.

What I couldn’t figure out was why syslogd was using an enormous amount of the Mac Pro’s resources. A little Googling revealed that syslogd stores the most recent log statements in a database file so they can be searched quickly. This database file has the property of fast access for reading, but it is slow to update with new entries. In fact, if an application logs too much information in a certain amount of time syslogd can no longer update the database file in a reasonable amount of time and it begins taking up more and more resources. Most people noticed this problem when using time machine as time machine does log changes to your file system (which can add up). The software I was testing was sending more log statements than syslogd could handle.

Now that I’ve found what was going on, I still had to do something about it. Syslogd can accept additional start up information that controls what kind of log messages it will accept, how often the database file will be purged of old log messages, and other options. These settings are located in a file in the System Folder of your Mac. If you’re feeling lucky (or geeky), you can edit this file directly. However, I recommend Lingon, a free app that does all the heavy lifting for you.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed Lingon, you can start it up and it looks something like this:

On the left hand nav menu, there is an item that says System Daemons, go ahead and expand that item and then scroll down the listings until you find com.apple.syslogd. Once you click on the com.apple.syslogd item you will be presented with a warning that looks like this:

Go ahead and click OK. You are then presented with the syslogd startup information, such as it’s name, the path to the application (i.e. /usr/sbin/syslogd) and other startup information. You can add startup parameters to the application as command line arguments. I changed /usr/sbin/syslogd to /usr/sbin/syslogd -c 3 -a and then saved the file. You will need administrator rights in order to save the changes. Once you are done, it should look something like this in the “What” field:

The -c 3 tells syslog to ignore less important messages. There are 8 log levels with 0 being the highest (or most important) and 8 being the lowest. With -c 3, syslogd will only log messages with a log level of 3 or less. The -a parameter tells syslog to archive the database, clearing out entries over 24 hours old.

I haven’t had any syslogd problems since I’ve added these new options. However, with Lingon I can go back and adjust if I need to. So if your Mac slows down, it’s probably not spyware or anything like that, just a little logging application with a hungry appetite for CPU cycles. Lingon lets you tell syslog, “you on a diet.”

Apple provided a number of themes with their iWeb application, but sometimes you may want a bit of a different look or feel from what others are using on their site.

It is true that iWeb has included simple tools that allows you to customize each theme that is part of the application but if you’re not interested in taking the time to customize each and every page, a theme not included in iWeb may be just for you.

After searching the web for iWeb themes it looks like 11mystics.com is the best place to find layouts that can give a custom feel to your site.

It is true that 11mystics.com charges for a majority of their themes but does provide a free theme for users that register with their website. Additionally, they offer a number of images that you can use to help build your website just the way you’d like.

If you’re not sure if you’d like to pay for a new theme, you can check out a number of live examples of others that have used themes created by 11mystics.

Once you’ve downloaded the new theme, an installer will run to add the theme to iWeb. Once its finished the theme you’ve added will be included in your theme options in iWeb and ready for you to add that custom look to your website.

One of Apple’s major announcements over the past few years was their move from PowerPC processors to Intel X86 based processors. This was such a huge announcement because it essentially meant that there was very little that was keeping people from running Windows on their Apple computers.

But who really wants to buy a Mac just to run Windows on it? Very few people. On the other hand, there is a significantly large number of people that want to run a Windows application or two at times.

Shortly after the announcement of the change in hardware, Parallels released software that allowed you to quickly launch virtual machines inside of OS X. Essentially, users now had the ability to get to their Windows applications quickly and easily on their Mac.

While Parallels allows you to mix and mingle your OS X and Windows applications it may be nice to keep them separated. This is where the 10.5 addition of Spaces makes a great software addition.

How To Launch Windows In Its Own Space

To be able to launch Windows in its own Space the first thing you have to do is download and install Parallels. There is a free 15 day trial available from their website so you can try out the software before putting down any cash.

After you’ve installed Parallels you’ll need to install your Windows software (Either XP or Vista). Doing so in Parallels is quick and easy but you must have an .ISO image or CD for the Windows OS you’ll be using.

Follow the instructions to setup your Virtual Machine and then follow the onscreen instructions for installing Windows. Once Windows has finished installing your Parallels Virtual Machine will boot up into Windows.

Next we need to setup Parallels so it always opens in its own space. To do so follow the same steps we provided in Setting Up Applications to Launch in Their Own Space:

1. Click the Apple Icon and Open System Preferences
2. Select Expose and Spaces and then the Spaces Tab
3. Click the + Button Below the Application Assignments Table
4. Select Parallels and then Assign it to the Space you’d like to designate to Windows

When you’ve finished this, your open Parallels Windows Virtual Machine will move to the space you assigned it.

Navigate to that Space with a keyboard shortcut (I assigned to space 3 so cmd+3) and you’ll see your Windows VM. Select View and then Full Screen, and Windows will open to full screen mode.

At this point you’ve now assigned your Windows Machine to its own Space. It should open in Full Screen mode anytime you go to access it, and now switching to Windows is as easy as a keyboard shortcut.

Move back to a different Space with keyboard shortcuts or select a different open application with Command + Tab.

How are you using Windows in OS X?

There have been a number of recent articles describing the way that consumers user their iPhone. Interestingly enough, compared to normal smartphone users iPhone users talk less and browse the web more then their counterparts.

In fact:

“iPhone owners spend the time they use their iPhones engaged in voice calls (that number is 71.7 percent for BlackBerry owners). Also, iPhone owners in the US claim to spend 12.1 percent of their iPhone time on the net (compare that to 2.4 percent for all other mobile phones on average)”

- TUAW

Sync Safari Bookmarks From Your Mac to Your iPhone & iPod Touch

If you find yourself using your iPhone and iPod Touch to browse the web more and more each day then be sure to setup your iPhone/iPod Touch to sync your Safari Bookmarks.

1. Open iTunes and connect your iPhone/iPod Touch
2. Select the iPhone/iPod Touch in iTunes
3. Select the info Tab
4. Scroll Down to Web Browser and check the box next to Sync Safari Bookmarks
5. Click Sync and check your iPhone/iPod Touch for the updated Bookmark list

Discover interesting sites while on the go and able to check back on them when you return to the larger screen comfort of your Mac. Taking your bookmarks with you has never been easier.