Every good blogger is always on the run, so I live and die for my EVDO connection. It works PERFECTLY on my Mac, but if I need internet access on the go with Windows XP in Parallels, I’m left high and dry!

With a little bit of easy hackery, your Mac will be able share it’s data connection with Parallels. Here is the trick:

• You need to update your Parallels software to the latest workstation to build 1970 or later.
• Next, go to System Preferences -> Sharing -> Internet (tab)
• Choose from the Drop Down Selection: Share Your Connection From: (YOUR DEVICE)

• Check the on box for the ethernet port of : Built –In-Ethernet

• Click the start button to begin sharing the Internet connection

• Open a terminal window
• Type more /etc/resolv.conf to obtain your carriers DNS information. You will receive a listing for your Primary and Secondary DNS servers, write this down you’ll need it

• Start up you Windows Connection and once booted, navigate to your LAN connection TCP/IP settings. Start -> Network Connections -> Local Area Connection -> Properties ->Internet Protocol TCP/IP -> Properties -> Use the following DNS server addresses

• This is where you will need to enter in the manual DNS information so that your connection can resolve Internet requests in Parallels.

It took me a few restarts in Windows to get this work perfectly, and from what I understand it may not work with all phones that can DUN, so try at your own risk.

For more instructions, or on how do do this hack with a data card see EVDOInfo

Digg this

Now that Parallels provides support for automatic Coherence mode and the ability to add Windows applications to the OS X dock, it’s time to show you just how easy it is to replace icons to match the rest of your interface.

As much as I would love to disconnect and devote most of my computing time to one operating system, work requires that I toy with Internet Explorer on a regular basis.

By default, Parallels uses the default Windows application icon plus the addition of a mini Parallels icon to apps added to the dock. Personally, I could do without both. Replacing an applications icon is as easy as removing the icon from the dock, navigating to your Parallels directory /Parallels/Windows XP (install)/Windows Applications folder, and getting ‘Info’ on whatever application you wish to “enhance”. Those familiar with the old copy ‘n paste icon replacement know that replacing the icon is only as challenging as finding a suitable replacement.

To replace the Internet Explorer 6 & 7 icons, I turned to Google and found these glossy replacements by *weboso. The icons are distributed as .icn and .png files. To use them in order to replace Internet Explorer’s default, use a small utility called img2icns. I’ve already created two folder with icons for both IE6 & IE7 thanks to *weboso’s fantastic work. Download the zip file.

To replace icons, get info on the unzipped folder items. Select the icon at the top of the info window, press CMD+C (to copy to the clipboard). Get info on the Parallels Internet Explorer icon and highlight the icon at the top of the window. Press CMD+V (paste from clipboard) to change the icon. Drag the new icon to the dock and enjoy.

Connected to your web-mail account like white on rice? Loathe the idea of accessing, sending, and managing your mail accounts via POP / IMAP? Would you rather do all of the aforementioned tasks from your favorite web-mail client and have all mailto: links open in Gmail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail, Yahoo, or .Mac? If you’re that type of email users, check out Webmailer [via] which provides a System Preference pane for managing your default email client tasks and redirecting said needs online.

Ever click on a mailto: link, only to scream in frustration as Apple Mail opens yet again? The curse of the webmail user is that there is no way to get around this problem. That is, until now.

Webmailer is an unoriginally named program (actually a preference pane) for Mac OS X that allows you to fix this problem. You can set it to open any URL or run any shell script, complete with the parameters lifted from the mailto link. Webmailer comes with links for several possible webmail sites, including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and several webmail programs, such as SquirrelMail or Roundcube. But you can always add your own configuration.

Make sure to download the correct releases as Webmailer is provided for both Panther and Tiger users. Webmailer provides support for a wide range of web based email services. If your favorite is not provided by default in preference pane, there is an option to add additional web-mail services.

Macosxhints.com walks users through a simple security / privacy technique designed to take snapshots using your built-in iSight whenever invalid login attempts are logged. Can someone say poor boy Undercover alternative?

With the new MacBook Pro’s including built-in iSight cameras, I thought it would be useful to take an iSight snapshot of anyone trying to break into my laptop. This is done by tailing /var/log/asl.log for invalid login attempts (both at the login screen and screen saver). I have created an authsight program (1.5KB download) that provides a monitoring daemon which calls the camera after an invalid login attempt, and also includes a launchd manifest. An iSight command line tool named iSightCapture is also required.

I implemented this immediately out of sheer curiosity wondering if anyone in my household has ever attempted to login without permission. Similarly, MacRabbit’s Deskshade offers a simple utility which presents an immediate log of login attempts as soon as the screen lock is removed.

Creating & managing screenshots on OS X may not garner the same type of attention had the topic been something more along the lines of creating a web development environment on OS X, cloning a hardrive, or improving your iChat experience. Regardless, those that do collect and amass a large collection of images can attest to the fact that such collections can 1) be tedious, 2) get quite unorganized, or 3) utilize more disk space than they should. All of these issues are easily resolved with a few simple techniques.

Capturing basic screenshots

Thankfully, OS X offers a number of options which allow a user to capture both entire screens and specifc regions using convenient keyboard shortcuts.

As you can see, OS X includes a great selection of basic screenshot options for quick screen grabs to send to contacts via email or instant message. For those that may prefer a graphical user interface (GUI) for screenshots, OS X offers the Grab utility located in Applications > Utilities. Grab allows users to capture a selection, a specific window, the entire screen, or a timed shot. While screenshots captured using one of the aforementioned keyboard shortcuts are saved as PNG files, Grab saves captures as TIFF files.

Although the free options included with OS X will suffice for most, others may yearn for additional options – including drop shadows, rounded corners, or alternative GUI’s. Check out any one of the following screenshot utilities: SnapNDrag, Snapz Pro X, or Screenshot Plus.

Configuring OS X screenshot commands

The built-in commands are most likely suitable enough for the average user without incurring additional costs that 3rd party software requires. Screenshots captured using one of the shortcuts above are automatically saved to the Desktop (default). If, however, the file format or default save location is unacceptable, download a copy of OnyX. In addition to providing users with an interface to tweak the default screenshot settings – including file format (PNG, TIFF, JPEG, PDF, GIF, PICT, BMP, SGI, & TGA) and the default save path – OnyX offers a great number of system maintenance options. Check out my favorite Finder tweak which aligns the Dock to the left or right of a screen.

Capturing entire web pages

Stumble upon an inspiration website worth archiving for later viewing? Previously, I would have recommended the lightweight utility known simply as Paparazzi. While Paparazzi captures excellent full length images of websites, the utility requires that users copy ‘n paste URLs in order to capture and save.

Although Paparazzi is more than capable as far as full web pages are concerning, Shiny Frog’s NetFixer one-ups the utility by providing a convenient bookmarklet which automatically captures your current web page.

Individuals hesitant to download additional software created for the sole purpose of capturing websites in their entirety can check out the Pearl Crescent Page Saver extension [Firefox required]. This handy extension captures multiple images – scrolling your browser window in order to view the entire site – and stitches the captures together into a single image file.

Capturing video & DVD screenshots

While most of the popular techniques for capturing images from movies or DVDs require paid software (see Snapz Pro X), one open source application requires no registration fees or upfront costs. Simply download a copy of the VLC media player and open your favorite video files, VCDs, or DVDs. During playback, simply select the ‘Video (menu bar) > Snapshot’. Alternatively, users can simply press the CMD+OPTION+S keyboard shortcut. VLC will automatically capture a single frame from the video file and save the ensuing PNG screenshot to your Desktop.

Optimize & compress PNGs

For those that elect to retain the higher quality default PNG file format, shave and optimize images using a tiny utility known as pngCrushrrr. pngCrushrrr was designed with one task in mind – PNG optimization – and requires no interface to do so. Simply drag any PNG file on to the utility icon and a crushed version is created.

Additional questions concerning the task of capturing screenshots on OS X? Feel free to drop comments, questions, or recommendations below.

Originally from 5thirtyone.com. Please feel free to email any questions, comments, or concerns to tips@uneasysilence.com.

I can’t confirm if this is true or not, but it is rumored if you subscribe to T-Mobile’s t-zones plan for $5.99 a month you will be able to get unlimited internet access on your phone or DUN on your computer.

What you’ll have to do is remove the proxy server (216.155.165.50) from your device settings to test the theory. Once that proxy is removed, it also seems that all the port blocking is disabled as well.

If you are a T-Mobile user, you may want to check this out. But be warned, any hacking done to your phone if T-Mobile finds out, could void your contract or create excessive data usage fees. PLease use the comments to let us know your results.

Read More (Thanks Frank)

Left feeling disappointed that you could not snag the $100 XBox 360 on Amazon a week ago? (Don’t worry Microcenter still has a good deal). Here are some ways that you could help increase you odds to get the $25 portable DVD player.

• Don’t use a domain name: One of the problems were Amazons DNS servers were clogged, instead go in with an IP address such as:

  http://72.21.210.254/

• Use a secure approach: Amazons SSL servers are not the same as their HTTP servers, resulting in far less traffic. Using HTTPS may be a lucky trick:

  https://www.amazon.com/

Good luck tomorrow, and start hitting reload at 10:55 EST.

As convienent as the Firefox 2 RSS preview may be to some, to others, the feature does nothing other than to hamper the process of subscribing to a websites / blogs content feed. The trick to removing the preview functionality integrated into the latest release of Firefox? A small code tweak to the FeedConverter.js file.

Windows users will find this file located at: ‘C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\FeedConverter.js’

OS X users should look here: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/components/FeedConverter.js’

If you’re scratching your head wondering how to get into the ‘Contents’ folder of an OS X application, simply CTRL+Click on an item and select ‘Show package contents’.

You’ll need to look near line 187 (using one of your favorite plain text editors) for the following block of code:

var chromeChannel;
if (result.doc) {
// If there was no automatic handler, or this was a podcast,
// photostream or some other kind of application, we must always
// show the preview page…

// Store the result in the result service so that the display page can
// access it.
feedService.addFeedResult(result);

// Now load the actual XUL document.
var chromeURI = ios.newURI(FEEDHANDLER_URI, null, null);
chromeChannel = ios.newChannelFromURI(chromeURI, null);
chromeChannel.originalURI = result.uri;
}
else
chromeChannel = ios.newChannelFromURI(result.uri, null);

chromeChannel.asyncOpen(this._listener, null);
}

Simply edit out the if (result.doc) to read if (0). Restart Firefox and your subscriptions will no longer be previewed using Firefox’s built-in results view. [via]

OS X users are completely aware of the ever so helpful save dialog box which is enabled by default. Check the screenshot below for an example of one. Minimal, limited, yet simple enough for the average user with most save directories being those found within your Home directory.

Fortunately, the limitations of the above save dialog box (default) can be expanded into something like that found below. Toggling between the two is as simple as clicking the small arrow adjacent to the “Save as:” text field.

Want the full featured save dialog box to display by default when saving documents & files? A little Terminal action will solve your frustrations. Open up Terminal found at ‘Applications > Utilities > Terminal’ and type the following [via]:

defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

Once the change has been made, enjoy the convenience of the full featured save dialog box without having to toggle between that less convenient alternative.

Does anyone else think that IE7′s menu bar placement was a little awkward? I know I did. It took me a little bit to adjust to the position of the menubar – being one line lower than that on a “normal” browser. Is it Microsoft attempting to be different? Or a subtle interface tweak designed to improve a browsers user experience?

If you prefer to have the menu bar at the top of the browser (where it naturally should be), simply follow the steps below:

• If IE 7 is opened, close it before doing anything
• Open the Registry Editor (Start > Run > type ‘regedit’ and hit enter)
• Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ InternetExplorer
• Right-click the right part of the registry editor, select New->DWORD Value ITBar7Position
• Double-click the newly created value and enter 1
• Restart IE 7

Much better. No more disorientation for browser users who jump between Firefox, Opera, and IE 7 [via]. Now that Microsoft is rollowing out automatic updates for Internet Explorer 7, I can certainly bet that new users will feel a little disoriented with the new layout.