Quite a simply tip this and one only for Mac users I am afraid…. although someone with a knowledge of Windows will tell us how to do it on a PC.

I use Thesis in my sites a lot. Thesis comes with an image rotator – very useful.

Just an aside here. I am looking forward to what Ian can do with Thematic and themes now he is working with Automattic.

Anyway, back to rotator and Thesis. Snow Leopard has changed the way the services menu works. You can now add a service for image resizing using Automator. In Automator, select Service and click Choose. Then choose, “Service Received selected files or folders” in the folder.app. Drag the create Thumbnail Images action underneath it and choose the thumbnail size and suffix. Finally, save and name. Now when you need images for rotator you can resize with ease.

MacOSaiX is a confusing name for a procedure that use to take hours to perform and need a huge amount of computer grunt. And now it’s as easy as 1, 2 and 3.

1. Choose the image from which to make a Mosaic. For my example I chose my youngest daughter Mia, scowling.
2. Choose the shape and the number of tiles in the mosaic (more on this later).
3. Choose the sources of images for filling in the tiles. I chose to use my iPhoto library and with a degree of irony asked the programme to search Google and Flickr for images of a person smiling!

And off it goes.

Ok choosing the shape and number of tiles. Too few and the image will not look good, too many and you lose the idea of a photo-mosaic, that is to actually see that it is made up of 100s of images! The more tiles you use the more source images you’ll need as well. However, you might like the idea of a smooth image using loads of tiles. In which case have a magnifying glass handy. If you’re going to print a large scale copy of your new mosaic this can also be a determining factor. The developer has answered the question here.

I suppose at the end of the day you’ll need to experiment. It does make fascinating watching though. Maybe I ought to make a screencast! And the best bit of all – the programme is free.

Mia Mosaic

Are you going to buy an iPad? I am so ready to buy one that I am even considering buying it from the States. 150,000 applications immediately available to you.

I have an iPhone and can already run my business from it. An iPad will be a short step up. It will provide larger real estate whilst keeping to a similar OS and a chance to use my favourite apps from the iTunes store. The iPad will have access to all the apps on the iTunes store – they will run in their original size or you can expand them to fill the screen. I know developers have also been developing new apps just for the iPad and also rebuilding their original apps so that they automatically fill the screen rather than use the expanding element.

My iPhone is full of useful and not so useful apps. I have FTP programme with an editor built in. FTPOnTheGo enables me to fix a problem almost anywhere in the world (I need wifi or 3G – Apple isn’t that brilliant). RingItUp Pro handles accounting, Bento for the iPhone adds databasing, ABContacts is almost a CRM but is a useful tool anyway (I am told the crm will be coming in the next release) and Informant handles my appointments.

I also have Moodagent (music), Tunein Radio (Radio 1), Chirp!(Birds), ESVBundle (Bible), numerous photo apps including SlowShutter, Snapture, CameraBag, BlueCam, Best Camera, Liquid Scale. The list is endless of so many very useful apps.

Will I miss the fact that it doesn’t have a camera? I can’t load my own apps? No not really. I will use a computer for that. I am sure there is a lot more that Apple can do with the iPad – it will come, I just want to use one now!

The iPad simply improves upon what is already a superb experience with the iPhone. I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy one. I’m just saying I am going to buy one!

Another iPad video from MacWorld this time.

I make no bones about my love for all things Mac. And I love my iPhone. It is brilliant as a work tool, as a ebook reader, study aid and games machine. Brilliant.

But it gets better there is an iPhone app for WordPress bloggers. In their own words:

Introducing the only iPhone app that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (2.7 or higher), users of all experience levels can get going in seconds.

This is a brilliant application and I love the way it works. From the CameraBag website:

CameraBag recreates the magic of film in a fast, intuitive, minimal interface: choose a photo, choose a filter, and you’re done.

Digital cameras have replaced film for all but the most die-hard photographers, but something was lost in that transition. Before the digital era, a photographer’s choice of camera and film had nearly as much artistic impact as the subject matter. Rediscover the fading, tinting, blurring, chemical processing techniques, and “happy accidents” which gave film photos life.

And what is even better is this application can be used both on your iPhone and Mac.

“The day Microsoft makes something that doesn’t suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners.” -Ernst Jan Plugge

What a fantastic quote…. No more needs to be said.

The ‘kill’ command. You need to type a process number. If you don’t know the process number, type ‘top’ or ‘ps -A’, then a simple ‘kill 123456′.

To kill all instances type ‘kill all’ or ‘killall mozilla’, will kill all Mozilla processes.

The new Mac keyboards feature an Expose key on [F3] that when pressed shows all the open windows on your screen. So the trick now is to use the [F3] key to do the rest:
Cmd + [F3] will show the desktop
[Ctrl] + [F3] will show only windows from the front most app.

A must have Mac app. It is an add-on to Apple’s Mail application that has just one purpose – to pop open a preview of any incoming mail. It does this in a rather pleasant transparent window and it does it well. Multiple preferences allow you to configure this app just how you want it.

Mail.appetizer 1.3