Category / Quick Tip

by Taylor

Enable Key Repeat in Lion

If it’s been killing you like it’s been killing me and you want to enable key repeat in Lion just type the following in the command line:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

I couldn’t put up with it any longer.

I also added this user default to my list in a previous post: Mac OS X User Defaults. It contains a pretty thorough list of suggested and commonly sought changes.

by Taylor

Use Spotlight to Search Google and Show Results in Chrome

The use cases are somewhat limited given the Google Chrome app is probably open all the time if you’re like me, but it is possible to use Spotlight to search Google and show the results in Chrome. All you have to do is adjust your Safari preferences appropriately. (If only it were this easy in iOS.)

  1. Open Safari >> Preferences
  2. Make Google Chrome your default web browser
  3. Make Google your default search engine

Now launch Spotlight (Command + Spacebar), type in a search request and select “Search web for…“.

Safari Preferences
by Taylor

Switch Between Application Windows

I learned how to switch between applications with Alt + Tab as a young Windows user long ago. As soon as I got my Mac, I quickly realized Command + Tab did the same thing. But it wasn’t until recently I learned how to switch between application windows in Mac OS X:

Command + ` (Backtick)

There’s no flashy menu that pops up, but it works like a charm for cycling through application windows instantly. Before now, I always used the gesture on the trackpad for show all application windows (it’s also a functional button), which is still nice if you have many application windows to choose from and you don’t want to cycle through them, or you just want to see what’s open.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the same functionality existed in Windows 7 as Alt + `.

by Taylor

No Interfaces Available in Wireshark

If you can’t see any interfaces in Wireshark on your Mac, it’s probably a permissions issue. Try running Wireshark from the command line as root:

su root
open -a "Wireshark"     # assumes app is in Applications folder

If you don’t have the password to root but you are an admin user and (hopefully) you know your password, try editing the permissions on the appropriate Wireshark network sniffers:

cd /dev
sudo chown `whoami`:admin bp*
ls -la | grep bp

I didn’t have the root password so this last one worked for me.