Have you noticed that screenshoots you make with the key command Apple-Shift-3 or Apple-Shift-4 are somewhat blurry and not pixel perfect? That is because by default the screen-shoot format is a made as a jpeg set to resolution 60. That's pretty low and therefore it produces small file sizes which is good for most uses, but not if you want to see every pixel in detail.

To fix this issue you have to set the deafult screenshoot format to png, pdf or tiff. You can do that with Terminal. Type these commands:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
killall SystemUIServer

Press return after each line and replace png with pdf or tiff as you wish. Notice how sharp is the screenshoot above. ;)

Since before OS X we've been using Stickies to hold small pieces of important information that we need at hand.

There is a really powerful small feature of the Stickies.app in OS X that let's any sticky note float over all other windows making it visible at all times. To make a sticky float above all windows select it and press: Apple-Alt-F (Command-Option-F)

This is really useful when you have to consider and copy info from several sources for the job you're working on. Remember you can have all kinds of info on your Stickies, not just text.

Download the screensaver after the jump.

I've discussed how to change the desktop for the login screen earlier — almost 3 years ago :O, but now with OS X 10.5 things have changed slightly.

If you want to change the desktop picture behind the login screen you should replace this file: System/ Library/ CoreServices/ DefaultDesktop.jpg with your new image. You will have to enter your admin password to be able to do that.

You probably know that there is an application called Keychain Access on your Mac OSX system. But did you know that you can reveal all the passwords stored in it? Keychain Access stores all kinds of passwords, such as Wi-Fi networks, ftp access, websites, mail, etc.

For example if you have a bookmark in Transmit with a password stored in it and you want to retrieve it you can go to Keychain Access search for the name of the server you are interested in. Select the right key and get info with Apple(Cmd)-I. Now you will need to click the Show password switch which will prompt you for your admin password. Once you typed it in, the password for that specific key will now be visible.

I personally like to open a new folder for each project and within that another folder for every version of the project. This way I can easily follow the progression, do not overwrite old files accidentally and can dump old versions easily once the project is complete.

Every time I create a new version of the project in Finder I simply press and hold the Alt (Option) button and drag the folder. OS X will create a duplicate of the folder and renames it with a successive version number automatically. Quite convenient.

A small drawback is that I duplicate all files every time, which is not really an issue in this day and age with 200GB+ hard disk space. It's only a problem if the image files are hundreds of megabytes large and do not change from version to version. In this case I usually create a separate folder for items that do not change, such as images or fonts.

I know the Adobe package contains Version Cue, but I never really managed to grasp how it works. Every time I try to learn about it, all I find is marketing mumbo-jumbo instead of a simple tutorial on how to use it, and I get discouraged. If you know a place to learn about it, please share!

Also, I would be interested to learn about your versioning strategy!

It's rare that I would argue against someone's opinion. After all everybody is entitled to their own. But when somebody is so uninformed as Preston Gralla, he deserves to be confronted. Read his infamous blog post about Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OSX. Now, if this post would've appeared on randomperson.blogspot.com I would not bother to comment and categorize him as a deluded but entertaining person, but he is a contributing editor for Computerworld, and the author of more than 35 books, yadda yadda. So, his opinion sort of counts, right?

Before reading the article, I was hoping to find out about some cool hidden features of Vista that I haven't heard of before. They probably exist, but the author didn't bother to look them up. He brought up some really tired arguments that were maybe somewhat true in the distant past (in technology and internet time), but certainly don't stand true today.

Now, let's look at his 5 points!

I had posted this tip over at The Graphic Mac last week and it was quite popular, so I thought I would share this Safari tip with the readers of CB as well.

One of the things that has kept me using Firefox over the last few years is Safari's insistence on opening links in new windows, rather than a new tab in the current window. It drives me nuts. I hate having multiple windows open.

Thankfully, the latest version of Safari (3.1) has a hidden feature that forces all links to open in a new tab, rather than a new window — even the stubborn sites like Google and Gmail finally stay in a single window.

All you have to do is open Terminal from your Applications/Utilities folder and enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Hit the enter key and you're all set. To reverse this, simply retype the code into the Terminal and substitute false at the end where you previously typed true.

Meet the Newton Virus is the first art virus by Troika.

If anyone depends on Linotype FontExplorer X I would suggest you wait with updating to MacOS X 10.5.2. The dock hangs as soon as you try to open a stack while Linotype FontExplorer X is running. Quitting FontExplorer fixes the problem.

Suitcase is apparently immune to whatever is causing the problem.