Permission error of AppleScript in iTunes

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Dae

I was getting a permission error (code -54) when trying to set an id3 tag of a track using AppleScript. The solution was to add a delay between each operation: delay 1

Note that the track will remain “locked” until you restart iTunes.

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Inability to upload files using any browser on Windows

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Dae

One my friend who runs Windows XP encountered a strange problem: she couldn’t upload any large (more than ≈100 KB) files using upload forms on websites under any browser. We tried Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome with no result, although Flash uploaders were still working. The solution was to change the MTU value in the registry.

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Slow startup and sleep problems on MacBook Pro 2,2

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Dae

Once I noticed that the booting process of my MacBook Pro 2,2 extended to 5-7 minutes (the longest phase of the startup process was the blue screen which usually appears right before the desktop) and additionally, sleep (hibernate) mode stopped working. Both problems appeared simultaneously, so right from the start it was clear that they’re related.

Update: for Yosemite instructions, see the comment by Douglas Santana. Continue reading →

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Create an iPhone ringtone on Mac

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Dae

This “how to” will guide you through the process of making an iPhone ringtone from a mp3 file using free tools on Mac OS X. I’m pretty sure most of those steps can as well be reproduced on Windows, since both applications we’re going to use — Audacity and iTunes — exist for both systems. Continue reading →

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“Building boot caches” error when changing startup disk

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Dae

Once I tried to change the default startup disk on my Mac running Snow Leopard and the following error appeared: “you can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed”.
Continue reading →

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“Failed to expand the files” error

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Dae

Getting “failed to expand the files” while installing Canon camera software, such as ZoomBrowser Ex? Just turn off your antivirus.

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BBEdit preview shows raw PHP code

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Dae

If your BBEdit preview shows raw PHP code, go to “Preferences” and configure a “HTML web-site” with “Use local preview server” ticked.

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Launch character palette using AppleScript in Snow Leopard

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Dae 
tell application "CharacterPalette" to activate

There is an issue though: the new character palette doesn’t get “bound” to any of the applications, therefore double-clicking a symbol doesn’t paste it automatically to the text field. You’d have to drag-and-drop.

I’m posting this because most results from Google were telling me to launch some “.component”, that doesn’t exist on my Snow Leopard system.

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Restrict page access to authorized MODx managers only

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Dae

A while ago I needed to create a private zone with documentation, accessible only by the MODx managers (I’m talking about MODx Evolution here). In order to restrict access I wrote a simple snippet, which you can now use as well.
Continue reading →

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Add an <option> to a <select> using Mootools

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Dae 
var newoption = new Option("option html", "option value");
try
{
	$('myselect').add(newoption, null);
}
catch (err)
{
	$('myselect').add(newoption);
}

To select the newly created option:

newoption.setProperty('selected', 'selected');
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