Category: HOWTOs

Step by step guides to help with technical issues that I have worked on over the years.

HOWTOs

Find Largest Files (UNIX)

Ever need to find which files are taking up the most room on your server in a particular directory? If so – you can easily find the largest files by running the following command: find -type f | xargs -I{} du -s “{}” | sort -rn | head -10 | cut -f2 | xargs -I{} […]

HOWTOs

Transfer Backups to New Drive with Time Machine

A great article on how to properly move your Time Machine backups to a new drive: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US (You will need to follow the directions or you will get errors simply trying to move the files.)

HOWTOs

HOWTO: Kill the Dock in Mac OS X

Today I ran into a situation on my computer where the dock would not show after a restart. If this ever happens – you can easily fix it by opening up the Terminal application (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and then type in the following code then hit the return button. Within a few minutes […]

HOWTOs

How To Create a Grayscale PDF on Mac OS X

This morning I had to send over a PDF file to the printer and they wanted my color version in greyscale. To create a greyscale version of a PDF there are a few steps you need to follow: Go to the File menu and click “Print”. Once you are there – click on the PDF […]

HOWTOs Random

HOWTO: Report Spam for iCloud Users

Recently I started getting some Russian match.com (lovely) spam that just kept on coming. I got so tired of it – I decided to take a minute to see how I could properly report this as spam without getting a ton of other similar messages. Turns out – if you are an iCloud user – […]

HOWTOs

Have a Humidifier? Make Sure You Clean It!

Holy cow. Last night we decided to put the humidifier on for the boys since it is getting to be that time of year when the air is dry and the colds/sinus problems begin. A few years back I purchased a really cute Winnie the Pooh humidifier for Evan and we ran it most winter […]

Hints HOWTOs UNIX

Show Disk Space Usage (Sorted)

Every once and awhile I find myself needed to what is the space hog on my computer/server. While the command du – h in the command line works for a general overview – I really want to see the results in descending order (by space used). This command will list out everything in descending order […]

HOWTOs

Making the Most of Your Backups

Having a backup of your data is crucial. Being able to successfully restore your data is even more crucial. For the last three weeks, I have been spending two hours a week on organizing/reorganizing all my data. One of my goals for 2012 is to be 100% sure I am backing up what I need […]

Hints HOWTOs Places

The Delicate Balance of Parenting

I love my kids more than I ever thought possible. Once and awhile everything fits together nicely and you feel like you everything is in balance. Most days however there is a constant multi-dimensional game of tug of war going on with both parents over how to do x, y, and z with the kids.

Apple HOWTOs

How to Transfer Purchases in iTunes

Ever need to transfer your purchases from your iPad or iPhone from one computer to another? After getting the alert multiple times I figured it was time to learn. To transfer your purchases – you need to control click on your device (after connecting it to the computer you want to transfer the items to) […]

Apple HOWTOs

iTunes Screensaver in Mac OS X

I generally use the Cosmos screensaver but I recently decided to check out some of the other options. I really thought the iTunes screensaver looked cool – as it shows all your cover art. I then accidentally hovered over one of the album covers and noticed I could actually click on it and switch the […]