This is a collection of settings that I usually use on my Mac to make them more geek and programmer friendly. They have been last tested on Mac OS 10.9.1

Feel free to use, copy, modify, distribute and critique.

If you have any additions, improvements or corrections, send them to macconfig at umeshunni dot com.

— Umesh Unnikrishnan                

Configure spaces

System Preferences -> Mission Control

Enable ‘Displays have separate spaces’

Change date/time in menu bar to include date

Preferences -> Date and Time Preferences -> Date Options : check ‘show day of the week’, ‘show date’

Change some annoying defaults

Run these commands in Terminal:

# Automatically hide and show the Dock
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true

# Show indicator lights for open applications in the Dock
defaults write com.apple.dock show-process-indicators -bool true

# Don’t automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use
defaults write com.apple.dock mru-spaces -bool false

#Disable the ‘Show dashboard as a space’ setting
defaults write com.apple.dock dashboard-in-overlay -bool true

#Disable ‘this file was downloaded from the Interwebs are you sure you wanna open?’ dialog
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO

# Disable ‘smart quotes’
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticQuoteSubstitutionEnabled -bool false

# Save screenshots to the desktop
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location -string "${HOME}/Desktop"

# Save screenshots in PNG format (other options: BMP, GIF, JPG, PDF, TIFF)
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type -string "png"

# Enable subpixel font rendering on non-Apple LCDs
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

# Enable HiDPI display modes (requires restart)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

# Finder: show path bar
defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool true

# Finder: allow text selection in Quick Look
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool true

# Show the main window when launching Activity Monitor
defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor OpenMainWindow -bool true

# Visualize CPU usage in the Activity Monitor Dock icon
defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor IconType -int 5

# Show all processes in Activity Monitor
defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor ShowCategory -int 0

# Sort Activity Monitor results by CPU usage
defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor SortColumn -string "CPUUsage"
defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor SortDirection -int 0

# Use plain text mode for new TextEdit documents
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit RichText -int 0

# Open and save files as UTF-8 in TextEdit
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit PlainTextEncoding -int 4
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit PlainTextEncodingForWrite -int 4

Common 3rd party software

Install Chrome:

cd ~/Downloads

curl -O https://dl.google.com/chrome/mac/stable/GGRO/googlechrome.dmg

open googlechrome.dmg
sudo cp -r /Volumes/Google\ Chrome/Google\ Chrome.app /Applications/

Configure Chrome:

Settings -> Personal Stuff -> Set up sync

Keyboard Shortcuts -> Applications -> Chrome -> map “command-u” to ‘view source’

Install and configure iTerm2:

Install iterm2: http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/downloads

#Download a decent theme for iTerm2
curl -O https://codeload.github.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes/legacy.tar.gz/master

Go to Preferences > Profiles > General and mark the “ssh” URL scheme in the dropdown at the bottom. You’ll be prompted to confirm changing the default handler and you should be good to go.

Pick the homebrew theme.

Set window transparency to 25%, window size to 120×50

# Don’t display the annoying prompt when quitting iTerm

defaults write com.googlecode.iterm2 PromptOnQuit -bool false

add the following to ~/.inputrc to enable ctrl-left/right to move words

"\e[1;5D": backward-word

"\e[1;5C": forward-word

Install Sublime Text 2

http://www.sublimetext.com/2

Install XCode command line

xcode-select --install

Set up HomeBrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

brew doctor 

Install some useful ports

# ImageMagick - manipulate image files from the command line

brew install ImageMagick

I have an older Macbook Pro that I bought around 3 years back. I bought it with grand plans of coding away in a coffee shop or editing photos on a plane back home, but between the fact that I do neither of those on a regular basis and the fact that I have 2 tablets, a (work) laptop and a desktop at home, this guy never got as much usage as his proud unibody self deserved.

Lately, it was starting to feel slower and slower, more so when compared to my snappy 15″ 2012 Macbook Pro Retina. So, rather than buy a new Macbook, I thought I’d swap out the 5400 RPM hard drive for an SSD drive and upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB.

So, Here’s what I did:

Bought 8 GB of Corsair RAM, a 120 Gig SSD and a transfer cable off of Amazon (hooray, Amazon Prime!). Specifically, I bought
Corsair Apple 8 GB Dual Channel Kit DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) 204-Pin DDR3 Laptop SO-DIMM Memory CMSA8GX3M2A1066C7

OWC 120GB Mercury Electra 6G SSD 2.5″ Serial-ATA 9.5mm Solid State Drive

and

Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter Supports 2.5-Inch, 3.5-Inch, 5.25-Inch Hard Disk Drives (Black)

In theory, I could have done without the SATA to USB cable, but having it made booting off of the old hard drive and cloning it into the SSD much easier.

Installing the RAM and SSD

The next step was to open up the laptop and install the RAM and SSD drive. Fortunately, the Internet is choke full of guides on how to do this. Here’s a couple that helped me:

Both of these are pretty self explanatory, but the one thing that tripped me up was that I didn’t have a torque screwdriver to remove the side screws on the hard drive and attach them to the SSD. I considered going without these screws, but thought of the SSD drive knocking around in the case didn’t seem that enticing. So, after a bit of experimentation, I managed to use a plier from an IKEA toolkit to remove and reattach these screws.

Cloning my old hard drive into the SSD

Finally once everything was firmly installed and the cover was screwed back on, I booted off of the old hard-drive, attached via the USB cable to the laptop. Note that since the old HD is attached via a USB 2.0 cable, this can be excruciatingly slow. Once the laptop booted up and I verified that the new RAM was detected, I rebooted again and hit Command-R on boot up to enter the MacOS utilities screen and clone the old HD into the new SSD. If your new SSD is smaller than your old HD (as mine was), you’ll need to adjust the partition size to make it smaller or the same size as your SSD’s primary partition – so make sure you have plenty of free space on the old HD!

This process took about an hour over the slow USB 2.0 connector. But once it’s all done, you can remove the old HD and reboot. And… everything just worked! The clunky old Macbook Pro is much faster (and quieter!) after this upgrade and I’m glad I went this route rather than plunk down a grand or more on a new laptop.

To TRIM or not to TRIM?

The one decision you need to make post-upgrade is whether or not to enable TRIM support. Apple, by default, doesn’t enable OS-level TRIM support on 3rd party SSD drives and you can find utilities on the Internet which will do this for you. However, some SSD manufacturers recommend that you DO NOT enable TRIM on their SSDs. OWC, the manufacturer of the drive I used, makes the same recommendation here, so that’s what I chose to do.

About once or twice a week, I get a email or a LinkedIn question from someone asking me about Product Management roles at Google.

I used to spend 15-30 mins in a call with many of these folks, but then I found the following deck created by my colleague Shreyas Doshi which answers the most basic questions that people have:

So, if you’ve been wondering how to get that PM job at Google (or Facebook, Yahoo, Groupon, Zynga and other Silicon Valley tech companies), take a look at that deck and have the basics covered before you shoot a request to me (or your other favorite tech PM).

Here’s another good response – from Edward Ho on Quora:
Read Quote of Edward Ho’s answer to Google: What makes someone a great product manager at Google? on Quora

via scobleizer: http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/03/19/what-is-web-20-heres-a-list/

Sacred Cow Dung has a great list of *hundreds* of Web 2.0 services that are available now. He covers most of my favorites: flickr, del.icio.us and live but forgot to mention gmail.
The only obscure one I know that they’ve missed is jobster.

Problem:

The Wife hears a hot new hiphop tune on TV and wants a copy for herself.
Given that we’re entertaining some friends later in the day, bonus points for
getting them to listen to it as well.

Ye Olde Solution:

In the good old days, this meant

1. A
   drive down to the local music store.
2. Buying
   the CD (or *gasp* Audio Cassette) for $12.99
3. Scurrying
   back home and
4. Playing
   it on The Wife’s Walkman or CD player.
5. and for
   the Bonus Points, on the Home Stereo when guests arrive.

Total costs: 1 hour of dressing up and driving around. $12.99 for 12
songs I didn’t want and irreparable harm to the environment in CO emissions,
plastic bags and packaging material.

Bottomline: All the driving around and spending $12.99 for a CD where
you liked only a single song sucks! But atleast you now have a physical copy of
the song that you can play wherever whenever you choose, can lend to like-minded
friends, can make a copy of to play in The Car and so on… provided the CD never
gets scratched, stolen or otherwise missing.

The iModern iSolution 360

As a geek, I

1. Fire
   up my laptop
2. Being
   a Law-abiding RIAA-fearing citizen, choose to fire up iTunes instead of
   BitTorrent
3. Search
   for the song
4. Provide
   Apple with my credit card number and…
5. 30
   seconds later, I have an .m4p (??) song on my hard disk that instantly
   syncs over USB 2.0 to The Wife’s iPod.

So far, so good… right? Except that I want the Bonus Points and now have
to figure out how to get the m4p song playing on my home theater system.
Obvious solutions like hooking the iPod up to the system through a
2.5mm->component audio cable or Physical solutions like burning the m4p onto
a CD and playing it on the DVD player are totally out of the question since they
require dealing with the ‘analog hole’.

So, I think to myself… hey, this is easy. The Xbox 360 supports iPods,
right? So, all I have to do is hook the iPod upto the Xbox and I’ll have remote
controllable, hifi audio playing through my home theater system with a visualization
playing on the TV to boot!

So, I hook the iPod upto the Xbox. The Xbox downloads the update it
needs to support the iPod and then… the song I just bought doesn’t show up in
the Xbox’s Music menu! Another song from the same band that I had earlier..err…
ripped as mp3 onto the iPod shows up. Then it finally strikes me.. Of Course… ‘protected’
music can’t be played on any device… So, I go back to the PC and google for converters
for 30 minutes before I find some app that uses the iTunes extensibility mode
to attempt decoding the song to mp3. After it sucked up 100% CPU for 20 minutes
or so without any visible (audible?) output, it gave up… and so did I

MSN Spaces just added the ability for us to profit from our spaces! If you sign up to list ads in your spaces, you’ll get paid ( a few cents) every time someone clicks on your sponsored ads.
So, go ahead and help me support my sponsors! Click the ads above 🙂