Recently I have been using one my favorite text editors on my mac to process some text lines. Below is a list of some commands I found useful:
Lowercase every character: tr [:upper:] [:lower:]
Sort the lines: sort
Show only unique lines: uniq
Archive for the 'Apple' category
Using TextMate to process text lines
Using VLC to Convert WMA to MP3 for free
I rarely need to convert files on my Mac, but when I do, I seem to think I have to find some type of weird audio program to help. My usual pattern to solve this problem was to go onto google.com and put in "convert wma to mp3" and hope for the best. But tonight was different. While playing around with the program VLC, I noticed a menu item that I have never used before: "Streaming/Exporting Wizard". This option allows for doing just as it suggests, but after playing around with some options, I found out that VLC can convert WMA files to MP3 files!
Here are the steps:
- Open the WMA file(s) in VLC
- Goto File -> Streaming/Export Wizard
- Choose "Transcode/Save to file" and click Next
- Choose "Existing playlist item" and highlight the items you want converted and click Next
- Because I was converting audio, I used the "Transcode audio" option
- Set the codec to "MP3" and choose your bitrate (I went with default of 192) and click Next
- Set your encapsulation to "RAW" and click Next
- Set your destination directory and click Next and it should start converting!
Afterwards I used Automator to rename my files from "Song Title.wma.raw" to "Song Title.mp3" by:
- Dragging the audio files onto Automator
- Adding "Rename Finder Items"
- Set the operation of the "Rename Finder Items" to "Replace Text"
- Find = .wma.raw
- Replace = .mp3
- Click Run!
organizing mail faster with keyboard shortcuts in snow leopard os x 10.6
I have been recently reading the book called Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better, by Gina Trapini. In the book there are tons of suggestions on how to save time and headaches in your life. For myself, I have found the hacks to very rewarding! Somethings in my life are very tedious and need to be streamlined. Recently, I found that my email system needed a nice ironing. So, I did some quick google searches and did not find much help on how to move message really easy via the keyboard. Thus, I set out to find my own solution. That solution is keyboard shortcuts for os x mail. This helps in saving time, and here is how to implement it for one folder:
To make a short cut for moving a message to a folder:
- open system preferences
- select "keyboard" module
- select "keyboard shortcuts"
- select "application shortcuts" on the left side
- add a new entry for the "Mail" application
- make the menu title to be the exact spelling and capitolization as the folder you want to move messages to
- choose a keyboard shortcut (tip: use cmd+alt+ctrl+(letter) to avoid overlap)
- relaunch mail to recognize the shortcut(s)
update: I have noticed that sometimes, mail does not recognize the keyboard shortcut until after you have used the menu item. This is very upsetting.
Choose a message and hit your keyboard shortcut. Volia! I hope you saw your message dissapear. If not, I suggest you try picking a new keyboard shortcut and relaunching mail or making sure the shortcut is recognized. To verify if your shortcut is being recognized, try the following:
- open your mail application
- select the "Message" menu
- select "Move To" menu
- find the folder you are targeting with your shortcut
- check to make sure your menu has your shortcut next to it (refer to the screenshot below for an example)
My favorite iPhone games
I have found some nice games that have captured my attention while looking to keep myself occupied in various moments of life: