Thursday, December 16, 2010

Using Terminal on Mac and Unix

Terminal is a very powerful tool on Mac and Unix. It enables the user to carry out tasks they wouldn't normally be able to do from the GUI. A few commands are:


sudo shutdown -P now  -  Shuts down and turns off the computer now ("now" can be changed to  the amount of minutes until shutdown or a time. e.g. +10 in ten minutes) this command can be useful for shutting down your computer from an SSH terminal if it isn't responding.


say  -  Make your mac talk.


ifconfig  -  View the network information for your computer.


open -a  -  Open an application in the Applications folder. can be changed to any application e.g. iTunes.


sudo  -  gives superuser permissions to the current user (requires password).



Get full artwork for iPhone App icons

You can get the full sized (512 x 512) icon for iPhone apps in iTunes. 


To do this right click on any app in your iTunes library and click "Get Info" or "Properties" on Windows. Navigate to the "Artwork" tab and you should see an icon of the app. 


Click and drag that to any Finder or Explorer window while holding the option key (⌥) or the control key (Windows). 


You now have a 512 x 512 size icon of that app. Don't use it in your own application though which could infringe copyright