sayzlim.net

For desire a remedy of general application is the meditation on impermanence, which knocks away the underlying prop of clinging, the implicit assumption that the objects clung to are stable and durable.

For desire in the specific form of sensual lust the most potent antidote is the contemplation of the unattractive nature of the body, to be dealt with at greater length in the next chapter.

Ill will meets its proper remedy in the meditation on lovingkindness (metta), which banishes all traces of hatred and anger through the methodical radiation of the altruistic wish that all beings be well and happy.

The dispelling of dullness and drowsiness calls for a special effort to arouse energy, for which several methods are suggested: the visualization of a brilliant ball of light, getting up and doing a period of brisk walking meditation, reflection on death, or simply making a firm determination to continue striving.

Restlessness and worry are most effectively countered by turning the mind to a simple object that tends to calm it down; the method usually recommended is mindfulness of breathing, attention to the in-and-out flow of the breath.

In the case of doubt the special remedy is investigation: to make inquiries, ask questions, and study the teachings until the obscure points become clear

Source: Right Effort

Adium has always been my favorite IM client because of its support to many IM services and the ability to customize theme. I’ve shared my personalized theme using modifications crafted by several authors at DeviantArt and it remains one of the popular posts in this blog.

I’ve been browsing for Adium theme recently and discover some beautiful themes. This is one of the best textured based Adium theme I’ve seen so far. In this post, I’m going to share all the mods I’ve applied for this theme.

I’ve never seen any Adium dock icon that is beautiful while still maintaining the original Adium mascot. Birdie is the dock icon crafted by arrioch featuring a cute little green bird. The reason why I love this icon is the cute animation and how it resembles the Adium original dock icon. That is also the reason why I don’t like the idea of using iChat icon as the replacement for Adium icon.¹

This is where I contradict with my previous statement. There are many contact list styles for Adium. But I find that the most suitable theme for this whole package of modification goes to iDium contact list style. Originally made by Pritthish and now maintained by gnome, they try to bring iChat user interface to Adium.

You can achieve the iChat UI by downloading iDium Beta mod. But in this case, we’re not going to use all the mod provided, instead we’ll only use the contact list style, and the plugin that modifies the input message style.

One of the best textured based message style. Also crafted by Pritthish, Taz uses the color combination found in Twitterrific with many details refined. Enable the header by navigate to Preferences: Messages: Show header. There is only one word to describe Taz, beautiful.

It’s not part of the mod, but if you find the existing Adium toolbar icons outdated and wish to replace with something new and shiny. Consider the mod made by Bogdan which is much much better than the existing one. I especially like the Appearance icon included inside the package. Download the mod if you’re interested.

I’ve included all the links to all the mods I’ve used in this customization in each paragraph. If you prefer an easier way to customize theme without having to visit each site separately, I’ve included a package that contains all the files required to change your Adium theme, except the toolbar icons.

Download

You can always ask me question if you encounter any problems.

1. Using iChat icon as the replacement for Adium only add confusion instead of aesthetic beauty. ↩

There are many things I love and hate about Twitterrific 4 for Mac. The simplicity and unified timeline is the main reason why I choose Twitterrific 4 as my twitter client. But, the font selection, especially the username font size has been bothering me for a while. Luckily, I manage to find the configuration files for the theme within the app.

If you navigate to Twitterrific app icon and show the package content. There are actually theme configuration files inside. All of them are ending with .plist extension which you can edit with any text editors.¹ You can configure the theme to preferred style, such as font type and font size.

It looks daunting if you’ve never done CSS styling. But it’s a very simple configuration once you try it for a while. You can also customize the layout, color, and several miscellaneous theme related settings.

To make this whole process easier, I’ve included my own customization for you to download. It doesn’t change much to the default theme, the most noticeable part is the username font size on the timeline.²

Download

1. Use Xcode or Dashcode if you have them installed. They provide user friendly interface. ↩

2. I like Ollie, but I don’t like the icon made by IconFactory. It’s too big for my dock, so I include a smaller icon inside the package. ↩

According to Moore’s law, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. In other words, the processors’ speed double every two years. Judging from the law and consumers trend, it should be normal to upgrade your system every two years.

But, is it necessary to upgrade your system every two years?

If we measure the capability of the computers we use in this age, most computers can handle our daily computing pretty fast. Do you think you’ll need an i5 or i7 processors chip to watch YouTube videos, do your school projects, or play Farmville? How many times have you heard someone, if not yourself, complaining how slow their computers are?

The computing process consists of the interaction and combination of software, hardware, and human. Achieving the best result requires these three things to perform at their best. However, most people only pay attention to two of them which are software and hardware.

Give the best desktop computer to an ignorant user. Without enough knowledge, he’ll install all the crap he finds, run 10 apps at once, mess up the system startup items, scream for help, and complain about the slow performance of his powerful desktop computer. Not even the best software can help him, unless software controls the computer in his place.

Give an average desktop computer to a smart user. He’ll know which software works, configure optimal settings, use the computer resources efficiently, and execute tasks within the ability of the hardware itself. He knows what he can do with this device, thus not complaining when the device doesn’t do what he wants.

Perhaps I’m being subjective by not considering many external factors here. The problem is I know some users who don’t bother to learn what they use everyday. Formatting your computer doesn’t solve your problems. You might be busy, but if computing is part of your job or daily activity, I think it’s necessary to gain knowledge about it.

To bring out the best of the computing experience, the users themselves need to upgrade their knowledge. It’s not enough to upgrade the system alone. To upgrade the system, you need money. Gaining knowledge doesn’t require as much money as upgrading the system.

It doesn’t apply solely to computing. Cars, tools, gadgets, and everything you use can be more effective if you try to learn more about it. Perhaps what you need is a little effort to study and learn about your system.

Safari is not the best browser on Windows. But it remains as one of the most used browser on OS X. For some people, memory usage on Safari is too high compared to other browsers. It causes some performance issues, but there is a cure. I’ve implemented these tips since the day I use Snow Leopard till Mountain Lion. It remains useful to improve the performance.

I’ve never set a homepage for my browser. It doesn’t only speed up Safari launch time, it also speed up the new windows and tabs launch time. You can Access it under Preferences > General.

By disabling storage, you increase your browser security and know which website requires database. It doesn’t do much to the performance, but I think it’s better to know which website use your storage. You can access it under Preferences > Security > Show Databases.

If you use Top Sites feature, you should know that Safari will create a screenshot of the site you’ve visited and store it in a folder. Over time, it’ll take a large space of your hard disk. Safari will search for the existing cache whenever it wants to display top site preview. The most important issue is the time it requires to search for the each screenshot - imagine your folders has over 300 screenshots.

Quit Safari if it’s running. Run Terminal and enter:

touch desktop/Webpage\ Previews

Use Finder and navigate to the address below (You can type Command+Shift+G to show the Go To window):

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/

Delete the Webpage Previews folder and move the new Webpage Previews (check your desktop) into com.apple.safari folder.

The reason why I choose this approach is to let you understand how the whole blocking works. We create a new empty file in order to block Safari from writing a new image into the folder. To restore the feature, delete the empty file and Safari should create new folder the next time it launches.

When you visit a website, Safari will store the tiny icon in the url into its own storage. If it’s getting larger, it’ll slow down Safari performance because it need to search the database every time it visits a website. There is an easier way if you don’t mind installing app.¹

Quit Safari if it’s running. Navigate to:

~/Library/Safari/

Delete the WebPageIcons.db Don’t worry, it’s safe. This is the storage I mentioned, deleting it won’t cause any issues to Safari.

Run terminal and enter this:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebIconDatabaseEnabled -bool NO

Decreasing the initial time layout delay to 0.25. Safari by default has a delay of 1 second before loading page (The time it takes to load and render the webpage before presenting it in your browser). By decreasing the delay, you make sure it displays faster but not loads faster. Because it depends on your internet connection and website to ensure the page loads under 1 second to see different.

Enter this to terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.25

Bookmark, share this article if you find it useful. You’ll realize how much the author of blog hoping their readers to support them by spreading the words.

1. You can simplify the whole process by installing TinkerTool to disable site icons and website preview caches. ↩

This is not paid review. The developer kindly contacts me and request a review which coincidentally included in future posts. So I move forward the schedule and post it sooner.

The first thing that catch my attention is the configuration interface. The well designed user interface explain all Flexiglass features without having user to explore deep further. This is very important because most people avoid app with complicated configuration.

I disable dock and menubar icon because the size doesn’t match my desktop layout - the dock and menubar icon is not ugly, but it can get better.

The maximize animation is very smooth with its light gradient on every edge. You don’t need to adjust the opacity, the default itself fits perfectly with my desktop wallpaper, especially monochrome wallpaper.

Now, let’s talk about some important features. Aside from the window snapping ability, Flexiglass adds the ability to quit your app by clicking the close button at title bar. It is certainly a feature some people prefer to have over their computing habit.

Another key feature is the ability to resize and move windows without having to click and hold titlebar. You can move or resize window by holding option+right/left mouse click on any active window. To understand how they work, I suggest you to download Flexiglass and use the 15 days trial.

Aside from the Flexiglass, there are other apps such as BetterTouchTool, Cinch, Divvy, and more. The question is “Which one match your need?” — the one that matches and fits your workflow.

Flexiglass is a complete windows snapping app, it provides basic snapping feature and shortcuts configuration to fill from half to quarter of window screen. It enhances the titlebar controls with ability to quit and fully maximize window. It is for you who need complete features snapping app with simple configuration user interface.

Download: Flexiglass

A number of people have asked for this mod, searched this site for this mod, googled for this mod. I’m talking about the traffic lights or titlebar controls you have seen in my screenshot lately. The particular polished yet minimal titlebar controls mod for Snow Leopard.¹

Modifying system theme is one of the way to express your taste. But, system theme is not something you can modify safely compared to modifying app theme. There are several things you should note down before applying this mod.

• If you have other mod applied to your theme, make sure you have the mod package prepared.
• Apply Stiijo Traffic Lights Mod first to ensure it doesn’t overwrite other themes.
• You can always revert to Aqua theme using ThemePark under Theme menu, use it when you mess up.

I hope you enjoy this theme as much as I do because this is one of the mod I love the most. The minimal and simple approach that turn the whole interface more elegant.

To ensure that the theme is available whole time, I will post two links. Official will lead you to the forum where I get the theme, while alternative is the zip file including ThemePark. Please use the official link as a form of appreciation to the creator of this theme.

Download: Official | Alternative

1. To clarify, I actually planned to post last month, but didn’t do it due to post limit I set for myself each month. In other word, if you have information that can’t be found on this site, contact me. ↩

Talking about perfection, there is one thing about Snow Leopard — I’m not sure about other version — that keeps bothering me. With the dock hidden, I expect the maximized window will cover entire screen perfectly, which unfortunately doesn’t do its job well. It leaves a 3–4 pixel gaps at the bottom of the hidden dock.

After some research and the solution discovery process, it turns out that the bottom hidden dock reserves 3 pixels — as the matter of fact I don’t know what it does.

Not giving up, I move the dock to the left screen edge and try to maximize the window again (I used Cinch to maximize the window), and the gap is still there.

I have tested several applications, starting from Cinch, FlexiGlass, Divvy, and SizeUp, which yield a similar result. I started to believe that there is no way to fill the gap, until I discovered BetterTouchTool.

BetterTouchTool is a lightweight app designed by Andreas Hegenberg that add multiple shortcut ability to your trackpad and mouse devices. Alongside with these features, you can enable snapping features similar to the apps listed above.

Unlike other apps, BetterTouchTool can fill the whole screen if the dock is located on either side of the screen. I’m not going to write a lengthy article about BetterTouchTool right now ¹, but I will let you know how I can configure the behavior of the snapping feature.

1. I am considering to cover a walkthrough and review article on it in the near future. Let me know if you’re interested and wish to know about this amazing free app. ↩