Goodies
This is a collection of small apps and other vaguely interesting things that I’ve created that don’t really warrant a page of their own. All software here is licensed under the Zibity Software Licence, and everything else is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
All of the things on this page are available for you to use for free, however as there is a significant amount of time involved in the production and maintenance of these goodies, I would very much appreciate a donation if you find them things useful.
Alfred Extensions
Alfred is a productivity application for Mac OS X, which aims to save you time in searching your local computer and the web. I have created a number of extensions that provide extended functionality to Alfred. To use these extensions you will need to be running at least version 0.9.9 of Alfred, and have paid for the powerpack. For almost all of these extensions, a Growl notification will show once the extension has run.
Starfish is an incredibly easy way to rate the currently playing song in iTunes. To use, type ‘rate [number 1 through 5]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Open AppleScript Dictionary is an easy way to open the AppleScript Dictionary for the requested app. To use, type ‘as [app name]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Fast User Switching is a very simple way to switch between Mac OS X accounts using Fast User Switching. To use, type ‘switch [username]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Caffeine Manager is a simple way to toggle Caffeine on and off. To use, type ‘caff’ to toggle Caffeine on forever, or ‘caff [number of minutes]’ toggle Caffeine for a certain length of time, for example ‘caff 30’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Run Terminal Command lets your run any Terminal command without having to launch Terminal. If any output is produced, it is Growled. To use, type ‘run [command]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Kill an Application is easy way to kill any application or process on your computer. To use, type ‘kill [application or name]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
Let Me Google That For You is the simplest way to make a TinyURL for a Let Me Google That For You link, and have it copied to your clipboard. To use, type ‘LMGTFY [search term]’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2
TinyURL is a very easy way to create a TinyURL for a long link, and have the short link copied to your clipboard. To use, type ‘tiny [long URL]’. Download for Alfred v1
Ping lets you ping a webserver. The result is Growled. To use, type ‘ping [hostname or IP Address]’. Download
Refresh Geeklets automatically refreshes all of your Geektool geeklets. To use, type ‘geek’. Download
Empty Downloads Folder works just like the built in empty trash command, except it empties your downloads folder. To use, type ‘empty downloads’. Download for Alfred v1 • Download for Alfred v2 (in collaboration with Stewart Allen)
Get MD5 Hash copies the actioned file’s MD5 Hash to the clipboard. To use, action it on a file. Download
Isolator Manager lets you toggle Isolator’s behaviour on and off. This requires that Isolator’s hotkey is set to Cmd-Shift-I. To use, type “i”. Download
Kruptos
For my International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP) Personal Project, I create a Mac app called Kruptos (which means hidden in ancient Greek) which uses the RSA cipher to encrypt and decrypt text strings using public/private key encryption.
While I was making the app, I created a blog about my experience. On this blog you can read about the full journey of making an app. Furthermore, you can download the final product here.
Alternate Caffeine Menubar Icons
I love Caffeine, but I’ve never really liked the icons that it uses. So, I created my own set of icons for it. Download them from here.
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Shiboleet
Shiboleet is a magical little app for Mac OS X that lets you easily run commands for the Terminal without going through the scary experience of the command line. Download it for free!
To use Shiboleet, just launch it. You will be prompted to enter a command. On pushing return, the command will run, and the result will be displayed in the alert window.
Click here to install Shiboleet’s Alfred quick search for the ‘sh’ keyword.
Using the ‘encode’ command, you can share commands using web-friendly links that automatically open in Shiboleet for other users. For example, the command ‘encode echo Hello, world!’ would generate tinyurl.com/6f9n36w, a command that can then be easily clicked on and run.
MacDropUpdate
MacDropUpdate is an automatic Dropbox updater for Mac that automatically downloads, installs and updates the Dropbox application on your computer to the latest forum build of Dropbox.
MacDropUpdate is compatible with Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion. It is licensed under the Zibity Software Licence.
Download
Version 2.1.1 is the latest version of MacDropUpdate, released on 8 November 2012. MacDropUpdate will automatically check for updates, and alert you when something new is available. See the #macdropupdate tag on my blog for release notes.
MacDropUpdate must be located in your Applications folder in order to run automatically.
How to Use MacDropUpdate
Once you’ve downloaded MacDropUpdate, run it once, and MacDropUpdate will set itself up to run automatically every six hours.
MacDropUpdate does not have a dock icon, so the only way you will know that it is running is through its Growl notifications. Also, you can know that it is running by looking at the log file, located at “~/Library/Logs/MacDropUpdate.txt”
Tips and Tricks
You can manually get MacDropUpdate to check if there is a new forum build available by double clicking it in Finder.
You can programatically find the time that MacDropUpdate 2 last run by running the Terminal command “defaults read com.zibity.macdropupdate2 lastrun”.
You can set a custom location for the log file by running the Terminal command “defaults write com.zibity.macdropupdate2 loglocation [YOUR LOCATION HERE]”. If the log locations contains spaces, they must be escaped using a \ (backslash), and the log location must end in .txt.
Support
For help, support, and to suggest improvements please see MacDropUpdate’s Dropbox forum thread.
Disclaimer
This application is provided “as is”. I do not guarantee that I will continue supporting this application. I make no warranty that it will function or continue to function as time goes on. If something goes wrong with your computer, with your Dropbox account, with your files, with your mind, or with anything else as either a direct or indirect consequence of using this application, it is not my fault and I claim no responsibility for anything, at all, ever, anywhere, at any time. Basically, whatever happens, it’s not my fault. Do not use MacDropAny if you do not accept this. That said, everything should work, and has been working, just fine.
