Rember: freeware memory test utility for OS X

Kelleycomputing's Rember is a freeware GUI for the memtest command line memory testing program. A good thing to run after you add memory to a Mac, especially 3rd party memory. Mac's are particularly demanding of DRAM (too demanding).

Fog Creek Copilot: $10 for a day's use

FogCreek is a s/w development community best known for content authoring environments. They've got a big reputation though, thanks to the writings of the founder and CEO, Joel Sposky.

Now they've announced a new service - a remote control application. It allows a machine running Win98 or higher to be controlled by another Win98+ machine: Fog Creek Copilot Home. I've used many similar products, and this is the best price/value usability combination I've seen by far. Does it work? I don't know, but based on Fog Creek's reputation I'd trust it.

I'll probably use it on my mother's machine shortly. Will update here with review.

Update 1/5/06: I've not tested it yet, but in correspondence with Fog Creek I was told they're working on changing the app to make control even more automatic (so my mother doesn't need to do anything) and are looking at adding Mac support.

Modify AAC files with chapter and other settings - AudioBinder

AudioBinder - Advanced GUI for ChapterTool. A GUI wrapper for an OS X cli tool. Sounds great! I'll try it out.

Lovely short review of the Nano

It's just very well done.

Todd Dailey - Weblog - Blog Archive - A few seconds with the iPod nano

How to restore a scratched Nano to mint condition

Todd Dailey, who's blog I've added to my bloglines list, has two great posts on making a Nano (or other plastic device) look like new again:

• Todd Dailey - Weblog - Blog Archive - Restore your iPod nano to new condition with a $4 can of Brasso
• The f/u article. Here Todd responds to comments and points to sites for iKlear and Novus.

I wonder how these techniques would work on scratched eyeglass lenses. The Novus article suggets there's been a small 'remove the plastic scratches' industry struggling to emerge. The Nano may cause it to bloom. Talk about the law of unintended consequences.

Update 1/9/06: Macintouch suggested some other options

Jonathan Alvarez

I recently bought an iPod Nano and like all the others mine had some scratches. the screen was blurred so I did some research about all these cleaning products that will get rid of the scratches. But these products were marked at a high price.

I realized that I had a product called "5 minute optical flush" which is for car lenses but it does the same thing and you can pick that up at auto part stores for around $10 its half the price and does the same thing

Laine Lee

I've devised a method for removing light scratches from the viewing area of the iPod with video models... (see posting, this one was too complex for my tastes)

Brother MFC-7820N printer setup

I'm considering buying one of these -- so I checked out Apple Discussions. Good coments, with one tip:

Apple - Discussions - Brother MFC-7820N printer setup

Apparently, these Brother MFC-7820N models didn’t ship with a default mDNS name, which means they won't show up in Printer Setup Utility and Safari. If you can figure out the IP address of the printer in order to load the configuration page in Safari, then you could probably set the mDNS name to something, and all will be well.

Update 10/10/05: later I bought this device and ran into this bug. Did I remember this ultra-quick posting I'd done a week before? Of course not. Dementia. It's later than you know ...

Google Search Tips 2005

More than I've ever used ...

Google Search Tips 2005

...You can find synonyms of words. E.g. when you search for [house] but you want to find “home” too, search for [~house]...

Fascinating for geeks like me.