Word 2007 XML File Format Converter for Mac

TUAW has the story. Alas, we all need this. BTW, TUAW is being quite impressive lately.

Disable the 'delete go back' booby trap in Firefox

macosxhints.com - Block the 'Delete goes back' action in Firefox.

It's an OS X hint, but of course it works everywhere. I just disabled it on XP. It's a booby-trap, not a feature.

Best Finder tip ever ...

In column view names are often truncated. There's a fix

Mac 101: Viewing long file names - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

...At the bottom of the column, you'll see two short, vertical "pipes" (pictured above). Double click the pipes, and the window will instantly expand to accommodate the longest file name in the window...

Excellent, but in comments it gets better: "if you option+double-click it will expand all available columns!". Now I'll switch to a very narrow default column view ...

Spanning Sync: the uninstall

Spanning sync had worked pretty well in my limited testing, but I couldn't solve the rest of my gCal sync challenge. Without the whole solution Spanning Sync just didn't offer enough.

Time to uninstall. But wait -- how to uninstall? Uninstalling the very best OS X apps is a drag-and-drop operation, but Spanning Sync includes a PrefPane. I started looking for uninstall directions.

At first things looked bad. The Spanning Sync FAQ doesn't mention uninstalling. One blog post suggested the process is pretty ugly. A search on the Spanning Sync site for "uninstall" returned four irrelevant hits.

I downloaded 1.04 again, and that's where I found an uninstaller. It seems to have worked. So they have one, even if they don't document it.

OS X really ought to have an uninstaller, even if most apps can be uninstalled by deleting them. (Though apps typically leave support data scattered around, you can use spotlight to find them. In the case of an app like Spanning Sync, you need to switch to each user's account and run a search if you want a full cleanup.)

Update 9/4/08: The iPhone made me a Spanning Sync customer after all. Meanwhile, a year or so after I posted this, Spanning Sync finally added a note to their FAQ about uninstalling. I'm glad they relented, but why did that take a year?

Beginning of the end for the dSLR?

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS has very impressive specifications. We'll see how well that thumbnail sized sensor does at higher ASA ratings, but this feels like the beginning of the end for the dSLR. Many pros will use this as a backup camera, and many prosumers who might have bought a dSLR will choose an S5 instead. Current prosumer dSLR owners will hold off on major lens purchases, anticipating a possible future switch to an S6, S7, etc.

The dSLR has always been, very obviously, a transitional technology. Mechanical prism? Sensor dust? Ummm, no. The only question was when. Now I'm thinking dSLR sales will start to decline by late 2008.

Cmd-Opt Drop: force open file

Finder Fu: Force an Application to open your Document - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW):

...By holding Command Option while dragging, you tell OS X applications to open files regardless of whether they 'support' that file type...

AOL Pictures for iPhoto?!

When did AOL suddenly get interesting? I just registered for AOL's xdrive, and I saw a link to their xdrive photo service. There I read:

AOL Pictures - Create Album:

... Free, unlimited storage of your photos in original resolution.

... Download the AOL Pictures uploader and management tool for Mac. It also allows you to upload directly from iPhoto ...

I use Google albums because of the elegant iPhoto integration, and I've used SmugMug for years. Neither are free, I've used half by Picasa web album (google) quota, and SmugMug is not serious about OS X support.

So this is interesting, especially because of the upload speed I just saw with xdrive. Uploads to SmugMug is very slow, and Picasa Web Album is no speed demon either.

It would be hilarious if I returned to using AOL. I used them back when they were Mac only, before their was a publicly accessible net. I gave up on them in the 80s ...

Update: download the application here. It looks kind of crude and the install is a bit odd, but it respected admin rights and it uses the keychain. Drag the app to your Application folders. Then launch it, it will ask about installing the iPhoto plugin. It does a proper install with privilege request. There's even an iPhoto plug-in uninstaller built into the desktop AOL Pictures app, and the app is easy to remove. It doesn't work with all AOL/AIM names but it worked with mine, I suspect older AIM uses might need a full AOL account. The upload was smooth and quick.

Alas, that was the end of the good news. The iPhoto plugin doesn't transfer metadata. No title, comments, keywords, etc. Oh well, I'll uninstall but keep this in mind. Maybe they'll fix it later.

PS. iPhoto wasn't built to handle more than 2-3 plugins. There's no room to display all the names of the plugins!