How to dim the screen even more?

Working with MacBook Air in the dark is quite comfortable in one hand and uncomfortable in another hand. It has a nicely built backlit keyboard which let Mac newbie like me to find the keys easily. However, the LCD screen is too bright in the low light condition, even in the lowest brightness setting.

How to rotate Android Emulator on Mac?

I get use to develop Android apps on Windows platform and test the apps out on the Android Emulator. Screen rotation is notorious to Android developers as that is a great source of problems. Rotating Android Emulator is easy, disabling the Num lock and pressing 7 or 9 will do. There is no Num lock on the MacBook Air, how can the emulator be rotated?

K-Lite Codec for Mac?

Having a codec issue in Macintosh, the first fix comes to mind is to install the codecs. K-Lite Codec Pack immediately comes to my mind as I'm coming from the Windows' world. If you don't know what K-Lite Codec Pack is, you would be happy to know that it is the most powerful collection of codecs in Windows. Installing it allows video players in Windows to playback nearly 99% of video files.

How to playback Motion JPEG encoded video?

Yesterday I tested an Android app called "TimeLapse!" by ExplorerDC to record a timelapse video. That software is very easy to use and create high quality video, and free of charge. It produces video in AVI format which is motion jpeg encoded. It playbacks well in my Windows machine, but it doesn't play on my new MacBook Air!

How to change background color in applications?

Being an IT professional, i have to face the computer for quite a long time everyday. To reduce my eye strain, I usually change colors on screen to be a pleasantly comfortable one. Personally I dislike the pure white #FFFFFF which is the default one in most operating system. My favorite is #E4E4CB which is not too bright. How to achieve that to help my eyes?

How to get the current path in Finder?

In Windows, the explorer has a very clear address box showing the path of current directory. That is so convenient and useful in all many situation such as copy the path for opening in cmd, for browser to choose path to upload, etc. Finder in Mac is quite confusing for a newbie Window switcher. How can we get something of similar convenience?


The Windows Explorer has a nice convenient address box!

How to run Chrome with different profiles?

I have quite a number of Google accounts for different projects. In windows, I use to setup different chrome profiles so i don't need to login and logout different accounts. The way to achieve that is easy, just specify a commandline switch to start the app and all works perfectly. How to do that in Mac?

How to check the system resource usage?

Today is my second day of usage a Macintosh computer, so far so good. But it is not as convenient as i first imagine. Yesterday I installed a freeware call "Free Memory", it is an application which shows the amount of free memory on the menu bar. Running the system for quite a while, I find that the amount of free memory becomes an unbelievable low level, only about 20MB free! I have bought 4G RAM for my MacBook Air, how come it can drop to such a low level?!

How to check the battery charge cycle and maximize the battery?

Notebook is battery is notorious for poor and poor performance over time. In day one, you can use your notebook for, say 5 hours, but some months later, the battery cannot sustain the work of an hour or two! So you need to carefully deal with the battery.

MacBook Air has a built-in battery, meaning that one cannot replace the battery by oneself. We need Apple to do the replacement work and it is expensive!

Viewing DICOM images in Mac - OsiriX

DICOM is a file format for medical imaging which is used worldwide to store patients' CT scan, MRI scan, etc. Why is it related to Mac Beginner? Not really. In the old days i worked in the medical industry, i heard of a Mac software called OsiriX many times, recommended by many medical professors. Some even wanted me to create a similar software in Windows!

How to do a screen capture on Mac?

I need to capture screenshot when writing the last post. I don't know how to do such an easy task! Mac is still a far way to go for me to be a productive system.

In the Windows environment, one can easily capture the whole screen by pressing the PrintScreen button, or Alt + PrintScreen button to capture a particular window. I look around my MacBook Air keyboard, there are a few new keys, but no PrintScreen. Carefully studied the symbols on all those unfamiliar keys, none looks like what i want. Google, please help!

How to check the system configuration

The first thing i do is the check if the system configuration is exactly the same as advertised. My MacBook Air is the 11' inch model with 4G RAM, 128G SSD Storage, and with a iCore5 1.6GHz CPU.

So how to check the system properties? In Windows, it is as easy as right click on the My Computer Icon. How about in Mac? For a beginner like me, I have no idea but need to search the web!

I just owned a Mac!

I'm so happy to announced that I purchased a MacBook Air 11' inch yesterday. I'm not a Mac fan boy, but having heard of the many persuasion from the die hard fans of Apple, i finally give Apple a try.