Like many Mac users I archive my pictures in iPhoto, largely because I enjoy the tight integration this affords with Apple and third-party apps that might want to use them. Having entered the world of geotagging I was disappointed to discover that iPhoto can fail to show coordinates in EXIF (and when shown, oddly lists them under Exposure), does not recognise location data in IPTC headers, and does not provide any "show on map" facility (even Preview does this). Norbert Doerner of West-Forest-Systems then pointed out that I'd completely neglected archive and retrieval of geotagged images in my "ABC" article. This Mac software critique goes some way to redress that omission by considering the role of CDFinder in a Mac user's geotagging workflow. CDFinder is essentially an asset manager that catalogues any file on any volume (CD-ROM, DVD, USB drive, etc). But media metadata are its speciality, and this indexing powerhouse has recently been extended to handle geotags and provide related functionality.
Continue reading 'CDFinder in the Mac geotagging workflow'
Tag archive for 'osx'
This article considers geotagging photos from a Mac perspective, looking at automatic and manual methods, and explaining terms such as data loggers, track points, waypoints, and routes. It lists OS X software options for connecting to data loggers, converting track log formats, geo-locating photos, and writing that data to EXIF for both raw and JPEG images. It also covers the importance of time synchronization, what you can do with geotagged photos, workflow, choosing a data logger and controlling it from your Mac.
Continue reading 'An ABC of geotagging photos on the Mac'
The hard drive in my wife's MacBook recently failed. She was using Safari with the laptop stationary on her desk when, out of the blue, the system locked up. On restarting (via the power button) all we got was a folder with a blinking question mark. We booted from the Leopard DVD and Disk Utility could not see an internal drive which, not unexpectedly, was making a tell-tale clicking noise. Our previous backup regime involved making a monthly archive using SuperDuper!, but luckily Simone was running Leopard and thus had a current back-up not more than an hour old on an attached USB drive. Would Time Machine successfully restore all her stuff to a replacement (larger) internal drive?
Continue reading 'Time machine saves the day'
In the "make dashboard useful" vein, freeware App Update is like Apple's Software Update for your third-party applications. It can be set to check what's in /Applications against VersionTracker, MacUpdate, or Apple—manually or automatically. Growl support too. Not always 100% accurate, but close.
Dashcode comes on the Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) installation DVD. It's a tool for creating widgets (mini-applications made with HTML, CSS, images, and JavaScript) specifically for the OS X Dashboard. Apple did a great job in making Dashcode the epitome of simple so that non-programmers can create basic custom widgets with ease. And if installing Developer Tools isn't your thing, you can still create your own widgets using Web Clips.
Continue reading 'Dashcode is easy, Web Clips easier'
The bright orange menu bar icon for Missing Sync sat in my Leopard menu bar next to Google Notifier, the latter turning from an unobtrusive grey to attention-grabbing red when it had something to tell me (the arrival of unread Google Mail). I found my eye wandering needlessly to the Missing Sync icon, so decided to hack out that distracting brightness.
Continue reading 'Desaturating menu bar icons'
