Macworld's offices are closed today in celebration of Independence Day in the United States. Hints will return as usual on Monday.

-rob.

So robg and I were discussing another hint submission of mine, one that robg couldn't understand because it referred to a menu he didn't have. After some back and forth, it turned out that the core of the suggestion for this new hint was actually on the site for a year, but buried at the bottom of a lengthy comment string.

The original hint covered how to enable the Debug menu in Safari, and dates back to 2003. With the advent of Safari 4, this command no longer worked. But somehow, I had a Debug menu and robg did not. The key is in a comment made by chleuasme, posted at the tail end of the comment thread on the original Enable the Safari debug menu hint. In the latest versions of Safari, the Debug menu is activated with a slightly different Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

As chleuasme also noted in their comment, this is publicly posted on the WebKit site.

[robg adds: I hadn't ever noticed the comment about how to enable the Debug menu in newer versions of Safari, and it's definitely worth sharing as a full hint. So thanks to chleuasme for finding it originally, and to Frederico for figuring out why I couldn't get the Debug menu to show up.]

I've been having troubles with Safari 4 and rendering issues on my Mac. Pages will load fine, but then any little thing, such as scrolling, can cause display issues, as seen in the image at right (click it for the full-size version).

Instead of reloading the entire page, which can be a slow process depending on connection speed and page complexity, I use Safari 4's Debug menu (Enable the Debug menu in Safari 4), which has a new Force Repaint command (Shift-Command-R). If the page can be rendered correctly, it will be done instantly, without waiting on a reload. This works to fix my rendering issues, at least until I can figure out the cause of my display issues.

I have a Mac mini in my living room hooked up to my TV. I wanted to be able to control the mini from my iMac in my office. Using Screen Sharing built into Leopard, it's a simple click of the mouse to do this. With a little Automator love, I created a simple workflow that turns the Screen Sharing step into a click of an icon in the dock.

However, even with the power efficiency of the 2009 Mac mini, I don't want to leave it on 24/7. After searching through several solutions that used Python and shell scripting (neither of which I know or could make work), I found this nifty Applescript from Mark Muir that I adapted to solve my problem. Here's my modified code: You'll need to replace the MAC_address property with the MAC address (found in the Networking System Preferences panel) of the machine you'd like to wake. I then wrapped this script in a simple Automator application to make it a true one-click operation. You can read all the details, and download a copy of the Automator application, in this entry in my blog.

[robg adds: I've mirrored the Automator application here on Mac OS X Hints, in case the original post ever goes away. While I haven't tested this one, I'm pretty sure you could replace the full script shown above with a call to the free Wakeonlan perl script, which was described in this older hint.]

For all those missing the backspace key in the Calculator (to remove a number you just tapped), just think like Apple: a little swipe over the display will do it.

Seems quite consistent to me, as you also do this to delete stuff in other parts of the UI, like lists. I don't really understand why this isn't mentioned in the User's Guide -- are they betting on when someone finds out? ;-)

[robg adds: I don't know if this worked in iPhone OS 2.x]

It was driving me nuts that SMB shares from my Windows server would not reappear under DEVICES in the sidebar. However, I then figured out that I can do this:

1. Open System Preferences » Network
2. Click the network interface you use for the shares
3. Click on the Advanced button at lower right
4. Click on WINS tab, and manually enter the workgroup name of the server
5. Click the '+' under the WINS Servers list
6. Enter the IP of the server (you are using static IP on your server, right?)
7. Click OK, Apply, etc. until you're done

The next time I dragged a mounted share to Devices, it then showed up there automatically after the next unmount/mount. My shares seem to mount much faster now, as well. Now if only I could find a way to increase the transfer speed...sigh.

If you'd like to remove your Safari history files when you log out, first create the following shell script: Save the script somewhere, make it executable, and because it runs as root, make sure it is protected from modification. Then copy and paste this command into Terminal, modifying it to point to wherever you put the above script:

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook "/Users/your_user/scripts/privacy.sh"

To be complete, you should also visit Safari's Preferences, open the AutoFill tab, and clear all of the checkmarks (Safari then won't remember passwords and forms).

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]

After upgrading to an iPhone 3GS, I was pleased to see the new option to send photos and movies to MobileMe. I have two MobleMe accounts configured in Mail on my iPhone: my 'primary' MobileMe account, and a MobileMe sub ('family') account. The primary account is set to only sync Mail to my iPhone, and the family account is set to sync Mail, Contacts, Calendars and Bookmarks (since you're only allowed to fully sync/push one MobileMe account on the iPhone.)

The problem I found was that when trying to send a photo or a movie to MobileMe, the account that the iPhone insisted on using was my primary account. I searched settings and could not find anywhere to change this. I called Apple iPhone tech support, and although they understood the problem, they did not have a solution. (I called the day after the iPhone 3GS release, so they were understandably swamped!)

I just could not believe that the iPhone would not allow me to choose a different MobileMe account. Frustrated, I decided to find my own solution.

What I discovered is this: iPhone uses the first MobileMe account it finds on your phone when choosing which account to default to for sending Photos and Movies (regardless of whether it's a primary or family account.) As I had two MobileMe Mail accounts on the phone, and the first one listed in my Mail app was my primary account, the family account was being ignored.

My solution was this:

1. Using the Mail app settings, delete the undesired primary email account from the iPhone, leaving only the family account.
2. Check the Camera app and see that the default MobileMe account has changed to the remaining account -- yes.
3. Using iTunes, add the primary email account back on the iPhone. The order of the accounts in the Mail app is now different, with the family account listed first, and the primary account listed last.
4. Upload photos or movies to the desired MobileMe account from the Camera app.

[robg adds: I only have one MobileMe account, so I can't test this one.]

One thing I hate about Safari 4 is the relocation of the reload button to the right side of the URL entry area. Sure, you can still use Command-R , but for those who prefer navigating with their mouse alone, here’s a cool tip to somewhat solve your problem!

So, drag any of the buttons from my post to the far left of your bookmarks bar, and you’ve got a simple JavaScript reload button, just half an inch away from where the old one used to be! I've even been nice enough to create different designs using the "Special Characters..." dialog box in all Cocoa applications.

The simple javascript is:

javascript:location.reload(true)

I made them into buttons using some special characters like these: ⤶  ⌘ ⏎ ⎋

For a long time, I've wanted the ability for the iPhone to speak the name of the caller, based on matching the inbound number to the numbers in Contacts. I waited and waited for iPhone OS 2.x ad then 3.x to do this for me, and do it better, but got sick of waiting. So instead, I wrote an AppleScript app I call Contact Caller ID + Sound Ringtone Maker [44KB download; Mac OS X Hints mirror (v 1.1)]. I've used this script to generate over 100 in-use ringtones, and use it to customize a ringtone for a contact or two almost daily now.

This AppleScript will generate a spoken name file, optionally looking for first, last, and nicknames, for selected Address Book Contacts. For example, "Jennifer Frickin' Connelly is calling....". It will optionally add a traditional (or other) ringtone of your choice to either the beginning or end of a new spoken-text ringtone file:

"Rob Griffiths is calling... [old phone ring here]; [repeat]"
"[old phone ring here] ... Steve Jobs is calling... ; [repeat]"

The script will then add that newly-created file to iTunes, ready for your next sync with iPhone.

You may optionally enter Custom Text (hint: phonetic spelling) when Alex fails to pronounce some of your more exotic friends' and family's names. But it is worth easily minutes of giggles to hear what he comes up with on his own.

You can test these custom entries over and over until you are ready to commit to a finished ringtone. You may enter any text you wish spoken, but the longer it is, the bigger the finished ringtone file, and the longer it takes to repeat a loop on your phone. I suggest six to ten seconds, with 30 seconds max. There's a reason most ringtones are short; don't try to make 'In a Gadda Da Vida' into a ringtone.

On that note, I have not tested this script with overly large add-on ringtones; QuickTime may slow down considerably when trying to export very large files, and may thus produce timing and/or timeout errors. If your files hang, try smaller ones, or add delays after the export command in the script. If you still have problems, try this script with this Old Ring.m4r ringtone.