iPhoto stores the photo files in bundles. This makes it difficult and time-consuming to access your saved photos manually in Finder, and makes it impossible to open your iPhotos via an Open dialog. It's also impossible to use Time Machine for individual iPhoto pictures (unless you choose File » Browse Backups from iPhoto). You can very easily give all programs easy access to your iPhotos, using aliases.

I was having a problem with the RSS feed for a bookmark in Safari. It was in a folder in my Bookmarks Bar. Whenever the feed was updated, the folder got a number, but the feed's bookmark in the pop down did not, making me wonder just which feed the update came from.

I fixed it by changing the RSS feed URL from:

feed://http://www.pimpmysafari.com/atom/ to

feed://www.pimpmysafari.com/atom/.

That is, I removed the http:// part from the URL. Now the number correctly appears next that feed just like all the other ones do.

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

I love Disk Utility, however, it does not directly support the creation of ISO 9660 images. It can create CDR images or CD/DVD master images. Those can be renamed to .iso files and are supported by most software. But that's inconvenient to say the least.

Some searching revealed that you can create ISO images using the Terminal through hdiutil.

Accessing iDisk through Finder is, in the best case, slow and unreliable. I've found that Transmit (Panic Inc.) is a fast, reliable and easy substitute to Finder.

Most applications have Undo and Redo commands, and iTunes has long had them available when editing song tags. Beginning with iTunes 9.2 (the latest version is 9.2.1), offers Undo and Redo commands which can be applied to songs which have been removed from or added to a playlist. Note, though, that these commands will not work for songs which have been removed from the Library.

As always, Undo is available from the Edit menu and can also be invoked using the keyboard with Command-Z. Redo is also in the Edit menu and can be done with the Command-Shift-Z keyboard shortcut.

I have no earlier version available for testing, but am confident 9.2 is when the feature I've noted was added. I regularly invoke the Undo keyboard shortcut just as a habitual response to a mistake, and I never witnessed the behavior prior to 9.2.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described.]

In 10.5 and previous versions of the system, Terminal's remote connection dialog (go to the menu item Shell » New Remote Connection...) had a selection for Secure Shell (ssh) that defaulted to 'SSH (Automatic).' In 10.6, this has been changed to default to 'SSH Protocol 1.' None of my servers support SSH-1 (and if yours do, you should fix the security hole and disable it). [crarko adds: Here's a nice little FAQ that describes the SSH-1 and SSH-2 protocols. SSH-2 is newer and more secure.]

Also, Terminal does not remember the state when you change this pull down. Quitting Terminal or changing to another protocol and back will reset the pull down back to SSH-1. Here's a simple way to force it to keep the change.

While there are numerous well-documented ways to prevent a hard disk or USB drive from mounting at boot-time, I found only one way (working in 10.6) to prevent newly-connected disks from auto-mounting while logged in.

You all probably know about Exposé's Application Mode (introduced in 10.6 I think). What's interesting is that while you're in it, you can Command+click on other running applications and bring their windows into Exposé as well.

Steps to reproduce:

• Open Application Exposé (click and hold on any running application in the Dock).
• Cmd+click on another running application in the Dock.

What happens is that only the windows of these 2 applications will be shown in Exposé. You can also continue to Cmd+click on other applications and bring their windows into Exposé as well.

I noticed that some windows that are normally ignored by Exposé, appear while doing this.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. It's something of an addition to this previous hint.]

Copying and pasting from Safari when using the Reader function has two modes, depending on where you are pasting.

Evernote is a combination of an application and a cloud based service to save notes, reminders, images and other data that can be accessed from a Mac, PC, iPhone or other mobile devices. This hint is about encrypting the local data store from the Mac version of the software.

Here's how to do it:

• Quit Evernote from the Menu bar shortcut.
• Make an encrypted disk image using Disk Utility and mount it. (You may want to put it in your login items to open on login.)
• Move the folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Evernote folder over to the disk image.
• Use the SymbolicLinker Service (10.6) or plug-in (10.5 and earlier) or make the symbolic link yourself via Terminal in the disk image from the moved Evernote folder (just making an alias does not work).
• Move the Symbolic Link to: ~/Library/Application Support/ to replace the original Evernote folder and be sure it's named 'Evernote.'
• Restart Evernote.

[crarko adds: I don't use Evernote, but I tested this with other files. The author originally used the commercial software Knox for the secure store, and that's a slicker method, but it also works using an encrypted disk image. This method obviously has applicability for things besides Evernote, but test carefully for whatever application(s) you use it with. SymbolicLinker is a nice find, too.]