In case you notice that you hard drive space runs low,or you just wonder where all your disk space went,it is easy to find large files in Mac OS X by using the built-in search tools.
Here is how you do it:
1. From the Mac OS X Desktop,open any new Finder window.

2. Press “Command+F” to bring up Search.

3. Click on “Kind” filter and select “Other”,then choose “File Size” from the attribute list.
4. Click on the second filter and choose “is greater than”

5. In the third space,enter the size to search for anything greater than (ex:100) and choose either MB or GB as the final filter.

The file and applications list below will automatically update as anything larger than specified file size is found on the hard drive.Be sure that “This Mac” is selected in case you’re getting limited results.You can also use the search limiters to find large files contained within single user directories or folders.
To make it easily accessed for future retrieval,press the “Save” button in the upper right corner – you’ll turn the File size into a Smart Folder that can be found on a sidebar.This folder will be constantly updated with large files only.Usually,the biggest amount of huge files is found in the user Downloads folder,that is why,don’t be surprised if you run into a big amount of .dmg and zip files just chilling there.

What is the best way to leave your Mac,when you’re not using it – put it to sleep,shut it down,or just keep it turned on?What are the differences between those three options?Which one is the best?Let’s check out the choices.

Shutting the Mac down

Shutting a Mac down takes time,because the machine needs to quit all the applications and documents.Whenever you turn it back on – it has to re-open them all again.OS X Lion made the application resuming automatic(some users don’t like that feature and choose to disable it).This might not be convenient if you need an instant access to your Mac from time to time.
PROS:This option saves power,doesn’t stress hardware.Also,major system updates get installed during boot;swap,cache and memory files get cleared out.
CONS:It takes time to boot up and resume previous activity.

This option works best if you’re not going to use your Mac for longer than a few days,or if you’re going to put it in long-term storage,or you’re going to be traveling and won’t be using it during the travel period.It is also the best choice if you’re going to get the most out of your hardware and your battery.

Putting the Mac to sleep

This is the most common choice.It provides for the easiest and quickest way to resume work,while still maintaining hardware.It takes seconds to sleep a Mac and when you wake it up – all your apps,documents,windows and web pages are exactly where you left them with just a minor delay.For the users,who want an instant access to their machines,sleeping is perfect.
PROS:Easy and quick resuming exactly where you left off.Sleep and wake can be scheduled and done remotely.
CONS:Minor power consumption.Swap,cache files don’t get cleared out during reboot process.Also,system updates don’t install automatically without a manual reboot.
If you use your Mac every day,putting it to sleep overnight or whenever it’s not in use is the best choice.Make sure you reboot your system every once in a while in order to allow software updates to install.Although,waiting for an OS X update or Security update is a sufficient time between reboots.Also,you can gather some huge uptimes – which is nothing,but a statistic – though,it could be something you can brag about.

Keeping your Mac on
Keeping your Mac constantly turned on is another option,though it works best for Macs that function as servers.This approach has the most significant advantages and disadvantages.The biggest advantage is that you don’t have to worry about resuming anything since it’s already on.All the maintenance and backup tasks can be scheduled to occur in the hours of system inactivity.This option allows for something like a media center or SSH server to be running on the machine constantly.The main disadvantage is the constant power consumption and the constantly active hardware – this can stress the computer components and reduce the lifespan of the machine.
PROS:The easiest and quickest way to go back to your apps,documents etc.Allows media centers and servers to run constantly.Maintenance and backup tasks can be scheduled to non-working hours.
CONS:Constant power consumption.More stress on hard drives,fans and hardware due to heat.
In case you’re running a server or media center – leaving your Mac on is the most convenient option.If you don’t really have the need to keep it on constantly – it’s best to put it to sleep when you’re not using it,this will extend the life of your hardware and let the hard drives rest.

Brand new OS X Lion doesn’t have the command line C compilers.In addition to that,Apple has changed the way of installing those compilers in /usr/bin once again.Here is how you do it with the latest Xcode and Lion.
Seven months ago,in august,right after OS X 10.7 Lion came out,there were numerous complains about new installation missing the C compilers in the expected place,/usr/bin.There are quite few articles on how you can change it the way it is expected by just downloading and installing Apple’s Xcode IDE.However,recently,professor Ulf von Barth of Lund University in Sweden made a statement that the mechanism has changed again.Now you have to do a little more,than before.
There are many reasons not to have a c compiler chilling on an average user’s Mac,ready to shake up trouble if accessed my malware.That’s why it’s not in the Mac by default.Nevertheless,there are also reasons for which you might want to have it on your computer,whether you’re a researcher and you don’t use Xcode for scientific computing.Or you’re taking a C class and want to use a C compiler from the command line.You may also be an administrator and you want the C compiler to available in a lab setting.Whatever your reasoning is,here are the steps you need to take.Sidenote:unlike the good old days,when everything was free,you now need to be a registered Mac developer.

Procedure
1) Download Xcode, now at version 4.3.2, just as before, from the Mac App Store. Finder -> Apple -> App Store… It is free.
2) Launch the Xcode.app that was downloaded to /Applications.
3) If you stop there, you’ll find that, unlike before, the command line compilers are not installed by default. You can go searching for them, and you’ll find it all in:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin

Okay,now that won’t do you any good,unless you intend to use Xcode exlusively. There is a great possibility that all your scripts won’t know where to find the C compilers(and assembler and linker)now.You wouldn’t want to modify them anyway.What you need is everything back in /usr/bin – the way it was before.

4) After launching Xcode, go to Preferences and select the Downloads pane, then Components. There, in the list of candidate items will be the Command Line Tools. Click “Install.”

5) You’ll be prompted for your developer credentials…

…then you’ll see the classic progress bar. When that’s done, the C compilers will all be in /usr/bin, as desired. To prove that all’s well, open a terminal window, cd to /usr bin, and take a look…

It might seem a little too difficult at first,but it’s understood why Apple thinks that majority of users don’t need these tools.And the ones that do will find how to get them.

If you want to change or to restore the password of an account in Mac OS X, including the original password of the administrator account. This can be quite necessary, for example, if somebody forgets its password. Read more

The advancement as well as the features within Lion ha d made it a very interesting up gradation however, Apple has managed to do away with some of the features that have maintained to be compatible with some of the famous apps. Many of these features, such as the lacking of Java applications can also be remedied up by simply installing in some sort of support for them however; there are several other apps which does not have any supporting element to them. As a consequence, there is a possibility that many Mac users would like to maintain the present settings of Snow Leopard along with also wanting to have OS X Lion in order to avail the benefit offered within its features. Read more

Have you recently tried out a new smartphone in your hands? If yes, then there are some few concepts that might not be that clear. Do not worry, below mentioned are some of the basic rules of smartphones that might come out to be very handy. Read more

In the Mac operating systems, the user can resize or move the components of the windows around by accessing the title bar as a grasp surface or the resizing areas of the window so that the corners of any of the window in Lion versions or on to the bottom right hand side of the windows in any other versions of the OS X. Read more

If you are Mac app user, you might be aware that making use of modifier keys in places such as the iPhoto and Finder which makes the selection of several items a very easy job. All you have to do is to click on a file and hold down the Command key after which you are able to add in several other files within the selection even if they are not placed near to each other. Read more

Today I’ve completed the test of MacKeeper, a multifunctional system utility for Mac OS X. The testing was performed on a MacBook Pro 2.8GHz Core i7 with 8GB RAM running under Lion and 60 GB hard drive capacity. This Mac was quite a mess that made it a perfect candidate for testing — I don’t ever remember the time of the last hard drive cleanup run on it. So I checked how good MacKeeper was at disk cleanup, system optimization and overall security. The results were quite impressive. Let’s see what I did and what outcome I got. Read more

If you have finally planned to obtain a new iPhone or you are replacing your old set with a new one, then there is a deep need to secure all your personal information by erasing out all the information and data stored within it before laying it off from your hands. The reason for performing such an act is that, there can be a possibility that the new user might use it in an improper manner or you might now have any other backup of the data which can also cause you to be laid back in your work. There might be some personal information also such as pictures which you do not want to share with any other person. Basically there are two primary as well as major ways through which the data within the iPhone can be erased off. These two ways are mentioned below: Read more