Analog Factory

Just bought Analog Factory by Arturia, a collection of their analogue virtual synths...

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/analogfactory/intro.html

It has a good reputation, and offers a cut down interface for each synth (otherwise no-one would buy the complete emulations).

I'll try and report on the sounds and interface later.

Free Widgets for Welsh news and sport headlines.

Created some dashboard widgets that show the latest news headlines for Wales from icWales. All freeware and you can grab them from www.molebomb.com, eventually they will be hosted at the Apple Widget downloads section.

There are also widgets for Welsh farming & country news, business in wales, Welsh rugby headlines (Rugbynation) and football coverage from icWales. If you want others from icWales, just leave a comment.

Visit 

http://www.molebomb.com/page9/page36/page36.html

Created using Dashcode, these widgets are universal binaries, that require a minimum of Mac OS X 10.4.3, and of course Dashboard.

UK maps for Apple Address Book

See your contact's address...

http://www.fourbytwoflat.com/free_stuff/index.html

Neat plugin (Universal) for the Mac Address Book which gives you a location map for a selected address. Streetmap or Google UK maps. (Freeware)

Have you a story to tell from Wales?

Don't keep it to yourself, send a story in to the Western Mail & Echo:

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/send-a-story

Another feature on the recently updated icWales site.

Short Film "EVOL"

http://stevenpoole.net/music/evol/

by chris Vincze, with great music by Steven Poole.

Mac Address Book to Gmail contacts application

A tiny application by Ben Borofka (freeware) that alllows you to update your GMail (GoogleMail) account using the contacts held in your Mac Address book.

Create a new group in Address book drag the names you want to export into this group, select this group; then run the app and select the a to g created csv file. In Gmail use the import option in Contacts to pick up this file and import into Gmail.

The csv created by the a to g has the correct categories for Gmail. During import Gmail won't overwrite stuff, it asks you to confirm things such as differing phone numbers. Quite slick and doesn't lead to conflicts like some other applications. 

You can review the results in Gmail contacts section to alter anything you like after import.

Update: March 2008 updated to enable all contacts to be transferred, even those without email addresses in your address book application.

Title of this post links to: http://bborofka.com/atog/

Where's the # hash key gone on my Mac?

The hash key (#) on UK Mac keyboards is created using:

Option (alt) key ⌥+ 3

Molebomb

Launched www.molebomb.com as a repository for some of the band info and downloads, useful as the old Tiscali hosted site Massive Bureau of Everything is now only available via the internet wayback machine.

Built using Rapidweaver, very straightforward, rather slick software.

Christmas BT Phonebox in Porthcawl

Christmas BT Phonebox in Porthcawl
Originally uploaded by Mooganic.

Projectile vomited onto the phone or just tipped?

Control outgoing network connections in Mac OS X with Little Snitch

An excellent addition to the standard Mac firewall, Little Snitch monitors applications for outgoing traffic on any network connection and allows the user to set rules that deny or allow (once, until quit or forever) access. The Mac firewall only controls incoming connections, Little Snitch monitors activity and with v2 has a very slick interface which shows you what is attempting to contact the outside world.

No more phoning home unless you say so for only about £13 ($24). Recommended for the more paranoid user.

(Network Monitor)

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

(The title of this post takes you to the above link for Little Snitch)

How To force a refresh on a Mac OS X Widget on Dashboard

1. Bring Dashboard to the front
2. Click on the widget
   
3. Hold Command key (Apple key) and press R
4. Widget will animate and swirl as it updates.

Easy Envelope printing in Mac OS X

Very slick, free and quick to use. It's a simple, small, single purpose widget from Ambrosia Software. Integrates with your address book contacts or you can copy and paste an address.

Shrink the widget by clicking on the frank.

Find it here:

http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/utilities/easyenvelopes/

The US style return address in the upper left corner can be turned off in the preferences: