I’ve several times wanted to do this and for the life of me forgotten how, so this is as much a reminder to myself as anything else.
On the login screen, enter >console as the user id and hit enter. You will then be prompted for your username and password from within the console. Tada.
Filed under: productivity
Griffin Technology has a great (and currently free) product called Proxi. It allows you to set up a variety of triggers, each of which can be used to trigger a further variety of tasks. A few of the triggers are specific to Griffin input devices such as the PowerMate or the AirClick, but the majority are triggers that can be used by almost anyone.
It didn’t take long for me to come up with some very practical uses for this. Practical for me anyway, and perhaps at least a few others. The first is the FileMaker Debug Toggle, which uses AppleScript to toggle the Debug Scripts feature on and off. Developing with FileMaker means turning this feature on and off frequently, so its a great time saver to be able to do this with a hot key. Proxi detects the trigger, has AppleScript toggle the menu item, and then presents the current state of the menu item in a little window that disapears after a few seconds.
If you can assign a key on your mouse or trackball to send the same input that triggers Proxi, then you have the ability to turn Debug Scripts on and off with the click of a button
The second is what I affectionatly call the Mail Sack. This blueprint (that is term Proxi uses for a configured set of actions) is designed for someone with a PowerMate. I’ve owned one for about 6 months because I was doing some work in iMovie and needed some sort of jog shuttle. I just never found any use to have the glowing LED’s on.
This Blueprint flashes the blue LED when new mail is received, and has a small AppleScript that will bring up a message viewer in mail if one has been hidden, or open a new one if there is none currently open. I found that I would often have 3 or 4 mail viewer windows open because I would go to mail and hit Opt-Command-N without checking to see if I had a window hidded.
Filed under: productivity