Use qt-sync to change a movie's framerate without re-coding

QT-Sync for Mac OSX is one of the programs you look for when you have a specific need. In my case I wanted to adjust the framerate of a timelapse movie with re-encoding. Get it from here.

Replicate folder structure without files on Mac OSX

I was needing to replicate a directory and folder structure, without moving or copying files.


The following rsync command the the job nicely

rsync -a /path/from/ /path/to/ --include \*/ --exclude \*

It basically copies everything, but excludes the actual files ie just the folders. Thanks to user Paul R on superuser

Fixing duplicate 'open with' items in Mac OSX Lion

This happens now and again, ie I get duplicate 'open with' items in Mac OSX Lion, or it has old apps in there that are long gone.


Run this command in Terminal

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


then quit and restart the Finder

Howto: replace Time Capsule HD and retain the old backup

My Time Capsule is now pretty old at 3 years, and the 500GB just isn't cutting it. Got myself a shiny 2TB which I figure should be enough for a while.


You can find instructions for the physical swap lots of places on the Internet, most assume you want to start afresh with your backups. For some of my machines I do, some I do not.

If I want to keep and retain the old backups to be able to restore from them, then I need to copy over the data.

1. Go to each machine that uses the Time Capsule, and turn Time Machine off
   
   
2. Swap the hard drive in the Time Capsule and re-assemble
   
   
3. After turning the Time Capsule on, use Airport Utility to format the new HD
   
   
4. Take the old HD and use a SATA to USB adapter to connect to a Mac laptop
   
   
5. Make sure this machine is connected by wired ethernet to the Time Capsule, gigabit is best: there's a heap of data to copy!
   
   
6. Mount the (new) Time Capsule drive in finder
   
   
   
   We need to copy the data into the folder called 'Airport Disk'
   
   
7. On the old HD look for the volume called 'Data' and in there 'ShareRoot' and in there you'll find the disk images with all the old backups. Copy what you need from here into the 'Airport Disk' mentioned above
   
   
   
   
8. It'll take a while, so be patient
   
   
9. On the machine whose backup image you just copied, restart Time Machine, you may need to reselect the Time Capsule, and the first backup may take slightly longer than usual.
   


10. For bonus points, remember that all your data is on that old disk totally unencrypted. If you think you might need it, and you have Mac OSX Lion, then use FileVault 2 to encrypt it on the fly ie not loss of data.

Howto clean up OSX Launchpad's Apps

If you've got a lot of non-existent or deleted Apps showing in Mac OSX Snow Leopard or Mac OSX Lion's Launchpad, you can start afresh by delete the Launchpad database, and that will make it rebuild a new one.

1. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Dock
2. Drag all the .db files to the trash
3. Restart Dock

$ sudo killall Dock


Or, wholely from the command line


$  rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db


and then kill the Dock


You may need to make your ~/Library folder visible first by doing


$ chflags nohidden ~/Library

avidemux crash on OSX Lion and Mountain Lion

I upgraded to an SSD (Crucial M4 256GB since you ask) and its great. As part of that I did a clean install of Mac OSX Lion and Mountain Lion, and then copied over a bunch of Apps, including Avidemux.

But it crashes on launch, and looking in the logs I see

Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/avidemux2.app/Contents/Resources/lib/libxml2.2.dylib
  Reason: Incompatible library version: libxml2.2.dylib requires version 8.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 7.0.0

The easiest way to fix this is copy a new version over from the downloaded disk image, and then delete these two files: libxml.2.dylib and libiconv.2.dylib