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10.4: Fix an NT_STATUS printing error System 10.4
Tiger only hintI've seen horror stories abound about printing on Mac OS X Tiger. After my upgrade, things worked fine until I had to move the printer to a new server. I removed the old printer and set a new one up exactly the same, except on a different Samba server. I could not print to it at all -- I got an NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE error message. I finally figured out what was going on. I was only using Apple's GUI for adding printers, and it was forming the device URI like this:
smb://Workgroup/Server/Printer
Since I just have a workgroup, the proper URI is:
smb://Server/Printer
The only way I found to easily fix it was to go through the CUPS interface at http://localhost:631/. I modified the printer I had created, changing its URI as above. Because I use a PPD file to describe my printer's capabilities and not one of the built-in types, I selected Raw/Raw Queue (en) while completing the CUPS' Modify Printer task.

Once I was finished, I went to Apple's GUI again, and changed the printer's type to Other... and selected my printer's PPD file. This solved the problem.
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10.4: Combine feeds for RSS screensaver System 10.4
Tiger only hintI fell in love with Tiger's RSS Screensaver as soon as I saw it, but the fact that it couldn't use more than one feed at once annoyed me - why could I not get the latest headlines from the BBC and MacOSXHints, for example, on the same saver?

So, not one to give up easily, I wrote a script in PHP called FEEDcombine that automatically combines RSS feeds into one 'metafeed.' You just select the feeds you want from the predefined options (or enter your own as an alternative), choose how many entries from each feed you want, and click "Generate." Finally, bookmark the page which comes up in Safari. And there you go -- multiple feeds in the one screensaver.

Remember, the screensaver will only show up to 10 items -- so if you've got multiple feeds, don't set the number of entries from each feed too high, or entries from the later feeds won't come up.
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10.4: Another method to force iPhoto Spotlight indexing System 10.4
Tiger only hintIf you have an iPhoto library that you've upgraded to Tiger, you may have noticed that most of your iPhoto keywords and comments aren't indexed by Spotlight! It turns out that Spotlight only notices comments added by iPhoto 5.0.2 or later, which is why a search for my baby daughter's name only turned up 6 of the 550 photos I've taken of her.

Luckily, there's a simple fix to get all of your photos indexed. First, bring up the information toolbox (Command-I), and select the Keywords pane. Next select your entire iPhoto library (Command-A). Now check *any* keyword that has an empty checkbox next to it (make a new one in the preferences if necessary), wait a second or two for the change to take effect, and uncheck it. Voila! All of your keywords and comments are now indexed.

[robg adds: 550 photos? I'm guessing the baby isn't much older than a month, judging by my own history :)! There's another hint here on indexing iPhoto stuff; there's some evidence that the first method didn't work for some people, so I'm running this one as an alternative solution.]
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10.4: Add custom units to the Unit Converter widget System 10.4
Tiger only hintHere's how to add a new unit to the Unit Conversion widget. In our example, we will add the unit "Cup (US)" to the "Volume" section of conversions. From the command line, do this:
cd /Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt
Next, make a backup copy of the Conversions.js file:
sudo cp Conversions.js Conversions_backup.js
Now edit the Conversions.js file with your favorite editor (I use vim launched via sudo).
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10.4: Make Spotlight index PHP files System 10.4
Tiger only hintHere's how to get Spotlight to index your PHP scripts. In the Finder, navigate to /Library/Spotlight and locate SourceCode.mdiporter (this is installed with the Developer Tools). Select the file, control-click on it, and choose "Show Package Contents" from the pop-up menu. Now go into the Contents folder in the newly opened window. Double-click on info.plist (this should launch Property List Editor).

Click the triangle to expand Root, then expand CFBundleDocumentTypes, expand 0, then finally expand LSItemContentTypes. Click on the last number in the list (for me it was 6), then click the New Sibling button in the toolbar to add a new key. For the string value, enter public.php-script.

Close the Property List Editor and save when prompted. Go to a Terminal prompt and type:
mdimport -r /Library/Spotlight/SourceCode.mdimporter
Spotlight will now set to work indexing all your PHP files.

[robg adds: I tested this one, and it worked just as described.]
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10.4: Activate widgets via drag and drop System 10.4
Tiger only hintMany users with "older" video cards don't get the benefit of the cool ripple effect when adding a widget from the widget bar. Clicking a widget simply causes it to appear on the screen.

This morning, I discovered by accident that you can actually drag an item from the widget bar to the screen, and it will "morph" from the widget icon to the final widget shape. Pretty cool! You can even slow-mo it by holding down the Shift key prior to dragging.

[robg adds: I wasn't aware this was possible, and (to me) there's a better benefit than the cool morph: this trick let's you exactly position a widget on opening, which has been one of my Dashboard complaints. By dragging, you control exactly where the widget will be displayed. Note that the morph animation will reverse, too, if you change your mind and drag the not-yet-dropped widget back to the widget bar.]
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10.4: Quickly close Spotlight search and results System 10.4
Tiger only hintWant a fast way to completely close the Spotlight search box, after you're already seeing results? Escape works, but you have to press it twice (once to clear the results, once to remove the Command-Space search box).

Try Command-Escape instead -- it totally closes the Spotlight results list and the search field.
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10.4: Be aware of a Calculator widget bug System 10.4
Tiger only hintJust a heads-up when using the Calculator widget in Dashboard. Apple fixed the calculator bug in Panther (it was present in Jaguar), but the bug made it back into the Dashboard Widget in Tiger. The issue is the adherence to the PEMDAS order of operations we all learned in grade school: parentheses, exponent, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction. An example:

Panther and Tiger calculator app:
1 + 2 * 3 = 7 (correct)

Dashboard Widget and Jaguar app:
1 + 2 * 3 = 9 (incorrect)

Hopefully they'll fix this one in a future update...
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10.4: Keep favored toolbar icons visible in some apps System 10.4
Tiger only hintToolbar icons in some programs (Mail, Safari, Preview, Disk Utility, but not in Finder) have a contextual menu item called Keep Item Visible -- Control-click on any icon in those programs to see it. This choice makes the selected icon, obviously, visible even when resizing the containing window. In other words, items on the left will disappear to make space for the one(s) you like -- pretty neat.

I haven't found this documented in Mac Help ... and it's a shame it doesn't work in the Finder, so the praised Spotlight search box disappears with smaller windows.
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10.4: Collapse the Calendar widget System 10.4
Tiger only hintFor those of you with 'widgetmania,' probably your Dashboard screens are getting pretty cluttered (especially if you have a small iBook like me). But today, by accident I discovered a way to save some screen real estate by expanding or retracting the Calendar widget. Just click on the upper portion of the calendar (where the day, month and date are), and the month calendar will retract! This is a nice way of saving dashboard screen space.
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