Providing printscreens or screen captures is probably one of the easiest way to discuss, understand and deliver any information over the Internet. Major operating systems like Windows and MacOSX comes with default keyboard shortcuts to perform screen capturing, but are you using them to the fullest?

Looking for more keyboard shortcuts? Here’s some you might be interested:

• Keyboard shortcut for Photoshop CS2 Toolsbox
• 100 Windows Keyboard shortcuts
• 80 Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Outlook

Full content after jump.

Windows Printscreen Shortcuts

By default, there isnt too much option in doing screen capture but enough to get the basic job done. Here are the keyboard shortcuts to do screen capture (printscreen) in Windows.

• PrtScn – The Print Screen button will save the entire screen in clipboard. You will then need to further edit it in some image editing programs or Microsoft Words.
• Alt + PrnScn – By holding Alt key while pressing PrtScn button, it captures only the active window. That means the window screen currently in view.

Windows Vista

Together with Windows Vista, an utility call Snipping Tool was introduced. It gives much more flexibility for screen capturing. Learn how to use Sniping Tool.

Mac Printscreen Shortcuts

Mac OSX covers more different ways to do screen capturing. It allows you to print screen active/non-active windows, full screen and selective area.

The following screen capture shortcuts print and output images on desktop in the format of .PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

• Command + Shift + 3 – Prints the entire screen, everything inside your monitor screen.
• Command + Shift + 4 – Prints the screen according to user selection. By using the following shortcut, your cursor will turned into a cross-hair and allows you to select the area you want to capture.
• Command + Shift + 4 then Space – By holding down Command + Shift + 4, your cursor will turn to cross-hair. Then hit the space bar once it will turned to a camera icon. This allows you to capture any opened windows, regardless of active or hiding behind.

If you want your screen capture to be kept in clipboard so you can paste them in image editing tools (eg. Photoshop) instead of output as .PNG, just include Control while using the shortcut.

• Control + Command + Shift + 3 – Captures entire screen, hold image in clipboard.
• Control + Command + Shift + 4 – Captures screen according to user selection, hold image in clipboard.

Changing the output format

By default, Mac outputs screen captures in .PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format if you did not include ‘Control’. If you prefer JPG, GIF, TIFF over the default .PNG, here’ how you can it manually. Launch Mac’s Terminal and insert these 2 commands.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
killall SystemUIServer

The above commands change your output to .JPG. Simply change that to any format you want. Remember to include the second command ‘killall SystemUIServer‘ that basically does the restarting to make sure your changes will work.

Getting a solid good password is important, that’s a no-brainer. However really making your password unbreakable, that’s the hard part. So what makes a strong password?

A strong password should contain:

• Regenerated frequently
• Do not contain personal information (DOB, phone numbers, Identity Card numbers, spouse’s name)
• Not easily guessed, and yet
• Easily remembered

For the reasons above, we found a free tool – Xyzzy, which able to provide you a strong password with the above 4 elements.

For your information, Xyzzy is a pronounceable password generator which able to create a password as random as possible, but still easy to type and remember.

Without doubt, pronounceable passwords are easy to remember. The passwords generated by Xyzzy are more secure simply because they are not dictionary words. A number can also be randomly added to increase the passwords strength against brute force attacks.

Download Xyzzy for free!

• MacOS 9 and MacOS X
• MS Windows

To make a screen capture in Mac OS X, we use either

1. Command + Shift 3 (Full screen), or
2. Command + Shift 4 (User selection)

The #2 is good but it wouldn’t allow us to select a specific window. To printscreen a specific window in Mac, try this following.

Command + Shift 4, then hit Space

The mouse cursor will turn into a fairly large camera icon and all you have to do is click on the windows (even the inactive windows behind) and Mac will handle the rest. Captured image will be saved on your desktop.

via Usingmac

[Mac only] Who says command based Terminal cannot play music? Folks at usingmac shows how you can play music in Terminal by executing some commands, taking advantage of Mac’s build-in voice.

Try pasting this in your Terminal and hit enter.

osascript -e ’say “Dum dum dee dum dum dum dum dee Dum dum dee dum dum dum dum dee dum dee dum dum dum de dum dum dum dee dum dee dum dum dee dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm” using “Hysterical”‘

Check out Usingmac for more.

[Mac only] Mac’s Terminal startup message is also called MOTD (Message of The Day). If you have not tweak the startup message, it’s probably blank. To make the Terminal screen a little more interesting whenever you launch the Terminal, here’s how you can put any message, or even ASCII art. Guide after jump.

First of all, you must have root access to the Mac machine you are changing, then follow these following steps:

1. Launch Terminal application
2. Execute this command: sudo pico /etc/motd, password is required
3. Type in your message, save it with Control-X.

To make your message more interesting, try using ASCII art. I recommend this website to generate ASCII art – ascii.mastervb.net

Inspired by usingmac.

If you prefer to blog with your iPhone, you now have another good alternatvive. Typead, the developer of Blogit, a software that allows you to post blog entry to Twitter, Feedfind, Facebook, etc has just released a Blogit for iPhone. This is a web application, so no installation is required. Just point your iPhone to this URL – http://blogit.typepad.com

WWDC is tonight! (or moning, wherever you are) and if you want to get live update on the event or being the first to cheer and get all excited when Steve Job announced what’s new in Apple product line, here’s few sites you can logged on to, where live news/blogs on the event will be provided.

Event: Apple’s annual WWDC conference

Day: Monday

Time: 10 a.m. PDT

WWDC live update on

• MacRumors Live
• MacWorld
• The Apple Blog
• CNet
• Gizmodo
• Engadget
• TechCrunch
• Popular Mechanics

Just one more thing, don’t rely too much on Twitter tonight, I got the feeling it will crash, just like the previous few events :-)

I don’t think this serve any real purpose but it’s fun to see the expression of your friends when they wonder why all websites on your Safari browsers are flipped upside down or displayed in other angles.

Here’s 2 Safari browser bookmarklets I stumble upon. The first one allows you to flip the website in Safari upside down, while the second allows you to enter any dimension you prefer. Just drag these following bookmarklets to your Safari browser bookmark toolbar.

Flip | Flip 2

via mir.aculo.us

Bitkaput is a cute little monster that lives inside your iPhone. One day it decides to get out and create heck of a drama. Get Bitkaput inside your iPhone and show your friends today.

Bitkaput video is developed by folks at Laboratoon. Download and get it sync with your iPhone and start playing it. I’ve installed it, pretty interesting. Check out the video below.

Thanks Pablo

You got a DVD, or any DVD quality video that you want to rip and you need an application that handles all kinds of output; whether a iPhone/iPod compatible format, Apple TV, normal TV, PSP, etc. You are indeed looking for Handbrake. Handbrake is a open-source, GPL-licensed DVD-MP4 converter that you can download and use cross platform, regardless of Windows, Mac or Linux. Best of all, it’s free.

Handbrake is fairly easy to use. All you need to do is insert the DVD (or manually locate your source), select the format of output and click ‘Play‘. The application will do the rest.

Supported sources:

• Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (encrypted or unencrypted, but protection methods other than CSS are not supported and must be handled externally with third-party software), and some .VOB and .TS files
• PAL or NTSC
• AC-3, DTS, LPCM or MPEG audio tracks

Outputs:

• File format: MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM
• Video: MPEG-4 or H.264 (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)
• Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

By the name of the application, you might think it’s something Web 2.0 yet has got something to do with foods. Snackr, in fact is a RSS reed reading application developed with Adobe AIR. What makes Snackr so special is the way it display feeds. This feed reader displays feeds in the form of ticker running at the sides of your desktop. You can further customize where you want it to appear; let it be top, left, bottom or right.

The speed of the ticker can also be further adjust; if you are a fast reader, consider running the ticker at higher speed. While you are at work, you still can keep an closed eye on sites you subscribed to. For news that catches your attention, simply click on the title to expand the excerpt or click ‘view post’ to go directly to the post. Everything looks good with Snackr, but it would be better if it allow scrolling back to the RSS ticker that left the screen. It’s a bad feeling knowing you’ve missed something if you are away from the screen for few seconds.

Download Snackr for your desktop.

via TechMalaya

[Mac only] Apple Mac has just released their latest update for Mac OS X Leopard – the 10.5.3. Any version from 10.5* should really take up the time to do the update for the sake of compatibility, stability and security. Mac says the products affected on this 10.5.3 update are Mail, iChat, AirPort. If you are wondering what’s included in this new 10.5.3 update, read here.

Just in case you find updating from the Mac update dialog slow, you can download the update package manually (if you use any downloader app, it supports resuming) and execute the updating yourself.

Download 10.5.3 update package.

Fear of change is probably the biggest reason holding PC users back from trying a Mac, but my observation after talking to few PC user friends, apparently cost seems to be another big factor too. In Malaysia, you’ll get a fairly good laptop at the price of RM $2000 (USD $600+) but for a Macbook, it will cost about RM4000 (USD $1200). I think it’s fair to say under a same-spec-PC-to-Mac compare, Mac will eventually cost 40% more. It might varies from country to country but I argue they are similar.

However, for those who are really interested in experiencing Mac but hold back because of the price, here’s some recommendations. What I intend to suggest is not installing Hackintosh on your PC, nor attempting to convert your Windows XP/Vista theme to Mac look-alike. Instead, it’s a more economic way to own a legit copy of Mac that we’ve tend to missed. Content after jump.

Mac Mini

The Mac Mini not only shrink in terms of the size, but also it’s cost. Mac mini is the cheapest and most affordable among the Mac line-ups but still maintaining the integrity. It has got what a normal CPU would have, yet in such small portable size. The latest Mac Mini in Apple store comes with these following specification:

The specifications

• 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• Up to 2GB memory
• Intel GMA 950 graphics processor
• Up to 160GB hard drive
• Slot-loading optical drive
• Expansion via USB and FireWire
• iLife ’08, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

The Cost

Referring the specs mentioned above, it should cost no more than RM2500 (USD $600). The only additional expenses are probably monitors, keyboards and mouse, where they don’t come along with the Mac Mini. Assuming you agree that Mac mini is cheap, and purchase the additional LCD monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc, your total expense will should not exceed RM3200 (USD $940). Isn’t that the price of a new Desktop. Did I mention Mac Mini came with full iLife and Mac OS X Leopard.

Refurbished Mac

Buying refurbished Mac is actually a great idea but it often slipped through one’s mind because they don’t appear in catalogues or displayed in Mac stores. So what exactly are these refurbished Macs? When there are new products on the line-up, people trade in their old so their new Mac so it will not cost them a fortune. These old Macs go back to factory, get checked, re-polished and stamped with brand new warranty so you don’t have to worry about second-hand wear and tear drama. And yes, they are always cheaper, usually 10-30% cheaper than the new ones. But they are brand new too, with warranty, so what’s the problem?

Where to buy refurbished Mac

The online apple store. Under the Store tab, inside ‘Special Deal’ panel, look for Refurbished Mac. Check with your country’s online Mac store because some product don’t ship internationally. Refurbished Mac product in each country store varies, and they come and go very fast, especially the good deals. So if you are really into getting one, make sure you stay alert.

Tips to grab fast on Mac refurbished page

When a good deal (especially the Macbook series) hit the refurbish page, it stays for couple of days and it’ll be purchased. To catch the good deals, you need to stay alert. The page has got no RSS feeds, but still there’s way to get around it so you get the first hand information on product releases. Here’s what I did to snatch one of the good Macbook deal.

1. .Mac account ready – Make sure you have a .Mac account, with your credit card information, shipping addresses properly filled in.

   Sign up a .Mac account

2. Use Firefox browser – Install Update scanner in your Firefox browser. Use it monitor any content changes on the refurbished page so you get first hand alert whenever there’s updates to the page.
   

   | More about Update Scanner | Download Update Scanner

[Mac only] There’s really no reason why you should convert your .flv movies downloaded from the Internet into other formats if all you want is to play them on your Mac. ‘SWF & FLV Player‘ as self-explanatory as the name is, is a Mac FLV and SWF player, and this 9Mb application comes free with no charges at all. It is perhaps one of the best FLV players I’ve come across so far.

Click here to download SWF & FLV Player3.7.

[Mac only] Mac OS X Leopard comes with a Quicklook tool. Basically, if you hit ’space-bar’ once, it gives you a quick look at the content (whether it’s a text or image) before you decide to launch it. It’s really something cool and thoughtful, but not great enough. The limitation – not all file formats are supported, and you can’t do quicklook on a folder.

Here’s some hacks/plugins I stumbled across recently, by installing it, you can quicklook into folders, zip files and few other file formats that greatly enrich the experience of file browsing.

Quicklook on Folders

The image above describe best what I’m trying to explain here. On the left is what you get on a normal Quicklook, as for the one of the right, it gives you a more informative and in depth look into the files within a folder.

Like it? Click here to download the necessary files, we’ll proceed to installation steps soon.

Quicklook on other file formats

You can also make quicklook works on these following file formats:

1. .ZIP – download
2. .FLV – download
3. .EPS – download
4. .XML – download
5. .AI (Adobe Illustrator) – download
6. Textmate – download

Installation

Upon download, place the .qlgenerator file inside /Library/QuickLook/ and relaunch Finder. Quicklook should now give you a brand new perspective of your files.

If you noticed that the new quicklook did not work after a Finder relaunch, try relaunching the Finder again.

It’s confirmed that Apple will include Chinese input in iPhone together with the launch of Firmware 2.0. This is a very good news for those who needs Chinese inputs on their iPhone. You can expect Chinese input support for SMS texting, contact namings, etc once this is launched. Perhaps in the mean time, you’ll still need depend on 3rd party Chinese input application until Firmware 2.0 is out.

via macrumors

If you have an old iPod laying around doing nothing, why not turn it into something more useful, something more than just playing songs. Jessica Hupp wrote an interesting entry listing 75 things you can do with your iPod, whether you wanna turn it into a storage, a multimedia device, a communication tool, or even an accessory.

There are even some really wild ideas what you can turn your iPod into:

• Turn your iPod into a Ouija board
• How To: Install Leopard with Your iPod
• Turn Your iPod Touch into an iPhone

Check out the full list.

[Mac only] When Apple launch Mac OS X Leopard that comes with Time Machine, they did not include the cool Time Machine galaxy background as part of the wallpapers series. But thanks to community of DeviantArt it’s made available and it has become one of my favorite desktop wallpaper.

Thanks to these awesome DeviantArt folks again, now Time Machine’s background also comes in screensaver, and the animation is nice too. I’ve installed it, and it’s pretty cool!

Click here to download Time Machine screensaver

Time Machine Wallpaper

The wallpaper is a perfect match to the Time Machine screensaver. Here’s where you can download the Time Machine Wallpaper.

Via DownlaodSquad

[Mac only] Here’s something really cool trick I learn from TUAW today, you can actually control your Mac via email. That’s right, by sending an email to your Mac (with certain Subject and Content) you can basically make it perform almost any action you want – like restart, shutdown, sleep, or opening/closing any applications. This trick make use of Mail App’s Rules and Applescripts.

Here’s how you do it. Open up Script Editor.app, put in this piece of command:

• tell application "Finder" to restart

Save it with a self-explanatory name in folders any folder.

Next, open up Mail app, go to Mail -> Preferences. Inside Rules tab, create a new rule and insert the fields exactly like how I’ve highlighted them.

In short, this is what you’ve done. You created an Applescript capable to restart your Mac. Then you added a rule in your Mail app to obey the following instruction:

• When Mail app received an email with the Subject "system" and Message Content "restart", run the Restart Applescript script.

Now try sending an email to yourself and viola, your Mac will restarts itself!

More things you can control with Email

TUAW gives few more examples, besides restarting it you can create Applescripts to shutdown your Mac or put it on sleep mode. If you are familiar with Mac Applescript, for sure you can think of something more useful.

Security: A little advice

If you are planning to take this up and create lots of commands to control your mac, make sure your commands are not revealed to anyone else, or you’ll end up getting controlled. You can add an extra condition on top to make sure Mail app only obey instruction given by specific recipient.

Or the least you can do, is to make your command (message content) slight complex to guess, with a password perhaps.

[Mac only] By default, Mac’s Mail client displays mails in a top-down approach, thus limiting the number of mails it can display, If you are using a widescreen monitor, here’s a Mac plugin that allows you turn the top-down to left-right column view.

This 3 vertical columns view plugin is fairly easy to implement. Just install, and restart your Mac Mail client and your Mail client should now display in three vertical columns.

How to revert back

If somehow you don’t like the 3 column view after some time, launch the Plugin Library, uncheck the Letterbox plugin and restart your Mail Client.