Geek Toys

Creating Brushed Metal effect in Java

Posted February 13th, 2005
Related entries: Geek Toys

Finally, I’ve been looking for this. Using the property apple.awt.brushMetalLook allows you to specify that your main application window should use the brushed Metal appearance, similar to that used by Apple applications such as iTunes and Safari. This is set to false by default. It is available only on JDK 1.4.1.

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Pluck 0.9.2 Released

Posted May 2nd, 2004
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I’m at a company called Pluck, where we’ve been developing new technology to help user’s find and share information on the Internet. We’ve just released a new version of our software add on for Internet Explorer, in Beta form. This version includes improvements to the RSS reader, as well as new features like shared bookmarks and the ability to search, sort and filter Ebay, Google, and Amazon. It’s a free tool, so check it out!

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MacLogger DX

Posted June 30th, 2003
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If you are into Ham radio, check out MacLoggerDX a complete DX logging program for the mac with fancy graphics and mapping.

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Notebook, by Circus Ponies

Posted June 5th, 2003
Related entries: Geek Toys

The folks at Circus Ponies have an interesting application for the Mac they call the Notebook. It lets you organize scraps of information.

Notebook stores photos, e-mails, graphics, documents. NoteBook helps you keep track. Take notes, make outlines, and share information. Create project journals, directories, or portfolios. Clip images, e-mails, and news stories. Add formatted, searchable notes. Find anything using NoteBook’s patented indexing technology.

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SuperDrive upgrade for G4

Posted May 27th, 2003
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Finally found a place that offers a MCE Internal DVD-R/RW “SuperDrive” Upgrade for Power Mac G4. This is a much better deal than the apple upgrade…..

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MacSpeedZone

Posted May 26th, 2003
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The website MacSpeedZone has some good articles on Mac upgrades and performance.

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Roll your own external RAID?

Posted May 24th, 2003
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I’ve been wanting to create an independent home server with a built in RAID, but I don’t have the room for a full tower anywhere. I have looked at the shuttle small footprint boxes, but they don’t have enough bays for a RAID. I’m thinking about buying an external IDE enclosure and setting it along side a shuttle, allowing me to have say four drives. This would be much cheaper than a real external RAID. The only question I have is how the external drives connect in to the PC. Do they make PCI controller cards with external ports?