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The Blob
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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Hello,
I have been reading the Missing Manual for Mac OS X Tiger and in one part, the guy is talking about the Blob. Basically a ball that goes around the screen that triggers Exposé.
the command in terminal is
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater-bool true
but, i followed the instructions in the book and still i can't see it on the screen.
does anyone know about the Blob and how to activate it?
thanks
Jules
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Eat More Fruit, Buy Apple
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2004
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Originally Posted by kingjules
Hello,
I have been reading the Missing Manual for Mac OS X Tiger and in one part, the guy is talking about the Blob. Basically a ball that goes around the screen that triggers Exposé.
the command in terminal is
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater-bool true
but, i followed the instructions in the book and still i can't see it on the screen.
does anyone know about the Blob and how to activate it?
thanks
Jules
Firstly, you need a space before the last dash:
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool true
Then you need to restart the Dock:
killall Dock
That will give you the blob!
Of course, you may want to get rid of the extra preference entry that was created the first time:
open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
Expand the root element, navigate to the erroneous entry, hit Delete and save.
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╭1.5GHz G4 15" PB, 2.0GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, AEBS, BT kbd
╰2.0GHz T2500 20" iMac, 1.5GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 250GB 7200rpm HD
http://www.DogLikeNature.com/
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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Hello Dog,
Just tried the 2 commands
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool true
Killall Dock
after the "command defaults ..." i have a return message as: "usage: write user [tty]"
But i am not a unix expert. is it normal?
anyway nothing happens. I didn't do the part about the preferences though. It opens OmniOutliner and shows me the status of the floater to false.
(
Last edited by kingjules; Jan 14, 2006 at 01:53 PM.
)
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Eat More Fruit, Buy Apple
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2004
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by kingjules
Hello Dog,
Just tried the 2 commands
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool true
Killall Dock
after the "command defaults ..." i have a return message as: "usage: write user [tty]"
But i am not a unix expert. is it normal?
anyway nothing happens. I didn't do the part about the preferences though. It opens OmniOutliner and shows me the status of the floater to false.
The usage: message tells me that the word "write" was the first word on the line. To prove this, just try typing write by itself and you'll get the same message. Make sure you have the word "defaults" at the beginning of the line (the word "command" is not necessary), and it should work.
The fact the OmniOutliner launches when you run the open command indicates that it's the default application for PLIST files and you probably don't have the developer tools installed.
It sounds like you're interested in messing around with the terminal (who isn't?? ), so maybe you should look into grabbing a free copy of the Dev. Tools from Apple.
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╭1.5GHz G4 15" PB, 2.0GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, AEBS, BT kbd
╰2.0GHz T2500 20" iMac, 1.5GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 250GB 7200rpm HD
http://www.DogLikeNature.com/
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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me again.
thanks for all of that. my first command was just wrong. now i have my Blob on my screen. quite funny to see this thing on the screen. don't know what the Apple guys were thinking about.
anyway, thanks for your help on that, very useful.
and for the terminal thing. I am indeed interested in messing around. so many things to learn. i will take a look at the dev tool (i guess on the website).
thanks again
Jules
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Eat More Fruit, Buy Apple
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2004
Status:
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╭1.5GHz G4 15" PB, 2.0GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, AEBS, BT kbd
╰2.0GHz T2500 20" iMac, 1.5GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 250GB 7200rpm HD
http://www.DogLikeNature.com/
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2001
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I don't understand what this "blob" is.. can anyone post a screen shot of what it looks like?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
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its just an aqua coloured sphere that activates expose.
a quick google turned up this
normal
mouseover
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2002
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Australia
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I'm sure it was just for testing, never meant too be a real feature.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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I just love it, it's really a good little feature
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Eat More Fruit, Buy Apple
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Yeah, it was apparently just to test Expose. It's actually somewhat buggy, and can leave the part of the desktop it's on mysteriously indifferent to clicks, if I recall.
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
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clicks work perfectly. it could become useless if you use the hot corner and you adjust them to expose, but i found it interesting.
do you know if there is any more hidden things like this in Mac OS X?
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Eat More Fruit, Buy Apple
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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One example of the problem I mentioned: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=214866
It doesn't happen all the time, and I don't recall if we ever figured out why it happened when it did. I was just pointing out that it's obviously not meant as a release feature.
As for other hidden things…I guess you could count being able to put widgets outside of Dashboard.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
killall Dock
Then if you exit Dashboard while dragging, you'll be able to drop it on your normal desktop.
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Chuck
___
"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
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I really can't stand working for long periods of time on an account that does not have Dock icon hiding turned on (so hidden apps have slightly transparent Dock icons). I don't know why Apple refuses to turn it on by default, after all of this time:
defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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