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The Blob
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kingjules
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Jan 14, 2006, 01:21 PM
 
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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Dog Like Nature
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Jan 14, 2006, 01:32 PM
 
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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kingjules  (op)
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Jan 14, 2006, 01:46 PM
 
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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Dog Like Nature
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Jan 14, 2006, 02:00 PM
 
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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kingjules  (op)
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Jan 14, 2006, 02:10 PM
 
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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Dog Like Nature
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Jan 14, 2006, 02:55 PM
 
Dev tools can be downloaded at http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/
You'll need a free account, and beware -- the XCode disk image is 833MB!
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timmerk
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Jan 16, 2006, 02:12 PM
 
I don't understand what this "blob" is.. can anyone post a screen shot of what it looks like?
     
ShotgunEd
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Jan 17, 2006, 06:07 AM
 
its just an aqua coloured sphere that activates expose.

a quick google turned up this


normal


mouseover
     
:XI:
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Jan 17, 2006, 07:36 AM
 
Cocktail can turn it on and off.
     
moonmonkey
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Jan 17, 2006, 07:41 AM
 
I'm sure it was just for testing, never meant too be a real feature.
     
kingjules  (op)
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Jan 17, 2006, 06:59 PM
 
I just love it, it's really a good little feature
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Chuckit
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Jan 17, 2006, 07:05 PM
 
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.
Chuck
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kingjules  (op)
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Jan 18, 2006, 05:12 AM
 
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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Chuckit
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Jan 18, 2006, 05:35 AM
 
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.
Chuck
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Big Mac
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Jan 18, 2006, 08:15 AM
 
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

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
   
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