Mac help... lots of questions... :]

[youdontknow]

Salut

so, today i bought an iMac 17-inch 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo, well, that is what the box says.

So i was wondering, beings as i am a student and i live in a city apparment, i get alot of people popping in to say hi and end up 'checking' their myspaces or emails or whatever... so first up:

how do i hide my porn... haha.

its not just porn i have private stuff that needs to be kept private.

i looked into it and the sites that explain seem to be explaining it to a pro and not a mac virgin like myself...

so how can i put a password/hide private files from peeking eyes?

please make it simple, as Mac's are a whole new world to me

Merci


BLx

 

[BrandonSBCA]

Try this.

HideOut

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Security/HideOut.shtml

 

[BrandonSBCA]

make a second user profile, call it guest or whatever you want - that will keep all the files in your account locked.

let me know if you need instructions i can explain in detail

(i'm a die hard mac user for 15 years now, and that's the easiest way with the current setup)

I thought the password would be cute, then you'll have people who use your computer trying to guess the password and get frustrated and leave.

 

[InvisibleThrills]

Or you can put everything in a folder, name it something like "Documents" or something that you would normally see and then click Apple + I to "get info". Then go down to "Ownership & Permissions" and then select "No Access" and now whenever you want to access you just type in your password. And now it is hidden!

 

[BrandonSBCA]

Get a PC and use Microsoft Private Folder.





Sorry I couldn't resist that...that's what all the Mackers do to the PC users here whenever they post an issue.

Good luck with your new Mac.

I was going to do that but I decided to try to help, since I'm not familiar with the Mac OSX Tiger interface I just looked on google.com for it. Didn't want the Mac users to attack me with threatening PM's.

 

[iklier]

Sorry if this is unclear this was written as it came to mind. If you have any questions just ask.

Hidden Folder

The Mac OS X by default will hide any folder with period prefix. However the Finder will not allow you to rename this with this prefix. So the terminal is your friend.

1. Go to the Macintosh HD>Applications>Utilities and open the terminal application
2. Terminal will open a command line interface window. By default the directory the terminal is in is your home directory.
3. For the sake of simplicity we will create a hidden directory within your home directory. To do this type "mkdir .coresystem" this will make a hidden directory called .core system in your home directory.
4. Now to quickly access your newly created "stash" Go to the Finder and select "Go to Folder..." from the Go menu. In the box that pops up enter "~/.coresystem" and click go button and voila your "stash" window should open.

It should be noted that this directory will be indexed by Spotlight(Apples search system), will appear in the Go menu's Recent Folders, also any files opened from that directory will appear in the Apple Menus Recent Items section, and finally they will appear in the recent documents, items, etc sections of the apps used to view said images, video, etc.

 

[WYSIWYG]

Nor ALL the MC people on this forum knock wondoz people. We all have our preferences for the computer we wish to use for various reasons! I have been a MAC user since 1988! Serves my needs wekk, except that in the last several months all the videos I used to watch on here in Quicktime are now WMA files....... Oh well, liife "sucks" sometimes! Used to be this site was more MAC friendly than it is now.

 

[b_o_n_n_i_e]

You can also change your Spotlight settings:

Open System Preferences > Spotlight
Then Click on "Privacy", then add the folder you don't wanna be seen or searched.

Otherwise, the "no access" step suggested by invisiblethrills works fine.

 

[youdontknow]

Try this.

HideOut

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Security/HideOut.shtml

hey brandon, i tried that software, but it says after it has downloaded it to my desktop that it cant find the application. this happened with some other software i tried to download, am i doing something wrong?

x

 

[youdontknow]

well, i downloaded it again and its on my desktop it has a sheet of paper with 'Hide-Out! v.2.1.sitx' as its file name

hmm.

 

[mojoe54]

Nor ALL the MC people on this forum knock wondoz people. We all have our preferences for the computer we wish to use for various reasons! I have been a MAC user since 1988! Serves my needs wekk, except that in the last several months all the videos I used to watch on here in Quicktime are now WMA files....... Oh well, liife "sucks" sometimes! Used to be this site was more MAC friendly than it is now.[/QUOTE

My friend turned me on to flip4mac. It's shareware that allows you to play wmv files on your Quicktime Player-- now I see all those vids that I couldn't before.

 

[sheep]

Nor ALL the MC people on this forum knock wondoz people. We all have our preferences for the computer we wish to use for various reasons! I have been a MAC user since 1988! Serves my needs wekk, except that in the last several months all the videos I used to watch on here in Quicktime are now WMA files....... Oh well, liife "sucks" sometimes! Used to be this site was more MAC friendly than it is now.[/QUOTE

My friend turned me on to flip4mac. It's shareware that allows you to play wmv files on your Quicktime Player-- now I see all those vids that I couldn't before.

I never had any problems with opening .wmv files with windoze media player but I d/l flip4mac and everything got screwed up so I trashed it.

 

[youdontknow]

ok, so a few more questions:

- i am still having trouble downloading some items, they download to my desktop, but when i click them they say there is no applications

- secondly, is it possible to download normal msn for macs? i have mac:messenger, but i have to say i am not a fan, i cant use/see webcams, and there are other things that dont work with it?

 

[sheep]

ok, so a few more questions:

- i am still having trouble downloading some items, they download to my desktop, but when i click them they say there is no applications

- secondly, is it possible to download normal msn for macs? i have mac:messenger, but i have to say i am not a fan, i cant use/see webcams, and there are other things that dont work with it?

1) What kind of items are you d/l?
2) Sorry. Microshaft tries to blackmail us into getting a windoze machine or they dont know how to write for the Mac. Dont know which. Use Yahoo or if you're talking to another Mac user iChat is fantastic. Where I live msn network is up and down like a whore's drawers on a saturday nite but i dont have any problems with AIM or Yahoo IM.

 

[youdontknow]

1) What kind of items are you d/l?
2) Sorry. Microshaft tries to blackmail us into getting a windoze machine or they dont know how to write for the Mac. Dont know which. Use Yahoo or if you're talking to another Mac user iChat is fantastic. Where I live msn network is up and down like a whore's drawers on a saturday nite but i dont have any problems with AIM or Yahoo IM.

ah, the problem is, i am from france and no one over here has aim and few people use yahoo.

the items i am trying to download are regular ones. for example, i downloaded something called iview, i forgot why. and when i double click the icon on the desktop a popup box appears and says There is no default application specified to open the document "iview399.exe"
this often occurs with many of my downloads.

 

[sheep]

ah, the problem is, i am from france and no one over here has aim and few people use yahoo.

the items i am trying to download are regular ones. for example, i downloaded something called iview, i forgot why. and when i double click the icon on the desktop a popup box appears and says There is no default application specified to open the document "iview399.exe"
this often occurs with many of my downloads.

Aha! You have downloaded a windoze application or as those peeps call an executible file. Anything ending with .exe is windoze. That is why you cant open it. Try iPhoto which is probably on your computer and part of iLife '06. It is a photo management suite. If you are a professional photographer you will want aperture.
http://www.apple.com/aperture/
Why microshaft decided to call it iXxxx like all the Mac apps is a mystery to me. I guess they arent very creative.