OS X Daily: Show the Location Path of Current Wallpaper in Mac OS X

Show the Location Path of Current Wallpaper in Mac OS X
Four Key Lessons to Apple’s Success, According to Apple VP Greg Joswiak
Show a “Now Playing” iTunes Notification in the OS X Dock
10 Amazing Free Online Computer Science Classes from Stanford University
Mac Setups: iMac 27″, MacBook Pro 15″, MacBook 13″, iPad 1, and a Couple PC’s

Show the Location Path of Current Wallpaper in Mac OS X

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 11:41 PM PST

Show current wallpaper location on the Mac OS X desktop

Ever set a desktop background picture and have no idea where the original wallpaper image is stored? Or maybe you’ve wondered where that default background image is stored so you can share it with your iOS device? Me too, and using a defaults write debug command, you can display the full path to the currently active desktop image, directly on the wallpaper itself.

Launch Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/
Type the following defaults write command:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;killall Dock

Go to the desktop to see the path

After you’ve retrieved the desktop picture (use Command+Shift+G to bring up the Go To Folder window), you can hide the path text by using the following command:
defaults delete com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text;killall Dock

Both of these commands automatically kill/refresh the Dock as well. If you’re not fond of the command line, you can find the path information in a hidden debug mode for Desktop System Preferences too.

Four Key Lessons to Apple’s Success, According to Apple VP Greg Joswiak

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 11:35 AM PST

Apple Logo

Greg Joswiak is a Vice President of Marketing at Apple who focuses on promoting the iOS lineup. After working at Apple for 20 years, he has come up with four lessons that can help explain Apple’s incredible success. Shared at a recent speech in Cambridge, they are quoted below from Wall Street Journal:

Focus—"It means saying no, not saying yes. We do very few things at Apple. We are $100bn in revenue with very few products. There are only so many grade A players. If you spread yourself out over too many things, none of them will be great."

Simplicity—"Make complex things simple. A lot of people think it means take something simple and leave it at its core essence. But it isn't that. When you start to build something, it quickly becomes really complex. But that is when a lot of people stop. If you really know your product and the problems, then you can take something that is complex and then make it simple."

Courage—"Courage drives a lot of decisions in business. Don't hang on to ideas from the past even if they have been successful for you. You don't build a product just because everyone else has one. "

Best—"If you can't enter the market and try and be the best in it, don't enter it. You need that differentiation. At Apple if we can't be the best then we are not interested in it.

Sounds like the spirit and influence of Steve Jobs to me.

Show a “Now Playing” iTunes Notification in the OS X Dock

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 11:16 AM PST

Now Playing iTunes Dock notification

Using a defaults write command, the iTunes Dock icon can be set to display a “Now Playing” song and artist pop-up that transitions in and out and music starts. It’s a nice addition, particularly if you’re playing songs from a shared network playlist and have iTunes hidden in the background.

Enable the iTunes song & artist Dock icon popups

Open the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/ and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE

Now kill the Dock to relaunch it:
killall Dock

Start playing a song in iTunes to see the notification appear, it’ll disappear automatically and then reappear briefly anytime a new song starts.

If you decide you don’t like the notification, disabling the iTunes song popup is just as easy:
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications

You won’t need to relaunch iTunes, but you will need to kill the Dock again.

This only works in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, if you try it in prior versions nothing happens. Nice find by TheNextWeb.

10 Amazing Free Online Computer Science Classes from Stanford University

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 10:33 AM PST

Stanford University

Stanford University is on a roll lately offering a wide variety of free online courses to anyone, either through iTunes U on topics like iOS 5 Development, or through self-contained courses conducted entirely from the web that are free to enroll in. The latter is the case here, with Stanford offering 10 new online courses that are completely free to the public. Each class is taught by a renowned Stanford professor and is focused on technology and computer science, although two concentrate on the entrepreneurial side of things as well.

All classes start January 2012, so enroll now if you want to start learning from one of the best universities in the world:

CS 101 – Essentials of Computer Science for a zero experience audience
Cryptography – Protecting information in computer systems
Game Theory – Mathematical modeling of strategic interaction among rational agents
Human-Computer Interaction – Designing technologies and interfaces that bring people joy rather than frustration
Lean Launchpad – Turning an idea into a company
Machine Learning – Getting computers to act without explicit direction
Natural Language Processing – Algorithms and technology for dealing with human language data
Probabilistic Graphical Models – Practical and theoretical methods of manipulating probability distributions
Software as a Service – Engineering fundamentals for Agile SaaS development using Ruby on Rails
Technology Entrepreneurship – Creating a successful startup

You won’t get college credit for completing the courses unless you’re a Stanford student, but they will provide you with a statement of accomplishment and a performance rating compared to other online students, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to learn something.

Free courses from Stanford University is a freakishly good deal, where undergrad tuition alone is about $40,000 a year!

Stanford has offered this style of online learning in the past, recently offering a free online “Intro to Databases” course conducted on the web. That class is wrapping up so if you enrolled in that one, these classes are a great opportunity to further relevant knowledge.

Mac Setups: iMac 27″, MacBook Pro 15″, MacBook 13″, iPad 1, and a Couple PC’s

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 09:59 AM PST

Awesome Mac Setup

Our readers have some of the best setups and workstations out there. Case in point, this drool-worthy Mac setup is heavy on the Apple gear but crosses platforms for testing purposes.

From left to right there is: MacBook Pro 15″, iMac 27″ connected to a center Dell 22″ display but switches to a Dell Optiplex GX520 Windows machine, a 20″ Vuescape display connected to the white MacBook 13″, docked iPad 1, Dell Mini 1012, and a handful of peripherals including a Time Machine connected to a 1TB external drive, AirPort Extreme Base Station, Apple Remote, Apple Wireless Keyboard, and two Magic Trackpads. Plus the picture was taken with an iPhone 4S!

What an awesome setup, thanks for sending this to us Bryn!

You can send in your own to setup shots to osxdailycom@gmail.com – we get a load of entries but we’ll try to post them all eventually