Compacting Sparse Image Files

Murphy has been using SuperDuper for backups for a while now. Its flexibility and ease of use have helped it build up quite a following. Usually, Murphy sends his SuperDuper backups to a sparse image file. The sparse image file is a container that grows as you add more content. But what if content is removed from the sparse image file? That’s a good question.

The answer is that the sparse image file needs a little help to shrink. For example, let’s say you backed up your drive on Wednesday to a sparse image file. Then you deleted some big video files on Thursday and did another backup with SuperDuper on Friday. Your video files aren’t in the sparse image file anymore, but the backup is still taking up space on disk as if they were. The solution is simple. Use a simple command in the Terminal to reclaim the wasted space in your sparse image file. Just type everything in the line below, replacing the path and file name with the path and file name of your sparse image. Read more »

Creating icns Icon Files

In a previous screencast we used Photoshop to make an image suitable for a folder icon in Leopard. Now we’ll turn that Photoshop file into an icon and apply it to the Finder folder.

It’s probably more steps than you might have guessed, but it’s very straight-forward once you have all the tools in place. Murphy installed the Developer Tools from the Leopard install DVD which include a utility called Icon Composer. The first step is to drag the Photoshop file we created earlier into Icon Composer. The icon is created in various sizes appropriate for Leopard and we export to an icns file.

The catch is that the icns file doesn’t use its own icon content as its icon. That sounds confusing, but when you see the file you’ll know it’s not right. The background isn’t transparent. But that’s no problem. Just drop the icns file onto an application called IconDroplet. A new file will be created that uses the icns file’s content as the icon.

From there, the process may be familiar. Open the Get Info panel for the file created with IconDroplet. Select the tiny icon in the top left corner and hit Command-C on the keyboard to make a copy. Then open the Get Info Panel for a the folder or file that needs a new icon. Select its tiny icon and hit Command-V to paste it in. That’s it.

If you’re confused Murphy slapped a screencast together. For a general look at changing icons on files there’s an old post on the subject too. But keep in mind, using an icns file is the way to go for best results in different Finder views, like Cover Flow.

Salling Clicker Remote Control for iTunes

Murphy stumbled across an old HP iPaq the other day and intalled Salling Clicker on it. Instant remote control for iTunes, via the Salling Clicker pane installed in System Preferences.

It’s amazing there aren’t more Wifi remotes these days. With computers acting as media libraries line-of-sight infrared seems totally inadequate. That’s where Salling Clicker comes in. The software works with either Bluetooth or Wifi to control functions on a remote computer. And the list of devices it works on is extensive. The bad news is for LG phone users. You’re on your own.

Watch the screencast to see how Murphy controls his iTunes library. He can even use the hardware buttons on the Pocket PC to advance to the next song or go back. The same button also controls the volume.

If you dig a little further into Salling Clicker you’ll see it can be used to control a slideshow in iPhoto or to send a Mac off to sleep. There are functions for news feeds and mail too.

Murphy is looking forward to seeing Salling Clicker on an iPod Touch and iPhone when the platform is opened up to developers early in 2008. The Touch might be the perfect Wifi remote control.

A trial version of the software shows all the functionality, but locks after a finite number of clicks. If you’ve got an old Pocket PC lying around you might want to take a look. Or check to see if your phone is on the list of supported devices. There’s a Windows version too.

VMware Converter, Fusion, and Boot Camp

At some point, you might want to convert your Boot Camp volume to a true VMware virtual machine using the VMware Converter.

Murphy’s first experiment with VMware Fusion was to access his Boot Camp install of XP while running Leopard. Fusion made it easy. After installing Fusion it was a simple task to add Boot Camp to the list of Virtual Machines on Murphy’s Macbook Pro.

VMware suggests getting away from Boot Camp unless you have a compelling reason to boot into Windows at startup, suggesting that Fusion performs better with non-Boot Camp virtual machines. There are other reasons to do this as well.

First, you don’t get all the features of Fusion with your Boot Camp partition. You can’t suspend the virtual machine and resume it later. In other words, if you’ve quit Fusion you need to go through a Windows reboot next time you use it. With a regular virtual machine Windows opens up right where you suspended it after your last session, saving lots of time. Adding this functionality would have caused a conflict between the VMware session and the state of Boot Camp when it was selected at startup.

Second, a regular virtual machine adds flexibility to your system. You can offload the virtual machine to another drive or a different computer when you need to free up disk space. Moving a Boot Camp partition isn’t so simple, nor is it a supported feature.

Murphy’s going to play around with Fusion a little more. Then he’s going to reclaim the space Boot Camp has been taking up by deleting the partition.

The screencast shows how to covert a Boot Camp partition into a regular Fusion virtual machine. Here are the basic steps Murphy followed:

1. Enable Windows sharing on your Mac hosting the Boot Camp partition.
2. Run your Boot Camp install under Fusion.
3. Install the VMware Converter utility under Windows.
4. Use the Converter utility to create the new virtual machine in a folder on your Mac, writing it via Windows sharing.

You’ll probably want to make sure everything you do in Windows works well before you delete your Boot Camp volume.

Related links:

Get a trial version of VMware Fusion.

Download the VMware Converter.

Buy Fusion from Amazon - $41.99 at the time of this post after a $20 rebate.

Finding Disk Space Hogs

Your Mac has thousands of files tucked inside. Which files are taking up tons of space? It’s not always obvious as you peruse your home folder in the Finder.

You could make a Smart Folder and tell it to show you files over a certain size. Or you could open the Inspector and click all over the place looking for a folder stuffed with nine hundred raw image files. But there’s another way.

Donation-ware Disk Inventory X is a handy little application for quickly spotting the space hogs on your Mac. The program creates a graphical representation - called a treemap - of your disk (disks) with larger files displayed as large color-coded blocks. Large folders are also readily apparent, with their contents shown as tiny little blocks.

The interface is well-designed - making it easy to hop around the large occupants on your drives. A path is displayed showing the location of a selected block. A floating window can provide detailed information about each file. Disk Inventory X also has options to reveal files in Finder or delete them through a handy control-click menu.

It’s not the only way to manage your disk space - but it’s fast and well-designed. If you need to find some quick candidates for deletion Disk Inventory X could be the tool you’re looking for.