It turns out that Mac Intel chips have a built-in feature called THERMTRIP that will temporarily suspend the CPU when things get hot, and shut down the CPU altogether when things get too hot. Speculation is that this temperature is somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130ºC. While my Macs did not reach three digit temperatures, the increase did alarm me. Luckily, as you can see, the temperatures settled down to a normal range after a few days. This is likely due to the machines running a lot of initial tasks like Spotlight indexing of your entire drive just after the Lion upgrade.

Still, if you, like me, are concerned and want to do something a little more proactive than just waiting, here are a few precautionary measures you can take:

iStat Pro Dashboard Widget. One of the first (and lately the only dashboard widgets) I installed is iSlayer’s iStat Pro. This widget will allow you to monitor several of your Mac’s vital statistics, and with the optional companion iOS app, you can monitor your Mac from your iPhone when you’re attached to the same Wi-Fi network. Information reported includes systems various temperatures, and the speed of your Mac’s internal fans. The problem is that as your Mac keeps getting hotter, your fans aren’t spinning faster, something for which we turn to the next tool.

smcFanControl Menu utility for Mac. To manually modify the speed of your internal fans, you can install Hendrik Holtmann’s smcFanControl. For some of the older Macs that are still technically capable of running OS X 10.7 Lion, you may find that they are having some difficulty keeping up at times, and the default fan speed just will not provide the relief required. This menu bar item will allow you to change the minimum fan speed and effectively take control of just how fast your fan will blow. I created two custom settings: a midrange setting at 4000 RPM, and a high setting at 6000 RPM and will turn them on when I see things get a little too hot. I then set things back to Apple’s default levels once things cool down.

Purchase a laptop stand. Proper ventilation is key to allowing your Mac to cool down under normal conditions. Placing your laptop on a pillow or blanket because it is running hot may do more harm than good, especially if you end up blocking the vents that are trying to expel all that hot air. My personal favorite is the Cooling Bar from Just Mobile for $39.95US.  I find it convenient to carry with me and easy to set up.  Just Mobile has other stands for your MacBook as well. And if you tend to keep your Macbook closed when at a desk, consider Twelve South’s BookArc Pro for $49.99 U.S.

Let us know if you have other tips for keeping your Mac cool under pressure, or if you’re seeing temperature spikes under Lion that last beyond the first few days.

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Luckily though, the good old ‘defaults write’ command for OS X’s Terminal.app is still around to help us pop open that hood and tweak all the stuff that can’t be configured with just a point and a click. Here’s a quick roundup of a few defaults write commands that might make your early days with the new big cat a bit easier.

A few words about ‘defaults write’

The ‘defaults’ command allows users to interact with their user defaults via the terminal (located in the Applications>Utilities folder). Users can read, write, and delete user preference values that often aren’t available for configuration within an application’s normal preference panel. These commands can all be executed via the Terminal, and reversed by simply repeating the command with the original value swapped in for the replacements below. In most cases you’ll have to restart the application you’re trying to tweak before you can see the command’s effect. If you don’t want to mess around with the terminal, I’m sure many of these commands will soon find their way into an updated version of Secrets, which is a GUI preference pane for configuring this type of behavior.

The roundup

• Animations. There are a lot of new animations in Lion. New windows will warp into existence from a single point on the screen; email replies will fold their way out of threaded conversations; and desktops will go swishing by as you move from space to space. There’s at least two of these you can put an end to right now if you want:
  • Disable Mail Reply animations: “defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES”
  • Disable New Window animations: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO”
• Character picker. If you’ve ever been frustrated by hunting around in the character viewer for accented characters like the “è” or the “ë” then you probably want to just leave this setting alone. If however, if you’d rather be able to hold down a key and just have it automatically repeat, like it used to, then this defaults write is for you.
  • Disable the character picker: “defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool NO”
• Window restore. Want to keep applications like Preview or QuickTime from restoring old windows that happened to be hanging around the last time you quit? Just switch out the name “Preview” in the command below to target other applications.
  • Disable window restore: “defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool NO”
• Bookmarks bar. You can get rid of both the Reading List icon and the Top Sites icon with this quick defaults write command:
  • Clean out icons from Safari’s bookmarks bar: “defaults write com.apple.Safari ProxiesInBookmarksBar ‘()’”
• Save sheet shortcuts. Lion changes around the default save sheet shortcuts for a little added safety. If you’ve got a lot of muscle memory devoted to “Command-D” as the shortcut for “Don’t Save,” you can bring it back if you want — though to be honest, with “D” and “S” being so close together, I prefer the new settings.
  • Revert save sheet shortcut: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSSavePanelStandardDesktopShortcutOnly -bool YES”
• iOS spell check pop-up. Part of the overall “iOS-ification” effort in Lion was to bring over those helpful but sometimes annoying little spell correction pop-ups you get as you type. The autocorrect can be enabled on a document by document basis with a right-click in “Spelling and Grammar,” but if you just want to kill it off altogether, you can.
  • Disable the iOS-style spell correct: “defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool NO”
• ~/Library reveal. This last one isn’t technically a defaults command, but it’s too good to leave out. By default in Lion, user libraries are hidden. You can still navigate to the user library by holding down the “option key” while in the Go menu in the Finder, but if you want to restore ~/Library back to it’s proper place, just crack open the terminal and enter in the command below.
  • Restore ~/Library visibility: “chflags nohidden ~/Library”

I’m sure more hidden commands will surface as folks begin to settle into the new OS. I grabbed as many as I could find floating around, but if you’ve got some additional ones you’d like to share, please do so in the comments.

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Securing your Mac can be both simple and complicated, depending on your usage and expertise, but the best place to start is with the access privileges granted to each user account created.

Create a Separate Administrator Account

Preferences > System > Accounts. The first thing that should be done is to disable administrative privileges for all active users.  There really is no good reason that any regularly used user account should have administrator privileges.  That isn’t the to say that no one needs to do administrative work on Macs.  Create a special Administrator account and keep its password a secret.  Change the Administrator’s password frequently and don’t forget it. Apple allows you to create a reminder question, so that helps.

Now, whenever you need to do something like modify a preference, or install software, you’ll be prompted to enter an admin ID and password, but so will remote users trying to take control of your system to install malware.

Disable Automatic Login

Preferences > System > Accounts (Login Options): Turn off automatic login. About the only time that it makes sense to turn on automatic login is on a publicly accessible Mac where a locked down guest account has been created.  This will prevent people from accessing your information when they gain physical access to the Mac.

Require Password Lock when Sleeping

Preferences > Security > General. Require a password lock no more than five seconds after the computer goes to sleep or the screen saver is enabled.  This will lock things down when you leave your Mac unattended for an extended period.  I also like to set a hot corner to enable the screen saver for when I need to make a quick getaway.

I have mixed feelings on forcing a log out after so many minutes of inactivity.  I’ve found that if I leave applications running, and documents aren’t saved, this particular security setting is basically useless.  My Macs are running for weeks, if not months, and I like to leave applications running for just about as long. Depending on how you use your computer, you might want to enable automatic logout after a set amount of time.

Require Password to Modify Preferences

Preferences > Security > General. Here, you can opt to require a password to unlock each System Preference pane.  This will ensure that settings will not be changed by just anyone.  This setting only makes sense when you are also carefully managing access to your administrator ID and password.

Block All Incoming Connections

Preferences > Security > Firewall (Advanced). First, turn the firewall on if it isn’t already.  If possible, block all incoming connections as well.  This may not be possible if you’re sharing files, or using applications that require inbound connections like Dropbox, or even certain Mac apps that sync with their iOS counterparts.  I would also recommend enabling stealth mode.  This will help prevent unexpected requests, such as ICMP (ping), from getting a response from the system.

Do Allow Safari to Open Safe Files

Safari > Preferences > General. By default, Safari will open all files that it decides are safe to open.  This is meant to be a convenience feature when downloading files from the Internet, or opening attachments using web-based email programs.  Be warned; there’s no such thing as a “safe” file.  Disable the open “safe” files after downloading feature in Safari.

Update Your Mac’s Software Daily

Preferences > Software Update. Be good about applying updates, especially security updates. It is a good idea to have the Mac check for updates daily, and then download them automatically.  That way, the software will likely be ready to install the moment you realize an update has been issued.

Don’t be fooled; Macs can be just as insecure and vulnerable as any other technology out there.  Mastering the seven security related features outlined above will go a long way to help keep your Mac as safe and secure as possible.  Remember: You are the biggest security risk to your Mac, so watch where you click.

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Setting up your OS to your liking can be an art for some. What if you need to set up Snow Leopard to present every user with the same look and settings? By following these steps you can have every user who logs into the machine receive the same look, feel and preferences that you desire. What we’ll be doing is creating a new user, setting it up to look how we want, then copying the settings so every new user will get those preferences.

Setting Everything Up

1. Login under your admin account and open up Accounts pane in System Preferences.
2. Click the + to create a new Standard user.
3. As an example, we’ll use the name testuser.
   
   
4. Log off and log back in as testuser.
5. Set everything up the way you want. I customized the Dock, Safari’s home page and the Finder preferences.
6. When you are done customizing, log off the testuser account.

Copying the Files

1. Login under your admin account.
2. Navigate to the /System/Library folder in Finder.
3. Right-click on the User Template folder and choose Get info.
   
4. By default, you cannot browse this folder. Change the permissions so Everyone has Read & Write permissions.
   
5. Now we can open up the User Template folder & copy the English.lproj folder to your desktop. This will be our backup copy in case we want to restore it back.
6. Open up Terminal and navigate to the User Template folder.
   cd /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj
7. Copy the testuser folder over, which will replace the defaults. You may get errors about some files that can’t be replaced. I haven’t seen it cause any issues though.
   sudo cp -R ~testuser/* .
sudo cp -R ~testuser/.* .
8. Change the permissions for the User Template folder back so everyone has No Access again.
   

Test it Out

1. Create a new user to verify everything worked. I used the name testuser2.
   
2. Log off as admin and log back in as testuser2.
3. You will now see your customized settings. These will be used for all new users created on the system from this point on.

Conclusion

To put everything back the way it was, log in as admin and copy the English.lproj backup file on your desktop back to the /System/Library/User Template folder.

If you have a lab of Macs but aren’t using Open Directory, this is a nice solution to maintain some control over the OS presentation. This change will only affect new users. It has no effect on existing users, so keep that in mind. If you start getting constant requests for more customizations similar to this, setup a Snow Leopard Server and start using Workgroup Manager. The changes can be much easier to implement but the Server solution has a larger price-tag for that convenience.

While I am a fan of the Terminal, sometimes remembering (or Googling for) the proper “defaults write ...” undocumented setting to tweak a feature on a new build or a friend’s machine gets a bit annoying (mostly due to my increasingly old age…Hey! You, kids! Get off my lawn!). If you ever wanted the opportunity to really muck things up across your system and installed applications, then head on over to the “Secret” BlackTree page (yes, the makers of the awesomeness that is QuickSilver) and grab a copy of their preference pane.

Truth be told, I actually needed to change out the text on the login window on my Mac (for work) and did not remember the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist file or key for it and just happened to come across the Secrets update today. I was impressed at the extent of its database of settings for all sorts of apps and the fact that it figured out which apps I had installed (so it only showed relevant settings options).

An example of the non-deadly, application-usefulness of Secrets comes from its Twitterrific preferences pane:

which provides access to some of the tweaks you can make that are published by the author but not available in the actual application preferences.

You can see feedback from others in the discussion group, tinker with the source code on your own and even submit your own l33t secrets to BlackTree.

If you know of any cool, hidden preferences or have feedback on Secrets that TAB readers should know, definitely drop a note in the comments.

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Scroligo | skro-li-go |
noun
The vertigo-like sensation induced by switching back and forth between the inverted scrolling orientation on iPhone and the traditional on a MacBook trackpad.

Believe it or not, after limited exposure to the iPhone’s touch interface, and the act of flicking up in order to scroll down, I’ve found myself attempting to two-finger scroll upward on my trackpad in an effort to scroll my browser down the page. The odd part is that it seems so natural on the iPhone, even though it’s historically the non-traditional way of doing things. Apple’s own interface designs suddenly contradict themselves…

Which leads me to wonder if in Leopard – or a future OS update – we’ll gain the ability to invert the direction of our trackpad’s scrolling. Just because it’s always been this way (scroll down for down, and up for up) doesn’t mean it’s necessarily correct (or in-correct). Now that I think of it, I prefer the inverted controls when playing video games (Halo!) as well. I guess I’m just asking for the option to set my scrolling preferences as I like them.

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Most commonly, as you add and delete applications from your Mac, the list of apps that are optionally available to open different file types grows quickly. The problem then, is that it doesn’t self-heal, and pare itself down as those applications are removed from your system. (Hm, maybe something AppZapper should look into as an added feature!)

So as Dan points out, straight from the Apple Docs site:

1. From the Finder Go menu, choose Home.
2. Open the Library folder in the Home window.
3. Open the Preferences folder.
4. Find com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.
5. Rename “com.apple.LaunchServices”, such as to “com.apple.LaunchServices.old”, or move it to the Trash.

This works great, for getting rid of those extraneous application options of long-gone installations – and as a huge added bonus, your right click response time from the operating system is dramatically improved.

As a side tip – if you have a version of Photoshop installed, you probably get the myriad of droplet files when right clicking and choosing ‘Open With..’ on a graphic file. You’ll find all of these droplets housed in /Applications/[photoshop app folder]/Samples/ I created a Disk Image to store these in, which hides them from the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist. Of course you’ll have to do the above steps AFTER hiding or deleting the droplets for it to take effect in your Contextual Menu.

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