Applescripts
Here are some Applescripts that I thought I could show off. Feel free to use and modify them as you please. If you'd like to contribute your improvements — great! Just drop me a line.
Skype users, you are probably looking for Peek-O-Matic.
Make Nifty Box Note
- Make Nifty Box Note is an Applescript that inserts a note into the tagging application Nifty Box, a feature I really needed Nifty Box to support.
- This Script is best used with Quicksilver: Enter a string for a note title in Quicksilver, Tab, process string with..., Tab, Make Nifty Box Note.
- What the script really does is create an RTF file in the Folder ~/Library/Application Support/Nifty Box and insert that file into your Nifty Box.
Peek-O-Matic
Feb 2010: I have done my best to have this script work under Snow Leopard. The script is essentially a hack that tries to achieve unsupported behaviour on Mac OS X. Therefore, there may still be some problems, such as dialogs sometimes not showing up . Also, it has been reported that Skype has problems accessing the Keychain when started with this script. If these problems occur on your system, you can alternatively try Peek-O-Matic for Admins (which needs administrator privileges). Good luck!
A note to Skype users: If you experience problems with sound input or output, try logging out the background user before launching Skype through Peek-O-Matic. Thanks, Michael, for reporting this problem and its fix.
- Peek-O-Matic allows you to run an application as another user. You bind an app permanently to the script by drag-and-drop. It then asks for a user name and remembers that, too. Henceforth, launching Peek-O-Matic launches above app as above user. Re-configure it by dropping a different app. You can choose whether to enter a password each time or have it stored in the Keychain.
- I found that a significant number of users are using Launch as User to run two instances of an application at the same time, e.g. Skype.
- One more caveat: Because of the way the authentication is handled, it may be possible that the used password is visible in the list of system processes for about a second. I just wanted to mention this, but I don't think it's a real issue in the context of this script. The password never leaves your system and never gets stored anywhere unsecure.
Download Peek-O-Matic or download Peek-O-Matic for Admins
Process with…
- Process with… is an Applescript droplet that allows you to feed files to a shell command by drag & drop.
- On its first launch, Process with… asks for a shell command (can be a binary or a script or anything) and remembers it. You can then drag one or more files or folders onto the Process with… icon and Process with… will call the remembered shell command with those files as parameters.
For example, when in a text editor, save your document, then drag the icon from your editor's window title bar onto Process with…. - Process with… does not yet support command line switches, but please feel free to modify the script to fit your requirements. If you think your enhancements should be included, contact me.
QuickMount
- There are people who think that the checksum verification of DMG disk images is nothing but a waste of time. If you're one of those poor deluded souls, QuickMount is for you.
- QuickMount is an Applescript droplet (a mere shell wrapper to be precise) that mounts one or more disk images with the -noverify switch. Drag one or more disk images on the QuickMount icon and QuickMount will mount them, skipping the checksum verification.
- The nifty thing is: QuickMount will remember what disk images you mounted with it last time. So if you just double-click on QuickMount the next time, the last-mounted disk images will be mounted automagically.
Useful e.g. for your Startup Items - If you're like me and actually want checksum verification, edit the QuickMount script and scrap the -noverify in the line starting with do shell script.
Download QuickMount (In German, but I'm sure you'll handle)