APP - FSMdotCOM

📅 July 29, 2020

You Can Run Mac OS 8 on Your Mac, Linux or Windows Machine. And It’s Awesome…

a fully functional Mac OS 8 that can run on your Mac, Linux and Windows machines

Some of us can’t even imagine a digital world before 2010, while others have been around for long enough to remember the thrills of a BBS.

And most of us don’t even realize how much computers have evolved in the last 30 years. For example, Mac OS 8.1 could be written today entirely in JavaScript and run as an app on Linux, macOS and Windows.

That’s exactly what Felix Riesenberg did. He turned an entire 1991 Macintosh Quadra running Mac OS 8.1 into a single Electron app that can run cross-platform.

NOTE: Mac OS 8 was released in 1997.

The app emulates a Macintosh Quadra 900 with the Motorola CPU Apple used before its transition to IBM’s PowerPC chips.

The best part, it really is fully functional and it comes preloaded with a bunch of games and apps like Duke Nukem 3D, Civilization II, Dungeons & Dragons, Namely, Oregon Trail, Alley 19 Bowling, Damage Incorporated, Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, StuffIt Expander, and Apple’s Web Page Construction Kit.

The only thing that’s not working, although fully understandable, is web browsing. Felix included Internet Explorer and Netscape into the app but the programs are so old they are incapable of resolving anything.

Furthermore, as the app is basically a virtual machine, you can even transfer files to and from the machine.

Check out the official Github project to learn more and download Mac OS 8.

You can download standalone or installers for macOS and Windows. Linux users can download .deb and .rpm packages. Would’ve been great if macintosh.js came as an .AppImage.

📅 July 20, 2020

Astrofox: a Motion Graphics Tool for Creating Audio-Reactive Visuals Synced to Music

Astrofox is a motion graphics tool for creating audio-reactive visuals synced to music.

Today, everybody seems to be a musician. And that’s not a bad thing. There are many, many talented people out there. And because of the internet it’s easier than ever to share your creations with the world. But sometimes just the audio won’t cut it, and not everybody can do, or afford, a music video. Here’s where Astrofox comes in.

Astrofox is a motion graphics tool for creating audio-reactive visuals synced to music. You can combine images and text with audio elements like sound waves and spectrum bars that react to music. You go further by adding one of many effects like blur and glow to enhance your visuals. Then save your work as high-definition videos and share them on social media sites to gain new fans.

You can check out Astrofox in action below and download the app for macOS, Linux and Windows here.

📅 July 16, 2020

HOW TO: Make GIMP Look and Feel More Like Photoshop

Make your transition from Photoshop to GIMP as smooth as possible.

GIMP is a replacement for Photoshop. You must’ve heard this before, but let’s be honest, that’s not really true.

If you’ve never used Photoshop before, don’t even think about it. Go for GIMP, it’s fantastic. But if you’ve only worked in Photoshop, moving to GIMP is a steep learning curve that will at least double the time for your project. Not to mention that collaboration and everything that goes with working in Photoshop goes out the window. Sort of…

Continue reading “HOW TO: Make GIMP Look and Feel More Like Photoshop”

📅 July 13, 2020

An Awesome CLI Tool to Get Info About Movies and TV Shows

A CLI for getting information about movies and TV shows.

If you love movies and TV shows, here’s a nifty little command line tool that will make your life much easier when researching what you’re going to watch next.

Continue reading “An Awesome CLI Tool to Get Info About Movies and TV Shows”

📅 July 9, 2020

Transfer Files Over Wi-Fi Between a Computer and a Mobile Device by Scanning a QR Code

A foss, cross-platform program to send files between your computer and mobile devices

If you’re looking for a cross platform command line program that allows you to send files between your computer and your mobile devices ( and vice-versa ) you should take a look at qrcp.

It binds a web server to the address of your Wi-Fi network interface on a random port and creates a handler for it. The default handler serves the content and exits the program when the transfer is complete. When used to receive files, qrcp serves an upload page and handles the transfer.

Continue reading “Transfer Files Over Wi-Fi Between a Computer and a Mobile Device by Scanning a QR Code”

📅 July 3, 2020

Use the Mac App Store from the Command Line

A simple command line interface for the Mac App Store

I try to stay away from the Mac App Store. Why? Because 1. I try to avoid proprietary software as much as pososible and for the most part that’s totally viable ( at least in my case ) and 2. This.

Your case might be different. And that’s ok. But, you might want to avoid using a slow and bloated piece of software like the Mac App Store while continuing to take advantage from what it can offer you.

Here’s where mas comes in – a simple command line interface for the Mac App Store…

Continue reading “Use the Mac App Store from the Command Line”

📅 July 3, 2020

Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Open macOS Apps

How to assign keyboard shortcuts to open macOS apps

When it comes to opening apps in macOS you basically have the following options: the app is in your Dock, you use Spotlight, you use Launchpad or you simply open up Finder and go to the Applications folder.

You definitely have options, but they are all slow and time consuming. It would be great if you could assing keyboard shortcuts to open apps, but macOS’ shortcut functionality is very limited.

Luckily there’s a 3rd party solution, Thor. A free and open source app that aloows you to do exactly that – assign a keyboard shortcut to any app that’s installed on your system.

Continue reading “Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Open macOS Apps”

📅 June 30, 2020

A Free and Open Source macOS System Cleaner

A free and open source solution to free up disk space on your Mac.

Storage space is cheap these days. Unless you’re a Mac user. Sooner or later you’ll get a notification saying that “Your disk space is critically low”. When that happens your first instinct should be to go throught the installed apps and delete all the apps that you didn’t use in, let’s say, at least 2-3 weeks. App detox is always a good idea, phone included, even if you’re not low on space. Next take a look at your downloads folder. Usually there’s a bunch of stuff over there that you don’t need anymore. Like .dmg files.

But you can also get quite a bit of space back if you delete cache and logs files, as well as email and iMessages attachments. Especially if run on the same Mac for a few years now and you’ve never wiped it clean to start fresh.

Continue reading “A Free and Open Source macOS System Cleaner”

📅 June 13, 2020

A Quick Way to Enable/Disable Your Webcam and Microphone on Linux and macOS

a quick and easy way to make sure your camera and microphone is not working without your permission on both Linux and macOS

I have to be honest, all my computers have their webcams and mics physically disconnected. Even the iMac that I own. I mostly don’t need them and when I do, because it’s such a rare event, I don’t mind the trouble I have to go through for workarounds ( external devices ).

But what works for me, might not work for you. You might be in a position where you need to jump into online calls all the time.

Continue reading “A Quick Way to Enable/Disable Your Webcam and Microphone on Linux and macOS”

📅 June 4, 2020

Signal Update Brings Blur Tools to Censor Faces and Other Identifiable Info in Your Photos

Signal adds new blur tools to its app to help you hide faces and other Identifiable info in the photos you share.

We’ve mentioned Signal Messenger before in quite a few guides. Signal is a free and open source, cross-platform encrypted messaging service developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC.

It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include files, voice notes, images and videos. Its mobile apps can also make one-to-one voice and video calls, and the Android version can optionally function as an SMS app.

Continue reading “Signal Update Brings Blur Tools to Censor Faces and Other Identifiable Info in Your Photos”