…Domain Name Servers (DNS) play the role of translating that address into the appropriate numeric address (called an IP Address) on the Internet.

Once the translation is made, your computer connects to that computer through the Internet and it brings up the web site you’ve requested.

Google offers their very own Public DNS Servers, and their addresses are:

• DNS Server #1: 8.8.8.8
• DNS Server #2: 8.8.4.4

Of course, with Google, you can expect that they’re very fast, and efficient!

If you need help changing your DNS Servers, here’s some online resources for you:

• Changing TCP/IP Settings in Windows
• Setup DNS on Mac OS X (remember to use the two sets of numbers above)

Enjoy!

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

…where when you ask it to copy an email address, and you go to paste it shows you this:

First & Last Name <name@domain.com>

instead of this:

name@domain.com

Here’s how you can update Apple Mail so it does the latter…

1. Click on the Spotlight in the Upper Right part of your screen.
2. Type “terminal” and press Enter (this will load the application called Terminal).
3. At the prompt type:  defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameonPasteboard -bool NO
4. Quit Terminal.

If, at any point, you want to change Apple Mail back to it’s OS X 10.6 default setting, simply enter this in Terminal at the prompt:

defaults delete com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameonPasteboard

This has saved me many unnecessary keystrokes — I hope it does the same for you!

Enjoy,

Charly

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual

I really appreciated David’s direct approach to telling you the equivalent:

• program (such as Textedit on the Mac for Notepad in Windows),
• utility such as System Preferences on the Mac for Control Panel in Windows), or
• keyboard shortcut (such as Command + Tab on the Mac for Alt + Tab on the PC – used to switch between programs, by the way!)

If you’re looking for a great book to help you get used to the Mac, give Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual a try.

Have a great day!

Charly

Mac 101: 56 Useful Mac Shortcuts

Enjoy!

If you want your Dashboard disabled, here’s how to do it:

1. Click on Spotlight in the Upper Right.
2. Type “Terminal”, you should see the Application “Terminal” become the Top Hit.
3. If Terminal is highlighted, press Return.  If not, select it by using your arrows, and press Return.
4. You should see the Terminal application start, and be dumped at a textual screen prompt.
5. At that prompt, type “defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES” and press Return.
6. When the prompt reappears, type “killall Dock” to make the change happen.
7. Once it’s done, you can either type “exit” and press Return, or use the keyboard shortcut to Quit (Command + Q) Terminal.

If you ever want to re-enable your Dashboard, simply enter the command in line 5 above replacing YES with NO.  Also, type line 6 to make the change happen immediately.

Enjoy!