U.S.-TF: A Custom Keyboard Layout for OS X

A keyboard layout file sits between your physical keyboard and the operating system. It tells the computer what should happen when you hit a certain key on the keyboard, for example the key labeled “Z” or the combination of shift (⇧), option (⌥) and 7.

Most common usage of keyboard layout files is to make language specific physical keyboards work as you would expect. If you bought, for example, your MacBook in France chances are high that the upper left letter keys are labelled “A” and “Z”, and not “Q” and “W” as on an US keyboard. And indeed, if you hit the upper left letter key on your French MacBook it’ll type the letter “A” into your text document.  Continue reading U.S.-TF: A Custom Keyboard Layout for OS X

WordPress: Customize Footer

I agree, it’s wunderful that WordPress exists. However, two WordPress links, one in the footer, the next one just 200 pixels away, in the Meta widget, that’s one too much.

OK, let’s assume we are fine with just one link, then we could get rid of the one in the footer, right? As a side effect this would free up some precious space for something useful, such as date and time of the most recent post update!

Nothing easier than that:

That’s the moment to make use of the child theme that we’ve already created.    Continue reading WordPress: Customize Footer

Keep a History of your External IP Addresses

Today I had a look on my 404 log to check if there were any broken links or orphaned slugs on my site. The log was more than a couple of days old and … rather long. Since I made some “experiments” with my site recently, it was likely that the majority of the 404s have been triggered by myself, that is, from my Mac, behind a dynamic IP address.

So, how to filter out these not-so-interesting entries?  Continue reading Keep a History of your External IP Addresses

Uninstalling Wuala properly (OS X)

The Wuala cloud storage isn’t a bad service in terms of security. Storage is encrypted and the servers are (supposedly) located outside of the US. But by shutting down the free storage plan as of 1/1/2015 they likely pronounced its death sentence.

For a clean uninstall follow these instructions:    Continue reading Uninstalling Wuala properly (OS X)

Real Favicon Generator

Real Favicon Generator

This great site just saved me a couple of hours of work.

What does it do? Yes, it creates favicons for your website, but not just one favicon.ico file, it creates a complete set of 27 favicons in all needed sizes and types to satisfy any browser, from Internet Explorer to the iPhone 6.    Continue reading Real Favicon Generator

WordPress: Create a Child Theme for “Twenty Fifteen”

This is the first article in a mini series about small modifications I made to this WordPress site.

We use the new “Twenty Fifteen” theme as example but most things are easily transferable to other themes.

The first modification, setting up a child theme, is not a modification in the real sense. It’s rather a highly recommended preparation for future modifications.

A child theme is a branch, or a sub theme, of a regular WordPress theme. A child theme gives us the possibility to make changes to the site without the risk that all the work will get overwritten at the next official theme update.

Basically a child theme is just a new folder in the themes folder (with some files in it, of course). Before we begin to hack around in the original files of the theme, we should definitely take those five minutes and create a child theme: Continue reading WordPress: Create a Child Theme for “Twenty Fifteen”

ConTeXt Typeset Tool

This AppleScript script is for users of the ConTeXt typesetting system on a Mac.

Main purpose of the script is to launch ConTeXt typesetting in a flexible way and independently of the text editor you are using. It can also typeset the product file while you’re editing any component (child) file.

Besides that it provides a GUI for various ConTeXt tools/scripts and contains an updater (and archiver) for the ConTeXt installation. Continue reading ConTeXt Typeset Tool

Bulk-Export Mails from Apple Mail

Apple’s mail client has an annoying limitation: If you want to export mail messages as .eml or .emlx you have to do it one by one, i.e. dragging one message at a time from the Mail App’s window to a Finder window. It won’t let you drag several messages at the same time.

applemail-icon

However with a small script this limitation can be circumvented easily.

Continue reading Bulk-Export Mails from Apple Mail