Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

18May/090

Apple Mail Tip: Speed up your Apple Mail

Tim Gaden has documented an excellent tip to speed up Apple Mail.

It involves optimising the SQLite database Apple Mail uses to store indexes and subject lines of emails.

You can check your current 'envelope archive' size by entering this in the terminal:

ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index

Then to optimise it (cleans out stuff that has been marked for deletion but not actually deleted, defragments the structure, etc):

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

Then check your envelope archive size again to see the results…

ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index

It compacted my envelope archive down from 55MB to 50MB — not a huge increase, but the speed difference was dramatic.

In particular, my 'sent mail' folder which had been taking 10 - 15 seconds to open (8,000 items) now only takes two or three seconds.

Read the full post and many informative comments here.

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16Feb/090

Upgraded to iLife ‘09

I've just upgraded to iLife '09. Over the next few posts, I will evaluate each component of iLife '09, with the exception of iMovie and Garageband, because I've never used these in iLife '08.

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12Dec/080

Good PyObjc Tutorial

I've been looking for a good PyObjC Tutorial. The official Apple one is ages old and not comprehensive enough.

Fortunately the "An Epic Introduction to PyObjC and Cocoa" tutorial, is indeed an epic introduction to PyObjC and highly recommended for anyone planning to get started with Cocoa development in Python.

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12Dec/080

Firefox 3.1 b2 finally has “proper” Mac Support

Firefox 3 was a radical departure from Firefox 1 and 2, neither of these versions had a native look and feel on the Mac, but nevertheless were a better browser than the native Safari. Firefox 3 introduced native look and feel but, I had numerous issues with it, and preferred Safari for a while. (e.g. the slow browsing on long webpages, I wrote about earlier).

Now finally, Firefox 3.1 b2, not only has a more sleeker Mac-like interface, it also supports the multi touch features of the new macbook/pros. This makes Firefox for me, a more favored browser compared to other browsers in the Mac.

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27Aug/080

Get the MacUpdate Promo Bundle!

The Mac has an amazing shareware ecosystem. Currently a bundle is being offered in MuPromo.

The Bundle just costs a standard $49.99 for potentially 10 applications.

The bundled applications are great, and I consider it a real bargain. There are numerous applications, which I already loved using (but trials till now :( ).

DevonAgent is great application for complex searches, it really allows you to make sense of a complex subject and have all the results categorized for you in easily understood common keywords.

Bookends is an amazing tool for generating bibliographies - a godsend if you write a lot of research papers. If you're just writing the occasional college paper it's probably not worth the normally high price, but it's useful enough for any paper that would need a bibliography, so if you're tempted by something else in the bundle it's absolutely worth it to be able to get Bookends too. MacJournal is a great journaling program, but it's true there are other solutions out there that are free or less expensive. Personally, I like MacJournal enough that I bought a license, but it would really come down to whatever program of that sort you'd be most comfortable with - try several, but again, be happy if you're getting it with the bundle because you wanted some of the other programs anyway (since it's a safe bet it will be unlocked before the promotion ends).

I haven't heard much about the other applications, but reviews seem to be universally positive.

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