Recently I started using Textmate for more things then just coding websites since thats bascially the tip of the iceburg then it comes to the most powerful editor on the mac.

If you interested in trying something new with Textmate here are basic instructions to use texmate to compose messages with OSX mail.

1. Make sure you have installed the “Edit in Textmate” Bundle. This is found in “Bundles>Textmate>Install Edit in Textmate bundle.
2. Once the bundle has been installed you will be able to edit your email message in text by hitting the following short cut keys “Control + Command +E” or optionally going to the edit menu in Mail and the very last option will be “Edit in Textmate”.
3. Once you the command has been keyed a blank Textmate text file will be opened.
4. Type your email message and then save. If your done editing the email you can close the Textmate window and you will see your message in message window of the Mail app.

Other Mail features you can with Mail

• Increase quote level “> or shift+.”

After messing around with my Hackintosh today I needed to remove some of my kext files in /System/Library/Extentions (S/L/E). I wasn’t in the mood to find an early build of a hackers app I just wanted Terinal su/root access.

Here is an easy method to activate root access in Terminal for Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

1. From the Finder’s Go menu, choose Utilities.
2. Open Directory Utility.
3. Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
4. Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
5. Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
6. Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.

Related Links:

A better terminal app

As an on again off again freelancer I’ve encountered a many different ways to run through QA (Quality Assurance).  Each team has is own process… Excel docs getting emailed around left and right or a better method but not best, Google docs. None of these tools are ideally designed for the QA process. Since my last QA frustration, I decided to look around and see if there was a easy tool that I could use with a team working from different locations via extranet type login etc.

MantisBT is a free popular web-based bugtracking system (feature list). It is written in the PHP scripting language and works with MySQL, MS SQL, and PostgreSQL databases and a webserver.

Many agencies seem to be using Mantis and its been around for a while as well as a simple set up. I was instanly impressed with how easy it was to use. You can easily setup a new project and assign team members to bugs. Color code key helps clearly display what is going on for each bug aswell many other helpful details. If you have been trying to imrpove your QA and haven’t tried Mantis Bug Tracker I highly recommend checking it out.