IPad 2 and DLNA

Finally managed to get an iPad 2. Was waiting for a long time and did not go for the first generation iPad. But immediately fell in love with this toy, err, I mean device. Still looking for a good DLNA client for the iPad that also works fine with MKV and AVI files. Wanted to try AirPlay, but read in some reviews that it works fine for MOV and H.264, but has trouble with other video formats. So always open for any hints.

Mustard Sauce

Today I wanted to enjoy some of the leftover ham (Swiss "Nussschinkli"). Since there was some sauce missing when we tried the ham the first time, I decided to prepare/create a mustard sauce that would work nicely with the ham. It actually turned out pretty well and tasty for my first try. Here is the recipe:

Marc's Mustard Sauce (Marc's Senfsauce)

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbls butter
• 1 Tbls flour
• 2 dl vegetable stock
• 2 dl low fat milk (1.5% fat)
• 1 Tbls mild mustard
• 1 Tbls fresh citrus juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 0.5 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dill

Preparation:

• slowly melt the butter in a small pan using medium heat
• add the flour to the melted butter and stir it with a whisk
• let it cook on medium heat until the mixture starts to build "foam"
• add the vegetable stock in small portions to the pan, always stirring the contents with the whisk (this helps to avoid having clumps in the sauce)
• add the milk in small portions while stirring with the whisk
• add the citrus juice and mustard, whisk the mixture well
• increase the heat to 3/4 of maximum and wait until it starts to cook slightly
• add the pepper, salt, sugar and dill, gently whisk the mixture
• keep it cooking for another 5-10 minutes at medium heat while whisking it gently from time to time
• let the pan cool down aside for a while (10-15 minutes) before serving the sauce (this makes the sauce become a bit thicker)

Problems starting or charging the iPhone

I now already had two times the problem that the completely drained battery of my iPhone did not want to charge anymore. The only thing I see, is the empty battery symbol. But, this does not change, even after having it plugged in for many hours. Also there is no way to start the iPhone.

Fortunately, I found a solution somewhere in the Internet and thought I might also share the trick to revive iPhone charging again:

1. Plug the iPhone to a power source (PC via USB or charger), let it there for 15 minutes and do not worry if there is no indication that the battery is charging.
2. Put the side switch of the iPhone to silent mode (the red dot should show).
3. Unplug the iPhone form the power source and make sure it is turned off.
4. Toggle the side switch of the iPhone four times (normal - silent - normal - silent).
5. Press the home and power button (the one on top of the iPhone) simultaneously until the Apple logo appears (should take about 10 seconds).
6. Plug the iPhone to a power source and let it fully charge, you can now use again your iPhone.

Fix wrong / different emails showing in Apple's Mail list and detail view

I already had a few times the problem that emails in Apple's Mail application got messed up. This means that when you select an email in the "list" view, the email that is then shown in the detail view does not correspond to the selected list entry. Also double-clicking the email in the list view opens the wrong email, which has nothing to do with the information shown in the list view about that email (sender, subject, etc).

To fix this, you only need to rebuild Apple Mail's database. Select the mail account / folder in the mailbox list on the left. Then go to the menu "Mailbox" and select "Rebuild". This rebuild might take a while, but then the email list to email detail links will work again correctly.

I guess Mail gets mainly messed up with its indexes because of Mail.app crashes.

Lock your Mac with a hot key

LockTight is a little handy tool that helps you quickly lock the screen of your Mac with a touch of a hotkey combination.

Via tuaw

Count words in a PDF file on Mac OS X

To count the amount of words in a PDF file on Mac OS X, just open the Terminal.app and type: ps2ascii myfile.pdf | wc -w, where myfile.pdf is the name of the PDF, of which you want to count the words. Of course you can also use all the other options of the wc command (such as counting characters, etc.).

Via macosxhints (second comment by kalderon).

See processes accessing your HD using iotop

When your HD seems to be busy and you don't know why, have a look at the command iotop, which can be used in the terminal. This works fine on Linux and also Mac OS X. You might need to start it as root (sudo iotop), and also it might not be installed by default on your Linux, so you can e.g. install it using sudo apt-get install iotop (for Ubuntu / Eeebuntu / Debian).

Via Lifehacker.