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Option-Click AirPort Menu for Network Details

If you hold down the Option key while clicking the AirPort menu in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you'll see not just the names of nearby Wi-Fi networks, but additional details about the selected network. Details include the MAC address of the network, the channel used by the base station, the signal strength (a negative number; the closer to zero it is, the stronger the signal), and the transmit rate in megabits per second showing actual network throughput. If you hover the cursor over the name of a network to which you're not connected, a little yellow pop-up shows the signal strength and type of encryption.

 

 

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How to Use a Spotlight Saved Search in Leopard

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A note from a reader of my recent Spotlight article asked how to make including Spotlight Items and System Files the default search settings. My response: whatever your default search settings, create them and save them as a Smart Folder. But even after that he didn't quite grasp how to use such a Smart Folder, so I made him a little movie showing what to do. Notice how, if you summon the search criteria of the saved search, they include everything including the original search term. So now you can change the search term, keeping the other settings as defaults (or possibly adding more criteria). The same point is made on p. 67 of my Leopard ebook, but the movie is more vivid. (Hmmm, maybe we should make movie versions of everything in our books!)

 

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