Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun

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Want To Access Hidden OS X Features? Have A Cocktail!

February 24th, 2003

Cocktail 1.0b5 (Donationware)
Dicom Datautveckling AB

Most would agree that Mac OS X provides the smoothest interface to the complexity of UNIX, but there are still some things that require you to access the dreaded Terminal prompt. For UNIX jocks this is no problem, but there must be a better way. Fortunately, an application called Cocktail makes several low-level tasks easy to accomplish.

When you first start up Cocktail, it will ask for your administrator password. If you don't have it, then you may not want to be mucking around in the depths of OS X, so be careful. Once you enter your password, you can then select from several functional areas using a clean, tabbed interface.

Some of the categories, such as System and Scripts, execute commands that would otherwise be available in the Terminal. System lets you update prebinding information, and enable or disable journaling. Scripts runs daily, weekly and monthly scripts that are normally run while a system is running, but may not get executed if your system is off.

There are also categories that help you keep your files in order. The Files option will let you repair file and folder permissions, and also force delete files that don't respond to a normal delete command. Logs lets you examine some of the system logs, which can help you determine the cause of crashes and other mishaps, as well as get more detail about system usage.

The Extras section allows you to set several hidden options for the Finder and Dock. There's also an Auto-Pilot feature, where you can perform several system cleanup tasks all at once.

So make sure to squeeze the most out of OS X, and try Cocktail today!

Know about any other Gadgets that make OS X easier to use? Send an e-mail to John, and he'll get on it.

Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.

John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at

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