However at worst try launching Terminal, found in /Applications/Utilities, type: drutil tray open and press Return. That should eject the disk.

No? The final option is to restart your Mac while holding down the left mouse-button. Or try this great little utility found here: disk eject

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Our advice is : ALWAYS BACK UP…just in case

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Then we found kashflow. Its easy to use, has a great GUI, and is cost effective. Even better it is all online secure and accessible anywhere you have an internet connection.

Initially we read a write up from someone that said they started to like doing the accounts once they used Kashflow, we laughed at the good advertising, but its true. Its the best accounts program I have ever used, and whilst its online it has a good mac feel, give it a try. We recommend it and you can get 60 days free trial just click on the ad to you right or on the link in this article.

We rarely recommend things this wholeheartedly or run specific ads, but with this we just had to tell you that our search was over

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Well you can get it now right here.  We would like to know your thoughts on google chrome.  Does it do the job?

In addition please check out our forums where you will find a Poll asking about the browsers you use, we would like to know the most popular browser for our users.  Which is the best browser for mac?

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Recently we have been getting a little fed up with the Mac Finder, yes it has been improved and tweaked to make it run smoother and faster but it still lacks some basics that many people would expect or perhaps used to be in OS 9 (tabbed windows is an example).  So we decided to take a look at a few alternatives.

The best known is probably

Pathfinder really has it all, it has been called what the Finder ought to be, and we use it here at macmend, altough this writer finds it a little techie and not as graphic and intuitive as he would like.  So what does it include, well the developers site lists these, actually it list some of them and really promotes the first few:

• Command Line Tools and stuff
• Dual Pane File Browser
• Drop Stack
• Tabs & Bookmarks
• “QuickLook” support
• Use Path Finder as your “Default File viewer”
• Subversion plugin
• Application Launcher
• Size browser
• Selection tools
• File list filters
• Integrated Stuffit Engine
• Create and Convert Disk Images
• Customize menu keyboard shortcuts
• Smart Sorting

well as informationI am not sure how many of these we use but there are times when it is an easier file browser to use than finder, has an easier interface and is easy on the eye.

Among the others worth looking at are:

MuCommander Disk Order Forklift and other similar ones that borrow a lot from FTP browsers like Transmit,

The there are the quirky alternatives like:

FileBrowse

I know I am not saying much about these and thats because whilst interesting you need a more complex and fuller finder alternative and thee really is only one of the those.  But test them we would like to hear which you think makes the grade.

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Quicksilver: although we mostly use this as a simple app launcher it really does so much more. There are competitors like finder pop, launchbar, alaunch and others this is the granddaddy

Glims (safari add-on) its what makes the super fast safari into a useable browser.  Its really all the best firefox plugins rolled into one and made just for safari…try it it will change your browsing experience for ever.

DropBox. is an application that creates a special Finder folder that automatically and securely syncs online and between your computers. It allows you to both backup files and keep them up-to-date between systems. You have to register at the site before you use it.  These days we can’t do without it

OnyX, is still free and one of the best mac maintenance and repair tools around, when we get requests on our boards for help we often point people toward this utility.

clipmenu, we use to use another multi pasteboard, but now use this and jumpcut.  Its simple really, it remembers all the things you copy to the pastebaord, instead of just the last one and allows them to be the item you paste next.  This really is an incredibly useful tool that should be built into every OS.

Well hope these are useful

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Then by accident we found the quite startlingly good bbPress.

bbPress is simple in the way WordPress is simple, it was made by the same people that invented WordPress.  It works in a similar way too by being enhanced from a basic simple forum to something more complicated, via plugins.  Its in its infancy having only just got to version 1, but we have to say it really does everything we need.

We moved our site moved from XOOPS cms and for our forums moved to  SMF,  which is a good forum but we find over complicated and in the process of updating from version 1 to 2 its not getting it right. So we moved our forums tos bbPress here ( we are still waiting for a good mac theme for this).

Heres the list

1. bbPress (free)

2. SMF (free)

3. VBulletin ( if you want to pay)

4. phpbb (free)

5. XOOPS  newbb forum (free and part of the XOOPS cms)

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There are many high end products now that do a far far better job like Together, ever-note, Yojimbo and so on

But what if you don’t want all that complexity in an application, you just want a simple storage device for notes and bits and pieces.

Then I would recommend these two applications that are better than stickies but keep it simple

1. Sidenote tries to catch the “Stickies” spirit but in the form of a multi-document drawer that will hide in the corner of your screen (left or right).I used this for a long time until I found…..

2. SlidePad is a powerful, convenient note-taking application for Mac OS X, that slides in from the side of your screen when you want to take notes, and slides back out again when you’re done.

Though there are many more things than you can imagine that stickies can do, see here

Both of these avoid taking up any screen space until you ned them keep all your notes in one place and are easily manipulated to get what you need. You avoid hundreds of stickies all over the place and keep things neat and ordered. Give them a try you will never look back.

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macmend.com mac troubleshooting, here to make you life easier.

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