Re-enable X11 on Max OS X

Every now and then Apple disables the TCP ports of the X server. I don't know why, but at least two updates from Apple disabled this now.

You know TCP is disabled if you do


netstat -na|grep 6000


and you see nothing. If X11 would be listening you should see something like:


tcp4 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN


Also when you try to start an X11 app (like xcalc) from the terminal and you have set the DISPLAY variable to localhost:0, then you will see this if the X server is not listening on TCP (after a few seconds):


Error: Can't open display: localhost:0


To enable TCP on the Xserver type this into a terminal:


defaults write org.x.X11 nolisten_tcp 0


and then restart you X server. Now xcalc should start immediately.

MacBook Pro eject key delay

I just figured that I also need to install NoEjectDelay from the same website to get rid of the eject key delay, but the key repeat still does not work for the eject key (now forward delete key).

Remap small enter key to Alt (option) on MacBook Pro

The small enter key on older MacBook Pros is completely useless. Newer MacBook Pros have an option (Alt) key there instead which makes more sense.

With KeyRemap4MacBook you can remap many keys. It has a static list of possible key remappings which you can choose from, but they seem to cover a lot of use cases, You can also remap the eject key (which si also useless) as 'Del' (forward delete), but this does not work well for me as this key still has the delay and no key repeat.

Anyway, having a second option key is great and reason enough to install this:

http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/macosx/keyremap4macbook/index.html

Duplicates after import in iTunes

I recently repeatedly experienced duplicates in iTunes after importing directories of mp3 files. Almost all files (but not all) would be visible twice in iTunes and they would also exist as two distinct files in the iTunes library, but the files would be identical. Some files even would be visible three times.

I now found what is the cause: An m3u playlist in the directory will cause all the file in that playlist to be impoted and in addition all mp3 files in that directory are also imported, hence all files in the m3u list will appear twice.

The solution is to erase all m3u files (or all non-mp3 files) before importing directory structures.

Ishkurs Guide to Eletronic Music ...

... can be found here now:

http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/music.swf

(The link in the older post does not work for me at least on my Mac using Safari.)