Magician Monitor Gives A Diagnostic Check Of Your Mac

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/magicianmonitor.png?54167" alt="mac diagnostic scanner"/>

Months after you purchase and use a Mac—or any computer for that matter—it may stop performing at a rapid speed like it did fresh out of the box. We stuff our machines with applications; hundreds, if not thousands, of bookmarks; all manner of documents, photos, music files—plus all the little unknown items that get thrown into the Home Library folder. Leave 5-10 applications running at the same, and you may experience the beach ball of death, or you may have to get a cup of coffee while you wait for Microsoft Word to fully launch.

There are things that contribute to a Mac’s performance, but according to Joe Kissell, author Taking Control of Speeding Up Your Mac, three of the most important contributors to a Mac’s slow performance include, CPU power (the computer’s brain where all the calculations happen), RAM (random-access memory—in which “program code and data is stored and retrieved during use”), and disk speed (the hard drive or solid-state drive that stores all your software, preferences and files.) Checking these items can sometimes help you understand why your Mac is running slow.

We’ve covered briefly href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/four-free-tools-to-monitor-manipulate-running-processes-mac/">4 Methods to Monitor Running Processes on Mac, including the Activities Monitor that comes installed with OS X. The latter built-in application is helpful (href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macnifying-os-x-learning-to-utilize-activity-monitor/">here’s how to use it), but you probably will not want to keep Activity Monitor open all the time to monitor’s your Mac performance—the window for the monitor it too big. This is where href="http://www.magicansoft.com/magican-monitor.html">Magician Monitor comes. It’s a little Mac diagnostic scanner application that you can park anywhere on your desktop and click on it to get an overall view of how your Mac is running.

Main Features

Magician Monitor shows the bandwidth speed, memory usage, the amount of free space on your internal hard drive, fan speed, CPU, GPU, and Disk temperature, and batter level, if applicable./> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/magican-monitor1.jpg?54167" alt="mac diagnostic scanner" width="218" height="531" />/> Click on the menu bar of Magician Monitor and you can see all the indicators, or you can minimize them individually and hide the ones you don’t need.

Preferences Features

As you might expect, you can make various changes for how you want Magician Monitor data to appear, including the refresh intervals for your computer’s memory, network, and hard drive./> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/screenshot722.png?54167" alt="diagnostic test for mac" width="452" height="247" />/> You can change the color settings for various displays, and you can configure Magician Monitor‘s paster settings to appear in the dock and/or menu bar.

Optimizing Your Mac’s Performance

Of course just having Magician Monitor provide you performance data will not improve the speed of your Mac. You will need to try different methods for optimizing your Mac‘s performance. In general, to get your Mac up to speed, you may need to reduce the number of startup items that open when you restart your Mac.

 /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/monitorgpu.png?54167" alt="diagnostic test for mac" width="207" height="33" />

If Magician Monitor reports that your CPU, GPU or Disk temperature is too high, it may mean that you need to close your Mac and give it some rest, and/or quit many of your unused applications.

 /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/memory.png?54167" alt="diagnostic test for mac" width="201" height="241" />/>  

If Magician Monitor shows that your memory usage is full, you may need bump up your Mac‘s memory from 2gigs of RAM to 4./> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/harddrive1.png?54167" alt="mac diagnostic scanner" width="202" height="152" />/> And if you’re running low on hard drive, you may need to clean it out or move items off to an external drive. You can read about other suggestions for optimizing your Mac on the Magician Monitor website. Magician Monitor can only run Intel-based Macs, OS 10.6 or higher.

Let us know what you think of Magician Monitor, and about any other performance monitoring tools you use on your Mac./>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/magician-monitor-diagnostic-check-mac/">Magician Monitor Gives A Diagnostic Check Of Your Mac is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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4 Open Source Password Managers To Keep Your Passwords Safe

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro1.png?54167" alt="password manager"/>

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/using-keepass-to-secure-your-online-accounts/">KeePass/href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/keepassx-secure-password-management-linux-os/">KeePassX is a popular open source project that has won the hearts of thousands, with a myriad of href="http://lifehacker.com/5046988/eight-best-keepass-plug+ins-to-master-your-passwords">plugins and href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=keepass">extensions such as href="http://keefox.org/">KeeFox and href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search?hl=en-US&q=keepass">ChromelPass, that dramatically improve the user experience. However, KeePass isn’t the only open source password manager out there. If you’re looking for a simpler but still secure application where you can store your login credentials and important notes, why note check out additional open source programs?

Even if you’re accustomed to your beloved and convenient commercial password manager, it’s probably not a bad idea to try other ultra secure applications that offer some of the same features and risk less at your expense. If you’re ready for some password manager goodness, read on!

href="http://www.clipperz.com/">Clipperz [href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-of-both-worlds-online-passwords-offline/">Web-based]

Clipperz is a web-based password manager, not unlike LastPass, with a major difference in that it’s open source. Jim reviewed it href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-of-both-worlds-online-passwords-offline/">here a couple of years ago so be sure to check his review for more details.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/clipperz_compact_tabs.png?54167" alt="password manager" width="484" height="308" />

Pros:

• Support for direct one-click logins (made with a special bookmarklet) so users can login automatically from the Clipperz website.
• Provides an encrypted HTML copy for offline read-only use.
• Login history is recorded.
• Registration requires no email (just a username and passphrase) so users can maintain anonymity.
• Works on any OS with a major browser (like Firefox or Opera) that has Javascript enabled.
• href="http://www.clipperz.com/support/user_guide/clipperz_compact">Compact site for Firefox sidebar and Opera panel with access to direct one-click logins.
• Clipperz can also store notes with sensitive content.
• Password generator available.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_104715.png?54167" border="0" alt="password manager reviews" width="490" height="285" />

• Users can import data from a number of password managers.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_102719.png?54167" alt="password manager reviews" width="442" height="562" />

Cons:

• Saving direct logins involves manually copy-pasting code onto Clipperz website,
• Direct login codes don’t seem to work for all sites. In my tests, Imageshack and Springpad couldn’t create direct logins from the bookmarklet, but users can always create new “web passwords” or cards and specify the website URL manually.
• No support for passphrase recovery since emails aren’t required.
• Cannot organize accounts in groups.

href="http://www.yadabyte.com/Yadabyte_Portables.php">Yadabyte Passwords [Windows]

Yadabyte Passwords is like a tiny Keepass manager, except it carries fewer bells and whistles. Though it’s a bit older, this portable password manager is absolutely a breeze to use. You simply create a master password and then type the usernames, passwords, and URLs for all the services you want included in your password database.

Pros:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_112637.png?54167" alt="password manager reviews" width="249" height="327" />

• Portable
• Easy to use

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_112855.png?54167" border="0" alt="free password manager" width="249" height="327" />

Cons:

• Might be too simple for some users as it doesn’t have lots of features.
• Cannot organize accounts in groups.

href="https://github.com/zdia/gorilla/wiki/">Password Gorilla [Cross-Platform]

Password Gorilla is a password manager and personal vault that can store login information and notes. The application consists of a single executable that allows you to create a database and save it to a specified location. The encrypted database can only be read in Password Gorilla of course, but the database is actually a different file, separate from the application, so you can create several databases if you wish.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_115859.png?54167" alt="free password manager" width="400" height="257" />

Pros:

• Portable
• Can create groups and subgroups to organize passwords and sites.
• Can import password databases saved in CSV format.
• Automatically locks the database after a defined amount of minutes.
• Can clear the clipboard after specified number of seconds.
• Users can set what double-clicking a login does: open a browser directed to the URL, copy password to clipboard, edit login or do nothing.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_120349.png?54167" alt="free password manager" width="529" height="341" />

• Can copy username and password to the clipboard with keyboard shortcuts.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_120037.png?54167" width="408" height="267" />/> Cons:

• Exported files are unencrypted plain text files.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_120911.png?54167" width="492" height="199" />

href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/upm/">Universal Password Manager [Cross-Platform; Android]

Universal Password Manager is a simple program that uses 128bit AES encryption and, like Password Gorilla, allows you to create databases once you’ve set a master password.

Pros:

• Databases can be exported and imported.
• Android app available.
• Can load and sync remote databases from URL.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_130616.png?54167" width="500" height="304" />

• Can copy username and password to clipboard with keyboard shortcuts.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2011-06-26_125814.png?54167" alt="password manager" width="500" height="304" />

Cons:

• Cannot organize accounts in groups though they are alphabetized. A workaround could be to create several databases.

From this list, I prefer Password Gorilla as it has robust features. There are, however, dozens of additional open source programs we couldn’t possibly cover, so if you’re eager to learn more, be sure to check out href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/manage-and-protect-your-personal-data-with-lockcrypt/">LockCrypt, href="http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/">Password Safe, href="http://www.petroules.com/products/silverlock">SilverLock, href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensimsim/files/">OpenSimSim and href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oubliette/">Oubliette.

Do you use an open source password manager and have tips to share? Enlighten us  in the comments!

Image Credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=77476477">Shutterstock – Mario7/>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-open-source-password-managers-passwords-safe/">4 Open Source Password Managers To Keep Your Passwords Safe is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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3 Easy-to-Use Browser Extensions To Backup Your Open Tabs

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs.jpg?54167" alt="save browser tabs"/>If you are a heavy Internet user, you are most likely to often have multiple tabs open simultaneously. We have shared quite a few tips on how to manage your tabs effectively in various browsers.

Here are href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-extensions-chrome-tab-management/">10 best extensions for Google chrome tab management as well as a few solid tips on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-effective-ways-to-deal-with-the-too-many-tabs-syndrome-in-firefox/">dealing with the “Too Many Tabs” syndrome in Firefox.

Today’s post will help you secure your active tabs against any crashes as well as synchronize them among your various work places:

Sesh (Google Chrome)

(Backing up on request)

With href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/emclpejnhkiogdlimfgipbdfpdcnhhoj#">Sesh for Google Chrome you can save a tab or an entire windrow with multiple active tabs.

• To store a tab, click the extension icon and select “Store a tab”
• To store a window, click the icon and select “Store the Window”

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-01.jpg?54167" alt="save browser tabs" width="360" height="139" />

You will need to name a tab or a window you are going to store:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-02.jpg?54167" alt="browser tabs" width="448" height="217" />

Basically, it works similarly to href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/toomanytabs-turns-firefox-task-management-powerhouse/">“TooManyTabs” for FireFox we have reviewed earlier. When you store a tab or window, Sesh saves and closes it, and thus cleans up space for you to do other things. When you want to get back to a saved tab or window, click on it, and Sesh will open it and remove it from storage.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-03.jpg?54167" alt="browser tabs" width="550" height="170" />

Additional feature to enjoy:

Sesh lets you synchronize active tabs among different computers, so you can continue working after coming home from work. For that, you will have to enable Chrome sync (href="http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=185277">here are the official instructions).

Note: The extension doesn’t store your cookies, so you’ll have to login everywhere once you start working on another computer.

Save My Tabs ( FireFox)

(Backup automatically)

Note: there seems to be a href="https://github.com/turian/save-my-browser-tabs/tree/master/chrome">Google Chrome version as well.

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/save-my-tabs/">Save My Tabs is a little addon that works in the background and saves your active tabs automatically. The addon regularly creates a new TSV text file, that contains info on all open tabs user had kept opened by the time the file was created. Each tab info is organized the following way (one line per tab):

• Window index,
• Tab index,
• URL of the tab and it’s title.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-06.jpg?54167" alt="browser tabs" width="363" height="372" />

In the addon preferences you can:

• Set the time frame to create a new backup (default is 15 minutes);
• Set the file path to store the TSV files in.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-05.jpg?54167" alt="browser tabs saving" width="402" height="222" />

3. Tab Cloud (Google Chrome and FireFox)

(Backing up on request)

Here’s a detailed href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/restore-tabs-chrome-firefox-machines-tabcloud/">review of TabCloud by Jessica

href="http://chrometabcloud.appspot.com/">TabCloud is a browser tab backup tool that offers a few very neat features:

• Easily name and save any open window;
• Quickly recognize any backup thanks to favicon support;
• Synchronize active windows and tabs (Securely hosted by Google, login with your Google Account.)

Whenever you want to save the current tabs, click the extension icon. The same icon gives access to all previously saved sessions:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/backup-tabs-04.jpg?54167" alt="save browser tabs" width="334" height="247" />

You can also manage the currently saved sessions:

• Reorganize your tabs by dragging and dropping (Currently Chrome only).
• Middle-click (or CTRL + click) any tab icon to open just that tab.
• Click on any windows name to rename at any time.

Additional feature to enjoy:

Synchronize your active tabs with your Android (through this href="http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/tabcloud_miyj.html">Android app)

Are you using any fun addons to save your browser tabs and windows? Please share them in the comments!/>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-easytouse-browser-extensions-backup-open-tabs/">3 Easy-to-Use Browser Extensions To Backup Your Open Tabs is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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