System Preferences has a place on my dock because certain preferences often change. Networks need configuring. External displays need managing. Time zone needs updating. System Preferences is handy to keep close by.

System Preferences

For my Mac, my preference matters. (This in contrast to most of the rest of my life.) Some preferences go beyond what apple deems appropriate to expose to lowly users. For these preferences, write the defaults explicitly by using the defaults command-line tool. You can copy and paste the defaults commands I use here to get the same effects.

• Appearance
  • Appearance: Graphite — Less pronounced.
  • Highlight color: Red — Try something new.
• Desktop & Screeen Saver
  • Start screen saver: Never — Do screens these days need saving?
• Dock
  • Size: Large — The OS supports big icons for a reason.
  • Position on screen: Right — Given the width of these screens, why in the world is the default position on the bottom?
  • defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES — Long, long ago hidden applications would become semi-transparent on the Dock. This is how you make them do it again.
• Expose & Spaces
  • Spaces
    • ✓ Enable Spaces
    • Rows: 3
    • Columns: 3
    • ✗ When switching to an application, switch to a space with open window for the application
    • > defaults write com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO — Unfortunately, the space switching checkbox only sort-of works. If switch to an application, the space won’t switch, but if you click on the application’s Dock icon again, the space will switch. At least that’s what usually happens. Sometimes tough, switching to an application will switch the space out spite. Switching behavior is just too erratic. Better to turn it off entirely.
  • Expose
    • Active Screen Corners
      • Top left: Spaces
      • Top right: Desktop
      • Bottom left: Dashboard
      • Bottom right: All Windows
  • Language & Text
    • Text
      • ✗ Replace: … — I like my ellipses to be three separate dots.
    • Input Sources
      • ✓ Keyboard & Character Viewer
      • ✓ Chinese - Traditional
        • ✓ Pinyin
        • ✓ Trackpad Handwriting — Not that I am really able to use it.
    • status bar > flag
      • ☞ Show Character Viewer
        • View: Code Tables
      • ☞ Hide Character Viewer
      • ☞ Hide Input Source Name
  • CDs & DVDs
    • When you insert a music CD: Ignore
    • When you insert a picture CD: Ignore
  • Energy Saver
    • Battery
      • Computer Sleep: 1 hr
      • Display Sleep: 10 min
      • ☞ status bar > battery > Show > Time
    • Power Adapter
      • Computer Sleep: 1 hr
      • Display Sleep: 10 min
  • Trackpad
    • Scrolling Speed: 2 ticks from the right
    • Two Fingers
      • Scroll without momentum — I tried scrolling with momentum but it felt too loose, imprecise. Funny since momentum scrolling is great on iOS devices.
  • Sound
    • Sound Effects
      • Select an alert sound: Pop — Short and sweet.
      • ✗ Play user interface sound effects
      • ✗ Play Front Row sound effects
    • Bluetooth - ✗ On — Don’t use it. Why waste battery? - ✗ Show Bluetooth status in menu bar
  • Sharing
    • Computer Name: Apollo
    • ✓ File Sharing — Though Dropbox is faster and better in every way.
    • defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO — Disable that annoying message: “downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?”
  • Date & Time
    • Time Zone
      • ✓ Set time zone automatically using current location — With how much I travel, let’s see how well this works.
    • Clock
      • ✓ Use a 24-hour clock
  • Speech
    • Speaking Rate: between Normal and Fast — I really like to have articles read when doing other things, like laundry.
  • Time Machine
    • ✗ Show Time Machine status in menu bar — Daedalus (the Time Machine disk) is connected to Bloom (my iMac).
  • Growl (installed by Dropbox)
    • ☞ Stop Growl — Don’t need notifications interrupting me. I do the job well enough by myself.

Next Time?

Activity Monitor, Terminal, and the beloved Anki.