News and Updates

DssW's latest news and information. Announcements, insights, and guides all appear here first.

Preparing for Mavericks

All current DssW products work on Mac OS X 10.9. We will continue to test with Mac OS X 10.9 and all new development work will focus on this version of Mac OS X.

Mavericks is the code name Apple has given to Mac OS X 10.9. Apple appear to have dropped the Mac section of the product name, but much like Tim Cook keeps referring to Mac as Macintosh, I will continue to prefer to include the Mac in Mac OS X. …

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How to Automate the Playing of a Movie

This recipe walks through scheduling a movie to starting playing on loop. Power Manager includes a task that deals with launching your movie in QuickTime Player and starting playback automatically. Through the task, you can play the movie back in full screen mode and ask the movie to loop forever. Both these features are optional but for most situations they will be ideal.

This recipe for Power Manager 4 walks through scheduling a movie to starting playing on loop. Update: See How to Set Up Reliable Presentations for scheduling movies and other presentations reliably on recent versions of Power Manager. Being able to play back a movie automatically is useful in many situations such as museum installations, trade shows, and in office lobbies. …

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Avoiding Password Prompts with ssh and rsync

This recipe walks through how to avoid needing to provide a password or passphrase when scripting 'rsync' or 'ssh'. We will do this by setting up ssh keys to handle securely connecting to your server or remote computer.

Secure shell (ssh) offers two distinct ways to securely log into another computer. The default way is to use a name and password combination. This is easy to understand but makes automating remote connections difficult. The prompt for a password requires human interaction, or clever tricks to simulate human interaction. …

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Power Manager recommended by Technofob.pl

Thanks to Wojciech Olszewski of Technofob.pl for reviewing Power Manager and sharing a video overview. Wojciech's review is in Polish.

Thanks to Wojciech Olszewski of Technofob.pl for reviewing Power Manager and sharing a video overview. Wojciech’s review is in Polish. technofob.pl recommend Power Manager The review highlights the scope and practicality of Power Manager’s built in Schedule Assistant. It was great to see our efforts to keep Power Manager’s resource footprint lightweight were noticed and appreciated. …

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Power Manager and Power Manager Professional 4.1.5 Released

We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager and Power Manager Professional 4.1.5. This update includes new tasks in the Schedule Assistant, adds Notification Center support for Mac OS X 10.8, and improves performance.

We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager and Power Manager Professional 4.1.5. This update includes new tasks in the Schedule Assistant, adds Notification Center support for Mac OS X 10.8, and improves performance. Updating Power Manager Power Manager will automatically check for updates every so often, so there is nothing to do. …

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How to Run a Script from a Menu Item

Running a script from a menu bar item in Mac OS X is a great time saver. The menu bar is always available and easy to access. In this recipe we will create a menu item that triggers a shell script, all using Power Manager.

Running a script from a menu bar item in Mac OS X is a great time saver. The menu bar is always available and easy to access. In this recipe we will create a menu item that triggers a shell script, all using Power Manager. …

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Sixteen Years

July 2013 marks sixteen years since John and I incorporated DssW. Much has changed during the last sixteen years.

Much has changed during the last sixteen years. Surprisingly for a software company, our core focus has remained unchanged. We continue to create energy saving software. I continue to enjoy helping those who rely on our efforts to get the most from their purchases. …

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How to Shut Down When UPS Power Drops

Power Manager can shut down your Mac when the remaining power of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) drops to a critical level. This recipe walks through how to set this up.

An uninterruptible power supply provides an extra level of protection for a Mac. Used in environments where power cuts are frequent or where sudden loss of power risks critical systems, UPS devices are essential. A UPS typically provides a few minutes of power to keep systems up and running. …

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Battery Guardian Recommended by GreenIT

Thanks to Frederic Bordage, GreenIT, for recommending Battery Guardian. Frederic's article reviews Battery Guardian and provides a welcome overview of its battery prolonging capabilities.

Thanks to Frédéric Bordage, GreenIT, for recommending Battery Guardian. Frédéric’s article reviews Battery Guardian and provides a welcome overview of its battery prolonging capabilities. GreenIT.fr recommends Battery Guardian GreenIT is a French language web site; merci beaucoup Frédéric! You can download and use Battery Guardian for free. …

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Scripting Batteries and UPS on Mac OS X

Power Manager provides scripting access to the power sources of the Mac, including Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). You can access the power source information using AppleScript or through the command line.

Developers can use Power Manager’s Software Development Kit (SDK) to integrate this information into your tools. Power Manager provides a range of triggers and conditions that deal with power supplies and their states. When we created these triggers and conditions, we discovered there was no scriptable way to access to this information as a user. …

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