cursors

Mind-controlled cursor may be easier than previously thought

When scientists at the University of Washington recently drilled into the skulls of seven people with severe epilepsy and placed thin sheets of electrodes directly onto their brains, they were surprised by the brain activity they observed.

While physicians were studying neuro activity to investigate seizure signals, a separate team of bioengineers was simultaneously on the lookout for exactly how the brains of the seven volunteers behaved as they learned to move a cursor using their thoughts alone. It turns out that, in as few as 10 minutes, activity went from being centered on the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with learning new skills, to areas seen during more automatic functions, such as waving one's hand or kicking a ball.

In other words, in just a matter of minutes these brains behaved as if they had already mastered these Jedi mind tricks.… Read more

Change the mouse cursor size in OS X

The default size of the mouse pointers in OS X should allow them to be viewable in most situations, but there could be some instances in which the cursor can be difficult to locate. For example, if you need to dim your screen, it might be difficult to find the pointer; and sometimes, optional pointers -- such as those for text input or crosshairs -- can become lost among the textures of images on the screen.

This might be especially true when using projectors and large-format displays, where the relatively small cursor can be difficult to locate.

While you can … Read more

How to make quick work of text navigation in OS X

When composing documents in OS X, sometimes moving the cursor around with arrow keys is more convenient, and a bit more accurate, than using the mouse.

The arrow keys therefore offer a great advantage both in offering a precise input option (one tap moves over one character, or up one line, etc.), but also in that they are right there on the keyboard. However, if you are unfamiliar with the modifiers you can use with the arrow keys to place your cursor faster, you may resort to pressing and holding them to get the cursor where you want it.

Recently … Read more

Customize your Windows cursors with ArtCursors

"Cursors, foiled again!" There's no need to swirl your cape and twirl your mustache, if you have Aha-soft's ArtCursors program. This shareware cursor creator and manager lets you design your own cursors for Windows. You can build and edit whole libraries of cursors with it. A simple wizard-type process makes it so that almost anyone can use ArtCursors to customize a computer's cursors, and in ways that maybe you haven't even thought of yet!

From ArtCursors' installer we chose between the registered version and the trial version, which is free for 30 days and … Read more

Incompatible PDF viewer may cause problems in Mountain Lion

After upgrading Mountain Lion, you might find odd problems such as Safari crashing, or the system not showing the appropriate cursor at times, either in Safari or in other programs like Microsoft Office. When you might expect to see the standard arrow as the mouse pointer, the cursor will instead look like a crosshair or another alternate cursor.

This problem is not widespread by any means, and seems to be rooted around the user installing an incompatible Adobe PDF viewer Web browser plug-in.

Since Safari provides built-in PDF compatibility, for most people there has been no real need for an … Read more

Sound stuttering after Mountain Lion installation

A few users who have upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion are noticing what appears to be a bug involving sound processing on their systems. When the problem occurs, the Mac's audio output will begin to stutter and the mouse cursor will pause and jump. At times the system may become unresponsive when the stuttering happens, but usually continues working again after a moment or two.

The cause of the problem is not clear at the moment, as it seems to come and go unpredictably, and also happens in a number of different software and hardware setups. While some … Read more

Hide your cursor with AutoHideMouseCursor

Cursors are necessary and useful, but every now and then they can get in the way. You might find them blocking the text you're typing in a word-processing document, hovering over the forehead of someone in a video you're watching, or presenting a distraction during a slideshow. This is a problem that can be easily solved with AutoHideMouseCursor. This simple utility can automatically hide your cursor after a specified period of time, keeping it out of the way until you need it again.

The program's interface is straightforward; there are check boxes to disable the program, have … Read more

Set your mouse cursor to hide automatically

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The bottom-right corner of your desktop display will forever be known to most people as the place you put your mouse cursor when watching a movie or video in full-screen mode. If you want to view your movie or game sans mouse, your only real option is to move the mouse to the edge of the screen. Hopefully, there's no hidden control bar there, because that would cause it to display instead.

The problem is, at least on newer versions of Windows, that the cursor isn't designed to disappear after a period of inactivity. To solve … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about a change to system colors, how to access lost e-mails in Time Machine, cursor repetition not working after upgrading to Lion, and DiskWarrior not being able to fix damaged file resource headers. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your own suggestions in the comments.

Question: Restoring system colors MacFixIt reader Margo asks:

The colours throughout my desktop icons and … Read more

Advanced text handling tips in OS X

A short while ago I discussed some tips for handling text in OS X, which included the use of the Option and Command keys for selecting various portions of text in a document.

In response to this article, a couple of MacFixIt readers wrote in with extra tips and suggestions, some of which may be useful for people who regularly compose text. Keep in mind that not all text editors are built to handle these options, but those that use Apple's Core Text libraries should be able to use at least some of them.

Cursor movement

Ctrl-A --> … Read more