Customize mouse cursor icons on Snow Leopard

Or fuck off and die a slow death, I-Beam!

Well, took me a while, but I finally got rid (mostly) of the awful I-Beam cursor icon.
The idea of editing the CoreGraphics file went nowhere... So I installed Unsanity's Mighty Mouse.
Right now Mighty Mouse does not have an official Snow Leopard release, so it is necessary to use the one for Leopard.
There are some instructions floating around on the internet how to do so, like this one Changing your mouse cursor (OSX 10.6), but I found them to miss a part or not easy to follow; so here is my setup step by step.

Install APE, and then reboot.
Download Mighty Mouse, tested with "mightymouse-20b1.dmg", mount the dmg file, and then:

cp -R "/Volumes/Mighty Mouse/Mighty Mouse Installer.app/Contents/Resources/ui/Mighty Mouse.ape" \
~/Desktop/
cp -R "/Volumes/Mighty Mouse/Mighty Mouse Installer.app/Contents/Resources/ui/Mighty Mouse.prefPane" \
~/Desktop/
cd ~/Desktop/
cd "Mighty Mouse.ape/Contents"
cp Info.plist Info.plist.ORIG

Edit the Info.plist file with your favorite editor, it has to end like this:

        <key>APELeopardCertified</key>
        <true/>
        <key>APESnowLeopardCertified</key>
        <true/>

Then:

cp -R "Mighty Mouse.prefPane" ~/Library/PreferencePanes/
cp -R "Mighty Mouse.ape" ~/Library/Application Enhancers/

I had to create the directory

~/Library/Application Enhancers/

.

Logout and then log back in, and start using it.
Been using it for the last couple of weeks without any issues on 10.6.5, even tho I have a valid license from when I was using Mighty Mouse -the PPC version- on Tiger it seems like Unsanity has changed its registration process, so it doesn't work; nad incidentally, everything seems to point that Unsanity is out of business so I guess I'l have to keep using this unregistered version, which has nagging window now and then.

Related posts:

Small potatoes? Big cursors!
The fight against IBeam goes on
The fight against IBeam goes on (and on...)
The fight continues...

The fight continues...

Yeap, I still have this damn thing going around my head, I can't get it out of it... I simply hate the I-Beam cursor, there is no other way around that...
A couple of more links I've stumble upon the matter

Changing your mouse cursor (OSX 10.6)
OS X Mouse Pointers as a Metaphor

The fight against IBeam goes on (and on...)

Couple of (more) link regarding the dreaded iBeam replacement:

Cursor Theme，鼠标指针的主题
Cursor Theme，鼠标指针的主题(2)
Theming,theming,theming!!!

Those are, obviously, in Chinese :D
It looks like cobranail has gone far onto the subject, but on Tiger...

Why, why Apple??? Why on Earth you make this hard to simply customize an already existing cursor icon? I don't want to add new ones, nor animate them, nor make them things that you wouldn't aprobe... I just want to replace the fucking IBeam with the plain vanilla arrow!

The fight against IBeam goes on

Last night hit Google hard searching for a solution to this, I simply fucking hate the IBeam piece of crap icon!
The cursor icon set is hard coded, there is no way around that, or so it seems; the trick with Terminal's own IBeam is just a tease, to to the same globally, there is no other option than to (HEX) edit the CoreGraphics file... Boy, that looks like a lot fun... Fuck me.
These links are old, solutions that once worked... Well, it looks like it is going to be a funny next couple of days...

Cursor in CoreGraphics in 10.4
Cursor para zurdos
Help me find default cursor
NOOB trying to change Cursor: Mac os x 10.5.6
OSX Cursors location found
Editor Hexadecimal para Mac: Solucionado

Also, there is this safety net, which is exactly the opposite than the above... Or is it? Installing a haxie, for a different OS version, doing nasty symlink stuff, and all of that to use a product from a company (Unsanity) that seems to be closed...

Unsanity's Mighty Mouse DOES work on leopard !, Easy Hack
Leopard and non native crypto libraries

Why the hell does Apple make this hard to do such a trivial thing?

The current Thor desktop

The current Thor desktop

Yep, with a slight twist of Panther.

Uncompressed copy on Image Shack

SU Mystery Theater (10)

It seems like today is updates day...
Took the chance and installed a bunch of stuff my beloved Quicksilver beauty, Thor.
So far, everything seems to be just fine, the only I don't like much is that the new Safari looks like if it was pulled out of a Leopard install, matter of fact, more and more apps, Hell, almost everything looks like that nowadays.

The current Thor desktop

Another screenshot of Thor, as usual, it is as boring as it can be :p

Link to an uncompressed copy on Image Shack

The current Thor desktop

Lots and lots of work these last couple of days, not much time for posting stuff...

The only good thing is that the temperature is taking a nose dive, at least, for the time being.

It is back to basics, Aqua/ Tiger basics that is, and less of that Ubuntu brown crap :p

This is Apple! And tonight we screenshot in Hell!

The second HDD on the desktop is the one I've added recently to my QuickSilver beauty.

Font problems? Call Hictio!

Obviously my my font smoothing strategy needs a little bit of polishing...
Specially with the bold fonts on disclaimers and legal babble.

Old is good, new has borders

A screenshot of the settings I'm using on VLC to get rid of the fucking ugly window controls and borders (yes, another one, what can I say?)

Actually, I'm using a somehow old version of VLC, about a year old or so, because the on newer releases I haven't being able to get rid of the crud on the video window... IIRC, I have been able to remove the controls, but not the borders.
Unless, you make disappear all the borders, including the title bar, which I don't like at all.

Pathetic, I know, but I like my windows without borders, the way Os X/ Aqua is meant to be, God damn it!

A sight for sore eyes

Maybe my eyes are starting to get a little tired, and now they need to look at something more pleasant; or, perhaps I'm too dumb and I never noticed this option before (or I have, but I have set it up incorrectly).

The thing is, with that settings, things look simply and completely fabulous on Thor, using my Samsung monitor I have, with my new NVIDIA card.

The picture I posted above does not make ANY kind of honor to the quality I'm having, I simply over compress every and any jpg I upload here for storage reasons.

Mouse Nirvana

Well, I finally found it: NuclearMouse, so, all my rants about Move/resize windows a la X Window on Os X are finally over.
On top of all, it is free; tested on Thor, running Tiger, all patches applied, no problems at all so far.

Leopard wannabe on Tiger

I have made a few post on the Linux side of thing that try mimmick the Os X interface ( link 1, link 2, link 3 & link 4 ). And now, it is time for Os X (Tiger), who is trying to look like Leopard...

Leopard-ize your Tiger
Liger - Leopard theme for Tiger

Personally, never been much of a theme enthusiast on Os X, the default look seems really nice to me, except maybe for the iTunes rounded windows.

Safari niceness

I have found a very nice thing on Safari, a little thing, really, but really handy. You can resize the text input boxes, making those bigger, if you run at a higher resolution than the one the site designed it. Since I can run my monitor at 1440x900, this comes very, very handy indeed.
There is not a similar option for Firefox, neither on Os X or Windows (I have not tested on the Safari version for Windows)

In praise of the arrow, screw the TIbeam stick!

I like to be able to customize my mouse pointer shape, no matter what operating system I'm using, without any doubt, the one has it the easiest is Windows, at least, until XP that is, I haven't test it on Vista yet.
Even on Linux/ FreeBSD I have been able to customize those.

On os X things are not that straight, there is a program called Mighty Mouse (paid) that allows you to change all your mouse pointer shape, but there are some 'shapes' that seem to be bundled with the the apps, so you are out of luck modifying those.

One of those is the dreaded 'TIbeam', the one used to select and over regular text, I don't know why, but I have always hated it, no matter what operating system I use.
So, if you want to change the shape of mouse cursor on the Terminal, all you have to do is replace the file:


/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/TIbeam.tiff

for the shape of your liking.. You have to do this, open the Terminal, and type:


cd /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/ ENTER

and then copy your original file onto a backup:


sudo cp /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/TIbeam.tiff /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/TIbeam.tiff.ORIG ENTER

type your administrator password, and then copy the mouse pointer shape of your liking on top top of the old one:


sudo cp /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/yuorNewCursor.tiff /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Resources/TIbeam.tiff ENTER

Quit the Terminal, open it, and you'll have the new pointer shape up &amp running.
Unfortunatelly, this will not work for all of the apps on Os X, many if them have the mouse shape already embedded on the same app binary, see this link: Offscreen Graphics Worlds, Worlds, Pictures, Cursors, and Icons, scroll down to 'Cursors'.

Move/resize windows a la X Window

One the things I missed the most when I moved to Os X was the ability to move and resize any window like you can do on Linux, running X11; where you can simply grab a window and move it by pressing a keyboard/ mouse combination anywhere on the given screen.
I looked all around for such an option, but couldn't find none, even on Windows there is such a thing... win32WM

Yesterday, by mistake, I found a couple of programs that can do that:

WindowDragon

WindowDragon   Musings from Mars blog post/ review

WindowDragon  MacUpdate download page

WindowDragon  Status-Q blog post/ review

GeekBind

Share/ Payware

MondoMouse Resize, focus follows mouse, etc.

MondoMouse Mac Os X Hints - Resize and move windows via mouse drag

OCSmart Hacks

More on the iTunes interface

The other day I found a program to change the looks of the current iTunes release, to make it more 'Aquaish'.
It is a free program, 26 MB in size, you can get it from here: Aqua4iTunes; I have it installed on my PowerBook, running iTunes 7.2 -for over a month- without any problem.

New screenshot

And yet another one!
I like this one, got it here: BSD Nexus wallpapers

More on the iTunes rounded windows

These are some pics I found on internet, comparing the window's corners from the previous incarnations of iTunes, with the newer releases.
Like I said before, I really don't understand the idea behind this, and I certainly hope that the next release of Os X does not look like this globally.








What really puzzles me regarding this whole "chopped windows thing " is why would Apple do it, and then again, why only on the iTunes window?
Would this be a preview of how the windows will look on Leopard?