I had a problem with my new Intel Mac mini. When I upgraded to the latest firmware, my system sound would reset to 50% after every computer restart. Apparently there is a bug in the firmware, as other’s are having the same problem.

But remember, this is a Mac! And don’t forget about Automator!

Automate Me!

What Automator does, is basically do things you could do on your own if you had all the time in the world. Automator can do those mundane, repetitive tasks only the Mexicans wish to do. At heart, it’s really a simple, drag-and-drop scripting language that anyone can get started with. You can create your own application in a matter of seconds, which can be run from anywhere– from the desktop to startup.

So back to my problem– the volume.

The Tools You Need

Automator comes stock with dozens and dozens of different scripts, or actions that Automator can run. One of these just happened to be adjusting the system volume level. Creating the volume app was as simple as dragging the volume level action over to the workflow area, setting the volume level, and “saving as” an application.

Once I had the app saved, I just told the OS to run it at startup. Now, no matter what the firmware sets the volume at, my volume app will adjust the volume to whatever I want at startup, each and every time. No more fussing around.

Thank you Apple!

This article was written by Bryan Los on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 12:04 AM and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.