February 2012
1 post
4 tags
Review of Waterfield Designs Muzetto for 11"...
I’ve always had a bit of a bag fetish, especially when it came to bags to store my technology in. In addition to loving the most portable pieces of technology (perfectly exemplified in the 11” MacBook Air being my computer of course), I’ve always loved the smallest and most minimal bags to support them. Whenever I get a new laptop, I always buy a second power adapter for it, so I...
January 2012
1 post
4 tags
Disable Greylisting under Lion Server
Snow Leopard Server shipped with a postfix policy for greylisting email. It was easy enough to disable if you didn’t like it, and Server Admin was typically kind enough to not overwrite your settings. Unfortunately, Lion Server isn’t as nice about it.
In addition to occasionally removing the greylisting policy on some servers, I always like to alter the default...
August 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Installing mtr under Lion (using homebrew)
I still get a bit of traffic for my post on how to compile mtr under Snow Leopard, so I thought I’d write a update for anyone looking to install it on Lion.
First of all, according to commenters, that process still works.
However, I decided to try a different approach with Lion, by first installing the much-buzzed-about Homebrew.
Homebrew is a new package manager for OS X. I’ve...
6 tags
MacBook Air SSD Benchmarks: 2010 vs 2011 vs Lion...
Updated with benchmarks for 2010 MacBook Air with Encryption as well as clearer charts and data
I purchased a 2010 11.6” MacBook Air earlier this year with the maximum, possible specs: 1.6 Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. I took a performance hit when I switched from my aluminum unibody MacBook (which had a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo), but it never felt slower. As a...
Add Twitter Profile Images to Lion Address Book...
The famous Cabel Sasser of Panic put out a tweet the other day regarding Lion’s Address Book’s new Twitter username support:
I thought I’d take up the challenge and I hobbled together an AppleScript to pull this information down.
set twitterJSONField to "\"profile_image_url\":"
set twitterProfileImagePath to "/tmp/twitterProfileImage"
tell application "Address Book"
...
July 2011
1 post
4 tags
Providing Non-Administrators with Consistent...
Like every good computer user, I log into my laptop every day as a non-administrator. Using OS X, it’s quite easy to still run installers and escalate to admin rights on a per-use basis. This means that if some nefarious process wants to go on a deleting spree, it will at least be quarantined to my user folder.
Like every good system administrator, I like to see what’s going on in...
June 2011
1 post
10.6 Server: Workaround for recurring CalDAV... →
Anyone using an iOS device with OS X Server’s Calendar service will be well acquainted with this issue. I’ve personally complained about it on Twitter before.
I contacted the poster asking him how he discovered the solution and he pointed me to this post by wsanchez at Apple’s discussion forums. It seems people over there have had mixed results. I have not. There are two CalDAV...
October 2010
1 post
Inception Ringtones for iPhone
The value is not so much inherent in their use as ringtones, but rather as alarm sounds.
Non Je Ne Regrette Rien
Half Remembered Dream (Non Je Ne Regrette Rien at 1/10th speed)
528491
August 2010
2 posts
iOS App WiFi Syncing works over Bluetooth...
Was using my MacBook today tethered to my iPhone 4 over Bluetooth. WiFi was disabled on my Mac, and not connected on the iPhone. I launched Things.app, and to my great surprised, it synced! I tried syncing Jumsoft Money and Bento, and they also synced without a hitch.
This makes perfect sense as OS X speaks Bonjour out of all its interfaces. I’m all but certain it would just fine over USB...
Improved iCal CalDAV Support?
I’ve never been able to accept a foreign event invitation directly into a CalDAV calendar instead of being forced to put it into a local calendar. With an event I received today, not only did it properly show up in iCal, but holding the Accept button gave me the choice of which CalDAV calendar to put it in:
This must be a result of the 10.6.4 update. It’s long due.
June 2010
3 posts
4 tags
Encrypted, Rotating Time Machine Backups on Snow...
Changes in 10.6.5
Unfortunatley, things have changed in 10.6.5, and I haven’t quite determined how to correct the automatic rotation part of this article. However, there are some workarounds in the comments
I like Time Machine. It’s automatic, incremental, efficient and easy to use. However, there are two features that Time Machine doesn’t have that I really like: encryption...
Corrupted Disk Journal
Ever had a disk that wouldn’t mount under OS X? In my case, it checked out under Disk Utility and fsck just fine. A look in Console revealed errors like:
Jun 24 11:38:31 computer kernel[0]: jnl: disk2s3: open: journal magic is bad (0x0 != 0x4a4e4c78)
Jun 24 11:38:31 computer kernel[0]: hfs: late jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0).
We were able to resolve it by...
May 2010
2 posts
Are Widgets Coming to the iPad?
While App Store rejections or removals are never a pleasant experience, many times they have illustrated what’s up ahead on Apple’s roadmap.
This morning, I was saddened to see the news of an active frame application being pulled from the app store:
@rustyshelf:
Just got off the Phone with Apple, they are going to pull My Frame out of the App Store! Get it while you still can!...
April 2010
3 posts
The "Open" Stick
So there’s been an awful lot of talk about what is open and what is not open in the past few days. And what is “Open”? There’s quite a few different kinds of open:
Open Source
Open Standards
Open Formats
Open Platforms
In today’s highly heated and publicized Mobile Wars, each party is bashing their competitor(s) with a different “Open” stick, but all...
Facebook URL Helper 1.1 →
A much more capable Facebook URL Help than my own. It also predates mine. Project page here.
Read alt/title text on iPhone OS devices via... →
For anyone that’s ever wanted to properly read XKCD on an iPhone
March 2010
5 posts
Compiling MTR for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Of all the great tips in the last post, I was moved to go and try out mtr, aka Matt’s Traceroute (or My Traceroute?), which is a command line tool that integrates ping with traceroute. When run, you get great, constantly updating results like this:
Note: This post assumes you’ve compiled software before. If not, just make sure you install Developer Tools (aka XCode) from the...
Top Ten One-Liners from CommandLineFu Explained -... →
Absolute gold. Some real gems in there.
Facebook Helper for OS X
If any OS X users out there are using Facebook Contact Sync, Smart Sync for Facebook, Beejive or any other Mac or iPhone app that places Facebook contact information into your iPhone address book, you might have noticed when viewing those contacts on your Mac, you see some bizarre URLs.
Clicking these URLs does nothing as your Mac doesn’t really know what to do with a URL that beings with...
eBay Australia Fixed For iPhones?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see links to eBay.com.au auctions start working again this weekend. It’s possible that it started working before then, but that’s when I decided to try it again.
It seems they’re initially directed to a mobilized version of eBay, but the ability to switch back to Classic is present in the footer.
Well done eBay for restoring what you had...
“You’re a Parliamentarian, in Australia, who believes the world you live in...”
– Richard Dawkins to Senator Steve Fielding on Q & A
February 2010
9 posts
2 tags
ABC Radio to Support iPhone
Me (22/10/09): Radio Melbourne via iPhone? Hi, If I'm correct in my understanding, I can here [sic] John Faine on local analog radio, digital radio, or streaming from your site. I notice that you have an iPhone application, but I don't seem to get Radio Melbourne on it.
ABC (23/02/10): Dear Jason, Currently we only stream 774 in Windows and Real formats. We don't currently have the resources to stream in MP3 format, which is what is required to stream to an iPhone. But we are working on getting MP3 streaming happening by the end of the year. We are sorry for the inconvenience, 774 ABC Melbourne
xkcd: Devotion to Duty →
Brilliant! Combines my childhood love of Die Hard with adult love of system administration. (Don’t forget to hover!)
3 tags
Privacy Concerns with Facebook's Contact Sync
Last post, I pointed out some the issues I was having with SmartSync for Facebook. Most of the functionality provided by SmartSync is now available in Facebook’s official iPhone application since version 3.1, so I thought I’d test it out to see how it compares. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far.
To enable the feature, choose Friends from the Facebook home screen, and there...
2 tags
Issues with SmartSync for Facebook
In my iPhone First and 20 article, one of the “page two” applications I mentioned and recommended was Ultimake’s SmartSync for FaceBook. Unfortunately, I have to now retract that recommendation due to a few issues.
The first problem is stability. There is nothing that frustrates me more than an unstable application. The app’s process is as follows. On its first launch, it...
4 tags
How to: Facebook chat in iChat or Adium →
An easy How To for those not already doing it.
3 tags
A Safer Email Catch-All
When I first started running my own mail server about 10 years ago, I really liked the idea of a catch-all email address for my domain. Not only would I receive accidentally misaddressed email, I could make up any email address on the fly, and not worry about having to configure it every time.
Shortly after that, I realized that every time I supplied an organisation with my email address, I...
2 tags
A GST Compliant Formula to Calculate a PayPal...
I run an Australian business and as such, I have to collect an extra 10% on top of what I charge my clients, in the form of a GST (Goods and Services Tax), which I then happily pass on to the government.
I have some clients that like to pay me via credit card, but with demand for this being quite small, it’s not worth it for me to invest in a merchant facility from an Australian bank which...
1 tag
Steven Frank - I need to talk to you about... →
The second of two articles (so far) that I strongly recommend for those wanting to understand the iPad.
1 tag
Fraser Speirs - Future Shock →
The first of two articles (so far) that I strongly recommend for those wanting to understand the iPad.
January 2010
9 posts
1 tag
TomTom Car Kit Review
One of the most anticipated accessories made for the iPhone is the TomTom Car Kit. This is a standalone suction cup cradle with a couple of funky extra features:
Your iPhone can rotate in the cradle a full 360° allowing it to be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode.
The unit has its own GPS hardware inside, enabling much greater accuracy and less power consumption from the phone.
The...
4 tags
A Better Birthdays Calendar
OS X, since 10.4, has an option to automatically maintain a birthday calendar in iCal showing all of your contacts’ birthdays. Unfortunately, turning it on is its only configurable option. This is unfortunate because I personally need an audible or visual alert telling me of all the days’ birthdays. Also, this automatic calendar is a local calendar, meaning that we can’t use it...
1 tag
Flyosity: The iPad Is For Everyone But Us →
Exactly.
4 tags
Using Snow Leopard Server to enable MSN in iChat
Snow Leopard Server includes an iChat server which supports the use of plug-in transports enabling users to connect to other instant messaging networks, like MSN, thereby enabling iChat users to speak to contacts on the MSN network as well as have multiple machines logged into the same MSN account at the same time. Here’s how to set it up…
History
When Apple first released their...
First and 20 (Properly)
So, last entry I posted a pic of my iPhone home screen. In hindsight, it’s a bit self-serving, possibly the modern digital equivalent of posting what I had for breakfast. But that being said, I’ve always found value in looking at others’ home screens, a concept introduced to me by the site First and 20. The problem is that App Store is such a hodge podge, mishmap of 99c crap,...
2 tags
1 tag
Momento - Diary writing for iPhone and iPod touch →
This app looks beautiful. I used to keep a journal and would love to do so again. Hopefully, this will help motivate me to do so. Regardless, it’s nice to have a historical view of all of the status updates I’ve posted to Facebook and Twitter.
2 tags
eBay.com.au is Broken For iPhones
Update March 9, 2010: It looks like this has been fixed.
eBay has been know to invoke thoughts of suicide or murderous rage for a variety of reasons, whether it be the way they run their auction site or the way they run their subsidiaries, like PayPal and Skype. Unfortunately, two of my consumer hobbies require me to regularly use eBay for the purposes of buying and selling.
Saved Searches
...
2 tags
Credit Card Trickery
Recently, TF Source was in the press due to a breach of their security. This was discovered by the fact that many of their customers found unidentified charges on their credit cards. As most of their customers were all members of the same internet community, the parallels were quickly made and TF Source was identified as the source of the breach. Being a member of the TF community, as well as a...