• Mac OS X

    Daylite 3.9

    Daylite 3.9 is actually a fairly substantial update from 3.8. This mainly stems from the fact that 3.9 uses PostgreSQL rather than OpenBase, and it runs Postgres on a dedicated server (not that this increases complexity too much as it’s going to discover those databases using Bonjour). This gives the application speed and the developers a number of new options they hadn’t had before. The MarketCircle developers will likely be able to come to market with new changes faster, thus being able to make you more productive with your productivity app. Also expect more 3rd party developers. Why? Because PostgreSQL is way more popular than OpenBase, is flexible for exchanging…

  • Windows Server,  Windows XP

    Night Before Conficker: A Poem

    Twas the night before April Fools day, when all through the IT department Not an admin was stirring, asleep with hands on their mouse The scans had been sent to the desktops with care, To ensure across the enterprise no conficker was there The users were nestled all snug in their beds And dreams of switching to Mac OS X danced in everyones heads. Don’t forget to run those scans before you go home today!

  • Mac OS X,  Mac Security

    Command Line ALF on Mac OS X

    Mac OS X 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.6 have a multitude of ways to keep data from coming or going from a system. The traditional way is to use ipfw, although this isn’t the default way in 10.5 and above. Instead, you are meant to use the Application Layer Firewall (we’ll call it ALF for short), which is what you configure from the Security System Preference pane. You can enable the firewall simply enough by using the defaults command to augment the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist file, setting the globalstate key to an integer of 1: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate -int 1 You can also configure the firewall from the command line.…

  • Business

    The Tragedy of the Commons

    I don’t like to talk about politics outside of my immediate family. But this isn’t political; it’s basic free market theory IMHO. Tragedy of the Commons: It is human nature to allow an individually rational decision to become abusive to that which is common between those making said decisions. For example, Hardin liked to use herding as an example. When you have a bunch of sheep herders sharing land, each wants to increase the size of their herd even though it will eventually destroy the land to have too many sheep. Now, Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith railed against governments for interfering at all in corporations or the affairs of…

  • personal

    Pirates in Parliament

    Looks like some pirates in Sweden are running for office in the European parliamentary scene – actually it’s the second time it has happened, but the first time they got less than a percent of votes.  With some anti-piracy laws making an uproar over there, they might have a chance of at least upsetting things…  I hope a bunch of ninjas will decide to run, so it can be a right and proper election…

  • Mac OS X

    Spotlight Keystrokes

    Spotlight has a nifty integration of keystrokes (or the Command keystroke at least).  Simply perform a search and then use the Command key in combination with an arrow to move and up and down in search results based on section rather than line item.  Additionally, that Command key can be used in conjunction with the Enter key so that when you open an item in the Spotlight results, it actually just displays the directory so you can then open the file in the Finder (and subsequently access other files in those directories as needed).

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Quick and Dirty md5

    A hashing function is used to calculate a hash value.  If you insert a file into a hashing function then it should produce a value that is almost certain to be unique (there’s always the remote likelihood that no matter how good your function, you may end up with a duplicate).   The openssl command is used to access a number of functions/ciphers including sha1, base64, md5, rc4/rc5 and of course des/des3.  It is a very simple command to use, simply provide the cipher, followed by the path to the file you would like to get a hash value (aka digest) for.  So if I have a file called myfile.txt and I…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X Startup Modifier Keys

    Mac OS X can boot differently than to your default startup disk with the use of modifier keys. When you power a system on, using these keystrokes will send commands to the system to perform the following: C – Boot to optical media. D (with restore disk in optical slot) – Boot to hardware test mode. Command-Option-O-F – Boot to OpenFirmware (if you have open firmware). Command-Option-P-R – Reset Parameter RAM. Command-Option-P-R (until you hear two tones) – Reset non-volatile RAM. Command-Option-N-V – Reset non-volatile RAM (similar to above according to hardware). Command-Option-Shift Delete – Bypass the default startup volume and look for another blessed volume. Command-Option-T-V – Boot that…

  • personal

    Where the Wild Things Are

    Still out of the office, so still posting not-so-technical stuff.  The latest on my radar is the new live action trailers for Where the Wild Things Are at Apple. As a book I read long ago and far away, it’s nice to think that I’ll get to see the blend of pictures and imagination on the big screen! Check it out, good wholesome fun!

  • Mac OS X,  personal

    Richard Stallman is Kinda' Weird

    In the /usr/share/emacs/22.1/etc directory (you can sub your version for the one listed here) you have a collection of very interesting files, musings written by Richard Stallman. Because emacs is open source, these files are in all default implementations of the emacs source code. Now I’m one to occasionally pontificate and write completely random musings, but mine aren’t in pretty much every default installation of all operating systems with Unix underpinnings (including Mac OS X) like Stallman’s are. For example, Stallman has a very nice recipe for cookies (that I’ve actually used) in a file called COOKIES in this folder. There’s also a man page for sex.6 here, which provides…