A dmg file is a compressed file structure, capable of containing folders, files, etc. Dmg files can be used for a variety of purposes, from encrypting a home directory (ie – FileVault) to encrypting a file structure manually. A dmg file can be encrypted fairly simply. From Disk Utility, create a dmg file by clicking on the File menu and selecting New and then Blank Disk Image. This will bring up a screen where you can provide a name for your home folder and a size, then select either AES 128 or AES 256, which is a bit slower. Go ahead and click on Create and then at the resultant…
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Ham Radio on the Mac
I just love this kind of stuff even if I really don’t have time for experimenting with things nearly as much as I once did… http://www.dogparksoftware.com/Macintosh_Amateur_Radio_Pr.html
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Growl for Windows
I’ve grown to love and to hate the growl alerts on my Mac. Whether it’s Lithium telling me a server is down and I have to get back to work or my favorite FTP app telling me a transfer is complete or being notified that the Subversion box at the office just had a new copy of a script checked in and I need to go review something. Across the board it’s a love hate relationship. And the one place where I’ve always found solace is Microsoft Windows. You see, when I’m on Windows I don’t get those updates… But all of that is changing because of growlforwindows. Now, the…
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Xserve RAID Performance Settings
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NetWare + Portlock
When you run into booting issues with NetWare it’s often a simple fix. Move a file, edit a file, rename a file, etc. But getting to the point where you can actually implement the fix can be a pain. The Portlock Boot CD can come in pretty handy at this point. It enables you to mount a file system and edit it even if the host will not boot properly. It’s not that I’m saying that you should invest more money into that crusty old NetWare environment in most cases, but in some cases it can be a saviour…
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FDE on Mac OS X Server
I’ve rolled a few Mac OS X Servers into production either sitting on top of PGP or Checkpoint. Other than the obvious issues of killing the ability to remotely reboot the thing it’s actually going really well so far. If anyone else has any observations or has been doing this as well let me know as I’d be interested in comparing performance benchmarks and notes about other potential technical ramifications. So far I’m seeing almost the same performance (about 5% degradation, which is easily made up by running faster drives), there are limited troubleshooting options and the issue with it booting to a password request rather than to the OS…
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More on OS X Memory/Security
I know I’ve talked about memory before, but I haven’t really talked about the library randomization that was added to 10.5. Library randomization is part of ASLR (address space layout randomization) and a good part of the way to moving into full ASLR inclusion, but they haven’t completed that circuit, which a recent TechTarget article mentions: The weakness Dai Zovi exploits is in heap memory, which is memory that’s not in use. To address memory security issues, the PaX project for Linux developed a set of features to protect address space. Two of these are Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Non-executable memory (NX). ASLR makes it harder for malware…
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Mac AD Password Expiration Monitor
Password Monitor is a somewhat new look on a tool that has been in production in a number of environments for awhile. According to the site: Password Monitor is a simple utility that will count down the days until a user’s Active Directory password is due to expire. An OS X 10.5 (or newer) system properly bound to an Active Directory is the only requirement. Additional features include the ability to display the exact expiration date on the logon window (admin rights required) and to automatically launch the utility at startup. The number of days between required password changes has to be manually set in the preferences. The range has…
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Short URL Lengthening Safely
When you see a short URL such as http://is.gd/w, these days it is actually referencing a valid, longer URL. This URL shortening has come about due to the character limitations for services such as Twitter. The way I’m doing this these days is using a Firefox add-on called Short URL Generator. However, as of late there have been some scams that have been pointing those tiny URLs to URLs that are dangerous. So funny enough I have another Firefox add-on called Long URL Please that I’m using to verify that I like a URL prior to actually clicking on it, especially from a Windows box. And if you’re not using…
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Thanks Amex
American Express killed my card. But I’m glad. You see, the address of my account was changed and American Express attempted to contact me using the phone number and it was changed. Since they couldn’t get in touch they emailed me but that address was also changed. No reply meant that they killed my account. I found out at Target and confused called them up. Since I haven’t moved, changed my phone number and switched out email addresses I had them put it all back and change all my passwords. While I was initially annoyed that the card was declined, I was ultimate extremely grateful for their anti-fraud systems. So…