• Mac OS X,  Mac Security

    Check Versions of Common Apps and Services on macOS

    Just some little one-liners to grab the version of a few common Apple services/built-in apps you might need the version of for another project I’m working on kinda’: cups: cups-config –version Finder: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 Help Viewer: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /System/Library/CoreServices/HelpViewer.app | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 iBooks Author: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Application/iTunes\ Author.app | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 ical/Calendar: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/Calendar.app/ | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 ichat/Messages: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/Calendar.app/ | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 iMovie: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/iMovie.app | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 installer: /usr/sbin/installer -vers Photos/iPhoto: mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/Photos.app | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2  iTunes: mdls -name…

  • Final Cut Server,  Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Scripting Video Changes in Lion: avconvert, pcastaction & podcast

    The avconvert command is a new addition in OS X Lion that allows administrators to quickly and easily convert video from one format to another using presets for video conversion. The presets are mostly common Apple formats tuned to specific devices. In its simplest form, avconvert uses a preset, a source and then an output to convert the source to the output using the preset to define the format to use for conversion. A useful preset is the 640×480 one. To convert this using this idea: /usr/bin/avconvert --preset Preset640x480 --source /Convert/test.mov --output Converted/test.mov While some of the presets are pretty self explanatory, I haven’t gone through them all to see…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    QuickTime Streaming Server on Ubuntu 10

    OK, so you don’t necessarily call rtsp on Ubuntu QuickTime Streaming Server. Instead, you call it Darwin Streaming Server (DSS). But the end result is basically what you have exposed in Mac OS X Server, but running on Linux. You don’t have the same functionality in Server Admin, but it does work. And the key to what it does is use the rtsp protocol to stream supported files from the server to clients. It is a little tougher than just clicking on the start button, but too much tougher provided you follow these directions (thanks to the good folks of the DSS list that I’ve been a member of for…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    The Best Part About QuickTime 10

    And the best part about QuickTime 10 is… Screen recording. Long a task that required 3rd party products, recording events from your screen in Mac OS X is now built in with QuickTime 10. Simply open up QuickTime, click on File and then select New Screen Recording. From there, a screen will appear with a red button to start recording. Don’t worry as that screen will not appear in your recording. Instead you will be able to use the Command-Control-Escape keystroke to stop recording. At the Screen Recording screen you will also be able to perform a few settings changes. Here, use the disclosure triangle to switch between microphones, change…