• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Creating a LaunchAgent

    If you want to make a program start at a certain time or always run on Mac OS X then you should use launchd. Launchd can start your web, FTP or SMB daemon’s or even an application or open a file. Launchd uses property lists to identify various parameters for the agents you will be creating. Using Property List editor, create a new list and add the following items: Root dictionary Label string ProgramArguments array OnDemand boolean Set if we are going to use TextEdit as an example, then set them like so: Label: com.apple.TextEdit OnDemand: false ProgramArguments: one child, a string: /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit Save this file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.TextEdit.plist or /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.TetEdit.plist…

  • Kerio,  Mac OS X,  Microsoft Exchange Server

    Entourage 2004 and Exchange 2003

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Microsoft Entourage interacts with Microsoft Exchange differently than a typical Microsoft Office client. There are some fundamental concerns that an organization should have when using Entourage with Exchange. One difference that is important to point out early in the process is the fact that Microsoft Entourage can cause Exchange database files to become bloated with streaming information in the *.stm files that is not otherwise needed. There are 3 ways to combat this when/if it occurs: 1) Run a eseutil command while the database is stopped to defrag the database. When using eseutil you will need a minimum amount of freespace available that is…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Command Line Disk Management

    Now that you are looking at a command prompt on the target server use the diskutil command to prepare the hard drives for installation.  As with the Disk Utility application, double (nay, triple) check your drives to make sure that either they are backed up or you absolutely positively do not need any of the data they contain, or you will not ever likely see your data again (my precious).  When you run diskutil list you will see a listing of all partitions on your disk as can be seen below:    #:                       TYPE NAME         …

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Mac OS X: Continuing to Reduce Image Sizes

    We discussed reducing your image size by about 700MB in this article: Mac OS X: Alex.SpeechVoice But if you’re building your image from a host that has already fired up once then there’s likely to be a 2GB or 4GB file called sleepimage in /var/vm.  This file is recreated on startup if it’s not present and needed.  This will allow you to reduce image sizes by 2GB to 4GB.  If you want to get rid of the file permanently on your imaging station you can run the following command: pmset hibernatemode 0 Since you’ll likely want systems to use this feature run the command on your imaged clients with a…

  • Mac OS X,  Windows XP

    Firefox Settings

    From Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and hit the enter key.  You should then be looking at some settings for Firefox.  You can double-click on any of these and provide more granular settings that what is possible from the stock settings preference panel.  Have fun assigning the network.proxy.gopher_port for Firefox, I hear it comes in really handy.  😉

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X Tiger: Sherlock

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Just last week, I was in the midst of celebrating my birthday. It was more or less a camping trip and, like any true geek, I brought all my techie goodies with me just in case. I had my Laptop, networking/FireWire cables, digital camera, AC inverter (so that my car could charge all my devices), and rechargeable batteries. You name it, I brought it and they all came in quite handy on the trip too. When I filled my CF card from my new Nikon D70 digital camera, my laptop was there to download the pictures and burn a CD backup just in case.…

  • Mac OS X

    Change Default Application for File Types in OS X

    You can quickly and easily change the application that is used to open a specific file.  Simply click on the file fro the Finder and then select Get Info from the File menu (or click on the file and then use the Command-I keystroke).  Once there, click on the Open with: disclosure triangle to see the application that is currently being used to open the file.  You can click on the arrows to select a new application for that file. You can also use this same screen to change the application used to open all files of a type.  To do so, click on Change All…

  • Mac OS X

    Changing the Screenshot Location in OS X

    Each user in Mac OS X can customize the location that their screenshots (aka screencaptures) will go. To do so you would edit the com.apple.screencapture property list, customizing the location key. You can easily edit this file using the defaults command. For example, if we wanted to set the location to go to a folder called screenshots in the home directory of a user we could use the following command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/screenshots You can also change the default type of screenshot which I cover here https://krypted.com//mac-os-x/mac-os-x-changing-the-default-screen-shot-format.