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TrueCrypt
Great encryption software, although there is no full disk encryption for the Mac from TrueCrypt I hope to see it eventually. By the way, I didn’t mention this yet: it’s free. http://www.truecrypt.org/ UPDATE: While TrueCrypt does not do full disk encryption (FDE) for the boot volume still, it does do FDE for other volumes fairly easily and of course free. If you need FDE for boot volumes on Mac OS X check out PGP and CheckPoint FDE. PGP Desktop is easy to install and use and has a great command line interface. CheckPoint though seems to be a bit more mature and has an easier methodology for mass deployment.
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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…
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Run Windows Apps on Mac OS X
VMware and Parallels allow you to run Windows applications on top of a Windows operating system for Mac OS X. But what if you don’t want to buy a whole operating system, install it, support it, etc.? Well, there’s another tool that may work for you. It’s called CrossOver and can be found at: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/ But it doesn’t work with just any old application. The compatibility matrix can be found here: http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/ In my testing it also didn’t work with all of the applications listed on the compatibility matrix, or it worked but there were certain features that didn’t work. So make sure to thoroughly test the applications you plan…
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AppleScript and Paths
When you’re using Applescript to script some events, you’ll need to use a path. For example, if you’re opening an application, you can use the launch application option. When you do so, you’ll need to swap out slashes (/) with colons (:). So, let’s look at Mail.app. The following command in bash would open Mail: open /Applications/Mail.app But to run in Applescript, use the following command: launch application ":Applications:TextEdit.app" or tell application ":Applications:TextEdit.app" to launch Enjoy
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WinShortcutter
Apparently the link here was bad so reposting with a good link and changing the text… From their site: Do you work in a windows dominant environment? Are your network drives packed with Windows Shortcuts that point to directories and documents? Are you tired of starting a windows machine just to change your windows domain password? Do you want to copy path names to an email? Here is the answer: WinShortcutter! WinShortcutter is a collection of small and useful utilities that are primarily focused at people working in a windows dominant office environment with a weak Mac support. http://www.lobotomo.com/products/WinShortcutter/index.html
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vm_stat
The vm_stat command in Mac OS X will show you the free, active, inactive, wired down, copy-on-write, zero filled, and reactivated pages for virtual memory utilization. You will also see the pageins as well as pageouts. If you wish to write these statistics routinely then you can use the vm_stat command followed by an integer. For example, to see the virtual memory statistics every 5 seconds: vm_stat 5
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Symbolic Link vs Alias
A symbolic link is *not* an alias. A symlink (symbolic link) is in the filesystem so all of the layers of the OS can use symlinks. This includes Carbon, Cocoa, Java, and BSD apps. Alias files are Finder-specific concept. Aliases are not used by the rest of the system. Only the Finder deals with aliases. At the Finder level, aliases and symlinks are similar, but symlinks are far more versatile and used in pretty much every flavor of *nix.
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Stay Up-to-Date on Mac Software
Version Tracker has all the latest updates on what’s new with Apple and third party software updates for the Mac: http://www.versiontracker.com
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FTP Command Line and Automation
The ftp command that runs on a Mac is similar to that from any other platform, including Windows – and not much has changed with regard to FTP for a long, long time. When using FTP you will login to an FTP server, then issue some commands, one of which will kill your session to the host. The commands you issue during an FTP session are issued in an interactive mode of the shell, where you are actually running them against the target server ls – list the contents of a directory on the FTP server cd – change the working directory on the FTP server pwd – show the…