Mac OSX Tips

SPSS 17 on Snow Leopard

2010-08-26T15:13:00.000+01:00

Follow the suggestions at the this link – but then also create a symbolic link

CurrentJDK -> 1.5

in directory /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions
By running sudo rm CurrentJDK, then sudo ln -s 1.5 CurrentJDK
Clearly this leaves your Java installation broken for anything requiring 1.6!

iOS 4 Sync Videos

2010-07-27T22:36:00.000+01:00

Summary: Import videos taken on your iPhone into iPhoto just as you import photos. To include the videos when you sync the iPhone, check Include Videos in the Photos tab of the iTunes Device page.
It took me ages to find this as I was looking for iTunes to sync videos taken on the phone – so I looked under the Films tab of the Devices page on iTunes (I guess this will be Movies if you set en-US as your language; I have en-gb). (Connect your iPhone and select it in iTunes under Devices to see this page.)
When you sync, iPhoto asks whether to import photos – and will import videos also if you've taken any. Just as with photos, you can then delete them from the camera roll. To get them to reappear on your phone, you just need to check Include Videos in the Photos tab of the Device page, then sync.
So, photos are dealt with by iPhoto; tunes are dealt with by iTunes.
—and videos?
Some videos are dealt with by iTunes; others are dealt with by iPhoto.

Python and UTF-8 on OSX: UnicodeEncodeError

2010-01-06T09:46:00.017Z

an acute problem

UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe9'

I'm on a Mac Air with the latest Snow Leopard (10.6.2). I'm using Python 2.6.4 with unicode strings. I can't print appliqué !?

I tried adding
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
at the head of my Python script, but I still get this complaint.

Solution

The encoding used for standard input, output, and standard error can be specified by setting the PYTHONIOENCODING environment variable before running the interpreter.

The value should be a string in the form <encoding> or <encoding>:<errorhandler>. The encoding part specifies the encoding’s name, e.g. utf-8 or latin-1; the optional errorhandler part specifies what to do with characters that can’t be handled by the encoding, and should be one of “error”, “ignore”, or “replace”.

export PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8

does the trick.

– or you could just add this setting to your environment file: ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist

MacPorts on Snow

2009-10-05T08:52:00.007+01:00

MacPorts on Ice?

the move from Leopard to Snow Leopard can be slippery

... emacs-app won't compile; different versions of python fall over each other; NLTK won't build ...

Here are some tips others have found helpful:

try

% sudo port selfupdate
% port installed
% sudo port uninstall installed

sudo port selfupdate: brings your MacPorts installation up to date. If this fails you should just start over
port installed: shows you what you currently have installed.
Much of what you see you won't recognise as this also lists the prerequisites installed to support the things you asked for explicitly.
sudo port uninstall installed: removes all your installed ports

or just start over

I had some problems when I moved to snow leopard, so I also removed all trace of macports

sudo rm -rf /opt/local \
/Applications/MacPorts \
/Applications/DarwinPorts \
/Library/Tcl/macports1.0 \
/Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
/Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
/Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
/Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
~/.macports

then reinstall MacPorts

use the Snow Leopard MacPorts disk image

then do

% sudo port selfupdate

check

which ports are available for snow-leopard? before you decide which ports to install.

% sudo port install  <????>

sudo port install <????>: will install whatever you specify
<????> should be a space- separated list of port names,
with no < >

There is a problem with emacs-app—and we can't work without emacs...

install `emacs-app`

To install emacs-app, first download emacs-app-Portfile-snow-leopard.patch
and
emacs-23.1-snow-leopard.patch

% sudo port clean emacs-app
% sudo port install emacs-app
% cd $(port dir emacs-app)
% sudo patch -p0 < ~/Downloads/emacs-app-Portfile-snow-leopard.patch
% sudo cp ~/Downloads/emacs-23.1-snow-leopard.patch ./files/
% sudo port -D . install

Works for me, but your mileage may vary ....

iPhone overheating

2009-08-02T23:44:00.004+01:00

If the sun gets too hot, treat your iPhone to a moist towel and a hat.

The Tech Specs say: Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C). Summers in Greece are long and dry, with temperatures often exceeding extremes of 37°C (99°F).

Sailing in Greece the temperature went high, the iPhone overheated, and defensively stopped charging—it said it was charged, which was confusing, as it wasn't. When it got really hot it just gave up altogether and shut down. Our Humminbird Fishfinder GPS unit also shut down from overheating—even before the iPhone did.

How to keep your iPhone cool? Take a moist paper towel, folded to the size of the back of the phone. Put it on the back of the phone and ensure that the air can get to it so that the moisture evaporates gradually. You'll need to take the paper towel off from time to time to moisten it again.

I also used a hat to keep the phone in the shade.

This enabled me to keep navigating with Navionics GPS software in the relentless Greek sun.

iPhone 3.0

2009-06-17T18:27:00.008+01:00

released at 17:25 GMT 230.1MB

17:28 GMT still downloading ...

17:45 GMT up and running—it feels faster

Apple don't make it easy to find the instructions for using new features.

You can test MMS by sending a picture to yourself (the interface in messages, which was SMS, lets you take and send a picture, or send one from your photo album). If MMS doesn't work, prompt O2 to direct your MMS messages to your phone (instead of to a web page as before) by texting the message "MMS" to 1010.

To see Google StreetView on maps, drop a pin on the street you want to view. The StreetView icon appears on the pin label; click it. (This isn't new to 3.0, but it's new to me.)

MacBook Air freeze: reset SMC

2009-06-10T20:26:00.007+01:00

Daily, I take my MBA to work, and connect it to my 30" cinema display. At the end of the day I disconnect and take it home. Once back home, I plug into the 24" LED display and keep on working. The MBA sleeps while I'm cycling to and fro — and wakes up when I plug it in.

Today, I got home, plugged in, and found a blank screen. I waited; nothing happened. I waited some more. Eventually I gave up waiting and did a forced shut-down, by pressing and holding the power button.

To restart, I pressed the power button. The chimes, and the apple came up just as usual; then the little wheel thing came up, but it didn't move. I waited — nothing. I plugged in, unplugged, opened. closed, shut-down (again) etc. I tried all of this again, and again, in various permutations, and with plenty of waiting — nothing. Frozen as a dead parrot!

So, I reset the System Management Controller — that worked :-)

To reset the SMC: Shutdown; plug in to mains power; hold down shift-ctrl-alt (alt is aka option) on the left side of the keyboard, and press the power key once; then release the keys, wait 5 seconds, and press the power key to restart. Effective magic!

The SMC includes the Power Management Unit (PMU) you may be familiar with from other devices.

Pipex > Tiscali >TalkTalk

2009-06-04T23:35:00.004+01:00

I've been with Pipex for years. Tiscali took over in March. A couple of weeks ago my internet service went crazy.

Some sites worked: for example, Google seemed OK.

Some sites didn't: Facebook wouldn't load.

Others were erratic. The Guardian front page loaded fine — but none of the links. FirstDirect almost worked — I could look at my balances, and set up a transfer, but the final step of confirmation would hang, and hang, and never complete.

The solution: the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) on my Speedtouch 510 was set to 1500. Tiscali (or maybe its already TalkTalk) don't do 1500 — they do 1492 (familiar as the year Columbus set sail).

My configuration file now says (in ip.ini)

ifconfig intf=loop mtu=1492 group=local
ifconfig intf=eth0 mtu=1492 group=lan
ifconfig intf=pppoa mtu=16384 group=wan

and everything appears to be back in working order.

There's a lot of discussion of different values on the web. The 16384 above is 16K, the actual MTU used by the pppoa interface (which links me to my ISP) is negotiated down from this value by the Speedtouch 510. The ip iflist command (use this via the telnet interface to the Speedtouch 510) tells you this negotiated MTU value for the pppoa interface (and also the values you have specified for the loop and eth0 interfaces). The MTU for loop and eth0 should be set to the same value as is negotiated for pppoa.

=>ip iflist
Interface       GRP MTU   RX        TX        TX-DROP  STATUS
0  loop         1   1492  2147      0         0        UP   
1  eth0         2   1492  12453866  234402217 0        UP   
2  pppoa        0   1492  234257958 12256628  0        UP

802.1X on iPhone

2009-04-28T10:13:00.018+01:00

iPhone Device Configuration

This post can also be accessed from http://tinyurl.com/8021xiphone

You can download a configuration for the University of Edinburgh central-wpa wifi, eduroam and IPsec (Cisco) VPN from http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/UoE.mobileconfig
or http://tinyurl.com/uoecfg

This is signed by me with the self-signed certificate at http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/MichaelFourmanCA.cer
or http://tinyurl.com/ouosp5

You can first download and accept the certificate, and then install the profile, or just install the profile and accept the profile on a one-off ad hoc basis when asked.

When you install the profile, you'll be asked to provide your UUN and passwords for the UoE systems. For the VPN use your UUN and EASE password; for central-wpa use your UUN and EASE password; for eduroam use an extension of your UUN as follows: @ed.ac.uk and your EASE password.

Once installed you won't need to enter these again!

Let me know if this also works for iPod Touch!

If you want to check my certificate, you may need these:

SHA1 fingerprint 8F 89 CF 00 78 C8 31 B8 6A 56 93 99 
                               13 A6 8F 2B 3B C7 2A 29
MD5 fingerprint  95 80 D6 9C C4 60 4B 86 A0 8A  6F BA 
                              22 42 38 8D
Public Key signature 52 2C 64 BC DD 9B 55 F6 A4 96 36 02 
6D EE 3C DC CE B0 58 A5 C3 8C 9E 25 D3 DD 48 94 B3 3A 
48 05 A7 26 47 5F C7 03 29 0A 2F B0 A8 1D 7C C4 9B 20 
23 57 AA 42 06 3E 9B 94 E6 B2 9D 3D BA 33 39 FC BB 5D 
4C EC 5A B7 5F B0 B2 12 1F A2 8E 93 39 C1 C0 A2 3A F8 
3A 86 24 0C AC 16 A4 36 A7 B6 B1 A5 7D 55 AB 88 DE 
3F 2E 19 AC B3 BC E4 21 44 14 01 91 FF BD 6F D6 18 07 
4A E2 BE 8E E0 A8 57 4C F3 E9 62 5A 34 63 AE BC 84 6D 
DC 19 CF D8 4B 60 67 A1 D8 40 47 59 92 88 02 86 0B 89 
C0 A8 79 22 57 FF E7 77 5B BF 9C 49 FF A9 43 70 92 07 
10 A1 0C D6 67 73 5F 95 3F AE 5D 49 40 FC 0F 49 C1 9A 
5F C4 EC 9D 7A 5D 30 2B 5F F7 2A 26 CB 4C BE 96 3D A2 
0C 81 E3 44 D4 D6 70 31 D5 E1 37 C4 41 13 49 AD 5D F4 
2B A8 60 D5 EC 69 57 0F AB 7F 03 A1 75 85 55 75 F3 C4 
D7 2A 67 E8 66

The iPhone Configuration Utility allows you to set up and install profiles that give access to 802.1X authenticated WPA wifi. It also gives you access to the iPhone console log, so you have some chance of debugging your configurations when things go wrong.

To see the console log connect to your iPhone via USB cable, your phone appears as a DEVICE—select it and the Console tab.

A profile can include a number of sections: General, Passcode, Wi-Fi, VPN, Email, Exchange, Credentials, and Advanced. It is recommended to create a number of specific profiles for different tasks, rather than one mega profile including everthing, as a modular approach is easier to manage. In particular, if you change a profile and reinstall it, you have to enter all the passwords it requires anew, so the modular approach goes faster.

After some experimentation I now have three profiles: one for WiFi+VPN, and two more for IMAP configurations for staffmail and gmail.

The first (WiFi + VPN), includes the University certificate(s), configuration for our IPSec (Cisco) VPN, and two WiFi profiles. These are University of Edinburgh service central-wpa, and the confederated EDUcation ROAming service, eduroam which should allow me connect back to the same UoE service from almost any academic institution in Europe, Japan or Australia.

It's all a bit confusing, as the documentation for our 802.1 setup is sketchy. For example, I found that I had to install not just the self-signed University of Edinburgh CA root certificate authority, for the VPN, but also the intermediate certificate authority Cybertrust Educational CA, which is the issuer for the certificates presented by the WiFi servers, and is not in the standard Apple list of System Roots. Looking at the log helps.

To add a certificate, make sure it is in the System keychain (so not tied to your administrator account on the Mac) and is trusted. Then use Keychain Access to export it as a .cer file and then import this .cer file into a profile, under the Credentials tab. Note that, even if using multiple modular profiles, you cannot install the same certificate twice.

For the VPN use your UUN and EASE password; for central-wpa use your UUN and WiFi password; for eduroam use @ed.ac.uk and your EASE password.

To test eduroam, I switch between the two WiFi profiles. Switching doesn't work properly: each time I have to make (3) repeated attempts, leaving and returning to the Settings App between attempts. Nevertheless, at least this behaviour is repeatable. I look forward to trying eduroam on the road.

Once you've done this, setting up the two Email profiles seems easy. Just set up the account, working from a tried and tested setup, by looking at the account settings for Mail on your Mac - except the Mac doesn't tell you which port it uses for SMTP. On my University account I use imap.staffmail.ed.ac.uk:993 for incoming, and the authenticated smtp.inf.ed.ac.uk:465 for outgoing. For Gmail it's imap.gmail.com:993 and smtp.gmail.com:587. Note the small twist: secure SMTP on Gmail uses port 587, whereas the Informatics authenticated SMTP uses 465. It seems Google does the right thing and 465 is non-standard legacy stuff!

I can't get my Pipex mail set up this way because the Tiscali certificate presented doesn't match the server address. I can override this error if I install the setting by sync with the Mac in iTunes, or enter it manually, but if I set up a profile, it just fails—and the console log says, "an SSL error occurred".

Wireless Keyboard lost?

2009-04-14T22:30:00.012+01:00

How to make a bluetooth device a favorite

My MacBook Air has problems finding my wireless keyboard. It is paired, but not seen. I have to go through the whole rigmarole of adding a new device to make it visible. Why?

Sometimes Bluetooth preferences lets me connect; sometimes not.

My Keyboard isn't a favourite! Solving this should be easy—just use Bluetooth panel in System Preferences.

There's an obvious button to press in Tiger; but on Leopard it's hidden.

Solution

Open Bluetooth Preferences ...

Select your device (Keyboard or whatever).

For an immediate fix select Connect from the settings menu.

For something longer-lasting, select Show More Info

The trick: From the settings menu (which has now changed) select Add to Favorites. You're done.

Sometimes it shows connected but still no keystrokes appear: Disconnect and then Connect using the settings menu.

MacTex

2009-04-01T06:29:00.007+01:00

Finally, I found the solution for LaTeX on the Mac. I've been using MacTex for a month or so and it seems really solid. It has its own updater, the TeXLive utility, which allows you to keep your installation up to date. Your own local styles can be installed in ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex. BibTeX .bib files go in ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib or subfolders of this directory, and .bst files go in ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bst or subfolders of this directory.

A system local texmf tree, which can be accessed by all users on a machine, can supposedly (untested by me) be placed in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local.

This installation includes LaTeXiT, a utility I've mentioned before, that lets you easily produce PDF, EPS, TIFF, PNG, or JPEG files from LaTeX snippets. It can produce fully scalable PDFs with stroked fonts, for inclusin in presentations and posters. LaTeXiT also includes a LaTeX palette that allows you to select AMS symbols, operators, arrows, etc. from a graphical display.

LaTeXiT stores the LaTeX source within the PDF document it produces—if you want to edit your presentation later, just paste the PDF back into LaTeXiT and you can edit the source. Unfortunately, Keynote 5.0.1 doesn't seem able to access the LaTeXiT services, and LinkBack doesn't seem to work—but cut-and-paste isn't so hard.

The Grapher utility (in Applications/Utilities) also integrates with LaTex. Type a formula into Grapher, which provides a fairly intelligent wysiwyg interface (use ^ for exponents, / for fractions, "log" for log, "pi" for π, etc.). The arrow keys (all four of them) allow you to move around. Ctrl-(or right-)click on the selected equation will allow you to copy the LaTeX source for this equation (and it normally makes a better job of the latexography than I do).

Skype on iPhone–iChat next?

2009-03-31T06:02:00.004+01:00

VoIP on iPhone. Find free Skype for iPhone on the App Store.

It works–Skype calls over WiFi–and the quality seems better than Fring or TruPhone.

Why hasn't Apple got an iPhone version of iChat yet–or Gizmo5 to give us a free SIP phone?

USB Ethernet "not connected"?

2009-03-25T21:38:00.006Z

Oh, yes it is!

"Oh, no it isn't," says System Preferences.

Physically it is connected. The ethernet works fine when I try it with another laptop. But my MacBook Air has no network connection.

Solution

Not sure what causes this, but it seems to arise when moving from one network to another — work to home. Until Apple fix their bug, one workaround is as follows:

Open System Preferences >> Network
Select USB Ethernet in the ports list.
Click the - sign at the bottom of the ports list to delete your existing USB Ethernet port
Click the + sign, to add a new one; select the new one click Apply.

If you're lucky (it's worked for me a couple of times already) you will find that, after a short pause, the USB Ethernet n port you just created now works as normal.

If the option to create a USB Ethernet port doesn't appear, check that you have the ethernet adapter dongle plugged in. This seems to be neccessary.

If it still doesn't appear (sometimes it doesn't), restart and try again. This has always worked for me (so far).

Wireless again

2009-03-14T11:52:00.007Z

As long-time readers of this blog will know, I have an extended wireless network. It now includes two daisy-chains and one spur: a daisy-chain on 802.11n (5GHz) with a TimeCapsule (which has internet connection from my ADSL modem/router) and two Extremes; a daisy-chain on 802.11g (2.5GHz) with older kit — two Extremes (one connected by ethernet to the remote end of the 802.11n chain) and three Expresses.

Autoconfigure was a welcome feature of the 802.11n Express. It was great — when it worked — but it was always flakey.

With the 7.4.1 firmware update my setup became completely unstable. In particular, whenever Time Machine started a backup the network would auto-reconfigure, and break. I had to use an ethernet connection direct to the Time Capsule to make a backup. I've now reverted to a manual setup of the WDS with explicit MAC numbers. All appears stable, my iPhone is back on WiFi and backup over wireless is working again.

If you're having problems with an autoconfigured wireless network, try going back to manually configured WDS. Use Airport Utility. First make a note of the Airport ID (MAC number) for each of your devices. Then, one-by-one switch from Create a Wireless Network or Extend a Wireless Network to Participate in a WDS Network. A WDS tab will appear. Under this tab you can see (and manually adjust) the autoconfigured setup. In my case I found that two Extremes were trying to act as WDS main.

As usual, be careful to update the various access points in an order that doesn't leave you unable to access some device over wireless. If you do get into that sorry state, a direct ethernet connection can be used to reconfigure the lost device.

Google Base encoding woes

2009-03-09T07:45:00.014Z

Google Base lets you upload descriptions of goods, services, publications—or whatever—to enable the world to find your stuff.

You can do this item-by-item, using a web form, or in bulk by submitting an RSS or Atom feed as an xml file.

So far, so good ...

But ...

If you want to use extended character sets (eg. characters, ξ € я þ ø æ œ and accents, å ç ê ñ ü ) you will naturally use utf-8 or unicode encoding.

So, I set up the feed for utf-8 encoding, and uploaded the xml using Direct Upload via Google Base, Google's file upload interface ...

Once my feed was processed, Google said, Your data feed contains an invalid character for the current encoding setting.

I tried File Transfer Protocol, uploading via ftp to google.uploads.com. Google still didn't get the right encoding (I think Google was at fault here).

I tried Automatic upload via scheduling. This probably failed because my ISP's server insists on sending a content header saying it is serving everything in ascii—Google did the "right thing" and believed this travesty.

So, nothing worked: Your data feed contains an invalid character for the current encoding setting.

Solution: use `xsl:output` to encode your feed in ascii

Here is a simple xsl transform to copy an xml file and change its encoding. The important line is the attribute encoding="us-ascii", in the xsl:output element.

toascii.xsl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:transform version="1.0"
        xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output
     method="xml"
     version="1.0"
     encoding="us-ascii"
     />

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:apply-templates />
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template 
     match="*|@*|comment()
             |processing-instruction()|text()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates
    select="*|@*|comment()
             |processing-instruction()|text()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:transform>

utf8.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sample>
  characters, ξ € я þ ø æ œ 
  and  accents, å ç ê ñ ü
</sample>

Executing the command

xsltproc -o ascii.xml toascii.xsl utf8.xml

produces an ascii-encoded version:

ascii.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
<sample>
  characters, &#958; &#8364; &#1103; &#254; &#248; &#230; &#339; 
  and  accents, &#229; &#231; &#234; &#241; &#252;
</sample>

If you are already using xsl to produce your feed, just add encoding="us-ascii" to the xsl:output element. If you have it by some other means you can use the identity transform given above.

Adjust brightness for 24 inch LED Cinema Display?

2009-03-07T12:24:00.003Z

I think that the F1/F2 keys on my MacBook Air used to adjust brightness of the primary display. In any event, they certainly don't now (10.5.6) allow me to adjust the brightness of my 24" LED display—they adjust the brightness of the MacBook Air screen, whichever display is selected as Primary.

However, the Display tabs of the Display panels of System Preferences allow you to adjust the brightness of each display independently.

ant ftp task libraries: jakarta-oro; commons-net

2009-02-16T21:27:00.010Z

A problem

My installed version of ant (I presume from Developer Tools) doesn't support the ftp task:

$ which ant
/usr/bin/ant
$ ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.7.0 compiled on August 25 2008
$ ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Available
ftp : Not Available (the implementation class is not present)
$

The manual says To use the FTP task, you need jakarta-oro 2.0.8 or later, and commons-net

Sounds simple—just find the right .jar files and put them in ~/.ant/lib

jakarta-oro-2.0.8.jar is easy to find.

commons-net-2.0.jar is also easy to find, as is commons-net-ftp-2.0.jar —but they don't work. For example:

$ ls ~/.ant/lib
commons-net-2.0.jar jakarta-oro-2.0.8.jar
$ /usr/bin/ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Avail
ftp : Not Available (the implementation class is not present)
$

ant-commons-net-1.7.1.jar does work with Ant version 1.7.0 — and you can find it if you look.

But there is an easier way...

The solution

Update to Ant version 1.7.1 (I did this from MacPorts with Porticus; Fink also has this version):

$ which ant
/opt/local/bin/ant
$ ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.7.1 compiled on June 27 2008
$ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Available
$ ls ~/.ant/lib
$

The MacPorts installation includes the requisite java archives. (I haven't tested the Fink install.)

Starting over (again)

2008-12-27T11:17:00.029Z

Lovely new MacBook Air — light as a feather pillow.

Power up.
Switch on.: My Air arrived with zero charge. I had a nervous few minutes with no response from the power button. I had time to read the FAQ, try again, and panic briefly before it eventually had enough charge to start up.
Setup admin account
Setup wireless
Software update: This may take some time (for me this was an 870MB download). While waiting you can Install Firefox
Software update again: Repeat until there are no further updates
Migrate user data from your TimeCapsule backup: Do this over ethernet, unless you want a long wait (I had 40GB to migrate. I get 2-3GB/h over a wire connected to my remote Express — 1.5GB/h with two wireless hops, and 7-8GB/h when wired directly to the Time Capsule.)
Setup user accounts: Include a working account for yourself
Configure Time Machine Backup for your new machine. Start the initial backup.: This will take even more time (my initial backup is requires transfer of 55GB of data).; You can carry on with other tasks meanwhile. You can interrupt the process ("Stop Backing Up" in the Time Machine Menu), and resume later. Again, do as much of this as possible over a wired connection, to speed things up.
Use Calaboration to sync your Google calendars with iCal
Install Fink and Fink Commander: This allows you to install and manage various Unix utilities. I start with emacs-carbon.
Install MacPorts and Porticus: This also allows you to install and manage various Unix utilities and for many has more up-to-date versions. It also has a port of polyml. I start with polyml, tetex, bibtex2html and hevea. Porticus doesn't have carbon-emacs.
Install Kerberos Extras: Our "staffmail" imap server supports Kerberos authentication - just use the realm EASE.ED.AC.UK and your EASE user name and password. Unfortunately Apple haven't yet implemented this fundtionality on the iPhone — so syncing broke my email on the iPhone.; Change back to password authentication; sync again, so mail on the iPhone is back to normal; turn off sync; turn on Kerberos authentication on the Mac.
Install Developer Tools: Apart from anything else, this is probably the easiest way to get CVS installed.
Download iPhone SDK: Useful for the iPhone emulator which lets you see how your web pages will look on the iPhone. Maybe someday I'll write some code too!
Turn on the Safari Develop menu: To display the Develop menu in Safari 3.1 or higher, select the checkbox labeled "Show Develop menu in menu bar" in Safari's Advanced Preferences panel.

Channel 13: Leopard Wireless Card Locale

2008-12-12T20:41:00.006Z

Channel 13 is legal in the UK and many other locales, but not in the USofA.

Since most default setups use channel 6 or channel 1, those of us looking for uncrowded channels often find 13 is uncluttered.

When I did a recently clean install of Leopard, I found that my channel 13 network disappeared — invisible!

Update (2009-03-09) It seems that the 10.5.6 update (I installed it on 2008-12-27) has changed something so this tip no longer works!

Although my MacBook Time Zone was set to Edinburgh - Scotland (you can set this in System Preferences, under Date&Time), I found that my Wireless Card Locale was set to US (which disables channel 13).

You can check your Wireless Card Locale by going to "About This Mac" > "More Info ..." > "Network; Airport Card".

The solution was to set the Time Zone to Tokyo then restart. Wireless Card Locale is then "Worldwide" and channel 13 is enabled.

Setting the Time Zone back to "Edinburgh - Scotland" and restarting again gives me "Worldwide" — but setting Time Zone to "Los Angeles - USA", and restarting, sets it back to "US".

iPhone Google Voice Search Arrives!

2008-11-18T04:27:00.010Z

Google Mobile App

Out with the old; in with the new.

It doesn't appear as an update, in the iTunes store, the post date and version number appear unchanged (see the image) — ignore that! Just delete the old one then get the Google Mobile App again from the AppStore. Apple will tell you the update is free since you already bought this App. The packaging is still old, but Now the update appears and the packaging is updated too the app inside is new (version 0.3.142.951) and it does do voice search.

Time Machine hangs? Spotlight responsible?

2008-10-26T21:42:00.008Z

Time Machine and Spotlight run slowly over wireless...

So slowly, that it appears that the system has hung.

Time Machine is great — but ...

Making the first backup of a 60GB of data takes a very long time over wireless.

Making a large incremental backup, after being away for a week, or more takes a very long time over wireless. Even over 802.11n I find Time Machine, backing up over my WDS, manages about 1MB/sec. Say 1GB takes 16 minutes, then 60GB takes 16 hours!

If Spotlight is indexing the backup while the backup is changing, things go even slower.

Solution: For the first backup, or for an incremental backup after you've been on the road, first turn of Spotlight indexing for the backup. Then connect your Mac by ethernet cable directly to the LAN port on the Time Capsule, and leave it to chunter away overnight. Finally, turn indexing on to let Spotlight digest the backup.

To see what Time machine and Spotlight are up to, use the console to inspect the logs. Set the filter so you see messages from backupd. You should see a sequence of messages appear slowly (but no longer very slowly), like this:

Starting standard backup 
Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/Data 
Disk image /Volumes/Data/myMacBook0016cb896cb9.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook 
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook/Backups.backupdb 
No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.21 GB requested (including padding), 801.41 GB available 
Copied 22 files (24.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. 
Starting post-backup thinning 
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist 
Backup completed successfully.

Each line starts with date and time and the label /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[22205]

Note:

Spotlight should be allowed to index your backup — so that you can find valuable nuggets of information lost in the past. Spotlight is also very slow if it has to index 60GB over wireless — if you do this, your log may also include lines like:

Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook/Backups.backupdb

The solution is the same — when Spotlight has lots of changed stuff to index in the backup, let it work over ethernet. If you unplug and go wireless immediately your big backup is done, Spotlight will spend a long time catching up — and it won't let the next hourly backup begin until it has caught up.

Spotlight crashes

In addition, spotlight crashes: mdworker does the Spotlight indexing — you may find messages like this:

Formulating crash report for process mdworker[22921] 
(0x10c720.mdworker[22921]) Exited abnormally: Bus error

When this happens, it slows things down even more. It's a bug — every crash is a bug. Some discussions suggest that it may by triggered when Spotlight attempts to index ill-formatted emails.

You can tell Spotlight not to index emails — and it may have some effect. Waiting patiently also seems to work — and I need to be able to search for mail by content, so I have to let Spotlight index my mail.

iPhone ... cannot be synced (error 13014)

2008-10-03T22:39:00.005+01:00

The iPhone ... cannot be synced.
An unknown error occurred (13014).

This occurred after the iTunes 8.01 (11) update. Restarting the Mac seems to cure it.

iPhone Screen Capture

2008-09-30T06:14:00.004+01:00

To screen grab: While holding the Home button, click the on/off/lock button.

You will find an image file among your photos. Download it to iPhoto. Export as PNG, TIFF or JPEG.

VPN on iPhone L2TP/IPsec

2008-09-30T05:17:00.020+01:00

Settings > VPN > Add VPN configuration...

To connect to `vpn2.net.ed.ac.uk` ...

Account: <your UUN>
Password: <your EASE password>
Secret: <find it here>
No cheating in the library!

Save

ENTITY —(X)HTML entities in XML for XSLT

2008-09-20T10:40:00.013+01:00

You can use character entities in your XML provided you declare them.

Add a DOCTYPE to your XML — all you need is the name of your root tag (my document in the example below is a recipe) and a reference to the special character sets you want.

for example

XML-compatible ISO Special Character Entity Set for XHTML

— including lt gt mdash quot euro

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE recipe [
       <!ENTITY % xhtml-special
           PUBLIC "-//W3C//ENTITIES Special for XHTML//EN"
       "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-special.ent" >
       %xhtml-special;
]>
<recipe>
  ...
</recipe>

other standard character sets

You can add more declarations to the DOCTYPE mdash just add them between the square brackets [...]

XML-compatible ISO Latin 1 Character Entity Set for XHTML

— fractions, accented characters, pound, yen, cent, copy

       <!ENTITY % xhtml-lat1
           PUBLIC "-//W3C//ENTITIES Latin 1 for XHTML//EN"
       "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-lat1.ent" >
       %xhtml-lat1;

ISO Math, Greek and Symbolic Character Entity Set for XHTML

       <!ENTITY % xhtml-symbol
           PUBLIC "-//W3C//ENTITIES Symbols for XHTML//EN"
       "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-symbol.ent" >
       %xhtml-symbol;

Printing in the Forum

2008-06-22T12:39:00.009+01:00

Updated for Snow Leopard 2009-10-21.

The print-server address is printif.inf.ed.ac.uk

You can look up the available printers with the DICE command printers
[tammy]mfourman: printers if213m0 HP 4100DTN - IF213 if237c0 Canon iRC3080i multi-function device in IF237 if313m0 HP8150DN - IF313 if336c0 Canon iRC3080i multi-function device in IF336 if413m0 HP8150DN - IF413 if435c0 Canon iRC3080i multi-function device in IF435 if536c0 Canon iRC3580i multi-function device in IF536

You should install and select the Canon iR C3080/3480/3580 PPD Canon UFR_II_V200_MacOSX_us_EN.dmg File for Mac OS X for the multi-function (scan-print-copy) Canon devices.

You probably already have the HP drivers. If the configuration is not attached to the printer, you can print it using the printer's menu buttons.

Safari 4 beta scores 100/100 on acid3

2008-06-22T12:29:00.013+01:00

Update 2009-02-24 This is now a public beta from Apple.

If you are registered as an ADC member (go to http://developer.apple.com/ then to the ADC member site link to register for free), you can now download the Safari 4 Developer Preview.

This this is very fast and very compliant: 100/100 on the Acid3 test. (Firefox 3.0.5 scores 71/100.)

First Direct online banking now works fine (and fast).

Starting over: MacPorts

2008-04-30T08:06:00.008+01:00

As a long-term Fink user, I've found it hard to summon up the energy to move to Macports (previously known as Darwin Ports), until now. A dead disk provided the necessary impetus to overcome this energy barrier.

MacPorts—so I am told by friends I trust—is closer to the Mac zeitgeist, and has more packages available in fresher versions.

My first experience was not good. I tried the standard install from .dmg with two fresh, fully updated installs of Leopard + x11 + XCode Tools—one on my ageing MBP; one on a sparking new MacBook Air. Neither succeeded in creating the code>.profile that is supposed to adjust the PATH environment variable.

You should start with a standard install as it does almost everything—and may even do it all, for some it succeeds.

In the environment of a shell accessing packages installed by MacPorts, PATH should include /opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin and MANPATH should include /opt/local/share/man. The standard install is meant to create a .profile to achieve this. It didn't.

Googling macports leopard profile led to various suggestions (as usual, others have encountered this problem before me). One of these works—others don't.

Do not add the new paths to /etc/paths and /etc/manpaths.

Do not add new files named macports or MacPorts, containing the new paths, to /etc/paths.d/ and /etc/manpaths.d/.

Do create a file ~/.profile containing the following code:

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/man:$MANPATH

Then you can type sudo port -d update in a fresh terminal window, to update your MacPorts installation, and sudo port install emacs-app, for example, to install a Cocoa version of emacs.

You'll find the Emacs installed as a regular application in /Applications/MacPorts/.

Note: If you already have a .bash_profile or .bash_login, you can and should append the commands above to that file, and optionally rename rename that file as .profile, instead of creating a new .profile.

Explanation: (for the full story try man bash)

When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a  non-inter-active  shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists.   After  reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one  that exists  and  is  readable.

Fixing mail.app’s IMAP date problem

2008-04-28T06:18:00.008+01:00

Using imapsync to migrate mail from one IMAP server to another, I hit a problem. Google led me to the following description of the same issue:

The IMAP Date problem is the result of how mail.app figures out the Date Received time for an email. Rather than using the Date: header in the email it uses the time the file was written to the file system. This becomes a problem when files are copied to a new location on the server and the creation time of the file is changed.

Not mail.app's problem!

The solution is to use imapsync with the flag --syncinternaldates

I am now using

/usr/bin/imapsync --syncinternaldates \
     --host1 mail.inf.ed.ac.uk --user1 mfourman --ssl1 \
     --host2 imap.staffmail.ed.ac.uk --user2 mfourman -ssl2 \
     --noauthmd5

to finish the transfer of about 4GB of mail history.

To start, try it out on a small folder --folder Test

First test with --dry :

/usr/bin/imapsync --syncinternaldates  --folder Test \
     --host1 mail.inf.ed.ac.uk --user1 mfourman --ssl1 \
     --host2 imap.staffmail.ed.ac.uk --user2 mfourman -ssl2 \
     --noauthmd5 --delete --dry

If everything looks OK then run

/usr/bin/imapsync --syncinternaldates  --folder Test \
     --host1 mail.inf.ed.ac.uk --user1 mfourman --ssl1 \
     --host2 imap.staffmail.ed.ac.uk --user2 mfourman -ssl2 \
     --noauthmd5 --delete

Expunge from the source by hand (in Mail.app Mailbox > Erase Deleted Messages).

Using the --expunge flag upsets other users of the IMAP server:

Currently it is processing folder which is 100MB in size, it is deleting (and then expunging) one message at a time. The way that is implemented on the server, is that the message is deleted, and then the whole file is written out again with that one message removed. This is leading to a lot of disk IO.

That's the short story. The actual story was more involved and also included using my gmail IMAP account as a temporary buffer to recover from some false starts. (Free 6.5GB quota - thank you Google!)

Opaque Leopard Menu Bar

2008-04-26T23:56:00.004+01:00

Many find the translucent menu bar in Leopard disconcerting. There are several tips posted elsewhere suggesting various hacks involving obscure environment variables to turn off this feature.

Apple did it for you! (since 10.5.2)

Go to System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver. Uncheck the Translucent Menu Bar checkbox. You're done!

emacs: Fatal malloc_jumpstart() error

2008-04-26T00:38:00.007+01:00

Emacs fails with the error Fatal malloc_jumpstart() error

Black Magic

In a Terminal window type

$ sudo mv /usr/bin/emacs-i386 /usr/bin/emacs-i386.backup
$ sudo /usr/libexec/dumpemacs -d
$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.1.1
...

(Here, $ is the shell prompt.)

Once youve checked all is OK you can remove the backup

$ sudo rm /usr/bin/emacs-i386.backup

Time Capsule

2008-04-13T11:33:00.008+01:00

Setup

Time Capsule is an airport extreme base station (802.11 a, b, g, n) with built-in hard drive for backup.

You set up the base station as usual, using AirPort Utility.

You can use your old base station to create a WDS network and extend your wifi coverage to attic or garden – or share with a neighbor. In any case, APPL say, you should make the Time Capsule your main base station – the one directly connected to your ISP.

If you just have 802.11n-capable access points you can let your network autoconfigure. Choose a common Network Name, Wireless Security and Password. Under Airport > Wireless set the main base station to Create a wireless network; set the other base stations to Extend a wireless network.

A domestic ISP typically gives you internet access via a single IP address. Depending on your ADSL or cable hardware you have various options for setting up your system to distribute local IP addresses to clients on your local network.

My ADSL modem is a speedtouch router. It provides a DHPC server with optional MAC authentication. WDS setup is simple: each base station is configured to get its own IP address as a DHCP client, and to act as a bridge passing wifi client traffic to and from the ADSL modem.

If your ADSL or cable modem isn't set up as a DHCP server, you can get the Time Capsule (or any Airport base station) to do this. Set the main base station to "Share a public IP Address" (under Internet).

If your modem provides a range of addresses that clients can select manually, you can set the main base station to distribute these. Select "Distribute a range of IP addresses."

Backup

Time Machine sometimes gets confused and can't mount the backup disk. Apple say the volume name should be shorter than 27 characters. Elsewhere they say it should be purely alphanumeric [0-9,a-z,A-Z]*

Extreme 7.3.1 firmware update

2008-03-24T23:39:00.006Z

All went smoothly, but now my remote base stations (I have a WDS daisy chain 4 links long - see earlier post) don't show in Airport Utility. Still connected - I can ping them just fine, and the remote airTunes express shows up in iTunes.

Update this seems to have been a temporary problem. Everything is now visible again.

All my airports (7 at last count) are configured in bridge mode - my speedtouch adsl modem router provides a DHCP server. On the bright side, this update seems to have helped with one issue: the 802.11n extremes now seem to pick up an IP address from my router using DHCP (previously I found this didn't work and had set manual IP addresses as a work-around).

application/x-mplayer2 plugin

2008-03-24T20:47:00.003Z

Problems with BBC radio-player?

You need the Flip4Mac internet plugin. Download it free from microsoft. Use the "customize" button when installing to select the browser plugin.

Uninstall SPSS

2008-03-09T06:35:00.004Z

installer tells me that a there is still a previous version of SPSS 16 on my mac

SPSS is great, but ...

The Mac install is clunky. If you've aborted an install and want to start again, or you just want to get some space free, you have to remove the old installation.

You've removed all files and directories matching *spss* (and, for good measure, youve also tried *SPSS*), and you can't start again because the installer complains that you haven't removed a previous installation.

remove InstallShield (probably sitting in your home directory) and start again!

If you want to get rid of an older version, and you haven't yet started, use the uninstaller installed with SPSS,

SPSS know about the problem

They say:

Problem Subject: Trying to install SPSS 16 for the Mac yields an error message that there is already a previous flavor

Problem Description: I am trying to re-install SPSS 16 for the Macintosh and I am unable to do so because during the installation I am met with an error message telling me that there is already a previous flavor of SPSS on this machine and that it must be removed before a new install can take place. What is the reason for this message and how can I resolve this so that I can install SPSS 16 for the Macintosh?

Resolution Subject: Completely remove the previous installation of SPSS 16 from this machine

Resolution Description: The reason this is happening is that the previous installation of SPSS 16 for the Macintosh was not uninstalled correctly. If you merely trashed the application folder then SPSS 16 was not uninstalled. The uninstall function is found with the SPSS 16 applcation in the 'Applications' folder. In order to resolve this issue if SPSS 16 is not removed through the uninstall process please go into the 'Users' folder on the main operating systems hard drive. In here you should find a house with your login name on it and you should go into this item. In this house (folder), please trash the following:

~/initspssmac

~/InstallShield (directory, remove the whole thing)

~/Library/Preferences/com.spss.spss for mac.plist

Now empty your trash. Now you will be able to re-install SPSS 16 for the Macintosh.

free iPhone SDK

2008-03-09T06:17:00.005Z

Apple say:

``Start your development today with the free iPhone SDK ...''

... not quite: this is a 2.1GB download, and it looks as though AAPL wasn't ready for the demand. Currently at 7% after seven hours, and just picking up speed (presumably as the US goes to sleep): occasional bursts of action, but still very slow—10 hours to go...

Wireless Woes

2008-03-02T20:59:00.004Z

Strange behaviour: Everything was fine, working with my MBP on a multi-AP WDS network of new Airport Extreme base stations; move to another floor, just next to an AP, can't see the signal, or rather I see it fleetingly, get asked for password, then it disappears. My first conclusion is that the AP must be caput, but back upstairs, where I started, I now see no signal.

Another laptop can see the signal fine. I try manually changing network setup, restart, shutdown, even taking out the battery then restart. Still no wifi connection. I conclude that the wifi card in my laptop must be damaged, or at least have a dodgy aerial connection.

Back at home I still have the same problem—and neither Airport Utility, nor iStumbler can see the signal either. I think I'll try looking at the wifi card.

To check on how to do that I need to get online. So I find an ethernet cable and connect a LAN port on one of my base stations. I'm now online, as expected, but I didn't expect to see Airport Utility and iStumbler burst into life just because I made a wired connection. Everything looks normal, and Network preferences now says I have a wireless connection.

I unplug the ethernet cable, and everything stays fine; back to normal. I don't pretend to understand why.

update

It happened again!

Same symptoms - persisting across two different WDS networks.

Again, recovery coincided with my decision to give up hope and use a wired connection to my base station.

Crazy!

AJAX demystified: import xml

2008-01-20T21:53:00.000Z

Here's the barebones of a javascript function that will request xml from a url configured to return xml (text/xhtml+xml or application/xml for example) and then asynchronously add a selected fragment of the returned xml as a child of some node on your page; this target node is selected by id.


function getXML(url, toGet, id){ 
  var request = new window.XMLHttpRequest();
   // for IE use ActiveXObject instead

  function load(){
      var content, node;
      if(request.readyState == 4 &&
         request.status == 200){
         content = document.adoptNode(
           request.responseXML.getElementById(toGet));
         node = document.getElementById(id);
         node.appendChild(content);
    } // should handle null response or failure
  }

  if(request){
      request.open("POST", url, true);
      request.setRequestHeader("Accept","application/xml");
      request.onreadystatechange=load;
      request.send(null);
  }// else ...
}

This will work on a gecko browser, if you have everything set up properly. You'll have to expand it to make it robust, as per the comments (and more).

Example xhtml to call this:

<div id="putInfoHere" />
<span class="button" 
  onmouseup='javascript:getXML(
    "http://my.site.net/contact.xhtml",
    "address",
    "putInfoHere");'>Get Info</span>

The file contact.xhtml should have an element such as <div id="address">...</div> with the matching id. This will be harvested. The clever part is that the harvested code still lives in the correct namespace. So imported markup is correctly interpreted as xhtml.

Make sure files are served with an appropriate mime-type. With apache you can do this using .htaccess :

AddType application/xhtml+xml .xhtml

A future post will have more, on how to send text or xml data to a script using httpRequest with POST instead of GET.

AJAX demystified: import text; async cgi

2008-01-20T05:34:00.000Z

Here's the barebones of a javascript function that will request text from a url configured to return text (text/plain or text/plain for example) and then asynchronously put the returned text into a textarea element (or any other element with a value field) on your page; this target element is selected by id.

function getText(url, id){ 
  var request = new window.XMLHttpRequest();
  // for IE use ActiveXObject instead

  function load(){
    if(request.readyState == 4 &&
         request.status == 200){
      document.getElementById(id).value
        = request.responseText;
  // should handle null response or failure
  }}

  if(request){
      request.open("GET", url, true);
      request.setRequestHeader("Accept","text/*");
      request.onreadystatechange=load;
      request.send(null);
  } // else ...
}

This will work on a gecko browser, if you have everything set up properly. You'll have to expand it to make it robust, as per the comments (and more).

Example html and javascript to call this (note how the call uses the id of the textarea):

<textarea id="putInfoHere" />
<span class="button" 
  onmouseup='javascript:getText(
    "http://my.site.net/info.txt",
    "putInfoHere");'>Get Info</span>

Make sure text files are served with an appropriate mime-type. With apache you can do this using .htaccess :

AddType text/plain .txt

You can replace info.txt with a cgi script that produces a header and info on stdout. For example (with otherwise pointless sleep to demonstrate asynchrony), put the following mydate.cgi in a cgi-enabled directory:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Content-type: text/plain\n"
date
sleep 2
date

Change the URL in your html accordingly, and make sure your script is executable chmod +x mydate.cgi

A future post will have more, on how to receive xml instead of text and how to send text or xml data to a script using httpRequest with POST instead of GET.

Mac OS X 10.5: Web Sharing - "Forbidden 403"

2008-01-15T14:22:00.000Z

In what follows, substitute your short username for myshortname

Create the file
/etc/apache2/users/myshortname.conf
containing the following text:

<Directory "/Users/myshortname/Sites/">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Set the group and owner as follows:
sudo chown root:wheel /etc/apache2/users/myshortname.conf

Restart apache by switching Web Sharing off then on in System Preferences.

Block Microsoft messenger on Speedtouch router

2007-12-13T20:46:00.000Z

Blocking tcp traffic from two ranges of IP addresses on ports 80 and 1863 prevents MSN messengerlogin and initialisation.

You can input the following via telnet login to your speedtouch (telnet -l <user> 10.0.0.138) for temporary use—to revert to saved configuration use system reboot, save or add it to the firewall section of user.ini for a permanent block. (View source to see lines split here.)

firewall chain create chain=nomsn

firewall rule create chain=nomsn prot=tcp srcport=1863 src=65.52.0.0/14 action=drop
firewall rule create chain=nomsn prot=tcp srcport=1863 src=207.46.0.0/16 action=drop

firewall rule create chain=nomsn prot=tcp srcport=80 src=65.52.0.0/14 action=drop
firewall rule create chain=nomsn prot=tcp srcport=80 src=207.46.0.0/16 action=drop

firewall assign hook=input chain=nomsn

exit

See CLI reference for your model.

* 
*                             ______ 
*                         ___/_____/\
*                        /         /\\ Alcatel, Speed Touch 510 ADSL modem
*                  _____/__       /  \\ 
*                _/       /\_____/___ \   Version R3.7.2.1 
*               //       /  \       /\ \ 
*       _______//_______/    \     / _\/______ Copyright (c) 1999-2001 Alcatel 
*      /      / \       \    /    / /        /\
*   __/      /   \       \  /    / /        / _\__ 
*  / /      /     \_______\/    / /        / /   /\
* /_/______/___________________/ /________/ /___/  \ 
* \ \      \    ___________    \ \        \ \   \  /
*  \_\      \  /          /\    \ \        \ \___\/
*     \      \/          /  \    \ \        \  /
*      \_____/          /    \    \ \________\/
*           /__________/      \    \  /
*           \   _____  \      /_____\/
*            \ /    /\  \    /___\/
*             /____/  \  \  /
*             \    \  /___\/
*              \____\/
*

ClamAV an open-source anti-virus toolkit

2007-12-07T08:00:00.000Z

Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is an open-source anti-virus toolkit for UNIX, released under GPL. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi- threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates. The core of the package is an anti-virus engine available in a form of shared library.

ClamAV is included in both Fink and DarwinPorts, or can be downloaded directly from sourceforge

Configuration

You have to edit the configuration files. See the manual pages for details:

man freshclam.conf
man clamd.conf

You have to edit both files. On a Fink install, you'll find them in /sw/etc/. For other setups, locate clam.conf should find them.

Programs

clamconf -n tells you what non-defaults are set in your configuration.
clamscan -r directory recursively scans a directory.
freshclam updates your virus definitions.

man clamconf
man clamdscan
man clamscan
man freshclam

I added the following line to /sw/etc/anacrontab

   1       25        clamscan         nice /sw/bin/freshclam -quiet

When you check your imported software (for a Fink installation, do this by running the command sudo clamscan -r /sw) you should find a few ''infected'' files. For example:
/sw/src/clamav-0.91.2.tar.gz: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND
There are a few more examples in /sw/share/doc/clamav/test/. If you don't find these test cases, check your configuration.

The malware I have found is exclusively in spam mail and cached java applets.

clamdscan ˜/Library/Caches/Java\ Applets
clamdscan ˜/Library/mail\ Downloads

You can remove offending files by hand, or use the --remove option when calling clamdscan.

X11 on Leopard

2007-12-02T15:58:00.000Z

X11.app won't launch for me - a quick google tells me that others have the same problem.

The idea under Leopard is that X11 will launch automatically as required, so just typing xterm in a Terminal window will launch a xterm window.

But for me this didn't work, since I had set DISPLAY = 0:0

To check, type echo $DISPLAY if the response is 0:0 (as you might expect) you need to remove the entry for DISPLAY from environment.plist (double-click on the file and the property list editor should open). On the other hand something bizarre:

mfourman$ echo $DISPLAY
/tmp/launch-SKAysC/:0

seems to be fine!

Note that some applications may set the DISPLAY variable on startup. I had to retire sshLogin (a Mac port of sshAskPass) because it insists on doing this. So I'm back to using ssh-add from the terminal to set up my ssh identity before launching xterm.

Connecting via ssh from the xterm then sets up an X11 connection so that remote X applications can use your Mac screen. Use ssh -X to forward X11 connections, or set this up, for hosts you trust, in your ssh configuration.

Your ssh configuration depends on various files in ˜/.ssh:

authorized_keys config identity  identity.pub  known_hosts

You can set your ˜/.ssh/config on a per-host basis: for example

# Any configuration value is only changed the first time it is set.
# Thus, host-specific definitions should be at the beginning of the
# configuration file, and defaults at the end.
Host trusted.local
     ForwardX11 yes 
     ForwardX11Trusted yes
Host ssh.foo.uni.ac.uk
     Compression yes
     Cipher blowfish
     ForwardX11 yes 
Host ssh.foreign.com
     User alias 
Host *
     ForwardX11 no
     ForwardX11Trusted no

Note X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.

User Specifies the user to log in as, useful when you have a different user name on different machines.

The default configuration file (see /private/etc/ssh_config) includes a list of common settings. The configuration files contain sections separated by ``Host'' specifications, and that section is only applied for hosts that match one of the patterns given in the specification. (Lines starting with `#' are comments. Copy this template, remove `#' and edit values as desired. For details see man ssh_config)

# Host *
#   ForwardAgent no
#   ForwardX11 no
#   RhostsRSAAuthentication no
#   RSAAuthentication yes
#   PasswordAuthentication yes
#   HostbasedAuthentication no
#   GSSAPIAuthentication no
#   GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no
#   GSSAPIKeyExchange no
#   GSSAPITrustDNS no
#   BatchMode no
#   CheckHostIP yes
#   AddressFamily any
#   ConnectTimeout 0
#   StrictHostKeyChecking ask
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/identity
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
#   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa
#   Port 22
#   Protocol 2,1
#   Cipher 3des
#   Ciphers aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc
#   EscapeChar ~
#   Tunnel no
#   TunnelDevice any:any
#   PermitLocalCommand no

polyml

2007-11-20T11:05:00.001Z

Dave Matthews's polyml is my implementation of choice for Standard ML (my language of choice).

The latest release (version 5.1) compiles on Leopard. The download should be unpacked automatically by Stuffit Expander—otherwise use gtar xvzf polyml.5.1.tar.gz.

cd polyml.5.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

You should get the message:

Libraries have been installed in:
   /usr/local/lib

If you ever happen to want to link against installed libraries
in a given directory, LIBDIR, you must either use libtool, and
specify the full pathname of the library, or use the `-LLIBDIR'
flag during linking and do at least one of the following:
   - add LIBDIR to the `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH' environment variable
     during execution

See any operating system documentation about shared libraries for
more information, such as the ld(1) and ld.so(8) manual pages.

You can also download later development versions of the source from the cvs repository on sourceforge:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@polyml.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/polyml co polyml
cd polyml
cvs update -Pd
chmod +x install-sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Safari Crash; Firefox Crash; Applet Crash!

2007-11-08T22:38:00.000Z

Leopard and Java 6 don't mix!

I didn't know this and used Java preferences to set Java 6.0 as my preferred version (I had earlier installed the developer preview, under Tiger)

Calamity!

Apple confesses

The solution is to expunge all traces of Java 6, then reinstall Java.

Javablog has the answer:

Move or remove all of the following

/Library/Java
/Applications/Utilities/Java
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework
/System/Library/Java
/System/Library/CoreServices/Jar\ Launcher.app
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/JavaApplicationLauncher.framework
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaEmbedding.framework
/System/Library/CFMSupport/StubLibraries/JavaEmbeddingLib

and all your Java 6 installation receipts from /Library/Receipts/.

Then re-install Java from the Leopard DVD with the commands

open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/Java.pkg
open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/JavaTools.pkg

Kerberos for Leopard

2007-11-02T17:40:00.001Z

For the avoidance of doubt, install Mac OSX Kerberos Extras—some say this is changed for Leopard (OS X 10.5) others hint that it's just as the same as it was for 10.4.

Add X509 Anchors to Keychain Access (found in /Applications/Utilities/). (It was there by default in 10.4, but it appears not in Leopard. Select Add Keychain from the File menu. In the file selection dialog, navigate to /System/Library/Keychains. You should find X509 Anchors there.

Install the University Certificate in X509 Anchors— drag-and-drop.

For me Keberos works for IMAP access to staffmail.inf.ed.ac.uk, but not to mail.inf.ed.ac.uk, nor for SMTP access to either.

Here's what support have to say:

I've run this past a few people who might know and the consensus is that Apple may have broken something. There's a strange looking message in one of the log files - Token header is malformed or corrupt

This is probably not the whole story, as staffmail does work with Leopard's Kerberos. Time to switch to staffmail...

Fink "Can't fix GCC after Repair Permissions"

2007-10-31T21:30:00.000Z

I'm now working with Leopard aka OS X v10.5; this is a Leopard problem

Chasing around to see what could be wrong, I find two contradictory bits of information:

In Apple's version of GCC, both cc and gcc are actually symbolic links to a compiler named like gcc-version; which compiler is linked to may be changed using the command gcc_select.



% locate gcc_select
/usr/sbin/gcc_select
/usr/share/man/man8/gcc_select.8

% gcc_select -l
This version of gcc_select can be used only on MacOS X 10.4.


It seems this may be connected to the CHUD problem of the previous post.
Here's what worked for me:

Remove gcc_select (it says it doesn't work with 10.5).
Remove /Developer (XCode Tools didn't install properly anyway).
Reinstall XCode — make sure you install the Unix Developer Support option.
Run Fink: Selfupdate, then Update-all


Everything worked smoothly.

I still have some problems with Keychain and Kerberos, but I still like Leopard. Cover Flow is helping me clean up my desktop.



Leopard - a spotty start
2007-10-30T21:05:00.000Z
Added later: See the following post (above) for solution!

First, the good news. I have Leopard up-and-running, and it is great. It feels faster (maybe it is faster, who knows) it looks great.

Installation is supposed to be straigtforward. Put the CD in the drive and follow the instructions. We got to the place where you are supposed to select a disk on which to install Leopard - no disk appears. Wait,... Wait some more,... Make a cup of tea, ... Still a blank.

Go back, and look for an exit button - there is none.  Try Disk Utility as suggested to select startup drive - no drive appears. Despair begins. I did back up my important files before starting this process, but restoring them will be a hassle - and what about the unimportant ones (I have a long tail, lots and lots of not very important files, but if they all go, that will feel quite important).

I try various incantations of keys (escape, eject, command-Q, even ctrl-alt-del) nothing works.

In desperation, I plug in an external drive to see if I can perhaps escape this nightmare by installing Leopard on that. The drive appears, but I'm not allowed to install on that drive. I'm about to do a hard reset (well forced power-down by pressing the button until it gives up). Then, my hard drive appears as a possible selection. 

I select the drive, hit continue, and leopard installs without further hitch (it takes almost two hours).
It looks just the same - it just feels better, and faster. Of course, if you look closely, it isn't the same, but the changes are subtle, it feels entirely familiar, but better.

Now to install XCode Tools... This time, everything starts fine, but then fails at the end telling me that CHUD installation has failed, and I should contact the software manufacturer (that would be Apple).



securityd memory hogging
2007-10-27T15:26:00.000+01:00
Mac running slow, Keychain keeps telling me Google Desktop has changed and asks for  authentication. Do I have a virus, or is something wrong with keychain?
Activity Monitor tells me that securityd is using 1.5GB of memory; something is wrong.

Googling suggests that /var/db/CodeEquivalenceDatabase may be corrupted. Furthermore, it seems that it can rebuild itself, so the lizard's tail treatment is suggested: remove the offending part.
I did the following:

cd /var/db

sudo rm -rf CodeEquivalenceDatabase

sudo rm -rf is serious magic, and can get you in serious trouble; be careful (long ago, I once did cd /dev ; rm -rf mouse * — where I meant mouse* — don't try this at home) ... the faint-of-heart could take a copy of the file instead and remove it later:

mv CodeEquivalenceDatabase CodeEquivalenceDatabase.old

 In any case, this seemed to work. After a restart keychain asks me to authenticate access for various apps:
SystemUIServer,
GoogleDesktopAgent,
Mail, ... I do this. Everything seems normal, and  securityd is using "only" 28MB of memory (back in the old days, we used to run serious theorem provers in less).



Google Desktop Search for Mac OSX
2007-10-27T11:56:00.000+01:00
Google Desktop

Search your Mac.
Faster than spotlight; integrates with web search


  

 



gmail IMAP access UK
2007-10-27T10:01:00.000+01:00
I was delighted to see Google's announcment of IMAP access to gmail, then disappointed to find that my gmail settings page didn't provide the IMAP option.
Google evidently don't know how to say "IMAP" in english english!
Solution: Log in to Gmail. Go to your settings page. Change your language setting to English (US); Save Changes and the option appears: Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Use this tab to enable IMAP access, then you can go back to English (UK).



iSync with a Google calendar
2007-09-16T13:04:00.000+01:00
First you have to subscribe to the Google calendar from iCal.


You look under Calendar Details on calendar.google.com; you want the  format. Google tells you, Please use the following address to access your calendar from other applications.

http://www.google.com/calendar/......./public/basic.ics
Right-click to Copy Link Location. Then, in iCal, under the Calendar menu, select Subscribe..., and paste in the URL. 
This works - but note that iCal stores the link as

webcal://www.google.com/calendar/......./public/basic.ics


Now you can set up iSync to synchronise this calendar with your phone. Launch iSync,  add the phone as a device if you haven't already done so. Select the phone icon and select which calendars to synchronise. Note that this is really copy, from Google Calendar to your phone, rather than sync, since events modified on your phone (or in iCal) don't change on Google Calendar. Maybe the iPhone will do better?



pdftk doesn't rotate pdfs
2007-08-28T11:22:00.000+01:00

pdftk  - A handy tool for manipulating PDF

Highly recommended: I use it for concatenating pdf documents, or selecting a subset of pages. I get it via fink, but you can also find it online. Unfortunately, pdftk doesn't allow you to rotate pages.

Preview.app lets you rotate and save pdfs: ⌘-L, ⌘-R, or use the menu—to rotate a single page, hold the option (alt) key while doing this.



Skype Out? Use Gizmo or Jajah!
2007-08-18T06:20:00.000+01:00
Error in Skype’s Software Shuts Down Phone Service
Never mind!

Gizmo works just like Skype—free calls to other Gizmo users, cheap calls to landlines and mobiles worldwide. Unlike Skype it uses open standards (SIP), so it is compatible with other VoIP tools, such as Asterisk.


Jajah uses a different model—cheap or free calls between landlines or mobiles worldwide, set up from the internet. You can set calls up from any browser, or your symbian phone can set up the call via a GPRS/EDGE data connection or SMS message, giving cheap calls from your mobile to POTS numbers worldwide.

In any case, Skype may cost more than you bargained for.



dependent dylib is not prebound
2007-07-17T03:37:00.000+01:00
Is your Mac sluggish and running slow?
Are your Office apps refusing to run?
Your automated prebinding updates may be failing.
Run the command
 
sudo update_prebinding -debug -root / -force
 
If you get the following error:
dyld: re-prebound: 0x90bee000 /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib
update_prebinding: error: dependent dylib is not prebound
update_prebinding: error 256 running update_prebinding_core

then edit the update-prebinding-paths file (this has the list of files to prebind: the one that fails is immediately after the last one to succeed)
sudo emacs /var/db/dyld/update-prebinding-paths.txt

Search for libgcc_s.1.dylib, and comment out the next line (by adding the #) so it reads


#/Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Web \ Start.app/Contents/Resources/Java/libmacjavaws.jnilib



Save the file, then try updating the prebindings again. For me, the next (and final) failure was after libjsound.jnilib. So I comment out the following line
#/System/Library/Frameworks/\
JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.3.1/Libraries/librealawt.jnilib

On the next try everything else went through. My Powerbook is much snappier.

It seems that you may need to reinstall Flash Player after doing this.
Try the Adobe Shockwave and Flash player test to check. First uninstall previous versions. Shockwave will still only work if you run your browser under Rosetta. Flash is Universal



Repairing your laptop startup disk
2007-07-14T22:11:00.000+01:00
The easiest way is to find another Mac running OSX. Restart your laptop in Target Disk Mode (either via system preferences, or hold the T key down while restarting). Connect the two machines by firewire, and run Disk Utility on the other Mac.
Repairing the disk may take some time - so don't rely on battery operation, connect to mains power.
Repairing the disk may fail, so backup a copy of crucial files before starting the repair.



Microsoft Office 2004 broken: dead as a parrot
2007-07-14T20:44:00.000+01:00
Quicktime 7.2 update breaks Office 2004 on Intel Powerbook
For solution, see below
If you haven't yet installed QT7.2, my advice is to wait!
Here's what happened to me:

Office Update 11.3.6 refuses to launch.
MS Word refuses to launch!
MS Powerpoint refuses to launch.
MS Excel refuses to launch.
decide to remove Office, and reinstall!
MS Office refuses to install—the installer won't run.
Remove all traces of Office in preferences etc.!
MS office installer won't run.
!

macfixit has some suggestions  these didn't work for me.
It seems that the prebinding of the java libraries is at fault!

Steps to Fix:


Remove Java 6
> su Administrator
> cd /Library/Receipts/JavaSE6Release1.pkg/Contents
> lsbom -s -f Archive.bom > /tmp/file-list

Edit /tmp/file-list to replace all " " with "\ " and all "./" with "rm /" (I use emacs for this.)

> sudo bash /tmp/file-list
> rm -r /Library/receipts/JavaSE6Release1.pkg
> sudo update_prebinding


I removed the following
sudo rm -r /Library/Receipts/JavaForMacOSX10.4Release5.pkg

and installed it again. (From
http://developer.apple.com/java/download/)



802.11n
2007-07-04T22:11:00.000+01:00
The following Macs have the 802.11n hardware built-in:

    * MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo
    * MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo
    * Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme option
    * iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except the 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac) 

However, you will have to upgrade the firmware.
The CD that comes with your new airport extreme base station  contains the AirPort Extreme 802.11n enabler, which updates the firmware on your airport card to enable 802.11n high-speed WiFi:

 74 - 248 Mbit/s
70 - 160 metres range

If you buy a third-party 802.11n base station, you can get the enabler from the Apple store for $1.99



Zip it up
2007-07-04T22:00:00.000+01:00

To zip a directory:
Select the folder in the Finder.
From the File menu, select Create Archive of "<foldername>"
that's all!
Leopard update:
In Leopard the menu entry reads Compress "<foldername>"

You have created a zip archive <foldername>.zip
To unzip, double-click the file <foldername>.zip



MacBookPro with Cinema Display - Sleep and Wake
2007-05-23T20:59:00.000+01:00
I have an Intel MacBook Pro.
In my office I have a 30" Cinema Display, wireless keyboard and USB mouse (attached to the display). I have a spare power block next to the display.
In theory I should just arrive, switch on the keyboard, plug everything in to the MacBook(video, usb and firewire connections from the display, power and ethernet from the wall), and go!
In practice, sometimes it worked, and sometimes the MacBook would refuse to talk to the display. Worse still, it would refuse to wake up if I disconnected everything, and tried to run stand-alone. Until I found the secret, I had to force a reboot with the power key.
The secret is, connect the power first!
Connect the power, plug in video, usb, firewire, ethernet. The computer wakes and the display comes to life. Turn on the keyboard, type a few characters (type them somewhere non-critical). A couple of characters may get lost initially, but once the connection is established, everything is fine.



Airport Extreme WDS daisy chain
2007-05-22T21:44:00.001+01:00
I've added two airport extreme 802.11n base stations to my WDS network. Mostly this was straightforward. The basic procedure is just as described earlier for the previous Airport models. The UI of the new Airport Utility app is clearer than the previous version.
However, I found the two Airport Extreme base stations got confused when I used DHCP  to link them into the network. Instead, I've given them manually assigned IP addresses - in the same 10.0.0.xxx range as I use for DHCP. My Alcatel Speedtouch DSL modem acts as a DHCP server, and I've set it to distribute addresses above 10.0.0.16 — which leaves me plenty of addresses below this to allocate manually.
The network is now something like this (with some base stations running the full range of protocols, 802.11b,g,n, and othersonly one of these, as shown):

     airport(b)  express(g) = speakers
            \    /
    disk = extreme(b,g,n) - airport(g) - express(g)
           /                                 \         
       = extreme(b,g,n) = printer          express(g) = speakers
      |       
router     
      |
       = airport(b,g)

Here, "airport" means an old conical airport extreme; express is the small block airtunes gizmo; extreme is the new 802.11n-capable mini-sized device.
To insert a new base station into my existing network, I first set its MAC address (aka airport ID) as the WDS main value for each of its children; then I configured the new base station with the children's MAC addresses in the WDS remotes list.
To configure the new devices I found it easiest to switch off the other base stations, and connect wirelessly to the new device. If you click on the name of a setting shown under the Summary tab, you are taken directly to the tab where you can edit the value. You want Wireless Mode: Participate in a WDS network. You should also set the Channel: and Network Name: to match the other base stations. Then you can set IP Address:. (As described above, DHCP confuses my two new Express base stations, so I set Configure IPv4: Manually. You can find the subnet mask and router address from the  configuration of another base station. You may want to try Configure IPv4: Use DHCP first, as this is simpler.) For WDS relay and remotes you want Connection Sharing: Off (Bridge Mode). This is also correct for the WDS root if your modem acts as a DHCP server; otherwise you may need the WDS root to act as DHCP server (Distribute a range of IP addresses).



OSX Alarm Clock
2007-03-22T12:29:00.003Z

Stuck away from home with a dead mobile phone battery, I needed an alarm clock—no sign of it in Date and Time.
The solution: use iCal on the MacBook. Set an event at the time you want the alarm. Set up an alarm action to open a suitably noisy audio file (which will open with iTunes if you have the default setup).
Make sure you set the alarm to go off on date (not 15 minutes beforehand as I first did). Make sure the volume is set high, headphones removed. Leave the lid open and, preferably, power connected. The alarm will wake the laptop from sleep, and play your song.
 Update 2009-02-15 In Leopard 10.5.6 the alarm does not wake your computer from sleep :-(  In System Preferences >> Energy Saver >> Schedule, set your computer to wake a couple of minutes before the alarm goes off.
If you subscribe to any external calendars, set iCal offline — otherwise any alerts complaining that some calendar is unreachable will prevent the alarm from sounding.



Live video from an iSight camera
2007-03-06T03:42:00.000Z
How can you use your iSight camera without iChat? You can capture live video from your iSight camera directly into iMovie HD.

You must have iChat AV on your computer. If you have a stand-alone iSight camera, turn it on by opening the privacy shutter. 


If iChat AV launches automagically, quit it.
Start iMovie HD.

Click the mode switch to set iMovie HD to camera mode.

Click the camera icon to the left of the mode switch and choose iSight or Built-in iSight from the pop-up menu—you also have the option to make a time-lapse recording.

Click the Record With iSight button at the bottom of the iMovie monitor.

The video you see in the iMovie monitor is recorded as a clip in the Clips pane.

Click Record With iSight again to stop recording.
For still photography with iSight, use Photo Booth.



Missing Google Spreadsheets
2007-02-24T10:36:00.000Z
I've recently started using Google Apps for various collaborative tasks. These are great!
5 March 2007: Panic over—spreadsheets returned a few days ago!
But a few days ago, all my spreadsheets disappeared; replaced by the following message.
Sorry! We are experiencing technical difficulties and can only show word processing documents.  Try again
I've now found the relevant help article. The third suggestion works for me: get into spreadsheets by creating a new spreadsheet, then use File>Open... from the menus.



My spreadsheets are missing. What do I do?




If you're having problems finding your spreadsheets, these suggestions might help:



- Make sure that you are logged in to Google Docs & Spreadsheets with the address you formerly used to sign in to Google Spreadsheets. Although you may be able to sign in to Google Docs & Spreadsheets with other Google Accounts, only the email/password combo formerly associated with Google Spreadsheets will allow you access to your spreadsheets.



- Near the top right corner of the active documents and spreadsheets page, click on "Browse Docs & Spreadsheets," then click on "All." This will show every document and spreadsheet associated with the account you're signed in with.



- If you're still unable to find your spreadsheets, click on the "New Spreadsheets" link from the document and spreadsheets list page. Once this opens, click on "File" > "Open." If listed, you can access your missing spreadsheets from this menu.




- If you have used the "move old documents" feature, and are missing your spreadsheets after this move, log in to the account from which these documents were moved. You should see your spreadsheets in this account. From here, you can add your new account as a collaborator on each of the spreadsheets, and consolidate your documents and spreadsheets in this way."



If none of these suggestions help you find and access your spreadsheets, please contact us so that we can investigate the situation further.



LATEX Equation Editor
2007-01-28T22:33:00.000Z






In an earlier post I mentioned L^AT_EXiT, by Pierre Chatelier. The L^AT_EX  Equation Editor is similar in function—and not entirely dissimilar in appearance. 


I'm not sure yet which I prefer. Both are free—try both. If you already downloaded L^AT_EXiT last year, make sure you try the latest version.


If you have a Fink tetex installation, you must set the preferences for L^AT_EX Equation Editor to specify that L^AT_EX is in /sw/bin/ and ghostscript in /sw/share.



See also mimetex and L^AT_EX render.


iRecordMusic-record streaming audio as mp3 or mp4 (AAC)
2007-01-28T21:06:00.000Z
Supports broadcasts in RealAudio and WindowsMedia, the preferred audio formats of many radio stations. Records to a variety of formats.

This US$25 program lets you record clips from BBC Radio Player. Free demo version limits recordings to 15 minutes maximum.

Radiotastic is a Dashboard widget  for listening live and real-time recording of Internet audio.


Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0 - Plugin with Controls
2006-12-14T06:20:00.000Z
 
Adobe Reader 8 brings a Control Bar back to the Acrobat Reader Plugin, and adds a Sidebar. Under Acrobat 7, I had to save a pdf and view it with the standalone reader, in order to zoom. No longer!



My audio applications have stopped working
2006-11-10T06:11:00.000Z
Audio device may be in use by another application
Mac OS X: No audio from certain multimedia content
This may mean that one application has changed your computer's audio settings to a sample rate that is too high for other applications to use. The problem may appear when you try to play audio content from BBC or NBC in Real Player.
Apple suggests:

To use the Mac OS X audio drivers:

Open Audio MIDI Setup and click the Audio Devices tab.
Choose Default Output: Built-in Output and System Output: Built-in Output from the pop-up menus.



Then set audio output to 44.1kHz  2-channel 24-bit

Under Properties for: select Built-in Output.
Set the Audio Output Format to 44100.0 Hz.  2ch-24bit
Quit Audio MIDI Setup.


What if it says output is not supported?



Under Properties for: choose Built-in Output



GimmeSomeTune
2006-11-10T05:22:00.000Z
Get album artwork automatically, as you play your music.
GimmeSomeTune will get you covers from the Internet and, if you so choose, automatically add them to iTunes.
Freeware by Eternal Storms Software  download from apple.



Flash Player Update
2006-09-24T05:28:00.000+01:00
Flash Player Universal Binary no longer works with Safari - fine with Camino

Flash Player Version 9,0,28,0 works with Safari 2.0.4 (419.3) OSX 10.4.8 on Intel MacBook Pro (Boot ROM version MBP11.0055.B03)

Flash Player Version 9.0.20.0 was incompatible with Safari 2.0.4 (419.3) OSX 10.4.7 on Intel MacBook Pro (Boot ROM version MBP11.0055.B03)



Battery AWOL
2006-08-14T06:50:00.000+01:00
Suddenly my MacBookPro 15" doesn't think it has a battery. Energy monitor menu says, "No batteries available"!

I've tried everything that Apple recommends: restart, forced shutdown and PMU reset. No joy. The battery shows 3/5 lights; the computer runs fine on AC power, but dies if this is interrupted. This is my new replacement battery from Apple - see earlier post.

Google shows me that I'm not the only one with this problem (or similar).

Scotsys were helpful as usual. We tried swapping batteries with a demo machine. This showed that the battery had the problem (I suspect that this is a battery software problem).
In any case, I now have a battery on loan while mine is returned to Apple for replacement.
I also bought a spare power supply, as the connection between DC cable and magnetic plug on the original power supply is starting to fray.
Update
 New battery and new power brick have been working fine for a few months now. I still love my MBP!



Kerberos Login Failed
2006-07-09T01:21:00.000+01:00
Kerberos Login Failed:
The specified realm is not in your configuration file or does not exist
Why do I get this error message, and how can I fix the problem?

The realm is intentionally not in my configuration file. I've selected  "Configure additional realms automatically using DNS" in the  Settings pane of the Edit Realms dialog summoned from the Kerberos Edit menu.


Of course the realm exists. This should work - Kerberos just cant find the realm as the DNS is broken.
Autoconfiguration should be achieved using using DNS TXT records [RFC 1035]. 
Some, not RFC compliant, DNS servers (in particular the one shipped with my SpeedTouch Alcatel 510 modem - I have an old 510v3; the problem occurs with both LEFTAA3.721 andLEFTAA3.716 firmware) can't resolve the TXT record query.


A solution is to provide explicitly the IP address of a competent DNS server (such as the one your ISP provides) in the TCP/IP pane of Network preferences. Once this is done, autoconfiguration works fine.



Airport WDS daisy-chain
2006-07-02T08:07:00.000+01:00
Update: see also Airport Extreme WDS daisy-chain
WDS stands for Wireless Distribution System.
WDS lets you link together a number of airport base stations (access points) to extend the coverage of your wireless network. Remote base stations connect via relay base stations back to a main base station that is connected to the internet.
I have a network with a router connected to six access points (3 Airport Extreme, 3 Airport Express) connected wirelessly to span across three floors in three adjacent houses.

           relay1 - relay2 - relay3
           /                     \         
router = main                  remote1
           \      
           remote2

The connection between router and main base station is a wire (ethernet cable in my case, but could be USB); the other connections are wireless. You have to configure each access point correctly to make this work. Each base station will eventually be configured with the ID of the base station which links it back to the root and the IDs of the base stations it serves.

Setting this up is a pain, since if something gets messed up you may have to reconfigure each and every access point from scratch— here's how to get it right first time.
The basic idea is to view the network as a tree, and to build the network step-by-step from the router (the root of the tree) to the remote base stations (the leaves of the tree). We first set up the root (main base station), then add leaves (remote base stations) directly connected to the root, then extend the tree by converting these leaves to branches (relay base stations) and adding new leaves.
Should you later want to change the channel your network uses, you can do this without rebuilding the entire configuration, by changing the channel used by the leaves first, and then working your way back up the tree until finally you change the channel used by the root. You can do this using the wireless connectivity - but until you finish, the base stations you have already changed will be inaccessible.
Plan First

How do you connect to the internet?
I have an ADSL router (Speedtouch 150) set up as a DHCP server. Each client machine uses DHCP to connect; each access point acts a bridge (uncheck "Distribute IP addresses" in the Network pane).
Where will the base stations be sited?
The main base station is wired to the router. Each access point must be linked back to the main base station by a single "daisy chain" of wireless hops. Choose your locations and plan your links so that the wireless signal can easily make each hop.
Each access point can also link to wireless clients. Make sure that together they provide the coverage you need.
What wireless service will your network provide?
802.11b/802.11g? You can mix and match here. I have the main AP providing 11b+11g to support a legacy macine with 802.11b airport card, and the rest on pure 11g.
Which channel will you use? All your access points must use the same channel. Sniff out what your neighbours are doing and try to leave two channels clear between you and them. iStumbler is the tool I use, also get the Spectrum widget from the same place.
What security do you need? The security setup (WEP/WPA + number of bits + password) must be the same for every AP
What is the name of your wireless network?
You will also need to choose a name for each access point.

Prepare (base step, setting up the root)
Make sure you have the latest Software Updates installed - preferably on a laptop. Equip yourself with a spare ethernet cable. Label each access point with its name and airport ID (use a PostIt note). Keep a list of the names and airport IDs, and draw a diagram showing how you plan to connect your network.
Connect your main base station to your ADSL router or cable modem, and power it on. Launch Airport Admin Utility and configure this base station.

Airport tab
Set the base station name. set the network name, channel, mode, security.
Internet tab
Connect using Ethernet; Configure using DHCP. I use the base station name as DHCP client ID

Network tab
If your router acts as DHCP server, uncheck "Distribute IP addresses".
WDS tab
For the time being, leave "Enable this base station as a WDS" unchecked.
Update

Make sure you can connect to your ISP using DHCP.
Set up WDS main base station (creating the first leaves)
Choose a base station that will be connected directly to the root base station. Connect this to your laptop using ethernet. make sure that both the root base station and this new leaf are visible in Airport Admin Utility. Select the root base station and click "Configure".

WDS tab
Check "Enable this base station as a WDS main base station".
Click (+) and add the new base station as a WDS remote base station (client).
Update
Let the Admin Utility configure the remote base station automatically.


You should now be able to unplug the ethernet connection and see both base stations in Airport Admin Utility via wireless alone.
If you look at the Internet configuration of your newly remote base station, you will see that it is set up to connect using Airport (WDS), using the main base station as WDS host.
To add more links at this level, attach futher base stations by ethernet, configure the main base station, and add the new base station as a remote client, just as in the final steps above.
Set up WDS relay base stations (creating the first branches)
We now convert leaves to branches and add new leaves
Choose a base station that will become the new leaf. Connect this to your laptop using ethernet. make sure that both the old leaf you want to change into a branch and this new leaf are visible in Airport Admin Utility. Select the old leaf and click "Configure".

WDS tab
Under "Enable this base station as a WDS" select "relay base station".
Click (+) and add the new base station as a WDS remote base station (client).
Update
Let the Admin Utility configure the remote base station automatically.

If you look at the Internet configuration of your newly remote base station, you will see that it is set up to connect using Airport (WDS), using the relay base station as WDS host. This works. 
Ignore the instruction, "The MAC address entered above should be the MAC address of the primary WDS base station, that is the base station connected to the internet."
Again, you can add more leaves to an existing branch by adding new clients to the relay base station.
References
AirPort: Potential sources of interference


Battery Fault MacBook Pro
2006-06-17T06:33:00.000+01:00
Summary
I have one of the faulty MBP batteries
Symptoms
My MBP was working fine; 3h - 4h battery life. Now I get 20 mins, then darkness.
Suddenly, after 20 minutes from fully charged, MBP dies —no warning, no shutdown, just STOP! Battery still has 4 lights, try restart; dies again within seconds of starting. Battery now only 1 light flashing. 
I can operate on AC and battery appears to charge, but running on battery reproduces the symptoms above.
Tried resetting the PRAM, tried restting the PMU; no change
Others have the same problem.
Working on AC — planning trip to Apple dealer.
Update Scotsys are great!
First we verified that the battery was the problem — we swapped the batteries of their demo machine and my MBP (both registring "charged"; took the machines off AC, set them both to work (iTunes visualizer, no volume, no sleep); waited for their machine (with my battery) to die, which it did after 10 minutes or so.
They didn't have a stock of batteries. You don't plan to stock replacement batteries in the first years of a product line.
So they loaned me the battery from the demo model while the dud was returned to Apple for replacement.
The demo model is running on AC, without the battery.
Update
The first replacement Scotsys got was damaged in transit, so I kept their battery until a replacement for that arrived. All went well for a few weeks, then a new disaster!



texmf.local for Fink-installed latex
2006-06-04T07:51:00.000+01:00

This note assumes you have a working Fink installation of tetex on your Mac.
 To install the local latex classes, such as infletr, which produces letters on informatics letterheads (School, Institutes, Graduate School, ITO, etc.):


In a terminal window on your mac, do (don't type the % that is supposed to represent the shell prompt)

% cd /sw/etc/texmf.local/tex/

then the following

% sudo scp -r user@host.inf.ed.ac.uk:/usr/local/share/texmf/tex/latex .


Here user is your UUN, host is any dice machine you have access to.  You will get asked for your mac password (for the sudo) and then, unless you have a valid Kerberos ticket, your dice password (for the scp access to your dice machine).

Then let the latex installation cache information about the classes you've installed.

% sudo texhash


Fink doesn't interfere with texmf.local, so you can use Fink to update your latex installation without destroying your copy of the informatics classes — but you should use rsync from time-to time to keep your copy up-to-date.

% sudo rsync -az --delete user@host.inf.ed.ac.uk:/usr/local/share/texmf/tex/latex /sw/etc/texmf.local/tex/latex
% sudo texhash



LATEX iT
2006-06-03T19:26:00.000+01:00

\pi^2 =&6\sum_{i=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{i^2}\\
\pi^4 =&90\sum_{j=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{j^4}\\
\pi^6 =&960\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{k^6}



This small app from Pierre Chatelier allows you to create JPG and PDF images for inclusion in your web pages, easily from L^AT_EX math. Here you see a jpg — click the image to see the pdf.


When you generate a pdf file, L^AT_EX iT embeds the L^AT_EX source in the pdf, so that,later, you can paste the pdf back into this application, and edit the source. Brilliant!



Shockwave & Flash for Intel Mac
2006-05-19T06:46:00.000+01:00
The latest Universal Binary Flash Plugin (9,0,28,0) now works in Safari 2.0.4 (419.3) — see Flash Player Update

A Universal Binary Flash Plugin is available, but Shockwave is still PPC only. Solution: run Safari in Rosetta.


Download the latest version! (as of 20060910: 9.0 r20 for Intel; 9.0 r16 for PPC)



MacBookPro Temperature Firmware
2006-05-05T05:11:00.000+01:00
Battery Fault

SMC Firmware Update

This System Management Controller firmware update (unlike the one below) is offered via Software Update; now I really do think my MacBookPro is running cooler. This firmware and the SMC are invisible to About this Mac — the Boot ROM version remains the same as below.

Intel Mac (early 2006) Firmware Update 1.0.1 2006-04-17

Check your firmware version: 
Apple Menu >> About this Mac  >> More Info

The MacBook Pro Firmware Updater installs Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B03

If your version is lower, follow the instructions!

Apple - Support - Downloads - MacBook Pro (early 2006) Firmware Update ...
Apple - Support - Downloads - iMac (early 2006) Firmware Update ...
Apple - Support - Downloads - Mac mini (early 2006) Firmware Update ...


I found this while reading Apple Discussions about overheating issues for MBP. The case around the area below the ESC key sometimes now feels cooler (I think - need temperature monitor).



Fink on Intel Macs
2006-04-30T09:11:00.000+01:00
Summary: It works for me!

The newsflash is discouraging:

A preliminary version of Fink for the Intel architecture is now ready. No binary packages are available, and things are still rough around the edges, but it should be usable if you are patient!

but gives the following instructions:

To install it, you need to install the XCode compiler and SDK packages (at minimum). Then you need to get the file fink-0.24.14.tar.gz from the 
Sourceforge file release page for Fink, expand the file, and run the command 
./bootstrap.sh 

At the end of the bootstrap process, run 
fink selfupdate
 and you'll get the currently available packages.

I tried it and it works! The Intel Mac is fast enough that installing everything from source doesn't take forever.

I then downloaded the 0.5.4 version of the Fink Commander binary from SourceForge  - this works.

You can also download the source using CVS:
First login anonymously (this is a single instruction, and should be given on a single line, just copy the whole instruction, and paste into the terminal - when challenged for password, hit return):

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@finkcommander.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/finkcommander login

Then checkout the whole tree (another single instruction - this will create a directory namd FinkCommander):

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@finkcommander.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/finkcommander co -P .


open FinkCommander/FinkCommander.xcodeproj - this should launch XCode.

In the Project menu, Set Active Build Configuration to Deployment; in the Build menu select Build. Wait a short while and voila - your own universal 0.5.4 binary! Find FinkCommander.app and move it into your Applications folder. Make sure you tick use unstable packages under the Fink tab of FinkCommander preferences.

I use Fink primarily to install the latest emacs (emacs21) and L^AT_EX (tetex), but also for other goodies such as unison (which now does doesn't yet build on Intel) and  bibtex2html.



ant java Shark: XrunShark
2006-03-23T07:19:00.000Z
You want to use Shark to profile your java code - and you want an ant target that runs your jar file under Shark. You have to call the jvm with the option -XrunShark
Create a new target in your build.xml file
<target name="profile" depends="jar"
        description="Run jar file (no args) with Shark profiler">
     <java jar="${jarfile}" fork="yes" failonerror="true">
         <jvmarg value="-XrunShark"/>
     </java>
</target>
Start Shark, then run

ant profile


Shark is a profiling tool included in the CHUD package. CHUD is an optional install which comes with XCode Tools. The CHUD installer is in the Packages folder, and installs Shark in /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools



Unison
2006-03-22T06:43:00.000Z
Unison, courtesy of Benjamin Pierce is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

I have Unison installed using FinkCommander (see my blogitem on Intel port of Fink) - as a by-product this also gives you an installation of ocaml. Unison is an "unstable" packackage installed from source, so to install it you first need to install Apples's XCode and X11 SDK (from the Tiger installation disks) to provide the compilers, headers etc neded to build the application. Then in Fink Commander Preferences select "Use unstable packages" (Fink tab). From the menus run Source>SelfUpdate then Source>UpdateAll. Finally, select the unison package then install from source (click the .h icon).


To use unison to synchronise your mac with your DICE files, run unison from the command-line in an X terminal window using the staff.ssh.inf.ed.ac.uk server. The DICE unison installation may not be the latest, so use 'unison-[version]' to run a matching version on the Mac. (eg unison-2.10.2). Current DICE version is 2.12.0 - this is not included in the Fink package.


Shuly Wintner provides a variety of binary versions with native Mac UI. Get the 2.12.0 version, to match the unison server on DICE  - it appears to run fine under rosetta.



Real Player for OSX Intel
2006-03-16T09:54:00.000Z
Real Player Universal Binary is now available - build 412.
Note that this version is not mirrored on all download sites (the London UK site hosted by demon still has build 352, PPC only). I used one of the Seattle sites to get 412. You can check which build you have downloaded using get Info (command-I).
Once you've downloaded the correct build and put the put it into your applications folder, quit all web browsers; open the RealPlayer application, go through the setup process, which will install the plugin needed to access RealPlayer content on the web, such as BBC Radio Player.

You can then change Safari to run native — unless you want to view Shockwave content!


In the finder use get Info (command-I) then click "Open using Rosetta".

Since the RealPlayer plugin is compiled to PPC code you have to ensure Safar is run under Rosetta - an application running native Intel code cannot use a PPC plugin. 


BBC Radio Player uses RealPlayer, so you need the same trick to run BBC Radio player on an Intel Mac.


DivX for OSX 10.4 Intel
2006-03-15T23:19:00.000Z
Since the DivX plugin is compiled to PPC code you have to ensure Quicktime or Safari run under Rosetta - in the finder use get Info (command-I) then click "Open using Rosetta".

Update 2006:04:12 The plugin provided by the official release of DivX Player for Macintosh is a Universal binary. You can run it native. Curiosly, the DivX Converter and DivX Player are still PPC.

Download the DivX 6 for Mac Installer.pkg

Double-click the installer to install the codec. Restart, and use Quicktime Player or Safari, to watch the latest day's work on the building (around 1.5Mb). You can also see the  day at a slower pace (around 170Mb) or a directory of other views.


ant javac Xlint:unchecked
2005-12-26T16:43:00.000Z
You are porting your code to Java 5.0 (aka 1.5); building your project under Xcode gives the following notes from javac:
[javac] Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
[javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
This raises the following question:

Q: How do I pass -Xlint:unchecked to an ant javac task?


A: Edit the relevant target in your build.xml file to add an embedded compilerarg entry, to the javac task:

<compilerarg value="-Xlint:unchecked"/>

or

<compilerarg value="-Xlint"/>

so it reads something like this:
<target name="compile" description="Compile code">
       <mkdir dir="${bin}"/>
       <mkdir dir="${lib}"/>
       <javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${bin}" 
              includeAntRuntime="no" 
              classpathref="lib.path" 
              debug="${compile.debug}">
           <compilerarg value="-Xlint"/>
       </javac>
</target>
Using "-Xlint" enables all recommended Xlint options, including :unchecked. See the Sun javac documentation (scroll down to Xlint) for details of other options, giving finer control if you need it.


Installing the University Certificate
2005-12-09T23:02:00.000Z
The EUCS site gives complex instructions for installing the University Certificate on MacOSX for use with Safari.
Now Apple have made this simple: 
  Download the Edinburgh CA Certificate.
 Open (double-click) the certificate in the finder. This should launch Keychain Access and take you through a dialog to install the certificate.
Install the Certificate in your X509 Anchors keychain.
 



Broadcasting using iSight and Quicktime Broadcaster
2004-11-19T23:21:00.000Z

          NB this still seems flakey (ie it works sometimes but not
          reliably). Use at your own risk...
        
        Preliminaries
        
          These instructions assume you have an iSight camera, and
          have downloaded and installed Apple's QuickTime
          Broadcaster.
        
          Register to get an account on the
          University Darwin Streaming Server. You will be given
          FTP access to pilton.ucs.ed.ac.uk—the
          reflector which will braodcast your video stream.
        
        Setting up a live broadcast
        
         Plug in the iSight; quit from iChat; launch QuickTime Broadcaster.
        
        
          Check the IP address for pilton.ucs.ed.ac.uk
 (type
          host pilton.ucs.ed.ac.uk on the unix command
          line). 
        
        
          In the quicktime broadcaster window, select multicast
          transmission, and enter the reflector (i.e. pilton) IP
          129.215.16.20 for both audio and video
          address. Don't change the port entries.
        
        
          Under Audio, enable the audio stream and select the source
          (probably iSight) and set parameters; under Video enable the
          video stream, select source (iSight) and parameters. (Note
          that the University reflector is throttled at 350kbits/sec
          total for both streams, so 300kbits/sec is about the most
          you can use for video.)
        
        
          Now choose File>>Export>>SDP... from the file menu. This
          produces an sdp file. Save it somewhere
          convenient (eg. as test.sdp) and then transfer it to the reflector
          (pilton.ucs.ed.ac.uk) by ftp.
        
        
          You can save the Broadcast Settings at this point, quit
          QuickTime Broadcaster, and come back later to give your
          performance.
        
        
          Launch Quicktime Broadcaster; Click the broadcast button to
          go on air, and tell your audience to watch the stream with
          QuickTime Player (File>>Open URL in New Player...) using a
          URL like
          rtsp://pilton.ucs.ed.ac.uk:554/hcs/test.sdp
          (see your email from ucs which gives details of the URL to
          your space on pilton). Unfortunately, both Safari and
          Firefox try and open this URL using Real Player - which
          doesn't cope with the format.
        



sshLogin ssh-agent ssh-add
2004-05-04T05:23:00.000+01:00
ssh-agent and
          ssh-add don't do what you want if run from
          terminal or xterm.
        
        
         The excellent application sshLogin
         carries a GPL licence. This provides ssh-agent ssh-add
         functionality integrated with Apple's X11. You can even, in
         effect, install your ssh identity in your Apple keychain.
        
        To install sshLogin:
        

        Download the Stuffit Archive, 
        sshLogin-1.3.pkg.sitx. 
        Save it and unpack using StuffIt Expander.
         Open the resulting package to install sshLogin.
         
 
  
  You have to set up a keychain pair using ssh-keygen before using sshLogin.
 



Setting environment variables
2004-04-21T23:40:00.007+01:00

          There is a special environment file which loginwindow reads
          each time a user logs in. The environment file is:
          ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist 

Dot files aren't, by default, visible in
          the finder, so type cd; open .MacOSX in a
          terminal. If the environment.plist file is there you can open it in the Property List editor with a doubleClick.
Otherwise, you will have to
          create the .MacOSX directory yourself.
        
 To create the directory and file

$ cd

$ mkdir .MacOSX

$ echo "" > .MacOSX/environment.plist

$ open .MacOSX/environment.plist


This should open your new, empty environment.plist file in the Property List Editor. Select Root and Add a Child: the Key should be the name of the variable you want to set; Type should be String; Value should be the value you want to set for this variable. Next time you log in the variables should be set.


        
          Environment variables set in environment.plist
          also appear in the standard bash environment. You can see all your environment variables using the shell command env from a Terminal window.
        
        REFERENCE:
          
            http://developer.apple.com/qa/qa2001/qa1067.html
        
WARNING: do not set the DISPLAY variable—see my post re. X11 on Leopard.



No xauth data
2004-04-12T23:47:00.000+01:00

          The common

          
            Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for
            X11 forwarding. 
 appears to be
            harmless. However, it is annoying. It arises when you have
            no xauth data!
        
        
          The command
 xauth list
 displays all
          your xauth data. If there is no entry for your local display
          — which looks something like 
localhost/unix:0
          MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
          026666083d4e480d3e77544949281b49
 you can
          generate one using the command  

          
            
              xauth generate :0 .
            
          


            This creates an authorization using the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
            protocol.  Clients that connect with this authorization will
            be untrusted.


          The period "." is part of the
           command; "untrusted" is probably what you
          want.
 However, for some operations you need to connect as a trusted client. In case of problems, try using the command  

          
            
              xauth generate :0 . trusted
            
          

 see man xauth or the X11 Security Extension Specification.
        



Printing to DICE printers
2004-04-01T05:18:00.000+01:00

          You have to be connected inside the DICE firewall (eg. by
          physical connection, informatics wireless, or ssh) to use the
          printers ...
         
        
          On a DICE machine, use the Unix command
          printers -s to list the available printers, +
          information on models, printservers, and location. (See
          man printers for other options.)
        

       
          Use the Printer Setup Utility (in /Applications/Utilities/ on the Mac) to add a new printer:
        IP Printing
Printer type: LPD/LPR
Printer Address: printbp.inf.ed.ac.uk
Queue Name: lwa
Printer Model HP LaserJet 4050 Series
        
          Printer Type
is LPD/LPR
          Printer Address
is the address of the server
          Queue Name
is the name of the printer
          Printer Model
can be left as Generic. However, if you get
          it right you can access printer-specific options from the
          OSX print dialogs.
        



Fink and X11
2004-03-01T05:16:00.000Z
You
        need to (re)install the X11SDK, which is on the Xcode CD, and
        is not installed by default. Click the link for the long
        answer.



EUCS VPN and wireless
2004-02-02T05:14:00.000Z

          To use the central 802.11 wireless network (available
          in,: Raeburn Room, Old College; Hodgson Room, Science &
          Engineering College Office; Concourse, Appleton Tower,
          inter alia) and the University VPN, register
          online with the University Computing Service (EUCS) .
        
        
          You do not need to download the Cisco VPN
          client. Once registered, you can connect to the
          University VPN server, vpngate.net.ed.ac.uk
          using PPTP with the built-in VPN client (accessible via
          Internet Connect on MacOSX v10.3 (Panther)).
        
        
          Once connected via the VPN you can use the
          staffmail SMTP server:
          staffmail.inf.ed.ac.uk
        



feedback
2003-01-01T03:51:00.000Z
Please give feedback on this blog by leaving a comment below.

Was the tip you found unclear?


Were you looking for something else?

Let me know!



Thank You
2003-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

This is a post to say, "thank you" to you, the reader, for your interest, feedback, comments and tips.

If you found this blog helpful, please just click the link at the foot of the post.

For constructive feedback or criticism, add a comment on the relevant post (or for general feedback, on this post).

To submit a tip, mail it to mpfourman-mactip@blogspot.com.

Mac OSX Tips

SPSS 17 on Snow Leopard

iOS 4 Sync Videos

Python and UTF-8 on OSX: UnicodeEncodeError

an acute problem

Solution

MacPorts on Snow

MacPorts on Ice?

try

or just start over

then reinstall MacPorts

then do

check

install emacs-app

iPhone overheating

iPhone 3.0

MacBook Air freeze: reset SMC

Pipex > Tiscali >TalkTalk

802.1X on iPhone

iPhone Device Configuration

Wireless Keyboard lost?

How to make a bluetooth device a favorite

Solution

MacTex

Skype on iPhone–iChat next?

USB Ethernet "not connected"?

Oh, yes it is!

Solution

Wireless again

Google Base encoding woes

But ...

Solution: use xsl:output to encode your feed in ascii

Adjust brightness for 24 inch LED Cinema Display?

ant ftp task libraries: jakarta-oro; commons-net

A problem

The solution

Starting over (again)

Channel 13: Leopard Wireless Card Locale

iPhone Google Voice Search Arrives!

Google Mobile App

Out with the old; in with the new.

Time Machine hangs? Spotlight responsible?

Time Machine and Spotlight run slowly over wireless...

Note:

Spotlight crashes

iPhone ... cannot be synced (error 13014)

The iPhone ... cannot be synced.An unknown error occurred (13014).

iPhone Screen Capture

VPN on iPhone L2TP/IPsec

Settings > VPN > Add VPN configuration...

To connect to vpn2.net.ed.ac.uk ...

ENTITY —(X)HTML entities in XML for XSLT

for example

XML-compatible ISO Special Character Entity Set for XHTML

other standard character sets

XML-compatible ISO Latin 1 Character Entity Set for XHTML

ISO Math, Greek and Symbolic Character Entity Set for XHTML

Printing in the Forum

Safari 4 beta scores 100/100 on acid3

Starting over: MacPorts

Fixing mail.app’s IMAP date problem

Opaque Leopard Menu Bar

Apple did it for you! (since 10.5.2)

emacs: Fatal malloc_jumpstart() error

Black Magic

Time Capsule

Setup

Backup

Extreme 7.3.1 firmware update

application/x-mplayer2 plugin

Uninstall SPSS

installer tells me that a there is still a previous version of SPSS 16 on my mac

SPSS know about the problem

free iPhone SDK

Wireless Woes

update

AJAX demystified: import xml

AJAX demystified: import text; async cgi

Mac OS X 10.5: Web Sharing - "Forbidden 403"

Block Microsoft messenger on Speedtouch router

install `emacs-app`

Solution: use `xsl:output` to encode your feed in ascii

The iPhone ... cannot be synced.
An unknown error occurred (13014).

To connect to `vpn2.net.ed.ac.uk` ...

Google Desktop
Search your Mac.