Understanding SSH

A great series on SSH - The Unofficial Apple Weblog - apple.weblogsinc.com

This blog links to "Brian Hatch’s series of articles on SSH at SecurityFocus".

OS X 10.3.9: the last for my iBook?

AppleInsider | Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.9 7W72

Up until now 10.3.6 has been probably the best overall version of OS X. I'm on 10.3.8 w/ my G3 dual USB iBook and I don't have enough problems to drop back, but people happy on 10.3.6 probably shouldn't update.

I'm hoping 10.3.9 will be a good end point for my iBook, however. Below is the AppleInsider description.

In a seed note accompanying the latest build, Apple reportedly told developers to focus their testing efforts in the following areas: Bluetooth, DVD Player, FireWire devices, Modems (both internal and external), Networking, Printing, Safari, Terminal and USB devices. The company also asked that developers assess the 'general system usability and reliability.'

Apple also listed approximately 30 areas of change and enhancement that are already reflected in build 7W72. Some of these improvements include various video driver fixes, improved Directory Services performance, Java garbage collection optimization, 'wake from sleep' performance improvements, and a new version of the Mac OS X kernel (7.9.0).

Mac OS X 10.3.9 will also usher in bug fixes to the following components: Automounter, Object Exchange over Bluetooth, Fax and modem, FireWire OHCI software, Password server slapd, SmartcardServices compatibility, setkey command line tool, Navigation Services, USB FHCI, and USB 2.0 hard drive mounting.

Sources tell AppleInsider that Mac OS X 10.3.9 is slated for a release in late March or early April.

Note the change in kernel - presumably from a 7.8.x version to 7.90. Superstition has it that changes on the second digit are big. My hunch has been that some of the SMB share and firewire problems need to be addressed very deep in the OS -- maybe this is where that will happen. I'd figured Apple wouldn't mess with the deep insides until 10.4.

I'll be extra slow to adopt 10.3.9 given the "big" (superstition) kernel version change, but it sounds promising. 10.3.9 will likely be the last OS update for my iBook, I doubt a G3 will be able to run Tiger well.

SiteCrossing brings Web Crossing services to the masses

SiteCrossing Home

Via Tidbits:

... it's been hard to recommend Web Crossing to individuals or small organizations because of the cost and complexity of setting up your own server - after all, this is the same software that runs discussion forums for the likes of Apple, Salon, and the New York Times, so power and flexibility has long trumped a straightforward interface.

Now Web Crossing, Inc. has addressed those concerns with Site Crossing, a new hosted service that provides a simple and integrated interface for managing interactive services like mailing lists, discussion forums, weblogs, polls, a shared calendar, file libraries, slideshows, and live chat. Such complex features can be difficult to add to existing Web sites, particularly in conjunction with a unified user database and access lists (to keep private sections away from the public), making Site Crossing useful as an adjunct to an existing site. Site Crossing also provides full email, FTP, and Web services, making it possible to build an entire Web site around Site Crossing.

The Basic account costs $8 per month for 3 of the interactive services, 1 GB of storage space, and 10 GB of data transfer per month. The $14 per month Standard account offers 6 interactive services, 2.5 GB of storage space, and 20 GB per month of data transfer. Lastly, the Advanced account will set you back $22 per month for 12 interactive services, 6 GB of storage space, and 30 GB of data transfer per month. If you need even more, full-fledged Web Crossing hosting is available. You can also purchase your own private domain name and have Web Crossing host it for $20 per year. You can try Site Crossing for free for 30 days, so it's easy to see if it will meet your specific needs.

The site says they provide "blogs" with RSS syndication.

An intense dissection of iMac fan noises

iMac G5

Zealots are doing independent engineering work on the iMac fans.

OS X Hints on using SSH tunnels

macosxhints - Use a reverse SSH tunnel to get around firewalls

SSH Tunnels are the working equivalent of VPN connections. They're used extensively for remote access to Mac. I've not done this, but this page has a good discussion.

iPhoto Extractor

iPhoto Extractor

... Traverse the iPhoto library structure, copying the target files into a sorted destination. This way you can import all or some of your files back into iPhoto and not worry about thumbnails and other files you would have to manage manually.

iPhoto emergency care

iPhoto is a troubled product. It cries out for a new business model that will take some very fine ideas and develop them further. I yearn for a "Pro" version of iPhoto that I could throw $200 at.

In the meantime, this series of iPhoto 5.0 salvage suggestions was taken from Apple's discussion forums. It's not a terrible resource for when things go badly. I've done many of these but I can't vouch for all the recommendations and I don't use or recommend iPhoto 5.x I've lightly edited and reformatted the post.

If someone were to ask me what worries me most about Apple's apparent health, I'd say look at iPhoto. Apple has messed up not for just one year, but for over two years. This is not a good thing.

---

Apple - Discussions - Problems with iPhoto5

[Post is to a person who's "lost" their precious photos.]

1. Upgrade to 5.0.1 if you haven't done it yet.
2. Quit iPhoto
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences and drag the com.apple.iphoto.plist file to the desktop
4. Navigate to ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library
   Drag out the three thumbnail files you see in there to the desktop
   Drag out the Albums folder and the Albums.xml file to the trash.
5. For good measure repair permissions and clean out your cache files
6. Hold down the option and command keys while launching iPhoto
7. Let iPhoto do the rebuilding.
8. If it doesn't work or partly works, try rebuilding the library again with the same key combination.

If you have a backup iPhoto 4 library...

1. Rename the library with the problems to old iPhoto Library and place on the desktop.
2. Place your backup library in the Pictures folder.
3. Start up iPhoto holding down the option key.
4. It will ask to find your library or create a new one.
5. Tell it to "find your library" and then navigate to it and choose it
6. Cross your fingers and say some prayers.

Just remember that all is not lost. Your photos are still on your computer.

If you finally are tired of trying and want to start fresh, it can be done.

Here is how:

1. Drag your iPhoto 5 library to the desktop.
2. Start up iPhoto and it will ask to find your library or create a new one.
3. Tell it to create a new one.
4. Now we are going to start importing the photos from the old library.

At this point you can use a third party application to extract all the photos
iPhoto Extractor (other posters in this forum have used it with great results).

http://homepage.mac.com/butlers/iPhotoExtractor/

Read the site, and the links on the left so you know exactly what is happening.
He gives you good instructions

Alternatively, If you don't want to do it that way, it is quite simple, but time consuming if you have a lot of photos.

1. Open up the library folder on your desktop
2. Keep all the folders with the years, and drag all the other stuff to the trash
3. Navigate to each folder with pictures, you can start with the oldest year first.
4. Drag the thumbnail folder out to the trash.
5. If you did any editing there will be an Originals folder. If you want the Originals, then keep those folders to the side. You can import those, but you will be seeing duplicates if you do. You can also put all the original folders aside and burn them after if you want.

You have to do this for each folder with photos in it. As you clean out the folder, you can rename it with the date, such as 2005-12-25. This will help you when trying to find photos when they are imported into your new clean library.

Now you can do this as an "all at once" step, or you can do one folder at a time.

If you do it one folder at a time, you can view the importation process and make sure no problems happen each step of the way.

• so, you can clean out the folders of the photos, rename the folder with the date, then import that folder into iPhoto. Then do the next folder.
• Or, you can clean out all the folders with photos, rename them all with the date, then drag all the cleaned out folders into the open iPhoto library window. This is the library view in an open iPhoto application.

I personally would import one folder at a time, and make sure that they imported correctly, then do each folder.

I would do the oldest date first and move up the line to the newest date.

Each folder imported will be a roll with the name of the folder. since you named them with a date, you will have an organized library when you are done.

when all folders have been imported, you should have a clean new library. You can then start redoing your albums, keywords, etc.

When all that is done, you should burn this library as another backup. This will be a backup for your iPhoto 5 library.

You can do it within iPhoto or the Finder

If you do it within iPhoto (by highlighting the library and clicking burn), you will be able to put the CD/DVD in and it will show up in the source column of iPhoto to browse within iPhoto.

If you do it in the Finder ( put in blank CD/DVD depending on size of library, then drag the newly created iPhoto library to the mounted disk on the desktop and then burn), then this library is not viewable within iPhoto.

This library can be swapped out to replace the old broken one.

Google Maps - Now supports Safari!

There is joy in Mudville! I thought we'd have to wait for Safari to fill in some missing capabilities, but Google, bless their hearts, worked around them.

Google Maps now works with Safari.

Mac Minder (via Macintouch): Keep kids out of trouble

Mac Minder

Particularly useful for locking out Chat software and for restricting kids to a limited set of apps.

CUPS and root in OS X

Only serious geeks should mess with the OS X CUPS web interface. If you need to, however, you now need root access. Here's a report from Macintouch OS X 10.3.8:

Dan O'Donnell on CUPS authorization: Doug Edwards wrote: 'After I upgraded to 10.3.8 I find I can no longer use the CUPS Web interface for administering printers. The initial page on localhost:631 comes up OK, but then clicking on 'Administration' now causes a username and authorization dialogue box to appear whereas before no such authorization was necessary. Furthermore, my (administrator) username and password is not accepted.'

Several upgrade numbers ago (10.3.3) Apple changed the authorization in CUPS such that now only root can make these changes. The .conf file is editable though, and I have commented out the lines that made this change so my people can again make changes to CUPS without root access. From my image changelog I have written: Discovered that SecUpdt 04-05-2004 changed file cupsd.conf, which now requires root authorization to get cover pages and make other changes. Commented out lines 835, 836 and added line 837 to AuthType None to fix .

PowerBook repair recommendations

PowerBook G4

Given Apple's repair quality problems, consider omitting AppleCare and paying for a credit card extended warrantee. Then do repairs at one of these places.

Andrew Miller
One need not pay Apple $1000 to have a 12' Al Book fixed. I've done business with pbparts.com and powerbookguy.com and both have replacement screens for well under $500. They can both also do the replacement for you.

Andrew Main

At the risk of ruining his chance to get a free (?) PowerBook, Apple is not the only repair option. DT&T Service in California, for instance, will repair the display for $550.

Other third-party service companies such as PowerBookResQ, TechRestore and PowerBook Medic are also worth checking out.

Alex Dawson

In response to Chris Halaska; Wegener Media quotes $479 to replace a 12 inch AlBook screen or only $399 for DIY install of the screen module. Cheaper than a Mac Mini. I've purchased LCD modules from them before, and they've arrived well packed and intact to me in Australia.

MiniMac w/ Dell 20 inch LCD vs. 20 inch iMac

MacInTouch Home Page

The $500 Dell is a great bargain and a great Mini Mac companion, but it's not quite the equal of the 20" G5 iMac. (Gamma perhaps?)

The toughest test was a side-by-side comparison with a 20-inch iMac G5 display. While the Dell display was excellent, with the same broad range of viewing angles, it didn't quite match the stunningly bright, neutral whites of the 20' iMac, no matter how we adjusted brightness, color and calibration. There's nothing wrong with the Dell, and it has three times the warranty, but its image is not quite as amazing. (Nor is any other display we've seen, including the 15' PowerBook's.)

PalmSource to abandon HotSync for SyncML - thank heavens

PalmSource sees future on phones - Computing

Maybe one day I'll be able to do reliable category-specific selective synchronization across multiple desktop environments. Neither Palm nor Microsoft will do this, but SyncML is an open standard. There hackers have needs like mine; what they write for themselves will work for me.

The company is also moving to support the open-standard SyncML data synchronisation protocol instead of its own HotSync technology. SyncML is already supported by many mobile middleware server systems, so handsets with SyncML and Palm-compatible PIM tools could attract firms where staff already run Palm OS PDAs.

Brighthand adds more background. The last comment emphasizes the gulf between PalmOne (manufacture devices) and PalmSource (OS). I wonder how long PalmOne will use the PalmOS and whether they'll switch to Microsoft's PocketPC OS.

... Last year, PalmSource set off a storm of protest by announcing that the latest version of its operating system, Palm OS Cobalt, would not come with synchronization software for the Macintosh.

With the switch from HotSync to SyncML, it would be relatively easy for third-party developers to create Palm OS synchronization software for virtually any platform, like Max OS X, the various Linux versions, etc.

Interestingly, PalmSource's switch to an open standard for synchronization comes at a time when some companies are starting to use a proprietary one. Recently, both palmOne and Nokia have licensed the ActiveSync protocol, which allows their products to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange Server.

More deep discussion on the reemergent (long lost) dynamic web application

Relax, Everything Is Deeply Intertwingled: Weblications:

This piece was written by a Microsoft guy, and he references documents from the time that IE was strong and Microsoft threatened to make IE a true platform.

All of this was material was written and discussed 10 years ago. It's as though Google has awakened us from a 10 year sleep.

One thing is quite new though:

I'm still stuck on the notion that in less than two years Google will have a million-node computer operating as a single, optimized operating system for web-based applications.

Ok, it's time for me to buy stock in Google. I know I'm a bit behind the curve, but, heck, it'll still make money.

OS X: enabling root and creating global finder preferences

macosxhints - Set a permanent column view default for the Finder

I've experienced this too, especially since I run as a non-admin user for safety reasons. It's also a good reference on enabling and disabling "root". Nowadays it's best to keep "root" disabled.

A relatively trivial annoyance for several years, I've hated the fact my preference to change the Finder's windows to column view never seemed to 'stick.' I finally discovered that this apparent bug is actually a feature: The only folders your preferences will 'stick' on are the folders in your own home folder. Since permissions are an issue, nothing outside of it will adhere to your preference.

Enter root. Open Applications: Utilities: Netinfo Manager, then choose Security: Authenticate, enter your admin user password, then choose Security: Enable Root User, and provide the root user its own password. Now switch over to System Preferences: Accounts, and select the Login Options button at the bottom of the account list. Make sure that the the 'Display Login Window as' option is set to 'Name and password.'

Log off and back on as username 'root' (with the new root password). Once logged in, open Finder: Preferences: General, and check the 'Open new window in column view' item. Log off root, login as your normal user again, and now, every user will benefit from the much more productive column view as the default ... finally!

[robg adds: I would also recommend opening NetInfo Manager again and using Security: Disable Root User (after authenticating again) to disable root.]