Favorite OS X Apps: Reelmsart.com

I came across this page while deciding whether to test PatioTunes: ReelSmart.com: Top Picks. An impressive list. By their software you shall know them. I'm adding him/her to my bloglines subscription. Another value indicator: a dog's picture is used as a favicon and author profile image.

iPhoto Library Manager updated for iPhoto 6.01

Surprisingly, the recent iPhoto 6 patch also required a new version of IPLM. Turns out the old one had a nasty bug anyway ....

About iPhoto Library Manager:

Updated for compatibility with iPhoto 6.0.1
Fixed a bug where imported photo dates would be set incorrectly in iPhoto 6
Movie files are now copied properly under iPhoto 6
Fixed a problem where original photos would not be copied properly in some libraries

Using an XP laptop as an iPod charger: preventing iPod mounting

I'm not having any luck on with a Google search on this topic.

I have a new 5G video iPod. The only real advantage of this device over the 3G iPod it replaced is that it can charge off a USB port. This is big, because I don't like carrying power adapters when I travel. I have to carry a corporate laptop, it has USB but not firewire.

Fine, but the iPod is formatted using HFS+ under OS X. It syncs to OS X. If I plug it into windows box the OS mounts it as a USB drive and asks if I want to format it.

Yech. What if I clicked the wrong button?

I've partially disabled this. I went into the XP services menu and stopped and then disabled the iPod service. I then went into my XP hardware profile and with the iPod mounted I disabled hardware support in all profiles for this device.

The result is the OS still tries to mount the USB device, but stops as soon as it 'recognizes' it as an iPod. So I don't get the nasty offer to format the iPod. I still have to manually dismount the partially mounted USB device in order to be able to use it while it's connected to the USB port (though since the file system is not mounted I could probably just ignore the warning and unplug it if I just wanted to charge it).

So, not bad really. Still, it would be nice if it didn't even TRY to mount. Anyone know a workaround?

Palm Tungsten E2: wicked amazon reviews

Wow. Watching Palm die is a sick sort of entertainment -- but I can't resist.

Amazon's reviews on Palm's most important PDA product, the Tungsten E2, are wicked. It looks like the E2 has a defect with the on-off switch, shortly after the 90 day warrantee ends the switch dies. Palm had similar problems with several earlier models -- I guess they just can't figure out the on/off switch.

The Treo 650 is popular, but I can't see how it can forestall doom. They've sold the PalmOS software to a Japanese company so there's no revenue stream there.

What a train wreck.

PS. Since there's no real replacement for the dying Palm PDA (PocketPC PDAs are also on death row) I may yet buy a Tungsten E2! (4/06: I did.) I'll wait for a great offer however. I'll also use TealLaunch to turn the device off and a function button to turn it on -- so I'll completely avoid the flaky on/off switch. It might last longer if I never use it.

The Calvin and Hobbes Searchable Database

Credit to Pharyngula for pointing me to The Calvin and Hobbes Searchable Database.

Enter a keyword, find a cartoon. Try "bicycle" for example. Wonderful.

Good practices if enabling SSH remote login

MacInTouch: timely news and tips about the Apple Macintosh

[MacInTouch Reader 2] This is a good time to mention what I'm sure has been mentioned before - since you can't count on users *not* reusing their login creds elsewhere (or using weak passwords) - you can limit who can remotely login to your Mac with a simple addition to your sshd config. Just add:
AllowUsers dad mom
to /etc/sshd_config and then stop/start remote login using System Preferences -> Sharing.
Now only 'dad' and 'mom' can login remotely, so when daughter lets her login creds out of the bag (or you create a user/pass like 'guest/guest' or 'test/test') you're not wide open to attack.

[David Charlap] In my case, I want to allow any user to log in from my LAN or from my office computer, but I don't want to allow any account to log in from the internet. This can be done by editing /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny:
My /etc/hosts.deny is set up to deny everything (only allowing what hosts.allow explicitly permits). It contains:
ALL : ALL
My /etc/hosts.allow has rules that allow all services to accept connections from my LAN (192.168.1.*) and ssh logins from my office subnet. It contains:
ALL : 192.168.1.
sshd-keygen-wrapper,sshd : office IP prefix
Attempting to connect to ssh from any other location results in the Mac dropping the TCP connection before the ssh daemon even gets a chance to find out what the user ID is.

Blogbot for Outlook

Jacob Reider likes this Outlook blogging integration tool. That means it must be excellent. It's also free and it blogbot %u2122:Syncs with Bloglines!

If you have an account on Bloglines, you can sync Outlook with your feeds there.
Now you have the convenience of using Outlook at the office, and still
having access on the web via Bloglines.

The "syncs with bloglines" feature is a killer.