I just discovered the very simple but incredibly useful RESTClient at: http://code.google.com/p/rest-client/ .

It’s a simple Java GUI app for testing out one’s REST services. You can choose your: URL, HTTP method, add any custom headers, add a body for PUT/POST, set auth info, SSL info, and do simple scripting.

This is an incredibly useful tool, AND a far cry better than doing it all on the command line with curl.

Thanks @subwiz (the project owner)!

The whole team (Adam, Buck, and I) are psyched! A few days ago we found out Here, File File is a finalist in the AppsFire Apps Star Awards. And today, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) published a great HFF write up.

If you haven’t seen our promo video yet, give it a whirl!

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the cool things about find is that you can specify a search and then execute an action on the results, all in one command.

This example is probably my most common use of find:

find . -type d -name .svn -exec rm -fr {} \;

This means: find, in the current directory (.), a directory (-type d), named .svn (-name .svn), and for every result (-exec) remove that directory (rm -fr {}) .  The “{}” represents the matched path string, and the “\;” is required to end the “-exec” command.

Here’s a sample of what this looks like, including output:

$ find . -type d -name .svn -exec rm -fr {} \;
find: ./.svn: No such file or directory
find: ./getid3-2.0.0b4/.svn: No such file or directory
find: ./getid3-2.0.0b4/extras/.svn: No such file or directory
find: ./getid3-2.0.0b4/getid3/.svn: No such file or directory

This is great, and I’ve used this exact syntax for years. But today I ran into a problem. I wanted to run this exact command as part of a custom build script in Xcode. When this command ran I had 81 errors popup in my build results! What happened is that all thos “No such file or directory” messages are actually errors, and Xcode reported them as such.

The solution is to add one extra argument: -depth . This causes find to do a depth-first traversal of the sub-directories being searched. That is, find will check the contents of directories before acting (eg, running an -exec command) on the directory in question. The default is to act on the directory (in our case, removing it) before attempting to visit it’s contents. So after we removed the directory, find was still trying to look at it; -depth fixes that.

So, the final answer is, I now use:

find . -type d -name .svn -depth -exec rm -fr {} \;

Yes, this is a slightly verbose explanation for something so simple, but maybe it will help someone else.

Yesterday I needed to do some updates on the 10.5 system and couldn’t remember my password.

Google was my friend and showed me an Apple Knowledge Base article to solve the problem.

The steps to restart are as follows:

1. Restart into single user mode (hold Command+S during boot). (Note: that if you use a non-Apple keyboard that’s WindowsKey+S)
2. At the “#” prompt run:

   • mount -uw /

3. Now run:

   • launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

4. Note your short username and user directory by running:

   • ls /Users

5. Run the following with your username instead of “username”:

   • dscl . -delete /Users/username AuthenticationAuthority

6. Now reset your password by running:

   • passwd username

7. Now reboot by running:

   • reboot

This is a bit more complicated than it seems to have been in 10.4 Tiger.  I’m fairly certain you could skip steps 2 – 5, since it didn’t use the same directory service backend.

Note: I don’t use secure file vault, but others on the web have noted that resetting your password in this way will lock you out of your data. In fact, it looks like there is not a way to recover/reset that password, which is part of what makes it secure.

Thanks Google and Apple!

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1543

There’s a lot of noise on the web (or Google at least) when trying to search for a solution to using a Mini’s DVI output on LCD TV’s. Typically they recommend using DisplayConfigX  or SwitchResX to tweak your display modelines, timing, resolution, and just generally dive deeper than I like  into display configuration. My solution was MUCH simpler.

My television is a Samsung 46″ LCD (LN46A539P1F). It has 3 HDMI inputs, but one is specifically intended to be used for PCI DVI input converted to HDMI.  It also provides a VGA DSUB input which works perfectly with a Mac Mini’s miniDVI->VGA apapter, but the point here is to get direct digital signal without converting to analog.

The Mac Mini has a miniDVI output and is packaged with a miniDVI->DVI adapter, so to get a signal into the TV, you’ll need a DVI->HDMI or miniDVI->HDMI adapter. I bought both from Monoprice as they are very inexpensive and either works fine.

Once you have the apdapter on and the HDMI cable connected to the TV, the Mac will recognize that it is displaying on an HDTV and will recommend 720p (1280×720 resoution) or 1080p (1920×1080 resolution). However, you will now most likely see that your output is either too small on the screen (has a few inches of black border around the picture)  or is too big (extends beyond the screen). If it’s too big, you have Overscan enabled in your Displays preference pane. If not, you should enable Overscan.

Now, on your TV, go to the Menu:

• Choose “Picture” (should be first option)
• Choose “Picture Options” (near the bottom of list)
• Choose “Size” (will have options like 4:3, 16:9, and Just Scan)
• Choose “Just Scan”
• Close Menu

Bam! Your display should now be just right!

I was wanting to play around with the very cool SASS meta-language using Compass. The language and tool are implemented in Ruby, which is pre-installed on OS X, but as I discovered, I needed a newer version of RubyGems.

I had already known I needed to update Gems, so I was doing the following:

$ sudo gem update

Eventually I got errors like this:

Updating installed gems...
Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org
Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.github.com/
Attempting remote update of RedCloth
ERROR:  Error installing RedCloth:
    RedCloth requires RubyGems version >= 1.2
Attempting remote update of capistrano
ERROR:  Error installing capistrano:
    capistrano requires RubyGems version >= 1.2
Attempting remote update of net-sftp
ERROR:  Error installing net-sftp:
    net-sftp requires RubyGems version >= 1.2
Attempting remote update of net-ssh
ERROR:  Error installing net-ssh:
    net-ssh requires RubyGems version >= 1.2
Gems updated: RedCloth, capistrano, net-sftp, net-ssh

Turns out, to update RubyGems, one must update the gem system!

So, the next correct command to run is:

$ sudo gem update --system

This updated my RubyGems to version 1.3.1 and allowed me to move forward in playing with Ruby.

I’d almost given up on finding a solution, then, a few months ago I started using Delicious. It was cool because there were plugins for Safari, Firefox, and IE, and of course, it’s by default a web based bookmarking system. Its cool, I like it, but I just didn’t use it much. The plugins integrate it into the browser by giving you ANOTHER bookmarks menu, not by integrating with the browsers’ bookmark system.

Before ever using Safari or Delicious, my Firefox bookmark sync tool of choice was Foxmarks. It provided a web interface for remote access to my bookmarks, plus a nice sync interface for all my Firefox installations. I was randomly poking around today and discovered that Foxmarks now works with Safari and IE! I was excited and wasted no time installing Foxmarks for Safari. So far, it works great!

For the most part, it works just as you’d expect, bookmarks sync between all my Safari(Mac only, for now, I think) and Firefox(Mac, Linux, and Windows) installations without hassle. I’ve yet to try out the Internet Explorer functionality, but I’m guessing it works pretty well. I just don’t use IE enough to care.

One caveat to be aware of: both Firefox and Safari use some browser specific URL syntax to access internal functionality for recent bookmarks, etc. That stuff will only work on the browser where it was created, Safari on Safari, Firefox on Firefox, etc. For me, that’s a non issue, I rarely use those features. I have tested and confirmed that javascript bookmarklets (like for Tinyurl and Cornify) do seem to work after syncing. Those are about the only reason I use on the bookmark menubar.

I went with an Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard. It’s a mini-ITX board with built in dual Atom 330 processors, the kind of CPU’s used in the new and inexpensive NetBook computers. It’s a very low power solution, but with the dual processors most of the research I did suggested it should do 720p HD content. It has a S/PDIF header for digital audio out, but requires an extra cable and I have yet to test it. VGA out is less preferable than DVI, but again, this is cheap, and my Samsung 46″ LCD has VGA-input, so it certainly works. Also, it’s limited to a single 2GB DIMM, so max out that RAM early.

I bought the following from newegg:

• D945GCLF2 motherboard – $80
• Any old PATA (SATA should work, too) DVD Burner – $25
• 2GB Kingston 240-pin DDR2 667 SDRAM – $21
• APEX MI-100 Black/Silver Mini-ITX Case w/ 250w PSU – $56
• 80GB Western Digital SATA Hard Drive – $37
• Shipping/Handling + rush processing – $15

Total cost: $234
Full disclosure: I later bought a cheap USB bluetooth dongle ($25) and Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (full retail, ouch) as that was the best wireless control solution, but any USB keyboard and mouse combo should work fine for normal usage.

INSTALL GUIDE FOR RETAIL OS X on D945GCLF2

Original info from: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=138881 

You’ll need to download the following items:

• Driver/Patch Package D945GCLF2_driver_pack_v2.5.zip: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4kwooomwm3m
• 10.5.6 Combo Update: http://support.apple.com/downloads/Mac_OS_X_10_5_6_Combo_Update
• OSx86Tools – Download version 1.0 build 150: http://pcwizcomputer.com/osx86tools

You’ll need access to all these files once you get your system running, so you should have them available on a USB drive of some kind.

Also note, the driver/patch package includes an ISO image: D945GCLF2_boot_132.iso .  You’ll need to burn that to a blank CD. This is a helper boot CD. Everything referenced below that needs to be installed or used is part of the Driver/Patch package except for the OSx86 Tools and the Combo Updater.

HARDWARE SETUP

• D945GCLF2 motherboard
• 2GB memory, 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz DIMM
• IDE (PATA) DVD-ROM, jumper set to IDE MASTER
• SATA 80GB HD

This can be critical; not having the jumper set properly gave me serious issues with booting.

BIOS SETUP

• Reset D945GCLF2 BIOS to defaults

INITIAL BOOT

1. Boot with boot132.iso CD
2. when prompted, insert retail OSX 10.5.4 dvd.
3. when disk has spun up, hit enter until prompted to boot by DVD
4. hit F8, type ” -v ” and hit enter (This turns on verbose mode, as I like to know WHY when something breaks)

INITIAL INSTALL

1. Choose language
2. From Utilities Menu,  choose Disk Utility
3. Repartition hard drive as GUID
4. Quit Disk Utility
5. Proceed with normal installation
6. (optional) to speed up my install, i customized and removed X11, Language Translations, and Printer Drivers. I can add what I need later. This saves almost 5GB (almost half the default 11.2GB needed for install)
7. when finished, reboot.

BOOT SYSTEM FROM CD

1. after reboot, re-insert boot123.iso CD
2. when promtped hit ESC and type 80 (81, if installed OSX to second HD),  hit enter
3. hit enter to boot, OR type “-v” then hit enter for verbose

BASIC SETUP AND UPDATE

1. follow normal setup (likely you’ll have to identify your keyboard, then create a user)
2. Update to 10.5.6 using downloaded combo update, manual install. 
3. Reboot using BOOT SYSTEM FROM CD above (restart may require hard reset/power cycle)

CUSTOMIZE DRIVERS

1. Using the OSX86 Tool:
   1. Install custom video kexts (drivers) — optionally backup Extensions first
   2. repair permissions
   3. clear extension cache 
2. Reboot using BOOT SYSTEM FROM CD above (restart may require hard reset/power cycle)
3. Using OSX86 Tool:
   1. Install custom System and Audio kexts (drivers) 
   2. repair permissions
   3. clear extension cache . 
4. Reboot using BOOT SYSTEM FROM CD above

FINAL TWEAKS

1. Patch the DSDT using patcher
2. when the “Terminal” script asks what OS to emulate, type 0 (for Darwin) and hit enter
3. when it completes there will be a “dsdt.aml” file in the same directory as the DSDT patcher. drag that onto your “Hard Drive”
4. Install the chameleon bootloader version 1.0.12
5. Ensure the hard drive is bootable. Open Terminal and type:
   sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
p (view partition list)
f 1 (activate first partition, only do different if you are REALLY sure)
w (writes changes to disk)
y (when prompted that a reboot will be needed)
q (quit fdisk)

6. Make sure you eject the boot123.iso CD then reboot normally.

You should have a pretty darned happy OS X 10.5.6 install!

Update 2008-02-18: Photos from building the box:

Then I moved on to bash, but for some reason, I never investigated using vi key bindings. I simply lived with the defaults (which, for the record, are emacs-like key bindings).

So, just the other day I said to myself, “Self, I want to use vi key bindings in bash. I want to again experience the joy of traversing and editing my command line in COMMAND MODE. I want the speed and the power of my precious vi (well, I use vim) at my finger tips. And I NO LONGER want to waste time holding arrow keys or to think about using emacs-like commands.”

So, I fired up google.com; low and behold I stumbled onto this little post about using vi key bindings in bash and zsh. So sweet!

In a nutshell, the bash command to enable vi mode is:

set -o vi

This can be set in your .bashrc file, and if it doesn’t pickup when you start a new terminal session, add something like this to your .profile or .bash_profile:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

With vi mode enabled, you’ll start your bash session in insert mode, so things should behave as normal. But, to turn on the power, just hit the ESC key to enter COMMAND MODE. Now all your vi commands are availble. Move to end of line with “$”, beginning of line with “^”, delete a word with “dw”, etc.

Enjoy!

First, I nixed netatalk for direct AFP support. My primary reason for using it was to gain a more Mac-like network filesystem which would make Time Machine happier. Well, Time Machine uses a sparse bundle disk image on it’s target; after learning about that, using AFP seemed a bit unnecessary. Also, Samba CIFS/SMB seemed to perform better. I don’t have solid benchmarks for this, but simple file copies seemed to be consistenly faster with Samba. One of the biggest annoyances about netatalk was all the extra hidden files and folders it created. I run a hybrid network, I have more Mac machines, but also Windows, plus I browse file systems on the command line quite often; and those excess files pushed me over the edge.

Second, I nixed Time Machine. Just when I thought everything was working perfectly, it completely blew up and could no longer access its data store. Not good for a backup solution. I plan to write about my new home backup solution sometime, but it’s basically rsync with a few key points.

Lastly, I streamlined my Linux avahi config using some pointers here, suggested to me by George the commenter on my above linked post.

Previously i had a service config file for each service, but this resulted in my server having multiple entries in the OS X Finder, one host for Samba, one host for AFP (when I had it), and one host for RFB. So, I merged all of those files into one.

multi.service

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_smb._tcp</type>
<port>139</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_rfb._tcp</type>
<port>5901</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=RackMac</txt-record>
</service>
<service>
<type>_http._tcp</type>
<port>80</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_ssh._tcp</type>
<port>22</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_sftp-ssh._tcp</type>
<port>22</port>
</service>
</service-group>

Now everything that can show up in the OS X finder, shows up on one host entry. Plus thanks to the tip I linked to above, the “_device-info._tcp” section sets an icon for the server in OS X Finder.

Enjoy!