Enable SSH Access to your Mac

The Apple Mac OS X operating system has SSH installed by default but the SSH daemon is not enabled. This means you can’t login remotely or do remote copies until you enable it.

To enable SSH Access on your mac do the following:
1. Open the 'System Preferences' Tool
2. Open the 'Sharing' preferences tool which can be seen under the‘Internet & Networking’ header
3. Select the checkbox next to 'Remote Login'In the list that appears, check the ‘Remote Login’ option.

This starts the SSH daemon immediately and you can remotely login using your username. The ‘Sharing’ window shows, at the bottom, the name and IP address to user.  From the Shell you can determine your username using 'whoami' and you can confirm your IP Address with the 'ifconfig' tool.

Got Caffeine?

Caffeine is an invaluable tool for doing presentations with a Mac OS X based system Caffeine. Installable via the App Store.

Use Caffeine to disable the Mac from going to sleep or from displaying the screensaver, as needed. Don't keep running back to your Mac to hit a key or unlock from the screensaver.

"Natural Scrolling"

By Default Mac OS X 10.7 uses "Natural Scrolling. E.g. pulling down on your trackpad (touchpad) pulls the page down (scrolls Up) and pushing up pushes the page up (Scrolls Down). Much like your fingers are manipulating an object on the screen.

For me, this works on iOS devices (iPad/iPhone/iPod) because there is no disconnect between my fingers and the display. However, on a Macbook my fingers are disconnected from the page I am viewing, so when I scroll down I expect the page to Scroll down as well.

To change this behavior
1. Open your System Preferences Panel
2. Select the Trackpad option
3. Select the Scroll & Zoom Tab
4. Uncheck the top box, "Scroll direction: natural"
This change makes the scroll work like all other laptop/desktop OSes.

Cut/Copy/Paste

Another example of Apple being different just for the sake of it is in the Super key overload of the Cut, Copy, and Paste operations.

In every other OS we Cut/Copy/Paste in the same way.
Control+X, Control+C, and Control+V

Apple certainly couldn't follow this standard, so instead when we switch between a Mac OS system and Windows/Linux we need to use Super+X, Super+C, Super+V (Super is also known as the Command key on Mac OS (the strange flower) and the Windows Key on most other keyboards).

This difference can be rather distracting and increases the time taken for many users to be able to efficiently use the Mac. Context switching is an expensive operation for users and so is the different contortions your fingers need to make to use this differences.

Finder:
While we are talking about Cut/Copy/Paste, let's talk about the Finder App. Like Windows Explorer or Nautilus in Gnome, this is your file system management Application. Copy/Paste work as normal, however the ability to Cut is disabled. Why is this? Am I not able to move a file in the Apple File System? No on the contrary I can, however, I must use my Mouse to drag the file to a new folder. So again Mac is too focused on using the mouse and that is an expensive operation for me to take my hands off of the keyboard just to move a file.

Alternatively, use the Terminal and the *nix 'mv' command. Should be more efficient for power users. But why Apple, why must you force the use of a mouse on us? The mouse was a great innovation, however, being able to accomplish most things via the keyboard is still more efficient.



---More Apple Rants comming over the the next week or so.

New Mac OS X 10.7 Laptop

Hello Readers,

I recently refreshed my work laptop from a Lenovo W500 running Ubuntu to a Macbook Pro running Mac OS X 10.7. As I make my transition expect useful tips and rants regarding how Mac OS X doesn't work the same way as any other OS I have dealt with previously.

Tip #1: Opening Files
In all OSes I have worked with previously, Windows, Linux, Unix...hitting Enter after selecting a file opens it with the default application.
Apple decided that conforming to decades of common practice (Enter opens a file) they have modified this behavior to overload the Super key even further than they already have.
To open a File/Application in OS X highlight it and then hit the keyboard combination Super + Down Arrow. Or you can Double Click like on all other OSes, except that many of us Linux users prefer to keep our hands on the keyboard and ignore the Mouse for most tasks.

More to come.

Gnome-Shell Multimonitor support oddity

If anyone has used Gnome-shell with a second monitor you may have run into an unexpected behavior. The secondary monitor, with a laptop the likely more expensive much better monitor, is statically stuck to the first workspace. It does not follow workspace switching rules like we are all used to in prior gnome releases, and KDE and LXDE and XFCE and all other Desktop Environments I have used. Instead it seems one developer feels that the normal use case for a secondary monitor is to display something static and that it should not follow the rest of the users activity.

http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/03/22/multimonitor-support-in-gnome-shell/

In most typical cases the external monitor is used to show something static, like always visible information, a presentation on a projector, or a movie on a TV.

I very much disagree with this assessment. The only way I can work effectively in my job is to have the extra space and be able to segment tasks and applications on different workspaces and be able to know that when a switch to a workspace that the entire desktop is how I last left it on that workspace.

Anyways, thanks to a comment in the discussion for this post we have a fix.
http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/03/22/multimonitor-support-in-gnome-shell/comment-page-1/#comment-1374

Ok guys, here a hint to deactivate the stickyness of the secondary monitor (works for me on natty):

* start gconf-editor
* open /desktop/gnome/shell/windows
* deactivate workspaces_only_on_primary

Unfortunately gnome-shell is still rather unusable for getting work done. I use XFCE as my primary Desktop Environment now...but still install gedit and nautilus because they are better tools than the XFCE alternatives.

Install Java 6 on Ubuntu 11.10

As most people have noticed Canonical is no longer providing the Sun Java Plugin via the Partner repository. It is said this is due to a licensing issue. Anyways, if you want to install and replace OpenJDK on Ubuntu 11.10 please follow the method here (http://www.duinsoft.nl/packages.php)

I find it to be the best way to be up-to-date with Sun Java6.

Previously posted method redacted, but kept for historical purposes.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

You probably also want to remove the existing openJDK and icedtea as well. You can do that with the following command

sudo apt-get remove icedtea-* openjdk-*

-Thanks for the heads-up Derek
I don't remember the exact ones which were installed, however, the above will certainly remove all of them.


EDIT: Note, a newer and better way is available see top of post.

CCIE Security #34370

'Nuff Said

Awesome Quick and Easy FTP Server (Anonymous)

Check out this guys post. Very nice
http://www.g-loaded.eu/2008/12/02/set-up-an-anonymous-ftp-server-with-vsftpd-in-less-than-a-minute/

XBMC Stable (Darhma) For Ubuntu 11.10

Ubuntu 11.10 - Oneiric Ocelot

XBMC 10.1 can be installed from the stable repository provided by XBMC Nathan Rennie-Waldock on Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot"

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/xbmc-old-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

Google Translated from
http://www.loggn.de/ubuntu-xbmc-repository-10-1-dharma-und-11-0-pre-mit-und-ohne-pvr/
text reworked by me.

UPDATE: It looks like the PPA is now updated to Eden. Unfortunately Eden has been somewhat unstable for me.

UODATE2: Updated the PPA to the "old stable" for Dharma.

Cisco IPSec Support in Debian Linux (vpnc)

Procedure to install and use vpnc on Ubuntu
1. Install the vpnc service and GUI components via a Terminal

sudo apt-get install vpnc network-manager-vpnc network-manager-vpnc-gnome

2. Use the Network Connections Applet to create a new VPN Profile.
You may also import pcf files from a previous Cisco IPSec client install on Windows/MAC OS.

The Gateway is the hostname/IP address of your headend
The Group name is the tunnel-group/crypto isakmp client group configured on the Cisco Headend.
The Group password is the password associated with the Group.
In the Optional Section enter your username, and Domain if needed. This may require trial and error.
Encryption Method/ NAT traversal, I would try defaults...but if they don't work some trial and error might also be necessary

3. Use the Gnome Notification Area Network Management Icon to select and connect to the VPN. Also use the same section to disconnect when done.

How to build pianobar in Ubuntu, easiest way using ubuntu development packages

sudo apt-get install git-core libmad0-dev libfaad-dev libao-dev gnutls-dev

mkdir git
cd git

git clone https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar.git

cd pianobar

make
sudo make install

The make install will install the application after building so that any user can type pianobar into the shell and launch it from a common location.

More details can be found here in case you want to be fancier and not install libmad or libfaad. You will need one of the two.

libmad is an audio decoder supporting MPEG-1, MPEG-2, as well as the de facto MPEG 2.5 format. Layers I, II, III (i.e. MP3) fully implemented.
libfaad is is an open source MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 AAC decoder
libao is a cross platform audio output library

Ubuntu 11.10, hate it?

Why is Ubuntu destroying all of my existing functionality and utility in each new Ubuntu release?

1. Synergy is a core requirement for me. I have it setup to run at boot through GDM...but 11.10 changes to LightDM and I see no way to configure lightDM to run synergy for me. So I needed to find a keyboard, attach it to the box I have managed solely via syergy for the last two years, since 9.04 and login manually.

Fix to restore dgm

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/07/how-to-switch-between-gdm-lightdm-or.html

2. I had to again change from Unity to ubuntu classic after 11.04 I made the same change.

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/08/installing-using-classic-gnome-desktop.html

3. The inability to boot for some people is awesome too.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1859799

4. Global Menu is shit. In Mac OS X it is okay...but this just doesn't work for me.

http://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/how-to-disable-global-menu-in-ubuntu-11-10-tip/

I Give up on Ubuntu 11.x, going to re-install with 10.04 LTS and then evaluate other Distros as replacements.

Ubuntu 11.04 if you hate the new scrollbars

There are two solutions provided below on how to rest back to the 10.10 srollbar style.

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-disable-overlay-scrollbars-in.html

I used

sudo su
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

Ubuntu FF7 beta PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Obviously when 7.0 comes out officially this firefox-next PPA will be for 8.0

Did I mention that I dislike this new numbering scheme?

Duke Nukem Forever First Thoughts

My Close friends will know that I went to E3 a couple weeks ago. While there I got my first taste of the gameplay for Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), released by 2K Games after an extended development by 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Piranha Games, and finally Gearbox software.

At E3 I really enjoyed the fast paced Capture the Flag...err Babe mode. It is a little odd that the ultimate badass can only cary two weapons but, I chalked that up to the modern style of games that only give you 1/2 slots. Anyway my team won and I killed a good number of gamers and scored with multiple babes.

Recently I was able to get my hands on the DNF demo and played the two levels provided. Both levels were very linear. The first one killing the big alien with rockets was boring as all you need to do was fire and strafe...then pickup the rocket drops. The second level, the required Vehicle section of all games today, felt like driving a remote control car and the scripted Out of Gas was annoying as it doesn't take into considering anything around how you drove.

Now onto the enemies. In this demo we get three enemies. Big ass alien Cyclops (easy), the Pig Cop, and some little alien scuttlers. My main question is, why do the pigmen no longer wear police uniforms? The police uniforms were one of the Duke staples of irreverent silly comedy. Below find pictures to compare

Original Pig Cop	DNF Pig Cop

The other issue is that the pig cops blend into the background of the level since they are grey/yellowish-brown and so is the sand.

Just some first thoughts. 2K will eventually get my money and I will probably enjoy this game but it will feel like a mashup of other better games.

Synergy+ + Synergy = Synergy-FOSS

Synergy is not dead...if you wish to control multiple computers from one keyboard and mouse via a local network Synergy is your friend. Check it out

http://synergy-foss.org/

Where did Synergy+ go?

Synergy+ and Synergy have now merged! We'll still be using the old synergy-plus source code repository and mailing lists (there's no reason to migrate away). A bit of history for the newcomers... Chris Schoeneman created the original version of Synergy, but temporarily stopped development in 2006. Since the demand for updates was so massive, Synergy+ was started by Sorin Sbârnea and Nick Bolton in 2009 to provide support and bug fixes. While maintaining version 1, we are also working on version 2, which will see more stable support for newer operating system versions.

Upgrade Firefox in Ubuntu 10 to Firefox 4

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1712247

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade or sudo apt-get install firefox ubufox

This repository provides the current mozilla release of firefox, in this case Firefox 4.0.

Bonus: I have seen others complain, and so have I, that the ubuntu language packs get stuck on firefox, are not compatible with 4.0, and are just useless.

To remove these you can remove the langpack directories (using root privileges) from
/usr/lib/firefox-addons/extensions

cd /usr/lib/firefox-addons/extensions
sudo rm -rf *langpack*

Please keep in mind this may be removing more than just the old 3.6 language packs. Please be careful and understand what you are doing before doing this.

Why don't electronics manufactures provide firmware changelogs?

Just a quick editorial. I currently own a Samsung BDP-1590 Blu-ray player, and a Vizio XVT553SV Television. When I boot these devices up, just like all modern home theater electronics with Internet access, they check to ensure I am running the latest firmware. If I am not currently running the latest firmware they will 1) Ask if I would like to upgrade (Samsung) or 2) will upgrade immediately (Vizio) without a choice. While I will 99.999% of the time allow the upgrade I do like Samsung's request to upgrade better than Vizio's. But, this is not the core of my editorial.

Everytime one of these firmware upgrades is done I wonder, "What is being changed?" I work for a major Networking company, and anytime we release a new version of code we also put out release-notes. I wonder where these release-notes/changelogs are with regards to the Samsung's, Vizio's, Sony's, Panasonic's...etc is. It would be nice to know what the upgrade will do, and what if any new features I should test after the upgrade.

Major electronics manufacturers, can we please get a publicly reviewable list of the changes in each firmware? It would be very nice, for those of us who care about out products, to know exactly what bugs should be fixed and what new features are introduced. If we know what was changed we can better understand our products and should be able to get the most out of our investment. This shadowy upgrade process that is currently used does not instill confidence in the products or your company. I for one would hold you in even higher esteme if I could point to these changelog documents and say, yes they found the issue I notice and fixed it...or just to say, hey look a new feature, I wonder what that does.

Just my thoughts as a technical expert in computers and home theater electronics enthusiast.

Vizio Theater 3D

Vizio, a USA based budget friendly TV manufacture, is releasing 3D TVs using what they call "Theater 3D". This is a Passive 3D technology which works in a similar fashion to a theater. Instead of using the bulky, and expensive, active glasses which many other manufacturers are using, the Vizio technique is to do the same light polarization as is done in theaters. The big difference, and problem, is that with the TV you must use half the lines for the right eye, and half for the left eye, thus dropping the verticle resolution of your media from 1080 lines to 540 lines. The resulting softness in the image will be a deal breaker for many...but will the cost reduction and simplicity be enough to curry favor with many?

I think that they will need a fix/workaround by making new LCD pannels which provide 1920x2160 resolutions (double the vertical resolution) and line double for normal (2D content) should look the same to the end user, but use this double vertical resolution so that when we run 3D we keep the same 1080 lines of resolution for both eyes....I am not sure how well this would work...just an idea.

Please note that Vizio has both Active and Passive style 3D TVs so just be sure to evaluate all of your options when deciding on a new TV as Vizio still might provide a TV which will match your desired quality with 3D and your budget.

For now it looks like Active Shutter is still the way to go as it continues to provide crisper images with higher resolution. Just my 2 cents.