ruminations on Mac OS X Public Beta: observations, tips&tricks, suggestions, criticisms, software reviews, troubleshooting etc.

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Adam Rice :: Themes for OS X: Unlined Charcoal and Unlined Ruby. :: 3:57 AM ::

Adam Rice :: How to Repair a Broken Base Station :: 6:15 PM ::

Adam Rice :: For anyone paying attention, Apple quietly released Darwin (OSX's underpinnings) for X86... :: 1:28 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Mr. Rob Griffiths (webmaster of macosxhints.com) has done the community a fine service by compiling this PDF of tips for new OSX users. Nice job Rob! :: 1:26 AM ::

Adam Rice :: For early adopters learning to working with configuration files, a cool company called WUNDERMOOSEN makes some very neat utilities - and TMA is the nicest thing we've seen for editing unix config. files. :: 1:25 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Marc Liyanage - Software - Mac OS X Packages -- instructions for installing PHP4, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and TCP Flow Recorder (?) (to cross-reference with the webmonkey tutorial et al if a problem arises) :: 3:42 PM ::

Ian Spalter :: Webmonkey Mac OS X for Web Developers
And the guy who wrote it is Black!!! :: 5:34 PM ::

Adam Rice :: If/when your programs turn into folders, this TIL entry will come in handy: AppleCare Tech Info Library -Mac OS X 10.0: Generic Folders Appear in the Dock and Applications Folder :: 11:13 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Mac OS X Special Report: Reader Reports -- "Something handy I stumbled across.. if you're in a terminal window, say editing a file with pico, and you want to get someplace fast, you can option click with the mouse, and it will put your cursor there!" Try it, it works. And it's rad. :: 11:10 PM ::

Adam Rice :: mod_mp3 turns apache into an mp3 streaming server. :: 6:33 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Unix heads will dig OS-Xel's Utilities & Resources - Ported Packages which includes ncftp, bash, angband (rogue), SSH, and Pine. :: 3:34 AM ::

Adam Rice :: This Mac OS X Hints page discusses how to change the dock effect with the terminal. The default is genie -- to change it, type any one of the following lines at the terminal prompt:

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect genie
defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect suck
defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect scale
After you change the default you'll need to restart the Dock -- follow the link for instructions. If you don't want to mess with the command-line, take a look at Tinker Tool which does some other neat tricks as well. :: 1:58 AM ::

Adam Rice :: MacFixit's Using Terminal: Mac OS X and UNIX report -- more required reading. :: 2:49 PM ::

Adam Rice :: John Siracusa reviews Mac OS X 10.0 for Ars Technica. :: 2:59 AM ::

Adam Rice :: How to install PHP4 on OS X (doesn't work for me -- the make install returns errors):

It's not that hard.

First you have to install the dev tools from the silver CD.

then in terminal

be root:
su

make a place to put things:
mkdir /usr/src

cd /usr/src

get the source from php.net:
wget http://www.php.net/distributions/php-4.0.4pl1.tar.gz

decompress:
tar -xzf php-4.0.4pl1.tar.gz

go into the php source folder:
cd php-4.0.4pl1

./configure --with-apxs --with-mysql --enable-memory-limit=yes
--enable-debug=no

make

make install


then in /etc/httpd.httpd.conf add or uncomment these lines and restart apache

LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so
AddModule mod_php4.c
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps


try it out.
:: 4:41 AM ::

Adam Rice :: This command line interface tutorial is required reading for anyone who would play "root" with Mac OS X. Also of interest:

• Running *MySQL* on Mac OS X
• MySQL for Mac OS X Server
• Bulding MySQL for Mac OS X
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 coming to Mac (best video game i've played)
• Building Apache 1.3.19 for Mac OS X
• bash for OS X
• I wish to meet Steve Jobs
• MacFixIt for OS X (every day)
• OS X on MacNN
• Mac OS X: Reader Reports at Macintouch
• versiontracker for OS X
• Stepwise OS X software tracker

:: 4:29 AM ::

Adam Rice :: This MacOS X Issues page offers an honest thorough evaluation of OS X 1.0 which closely mirrors my opinions. :: 4:29 AM ::

Adam Rice ::

Apple first introduced system-level multi-user capability with OS 9 but this
was only a fore-shadowing of what lay ahead for OS X. In OS 9 the multi-user
features were optional; in OS X they are mandatory. Now that OS X is here
users must adapt to the changes that the multi-user model imposes.

Mac OS X: Understanding Multi-User Capabilities by Kyle D'Addario and Wincent Colaiuta
:: 3:43 AM ::

Adam Rice ::

Mac OS X 10.0 has arrived, and my prognostications have largely
come to pass. I certainly understand Apple's need to ship OS X, but this new
OS definitely seems a bit underdone.

read more...

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2702309,00.html :: 3:42 AM ::

Adam Rice :: An interview with Bruce Hough, consulting engineer-software at Apple Canada, talks about OS X and its potential for market share expansion, noting that "by the end of April, middle of May, [Apple] will release the Mac OS XServer and [has] included a lot of services in that, everything from thetraditional file and printing sharing up to a full Apache web server."

http://www.tandemnews.com/computers.html :: 3:41 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Came across this - great for mac-users interested in learning more. They even have geek-section for advanced users too. ;)

http://home.cnet.com/software/0-5211419.html :: 3:40 AM ::

Adam Rice :: A reader passed along some valuable info.

PRODUCT NEWS:
http://www.apple.com/enews/subscribe/
On Tuesday, April 3, Apple is launching a new, bi-weekly email newsletter, Mac OS X Product News. It will introduce new products available for Mac OS X and give you the opportunity to download and/or purchase with the click of a button.

USER GROUP ROAD SHOWS:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2001/03/instoreevents/ug_events.html
Apple system engineers are out on the road, showing Mac OS X at user group gatherings across North America. Check out this web page to see if they're coming to a town near you.

Mac OS X IN SCI-TECH:
http://www.apple.com/scitech/
The Apple SciTech web site has a whole new look and feel, including articles on what's up with Mac OS X in the physical and life sciences. :: 3:40 AM ::

Adam Rice :: interesting commentary: http://www.macedition.com/feat/feat_osx_20010327.shtml :: 3:39 AM ::

Adam Rice :: > in the mac os x help system, if you click the question mark in the lower
> left hand corner to return to the help home page, there is a developer
> help center
>
> under "developer essentials", there is an "Inside Mac OS X: System
> Overview" option which appears to be the manual that so many people are
> complaining was missing from the os x box. it's geared towards
> developers rather than administrators, but with chapters on the boot
> sequence & login process, the file system, the finder, and more, it
> looks like required reading for folks like us. :: 3:38 AM ::

Adam Rice :: For anyone interested in a summary of how OSX evolved,Cnet has a short article:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-201-5198845-0.html



WallStreet Journal - what a strange trip!:
http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html


Zdnet:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2699323,00.html

Cnet Summary:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-201-5197743-0.html :: 3:37 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Time to break out the browser and get back in the groove for a while. Of course, the first official version of Mac OS X (build 4k78) was released last week. I've blogged a bunch of sites over on randomWalks but I'm going to duplicate that here for posterity, and then toss up a bunch of emails from my brother over at the Mac Group, as well as my emotional response to the new system. For now I'll just note that somebody at the New York Times likes Apple a great deal -- publishing David Pogue's review might be considered a coup for both parties, but what about the readers? Pogue is not likely to be critical of OS X (and indeed his is among the most generous of this first round of reviews), considering that his livelihood depends upon a healthy Macintosh market. :: 3:33 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Don't miss the "Interface Extras" panel in the IE 5.1 preferences. "When another app asks IE to go to a page: Open a new browser window" Finally it can behave as it should. Many browser windows is the way to go, as Cyberdog taught me way back when. :: 6:13 AM ::

David Jacobs :: Overclocking a G4? Inconceivable!

Imagine launching on Sunday and then being /.ed on Tuesday. OS X Talk knows. :: 2:25 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Handspring's new Prism: 65,536 colors in the palm of your hand. :: 10:51 AM ::

Adam Rice :: The OS X Tips and Tricks page links to some good technical info. :: 10:46 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Diamond in the Rough -- Ambrosia Software president Andrew Welch's assessment of Mac OS X. :: 10:27 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Today when I wasn't looking Apple announced a QuickTime 5 Public Preview. Features: brand-new interface, "skip" protection, Flash 4 support. :: 5:18 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Using "man" to learn about shell commands, from the x4u list:

Using the man pages is helpful.  You can use them better if you use the command "apropos" along with the man command.  "apropos" will display man pages that have related topics. Try "man apropos" to learn more.  I used UNIX for about 4 years before I discovered this command.  It made life in the shell much better.

However, Apple is not committed to make life in the shell easy for newcomers.  They make the learning curve stiff so no one will feel comfortable there.  By default, "apropos" does not work as the required database has not been built.  It is easy to rebuild it by trying this sequence of commands.

become the superuser by entering the administrator password.  Unless you changed it, it will be the password that you gave for the first user on the system during installation:

[maverick] julio% su

[maverick] julio% /usr/libexec/makewhatis

[maverick] julio% exit

After you have done this, you can try the command apropos with many different UNIX related topics. "whatis" is another program similar to "apropos" that you may find helpful also.

:: 1:23 PM ::

Adam Rice :: How to choose a different shell, from the x4u mailing list:

Go to /Applications/Utilities/NetInfo Manager. In the directory browser that opens up, go to /Users/ and you'll see a bunch of parameters in the lower half of the window, one of which is the location of the default shell. Type in the path to [your shell of choice], quit NetInfo, and you're done.

:: 1:20 PM ::

Adam Rice :: NYTimes Book Review looks at new biography The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. :: 12:56 PM ::

Adam Rice ::

Most importantly, it has CEO-for-Life Steve Jobs staring at his own unexercised options to buy 10 million Apple shares at a price that today makes those options absolutely worthless. Steve will do anything -- ANYTHING -- to bring his options back to life. And you don't even want to know Steve's definition of "anything," because it is scary.

Robert Cringely on Apple's prospects. :: 11:06 AM ::

Adam Rice ::

I'd noticed a quarter of an inch difference between the drop shadows on some windows in OS X, and here I was acting like I was the first person to decode the "Paul is dead" hidden messages. Had I completely lost my mind?

Steven Johson goes ga-ga for aqua. :: 4:12 PM ::

Adam Rice ::

I don't think OSX is Sgt. Pepper. More like the Phantom Menace (technically amazing and very pretty, but will it have a plot, or just suck?).

Rob Malda of Slashdot weighs in on the cultural significance of Mac OS X. :: 11:23 AM ::

Adam Rice :: OS-X FAQ is a thorough site covering OS X administration, developing and porting software, troubleshooting and more. :: 11:00 AM ::

Adam Rice :: "The Palm Pilot Robot Kit is a design for an easy-to-build, fully autonomous robot controlled by a Palm handheld computer. ... Our robot empowers a Palm to move about and sense the nearby environment. The base uses three "omni-wheels" that allow driving in any direction with independent control of rotation, meaning it moves holonomically in the plane. The base also has three optical range sensors to "see" the nearby environment up to about a meter away. ... the entire robot can be constructed from standard parts using glue, tape, and a small amount of soldering." Very cool.
:: 11:31 AM ::

Ian Spalter :: arstechnica reviews OSX :: 9:41 AM ::

Adam Rice :: The following purport to be instructions for activating airport in OS X.
Note that I have not tested this and that it is easily as risky as
mucking around in ResEdit if you aren't sure you know what you're doing.

the Driver is statically linked, so really all we have to do is call it with a kext.


As root do

$
 mkdir /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext
$ vi /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext/Info-macos.xml

and type/paste in:

<?xml version=3D"1.0" encoding=3D"UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM 
	"file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version=3D"0.9">
<dict>
<key>Date</key>
<string>March 17, 2000</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>com.apple.AirPort</string>
<key>Personality</key>
<dict>
<key>IOClass</key>
<string>AirPortDriver</string>
<key>IONameMatch</key>
<array>
<string>radio</string>
</array>
<key>IOProviderClass</key>
<string>AppleMacIODevice</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AppleAirPort</string>
</dict>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>
<key>Version</key>
<string>0.1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

:: 11:37 PM ::

Adam Rice :: the Driver is statically linked, so really all we have to do is call it with a kext.



As root do

$
 mkdir /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext
$ vi /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext/Info-macos.xml

and type/paste in:

<?xml version=3D"1.0" encoding=3D"UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM
"
file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version=3D"0.9">
<dict>
<key>Date</key>
<string>March 17, 2000</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>com.apple.AirPort</string>
<key>Personality</key>
<
dict>
<key>IOClass</key>
<string>AirPortDriver</string>
<key>IONameMatch</key>
<array>
<string>radio</string>
</array>
<key>IOProviderClass</key>
<string>AppleMacIODevice</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AppleAirPort</string>
</dict>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>
<key>Version</key>
<string>0.1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

:: 11:32 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Mac OS X and Unix: "This website is oriented toward MacOS X users who have some familiarity with Unix, and want to learn how to fully access the Unix services hidden within MacOS. " Perfect! :: 4:14 PM ::

Adam Rice :: MOSR: Enchance OS X security with one-time passwords

Regular bright-idea contributor Sam Kass sent in this suggestion regarding how to improve OS X security:

Greetings,


Wednesday's piece contained a discussion of security issues of user's
passwords. A technology that people might be interested in is OPIE, or
"One Time Passwords in Everything". The UNIX version 2.32, which is the
latest I could find (http://inner.net/opie), compiled and installed
without modification on the MacOS X.

It basically authenticates by issuing a "challenge" string. You copy
this string into a calculator, type your password to the calculator, and
copy the one-time response back to the long/su/ftp prompt. It
authenticates the response and logs you in. However, since the
challenge changes each successful login, packet sniffing and such is
useless, and you can safely log into the system over a clear connection
without compromising passwords.

(In order to build and install OPIE, you currently need the MacOS X
developer tools, unless someone compiles and packages up the binaries.)


--Sam

(c) 2000 Mac OS Rumors; posted under the Open Content License. :: 10:20 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Just noticed that MacNN is running an OS X news site at osx.macnn.com. :: 5:57 PM ::

Adam Rice :: "The AMP list is for Mac OS Web developers looking for more robust tools to create dynamic and interactive Web pages, specifically using the combination of Apache, MySQL, and PHP (AMP)." :: 4:51 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Good news: "Wacom is fully committed to supporting OS X as soon and as completely as possible." :: 10:52 AM ::

Adam Rice :: Apple - Open Source - Darwin

What is Darwin? Darwin is the core of Mac OS X. The Darwin kernel is based on FreeBSD and Mach 3.0 technologies and provides protected memory and pre-emptive multitasking. Darwin runs on PowerPC-based Macintosh computers and work is underway to get Darwin running on Intel-based personal computers.

There's been a lot of speculation as to what that last part means for The full OS X, but I think it's pretty incredible as it is. Apple has open sourced a platform agnostic BSD? This is incredible news, independent of any Aqua hoopla. :: 2:53 AM ::

Adam Rice :: How to create Aquafied design elements -- if you are looking for an easy "one button filter" or other quick methods to create this effect, this tutorial is not for you! also blogged to randomwalks.com. :: 4:02 AM ::

Adam Rice :: For those of you who, like myself, have not yet quite come to terms with the fact that UNIX underlies the next Mac OS, I offer the following:

An alias to the trash can be made:
Go to the terminal in Applications/Utilities.
Type:
ln -s /Users//.Trash /Users//Library/Desktop/Trash
This will create an alias on your desktop to the trash.  It may take a while to show up.
It will look like a folder with the little arrow that designates an alias.  Unfortunately, 
this will only show items that are trashed on the OS X hard drive.  Non-system 
disks have a different folder.  They can be dealt with by:
ln -s //.Trashes/ /Users//Library/Desktop/Trash2
User ID can be found by typing:
id
The beginning of the line starts:
uid=() gid=() 
Make sure to escape spaces, quotes, etc in the hard drive name.  For example, I used:
/John\'s\ HD/.Trashes/102

-- from the x4u mailing list :: 2:23 AM ::

Adam Rice :: 2 tips gleaned from the x4u mailing list (which has a super high volume, by the way -- if you subscribe, be sure to choose digest)

• hold down the option key when choosing the special menu to reveal a 'restart'; hold down option in the 'shut down' dialog to reveal a 'restart' button.
• hold down option while dragging the dock separator (not the slider in dock preferences) to resize the dock in regular steps (presumably 32x32, 48x48 etc)

Caveat: I haven't tested any of these tips, but I'll surely use them. Before this the only restart button I'd found was at the login screen (which meant logging out before every restart). :: 10:35 PM ::

Adam Rice :: MacWEEK takes a look at two approaches to icons for Mac OS X. :: 1:34 AM ::

Ian Spalter :: Just installed. G4 server 512k ram.

Xcited, played with it for awhile, got apache to work. tried IE, crashed IE. Tried QuickTime, etc.. Poked around.

I'm happy, but scared. I don't know the hidden corners anymore. I don't know how it thinks. But it feels solid. It feels sluggish, but consistenly so, like when you open many apps, nothing feels like its interfering with other activity.

BSD is not totally invisible, cause the files are there. I want to know what each file does, or at least have an idea.

Its looks smooth, candylike, refined, maybe too refined. Like producers for Janet Jackson trying to be rugged. But I may miss real icons. Icons can be more valuable than images, more expressive in their simplicity, like comics.

As I walked back to my regular os9 machine, I felt like I didn't want to have to go back. I wanted to take that step. But now that I'm here, writing this note, I am comfortable at home. I know where everything is.
:: 8:17 PM ::

Adam Rice :: Clan Mac Gaming is maintaining a OS X PB game compatibility list. I've been playing Diablo II under OS X (in Classic of course) and I swear it almost seems faster than under OS 9. It's probably not faster, but it's rock solid -- very impressive. :: 2:55 PM ::

Adam Rice :: I've been having this problem in OS X of Classic failing to fully launch... turns out it's a "known bug", according to a member of the x4u mailing list. It appears the problem is confined to trying to double-click a Classic app when Classic's not already running. The simple work-around is to launch Classic by itself first and then open apps which run in the Classic environment. :: 3:47 AM ::