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I needed to change many iBooks from having a Preferred Network (and wanting to keep looking for that network) to automatically joining any open network and not giving a preference to that certain network. I found that the two preference files involved were:
I also found that the computer name is kept in preferences.plist, so copying these two files out to all the iBooks would have resulted in a same-name-game fiasco. Soooo, my solution was to:
This command will search through the Apple slipped this one in right under my nose. As of Mac OS X 10.4.6, we have SACKs! That is to say, the primary thing I lamented MOSX lacking in my Mac OS X Network Tuning Guide has been remedied, and is enabled by default. So, here’s the lowdown on how to tune a post-10.4.6 install of Mac OS X. Editing These SettingsAll of the following are
Getting back to our roots for a moment, here’s a nice little bit of geekery. You can use the built-in audio units AUNetSend and AUNetReceive to generate audio on one computer and have it play back on another computer. Moreover, these computers do not need to be on the same local network, and the created audio can be though any program from GarageBand to VLC to iTunes. The short of it is that you need to capture the audio from the computer playing it and pipe that in to the AUNetSend audio unit. On the other end, you’ll need to tell AUNetReceive to use the audio from that other computer. That’s how this works. Now, getting these two audio units going is a whole other problem. There's more » Recently I needed to find a way to add open ports to the built-in Apple firewall from the command line in a way that would NOT disable the firewall GUI in System Preferences. Many people suggest just running ipfw commands from the command line, but this disables the GUI and was therefore not a workable solution, and I was unable to find anything documented, but after some poking around I was able to get this working reliably. I have a version of this script that will add a Firewall entry into Panther systems as well, but it does not automatically activate it. If anyone can fiqure out how to get an automatically enabled entry to work in Panther I would love to hear about it. Sean There's more » #!/bin/bash # Mac OS X Script to open up the firewall port for the Retrospect client in a proper manner and # disabled stealth mode. My work requires my undivided attention in several places at once. I enjoy multitasking, and switching back and forth is not a problem for me. However, I need to be hyperaware of instant activity in Jabber, email, and in many different web locations. If I’m not, I’m not helping our customers to their full due, nor immediately attentive of co-workers’ needs and questions. The main issue is email–I need to know when email’s work-related, and when such email is from supervisors. Thanks to celsuis1414.com, I was inspired to use OSX’s Speech capacities in order to make these distinctions in a way that doesn’t startle the way an on-screen message might. I’ve found that on-screen notifications, as in windows’ making themselves frontmost, interrupt my typing and my line of thought, while sound does not. Anything more intrusive than Growl is a jolt. Quirk of my brain. Following the sound creation directions at celsuis1414.com, I first opened System Preferences and set the system voice (Vicki) and speaking speed of speech. Then I opened iTerm and used the say command to convert text to speech. I created several .aiff files, annoucing pertinent emails:
A complaint I’ve frequently encountered on some Mac OS X Server related forums and mailing lists is that there is no documentation on how to enable VNC access in the Terminal. A good number of former Windows-only businesses have purchased an Xserve G5 without a video card because they needed to use both PCI slots for other components or they naturally assumed that a computer would come with a video card. Some people familar with Mac OS X Server might read this and say, “Hey, just run the server administration tools on your Mac desktop or laptop. Er, you don’t have another Mac?” There's more » One of my favorite tricks in editing text is to use the Option key as a modifier. Using the Option key along with arrows allows you skip whole words. Best yet, Option-backspace will delete the entire word behind the cursor; Option-delete will delete the entire word ahead. It annoys me to no end that this behavior doesn’t carry over into the Terminal. Ah, but it does! I mentioned this codepoet, and he said his worked, but he couldn’t remember what, if anything, he did to enable it. There are no options to be found that explicitly state this function, but there’s something close. Go to Window Settings under the Terminal menu and select the Keyboard pane. Look for Dear MacGeekery, We have an iMac and two powerbooks in our family. We both use iTunes, Thanks, System Events, introduced with Mac OS X 10.3, is what assistive devices use in Mac OS X. It also allows AppleScript to control GUI applications directly through UI Scripting. With the release of Mac OS X 10.4, Apple includes the ability to adjust the behavior of the modifier keys on the keyboard in the Keyboard & Mouse system preferences. This becomes useful if you use a PC-style keyboard with your Mac, like I do with my iBook. We’re combining the two to do something useful for switching between a PC style keyboard and a Mac style keyboard. There's more » |
