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Archive: Mac

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April 11, 2007

AppleScripts for Adjusting iPhoto Dates

If you've ever forgotten to set your camera's clock or adjust the time for daylight savings time, you probably know what a nuisance it is to manually correct your photo's timestamps. Joe Maller addressed this problem by writing a few AppleScripts that allow you to shift and reset dates and times for album photos in iPhoto. This could save you a lot of time if you need to correct the dates on several photos at once. After you've installed the tools, you just select images within iPhoto and run the script from the menu bar.

Joe's iPhoto AppleScripts -Link.

April 10, 2007

AppleTV Perl plugin

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Phil @ Make writes: Erica has a special treat for Perl folks with Apple TVs!

On Sunday, with a hundred better things to do but no incentive to do them, I put together an Apple TV plug-in that allows you to run any Perl script you place into a folder in your home directory. (/Users/frontrow/perlbin).

The idea is this: a lot of people know how to write Perl who don't want to learn to program Cocoa. And you can add new scripts from your normal office work computer (via ssh) but have them all available from Apple TV. You can do date & time, calendars, stock quotes, weather, and so forth. Scrape web pages, subscribe to RSS feeds, whatever.

The plug-in is here - Link (zip).

Related:

HOW TO - Run AppleTV on a Mac mini - Link.
AppleTV OS on a Mac mini - Link.
AppleTV hack weekend - Link.

April 4, 2007

Delete Cached Files in Google Desktop for the Mac?

morerandomgobbledygook in Google Desktop cache

As frustrated as I've been with Spotlight and all that I think it should be able to do but just doesn't quite get right, I was interested in today's news that Google Desktop is finally available for the Mac. Finally, I can search my Gmail account from my desktop and use some more sophisticated search syntax. This could be quite handy and should really put the pressure on Apple to beef up Spotlight in its Leopard release.

But, as is usual with every useful new tool Google releases, this one comes with something that gets me a little nervous (beyond the anxiety associated with the fact that I've become increasingly reliant on Google for so much of my information storage and retrieval). I'm talking about this "feature," pointed out by The Unofficial Apple Weblog:

Thanks to the way that Google Desktop works, it can even search files that you have deleted from your system. Google Desktop creates a cache on your machine that holds information about the various files that it has indexed.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I delete a file, I generally want to delete it. There may be a few occasions when I accidentally or thoughtlessly delete something I'll actually need later, but I'm more concerned with others searching for sensitive material on my computer that I've already decided I want gone, and I'm sure others will find plenty of other reasons for not wanting Google Desktop keeping a cache of their entire file history.

That's why I was happy to find that the TUAW article goes on to suggest that you can actually turn off caching:

Luckily, you can tell Google Desktop not to keep cached copies of deleted files.

That would be great news, if it were true, but it turns out that what I assumed was insider information (based, perhaps, on communication with Google during prerelease evaluation) turned out to be just an ungrounded assumption. I decided to put this preference change to the test, going just just beyond where TUAW ended their own trial.

First, I did everything TUAW did, substituting "randomgobbledygook" (a word I was pretty sure didn't appear anywhere on my computer) for "tuawrocks" in their scenario:

I created a test document that simply said 'tuawrocks,' a phrase that was no where on my computer before I created this file. Both Google Desktop and Spotlight immediately found the file when I searched for the phrase 'tuawrocks.' I then deleted the file, emptied my Trash, and searched for 'tuawrocks' once more. As you would expect Spotlight informed me that there were no files that met my criteria, but Google Desktop had a cached version of the file that I was able to look at (much like Google's web cache that allows you to look at websites that have gone offline for whatever reason).

Looking at the "Search Results" area of the Preferences pane, I questioned the name of the "Display results for deleted documents" (emphasis mine) setting, which suggests that this preference is actually a display issue only, not an indexing or caching change. So, I unchecked the setting:

Don't Display Cached Results

Then, I ran the test again with a file called "morerandomgobbledygook," deleting it after I created it and confirmed that Google Desktop had indexed it. As you would expect, after I emptied the trash, it didn't show up in my search results. But all I had to do was go back into the Preference pane and re-enable "Display results for deleted documents":

Display Cached Results

Then, by gosh, running that search for "morerandomgobbledygook" brought that cached file right up:

morerandomgobbledygook in Google Desktop cache

Clicking on the search result opens the entire file (in this case, a text file) in your default browser, like so:

So, if all you're trying to do is unclutter your search results by getting rid of distracting cached files, you can certainly do that. But beware that you're not actually keeping Google Desktop from creating, keeping, and indexing those (deleted) cached files. I'm looking forward to that ability in a future release ... unless some enterprising hacker out there can give it to me first.

April 3, 2007

Call for Hacks: Mac Tips for the Rest of Us

Mac OS X Leopard

Last month, I issued a Call for Hacks for our new Windows Hacks book in the works, but don't you Mac users and hackers think we're leaving you out. We're working on a Big Book of Apple Hacks too, and author Chris Seibold could use your help.

Notice I said "Apple Hacks," not "Mac OS X Hacks." Bigger in size, broader in scope, and even more useful than traditional Hacks books (such as the original Mac OS X Hacks, the third book we published in the series, just over four years ago), we're looking to give Mac power users everything they need to get the most out of their operating system, its related applications, and the hardware it runs on or connects to. This means that everything Apple-related is fair game, from applications (such as Mail, Safari, iCal, Front Row, or the iLife suite) to hardware (such as Apple TV, Mac mini, iPod, the MacBooks, or Intel desktops). And yes, of course, you should expect to see a good deal of Leopard hacks, as well as some stuff for Tiger users who aren't ready to upgrade.

So, click the Suggest a Hack link in the sidebar, or drop Chris a line to send us your best tips and tricks. If your hack is accepted, you'll get geek-cred bragging rights by becoming part of the O'Reilly Hacks community of contributors.

Related:

Call for Hacks: Windows Tips for Everyone

Apple TV: State of the Hacks

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Phil @ Make writes: Erica Sadun has been hacking away on the new Apple TV and presents this "State of the Hacks" roundup of what people are doing with their Apple TV boxes. Discover what kinds of mods are out there and whether they're the right fit for your needs and abilities.

MacDevCenter.com -- Apple TV: State of the Hacks - Link.

Related:
AppleTV hacking weekend @ Hackzine - Link.

April 1, 2007

Run Standard OS X on the AppleTV

Check out this video of plain vanilla OS X running on the AppleTV.

semthex from Hackint0sh.org, in collaboration with AppleTVHacks.net has done it again! A complete replacement to the Mac OS X kernel has been built which allows the full version of Mac OS X to be run on an Apple TV.
Semthex wrote a processor emulation for the kernel, to sidestep the hardware restrictions that previously disallowed Mac OS X from running on the Apple TV.

This is now a $300 micro-mini, and an obvious opportunity for a more customizable media center.

Resources:

Enable SSH Access to Your AppleTV

After you've backed up your AppleTV disk, the next obvious step is to enable SSH so that you can connect to the AppleTV remotely. This will let you connect to the machine and make updates without needing to remove the hard disk anymore.

Tutorial Ninjas put together a nice howto for doing just this. It walks you through disabling the firewall, enabling the ssh daemon, and disabling the Watchdog app after rebooting so that you can run other applications -Link.

Once you have SSH working, you can replace your hard drive and boot the AppleTV. The userame and password for ssh access are both frontrow, and that user has sudo access (also with password frontrow). Keep in mind the security implications here.

If you want to lock down ssh and set things up to use RSA authentication, you'll need to install ssh2. awkwardTV has a wiki that explains how to swap out your ssh1 installation. Just be sure that you can connect to the new ssh daemon before logging out or you'll have to connect the hard disk to another machine again -Link.

March 31, 2007

HOW TO - Back Up and Restore the AppleTV Hard Disk

Before you start playing with the software on the AppleTV, it's prodent to make a bit-level copy of the internal disk. That way, if something goes wrong during your experimentation, you can restore the disk to its original state.

To do this, you'll be removing the AppleTV's disk, putting it in another machine (Linux or OS X), and copying the contents to a file on another hard drive. Note that you'll need a minimum of about 40gig on the other drive to store the disk image. You'll also need a 2.5inch external drive enclosure, or a 2.5inch to 3.5inch IDE adapter for attaching the drive to your other machine. Finally, there's a good chance that opening the case will void your warrantee... but it's for a good cause right?

Back up:

First, remove the hard disk from your AppleTV. Check out Makezine's instructions to dissect your new toy -Link.
Connect the drive to your computer as if you were adding a second disk. On Linux, it will be available as /dev/hdb or /dev/hdc depending on whether you slaved it to the first drive or put it on the second channel (we'll assume hdc). In OS X, use the diskutil list command to list the partition tables on your drives. The AppleTV disk will have HFS partitions named Media and OSBoot. We'll assume /dev/disk2 for this article.
Copy the disk's entire contents to your hard drive. In Linux, run:

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/home/[username]/appletvdump.img bs=1024k

For OS X users, it's the same thing, just a different device:

dd if=/dev/disk2 of=/Users/[username]/appletvdump.img bs=1024k

This should take a while, and you'll see/hear both hard drives being accessed. When it's finished, you should have a 40gig (approximately) file on your other computer. On a new AppleTV disk, a lot of this is unused, zeroed out space, so you can gzip it to save some space on your backup machine.

How To Restore:
To restore, we just go through the same process as above, but instead of writing the disk's contents to a file, we write the backup file's contents back to the disk:

In Linux:
dd if=/home/[username]/appletvdump.img of=/dev/hdc bs=1024k
In OS X:
dd if=/Users/[username]/appletvdump.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=1024k

That's all there is to it. With your backup in place, you're now free to monkey around and try some of the other tricks we're posting on this AppleTV weekend (or concoct a hack or two of your own)!

HOW TO - Boot AppleTV From USB

The above video describes how to put the AppleTV into recovery mode, where it will boot from an attached USB drive. It's a matter of attaching a usb drive, holding down the menu and minus buttons to enable recovery mode and rebooting.

The ultimate goal is to be able to get to a point where people can hack their AppleTVs without needing to open the case. To do this, work is being done to prepare a suitable recovery image for the USB drive that will enable SSH on the internal disk -Link.

AppleTV Running On a PC

bikedude880 from the hackint0sh forums posted this video of the AppleTV OS booting on PC hardware. It looks like this is a proof of concept - it's possible that this isn't fully functional yet. Anyone know more about this? Link.

Previously:

HOW TO - Run AppleTV on a Mac Mini

March 30, 2007

Call For Hacks: It's an AppleTV Weekend!

The Internet tubes have been chock full of AppleTV hacks this last week. This weekend, I'll be collecting links and posting everything on the subject I can find, hopefully recapping at least a portion of all the cool things that are happening with this new platform.

If you've got a good AppleTV hack that hasn't been posted yet, please send it in and I'll make sure it gets included.

March 28, 2007

HOW TO - Run AppleTV on a Mac mini

Phil @ Make writes: Here are a couple AppleTV hacks and a special how-to from Dave on running AppleTV on a stock Mac mini!

Here are the steps I took to get the Apple TV OS working on my Mac mini. Just so you know, I have a core solo Mac mini - stock configuration.
I started on this site - Link.

It mentions there is a hacked Finder app floating around the web.

I booted up the Mac mini. Copied the AppleTV OS disk image over to it. I also copied the new Finder file to it (note: don't change the name of the finder file).

I didn't reinstall the OS - I just took what I had. Before you do anything, I'd enable file sharing, remote access, ssh, the whole thing. That way you should have access to the box after the mod has been done.

I then followed the steps listed at the URL above. So the first two steps were:

cd /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/
sudo cp -pr ./Finder.app /Volume/FreshOSX/System/Library/CoreServices/.

The next step, which has you cd to the directory and overwrite the finder file within the Finder.app, I actally did this remotely

To do this, I killed the finder in the Activity Monitor.

I then Connected to the Mac Mini from my Mac pro and made the copy from there. I actually did this from the Mac Pro's finder.

Then, I returned to the instructions and did:

sudo chown root:wheel Finder
sudo chmod 755 Finder

I finished with the final three terminal commands and rebooted. Works perfectly.

One minor thing, in the instructions, I changed 'Volume' to 'Volumes' anywhere it referenced the FreshOSX volume. I don't know if that was an error on their part.

More:

Apple TV running on a Macbook | Apple TV Hacks - [via] Link.
Boot from a USB drive - Link.

March 27, 2007

Building an Ubuntu Server for VMware

Ubuntu's server distribution, with its tiny memory footprint, makes a really decent base setup for a VMware server machine. Using X11, you can even run the console on the server and have it remotely displayed to a Mac desktop (since there isn't a native Mac console available).

Here's a decent walkthrough that will quickly take you start to finish through installing the required software on a fresh Ubuntu box, configuring VMware, and administering it from your Mac. Have fun!

The Perfect VMWare server setup (Multi User and Multi Environment...FAST) -Link.

March 25, 2007

Place OS X Dashboard Widgets on the Desktop

The F12 dashboard is one of my favorite features in OS X. If you have a widget that you use all the time, however, it's sometimes a bit of a nuisance switching back and forth between the dashboard and your desktop.

There's a hidden dashboard feature that will allow you place dashboard widgets right on your desktop. I've found this to be particularly useful with the calculator widget and a post-it note or two (especially during the tax season).

Just type the following command into a Terminal window (use NO instead of YES to undo this property change):

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Then restart the dashboard application by typing the following:

killall Dock

Now if you click and hold a widget in and hit F12 to return to the desktop, you can drop the widget onto your desktop and it will stay there. The widgit will sit above any other application windows and will always be immediately available, no F12 required. When you are done, just drag it back to the dashboard with the same technique to return it.

March 24, 2007

Control Your Applications With a Wiimote

Chris Brentano sent us a tip for the Wii Loop Machine, a wickedly awesome music loop playing application that uses the Wii Remote as it's interface. As Chris puts it, "This looks like it could take laptop music battles to another level, or just make people look funny doing it. Either way, it looks super fun."

There are a couple of libraries available that will allow you to incorporate the Wiimote into your application. The Wii Loop Machine uses the Max/MSP plugin aka.wiiremote. If you're building some sort of music composing or performance system, it's worth a look.

Or you can read in the Wii Remote's raw sensor data and do whatever you like with it in your own applications. For general Wii input in OS X, Windows and Linux, check out the Wii Remote drivers list on the WiiLi Wiki. DarwiinRemote seems to be the predominant driver for OS X and GlovePIE offers similar functionality for Windows . There are a number of drivers for Linux, including a Perl driver!

It's really impressive, the cool things hackers are putting together with this device. If you've got a cool homebrew Wii project you'd like to share, just send us a tip or tell us about it in the comments!