All the Pages Are My Days

I have about a half dozen hosts that I ssh to on a regular basis. I often end up with multiple tabs, and it's very helpful if the tab label indicates what machine I'm connected to. Using iTerm's bookmarks, this works as desired with the bookmark name showing up as the tab name.

It took me a while, but I figured out a way to achieve the same result using the updated terminal program that ships with Leopard. With the new terminal it's straight-forward to save connections that automatically ssh to the desired host, and also display the remote system's name as the window title. Unfortunately, there's no obvious way to override the tab label, which displays the shell name.

My solution is kind of crude, but it does work. Simply create a hard link to the ssh binary with the name of each remote system you need to connect to (symbolic links don't work; ssh is still displayed). Then, while running terminal, copy one of the existing terminal templates and modify it as you normally would to change colors, etc. After that, in the shell settings tab, substitute the remote-name link you've previously created for "ssh." An example makes this more clear:

instead of "ssh -l username remote-name" specify "remote-name -l username remote-name" and voila', the remote system name is now displayed in the tab label.

Here's the command to create the links as needed:

sudo ln /usr/bin/ssh /usr/bin/remote-name

Posted by mike 8:07 AM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: MacStuff | Tags: | top of page

Like many of the Mac faithful, I headed down to the closest Apple retail outlet around 6pm on Friday afternoon to pick up a copy of Leopard, the latest release of the Mac's OS X operating system. I got to Haddock Computer in east Wichita about 10 minutes after 6. There was no wait, but they mentioned there had been a good line before the Apple specified 6pm sale time. They also had cookies and were giving away a small leopard stuffed animal with each purchase. Not the same as the t-shirts given away at Apple Stores, but pretty cool in any case. Oh, and I don't know if this just an artifact of the cheap nature of such give-aways, or some kind of joke, but the label attached to the leopard showed a picture of a tiger (Tiger was the prior release of OS X before Leopard).

Anyway, moving right along, I started the installation around 8:30pm. I installed to an empty external drive, as I prefer a clean install as opposed to doing an upgrade (even though Apple upgrades are known to work pretty well). I had no issues, and was soon rewarded with the sleek new look of Leopard. This isn't a review of Leopard as that's very well covered on other sites, but I didn't want to share a couple of quick observations and since I had written a list of software to be installed, I've posted that list in the extended entry area.

My first concern was that my VPN client (Nortel Contivity) worked so I could continue to connect in to work. If that didn't work, I would have to update a different machine, and wouldn't be able to use Leopard on a daily basis. Thankfully, it installed just fine, and I was soon connected into my company's intranet.

Next on the list was VMWare Fusion, for running a PC on my Mac. Though I've worked for years only occasionally using my PC, it really is handy to have it running in your native environment, especially for things like calendaring, NetMeeting and so on. If you're not familiar with virtualization techniques, it's a mechanism that allows one or more virtual machines to run "inside" a host computer.

My next program to test was Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which I use for managing my images. It worked fine, as did Adium, my multi-protocol chat client.

Given that those programs worked fine, I knew it was worth it to continue installing all the rest of the programs I use on a regular basis and also to copy over my Documents folder, iTunes music folder and so on from the original boot drive.

Below the fold is a list of all the software I've currently got installed on my Mac. Worth noting are a few programs that I haven't yet installed, or that I have installed, but don't use as much as in the past.

The first is Quicksilver, which I use as a program launcher. Simply type control-space and the first letter or two of program you wish to run, and Quicksilver launches it. It's an indispensable Mac tool, so why haven't I installed it yet? The answer is that Spotlight, the built-in file finder and app launcher, was reported to have been greatly improved and I wanted to give it a try. So far, it works just about as well as Quicksilver, which means one less program to install.

Next up is PathFinder, a Finder replacement. The new finder has a number of minor improvements, and so far I'm not missing PathFinder (much). Jury's still out, but I suspect at some point I'll need a feature that Finder is missing and will then install PathFinder.

The other program that I use daily but haven't installed is iTerm. iTerm provides a tabbed terminal interface, which I greatly appreciate when I have 5-8 terminal windows active. Much better to have them contained in tabs that spread out over multiple windows. Well, the built-in terminal program now supports tabs.

Firefox has been my browser of choice for years. I've tried Safari in the past, but always came back to Firefox. This time may be different. Safari is much faster, and I've yet to run into a page that doesn't render correctly. Pluses for firefox include better a rich system of plug-ins for extending functionality. The ad blocking is much better, tab handling a bit better, and the web development plugins are unsurpassed; I quite literally couldn't do my job without them!

I usually install the vendor keyboard and mouse drivers, but so far, only one extra key (screen text size control) isn't working with the built-in drivers. We'll see how it goes.

As previously mentioned, below the fold is a complete list of all the software I've installed on my Mac running OS X Leopard. Though not extensively tested, all programs below do appear to work correctly with Leopard. For many of the packages listed, I've linked to the company or product home page so you can find out more information as needed.

Continue reading "My Leopard Experience" »

Posted by mike 5:36 PM | Comments/Permalink (1)
Categories: MacStuff | Tags: | top of page

Here's a Halloween treat:

Yes, it's the pumputer, and you can see a whole series of photos that chronicle the creation of this only on Halloween Apple pumpkin mash-up.

Link courtesy of the Unofficial Apple Weblog

Posted by mike 8:59 PM | Comments/Permalink (0)
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Finally! Over the years I've tried 3 different KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switches and have finally found one that works! And by works, I mean it simply works. Not some of the time, not sort of, it just works. I need to share the keyboard, display and mouse between at least 2, and ideally up to 4 computers and have long been searching for a switch that simply works.

Now I have a solution that works. No more using a switch with one keyboard and 3 mice, or using a keyboard but not being able to use the extended keys (like mute!). Or having it work sometimes, but not others (at which point I would unplug from the KVM and plug directly into the computer I was using at that moment.) Towards the end I was using a manual, mechanical switch; I would literally unplug the USB keyboard/mouse from one computer and plug into the other, not using my KVM at all. (The video was handled by virtue of the fact I have 2 video inputs, and am using the higher quality DVI input with the Mac.) Obviously, not an ideal way to share the keyboard and mouse with multiple computers.

I thought, well, if literally switching between systems worked, there had to be a KVM that would work the same way. After some searching I came across a brand I'd never heard of before, but one that got high marks on Amazon. I've been using my 4-port ConnectPro KVM for the past 10 days or so, and it has worked flawlessly with my Mac, linux computer and laptop running XP.

I'm very, very happy with this unit and highly recommend it for those who are tired of KVM switches that only work part of the time or with diminished functionality. It should be noted that to switch between computers requires pressing a button on the unit as opposed to using a keyboard shortcut. Slightly inconvenient, but given its otherwise flawless performace I feel it's a small price to pay,

Posted by mike 9:47 PM | Comments/Permalink (1)
Categories: MacStuff | Technology | Tags: | top of page

There's a saying among computer folks that rang true again last week: There's two kinds of people, those who do backups, and those who've never lost data (usually due to a hard disk crash).

I'd add a third type, those who've lost data and perform occasional backups. Other than my photos, which are backed up 3 or 4 different ways, I don't always perform regular backups on all my systems. (I'm sure everyone is just shocked by that revelation!) On the other hand, I have developed the habit lately, more often than not, of doing automatic daily backups of my primary system.

And thankfully that was the case for my current primary system, a Powermac G5. I run Prosoft Engineering's Data Backup program automatically each night, with the results being written to an external firewire drive. When the boot drive started failing it was a simple matter (well, it took a few hours as the system was very unresponsive; the drive didn't die, but it is terminal) to boot from the firewire drive and then carry on. Data Backup isn't the fanciest program out there, and it doesn't have a lot of options, but it did do the job for me!

Unsolicited, unpaid testimonial, in case anyone's wondering.

Posted by mike 12:13 AM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: MacStuff | Technology | Tags: | top of page

I spent some time today managing my digital music collection, adding tags such as artist, album, date and so on. I have a variety of mp3s of live concert recordings. As such, I get no help from the online CD information services like CDDB and freedb as they are only aware of commercial releases. Adding information such as artist, date, etc. by hand would be extremely tedious and error-prone; that's where tools such as Media Rage come into play.

Here, in the extended entry area, are my notes from today's experience; if the past is any guide, it may be days or weeks before I work on my music collection again, and hopefully these tips will get me up to speed a bit more quickly.

Continue reading "Managing MP3 Files Using MediaRage" »

Posted by mike 12:06 PM | Comments/Permalink (0)
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I've tried a number of blog editors, such as Ecto and a couple of others, and none offered enough value for me to switch away from typing posts directly into the standard MovableType textentry form. Occasionally, I'll edit using BbEdit, but that's rare.

I've been hearing enough about MarsEdit, a new blog editor from the folks who brought us NetNewsWire, (arguably the best RSS reader on the planet), that I wanted to give it a try; here goes!

ObRealContent:

Driving on Icy Roads

Stop signs are advisory, due to the practical matter that a car may not be able to stop, sign or no sign.

When two vehicles are approaching an intersection both should slow, and the one that CAN stop, should. If you realize you are going to slide right through a stop sign, it may be better to speed up and get through the intersection as fast as possible. This depends on oncoming traffic, of course.

Don't blame me if you follow the above and get a ticket; your milage may vary and all that; no warranty express or implied.

Oh, also ... when driving through town and you see a vehicle stuck at the side of the road, get out and help push. Try to avoid getting run over by the vehicle as it rocks back and forth trying to get unstuck.

The first time, a couple of days ago, we loaded 100 pounds of salt from our car to his truck, plus all of me and eventually he got free. Today, people from 3 different cars stopped to help one car get free, and it momentarily got stuck again as it pulled away, but eventually did take off.

+++

Ahh, built-in spell checker; that's nice. I don't usually misspell words, but do make typos. I'll go ahead and preview and post this, and maybe try posting an image next time.

Well, I sure am used to MT's auto-formatting based on whitespace (carriage returns). Hmm, how can I fix this quickly, w/out just pasting into an MT window? I have to highlight each paragraph, and manually add the HTML paragraph tags. I guess I expected this to be a bit more WYSIWYG though the live preview is better than MT's, that's for sure.

The ability to select multiple categories is nice, as is the ability to set the comment options on a per post basis (though I don't think I'll use that feature). It is annoying to have to remember to add the para tags after years of having them auto-generated. Other than that, I think I like this, and the price is right; it's part of NetNewsWire.

The "paste link" function is very nice, as I just discovered when adding the links to this post.

Bummer. It seems that like before, when posting w/one of these blog editors, the site doesn't get rebuilt. In addition, w/MarsEdit, I can't figure out which, if any sites will be pinged when I post. I guess I'm not likely to fix what isn't broken, so I'll continue to type into MT's textentry boxes and use BbEdit as needed. NetNewsWire still rocks, though!

Posted by mike 11:19 PM | Comments/Permalink (1)
Categories: Blogging | Lindsborg | MacStuff | Tags: | top of page