[crypto] Not getting SCM SPR532 working on MacOSX Leopard

Anyone out there that got the pinpad of the SCM SPR532 working for gnupg? I’ve followed a lot of advice from the OpenSC project, but I’m unable to get it to work. Didn’t try it with any other service, since I’m only interested in the GnuPG application to support my smartcard for the time being. Any advice is really appreciated.

Tags: crypto, encryption, gnupg, leopard, macosx, opensc, smartcard, spr532

Tethering MacOS X.5 Leopard with Nokia E51 via bluetooth

Bought myself a new phone (well, the company did so, because not being able to use ssh via my old one really sucks if you got a subscription to mobile internet just for those cases), a Nokia E51. Cool thing is that it supports up to HSDPA, which really has a lot better ping times than GPRS. Not sure about throughput, but I don’t care about throughput. I mainly check email and ssh, both use little bandwidth but really benefit from better latency (lower ping times).

Took about 30 minutes, with help from my coworker Kees to find how to tether my BlackBook with MacOS X.5 (Leopard). Writing it down here, because I couldn’t find it explained anywhere, really.

First, go to Network Settings and select Bluetooth. Now configure the Bluetooth device. From the little cog-menu in the bottom, select “Change serial devices” (name might be a little off, I’m using a Dutch version of MacOS X). Add a serial device with a name you can remember, privding service “Dial-Up Networking” and protocol RS-232. Close that window and select Advanced in the bottom right. Add a device in the bottom, using protocol RS-232 and changing the name to whatever you chose before. Close that window and go back to the Bluetooth connection setting.

Now choose Advanced from here and make sure your device maker is Nokia, but the device itself is “GPRS (GSM/3G)”. Not “E51″, at least it didn’t work for me with that setting. Now connect with your regular settings (which are empty for KPN in The Netherlands) and presto, you’re done.

Please leave a comment if this helped you!

Tags: bluetooth, dial-up networking, e51, gprs, hsdpa, kpn, leopard, macosx, modem, nokia, rs-232, tethering

[Safari 4] PubSubAgent wants access to KeyChain

But I have no reason to give it that access. This is a Safari 4 thing, I think. It keeps giving me a popup asking permission to access KeyChain for the login details of some internal website of ours. I don’t use anything from PubsubAgent, so have no reason to give access, but when I click “Deny”, it just gives me the same dialog again. Very annoying.

After some searching, I found the solution by disabling RSS in Safari. I use NewsFire for reading those, so this is a good enough workaround for me.

If anyone else has the same trouble, this is the command to disable RSS in Safari:
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSyndicationEnabled 0

If only Apple would add a “Never allow” button to that window, it might be something useful…

Tags: access, keychain, macosx, pubsubagent, safari, safari 4, security

UFO: Alien Invasion development build for MacOSX

I was getting a little tired with version 2.2.1 of UFO: Alien Invasion, so I decided to try my hand at the trunk version. Building it wasn’t that much trouble and since there are no nightly/dev releases for MacOSX yet, I’ve decided to publish it on the web. As a torrent, of course.

You can find the torrent here. Please keep in mind that I’m no developer, so any problems should not be reported here, unless you’re confident it has to do with my packaging it. Hope you enjoy it!

Update: If you’re on IPv6, the torrent is available at SixXS’s IPv6 Only tracker.

Tags: game, ipv6, leisure, macosx, ufoai

iTunes: DJ sucks

I hate the new iTunes DJ, which came with the 8.1. It keeps putting songs I just listened its list. And I mean that like, three times the same song, one after the other. Even an options that says “make sure the list in iTunes DJ never contains the same song twice” would be enough to fix it. The previous Party list option was far better at it.

And don’t tell me the chances are very small, I have a music library of 16.26GB (that’s more than 3200 songs), plenty of music to choose from. If it was truly random, it should haven’t every 5 songs or so.

Tags: apple, itunes, macosx, music, rant

Desktop caching, continued

So two days ago I started fiddeling with Squid and pdnsd. I only just got it all working correctly and I must say, I’m not disappointed. The only gripe I have is mostly my own fault: I cannot grasp the correct usage of Mac OS X’s “locations” with regard to networking. I cannot imagine that the idea behind that is that you need to change the location every time in the system preferences. However, that seems to be the only way I can get it to work correctly. What am I missing?

Anyway, after I installed both Squid and pdnsd from Macports, I set up Squid to use the pdnsd service that I have running on 127.0.0.1. I uncommented the OpenDNS lines and the root dns server lines (sorry, but I can’t seem to find another solution for that one). After that I changed the proxy settings in Mac OS X and only added the http and https proxy. Pointed them towards 127.0.0.1:3128 and… well, that’s it, basically. Everything works and my internet is more or less usable at this time. It’s still not faster of course, but I can easily switch form site to site. I came to the realization that I mostly visit only a few sites, so those are speeded up quite okay.

So, if you’re surfing through GPRS like I am now and you want to speed things up a little, make sure you check out Squid and pdnsd.

Tags: caching, dns, gprs, internet, macosx, pdnsd, proxy, squid, train

Looking for a desktop caching tool

So I’m in the train again and the internet connection over GPRS is horrific. Well, what can you expect, really. But still, I wish it was a bit better so I wouldn’t have to press reload so often when the connection to a server has been terminated because the signal hiccuped.

If the MacOSX desktop would do a better job at caching, all would be well. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t have a caching dns service, nor does it aggressively cache any content. Which is great in a normal, desktop-y setup, but not very good for the way I’m using the internet right now.

Maybe I should see if I’d get a better response from the whole web if I install something like Squid. It’s part of Macports, so shouldn’t be that difficult. Disk space isn’t a problem either, my Macbook has way more disk space than I ever expect to use.

That’s great for the content, but what about a caching dns server? Bind seems the logical option, but I’m not a big fan of that one. Macports has a package called pdnsd. No idea what that one is. Worth a shot, I guess. But I hope it has some sort of script to make sure it’s added to resolv.conf or something.

Something to work out once I’m home.

Tags: caching, commuter, dns, gprs, internet, macosx, macports, proxy, train

Fixing X11 on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

I had some trouble getting X11.app to work. No idea why it stopped working all of a sudden, I don’t think I did anything strange that might break it. I got:

idefisk:/Applications/Utilities tim$ ./X11.app/Contents/MacOS/X11

XFree86 Version 4.4.0 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)
[DRI] screen 0 installation complete
Screen 0 added: 1280x800 @ (0,0)
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
exec: No such file or directory
Quitting XDarwin...
idefisk:/Applications/Utilities tim$

While researching this, I came across this page describing how to make Tiger’s X11 work on Leopard. It included the following step:

The final step is to edit the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc and go to the bottom of the file and replace "exec quartz-wm" with "exec /usr/X11R6/bin/quartz-wm".

Well, my Tiger didn’t even have an /etc/X11/xinit directory. So I created it and added the xinitrc file with that one line. Now my X11.app works again. Yay!

Hope this helps someone else.

Update: Fixed the title. Tiger is of course 10.4, not 10.5.

Tags: error, macosx, starting, tiger, x11, x11.app

DHCP server in Parallels host-only network

While trying to create a Debian preseeding environment in Parallels, I came across the fact that when you enable Mac OS X connection sharing, it starts it’s own dhcp (or rather, bootp) service. If that service recognises another dhcp/bootp server in the network, it bails out and deactivates connection sharing. That last is terribly annoying, since I want to run my own dhcp server from the preseed-provisioning server.

The solution is to run the following script, which makes sure forwarding is enabled in the kernel and in ipfw (the MacOSX firewall). I found a good solution in in an older article on a blog called collectivity. The script is this (host-only network is 10.37.129.0/24 with .1 being my Mac OS X host machine):

#!/bin/sh

DEFROUTE_IF=`/usr/sbin/netstat -rn | /usr/bin/awk '/^default/ {print $6;}'`
NATD=/usr/sbin/natd
NATD_OPTIONS="-log -log_denied -use_sockets -same_ports -interface $DEFROUTE_IF"
IPFW=/sbin/ipfw

LOOPBACK="lo*"
PUBLIC_IF="$DEFROUTE_IF"
PARALLELS_IF=en2

PARALLELS_NET="10.37.129.0/24"

# start natd
$NATD $NATD_OPTIONS

# divert traffic before anything else
$IPFW add 01000 divert natd all from $PARALLELS_NET to any out via $PUBLIC_IF
$IPFW add 01010 divert natd all from any to any in via $PUBLIC_IF

# standard mac os x firewall stuff
$IPFW add 02000 allow ip from any to any via $LOOPBACK
$IPFW add 02010 deny ip from 127.0.0.0/8 to any in
$IPFW add 02020 deny ip from any to 127.0.0.0/8 in
$IPFW add 02030 deny ip from 224.0.0.0/3 to any in
$IPFW add 02040 deny tcp from any to 224.0.0.0/3 in
$IPFW add 02050 allow tcp from any to any out
$IPFW add 02060 allow tcp from any to any established
$IPFW add 02070 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 22 in
$IPFW add 02070 allow ip from any to any dst-port 53 in
$IPFW add 02080 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 80 in
$IPFW add 02090 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 427 in
$IPFW add 02100 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 443 in
$IPFW add 02110 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 5297 in
$IPFW add 02120 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 5298 in

#$IPFW add 03000 allow all from $PARALLELS_NET to any via $PARALLELS_IF in
#$IPFW add 03010 allow all from any to $PARALLELS_NET via $PARALLELS_IF out

$IPFW add 12190 deny tcp from any to any
$IPFW add 65535 allow all from any to any

sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1

I run it manually when needed.

Tags: dhcp, host-only, macosx, parallels, preseeding, test

Get Parallels cheap! (Along with other apps!)

Ok, so MacUpdate Promo unlocked all the apps. That means you can get the following applications for just $64.99 (that’s only €40,99!!):

Grand total: $487.71 (€307,62)

(Using today’s conversion rate.)

Go check it out: MacUpdate Promo!

Tags: cheap, macosx, mupromo, parallels

MUpromo and the sheeps

So MUpromo has a deal on Mac apps. Kind of silly, if a certain number of sales are met, everyone gets an extra app. They did it before, apparently, with good results.

The apps are quite silly, except for the locked ones (I’ll get back to the “locked apps” a little later). For instance, the first app, Hazel, is a “house-cleaning” app. It can automatically clear out items in your trash after they’ve been in there for a certain while. Like anyone would want that! There’s a certain amount of joy I get when cleaning out my Trash, that makes me feel like I just cleaned the whole house (after, not before or during). A satisfaction. Hazel would take that away from me! Also, when you delete an app out of your Applications folder, Hazel automatically finds associated folders in several locations, including the Library/Application Support directory. Pfff, needed that a few months ago, now it’s already all cluttered!

Hazel can do more, though. It can keep watch of your desktop and changes the colors of new files in there or very old ones. Yay, didn’t you always just want that? Silly.

Now Hazel at least, is sort of useful, but Art Text? Double-u-tee-ef? That’s like as useful as a lumberjack on Easter Island. Complete timesink. Yeah, so it has 110+ pre-designed styles, who cares? It’s not like you can make anything useful with this. Just arty looking text. I played around with it, you know, just to see what it could do and before I knew it, it was an hour later! Talking about a timesink!

Next app, please! MenuCalendarClock is about as useful as Art Text. I mean, hello? I already have iCal? Why would I want this app that even uses iCal itself?!? What a rip off. Yeah, sure, it adds a convenient icon to your status bar that shows you the day of the month. And you can click it and it’ll show you the current month, tasks you have in your calendar, week numbers etc. You can add tasks from that small app, too! Pfff, why would you want a small, non-obtrusive little thingy in your status bar when you can have a full blown iCal? I really don’t get this app.

Leap aka “YabatwtmF”, Yabba for friends. If you watch the videos on this guys site, you’ll see what it’s all about: Absolutely nothing. Some finding improvements, maybe, but can it really replace Finder? So maybe it does look a little nicer, allows you to easier find files instead of traversing countless of folders and allows you to tags documents and other files for easy finding in the future. Do you real need this kind of functionality? I know I don’t.

So you want to be a writer, huh? Yeah, move to the back of that very long queue over there. There are more writers than readers on this planet, so I really have no idea why and app like StoryMill would be interesting to anyone. Who reads books anyway? I once tried to write a book, but I grew frustrated from my text processor and it’s ability to completely dull my senses. StoryMill is a bit different, I’ll admit. Allows you to save your research, create a comprehensive timeline, gives you tools to track your progress, and even allows you to go to “full screen mode”, so you want have any distractions while writing. Give me old pen and paper, I say, the good old-fashioned way to write. They’re called “writers”, not “typists”. Jeez.

Apparently, the people from MUpromo don’t think very highly of their users typing skills. Well, neither do I, so the next app could be quite useful for most of them! Typinator (“I;ll bve bakc”) fixes spelling mistakes on the fly. In any program you’re in, doesn’t matter if you actually want the error to be corrected! For example, while trying to type the misspelled quote, I actually had to trick Typinator for it to allow me to spell back … back.. aaargh, again! B A K C. There. It also makes writing your complaints over and over again much easier! Simply make a macro and Typinator will save you several key strokes. Rant away!

I love my DVDs. My Extended Edition of LotR (all three of them, of course) isn’t supposed to fit on one DVD! Or on a video iPod! Can you imagine watching all that beauty, all those wonderful shots, the details, on such a tiny screen as the video iPod? Even the iPhone won’t do it justice. So I have a special dislike for their next app, DVDRemaster Pro. Aweful, it screws up the artistic effort the creators put into it. How glad I was about the the previous app, so appalled am I about this app. Rubbish! I mean, it allows you to remaster the DVD! Who would want such a thing, I say! Bah.

Are you still with me? Let move on to the “locked” apps. And I’m sure they will stay locked, because there’s absolutely no reason for anyone to buy this bundle. Let’s dive in, shall we?

At the time of writing, we’re waiting for the first app, Sound Studio 3, to be “unlocked”, as they call it. Unlocking is apparently achieved by having a certain amount of buyers. If 5000 people buy the bundle, the app gets “unlocked”. After this app has been unlocked, we’ll hear the amount of people needed to unlock the second app. A boring yet very sly marketing ploy! As soon as you bought the bundle, it’s in your best interest to promote the bundle! Countless sheeps are polluting forums everywhere now, pointing to this worthless bundle. Spam galore! Cheap advertising, I call it! Sounds like one of those “Ponzi schemes“.

Now, about Sound Studio…. And that’s about it. Nothing more to say about it. Oh, I could tell you about the ease of the ui to edit recordings, all the effects you can add or editable features, but I won’t. Who records themselves anyway? Large studios are much better suited for that. Well, except of course for the person who actually found StoryMill worthwhile, they can go make a PodioBook out of it! Or you can make a podcast, but let’s be real, who actually listens to those anyway?

Another silly app: BannerZest. It makes, well, banners. Or slideshows. Cool idea but… it makes them in Flash! Boo! Flash! Boo! Talking about screwing up the surfing-experience. I still remember the time when the web was just plain and static. Good times, good times. Applications like these make the web look way too… flashy, for lack of a better and less hyped word. So now you can make you picture collection look like an art gallery. Woopie. If only your personal pictures were worth it…

Parallels for Mac is the biggest name in this bundle and probably the most useless app around. So you want to run a pc… on your mac… How silly is that? Why would you ever want to have a pc inside your mac? You’d only get infected with those gazillions of virusses that are around the world! Or worse, you could be tempted to finally ditch the Mac and migrate back to that world shattering Microsoft OS, Vista! Oh you need to run some of those MS only apps? Well, tough luck. Go find their Mac equivalents. But you won’t find them in this bundle.

And when you finally thought you were through all those apps, there’s an announcement that they added an app for the first 3500 buyers! Like they’ll ever meet that goal! Silly people there. Anyway, the app is WhatSize. It’s for the machos amongst us. Show the world how large your Pictures folder is! Look at how much extra weight is in your Trash!

So anyway, useless bundle. You can go away now.

No really. Go away.

…

Yeah yeah, I bought it three days ago already and you really need to check it out. Great value for a very very low price! Now go buy that bundle so I get to play with BannerZest to make my pictures nice and browsable and can update my Parallels 2!

Tags: cheap, macosx, mupromo, parallels, parody, rant, virtualisation sofware

Stuff. Just. Works.

I’ve been reading Winn Schwartau’s Mad as Hell series for about 45 minutes now (the appointment with the dog school is tomorrow, not today, doh) and I so wholeheartedly agree with his views.

Just before I started reading it, I upgraded my NewsFireRSS client, since it told me there’s a new version out. Can’t live without my rss aggregator. A few of the feeds I’m subscribed to are password-protected. Since NewsFireRSS is a real Mac OS X app, it stores those passwords in Keychain (scroll down a bit, until you can see the, well, keychain image). After the update, Keychain prompted me with a message (I’m really sorry I didn’t take a screenshot):

NewsFire has been updated. Do you want allow this new installation access to the same information that the previous version had access to?

(Probably not literal, but it amounted to the same thing.) That’s just great. I mean, that’s really great. You know. Stuff. Just. Works.

I’ll have to make sure that I don’t become to religious about this stuff. But it’s really great. Read the Mad as Hell series. I mean it, go read it now.

Tags: install, macosx, rant

Random problems/rants/thingies

• World of Warcraft has a problem in which some textures aren’t loaded properly on the PowerBook. It makes some characters appear as ghosts. I’ll must take a screenshot of it before I can post it on the forums at Blizzard as a bug. I might do that tomorrow night.
• Apple’s iCal allows publication of calenders through secure http (https), but apparantly can’t read them through https. That just doesn’t make sense.
• I just can’t get used to not being able to use the Home and End key to travel through a line of written text on my PowerBook. Gotta find a solution for that soon.
• We got little chicks! The first one hatched yesterday, today 2 more hatched. I’ll put pictures on soon!
• Today I spent 31 minutes on the phone with Apple Technical Support to get an issue with my screen sorted out and two of the keys of my keyboard replaced. Apparantly, they’re not able to send me any new keys, I have to take my machine to an Apple Support Store. So I called one in Sittard today and the woman on the phone was really friendly, asking me how long I’ve been using Mac and welcoming me to the club of devotees. I can take my PowerBook in there next Wednesday, to make sure it’s indeed just those two keys. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep my PowerBook until they have recieved the keys. I’m already attached to the little thing. (Well, that and WoW of course.)
• I finally made level 30 with my Warlock Mulguy! /cheer
• I feel guilty for neglecting Fluffy a little bit. Although she did spent her whole day on the new-lain gras in the backyard yesterday. If it’s a bit drier tomorrow, I’ll put her there again.
• Justice and Child Care suck in The Netherlands. The rather condone sexual abuse of a child than take action. A very sick world we live in.
• Newsfire is the perfect RSS reader. $18.99 very well spent.
• Macro’s in WoW are cool.
  

  /s Fear me, %T, for I am Root!
  /cast Fear (Rank 1)

  I’m rolling on the floor, laughing. (%T is replaced with the name of the selected character)

• Tomorrow a colleague of my father comes for a visit. He owns some houses which he lets out. So I’m hoping to make a good impression on him… Monique and I desperately need a place for ourselves.
• I should go to bed earlier. Starting today. I’m off. Good night.
• My visit to the dentist this morning went okay. He replaced a filling which he wasn’t happy about and that hurt a little, but all in all, it went okay.
• Now I’m really off to bed. Good night!

Tags: leisure, life, macosx, pets, rant, warcraft, work