Reader Tom Ransom wrote in with a problem and a solution -- how do you delete the Internet Explorer preferences in OS X? He was unable to download from any passive FTP hosts via IE, and thought trashing the preferences might cure the problem.
The typical method would be to trash com.microsoft.explorer.plist from ~/Library/Preferences and that should do the trick. Tom tried this, but it had no affect on his problem. Through some detective work in the Terminal (since prefs files are now text-based XML and easily browsable), he determined that IE's prefs are actually stored in the file com.apple.internetconfig.plist in your Preferences directory.
So if you're having trouble with passive FTP, try trashing that file (perhaps along with com.microsoft.explorer.plist) and relaunching IE. It worked for Tom!
I have long been a fan of BBEdit's backup option, but have loathed cleaning up after it. If you've used it, you know that it doesn't take long for literally thousands of files to accumulate. Fortunately OS X makes this a breeze with the aid cron and a shell script.
I use the following to perform a daily cleanup:
#!/bin/sh cd /path/to/bbedit_backups mydate=`date +%Y%m%d` mkdir $mydate find . -name "200*" -type d -prune -o -type f -exec mv {} $mydate \; find /path/to/BBEdit/BBEdit\ Support/FTP\ Temp -type f -exec mv {} $mydate \; find . -type d -ctime +20 -exec rm -rf {} \;
Basically, this script goes into your backup folder, makes a new (sub)folder, and moves all of the backup files for that day into it. The FTP line moves all of the files in the FTP Temp folder into the newly created folder. Finally, the script removes any subfolder over 20 days old. (Alter to your own preference). Note that you must change the "/path/to" lines to match your setup.
[Editor: Remember that the script must be made executable (chmod 755 name_of_script) to run, and getting it working via 'cron' is left as an exercise for the reader -- there are tips posted elsewhere here on configuring cron. -rob.]
While working on an iMovie project tonight, I noticed something about the (much much loved!) ability to render transitions and other effects in the background. I started a large number of transitions rendering (probably 10 or so), and then switched back to the Finder. The machine (a G4/733) was usable, but very very jerky. I saw the spinning rainbow occasionally, and switching apps and selecting menus was very slow.
In the interest of trying anything to see if I could regain some speed, I hid the iMovie application. Amazingly enough, this made a huge difference. Although I can still tell there's background work going on (the CPU meter is pegged, for example), I have full control over the machine, the windows don't lag, and I haven't seen the spinning rainbow since hiding iMovie.
This is a very small sample size (one machine!), so I hate to jump to conclusions, but I've repeated the experiment a number of times with the same results. If iMovie is visible in the background while rendering, the machine slows dramatically. If iMovie is hidden while rendering, it's hard to tell there's much out of the usual going on.
If you work in iMovie, give it a shot and let me know if you see similar results...I'm intrigued!
i think i saw a link here about this--cant remember [Editor: I thought I remembered it, too, but can't find it anywhere!]. anyways, here's a really cool UNIX admin application i just downloaded. go to: The Moose's Apprentice page and check it out.
i haven't had time to "battle test" it yet, but the documentation is *excellent.* I'll use it tonight to restrict ftp users to their home directories...an app like this is precisely what ive been looking for. hope it lives up to its potential.
[Editor's note: Based on a quick five-minute look, this looks like a very impressive application. It gives you a GUI tool to manage many of the low-level UNIX tasks, such as cron jobs, FTP user access, allowed shells, and authorizing services by user and address. Worth a look-see if you're looking for a way of handling some of the UNIX stuff without diving into the terminal. A note of caution, though - this app will let you change things that you may not fully understand! Make sure you have some concept of what you're changing before you start tweaking the settings...]
Gaurav Khanna sent me a pointer pointer to his page of heavy-duty numerical computation tools for OS X, including gcc, g77, MPI, and OpenMP. Check out Gaurav's ports here:
This stuff is way over my head, but if this is your field of interest, check out Gaurav's page. If you have feedback for him, just use the email link at the bottom of his page.
The default header filters in Mail.app will fail to filter out headers like "Delivered-To:". To fix this, in the Preferences --> Viewing panel, on the Show Header Detail pop-up, click Custom then double click on the "To" filter, and change it to "^To:".
These filters are Regular Expressions, or regexps. They are patterns that match text. In regexp, a caret (^) at the beginning of the string means "the string starts with".
^To: - matches only strings that start with "To:".
The original pattern "To" happens to match the word "To" at the end of "Delivered-To". That's why you see that extra header line.
[Editor's note: regexps are incredibly powerful, and for those new to UNIX (like myself!), incredibly obtuse and confusing. I've been doing some reading on the web about them, and I found a tutorial written by Jan Borsodi which I found to be thorough and easy to read. Worth a view if you'd like to know more of what you can do with regexps; "^" is just the tip of the (large!) iceberg!]
For those that didn't know it, MacMame (a universal arcade game emulator that can run 2,500 games!) has been carbonized for a while now. There's a new release (download 0.53) out now, and it runs quite nicely in OS X. At left is a quick snapshot of Galaga running on MacMame on OS X -- here's a larger version if you'd like a clearer view.
I ran into a couple of minor visual glitches with a few games, but they are generally quite minor and most games ran perfectly. MacMame provides a large number of options for configuring the video, and it's usually possible to find a setting that looks good and performs well. UPDATE: The 0.53 version (released 8/15/01) seems to fix most of the video glitches I was having. The games now look perfect!
Performance on my G4/733 was (expectedly) fine, even without telling MacMame to hog the CPU. One of the nice things about older arcade games, though, is that they don't require huge amounts of horsepower. MacMame also ran very nicely on our iBook 500.
MacMame relies on original ROM files for the arcade games that it plays. Follow the links on the MacMame web site as a good starting point. From a legal perspective, you should own a full-size arcade version of any ROM you download, as they are still technically not in the public domain.
NOTE: Make sure you also download the new OpenGL plug-in for OS X (and OS 9). It's in the downloads section of the MacMame site, and it lets you apply OpenGL effects (bilinear filtering to smooth the jaggies) to MacMame's games.
If you grew up playing the video games of the 1980's, MacMame is a must-have OS X application!
Some people may not have noticed the free drawing program which comes with OSX. It's located in Developer/Applications/Extras and it's called Sketch. It's only installed if you do the developer install. It's a simple drawing program, with lines and circles and type, similar to Microsoft Draw. It's nice for simple diagrams when Illustrator is just too much work. The only catch is you have to save your work as a Sketch file (.sketch) before you can Save As a TIFF or PDF file.
[Editor's note: You'll also find Bomb.app (a program to show that a dying program won't affect the system) and WorldText.app (a TextEdit replacement with some nicer features) in the Extras folder - it's worth a look if you've installed the Dev Tools.]
Apple's built-in FTP server, which is started by clicking a button in the Sharing prefs panel, is probably sufficient for most users. It gives easy access to your machine via FTP, but has some limitations. If you wish to allow others to FTP to your machine, you need to create an OS X account for each user. If you want those users restricted to their home directory, you need to create an 'ftpchroot' file that limits their access. Other more advanced tasks, such as space limitations, require further tweaking to the FTP server.
If you'd like an easy way to put a more robust FTP server solution in place, check out CrushFTP by Ben Spink. CrushFTP is a Java-based application that runs on OS X (and OS 9!).
It has a wealth of options, including:
User (add/delete/modify) management within CrushFTP
Set disk quotas and other privileges by directory
Set maximum idle and connect times and bandwidth limits
Limit max downloads per session
Easily specify which port CrushFTP will serve from
Control which days a user may connect
Limit or allow connections based on IP address
Generate detailed usage reports
I ran a very simple speed comparison this afternoon (transfer one 7.9mb file from my Mac to my Win2000 laptop), and I was surprised to find that CrushFTP beat the built-in FTP server (444K per second vs. 440K per second). A more extensive test would have to be done on multiple files to verify the results, but CrushFTP seems to be just as speedy as the bundled FTP server -- at least in a single-user scenario.
CrushFTP is a $20 shareware application, and it's a fully try-before-you-buy package. If you're looking for a more advanced FTP server package, check it out.
NOTE: I am not a registered CrushFTP user, as my FTP needs are simple. It just seems like a well-developed alternative to the bundled OS X FTP server, with easily defined options. As with anything that allows direct access to your machine, please make sure you're comfortable with the product and its background before installing or using it!
For those that didn't know it, 
