I run my mac with the filesystem set to case sensitive mode.

I do this because I’m a programmer, the languages I use are cases sensitive, and I tend to write software that is deployed on linux, which is case sensitive.

So imagine my surprise when I went to install photoshop, and it wouldn’t install because it only supports case insensitive file systems!!!

I’d like to add that this is the only piece of software I have found that hasn’t worked on case sensitive HPFS+.

FFS! Adobe, it isn’t 1999. How lame.

The first thing I did was make a backup using Carbon Copy Cloner, then rather than doing an upgrade I formatted the disk, and did a clean install onto the freshly formatted disk.

Once the install was complete, I chose to ‘import my settings from another mac’, but pointed it at the backup drive.

Afterwards I had a fresh, faster, snappy upgraded mac with all my previous configuration settings, documents and applications.

Nice.

OSX mail.app is a really sweet desktop mail application with built in gmail support.

After using mine for about a year, it had become kinda slow – I didn’t really notice how slow until I tried this tip:

1. Close mail.app

2. Open terminal

3. Type the following in to terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index

4. You should now have a sqlite prompt (sqlite>).

5. At the sqlite> prompt, type:
vacuum subjects;

6. After the prompt returns (may take a few seconds), you can Control-D to exit.

7. Restart mail – it should be noticeably faster!

kudos to Jey Westerdal who spotted the icing on the cake…

If a customer chooses not to register the domain name with Network Solution they are forced to wait 4 days for Network Solutions to delete the domain name in the Free Add Grace period.

After the four day hostage period the consumer is free from the hostage situation and can register the domain somewhere else.

However Network Solutions has now exposed those domains to Domain Tasters that will snipe those domain up milliseconds after Network Solutions deletes them.

Check out: http://www.domainfrontrunningisacrime.com/ And lets not forget it….

He only had it a few months before it became plagued with problems and woeful after sales support.

He ended up taking the reseller (there were no Apple stores in australia at the time) to the small clams court, and got his money back.

Howard’s experiences probably put me off buying a mac for many years afterwards. While, so far, I’m still very happy with mine – Howard is not!

I recently decided to upgrade the memory in my Macbook; I learned a few valuable lessons along the way, which today I’m going to share…

Background

When I originally purchased my second generation (Core 2 Duo) Macbook, I decided not to buy additional memory for two reasons.

Firstly, this was my first Mac; my experience of Linux suggested that I wouldn’t necessarily need the same amount of RAM that an equivalent windoze PC would require for similar performance.

Secondly, I noticed while configuring a new Macbook on the Apple store, the cost to upgrade from the standard 512MB, to 1GB is much more expensive than the cost of a third party 1GB memory kit.

Macbook memory modules

Macbooks have two slots for DDR2 677MHz SODIMM memory modules; also known as PC2-5300.

Note: PC2-5300 is the correct name for modules that conform to DDR2-667 specification. Some manufacturers have opted to call their modules PC2-5400, the reason for this appears to be nothing more than windoze over-clocking culture; some claim they have tested their memory to a higher clock speed.
To all intents and purposes, PC2-5400 is the same as PC2-5300.

Dual Channel

When the Macbooks memory slots are populated with identical pairs of SODIMM modules, the Macbook will attempt to operate in Dual Channel mode. Dual Channel mode may provide a marginal overall speed improvement, perhaps up to 10% in some cases.
The risk is this; if the modules haven’t been properly matched (in every possible way – not just the specs you read on the box) then the computer may not operate correctly; you may end up with a spontaneously rebooting Mac.

In order to avoid this, you should avoid using two, apparently same memory modules that weren’t sold by the manufacturer as a matched pair.

Mix and Match

Using different sizes of memory is OK. You will sacrifice Dual Channel, but this is probably not a big deal. The speed improvement from adding memory is way bigger than the speed improvement provided by Dual Channel alone.

For example, let’s say, like me, you currently have a matched pair of 256MB sticks.

Let’s say I have two options, I can either,
a) Buy a matched pair of 512MB SODIMMS, resulting in a total memory capacity of 1GB, or
b) Buy a single 1GB SODIMM stick, replacing one of my existing sticks, resulting in a total memory capacity of 1.25GB.

Under most circumstances, option b) will offer the most benefit.

The performance improvement of an additional 25% memory is nearly always greater than that of having a matched pair, and Dual Channel.

What to do?

At the time of writing, a 2GB kit (the maximum my Macbook will address) is available from Apple for $440 AU.

My favorite local computer store will sell me a Corsair 1GB PC5400 SODIMM for $36 AUD. Wow!

Corsair have a memory configuration utility which lists my Macbook as compatible with this memory – however a bit of Googling reveals that since there is no pair-matching, buying two of these particular SODIMMS is risky (there are reports of random reboots).

I suspect if I only wanted one (keeping one of my 256MB sticks), they would be fine.

So I did a bit more research, and found that one of Apples own memory suppliers is also my favourite: Crucial.

So, I have ordered a matching-pair (2x 1GB), for a grand total of $75 including UPS shipping (from the US) to Australia.

At those prices – why wouldn’t I upgrade!

Available directly from Crucial.com

This technique can be used to track user behavior, but just as easily can be used in a more targeted way to identify which banking sites or web mail a user has visited.

These browser privacy attacks are mostly preventable by logically partitioning the history and cache by domain name; so called same origin policy.

The simplest way to do this in firefox is using the SafeCache and SafeHistory browser extensions.

Rather than add my own waffle, I’ve decided to link to a few of the posts that I think really add some value to the day. Here goes:

1. Copyblogger: The butterfly effect. An eloquent and original essay demonstrating that seemingly trivial changes can make all the difference.

2. Google blog: Because Google actually did some really good stuff for the environment this year.

3. Lifehacker: For providing simple, practical and creative suggestions that can make a real difference.

4. Pick the brain: For beautifully summing it up in two simple steps.

If everyone could pick just one new habit from each of these lists, we’d all be making a world of difference.

The Truecrypt developers do have a Mac version in the pipeline, however today you can create mountable encrypted virtual disks using nothing more than OS X (10.3 and above).

Here’s how:

1. Go to Applications/Utilities, open Disk Utility, then select New Image
2. Give it a name, select a volume size and encryption method (AES-128 is a good choice)
3. Click Create, and you will be asked to provide a password for the volume.

HINT: Use something long and non-dictionary. I use phrases rather than single words, these are easier to remember, and harder to crack eg: 7SunnyDaysIs1SunnyWeek.

There is a simple way to change this behavior so that you can see, and edit htaccess files on mac OS X.

TinkerTool is a great little application that allows you to configure many many features of OS X that aren’t otherwise available through a GUI.

TinkerTool allows you to enable/disable the display of hidden and system files in the finder. Enabling this allows us to see and work with Apache htaccess files.

It is likely that you will want to reverse this change once you have finished working with htaccess, as the setting does add clutter to the finder and to the OS X desktop.