Making the web work for you
The Mac Silver Tower 4,1 and 5,1 remain one of the most powerful Macs ever made, depending on your processor. Even the eight core 2.26 GHz version is incredibly powerful and fast, outrunning any MacBook Pro and most iMacs, as will a hexacore 3.33 GHz or 3.46 GHz. Certainly they are more expandable, repairable and upgradeable than any other Mac built since, with SATA SSD and PCI cards and graphic card upgrades readily available and easily installed. For video editors, the Mac Pro Silver Tower is one of the best computers ever built.
In terms of cost for performance, no current Mac whether iMac or iMac Pro can touch the 4,1 and 5,1 Silver Towers. What’s especially wonderful is that both of them will still run the latest Apple OS and software perfectly, with just a bit of preparation. I’ll take you through the steps of a successful deployment of a 4,1 Silver Tower with High Sierra.
The first thing you should do is test your hardware. This is easier said than done on older hardware. Apple has some lovely software called Apple Hardware Test a.k.a. as AHT. There’s no joy in suffering through crashes which are hardware related, trying to debug your OS (software).
Normally you find AHT at this path /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics
Unfortunately, recent versions of the OS have not included AHT or at least not for older computers. Happily some enterprising Apple fans have collected all the versions of AHT out there for all kinds of Apple computers including Powermac, Powerbook, iBook, iMac, MacMini, MacPro, MacBook and MacBooks Pro.
Keep reading The Definitive Guide to Deploying Apple OS X 10.13.5 High Sierra on Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 Silver Towers
We’ve recently upgraded our computer stock with a bunch of new (old) Mac Pros. These are the last computers which Apple built which can be upgraded (storage, memory, GPU, CPU in order of complexity). So I’ve updated our guide on deploying new Macs. I’ve often been asked about our special sauce for securing Macs and deploying them quickly so I’ve publishing this as a starting point for others.
Despite the title stating that this covers how to set up a Mac securely on OS X, it hasn’t really been possible to secure a Mac since the App Store came into being (OS X 10.6.6 I believe). OS X 10.5.8 may be the last really secure full version of OS X ever created. Coincidentally Apple joined Prism in 2012.
Still one can make a good effort to make one’s computer far less chatty. If you really want to be secure, don’t use the app store at all and download your OS X updates. If you want to be a little bit secure, you have to avoid iCloud completely. Just ask the beautiful Jennifer Lawrence how iCloud turned out for her (I had no idea she was so sexy until those pics showed up).
Keep reading How to set up a Mac securely on OS X 10.11 Sierra (El Capitan)
Anyone who owns more than two Macs know it’s a real convenience to be able to use target mode for transferring files. You just restart your MacBook Pro and hold T down and you’re in Target Mode. This lets you copy files on and off the target computer as if the disks inside it were external drives.
The issue lately though is that MacBook Pro’s when in Target Mode make a terrific amount of noise:
I have a new Santa Rosa MacBook and when started in Firewire target disk mode, the fan runs at a high rate all of the time. This is even when there is no disk activity. Is this normal?
Keep reading Why is Firewire target mode on a MacBook Pro so loud
We’ve been slowly removing American cloud services from Foliovision, as the extent of American duplicity about privacy and industrial espionage becomes apparent. One of the services with which it was relatively difficult to part was Dropbox.
Regardless, with international state terrorist and Bush security czarina Condoleeza Rice on the Board of Directors, Dropbox had to go. To the Dropbox founders credit, the requirement to openly appoint Condoleeze Rice on the Board of Directors suggests someone felt that founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi needed very close supervision. I would love to have been inside those meetings, before and after. “Remain professional everyone. We all have a job to do.”
Keep reading Saying Goodbye to Dropbox: BBEdit crashes on launch
Everyone knows that I hate iPhones (built-in spyware, no swappable battery, no keyboard, constant and forced software upgrades, hideous iTunes integration). I don’t like iPads much either (touch is only for content consumption, not creation). On the other hand, occasionally something so cool comes out which takes full advantage of the tablet format. One just happened today.
500px has released a free model release app called Releases by 500px. This ingenious little one trick pony allows you to create instant legally binding release forms when in the field. Very cleverly Releases covers both models and properties (I’m not sure when you need property release forms but I’m sure sometimes you do).
Keep reading Finally a good use for iPhones: Model releases
Foliovision is in the web design business. Often enough we have to shoot a full length screenshot of a website. There are three utilities we normally use in order.
All of the above work on OS X versions at least as far back 10.6.8
Keep reading OS X Long Webpage Screenshot Shootout: Paparazzi, Screengrab, Layers, Netfixer
Apple’s OS has built in internet sharing. Normally people use it to share out an ethernet connection to their smart phones or to share their smart phone connection with another set of hardware (imagine your main internet connection goes dead for example but you still have mobile: you can get your whole network back up again via internet sharing).
OS X internet sharing is a fantastic feature but doesn’t seem to be compatible with VPN. When you add a VPN in to you won’t be able to use the internet sharing and the DHCP server will go dead. In fact, sharing between two ethernet ports seems a bit trickier as well but isn’t really. You just have to allow the receiving device to give what would normally be an error message. “Unable to obtain network address. Self-obtained network address.” I’ve never had a successful connection with that message up but when sharing between two ethernet ports, that’s the right message. You don’t want to be generating additional network ID’s.
Keep reading How to share a OS X VPN Connection across two Ethernet ports
The challenge: keeping my IP address up to date
I recently wanted to find a way to keep dynamic DNS updated for a smart DNS service at home (to keep MOG, Pandora and LastFM running without using the hassle of a VPN). It turns out my home DSL router’s IP address changes all the time and I was updating my DNS mapping service multiple times per day.
It was a bit of a hunt to find a suitable dynamic DNS solution as dyndys.org went (expensive) paid at $25/year recently. After looking at some of the competitors, I finally chose DNSmadeeasy to avoid creating managing more logins. We already have work accounts and DNSmadeeasy includes dynamic DNS with every name in your account (fabulous value if you need a lot of dynamic DNS). If you are looking for free dynamic DNS, the amusingly named http://afraid.org appears to be the last good free solution operating.
While on Afraid.org’s site, I found a nice quick Bash script which could be customised for DNSmadeasy. Unfortunately I couldn’t get Curl to work well in bash, with DNSmadeeasy’s update command failing (personal data removed) even with -d data variables or with a simple http command:
Keep reading Four Great GUI Tools for OS X Crons and LaunchD
I’ve just spent an hour helping a client get set up with secondary addresses in Gmail within Apple Mail. She’s tried and failed to get Apple Mail to work reliably enough for her taste on vanilla IMAP. Our own four full articles on the idiosyncracies of Apple Mail IMAP support her point:
Just as we got to the goal line, B. asked me about setting up Mail on the iPad to work with secondary addresses in Gmail.
Turns out that’s it’s pretty difficult:
Keep reading iPad vs MacBook Air: Why I'm so glad I don't use an iPad
“people who buy iPhones are image-conscious fad-following idiots”.
The words of Apple pundit John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame, not mine. But a pretty good summary of the situation.
Gruber was complaining about the brilliant Samsung Galaxy S II ad making the rounds. Here is the long version (1m25s) which you might otherwise miss. There’s lots of additional clever repartee not in the airplay version: “I guess this is what adultery feels like,” says one of the Apple fans in the queue with the Samsung Galaxy in his hands.
I’m one of the people who moved from iPhone to Android and is really happy about it. Here’s why. I owned an iPhone 3GS. After the initial thrill of ownership wore off, I became very tired of:
Keep reading People who buy iPhones are image-conscious fad-following idiots
This post is a continuation from a recent post about Scientific Management and the Toyota Way.
Something we are working on is some additional capacity in peak periods (as auto manufacturers have additional suppliers they can bring online if a sudden surge in demand appears). Gradually we are getting there. In the meantime, I take great care not to take on more work than we can handle. There’s at least a $100,000/month of business which I’m not seeking as we just couldn’t maintain quality standards yet. We are working on increasing capacity first and then slowly adding those additional clients.
My girlfriend is shocked and horrified that we are leaving this kind of money on the table. Her shock diminished when I explained that every day Foliovision leaves millions on the table in Slovakia alone:
Keep reading Focus in Business Means Leaving Money on the Table: Apple
