Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Friday, April 23, 2004

-- Comment()
More Mac Voyeurs: Lots More: "Our story earlier this week about Mac voyeurs -- fans of Apple who'd never ever buy a Mac -- vastly understimated the number of them out there. [...] [T]here are lots of Windows and Linux users enamored of OS X's Aqua interface."

Ripping a copy-protected 'cd' into iTunes -- Comment()
Two weeks ago I bought the self-titled new album by Anastacia from play.com. There were two versions available, the other had a dvd included, but was more expensive. So I bought the cheaper version.

Imagine my suprise when I got the exclusive version with the dvd included. But I was not complaining, until I noticed that what I had received was not a cd at all, instead a disk with some kind of copy-protection scheme. The cover said something like "pre-ripped for pc". I thought that this disk will definetely not work with my iBook and iTunes. The back cover listed only some Windows versions as compatible with the disk.

However, I plugged the disk into the iBook, and suprise: iTunes recognized the disk, and automatically downloaded the track info from the net. And I was able import the album in AAC format to iTunes. Then I transferred the music to my iPod.

But I wonder: would I have been able to do this on a Windows machine?

Finns are lacking skills as spammers -- Comment()
My new net column on the lovely promise of spam (in Finnish, Roskapostin ihanat lupaukset) appeared today. In the column I discuss the modest state-of-the-art of spamming in Finland. We should focus on selling reindeer horn powder, Koskenkorva (Finnish vodka) and Nokia mobile phones by utilizing e-mail marketing.

-- Comment()
UK wasting billions on IT projects: "Billions of pounds are wasted every year on new IT systems, according to a report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society. Despite many examples of good practice, there is still a lack of professionalism in software engineering that could even be dangerous in safety-critical systems. [...] The report recommends that all senior IT practitioners designing and delivering high-consequence systems should be either Chartered IT Professionals - a new qualification being launched by the BCS - or Chartered Engineers."

Software outliving the hardware on Macs? -- Comment()
Ssp commented the endurance of Apple portables: "Looking at the current state (= poor mechanical engineering of my Powerbook) - its usefulness as a computer may even outlast its mechanical componenents. Now, that's new!"

I'm been really pleased with the endurance of my Titanium PowerBook G4, which I have using to replace a desktop machine, and on the road as well (meetings, presentations, working at home, etc.). This machine has functioned perfectly so far. The paint has been chipped away in places, but otherwise the machine is in excellent condition. At my desk I'm using an external keyboard and display, so the keyboad of the PowerBook has not been heavily used (I usually keep the lid closed).

I have been using this PowerBook for 1.5 years now, and plan on using it for 1.5 years more. And if Mac OS X keeps on getting faster, this is not an impossible scenario to imagine.

I'm really pleased on getting 1 GB of central memory and 60 GB of hard disk for the PowerBook. I'm using a dozen of more applications concurrently, and I'm also logged in as several users simultaneously (using the Fast User Switching of Mac OS X 10.3). Having a gigabyte of main memory certainly helps here. At this moment I have 20 MB of free memory on the system, 592 MB is active, 300 MB is inactive, and 114 MB is locked. The size of the virtual memory is 12 GB.

-- Comment()
The spyware that loved me: "For weeks I had been investigating companies that claimed to offer spyware-fighting software but secretly distribute spyware or other advertising apps along with their products . Because I wanted to put myself in the shoes of the average computer user, I deliberately let down my protections to load the applications in question. [...] After weeks of headaches that got worse and worse, the machine started surreptitiously pumping viruses onto the corporate network." [via Confessions of a Unix Addict]

Automating the command-line interface to Cisco VPN on Mac OS X -- Comment()
NR recommended using the command-line version of Cisco VPN instead of the GUI: "I haven't used the crappy Qt GUI in months." I tried this, and it works using a command like the following: vpnclient connect profile-name, where profile-name is the name of the profile you are using in the GUI.

I tried scripting vpnclient with expect, but have trouble in handling vpnclient after a successful connect. Here is my firs try:

#!/usr/bin/expect
# Cisco VPN Script
# set these variables for your network
set profile PROFILE
set username "USER"
set passwd "PASS"
eval spawn vpnclient connect "$profile"
expect -ex "Username \[$username\]:"   {send "$username\n"}
expect "Password"   {send "$passwd\n"}
expect "LAN Access" {wait}

This works, but the vpnclient process does not die with Control-C. Instead, use Control-Z to stop this expect script, and then you can use the kill command. Or, you can close the Terminal window where you are running this script.

In any case, storing passwords in scripts in not a good idea. So I'll probably skip using this method, and try something different.

It would be nice to have scripts for starting and stopping VPN, and then I could map the scripts to function keys using HotApp or some other utility.

Update: I managed to automate the above script with HotApp using an AppleScript like the following:

tell application "Terminal"
    	do script with command "/path/command-name"
end tell

When bound to a function key, this opens a new Terminal window (in the background) and starts up Cisco VPN. To stop using Cisco VPN, just close the Terminal window.

However, I'm reluctant to use this method because the username and password are included in the script. Is it possible to store these in the Mac OS X Keychain and retrieve them somehow in the expect script?