FlyingPics posting Pictures to TwitPic — Update2: NEW LOGO!

I’ve done it! My first little Cocoa Mac App is here and working, so download FlyingPics v07.2 it now.

The propose is to Post Pictures to TwitPic, and also Tweet a Message, quick and easy from your Desktop. If you like to know more check the Software section.

I’ve written this over the weekend together with my buddy Martin Riedel . Any Suggestions a highly welcome, just drop me a line via software@dirtylittlecoder.com.

UPDATE: New Version is availible FlyingPics v07.2

UPDATE2: New Logo is now integrated FlyingPics v07.2

Wifi Speed Draft-N: 2.4GHz vs 5GHz

Just a quick comparison, after using my Airport Extreme with Draft-N Wifi in the 2.4GHz b/g compatibility mode for some time I realized how much more speed you can get using the N only 5GHz mode, just for comparison:

Using 2.4GHz B/G/N mode: 140MBit

Using 5GHz N only mode: 270MBit

Since I have 2 Wifi routers at home using 1 for B/G and the Airport Extreme for N only really pays of, suddenly copying large files via Wireless makes sense and is useable. Knowing that the addition of the second Wifi Set in the latest Airport Extremes make a lot of sense, especially when sharing Media over Wifi.

Using S/MIME in GMail

I’m a big fan of EMail encryption and Authentification, because I use EMail like Letters, and would like to assure the recipient that it’s really me who’s sending it. Also if it’s Privat or if I might be sending the occasional Password, I would like to encrypt.

Since S/MIME is build into pretty much every EMail Programm on the Planet (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Evolution etc.) I prefer it over PGP/GPG. Well I got my Certificat from www.thawte.com which worked really flawlessly, and they also tell you how to Integrate it in about ever Mail Programm there is, the only Problem I have is:

What do I do If I’m on a Computer without my Mail Programm?

But since I use GMail there is a nice solution, GMail S/MIME I finally no longer have to run Thunderbird on my Netbook but can stick to Firefox, and thats all I need. Simply Import your Certificate, and the Thawte Root CA under Certificates (Preferences -> Advanced -> View Certificates ), and your good to go, no other Configuration needed.

It works great for me, so I guess finally I can tell more People to use S/MIME.

Use SSHKeychain and Sequel Pro to access a remote Database

Since I’m running my own Server, I also am in charge of my own Databases and their Backups. For the longest time I#ve been doing all the Database work via SSH and the Terminal on my Mac, well even though that works quite well if you know your way around MySQL and the Command Line, it gets kind of annoying and impractical if you are starting to use a couple different Databases and maybe once in a while want to check on your other users on your Server, too.

What first comes to mind administering DB is PHPMyAdmin, which is the all powerful and great MySQL Server administration tool, but oh well I don’t like it. I don’t like the UI, and it always felt “flaky” to me, even though its supposed to be perfectly stable from what I hear. So I stuck with the Terminal, until I figured that I could use my favorite MySQL tool on the Mac Sequel Pro and use it via an SSH Tunnel on my Remote Server.

To set this up you first need SSHKeychain (or use the Terminal to dig the Tunnel), and of course Sequel Pro. Now to setup the Tunnel.

Got to SSHKeychains Preferences, and set up a Tunnel Forwarding the Local Port (ie 3307) you want to the MySQL Port (3306 by default), you also need to enter your Server Data unter SSH.

Now Configure Sequel Pro to access your Database via this Portforward, thats easy just enter 127.0.0.1 as the Host (or use localhost), enter your User for the Server, Password, and finally the Forwarded Port (ie 3307)

Thats all, now you can connect and have access to your Databases via a nice Interface, and a Secure Connection via SSH.

Get Wireshark to recognize the Networkinterfaces on MacOSX

Since working extensively with PXEBoot, TFTP, Xen Virtual Networking and all this good stuff I’m very depended on Wireshark for my debugging. Sadly the way Wireshark works on BSD style Network devices, like in MacOSX, it would have to be run as Root to be able to read the capture. Since I’m kind of security conscious, I really don’t like running Apps as root, and especially Apps exposed to the Network. Looking around I discovered 2 workarounds, one good one and one hack.

1. The Hack:

Make the capture devices readable by the user by running:

sudo chgrp staff /dev/bpf*

sudo chmod g+r /dev/bpf*

This works great if you are administrator on your Mac (I’m not, I’m a standart user), and if you are willing to enter this every time you reboot in the Terminal.

2. The Good way:

Install a Startup Item which is executed at boot by the lauchd as root, to change the Permissions on the capture devices. To do this first you need to login as Administrator once to create the Startup Item then you need to create a Folder

sudo mkdir -p /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF

in this Folder there will be 2 files: 1 executable shell script which sets the Permissions and 1 plist, which just has to be there I guess. On how to create those files you can look here or just download the once created already from here and put it in the Folder.

Now make sure the Permissions are set correctly

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF

sudo chmod 644 /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF/StartupParameters.plist

sudo chmod 755 /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF

Now after a reboot Wireshark should work fine, recognizing all the Interfaces, and being able to capture from them.

Blogo vs Ecto: Final Round

After using Blogo and Ecto (mainly Ecto) for quite some time now, I gotta give the win to Ecto. Blogo has a nice Interface and is really easy to use but is missing to much in depth preferences to make it useful to me. After all not being able to customize how pictures are postet put me pretty much over the top some time ago, but I really tried to like Blogo afterwards, it’s just not for me. After all it’s how I said for just writing Blogo does a good job, and it looks great (besides having one of the ugliest Dock icons ever in my opinion… ), but its just not more. While the preview functions of Blogo are really great, not being able to customize your posts really all that much makes them kind of pointless.

Well after all I guess for just posting simple stuff from time to time both apps work great. So if you care about layout and maybe want to access WordPress Plugins by adding additional options to tags go with Ecto, but If you are a Interface nerd, you might wanna put up with Blogo shortcomings.

For me it’s

Blogo 1 : 2 Ecto

Blogo vs. Ecto

Having setup this Blog, and really wanting to use it regularly, I was wondering:
Whats a good Software for that?
Using a Mac and WordPress, I found a lot of choices, so I had to decided just by first impression first, and then by review. Mainly there where 2 Software Products left:

1. Ecto 3
2. Blogo

I downloaded both and will be trying both but by first Impression Blogo seems to have the Nicer Interface, and more Social Media Friendly (Ping.fm integration). Either was easy to Setup and works great for Posting at least.
So stay tuned, and see what my decision will be, right now its
Ecto 0 : 1 Blogo

Using SSH as VPN replacement

I played around with VPN for personal use for a long time. Since I set up a VPN using IPSEC for a company before I know how to do it but it seems just way to overpowered for personal use. On the other hand, I like the Option to encrypt my traffic if I’m on open WiFi or something like this, so what came to mind was using SSH Socks Proxy.

SSH Socks Proxy opens a Tunnel to a specific Server using SSH and then sents all the traffic through the tunnel if you configure your local machine to use this proxy. Setting it up is easy and for everybody in fear of the Terminal on MacOS, you won’t need it. For me SSHKeychain and the MacOS Proxy Settings do the trick.

So first just to check if everything is workin later go to: MyIP

Now to setup SOCKS Proxy in a couple easy steps:

Start SSHKeychain and go to Preferences and Tunnel
Click the Plus, to add a new Tunnel
Name it unter General to something descriptive
Enter your SSH credentials for any Computer you got SSH Access
Go to Dynamic Ports and add a Port (ie 9999)

Now you can active the Tunnel via the Tunnel Menu. All you gotta do now is, to tell Safari to use it

Go to Safari Preferences and to the Advanced Tab
Click on Change Settings next to Proxies
Activate SOCKS Proxy and Enter localhost and port (ie 9999)
Click OK and Apply

Now to check if everything is working reload your MyIP and it shoud give you the IP of the Server you connected to.

Those Proxy Settings also affect Mail and other Apple Programs so you are form now on using a safe encrypted connection even though your on a open WiFi or any other untrusted Network.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7599312&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1

Safe Browsing

Sync all Doc across multiple machine

I’m running all kind of different OSs ond different machines, so keeping documents ins sync is a challenge. I was using Dropbox for some stuff since some time and recently moved all my Documents to Dropbox and now only hav Symbolic links in my Documents Folder (Accept for some Subversion Repositories, which are in sync anyway). It works perfectly! I was kind of curious how Dropbox would handle a large number of files but it works.

So everybody who is, like me, running Ubuntu (Netbook and Work PC) and Mac OS (Main Computer) in parallel, check out Dropbox

Switching to ShoveBox

I’ve been using Evernote for almost am year now, used it for Studying writing little notes etc. But recently I discovered something which is for me a big turn down: There seems to be no way to quickly Export all my Notes in a given Notebook to a Format that is Readable without Evernote. Discovering that when I needed to give the Content of a bit 100 Notes Notebook to a College Friend who needed it for studying, I was quite unsure if I wanted to continue to use it. Especially since the UI also doesn’t Integrate in the Desktop very well, and seems so slow sometimes.

Well so I started to look around, and discovered ShoveBox, Its just perfect for me. It integrates great in Mac OS, provides the ability to create rules to automatically sort your Notes, and I has very good export functions, being able to export as Rich Text, or even Web archives which are then readable by Safari again. Also the UI, and actually the whole App are blazing fast, I don’t know what they did, but it works just so quick I barely notice I actually run a App, It feels more like OS functionality to me. The only thing missing is a Sync to Web, but I don’t really mind because I only use one MacBook Pro mainly, and my Work Ubuntu Box is not the place I want to store notes anyway. So I would recommend any Mac user to try it out. Or if your unsure watch the Screen cast by Macgasm to see if it’s for you.

EDIT: Evernote is now displaying Ads in the newest Version. Also you are unable to add any kind of file besides the allowed once (PDF, TXT, etc.) since discovering that Evernote is now completely gone from all my Machines.