*NIX tip

Sometimes when running a program to download files the settings will get lost. This happened a few times when grabbing a directory of files from Bittorrent (it's still legal in Canada). For the most part it was smart enough to realise it was a directory. This last time it couldn't deal with it. There was only two options. Start over in a different directory or download to the desktop (which is really the same thing). I used the terminal in OS X to create a symbolic link (ln -s) on the desktop to the data I had already downloaded. The program saw the link as the actual file and is happy.

Unfortunately I don't know where the new parts of the directory will be located. I suspect they should be located with the parts already downloaded.

Switching over to Mac for a while

My Linux box blew a power supply. Man it's tough to live without all your favourite programs. While I'm getting if fixed I'm using a Mac as my work station. For the most part it's not a real difficult transition. I have some issues with the programs available for it.

I've tried two newsreaders. Hogwasher and MT-Newswasher. Both are fairly good. Unfortunately both make the assupmtion the server they are connecting to is stable. The server I use with my ISP tends to cut out. There is a free server I use but it is very tough to get in. As a result I have to sit in fromt of the Mac and constantly refresh the requests to connect to the servers.

Since my ISP is being very stupid about their NNTP servers (terrible completion rates and retention times) I am forced to run P2P software to download some free (fansub) video files. First off the activity is a) legal in Canada, b) encouraged by the fansubbers, c) sometimes encouraged by the owners of the copyright in the original country, d) physically easy to set up and maintain, e) cheap to run, f) fast enough for the people to get what they want ald leave without an impact on others. The edonkey network is OK if not a little slow. I haven't been able to get bittorrent to work properly so far (yes I did RTFM).

Given everything I've done today, edonkey is the clear winner.

Not exactly *NIX

I was mucking around with XP in VMWare a couple of days ago. I found if the user goes to the start menu. Then to run. Finally enters "cmd" in the box... There's the DOS prompt.

Setting up servers (for newbies) in OS X

A couple of days ago I talked about setting up the G3 as a server. Well I found out how to get some basic services running.

First make sure your LAN is running properly. Make sure your Mac is running properly. Make sure your "Local" machine is working properly. The Local machine is the machine with the client software.

Most of what needs to be accessed can be found in the "System Preferences" program in the Dock. You also need to be in an "administrator" account. Select "Network" from within "System Preferences". Change the method of assigning the I.P. address of the computer to "Manual". Pick an I.P. somewhere in your subnet in an area which isn't used by any other computer on the LAN and out of the range of addresses assigned by DHCP. Check your router for this information. If the information up to this point is confusing then it would be a good idea to read up on how networks function first.

Within "System Preferences", select the "Sharing" icon. From there look at the central portion of the window. One of the three tabs presents you with a series of check boxes. The straight forward ones are ftp (for transferring files), ssh (for remote control through a text screen), and web sharing (which is the Apache web server). Windows sharing is probably Samba. I haven't had an opportunity to try it out yet.

The first three servers work pretty much as expected. There are a couple of catches. The first is passwords are case sensitive and can not be very long without causing problems on the Mac. The rule of thumb is stick to around eight letters and numbers. The second thing relates to Apache. Files are stored in the users "Public" directory. They can be viewed in any web browser with "http://I.P. Address of the Mac/~User I.D./Web page Filename". Substitute the coloured text with appropriate values.

There is supposed to be a way to remotely shut down the Mac. I haven't been able to do it yet. Then again I didn't set up my test account with administrator priviliges.

*NIX tip for new OS X users - Terminal

Most of *NIX folks like to use the command line/text mode to do things. In my case I find it's a lot faster to access programs from the command line than it is to go through and hunt many layers down through the GUI. The Mac really didn't have a text mode as far as I could tell, until they switched over from the classic System software to OS X.

Of course accessing the shell (which is called Terminal) is done through the Finder. Open up the primary hard drive. Locate the Utilities folder. Near the bottom is an icon labelled "Terminal". Do not confuse this with the one labelled "Console". Terminal is the program which gets the user into text mode.

It is possible to duplicate the program on the desktop or the dock (the menu bar with the icons). Most of the *NIX commands I have tried so far work.

Got a G3 a couple of days ago

I'm setting it up as a server. It's fast enough to act as a backup workstation, but that's not what I need at the moment.

The machine is running OS X 10.2. System 9.2 runs really well but I don't know where to find server software for that OS. So, OS X is it for the moment.

I've found where some of the more interesting settings and utilities are located. Apple does insist on using different names for everything. ;-)

If I can get a complete day to myself where I'm not stressed out (these are becoming fewer), I should be able to get a few things going. I suspect it should be fairly easy to set up a server. I've already done it on a Linux PC and I hope the knowledge will transfer. If it works I might be able to start a business where I can sell used Macs as "drop in" servers.