Open in (OS X) Terminal here...

...seems so handy! but doesn't come with the system.

now, obviously the problem has already been encountered before:

http://c-command.com/scripts/finder/open-in-terminal

so i used this to get started (and finished) - result is a Finder.app Workflow:

on run {input, parameters}

   repeat with i in input
     my processItem(i)
   end repeat

   return input
end run

...just accompany this snippet with on processItem(i) and on canChangeDirectoryTo(f), save it as Workflow - done.

ElsterFormular "Externe Exception C0FB007F" und WINE

while I was still having a windows machine ElsterFormular was the software i used once a year. now, that i have no windows machine anymore things got a bit more complicated.

i couldn't find a software to submit a 'Umsatzsteuererklärung' (not the 'Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung'), that was free and available for linux and OS X - i couldn't even find one that was available for any of the two operating systems...

that is when WINE came into play (on the linux machine):

• Debian GNU/Linux (mostly stable; but with some testing packages) with Kernel 2.6.22
• wine 0.9.44-1
• ElsterFormular 2006-2007 (8.2.2.0)

and it mostly worked. however, i couldn't transmit data nor could i use the update feature ('Test der Datenübermittlung an das Finanzamt', 'Steuererklärung an das Finanzamt übermitteln...', 'Update von ElsterFormular') but only got

Externe Exception C0FB007F

and the solution was not to reinstall the software (pointed out here and on some other threads here) - i tried that - but to install

• mfc42.dll
• Jet 4.0 Service Pack 8 (SP8) für Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4.0
  

as described on http://ladisch.de/elster.html.


references:

1. http://ladisch.de/elster.html
   
2. http://www.winehq.org
3. https://www.elster.de
   

imapsync - personal reminder...

at the end of a long story there was the need to transfer mail from a Lotus Domino server to a local Thunderbird account... anyways, for some other reasons it seemed quite a good idea to transfer them to a local IMAP server, and the have Thunderbird download all mail.

after some different IMAP servers the best solution seemed to be dovecot - with the others there were problems, e.g. with extended attributes.

copying mails from Domino to the local IMAP server was then done with imapsync:

imapsync --host1 domino.e.t.c --user1 "USERNAME" --authmech1 PLAIN --host2 localhost --user2 dummy --authmech2 PLAIN --prefix2 "~/mail/" --syncinternaldates --split1 50 --split2 50 --nofastio1 --debug

references

1. http://www.mozilla-europe.org/de/products/thunderbird/
2. http://www.dovecot.org/
   
3. http://www.linux-france.org/prj/imapsync/
   

self-signed certificate with multiple DNS names (aka subjectAltName)

following [1] and adding

subjectAltName = DNS:PROBABLY_YOUR_COMMONNAME,DNS:*.SOME_DOMAIN_NAME

to the [ v3_ca ] section of your openssl.cnf file should do the trick.

unfortunately, the DNS:copy:commonName didn't work for me...


references:

1. http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/284
2. http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/MultipleCertificateAuthorities
3. http://wiki.cacert.org/wiki/VhostTaskForce
   

OS X Leopard and broadcasted cups printers - no Shared Printers

for whatever reason - and it might be that bonjour should become the preferred method - printers broadcasted from a cups print server don't show up in OS X 10.5 it is annoying in case one just wants to print (without fiddling around with the cups server)...

for the moment the solution seems to be to add

BrowseProtocols cups

to /etc/cups/cupsd.conf (e.g. after BrowseAllow all). in case you know what you are doing

sudo killall -HUP cupsd

restarts the printing service (aka cupsd). the references also show a way of doing all this via cups' web interface (on http://localhost:631)...

nevertheless, you will have to add the 'Shared Printer' via 'Printer & Fax' - just that now the printers from the cups server will show up.

references:

1. http://mcdevzone.com/2007/10/28/printer-fix-for-leopard
   
2. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1203691
3. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=382577
   

Matlab: Undefined function or method 'propertyeditor' for input arguments of type

launching matlab, typing 'figure', menu: View->Property Editor, and then

> ??? Undefined function or method 'propertyeditor' for input arguments of type
> 'double'.
> Error in ==> viewmenufcn at 43
>     propertyeditor (hfig, 'toggle')
> ??? Error while evaluating uimenu Callback

found a thread - and a solution: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.soft-sys.matlab/...

> [...] In my case the following folder was missing:
> "$MATLAB\toolbox\matlab\plottools"
>

did help here, too. strangely enough the error occurred only for certain users - even after they had deleted their ~/.matlab directory...

iSync.app (or rather SyncServices) doesn't sync CalDAV calendars

i have some calendars on an Apple CalendarServer and edit them via iCal.app, Thunderbird/Lightning, and a Web Interface - all fine - and synchronization with my phone is done on the mac via iSync.

problem is that i cannot select any of the CalDAV calendars as target to "Put events created on my phone into". as long as i have no dummy local calendar i cannot select to sync calendars at all.

might be a shortcoming of the SyncServices...

references:

1. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1213588&tstart=0

iSync.app dosn't show calendars (or shows them but won't sync 'em)

i was playing around with the CalDAV support in Leopard's new iCal.app - subscribing to CalDAV servers, WebDAV servers, publishing, deleting them again, etc. in the end i could see, edit, and update most of the calendars i wanted to. unfortunately, i couldn't sync them to my phone...

because:
calendars didn't show up in the iSync dialogue for my phone or
calendars showed up in the dialogue but just didn't sync


i cannot say i have a 'real' solution but at least things work again...

as the data of the calendars was not (i repeat NOT) stored locally i could just delete everything that seemed faintly related to iCal.app, iSync.app, my phone or SyncServices, i.e. i deleted the following files/directories...

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal*
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.isync*
~/Library/Preferences/iCalExternalSync.plist
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.syncservices*
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.iCal.helper*
~/Library/Calendars
~/Library/Phones
~/Library/Application\ Support/iSync
~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices

...logged out (hm, i even rebooted) and started all over again: hooked up the CalDAV calendars into iCal.app, setup the phone for iSync.app and tried again. calendars are back and sync just fine.

reverse lookup of names with Apple Script in Address Book.app

thought with an asterisx server on the network it should be possible to get incoming calls signaled on the mac - with Address Book.app lookup for names and pictures...

incoming (ISDN) calls are handled by the chan_capi module and then notified via app_notify

• at the end of extensions.conf something like the following has to go (put in values for MSN and HOSTNAME_TO_BE_NOTIFIED)
  

[capi-in]
exten => MSN,1,Notify(${CALLERID(num)}|${CALLERID(name)}|${EXTEN}/HOSTNAME_TO_BE_NOTIFIED)
exten => MSN,2,Wait(120)
exten => MSN,3,Hangup()

update (9/11/2007):

i had a wrong Notify call in my extensions.conf and that was why the notification part didn't work... the AppleScript, still, exemplifies a lookup in Addressbook.app for a given number.

 

the OS X client comes from the same page, however for me the notification part with Address Book.app lookup didn't work. to have growl notification i then put an AppleScript into Library/Application Support/AsteriskNotifier/Scripts

global callerName, callerNumber, callerImg

-- notification("01792259314||4066585")
-- notification("||4066585")

on notification(message)
  
  -- message comes in "${CALLERID(num)}|${CALLERID(name)}|${EXTEN}"
  set the text item delimiters to {"|"}
  
  -- first the number
  set callerNumber to text item 1 of message
  
  -- second the name - if available
  if (text item 2 of message) is not equal to "" then
    set callerName to text item 2 of message
  else
    set callerName to "Unknown"
  end if
  
  -- third the number that was called
  set calledNumber to text item 3 of message
  
  -- for further reference...
  set callerImg to null
  
  set the text item delimiters to {" "}
  
  if callerNumber is not equal to "" then
    
    -- this is necessary if the number in Address Book.app is in a different format
    -- e.g. "034567890" doesn't match "+12 (345) 67890"
    set lookForNum to callerNumber
    set lookForNum to my trim_line(lookForNum, "00", 0)
    set lookForNum to my trim_line(lookForNum, "0", 0)
    
    tell application "Address Book"
      
      set found to false
      set phoneNums to {}
      
      repeat with loopPerson in people
        
        set PhoneNumsCount to (count every phone of loopPerson)
        repeat with i from 1 to PhoneNumsCount
          set phoneNum to (get value of phone i of loopPerson)
          
          set newString to my remove_specialChars(phoneNum)
          
          ignoring white space
            if newString contains lookForNum then
              -- beep
              -- display dialog phoneNum as string
              set phoneNums to phone i of loopPerson
              set callerNumber to phoneNum
              
              if callerName is not equal to "Unknown" then
                set callerName to first name of loopPerson & " " & last name of loopPerson
              end if
              
              if image of loopPerson exists then set callerImg to image of loopPerson
              exit repeat
            end if
          end ignoring
          
        end repeat
        
        if phoneNums is not {} then
          set found to true
          exit repeat
        end if
      end repeat
      
      -- if found then
      --  activate
      --  set selection to loopPerson
      -- end if
      
    end tell
    
  end if
  
  tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
    -- Make a list of all the notification types
    -- that this script will ever send:
    set the allNotificationsList to ¬
      {"Incoming Call"}
    
    -- Make a list of the notifications
    -- that will be enabled by default.
    -- Those not enabled by default can be enabled later
    -- in the 'Applications' tab of the growl prefpane.
    set the enabledNotificationsList to ¬
      {"Incoming Call"}
    
    -- Register our script with growl.
    -- You can optionally (as here) set a default icon
    -- for this script's notifications.
    register as application ¬
      "Asterisk Notification" all notifications allNotificationsList ¬
      default notifications enabledNotificationsList ¬
      
    -- Send a Notification...
    
    if callerImg is not null then
      notify with name ¬
        "Incoming Call" title ¬
        callerName & " @ " & (time string of (current date)) description ¬
        callerNumber as string application name ¬
        "Asterisk Notification" image (callerImg)
      -- callerNumber & " on " & calledNumber
      
    else
      notify with name ¬
        "Incoming Call" title ¬
        callerName & " @ " & (time string of (current date)) description ¬
        callerNumber as string application name ¬
        "Asterisk Notification" image from location "~/Library/Application Support/AsteriskNotifier/phone.jpg"
    end if
    
  end tell
end notification


on remove_specialChars(this_text)
  set copy_flag to true
  set the clean_text to ""
  repeat with this_char in this_text
    set this_char to the contents of this_char
    if this_char is not "(" and this_char is not ")" and this_char is not "+" and this_char is not "x" and this_char is not "-" and this_char is not "_" then
      set the clean_text to the clean_text & this_char as string
    end if
  end repeat
  return the clean_text
end remove_specialChars


on trim_line(this_text, trim_chars, trim_indicator)
  -- 0 = beginning, 1 = end, 2 = both
  set x to the length of the trim_chars
  -- TRIM BEGINNING
  if the trim_indicator is in {0, 2} then
    repeat while this_text begins with the trim_chars
      try
        set this_text to characters (x + 1) thru -1 of this_text as string
      on error
        -- the text contains nothing but the trim characters
        return ""
      end try
    end repeat
  end if
  -- TRIM ENDING
  if the trim_indicator is in {1, 2} then
    repeat while this_text ends with the trim_chars
      try
        set this_text to characters 1 thru -(x + 1) of this_text as string
      on error
        -- the text contains nothing but the trim characters
        return ""
      end try
    end repeat
  end if
  return this_text
end trim_line

references:

1. Notify application module for the Asterisk PBX: http://mezzo.net/asterisk/app_notify.html
2. AppleScript Support for Growl: http://growl.info/documentation/applescript-support.php#usingImages
   
   
3. http://www.apple.com/applescript/guidebook/sbrt/pgs/sbrt.07.htm
   
4. http://www.faqintosh.com/risorse/en/othutil/addrbook/lookupphn/
5. http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.21/21.10/ScriptingAddressBook/index.html
6. http://www.mumbles-project.org/
7. http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/macwarriors/workshops/applescript/1999/nutshell/control.html

Modify iWeb sites to work with Google Analytics

wanted to use Google Analytics together with iWeb & didn't want to use BBEdit, someEdit, someOtherEdit or an Automator action... as i have to sync the iWeb content anyway - why not use a little (python) script to integrate the Google snippet?

use somthing like

find iWeb/ -iname '*.html' -exec ./iWeb.py "</body>" iWeb.analytics {} {} \;

with iWeb.analytics beeing the Google snippet and iWeb.py the follwoing script. after that i use sitecopy --update [SITENAME]...

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys,os
usage = "usage: %s searchText insertText_file [infile [outfile]]" % os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])

def init():

stext = sys.argv[1]

replaceTextFileIn = open(sys.argv[2],'r')
replaceTextFileContent = replaceTextFileIn.readlines()
replaceTextFileIn.close()

# print replaceTextFileContent

input = sys.stdin
output = sys.stdout
if len(sys.argv) > 3:
input = open(sys.argv[3])

inputContent = input.readlines()
input.close()


if len(sys.argv) > 4:
output = open(sys.argv[4], 'w')

for s in inputContent:
output.write(s.replace(stext, ''.join(replaceTextFileContent) + stext))

output.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
if len(sys.argv)

the latest version of this script might be available from (something like):
https: / / iiegn.dyndns.org / svn / de.iiegn / _stuff / iWeb.py

references:

1. http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20061220033306772
2. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/addgoogleanalyticsaction.html
   
3. http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/52250
   

ever wanted to buy a Mac...

http://www.pizdaus.com/pics/MC3KUw7uCDtL.jpg - still?

Preview.app as viewer in jHylaFax (or other java/macport/... applications)

/usr/bin/open -a Preview [FILENAME]

debian, ampache, and xspf player

installed ampache (https://ampache.bountysource.com/wiki/Ampache_on_Debian) and after local play was working wanted to try xspf player:

but it seemed like the link for the temporary playlist-id did not transfer correctly - solution was to modify the trunk version of show_xspf_player.inc.php from the svn repository.

<div id="mp3player">
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" width="400" height="170" id="xspf_player" align="middle">
<param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="/modules/flash/xspf_player.swf?autoplay=true&playlist_url=" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
<param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash" />
<param name="width" value="400" />
<param name="height" value="170" />
<param name="name" value="xspf_player" />
<param name="align" value="middle" />
<embed src="/modules/flash/xspf_player.swf?autoplay=true&playlist_url=" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="400" height="170" name="xspf_player" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>
</div>

i've been simpsonized

Have you ever wondered what I would look like as a character on The Simpsons? Never? Not even once? D'oh! Well, anyway, I would look like this:

you can give it a try at http://www.simpsonizeme.com

however, you might wonder what Burger King is going to do with all the photos, DOBs and e-mail addresses...

port install fails with 'checksum mismatch'

wanted to install Coin with

sudo port -v install coin

but only got

---> Verifying checksum(s) for Coin
---> Checksumming Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz
Error: Checksum (md5) mismatch for Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz
Portfile checksum: Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz md5 17f9a941cec7a1b69693d240e4ac308d
Distfile checksum: Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz md5 30efbdb9c761dd9fea7a7f4a0f01a50d
Error: Checksum (sha1) mismatch for Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz
Portfile checksum: Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz sha1 8595fcc9b4669b8c58490637d577f061589dbdbb
Distfile checksum: Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz sha1 662cde2c7fd06e79f95e02aa23325d283d3294a1

checked whether my download was 'broken': downloaded Coin-2.4.6.tar.gz from different sites and - consistently - found one other checksum...

...then changed the checksum in

/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/graphics/Coin/Portfile

(for other ports the file will be different - but somewhere in that direction...)


references:

1. http://blog.codefront.net/2007/05/29/imagemagick-port-broken-temporarily/
2. http://groups.google.com/group/mailing.freebsd.questions/
3. http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/ticket/12618 - now, that's only the bug report...

Umlaut characters (and others) display strangely in Terminal.app

Terminal.app behaves a bit strange - lately...

1. äöüÄÖÜ etc. are not displayed correctly
2. deleteing one character of the above deletes two in the terminal (i.e. hitting the keyboard once and deleting this last character moves the cursor to position -1)

some help for 1. may be found on:

GNU development under Mac OS X - TECH.inhelsinki.nl,
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060825071728278 and
http://groups.google.com/group/

for 2. one might have to change the Character Set Encoding for the Terminal.app (Terminal/Window Settings...) to something other than UTF-8

booting from the network with GRUB

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Booting_from_the_Network_with_GRUB

SSH handler for Firefox

linux

add the following lines to user.js (in the profile folder):

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.ssh", true);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.warn-external.ssh", false);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.expose.ssh", true);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ssh", \
[noLineBreak] "/PATHTO/NAME_OF_SSHHANDLER_HELPER_SCRIPT");

ssh handler helper script

#!/usr/bin/env bash

xterm -e ssh `echo $1 | sed -e "s/ssh:\/\///"`
#
# don't forget to set the script's exectuable flag
#

windows

execute (or combine) ssh.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ssh]
@="URL:ssh Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ssh\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,75,00,72,00,\
6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,30,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ssh\shell]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ssh\shell\open]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ssh\shell\open\command]
@="c:\\Program Files\\SSH Communications Security\\ \
[noLineBreak] SSH Secure Shell for Workstations\\Sshhandler.cmd \"%1\""

save ssh.cmd in (e.g.) c:\Program Files\SSH Communications Security\SSH Secure Shell for Workstations\Sshhandler.cmd

@echo off
@FOR /F "tokens=2,3 delims=/@" %%a IN ("%~1") DO \
"c:\Program Files\SSH Secure Shell for Workstations\SSH Secure Shell for Workstations\ \
[noLineBreak] SshClient.exe" -u "%%a" -h "%%b"

rem ...DO start SshClient.exe - without quotes - works better;
rem but how does the path go into there without quotes...?

in case it doesn't work add the following lines to user.js:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.ssh", true);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.warn-external.ssh", false);
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.expose.ssh", true);

i happily give credit for this - and particularly the windows integration - to martisch_AT_uos.de (www.waldwolf.net)

digital camera and linux

http://www.geocities.com/piccolbo/dplinux.html
http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/pepe/d70/Nikon_D70_on_Linux.html

lost interrupt with Flash Card reader on IBM TP X24 - solved

inserting a flash card into my X24 running Debian GNU/Linux with kernel 2.6.22 (same result with 2.6.18-3,4,5) initially resulted in something like:

kernel: pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 1
kernel: pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia1.0
kernel: Probing IDE interface ide2...
kernel: hde: TOSHIBA THNCF1G02QG, CFA DISK drive
kernel: ide2 at 0x3100-0x3107,0x310e on irq 3
kernel: hde: max request size: 128KiB
kernel: hde: 2000880 sectors (1024 MB) w/2KiB Cache, CHS=1985/16/63
kernel: hde:<4>hde: lost interrupt
kernel: hde: irq timeout: status=0xff { Busy }
kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown
kernel: ide2: reset timed-out, status=0xff

simple but not quite obvious solution was to change interrupt settings of the serial, the IRDA and the parallel port in the BIOS; note that the X24 only has serial and parallel ports via port replicator or dock...


References:

1. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installation_instructions_for_the_ThinkPad_X24#Miscellaneous - a shorter version of this...
   

oben, unten - wie fährt man aufzug?

anschaulich dargestellt...

no sound after resume with snd-intel8x0 driver and alsa on IBM TP X24 - solved

i have found different suggestions - and statements about whether this problem actually exists. it did for me.

with Debian GNU/Linux ranging from sarge to etch and lenny, and corresponding alsa packages, from kernel 2.6.17 up to 2.6.22 i didn't quite manage to get sound going after resume.

• first solution was to unload the driver and reload it again - which crashed all applications that were using sound at the time of suspend...

• now, i only do (in /etc/hibernate/common.conf):

OnSuspend 98 /etc/init.d/alsa suspend
OnResume 04 /etc/init.d/alsa resume
OnResume 10 sleep 3 && \
amixer set Master mute >/dev/null 2>&1 && \
amixer set PCM mute >/dev/null 2>&amp;1 && \
amixer set Mic mute >/dev/null 2>&1 && \
amixer set Mic unmute >/dev/null 2>&amp;1 && \
amixer set PCM unmute >/dev/null 2>&1 && \
amixer set Master unmute >/dev/null 2>&1

References:

1. http://en.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Swsusp

useful links when looking for irda evolution phone sync on IBM TP X24

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/IrDA/
http://theorie.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~arwagner/computer/T41p/
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_mobile_phone_connected_with_IrDA
http://www.multisync.org/

http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/hcpcpi.html

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/sync-evolution-calendar-with-google-calendar/

http://www.gammu.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gammu:Wammu

how Thunderbird (on OS X) knows about Address Book.app

it seems like the story has been going on for a while. have a look on
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=203927 for details.

what is working for me:

1. download http://files.mistermartin75.net/thunderbird-2.0.0.6.en-US.mac.dmg


2. edit prefs.js and add:
   

   user_pref("ldap_2.servers.osx.description", "OS X");
   user_pref("ldap_2.servers.osx.dirType", 3);
   user_pref("ldap_2.servers.osx.uri", "moz-abOSXdirectory:///");

   
   
3. if it doesn't work try to delete some of the "ldap_2.server"-entries that seem as if they could interfere...
   

something for my iTunes library

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php

image resize on OS X

cf. http://www.silvermac.com/2007/resizing-images-in-mac-os-x/

http://xtralean.com/IWOverview.html
http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/193/key-features.html
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2004092804461334