The Wax Drum

The openssl utility offers an interface to a vast range of encryption on Mac OS X. This article will provide a brief introduction to the use of openssl for password generation and data encryption. As always, "man openssl" is your friend.

The Nitty Gritty

A basic knowledge of openssl is useful for two reasons. First, password files utilized by the Apache web server and often named .htpasswd implement a basic password hashing with salts. By using openssl, you can manually generate passwords and add them to an Apache password file.

Just because a product is abandonware doesn't mean your completely SOL. There are some great grass-roots resources online helping support users of older Macintosh systems and software.

I recently had a client who needed to import all of their Outlook Express contacts from an OS 9 machine into Address Book on their new Mac OS X machine. I found several methods and procedures, but the following sounded the most straightforward, so I tried it. It worked like a charm for me, so I'm posting it here.

The Sonos Digital Music System

Now, I'm not sure what the greatest thing was before sliced bread, but I know this: Today, Sonos is the greatest thing ever. As soon as I heard about the Sonos Digital Music System, I realized three things:

1. This is what I have been trying to do for two years on my Mac.
2. I have to have one.
3. Everyone should have one!

The Sonos CR200 Controller

The Geeky Side of Mac OS X

Here is my personal collection of Mac OS X technical odds & ends. For more specific tech tips under Mac OS X, refer to the following pages.

• Apache
• Audio
• Perl
• NetJuke

Make Hidden Apps Look Hidden

The LAN in my house is connected to the internet via broadband. Like most home users, I don't want (or need) to pay for a static IP address. I was looking for a roll-your-own alternative to dyndns.com, and I found this perl script... somewhere. This script allows me to keep a server on my LAN and make it accessible from the internet by opening up the appropriate ports on my router. I retained the original author's comments so you can track him down if you want.

Charles gets bitten by the travel bug

Late in 2003, a good friend of mine suggested that I might be interested in a new outdoor activity that he and his family had recently been enjoying. It combines hi-tech resources with elements of a traditional treasure hunt, and it's known as "Geocaching". I later learned that this was basically Letterboxing with gadgets, but it was the gadgetry that piqued my interest.

If you've never heard about it, there's an entire web site devoted to geocaching. I guaranty there's a geocache near you!

Leopard Update

With the release of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard", Apple has made a few more changes. Whereas prior versions came with Apache 1.3, PHP 4, and MySQL 4, Leopard comes (sort of) pre-configured with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5. The MySQL part is still a little tricky.

Here are some notes regarding MySQL under 10.5:

1. There is still the discrepancy between the old and new locations for mysql.sock
2. NetInfo is no longer available for setting up users & groups, however...
3. Leopard comes configured with a _mysql user and _mysql group

NetJuke is an open-source php/MySQL-based jukebox for your digital music. Basically, it provides a web-browser access to your digital music from any computer on your network. It uses the ID3 metadata to create and maintain a database of artists, albums, genres, and so on which you can search using any standard browser.

I found this info... somewhere. I can't remember where, but I saved it because I think we all need to fight spam. Most of our spam busting efforts are defensive, that is, they act to block or reject spam. This approach is an offensive one and attempts to stick it to the spam bots by foiling their attempts at harvesting addresses.

Note: The following entry refers to Apache 1.3. Much of the content of this post still applies, but if you are running Apache 2, please refer to the updates.

Mac OS X comes with the robust, industry standard web server Apache preinstalled. When you turn on "Personal Web Sharing" in the System Preferences Sharing pane, you are actually enabling the Apache server which runs on many Unix- and Linux-based web servers across the internet.