mac os x hints

the mac-rsync-backup script is a bash script that lets you do a differential backup onto a cd-size disk image based on a full backup on a cd or dvd.

Disable dashboard

to disable dashboard:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall Dock

to enable:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
killall Dock

more here

startup single user, verose

single user: hold down command-S

Verbose: hold down command-v

default verbose startup: O'Reilly article.

sudo /usr/sbin/nvram boot-args="-v"

Mail/PGP security--GPG

MacGPG site has all you need. Download:

• GNU Privacy Guard
• GPG Keychain access
• GPGDropThing (if you want this, and/or..)
• GPGPreferences (requires reboot?)
• GPG Tools
• Your mail client GPG (GPGMail, EudoraGPG, etc).

Follow the excellent instructions here:http://fiatlux.zeitform.info/en/instructions/pgp_macosx.html

Mail with secure certificates (Thawte certs)

This article by Apple explains how to sign messages using a Thawte certificate.http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25555

Apple Mail with multiple email addresses on one account

At first glance, Apple Mail does not seem to allow you to have multiple email addresses associated with a single account. This is a bit of a bummer for those of use who have multiple email addresses (alias) all forwarded to the same POP or IMAP mailbox.

In fact, it is very simple to set up multiple addresses with a single account, as unearthed by this justinfrench.com article. In a nutshell: On the "email address" box in "account information", you can enter multiple coma-separated addresses. (e.g. "mickey@example1.com,mickey@example2.com,mickey2@example3.com,etc").

get /etc/hosts working

mkdir /etc/lookupd. edit /etc/lookupd/hosts with this line:

LookupOrder Cache FF NI DNS DS

possum:~ mickey$ cat /etc/lookupd/hosts
LookupOrder Cache FF NI DNS DS
possum:~ mickey$ 

kill -1 `cat /var/run/lookupd.pid`

If you want to flush the cache:

 lookupd -flushcache 

IN Leopard, do:

 dscacheutil -flushcache 

Prevent .DS_Store on network shares

Here is a link from apple. Do this

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Tailor your spotlight search

Tips from apple: apple removed the page! Hopefully theyll bring it back again. Tips were on how to fine-tune your spotlight search. Specifically, kind keywords limit by a kind of information:

Applications    kind:application, kind:applications, kind:app
Contacts        kind:contact, kind:contacts
Folders kind:folder, kind:folders
Email   kind:email, kind:emails, kind:mail message, kind:mail messages
iCal Events     kind:event, kind:events
iCal To Dos     kind:todo, kind:todos, kind:to do, kind:to dos
Images  kind:image, kind:images
Movies  kind:movie, kind:movies
Music   kind:music
Audio   kind:audio
PDF     kind:pdf, kind:pdfs
Preferences     kind:system preferences, kind:preferences
Bookmarks       kind:bookmark, kind:bookmarks
Fonts   kind:font, kind:fonts
Presentations   kind:presentations, kind:presentation

date:this month
date:this week
date:this year
date:today
date:yesterday
date:tomorrow
date:next month
date:next week
date:next year

date:>1/1/08
date:<1/1/08
date:1/1/08-2/1/08

This date function is really neat on searching email-but why is it not available int he mail.app search box?!

Custom CSS signature in mail.app

1. create a new sig in mail.app. This will be saved by mail.app as ~/Library/Mail/Signatures/somethingsomething.webarchive. close mail.app
2. create your custom css sig using an html editor or other editor
3. save yoru sig.html to sig.webarchive (from safari)
4. cat sig.webarchive > ~/Library/Mail/Signatures/somethingsomething.webarchive [see step 1 for this].