Chris Farris

Apple doesn’t let you use a shared folder as a time machine destination in regular OSX (you can buy server and get that functionality), only a full volume or Time Capsule. But you can use this command line trick: This assumes your Folder exported is called TimeMachine AFP mount your TimeMachine share via Command-K on the Mac you want to back up. Try this. It will probably fail with an error about locking: sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TimeMachine On the server you want to back up to, run defaults write /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/TimeMachine.

So I come home yesterday to a very, very dejected child. Apparently she somehow deleted all the slides for a school project due when she gets back from vacation. First off – iOS doesn’t have .Trash. Second, she hadn’t synced to iTunes in several months. Third, iCloud backup wasn’t turned on. Not expecting too much, I took her iPad and scoured the Internet to see what I could find that would act as an undelete tool for iOS.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta did an analysis of how much annual benefit the average american get from their PC. $1700. $1,700: The annual benefit the average American derives from personal computers Despite all the wrenching change the computer age has brought, humanity is probably better off than it would have been if the PC had never been invented. Now, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta have taken a stab at figuring out exactly how much better off we are.

Kid’s Mac’s TimeMachine backups were broken. “Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.” Rather than starting from scratch, I found this: Fix Time Machine Sparsebundle NAS Based Backup Errors

If you’re reading this, you know I rarely visit my blogs. That presents a problem, as I never get the nag from WordPress that my version is so out of date, my site has been taken over by Russian Yakuza using it to spy against the Chinese on behalf of Syria or something. Below is a simple little script that can be thrown in cron and will bug you when WordPress releases a new version and you’ve not updated.

Seems Pretty Straight Forward: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install netatalk sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon Add: /huge/TimeMachine "TimeMachine" options:tm to /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default Create /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service with contents: <service-group><br /> <name replace-wildcards=”yes”>%h</name><br /> <service><br /> <type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type><br /> <port>548</port><br /> </service><br /> <service><br /> <type>_device-info._tcp</type><br /> <port>0</port><br /> <txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record><br /> </service><br /> </service-group> Restart everything: sudo service netatalk restart && sudo service avahi-daemon restart

Encrypt files for safety | Utilities | Macworld. Useful for your macbook pro.

So Read-it-later is a webs service that allows you to book mark articles to read later. The did an interesting analysis of what people read when and on what devices. Their results compare pretty much to my usage profile for the iPhone and iPad. The iPad is a couch consumption device. I use it for reading email, quick email replies, reading facebook, surfing the web, and as an e-reader. I don’t find it good for creating content out side of the most basic snark-attacks on someone’s wall.

“Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you’ll get ten different answers, but there’s one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won’t just take us. It’ll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes…[and] all of this…all of this…was for nothing.

Useful guide to Mac troubleshooting. I wasn’t sure what the difference between the gray apple screen and the grey apple screen with the spinning gear. Mac 101: Whats happening when your Mac is starting up?.