Tips & Tricks
1Password by Agile Web Solutions
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 | Apple, Tips & Tricks | No Comments
When I bought the Macheist bundle last year, one of the applications I received was 1Password by Agile Web Solutions.
At the time I thought I was good enough at generating passwords and remembering my login details, but in hindsight I was seriously underestimating this product! I started using 1Password a few weeks ago, and I’m hooked.
In addition to storing and automatically filling in your login details for websites, 1Password can:
- integrate seamlessly with your browser of choice (Safari, Webkit, Camino, Firefox, etc.)
- generate unique Pronounceable, Digest, or Random passwords for each website you register on
- store ‘Identities’ so you don’t have to fill in personal information like your name, email addresses, IM networks, addresses, telephone numbers, etc. when you register on a new website
- store ‘Wallet Items’ like credit card, bank account, email account, instant messenger, FTP logins, iTunes logins, ISP logins, software licenses, MySQL database logins, and Airport Extreme router logins
- store ‘Secure Notes’ for anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories
- protect against phishing and keylogging
- sync your 1Password keychain to all your Macs via MobileMe and keep a backup on the MobileMe server
- sync your information to your iPhone / iPod Touch so you have your logins, wallet items, and secure notes wherever you go
In summary, 1Password belongs in the class of Mac Apps frequented by giants like Adium, BBEdit, Cha-Ching, Coda, and Delicious Library, I recommend it to anyone who wants to feel more secure on the web.
TrueCrypt - Free Open Source Encryption Software
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 | Apple, Linux, Microsoft, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments
I’ve heard great things about TrueCrypt, the free open source encryption software that’s available for Windows Vista / XP, Mac OS X, and most distributions of Linux.
TrueCrypt has several features, including:
- Automatic, real-time, transparent encryption
- Creating a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounting it as a real disk
- Encrypting an entire partition or storage device such as a USB flash drive or hard drive
- Encrypting a partition or drive where Windows is already installed
- Hidden volumes (steganography) and hidden operating systems
- TrueCrypt volume data cannot be distinguished from random data on the storage device
- AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish encryption algorithms in XTS mode of operation
Their steganography and hidden operating systems features are especially useful for sensitive data: You can install a real and a dummy OS and hide the real one with TrueCrypt so it looks like random data on the storage device. When you turn the computer on, you will be prompted for a password, and if someone forces you to enter your password, you simply enter the password for the dummy operating system (which contains no sensitive files). Without the password for the real operating system, no-one can get access to your data or even know that it is on the machine.
For more information or to download the software, visit their website here.
Online Lorem Ipsum Generator
Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Coding, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments
lipsum.com is a website dedicated to Lorem Ipsum, the placeholder text used by the printing industry.
Website and document prototypes look better when they are filled with realistic text, which is where lipsum.com’s Lorem Ipsum generator comes in. If you specify an amount of paragraphs, words, bytes or list, it will generate some dummy text for you to use:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Integer ut massa nec sapien ullamcorper rutrum. Nullam sagittis orci vitae diam. Maecenas consequat ante ac magna. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque laoreet ipsum pellentesque nulla dignissim malesuada. Proin ultrices, ante pellentesque iaculis laoreet, augue felis feugiat quam, eget tincidunt justo dolor id nisl. Nulla in felis eu nisi eleifend fermentum. Donec placerat libero a quam. Aenean a nibh id nibh congue aliquam. Vivamus pulvinar congue pede. Sed vitae tortor.
They also have a very informative section on the history of Lorem Ipsum. I was always under the impression that it was just randomized text, but apparently:
“It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of ‘de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum’ (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance.”
iPhone GUI Photoshop Template and iPhone Screenshots
Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Apple, Tips & Tricks | No Comments
This iPhone GUI PSD Template was recently published by teehanlax.com, and is an excellent resource if you’re an iPhone Developer or thinking about starting iPhone Application Development and would like to design mockups for your applications.
If you need to write documentation for an existing application, you can use the iPhone / iPod Touch built-in screenshot functionality. Depending on the firmware version you’re running, follow the relevant instructions below:
If your device uses firmware up to version 1.1.4, you’ll need to Jailbreak the device (I don’t recommend Zibri’s Ziphone method), add the “http://repository.ripdev.com” repository, and install the “Apple Screenshot Enabler”. To take a screenshot, hold down the Home button while flipping the Mute Switch on and off.
If your device runs firmware 1.2.0 and up (also known as the 2.0 firmware), the screenshot utility should be enabled by default. To take a screenshot, press the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously.
Both of the above methods will save the screenshots to your Photo Library, after which you can download them with iPhoto or email them to yourself.
Remove Subversion Working Directory temp folders (”.svn”) with a UNIX Terminal command
Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Tips & Tricks, UNIX | 1 Comment
Subversion is a free open source version control tool available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows here.
Version control tools let you manage several revisions of files in a project, reducing the possibility of ‘breaking’ a system by losing or modifying critical files. You can learn more about Subversion in their FAQ, or by reading the Subversion Book.
In Subversion, every Working Directory you create will contain hidden “.svn” folders that keep track of modifications you’ve made between synchronizations with your Subversion server. If you need to quickly remove all these hidden folders from a Working Directory, start up your UNIX Terminal, use “cd” to change to the directory your project is stored in, and run the following command:
sudo find * -type d -name .svn -exec rm -rf {} \;This will permanently and recursively remove all “.svn” folders from the directory it is run in, so make sure your Terminal is pointing at the correct directory!
A quick breakdown of what the command means:
“sudo“:
run as super-user (you will be asked for your password when you run the command)
“find * -type d -name .svn“:
find all directories named “.svn”
“-exec rm -rf {} \;“:
execute the rm (remove) command on all results recursively and forced (without asking permission)
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