11.30.06
Radius for you and me
Wireless security is always the elephant in the room when trying to decide to use wireless or not. At the minimum, you need to use WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) but that is easily cracked nowdays. A better solution is to use something like RADIUS in conjunction with WEP. There are other technologies like PEAP but for the small office and home user, they are not very practical or even available in the cheaper access points and cards. RADIUS on the other hand is very well supported even by consumer equipment like the Apple Airport access point. There are more than a few RADIUS servers you can buy but I found a semi-free GUI interface for RADIUS (free to use at basic level, twenty bucks for all features) called StellarRADIUS which in turn is built on using the FreeRADIUS server compiled for OSX. I installed FreeRADIUS from Stellar and then installed their GUI. I reset one of my Airports to use the RADIUS server for the authentication by simply using the MAC address as both the host and the password. In the real world, the password should be different so even if the MAC is spoof, the bad guy does not have the password because it’s encrypted.
Here is the basic StellarRADIUS screen.
A very simple and clean interface. And it even works 
11.22.06
Down with the Tyrants
DRM or Dightal Rights Management is one of the phrases that does not mean what it says. There is nothing about “managing YOUR digital rights”, it is everything about taking them AWAY, far, far away if the folks like RIAA have anything to say about it. With all that said, the DRM on iTunes is one of the least restrictive in the industry and up to now, 3 years, I have never had an issue with it. I have always been able to play what I want and where I want it. But I need to move some music from an iPod to a cheesy MP3 player and since I had misplaced the CD, I had bought the tunes I wanted in iTunes. Now I needed them to be on the cheap unit. But DRM wont let me do that. Now, I could burn a CD and then re-rip the music, what a pain in the ass that is.
The I read about DRM Dumpster in one of the “other” blogs I read here and there. I always view these “de-DRMing” tools with a very skeptical mind since they rarely work or work until the next update. But DRM Dumpster is different. The story goes that Apple had to show the Europeans how to remove the DRM so iTunes could be legal in Europe. It involved basically ripping the tune to CD and then reimporting the tune. Knew that already but Dumpster is a very elegant application that will eat CDR-RWs all night while working through your entire “protected” library ripping to disk and then re-importing the clean songs into iTunes.
I have to say it works incredibly well for the price which is FREEBIE.. give that man a beer or two or three!! It’s not magic or slight of hand but it will certainly save you time and trouble of manually creating the play lists, burning disks and then bringing it all back into iTunes without the PITA DRM. The tool will NOT rip any iTunes music you are not licensed to own and play so dont think about importing your buddies library and going nuts.
It could not be any more simple to use, just insert a CDR-RW, fire off Dumpster, iTunes and make sure the for assistive devices is enabled. Leave the defaults but check the output which is MP3 by default and hit the “dump drm” button to start it all off. The app finds all the protected tracks, makes a playlist of them, erases the CD, makes a burning playlist and then dumps it all to CD. ONce that is done, Dumpster will reimport the clean songs into a new playlist and repeat so long as there are songs to rip.
11.21.06
Treasure Hunt Success
I have an image that I took of a rose in a bouquet of flowers I gave to my wife to celebrate the birth of our youngest daughter (3 of 3). I took the image and flipped it to black and white and cropped it down with a very nice result. The adventure came about when the wife wanted a 20×24 print over the fireplace. The cropped image had about 1200 pixels to work with and would not size up to 20 inches very well. Enter FixerLabs whom I knew of from a while ago with some Photoshop plugins. They offer software that can resize an image without losing details. It’s not cheap, around two hundred dollars but now they offer the service via FTP for twenty five bucks and a credit if you purchase the software. What the hell, what did I have to lose.
So I fired up Transmit and sent my file off to them, once I found my original image because they need an unsharpened file and hopefully a RAW file. In my case, my Sony shoots RAW but it is so damn slow that I rarely use it. It is ok since a very high quality JPEG can be worked with by the software. And I had that Within a day I had the upsized image back on my desktop and it was amazing. I went from 1200 pixels to a bit over 5,000 pixels without any loss of detail I could see. Well worth the twenty five bucks I spent and now, I am seriously considering that I might buy the software and go nuts with a few more images.
I am using a lab to print this image called “West Coast Imaging” and a paper called “Silver Rag”. When I get my proofs I will post my eval of the paper and quality of the print. The final size will 20×24 and I have hopes that the paper will give that sorely missed luminous glow that really good black and white printing could get on silver paper in the old wet days.
My newest iPhoto book came back and I think they may have finally got the quality issues under control. The book was perfect in every manner. Color, tone, contrast and extra crap on the bottom edge like my last one. Every one of the PC users at work were very, very jealous of the book and how it turned out. One guy was ranting that he had enough of the PC and was buying a Mac this Xmas for himself. Another happy convert to Mac
For those of us who like a bit of non traditional work desk fine dining, try some Big John Jerky. The original and teriyaki are my favorites. The BBQ was too sweet for my taste. The stuff is priced right and Johns ships fast. Just what is needed for that damn all nighter in the datacenter.
11.15.06
Macs just do it better
After using WIndows since version 2 ( pretty damn useless), 3.0 (how many times can you start windows inside of windows?) and so on, I have seen alot of software come and go. But I have to say that the quality of most OSX software is heads and shoulders over the equivalent windows software. This is not to say there are not “keepers” in the Windows world, they are just harder to find with all the crap and chaff in the way. Macs have less to choose from but what is available tends to be of very high quality. Todays’ example is a replacement for the justifiably maligned Microsoft RDP client which has been almost abandoned by MS’s development teams. It works mostly but it is slow, poky, short many options that the Windows version has (like console access) and it not native to the Intel platform which slows it all the more. Enter stage left with TSClientX which is a nicely done GUI wrapper around the X Windows version of RDP. This client is FAST, even running it over a VPN and has many options like the before mentioned console access. I will get some pictures up later today as I’m writing this in my favorite Starbucks and having to pack it up to get into the office shortly. But check it out if you have a need to manage Windows boxes remotely.
A second killer app is called “Relaunch” and gives you a way to “snapshot” you workflow for a restart later on right where you left off. Very handy way to manage complicated Window arrangements that you just spent hours getting in the proper place for that marathon programming session
Thats it for now, I have been dialing in the new Intel iMac Duo Core and I have to say that it is worth every penny. It makes my poor Intel Mini feel like a slug now. I see yet another upgrade in the near future.. it never ends
11.12.06
Speed Demons
I migrated my old iMac G5 to the new Intel Duo iMac and checked to see what made it correctly and how well various applications run. Most things made it over fine but there were some surprises like Aperture’s license did not make it. I had to dig out my license and key the SN back into OSX which is something of a pain given I used Apple’s own tool to migrate it. CS2 did not make it right but then it never does. My pictures in several libraries made it fine as did most of my 3rd party tools.
I have to say that just working with the new Mac was impressive with the response of the video and overall snappiness. But being an engineer , I wanted some hard numbers so I ran some very rudimentary checks using iPhoto and one of my larger libraries of 6,500 images. I also ran some checks with Aperture and sure enough, Aperture is a piggy. But then I knew that already Here are the details:
Aperture loading intel = 7 seconds G5 = 15 seconds
iPhoto loading 6K images intel = 4 seconds G5 = 8 seconds
I did some quick edits with Aperture and while I do not have times yet, the application is very snappy with this new Mac. Working with adjustments on the G5 was just painfully slow but now go very quickly. It’s shame that Apple has taken a lesson from Microsoft where the only way to get an application to work properly is to throw expensive hardware at it.
Just for the record,
iMac G5 2.0 Ghz 1 gig RAM 128Meg video Ram
vs.
iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz 2 Gig RAM and 256Meg video Ram
The new Mac is rocking fast for what it is and later today I will be installing Parallels on it with XP. Crossover installed without a problem so now I can have both of my worlds at my finger tips. I heard that the new Rosetta is faster with CS2 and I will trying to run some times on that also. Who knows, I may not need to upgrade to universal if the performance is acceptable enough for my needs.
11.11.06
Christmas comes early
Thats right, for good boys and girls My new Duo Intel iMac 20 inch just arrived today via FedEx. Right now I’m migrating all my “stuff” over to the new iMac from the old iMac. I’m pretty excited about it being here with the newest CPU and 2 gig of ram. I also bought a 500 gig drive for it. I have my cloned copy of my XP Parallel’s image all ready to load up and I really want to see how well or how badly Aperture works on the Intel over my old G5. The drive for the new iMac was I need to use some Windows development tools at the home office and the G5 emulators were PAINFUL to try and use. On my slow Intel Mini, XP works very well so I have high hopes for the new iMac to be even better. And since it’s an Intel, I can use Crossover which does not require me to boot all of Windows just to run some of my tools. So tomorrow will be the big day, see what did not transfer over, what did, what did and still does not work and so on. Not such a bad life for a Sunday
As always, the packaging for the iMac was very clean although I did notice the new double boxing with a plain brown box on the outside covering up the nice Apple box. I guess too many macs were not making from point A to point B. But inside, a work of art. Everything had a place and it just looks nice, unlike my Dell boxes which look like everything was just sort of tossed in at random. Just keyboard, mouse, two DVDs, two small booklets, the iMac and the power cord. What else does one need?
I should mention that the iMac was bought under the developer’s discount which paid for the years’ membership in the savings. Definitely something to consider if you tinker with OSX at all. I get one machine a year at a discount which all my pocketbook can afford, even at the discount. But I did not want a refurb this time, I wanted the newest Geek lust is a terrible thing to watch.
11.10.06
Stocking Stuffers and bad vendors
Lets get the bad news out of the way. I have had exceptional experiences with almost all of my OSX/ Mac vendor up to this week. I was reading a piece in Macworld about a cool piece of software called “Meander” that lets you use an overlay on something like a Google map and mark it up. It’s a very nice piece of software and like everything else I write about, I bought it. But here is the rub, I need a serial number. According to the FAQ when I buy with PayPal, I get (supposedly) an email soon after payment with the serial number. It has been four days and counting without the email. Nor has there been any response to emails to Macpaq or to acutustrading.com who handles the payments. None, zippo responses.. so I’m starting the process to reverse the payment with Paypal.. that ought to be fun 
So be warned about both of these companies. Neither seems to be very customer friendly and right now, they have 19 of my hard earned dollars and I have nothing. Makes me want to go find a hacked serial number. Bah!!
On a happier note, I pick up some cool stuff for my (one of them) iPod. XtermeMac has a nifty widget called “Micromemo” which is a small adapter that plugs into the bottom of the video iPod and offers a mic on a flexstalk or a jack for a line mic. No configuration is needed, just plug it in and go. The audio quality is very good but it is not very directional so you get alot of side/background noise. You can even record with the iPod in the locked position using the silver logo button on the front of the unit. Also, there is a hidden speaker built in that you can use for the playback which is handy if you are in a hurry to do a quick sound check. A one hour recording at best quality is about 700 meg which is not bad. The saved file format is WAVE which is big but you now have the choice on how to compress it down. This item works better than any other mic solution I’ve tested for the iPod. It’s not cheap, around 70 bucks but it does exactly what it says it will do and does it flawlessly. What more can you want?
PS-
I just got an email from Macpaq after I sent them a third request for the serial number. Their side of the discussion is that they sent out the SN right away and responded to my follow up email so it must have been my spam filter. Well, my spam filter is Google since I use their hosted email service and it rarely filters good mail. I’m not saying it didnt filter it but I did look in the caught mail without seeing anything. Email sometimes does not make it and the bad news none of us has a way to prove it one way or the other. I will also add that this last time I sent an email to Macpaq, I got an automated response which I did not get the first time maybe my own mail never made to them. Regardless, they were apologetic and quite happy to give me my serial number without issues. So I have Meander with serial number and I’m quite happy about it. I did tell Macpaq that I would print the details of the resolution so everyone knows that it was taken care in a professional manner by Macpaq. Kudos..
11.27.06
The Fixer
Posted in Commentary, OSX Software, OSX Technical at 6:54 pm by hackamac
Who ever said size doesnt matter? Tell that to the poor guy trying to make a 24×30 poster from his digital camera image that is only 1200 pixels wide. I started shooting digital with a Nikon 950 and 2.1 megapixels. Now I shoot with a Cybershot and 8 megapixels. I hope in the near future to change to a Nikon D80 but new sprinklers at the house have dampened my optimism for a D80 under the tree this year. But, I have found something that may let me postpone my biannual camera hardware fix. It comes from FixerLabs and is called “SizeFixer. I mentioned this in a past post but this time I will go into more detail since I got the results back and promptly bought my own copy of SizerFixer SLR.
The short answer to how SizeFixer works is this, they build a mathematical model of your camera using what brand and model you shot the image with. This allows them to work out the math on how the image would have looked if you had a bigger sensor for the light to fall on. This also allows you to sharpen the edges and remove the default fuzziness that all digital images have in their raw state. I have grossly simplified how a very complex piece of software works but it gives you the idea of what is happening in the background and why it can work as well as it does.
There are three versions of SizeFixer depending on how big you want to make your images. In my case, the cheaper solution is the best choice at this point in time. So I also splurged at bought the extra package with FocusFixer, NoiseFixer and ShadowFixer. FixerLabs really has come up with some terrific software and the results are pretty amazing. I used an image I shot with my Sony of a flower in a bouquet of flowers. I had flipped it to black and white with high contrast but it would only print well to an 8×10 due to the heavy cropping. So I use the original and sent to Fixerlabs for resizing.
For the software to work well, there are several requirements. No sharpening, original image in RAW or Tiff, or highest quality JPEG can work and no other adjustments. I did not have RAW but I did have the high quality JPEG so that is what I used. My goal was to hit 5,000 pixels in size which would easily allow me to make a 24×28 print. Below you see the SizeFixer interface where you can select the various options to resize the image. In this sample, I choose to resize to an A2 Landscape image at 300dpi. This is something like a 25x increase in size.
The outcome of the resizing was outstanding. You do not get any new detail but you do not lose any either. So if you have a very clean negative to work with, the print will look super. Here is the image resized and reworked to my original B/W idea. I have not put the real image since it is about 100 meg in size or 4 meg in JPEG format.
Right now I’m waiting on my proofs to come back from Westcoast Imaging on silver paper.
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