MacBook Pro 2010 Intermitent Shutdown Issue

My MacBook 2010 was having an intermittent shutdown issue.  It would stay on for 30 minutes, then just shut off.  Nothing would be stored in the console logs which indicated anything was wrong with any programs running.

I opened up the machine and when I got to the right corner near the trackpad, it kind of popped open.  The battery had expanded on the right side (near the connector) and cracked the plastic case that hold the battery contents and was pushing against both the trackpad and the case.  The battery was "dead" for quite some time which I never did anything about.  Seeing this, I removed the battery, and the intermittent shutdown's have thankfully ceased.

End of Story.

Disabling Default MacOS Mavericks "All My Files" Finder View

To get rid of that annoying "All My Files" default view in Finder, update the drop-down list in: 'Finder / Preferences / General / New Finder windows show' to something else.  I have my home directory now.  Saves at least a few seconds each time I need Finder.  (See images below)

Datahand RIP

RIP Datahand.

I would *love* to get another Datahand, or some how fix the two broken ones that I have (I've taken them to fix them many times -- seems like a logic board issue this time).  I have tried to contact Datahand by voice (mailbox full), and by email (mailbox full) and now it appears the website is down.  If anyone has any info, or a broken Datahand that I could buy some parts from, please let me know.

Eclipse Run/Debug configurations

Eclipse Run/Debug configurations are stored in .metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.debug.core\.launches.

Natively Compressing Files on a Mac to Save Space

Since 10.6 (Snow Leopard) native file compression has been built into HFS+ (the MacOS Extended filesystem).  

The feature is hidden away in a command line utility called ditto (you can check the man pages for the command via "man ditto") which is a file/directory copying program.  

Apple hasn't recommended it for the following reasons but if you don't use computers prior to 10.6, you'll be fine.


     --hfsCompression
                   When copying files or extracting content from an archive,
                   if the destination is an HFS+ volume that supports compres-
                   sion, all the content will be compressed if appropriate.
                   This is only supported on Mac OS X 10.6 or later, and is
                   only intended to be used in installation and backup scenar-
                   ios that involve system files. Since files using HFS+ com-
                   pression are not readable on versions of Mac OS X earlier
                   than 10.6, this flag should not be used when dealing with
                   non-system files or other user-generated content that will
                   be used on a version of Mac OS X earlier than 10.6.



In it's simplist form, use it this way to compress a directory:

ditto  --hfsCompression sourceDirectory destinationDirectory

In my case I had a lot of applications that I didn't want to delete but that I might not ever use i.e.

sudo mv /Applications/Xbench.app /Applications/Xbench.app.old
sudo ditto  --hfsCompression /Applications/Xbench.app.old /Applications/Xbench.app
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Xbench.app.old

You can check the compression status with a utility like hfsdebug or fileXray or do a df -h before and after a compression to see that the disk storage used by the command is usually much less than without.

Alfred Applescript Extension Tutorial

This extension for Alfred which will lookup your lastpass url names and launch them in a new tab in safari.  

In this example, we'll lookup Blogger with Alfred and

it will find this entry and run it in safari.

Things you'll need. 

1. a copy of your last pass CSV file place into your home directory named lastpass.csv.  Get this by going to the Advanced screen and clicking export
2. Alfred with PowerPack 

Note: If you want to be more secure, edit this lastpass.csv and remove all your passwords 

Go to the Extensions button

Click AppleScript

Name AppleScript

Add code and metadata to alfred and save.

Run it by bringing up Alfred as follows.  Safari will kick off with the matched entry.

Reminder: Make sure you have an exported copy of your last data into your home directory named "lastpass.csv".  I know this is insecure.  I tried to remove the passwords programatically but applescript keeps giving me errors when I try and open a file for write ( Network file permission error., errorNumber: -5000).

Note: I'd rather have the alfred team properly integrate this feature the app.  I want it to search ALL elements and show the list of items that matched, but I can't see a way to make an alfred extension do that as written.

Code to copy:

on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data) -- (string, file path as string, boolean)

try

set the target_file to the target_file as text

set the open_target_file to ¬

open for access file target_file with write permission

if append_data is false then ¬

set eof of the open_target_file to 0

write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof

close access the open_target_file

return true

on error errorMessage number errorNumber

log ("errorMessage: " & errorMessage & ", errorNumber: " & errorNumber)

try

close access file target_file

end try

return false

end try

end write_to_file

(* Assumes that the CSV text adheres to the convention:

   Records are delimited by LFs or CRLFs (but CRs are also allowed here).

   The last record in the text may or may not be followed by an LF or CRLF (or CR).

   Fields in the same record are separated by commas (unless specified differently by parameter).

   The last field in a record must not be followed by a comma.

   Trailing or leading spaces in unquoted fields are not ignored (unless so specified by parameter).

   Fields containing quoted text are quoted in their entirety, any space outside them being ignored.

   Fields enclosed in double-quotes are to be taken verbatim, except for any included double-quote pairs, which are to be translated as double-quote characters.

       

   No other variations are currently supported. *)

on csvToList(csvText, implementation)

-- The 'implementation' parameter must be a record. Leave it empty ({}) for the default assumptions: ie. comma separator, leading and trailing spaces in unquoted fields not to be trimmed. Otherwise it can have a 'separator' property with a text value (eg. {separator:tab}) and/or a 'trimming' property with a boolean value ({trimming:true}).

set {separator:separator, trimming:trimming} to (implementation & {separator:",", trimming:false})

script o -- Lists for fast access.

property qdti : getTextItems(csvText, "\"")

property currentRecord : {}

property possibleFields : missing value

property recordList : {}

end script

-- o's qdti is a list of the CSV's text items, as delimited by double-quotes.

-- Assuming the convention mentioned above, the number of items is always odd.

-- Even-numbered items (if any) are quoted field values and don't need parsing.

-- Odd-numbered items are everything else. Empty strings in odd-numbered slots

-- (except at the beginning and end) indicate escaped quotes in quoted fields.

set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters

set qdtiCount to (count o's qdti)

set quoteInProgress to false

considering case

repeat with i from 1 to qdtiCount by 2 -- Parse odd-numbered items only.

set thisBit to item i of o's qdti

if ((count thisBit) > 0) or (i is qdtiCount) then

-- This is either a non-empty string or the last item in the list, so it doesn't

-- represent a quoted quote. Check if we've just been dealing with any.

if (quoteInProgress) then

-- All the parts of a quoted field containing quoted quotes have now been

-- passed over. Coerce them together using a quote delimiter.

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\""

set thisField to (items a thru (i - 1) of o's qdti) as string

-- Replace the reconstituted quoted quotes with literal quotes.

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\"\""

set thisField to thisField's text items

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\""

-- Store the field in the "current record" list and cancel the "quote in progress" flag.

set end of o's currentRecord to thisField as string

set quoteInProgress to false

else if (i > 1) then

-- The preceding, even-numbered item is a complete quoted field. Store it.

set end of o's currentRecord to item (i - 1) of o's qdti

end if

-- Now parse this item's field-separator-delimited text items, which are either non-quoted fields or stumps from the removal of quoted fields. Any that contain line breaks must be further split to end one record and start another. These could include multiple single-field records without field separators.

set o's possibleFields to getTextItems(thisBit, separator)

set possibleFieldCount to (count o's possibleFields)

repeat with j from 1 to possibleFieldCount

set thisField to item j of o's possibleFields

if ((count thisField each paragraph) > 1) then

-- This "field" contains one or more line endings. Split it at those points.

set theseFields to thisField's paragraphs

-- With each of these end-of-record fields except the last, complete the field list for the current record and initialise another. Omit the first "field" if it's just the stub from a preceding quoted field.

repeat with k from 1 to (count theseFields) - 1

set thisField to item k of theseFields

if ((k > 1) or (j > 1) or (i is 1) or ((count trim(thisField, true)) > 0)) then set end of o's currentRecord to trim(thisField, trimming)

set end of o's recordList to o's currentRecord

set o's currentRecord to {}

end repeat

-- With the last end-of-record "field", just complete the current field list if the field's not the stub from a following quoted field.

set thisField to end of theseFields

if ((j < possibleFieldCount) or ((count thisField) > 0)) then set end of o's currentRecord to trim(thisField, trimming)

else

-- This is a "field" not containing a line break. Insert it into the current field list if it's not just a stub from a preceding or following quoted field.

if (((j > 1) and ((j < possibleFieldCount) or (i is qdtiCount))) or ((j is 1) and (i is 1)) or ((count trim(thisField, true)) > 0)) then set end of o's currentRecord to trim(thisField, trimming)

end if

end repeat

-- Otherwise, this item IS an empty text representing a quoted quote.

else if (quoteInProgress) then

-- It's another quote in a field already identified as having one. Do nothing for now.

else if (i > 1) then

-- It's the first quoted quote in a quoted field. Note the index of the

-- preceding even-numbered item (the first part of the field) and flag "quote in

-- progress" so that the repeat idles past the remaining part(s) of the field.

set a to i - 1

set quoteInProgress to true

end if

end repeat

end considering

-- At the end of the repeat, store any remaining "current record".

if (o's currentRecord is not {}) then set end of o's recordList to o's currentRecord

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid

return o's recordList

end csvToList

-- Get the possibly more than 4000 text items from a text.

on getTextItems(txt, delim)

set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to delim

set tiCount to (count txt's text items)

set textItems to {}

repeat with i from 1 to tiCount by 4000

set j to i + 3999

if (j > tiCount) then set j to tiCount

set textItems to textItems & text items i thru j of txt

end repeat

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid

return textItems

end getTextItems

-- Trim any leading or trailing spaces from a string.

on trim(txt, trimming)

if (trimming) then

repeat with i from 1 to (count txt) - 1

if (txt begins with space) then

set txt to text 2 thru -1 of txt

else

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

repeat with i from 1 to (count txt) - 1

if (txt ends with space) then

set txt to text 1 thru -2 of txt

else

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

if (txt is space) then set txt to ""

end if

return txt

end trim

on theSplit(theString, theDelimiter)

-- save delimiters to restore old settings

set oldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters

-- set delimiters to delimiter to be used

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to theDelimiter

-- create the array

set theArray to every text item of theString

-- restore the old setting

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelimiters

-- return the result

return theArray

end theSplit

on fixit(var, num)

try

set extra to item num of var as text

on error errMsg number errNum

set extra to ""

end try

return extra

end fixit

on readFile(unixPath)

set foo to (open for access (POSIX file unixPath))

set txt to (read foo for (get eof foo))

close access foo

return txt

end readFile

on findUrlInLastPassCSV(unixPath, matchVal)

set csvData to readFile(unixPath)

set csvArray to csvToList(csvData, {})

repeat with i from 1 to count csvArray

set csvRow to item i of csvArray

set webpage to fixit(csvRow, 1)

set username to fixit(csvRow, 2)

set pass to fixit(csvRow, 3)

set extra to fixit(csvRow, 4)

set urlname to fixit(csvRow, 5)

set grouping to fixit(csvRow, 6)

set fav to fixit(csvRow, 7)

(*

For some reason I get this error

errorMessage: Network file permission error., errorNumber: -5000

when I try to use this code, so it's commented out for now

set writeWithoutPass to true

set theFile to POSIX path of unixPath & "2"

if (i is equal to 1) then

if (pass is equal to "removed") then

set writeWithoutPass to false

else

my write_to_file("url,username,password,extra,name,grouping,fav", theFile, false)

end if

end if

if (writeWithoutPass) then

log "writing" & i

my write_to_file((webpage & "," & username & "," & "removed" & "," & extra & "," & urlname & "," & grouping & "," & fav), theFile, true)

end if

*)

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to matchVal

set match to text item 1 of urlname

set matched to false

if (match as string is not equal to urlname as string) then

log "matched is true"

set matched to true

else

log "matched is false"

set matched to false

end if

#set match to doesMatch(nextLine, matchVal)

if (matched is true) then

return webpage

end if

end repeat

return ""

end findUrlInLastPassCSV

on alfred_script(q)

set theFile to path to home folder

set theFile to POSIX path of theFile & "lastpass.csv"

set webpage to findUrlInLastPassCSV(theFile, q)

tell application "Safari"

tell window 1

set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:webpage})

end tell

end tell

end alfred_script

Windows 7 Printing to Mountain Lion Problem Resolved

I spent about 2 days trying to get my Windows 7 Machine to print on a Mountain Lion Mac.  I did the usual things like 

1. turning on the printer sharing in the System Preferences
2. turning off the firewalls, 
3. verifying connectivity, (tracert, ping, nslookup) 
4. using the windows 7 printer setup and trying 
1. browsing for the printer (nothing would show)
2. typing the IP address
3. typing the host name
4. typing the full name i.e. \\host\printer

but no matter what I tried, the windows 7 machine would not see the printer.
In the end, I realized that I needed to 

1. install Bonjour (apple's "zero configuration" networking utility) on the Windows 7 machine 
2. run the Bonjour printer wizard and connect it to the mac's shared printer,
3. That's it! Printer installed and working.

Hope that saves someone else some grief!!