Apple

Unlike most apps that will provide a proxy web service to your computer through your iPhone PDAnet will provide a complete network solution for tethering your computer. Basically, you can use your iPhone as a computer wifi device, without restriction. While proxy apps will work well for web applications, it doesn’t work for stuff like email, ftp, ssh, etc. PDAnet can handle all network traffic. I’m using my iPhone right now to access the internet from my Macbook Pro and it’s quite fast! Check PDAnet out! http://lifehacker.com/5086490/the-best-way-to-tether-your-iphone-to-your-laptop-for-free

While the newer versions of OS X have been great and the dock has matured, I hated one thing. Sometimes I just want to put a directory on the dock without it doing it’s crazy effect stuff to it like Fan, Grid, List, etc. Many times all I want is a dock icon that will just open a directory in finder. Fortunately, I figured out how to do this!!! Create a link to the directory of your choice on the desktop. For instance, I created a link (By holding down the “option”, “apple/command” keys down) of my home directory on my desktop. Now, drag that link to the dock. Bingo! I have a dock icon that will just open a finder window of my home directory.

For OS X Leopard this worked for me. Cut and paste this command into terminal: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.f*/Frameworks/LaunchS*/Support/lsregister \ -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

This thing is incredible… http://www.iwood3b.com/

I just found cool automater actions at http://junecloud.com The action I’m especially please with is the “Create Clean Archive” action. This will create a archive zip file that does not have the usualy .DS_Store files and crap. Excellent stuff!

Buying a hosted domain: $100 Buying a pro membership on smugmug: $60 Installing Wordpress: $0 Able to manage my familiy’s websites with freedom and without major pain: Priceless! I recently started a journey on removing my dependancy on Apple’s MobileMe services. When .Mac ruled the land with web-based wonders, life was good. Then Apple decided to trash what worked with MobileMe, and everything went to hell. Load speeds, reliability, service limitations, email address changes, ical incompatibilities, groups disabled; all this appeared with the shiny new MobileMe. But I can sort of sync with my iPhone. Are you kidding? Did Apple really have to choose between having great user experience with .Mac and basic iPhone sync with MobileMe? Overall MobileMe is no longer worth the money and time I invested in it. So now I’m sporting a spiffy new web site using Wordpress which is very easy to use and I have completely stopped using Apple’s iWeb as a result. I have a regular IMAP email server with my web isp provider for email, and even Google Sync Mobile services for my iPhone calendar and contacts. I also use a paid picture site called smugmug for all of our photos. Why a paid site? I have complete control of the site and the themes, no Adware, backups, Share with family sections, and I was even able to point my own domain to the smugmug directly - http://pics.gridleak.com. They also handle raw picture formats which is a real plus. I learned the hard way that many of the “free” sites will tamper with your image resolutions when you upload them to save server disk space. If you’re interested in trying smugmug you can test it out with a free 14-day trail, and you can use the coupon code OHpYezYHRef9s for a discounted join rate. My Bro Stuart was the one that turned me on to the site. Yes… Stuart. The kid that didn’t have a computer until last year and started life right with a Macbook Pro. Werd! So I’m now ready to cut the cord on MobileMe. It’s sad really; Apple broke something that really worked. Even today it’s getting better again, but I’m tired of waiting. I’m also done with being at the mercy of a support FAQ web page when I have real problems. While Apple’s computer support is the best in the business, you can’t get a live person to talk to you about MobileMe issues. If you’re interested in making the plunge, or you want MobileMe like functionality, below is a list of technologies that take care of what MobileMe does for a Apple system: ...

The command ‘man’ in terminal has an annoying feature: it clears the screen on exit. So if you find a command line switch you want to try, when you exit man the detail all disappears. To correct this, change the following line in /private/etc/man.conf: PAGER /usr/bin/less -is to PAGER /usr/bin/less -isX

After buying both the iPhone and iPhone 3g, I became frustrated with the typical iPhone problems - spotty 3g network access, no cut-n-paste, etc. As a result, I was excited about the Bold and got one right when it came out. Having used a crackberry in the past was I confident that it would be the device for me. I used the Bold for a number of days and learned an important lesson - Appreciate what you have. The Bold did not have all the answers, and after using the email and web interface on the Bold, I quickly realized that the iPhone was still the device to have. Now I have a new appreciation for the iPhone. It has issues, no doubt. But the core functionality has yet to be challenged by any competitor. After compiling a list of features and rating them, I posted the results at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLRnDwRBVmrELW9i6ug_-fw

Recently I discovered a program called proxifier, a OS X Leopard program that will send all network traffic through a defined socks proxy server. So instead of defining the proxy settings in each individual program, simply turn on proxifier and redirect all the network traffic. proxifier is the same thing as WideCap or FreeCap in the Windows side. tsocks for OS X may work as well. So why is this important? Well, I’m on the road a lot and with a iPhone 3g that’s jailbroken you can install a socks server called 3proxy through the cydia installer and with proxifier you can route all your network traffic on your Mac through your new socks server at 3g speeds. This means I can get email, surf the web, use skype, etc. all through the iPhone Here’s the steps for a mac. It’s not that hard… Create a ad-hoc network on the mac?by using the “Create Network…” option.?I called mine “sweet” Set a static IP for your mac on the ah-hoc?network you created. I like to use?10.10.10.5 You need to have your iPhone jailbroken?and have 3proxy installed. Search the web?for details on how to make this happen.?I like quickpwn. On your iphone, select the network you created on your mac, “sweet” for me, and set iPhone’s static IP address. 10.10.10.10 will do nicely. Now, run /usr/bin/socks on your iphone. I like to set mine up in Boss Prefs so I can turn it on and off easily. On the mac, run proxifier, and point it to the socks proxy IP address of 10.10.10.10 port 1080. Your done! This looks like a pain, but if you create a network location with the IP settings, and use Boss Prefs with the iPhone, this process can be done within 20 seconds. And with FW 2.1 on the iPhone 3G the speeds are very impressive, and I even found I can answer a call while I’m surfing through the socks proxy. Make sure to turn off the socks proxy when your not using it otherwise you’ll find that your iPhone battery will run dry quickly. I also did some research on using pppd and slirp to create a complete network tunnel to the 3g network on the iphone. It appears that FW 2.x has broken slirp and it may be related to a kernel update the may have nuetered ipfw. Bummer. The following command will start a pppd session and will provide a ppp0 network interface. The problem I found is I couldn’t get the iPhone to bridge the networks. pppd is already on both OS X and the iPhone, but you need ssh on the iphone to play. ...

Here’s a few screen shots of my D-Link DIR-655 router and it’s settings to allow Back to My Mac (BTMM) to work on my home mini: