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Paul's Time Sink

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Hole in Mac OS X Parental Controls

Paul Westbrook | 11 July, 2007 01:32

I mentioned a while ago that I setup our kids' iMac with Parental Controls, so they wouldn't be able to modify the state of the computer.  For example, I did not give them access to modify the Dock, so their programs will remain easy to access.  I also did not give them access to "Open all System Preferences", so they couldn't change the system settings.

I started to notice something strange.  Some programs were starting automatically, that I had not set up.  This was strange to me as I thought that the only way to add login items was through the Accounts Preference Pane, which had been disabled.

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Canceling efax

Paul Westbrook | 08 July, 2007 00:00

I got another email from efax mentioning the upcoming rate increase.  I mentioned before that I wanted to cancel our service, but this pushed me over the edge.

I called the number on the email and they game me the customer service number.  When I called the customer service number, and selected the option to cancel my account, and was redirected to http://www.efax.com/cancel.

When you go to that page, you have to select the "Chat Now. 24x7" button.  Then you have to make your cancellation request via a web based chat session.  (Make sure you answer the question about why you want to cancel fast enough, otherwise they will disconnect the chat, without canceling the account.)

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links for 2007-07-07

Paul Westbrook | 07 July, 2007 02:22

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MediaCentral

Paul Westbrook | 07 July, 2007 00:38

I mentioned previously that I have been pretty frustrated with FrontRow.  MediaCentral looks like it will do pretty much everthing that I want, and does things that FrontRow doesn't do.

MediaCentral has some pretty cool features:

  • Presents a catalog and can play IPTV streams
  • Plays TV for DVB-T broadcasts
  • Plays various video formats, both from iTunes and accessible in an mounted file system
  • Plays DVDs and DVD VIDEO_TS files
  • Plays music from CDs or iPods
  • Plays music from iTunes Library or files accessible on mounted file systems
  • Plays internet radio stations
  • Skype integration
  • Plays classic video games
  • Views photos from iPhoto or on a mounted filesystem
  • Plays photostreams from .Mac or flickr.
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Library Books

Paul Westbrook | 06 July, 2007 22:16

Library BooksLibrary Books is a cool application.  This application lets you track the library books that you have checked out.

The cool thing about Library Books is that it connects directly to the library to get the list of books that you have checked out.  Also you can use this application as an easy way to search the libraries catalog.

[via Lifehacker]

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Videos in Gallery

Paul Westbrook | 06 July, 2007 21:31

Last night, I uploaded some videos to our Gallery2 installation.  Gallery2 supports videos by default, but there are some plugins that you will want to install:

  • ffmpeg - This plugin generates thumbnails for movies.
  • thumbpage - This plugin lets you select a time offset for the frame to be used for the thumbnail.

Even without those plugins, adding movies works fine.  The only things that don't work is the thumbnails don't appear, and playback doesn't happen in the embedded player.

Now that this is working so well, I think that I will be moving the movies that I have hosted on .Mac homepage to Gallery2.

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links for 2007-07-04

Paul Westbrook | 04 July, 2007 02:25

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Starting Folding@Home at login

Paul Westbrook | 03 July, 2007 00:16

Now that I have started running the Folding@Home clients, I figured that I might as well install it on the kid's iMac, so that when they turn it on it can do something useful in the unused CPU cycles.

The easiest thing to do, and what is recommended in the Folding@Home documentation is to add the command line app to the Login Items in the Account Preference Pane.  The problem with this is that Terminal launches and the output from the tool is piped to the newly opened console.

I wanted to find a solution that would silently run a tool, on login.

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Folding @ home on Mac Book Pro

Paul Westbrook | 02 July, 2007 23:17

I have been interested in distributed computing projects for a while.  I have decided to try Folding@Home.  One of this projects goals is to help understand the process of protein folding.

When I installed the Mac OS X client on my Mac Book Pro, everything worked correctly.  That is until I disconnected from AC power.  When I did that, the battery was being drained pretty quickly.

The Folding@Home client should have an option that would either pause or slow down processing when the laptop goes into portable mode.

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links for 2007-07-02

Paul Westbrook | 02 July, 2007 02:24

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