Tag Archives: Mac OS

Time Machine On Mac OS X Mountain Lion Allows Multiple Backups

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Posted by on in Apple, Software
Time Machine (Mac OS)

Time Machine (Mac OS) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before the arrival of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Time Machine was fixed on backing up a Mac to a single backup device.  Every time a Mac user wanted to backup a Mac to another backup device, he or she had to switch to another backup device manually before Time Machine would go on backing up a Mac.  Now, Time Machine on Mac OS X Mountain Lion is better, because Mac OS X Mountain Lion allows Mac users to just add multiple backup devices and Time Machine would know that it has to go about backing up a Mac to multiple backup devices.  Anyhow, check out the video right after the break to see Time Machine of Mac OS X Mountain Lion in action.  Enjoy!!!

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Mac OS X Mountain Lion Quick Review

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Posted by on in Apple

Apple has just released Mac OS X Mountain Lion today.  It’s Apple’s latest version of Mac OS X operating system.  Updating from Mac OS X Lion to Mac OS X Mountain Lion will cost you roughly around $20.  Mac OS X Mountain Lion has about 200 more new features than Mac OS X Lion.  The main features are mainly concentrate on making Mac more sociable, secure, and stable.  Anyhow, I had made a video which briefly review Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and you can check it out right after the break.  Enjoy!!!

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Running Linux Mint 13 Onto MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 Model)

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Posted by on in Apple, Hardware, Linux, Open Source, Software
Linux Mint 13 On MacBook Pro

Linux Mint 13 On MacBook Pro

I was able to install Linux Mint 13 onto my MacBook Pro.  I had to say it was riveting to see my MacBook Pro booted into Linux Mint 13 for the first time.  How come?  Probably it was that I never had tried to install any Linux distribution onto a Mac before!  Anyhow, I thought it would be harder for me to install Linux Mint 13 than Windows onto a Mac, but it turned out I got it worked out perfectly the first time around.  Of course, I had used the correct guide, otherwise I would not be able to install Linux Mint 13 onto Mac after just one try.

I followed the Install Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) on 13inch MacBook Air 4.2 (2011 model) tutorial on billsdon.com blog, but I did not follow this tutorial by the letter.  I did not install and use rEFIt (i.e., preferring the use of the Mac’s option key on the keyboard to pick which operating system I want to boot into); I did not use GPT Fdisk to create 3 partitions for the hybrid MBR as I had only used it to create only 2 partitions — this prompted the warning about I had an extra partition that wasn’t used and GPT Fdisk asked about creating an extra partition in case I would be able to use this extra partition in the future for whatever purpose, but I refused to do so as I had read rodsbooks.com’s Hybrid MBRs: The Good, the Bad, and the So Ugly You’ll Tear Your Eyes Out article how it would be unwise to create an unrecognizable extra partition on Mac.  It appeared that Apple Disk Utility might have a bug that would prevent it to manipulate unknown MBR type codes, and by being careful about this I decidedly it would be wise to not create extra partition.  So, when GPT Fdisk asked me with this command prompt “Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N):,” I candidly replied N for no.

Here is the short version of how I had installed Linux Mint 13 onto Mac.

  1. Use Boot Camp Assistant (come with Mac by default) to create a second partition
  2. Download Linux Mint 13
  3. Burn Linux Mint 13 into a DVD
  4. Insert Linux Mint 13 into Mac’s DVD/CD tray
  5. Reboot Mac (Mac OS X Lion in my case)
  6. Hold down the option key (on the keyboard) right after hearing the chime (boot sound)
  7. Choose the DVD to boot into Linux Mint 13 Live DVD (not the Boot Camp or Mac OS X Lion partition)
  8. Wait for Linux 13 Live DVD to completely load into RAM (random access memory) and load itself up in a working stage
  9. Double click on the DVD icon (I think it labels as installing onto hard drive or something of this sort) that allows the installing of Linux Mint 13 onto Mac
  10. Follow the onscreen instruction to install Linux Mint 13, but I had to manually customize the partitions for Linux Mint 13 to make sure I that I would be able to pick the Linux Mint 13 partition (i.e., the root partition that represents by a backslash “/”) as a Bootloader, otherwise it would be a bad idea to install Linux Mint Bootloader into Mac’s main partition (i.e., you will not have a working Bootloader and won’t be able to boot into Linux Mint later as it would be installed into the wrong partition)
  11. Reboot into Mac and install GPT Fdisk software from the Internet
  12.  GPT Fdisk software is dangerous as it can totally destroy how Mac would boot up and will destroy Mac partitions if use it in the wrong way (i.e., will have to reinstall Mac and all data will be lost) — research on GPT Fdisk and how to use it correctly
  13. Use GPT Fdisk to create a hybrid MBR so when later I first boot into Linux Mint 13 on Mac, I won’t have to face the missing operating system warning
  14. Reboot Mac and hold down the option key (on keyboard) after hearing the chime
  15. Linux Mint 13 welcomes me on a Mac

Sources:

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Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.7.4 To Fix Security Bugs

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Posted by on in Apple, Security
Mac OS X 10.7.4 Update Image From Vinh Nguyen's MacBook Pro

Mac OS X 10.7.4 Update Image From Vinh Nguyen’s MacBook Pro

Last couple days, people have been reported that there has been a bug in Mac OS X 10.7.3′s system-wide debug log file, consequently allowing anyone or any malicious program that knows where to look and have access to a Mac OS X 10.7.3 machine to steal users’ passwords.  It appears that the passwords are saved in plain text in Mac OS X 10.7.3 as the bug prevents the system from encrypting the passwords.  As people are panicking and wondering when will this bug be patched by Apple, Apple has quickly released Mac OS X 10.7.4 to address this password security bug.

Furthermore, this new update to Mac OS X 10.7.4 will also address other security bugs within Safari web browser.  Of course there are few other enhancements to other features too by updating to Mac OS X 10.7.4, but you can easily whisk over to Cnet’s Apple releases Safari 5.1.7, Snow Leopard updates, and more article for an in-depth look into Mac OS X 10.7.4 update.  So, don’t you hesitate to update your Mac to OS X 10.7.4, because your Mac will be more secure than before with the newer update.  To update your Mac to Mac OS X 10.7.4, just use the Software Update feature within Mac.  You can find Software Update feature if you left click on the Apple logo at the top left corner of the monitor/screen.

Sources:

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Free Up Some Hard Drive (Or SSD) Space For Your Mac By Having Spotify Stores Offline Playlists On A NAS Volume

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Posted by on in Networking, Software, Web Services
Vinh Nguyen's Spotify Offline Playlist Poppings

Vinh Nguyen’s Spotify Offline Playlist Poppings

Did you know that you can configure Spotify to save all offline playlists on a network attached storage volume?  In my case, I used FreeNAS to create a ZFS dataset volume; turning ZFS dataset volume into AFP share which had allowed Spotify on Mac OS X to save the offline playlists onto this very volume.  This way, I can free up some storage space on my MacBook Pro’s hard drive for other things.  I can also see this idea might be useful for Mac users who happen to save Spotify offline playlists on a small SSD (Solid State Drive), because Mac users can free up a lot of storage space for their small SSD by saving Spotify offline playlists on a network attached storage volume.

Configuring Spotify on Mac OS X to save offline playlists onto NAS is easy.  Just open up Spotify, go to Spotify > Preferences, scroll down till you see where it says Cache, click on Browse button to locate your NAS’s volume, and that is all.  Here is the example of my NAS (FreeNAS) volume’s path on MacBook Pro, [/Volumes/AppleShareVolume/Spotify-offline-playlists].  A Mac need to be connected (i.e., authenticated and logged in) to a NAS first before Spotify can successfully locate a NAS volume.

Mac users who are on the road a lot and need to play Spotify offline playlists on their NAS volume, they can basically configure their router to do a port forwarding of port 548 (AFP port) for the NAS server’s local IP address.  Furthermore, to securely authenticate with NAS server, Mac users can use VPN to connect to their NAS server.  If Mac users don’t know how to set up a VPN server, they can easily use either TunnelBear or Private Tunnel VPN service.  Both TunnelBear and Private Tunnel support Mac OS X and allow Mac users to quickly connect to a VPN server so the public network connection such as a coffee shop’s WiFi connection can be encrypted.

I almost forget to tell you this!  Mac users need to make sure the home Internet connection has a decent upload speed.  Without a decent upload speed, the home network will not be able to transfer the data from NAS to Spotify app fast enough, therefore defeating the purpose of having Spotify offline playlists to be saved onto a NAS.  After all, what is the point of saving Spotify offline playlists onto a NAS if the home network is too slow in delivering the playback for the Spotify offline playlists, right?  Of course, Mac users can always rent a premium server that stays awake 24/7 and turn it into a NAS server, but this solution is overkilled and too expensive for home using purpose.  Obviously, even a NAS server is overkilled for home using purpose, but FreeNAS is Free and it can be installed onto any cheaply built computer that has adequate RAM and storage space.  Besides using NAS to store Spotify offline playlists, Mac users can go as far as to save iTunes music, movies, PDF files, and so much more onto a NAS too.

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