Nski Ltd

Welcome

2010-08-30T22:15:00.001+12:00

We are an IT company based in Auckland, New Zealand, specialising in Macintosh, Open Source and Windows platforms.

Our passion is to see your organisation make the best use of your IT budget. We do this by offering the "best in class" products and introducing them to Open Source software and "Cloud Computing".

Whether you require Consultancy, System Administration or Desktop Support, we are able to meet your needs.

We are experienced in Enterprise, Corporate, Education, and Home Environments. Enquiries from all sectors are welcome.

1 million frames per second

2009-10-12T00:29:00.002+13:00

This is one of the most amazing slo-mo film montages I've ever seen.

Photoshopped - really?

2009-10-06T22:58:00.000+13:00

I've just stumbled on this page pointing to Photosketch.

The video explains what Photsketch is but I can't get to their actual site at the moment to learn more...... I'm guessing they're being slammed by a lot of other people also finding out about them.

In short, you roughly sketch a picture (online?), add some lables and Photosketch gets the images it thinks you need from the internet and puts a few photo montages together for you.

You then select the one you like.

In. Sane.

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Capturing Stuff on your Mac

2009-10-01T08:07:00.001+13:00

If I get asked a question more than once, I figure that I'm going to be asked a few times more and in that case it's worth putting the answer down somewhere.

Here are a couple of questions that I've been asked recently and the answers.

Q1. I want to download a YouTube clip to my computer to use it in a presentation or just watch offline. Is it possible to do that and if so, how??

A1. Yes. There are several ways to do this.
A "mac friendly" way of doing this is by using the KeepVid.com website. I say mac friendly because it allows saving in Quicktime format. Keepvid also allows the clips to be saved in .flv format which can be played using VLC on anything platform; Mac, Windows, Linux, toasters etc.

Another (similar) option is Vixy.

In both cases just copy and paste the URL of the desired YouTube clip into their website and follow the instructions.

What was formally PwnYouTube.com (now redirects to deturl) has an even easier take on things. If you're on YouTube and find a clip that you'd like to save, just add pwn between the www and youtube.com.

Example....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s3OFxrfVug

becomes

http://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=8s3OFxrfVug

The instructions are easy to follow.

That all said I've had spotty success with all of these at one time or another AND insert-legal-disclaimer-here.

Q2. How I record the sound that's coming out of my Mac?

A2. Use SoundFlower.
There are other apps around that do the same thing but SoundFlower is the one that I've had great success with and the price (free) is right.

Again, "DRM be damned!!" is what this application screams but if you own the media and it's fair use..... insert-legal-disclaimer-here.

Q3. What are the short cuts for taking screen shots on my Mac again?

A3. Command-Shift-3 but wait there's more.
Command-Shift-3 takes a picture of your whole screen.
Command-Shift-4 lets you make a selection of your screen (click and drag).
Command-Shift-4 and then pressing the space bar turns your cursor into a camera. Hover over any window, icon or toolbar, click and a perfect picture of that item is taken.

That last option is fantastic when making manuals or tutorials - you don't have to edit out any extra garbage that is accidentally taken using the selection method. It's the difference between these two icons.

Pictures are saved on your desktop as Picture 1.png, Picture 2.png and so on.

Apple has a page on this as well.

Google Apps again....

2009-08-31T20:22:00.003+12:00

Restating what was said a couple of posts ago.....

Money has been a big topic over the last 12 months.... there's meant to be a resession on at the moment.

Understandably, a lot of my customers have been cautious about spending money which is a pain especially when it comes to servers.

Servers are made of plastic and metal and have moving parts and those moving parts wear out over time. It's a great idea to replace servers in a timely and planned manner rather than a holy-crap-the-server's-dead-what-the-hell-do-we-do-now manner.

The time frame for replacing a server is anywhere between 2 and 5 years depending on many factors; I lean toward 3 years in schools. It's a happy balance between need and budget. That said, your best bet is having an excellent backup in place; lightning strikes and fires don't care how old your server is.

I wrote some time ago about Google Apps and several sites I'm involved in have taken the option to go with Google for email rather than replace their email server.

None of them have fully embraced the whole idea of Google Apps ie. use the whole shebang in the browser; email as well. We're creatures of habit and most people who have made the transition from faxes to email haven't broken away from using an email client. Such a shame as I really think Gmail is on to a winner with the way they do things. I've been in the browser since 2004 with Gmail and haven't looked back.

So how's it gone for the switchers?

Very well considering. It's actually been a very smooth transition.

But what's the big deal??

I've sent out SO many emails on this subject this year that I thought that it would be easier to blog about it so here it is, in a nutshell, thanks to YouTube.

Here's the intro to the basic idea of Google Docs.

and Google Forms

and from a teaching perspective

I've been collaborating on a spreadsheet with a friend - both of us working on it at the same time. It's pretty amazing! (But wait until Google Wave!)

Of course an internet connection is VITAL! Having said that, you can down and upload existing documents to and from Google Docs.

You should also check out this page on Google Wave which is (hopefully) due to be released later this year.

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Here's a video on Wave: it's 1 hour 20 minutes long so you may not want to get into that yet. Just put it on and watch/listen it as I was doing other things....

Vista

2009-08-31T09:41:00.003+12:00

I can't take credit for this but I wish I could.....

Viruses
Intrusion
Spyware
Trojans
Adware

I'm sure the same has been done for all the big cats that Apple has released as well.....

Winter ends.... snow is here

2009-08-30T19:48:00.004+12:00

Tuesday is the first day of Spring here in NZ but the big news on the Apple front is the release of another big cat... this time it's Snow Leopard.

While the MS crowd seem to be all thumbs over Vista/Windows 7, Apple have released a refinement of an all ready excellent system.

Some may say that it's a bit on the nose to charge for "refinements" but it's $59NZ for the single user upgrade which isn't too bad.

From what I'm reading you have to have 10.5 already.... I can't find a non-upgrade product so you'll have to purchase 10.5 first and then upgrade.

Another thing caught may attention today from Asus, the folks that bought you the eeePC. This time it's a computer in a keyboard.

Back after a long break....

2009-06-08T13:14:00.002+12:00

I haven't blogged since November??? Really??? Wow. Where did that half a year go???

Well, there's the end of year rush, the Christmas holidays, the new year rush, the "I don't have time to do that right now" bad attitude and so on....

So what's been keeping me busy?

2009 is meant to be a tight year financially and so many of my clients are looking at ways to save money. Those who require new servers are looking at alternatives.

Thankfully, Google has come to the rescue in the area of email (Gmail) and possibly in a few other areas as well (Google Docs/Apps).

Several of my clients were due to replace their mail server this year and all of them (so far) have opted for not spending the money on new hardware but rather moving email for their domain over to Google. Since they're in the education sector, they're not hampered by the 50 user limit and get virtually unlimited users for free.

It's a pretty stunning offer.

7 gigs of storage per user
POP/IMAP access
web access
integration with Google Apps
FREE

It's clear that Google want you to use a web browser to use their services; that's been the idea all along and it's something that their competitors hate because they can't fight it. Google doesn't care if you're running a Mac, using Linux or trying to use Windows; it's all in the browser.

It seems to me like they're moving toward a collaboration/information service provider now that they've got such a strong hold on Internet search; Google Wave just reinforces the collaboration idea.

If you've got an hour and a half, check out the Wave presentation, bugs and all. Some of the features are so-so but others are jaw-droppingly, internet-changingly amazing.

It's being put together by a Google Team in Australia. They've been using it internally for some time which is exactly how Gmail started. They're the folks that brought you Google Maps so I don't expect anything less than incredible from them.

No Firewire causes quite a stir....

2008-11-01T10:49:00.007+13:00

Since the new MacBooks were released, there's been quite a lot of chatter around the fact that they don't have firewire built in.

While for most people that means that they can't import their digital footage from their firewire camera, for me it's the lack of target disk mode that hurts.

There are ways around it but not having firewire and target disk mode is a major hassle for people in my line of work.

Have a read of what David Pogue thinks but dig a little deeper and read what's in the comments....

Killing Dashboard and Widgets

2008-09-10T10:26:00.003+12:00

Dashboard is usually considered a lovely addition to OS X but at one of the schools I go to it was becoming a distraction to the students.

Unable to find a way to deactivate Dashboard from with OS X itself, a quick search resulted in finding this application.

Making it a log in item disables Dashboard - problem solved.

It begs the question though - am I missing something or is there really no way to turn Dashboard off within OS X? I'm told that Vista can disable its Gadgets!

A more Mac-like Content Management System

2008-09-10T10:17:00.002+12:00

I regularly read Lowendmac.com and was amazed to find that they do their website (still!) in Claris Homepage!!

Wow - that's longevity for you!

Point being that it's becoming increasingly more difficult to run that excellent application as Macs that run the Classic OS fade into history.

Time for a Content Management System!!! (I would have thought it was time for one a **long** time ago!!)

The call went out for advise and the responses make for interesting reading. If you're looking to move to a CMS, it's well worth the time to read this.

iCal support for Google Calendar

2008-08-01T08:31:00.003+12:00

Lots of schools have been asking for the ability to shared calendars this year. It must be the year of collaboration.

For some time now it's been possible to subscribe to a Google with iCal; if you make a change in Google, it shows up in iCal BUT not the other way around.

Until now.

It seems that the folks at Google have been busy and it's now possible to **sync** calendars rather than just subscribe.

I haven't tested it yet but the possibilities are quite exciting. I imagine that it may be possible to use Google only as the "backend" and have multiple users just use iCal only. The result is a truly shared calendar using iCal without having to pay for MobileMe.

700Mhz - the return of the iBook

2008-07-15T21:25:00.004+12:00

Due to various clients throwing out dead machines over the years, I have been able to cobble together a 700Mhz iBook from parts.

Actually, truth be told, it was Steve Mayers from DigitalFX that did the cobbling; many thanks, Steve. You should go check out his site. Really. And then send him a terse email telling him to do something about it. Go on.... I'll wait.

Check out the specs on this thing....

Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 700 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 384 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz

It's positively outdated by today's standards and yet remains very usable for my purposes. Email, web surfing, writing. It's all there. I installed 10.4.11 on it and it's actually quite snappy - like alligator soup.

So I think that this is going to be my main machine for a while. There are some down sides to this though....

- no CD burner; it reads CDs and that's where it stops. This iBook can't even read DVDs let alone burn them! However, I think that not having DVDs is a good thing - it's one less think to be distracted by. It's not a train smash though - I have a USB external DVD burning which fits the bill should I need to burn some disks.
- Smallish (20Gb) hard drive; again, not so sure that this is a bad thing in my case. I really have to think hard about what apps I want to install and I can't let my files get out of control. Needless to say that this isn't going to be doing Final Cut work nor will I let iTunes consume all the free space. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that it can't happen!
- virtually non-existant battery life. Again, not a biggy for me as this iBook is really being a desktop substitute for awhile. It's going to be plugged into power continuously.

But there are a couple of upsides as well.
- airport installed
- very quiet (this is becoming a real sticking point for me)
- clam shell mode and dual monitors enabled!!

"WHAT!?" I hear you cry! "How is that possible? Isn't that feature only for PowerBooks and "professional" macs??"

Technically, that's true (and it's always been Apple's position) but it turns out that the non-professional Macs of that age DO have the ability to have non shared monitors and the iBooks can have the lid closed and work in "clamshell" mode just like their big brothers, the PowerBooks. It's just never been enabled.

Thanks to Screen Spanning Doctor, certain iBooks, iMacs and eMacs can get some extra screen real estate. It doesn't work on all models and your mileage may vary, but it's a gem of a hack.

I've got the iBook on my desk and a 19" flat screen above it - I can drag windows and applications between them; it's just fantastic.

If you've never had a dual monitor setup before, I strongly suggest that you give it a try. Randy Pauch, more famous for his inspirational "Last Lecture", says in a speech on time management that it's one of the best value for money increase to productivity that any employer can offer someone that uses a computer.

Just say NO!

2008-07-02T12:19:00.002+12:00

A computer that I support is running windows XP.

"What?!" I hear you exclaim, "XP?!" Well to be fair, it's a MacBook running Parallels, running XP.

The point being that it's been a year or so since I installed Avast! antivirus on it; it's asking to reregister.

It was relatively painless to do but while at their site I was struck by their slogan.....

Let us protect you in the virus labyrinth

Inspires confidence doesn't it?

Why not just avoid the labyrinth altogether?

The Pirate's Dilemma

2008-06-25T23:38:00.003+12:00

I've ranted about Digital Rights and legal implications before.

The laws surrounding digital rights are out dated; they were never intended to address the way that media is shared today. The laws simply can't be changed as fast as the technology.

Under NZ law (and most other countries as well) this makes the act of ripping a CD to your computer, illegal. You are format shifting and that's a no-no.

While the world is trying to figure out what to do about that whole issue, have a look at The Pirate's Dilemma.

It's a web site, it's a book, it slices, it dices. It's putting forward some suggestions about how the DRM issue could be handled.

You can buy the book or download it in pdf form but, in keeping with the concept, you decide what you want to pay for it. You can download it for free if you want.

If you don't have time to read the book, you can watch a short video (below) outlining the main ideas; presumably, that will make you want to read the book!!

| View | Upload your own

Geek or Nerd

2008-06-22T19:42:00.006+12:00

I used to know the difference between geek and nerd.

Either way, this guy is one, if not both, of them. (Click on the image to see it larger)

MobileMe - Exchange for the rest of us??

2008-06-10T09:32:00.004+12:00

This year has been the "year of the calendar" for several of my clients.

A number of schools I visit have had a change in Principal and a change in leadership style along with that. A common request I have had from these new Principals is some way to share their calendar information with others and, sadly, the Mac solutions pale in comparison to the alternative that they are used to; Micro$oft Exchange.

The email side of things is easy to replicate - there are several solutions to getting your mail off site. Web mail allows access to your email from any internet connected computer in the world and a mail server can be set up to allow access to your email both internally and externally if webmail isn't your cup of tea.

There are ways of implementing a similar calendar solution on the Mac; it's possible to share a "read only" iCal calendar with others but things get a little tricky when you're trying to let more than one person read and write to the same calendar.

(More on that soon; if you have some solutions of your own, please share them!)

Apple has announced MobileMe which is basically .Mac repackaged with some more syncing features. It's billed as "Exchange for the rest of us" and it may well be.

I'm not sure that "the rest of us" want to pay US$100 a year for something that can be free.

Oh, and there's a new 3g iPhone which will be available in NZ soon.

High Spec or Low End?

2008-06-09T16:45:00.004+12:00

Lowendmac.com is one the sites that I check regularly as they have tons of useful information and advise on getting the most out of (you guessed it) old macs.

There's an excellent article there about the tension that exists in the realm of computer users; "Should we use the newest and most powerful machine OR try and get the most mileage out of the machines that we currently have??"

The short article makes good points in favour of both sides.

If you're in a similar situation to the one described in the article, can I suggest that you consider doing what one school I visit is doing?

They're still using slot loading iMacs in the classroom but have decided that they should be used for word processing and email only. These Macs have Apple's Mail.app and NeoOffice installed (free) and will soon be banging out documents as fast as they can. Minimal distraction and maximum productivity is the idea.

Sure, many people have these machines in their homes and are doing a great deal more with them than just those two things. However in a classroom, computers get thrashed and by limiting the programs that are on these machines I think the useful life of them has actually been extended.

If all you want to do is type up a project and print it out then of course those old iMacs are up to it. A 20 year old Mac could do that as well but hardware eventually fails and there comes a point where it's not worth the cost of repairing a machine. Such is the case with these machines; they're working, but if there's a hardware failure they'll be thrown out.

By removing the "heavy" programs (like iMovie, GarageBand and, dare I say it, Word) the people using them are far less likely to utter the classic catch cry of "This computer is so slow! Take it away, it's useless!!"

Computers are only as slow as the OS and applications that they run. If you don't believe me, fire up one of those slot loaders in classic and see how snappy it feels.

Sadly, the flip side of that coin is that computers are left behind by the programs that they will not run and Macs are not exception to this. A classic example of this is web browser choice for the pre-OS X mac. Any browser that you use on a non OS X Mac is going to choke, cough, splutter, crash and render web pages something akin to a bad train smash.

As the minimum requirements for running OS X has increased with each release, more and more Macs have been left behind. Eventually, OS X support for the PowerPC will be gone altogether; perhaps sooner rather than later.

It used to be that Linux was a glimmer of hope for old Macs enabling old hardware to run modern software.

But even the Linux doors are closing for the old Mac. You used to be able to run Linux quite well on a machine that would struggle with OS X. That would let you run modern applications on an old machine theyby making it "useful" again.

It's understandable - it's impossible to continue to support an entire product line forever. A line must be drawn in the sand at some point and machines on the wrong side of that line will no longer be supported.

But we love our macs and want them to last as long as possible so we turn to places to lowendmac.com to help us out.

The fact that lowendpc.com doesn't exist (anymore) just proves the point.

SplashTop

2008-06-04T21:59:00.003+12:00

Asus are doing it and look for others to be doing it soon.

SplashTop is a stripped down Linux OS that boots instantly into an "internet environment" with a web browser, an internet connection and Skype.

Let's think about that for a second; that may be all some people need.

If you have a browser and a good connection speed to the internet, you can get to web based email, web based documents and spreadsheets, and the web itself.

Instant on. Push the button and surf, email, chat or whatever. A real internet appliance.

The upside is that if you need to use some other application, something that requires more grunt, then you can opt to leave the SplashTop and boot into a full blown OS.

That's very cool.

Troubleshooting 101

2008-06-02T22:30:00.002+12:00

Tomorrow I'm meeting with a couple of people to teach them some basic trouble-shooting skills.

It's incredibly helpful to know how to systematically work through a problem, especially in the area of computers where the combination of hardware, software and human error is a volitile mix.

You can end up spending a LOT of money if you don't know how to take a few basic steps towards resolving a problem yourself. Not only that, but you can feel like a right goober when you call in an IT guru to repair a problem only to find that the plug was out of the wall.

Been there; done that (on both sides).

I've written a basic step-by-step general guideline for troubleshooting problems in the past and was about to do so again when I found that Apple have done something very similar; so I won't have to.

Have a read.

Smoothwall

2008-06-01T10:00:00.000+12:00

A firewall is a device that separates one network from another - most often it's your private home or business network which is separated from the big, bad internet.

The main job of a firewall is to allow computer traffic to flow one way but not the other. Think of it as a bouncer for your network. "You can't come in here dressed like that", "Where's your ID?", "OK, you can come in" and so on. You want to be able to get out but you don't want nasty stuff to get in.

There are software and hardware firewalls. The main difference between them is that software firewalls **usually** apply to one machine at a time (as is the case with the software firewall for OS X) where as hardware firewalls tend to take care of a whole bunch of computers. One change to a hardware firewall affects all the computers on the network that it looks after; a change to the OS X software firewall applies to only that computer.

Hardware firewalls are usually very expensive but it's possible to turn an old unused PC into a hardware firewall by making sure it has two network cards and installing SmoothWall.

It basically turns that PC into an incredibly powerful network device with which you can shape traffic, block websites, track internet bandwidth and browsing habits. It can even be used for timed internet access; it's possible to shut down and start up access to the network after a certain hour of the day. Nice stuff!

The whole thing is under 70Mb to download and, once installed, is controlled through a web browser.

IPCop is a similar product. Both are free. Check them out if you're wanting more information about what's happening on your network or if you just want to tighten the reins in some areas.

Virtual Box

2008-05-26T09:59:00.002+12:00

A couple of my clients have been using Parallels for Mac to run programs that are only available for Windows. Specifically, it's usually an admin or office computer that run some form of (originally) DOS based financial or accounting package.

When Apple made the move to Intel processors a couple of years ago it was clear that something like Parallels would be available and quite indespensible to those who need that sort of thing.

Well, of course there's a free alternative in the form of VirtualBox which is available for Mac, Linux and Windows.

The most obvious use for *most* people will be the one outlined above - running a "must have" application on a platform that you don't have (or want!). Using VB means that you can run the OS and application without spending any money on a second machine and having it clogging up your work space.

It's a absolute dream for developing and testing though - and that's where this program really shines.

Want to know if your website looks right in Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux? How does it look in XP using Internet Explorer?? Want to evaluate a piece of software before recommending it?? Or perhaps test drive an entire OS?

It's easy to do and if your machine has enough power, you can run several Virtual Boxes at the same time. Erich from ZeroSpam has been developing on VB and ran 12 versions of Windows XP at the same time.

Show off.

Cron is Gone!

2008-05-19T18:32:00.002+12:00

Cron is a great tool built into most *nix operating systems including OS X. It's a simple little program which runs other programs at specific times or intervals. That's typical *nix thinking; small programs that do one job and do it well. Combine it with other small programs that do their job well and you start to get some useful stuff happening.

You may not know it but OS X does daily, weekly and monthly "tasks" in the background which keep your Mac in tip top shape most of the time.

So.... a client was having a problem with their AccessIt Library program where the web component of that application kept stopping. The whole point of the web component in AccessIt is to enable anyone on the local network to browse the library catalogue through a web browser.

Neat.

When it works.

The solution is to either restart the entire machine OR, as per the instructions supplied by the developer, run some commands in Terminal and restart ONLY the web component of the application.

Let's face it; it's a pretty lousy option either way. If the AccessIt server is restarted then any AccesIt clients connected to the server will be disconnected and I personally think it's asking a little too much of Librarians to be hacking services at the command line! Surely someone at AccessIt could build an application with a button that says "Start AccessIt Web service" which does the command line stuff in the background and send that to Librarians?

I know of at least a couple of other users of AccessIt where the same thing is happening so I hope they resolve it soon. The official line it that it's Apple's fault (or at least Apple's implementation of Java).

To quote Gen-Y; "Whatever". AccesIt, your clients don't care. Just fix the damn thing. It works fine on a PC? Who cares - your clients have Macs. Make it work for them.

In trying to make this work for my clients I thought that I would try and automate the task.

Normally I would have used a program called Cronnix and set up a job to run the cryptic commands at a certain time each day. But, what do you know, cron looks like it's being phased out in 10.5! It is bening replaced with "launchd".

Thankfully, there's another free application which does the same thing as Cronnix did; it's called Lingon. Sure, you can do the whole thing by editing text files but why reinvent the wheel?

I've taken the commands as supplied by AccessIt, plugged them into Lingon and told it to run those commands at 0500 in the morning. It stops the web server, waits a few minutes and then starts it up again.

I'm sure that this could be done using Applescripts as well and I imagine that some pretty impressive things could be done using Lingon and Applescript together.

DIY interactive whiteboard - for around $100.00

2008-05-08T16:53:00.003+12:00

This is what I love to see.... Everyday tech items, taken apart, hacked and made to do something else.

In this case, the Wii remote + Infrared Pen + free software is turned into.... well have a look.

Can't download with Firefox....

2008-04-06T07:37:00.001+12:00

Can't believe that I was asked this question TWICE in one day and have struck it again since mid March. Things like this happen.... you've never heard of something and then it hits you in rapid succession!

The problem is that some people using Firefox are unable to download things from the internet. When a link is clicked on an error message appears....

Doing what it tells you to do (changing the download location) doesn't fix the problem.

Googling for that error returns results that suggest deleting a file in your home directory called com.apple.internetconfig.plist which is in ~/Library/Preferences.

That fixed one case but didn't fix the other and it turns out that Safari initially tells Firefox where to download files. Changing the download location in Safari solved the problem for Firefox.

But why did it happen in the first place?

You can't tell from the error above but in each case, the error occurred after moving home directories from an old user to a new one. Both Firefox and Safari were trying to save folders to the OLD user's download location and not the new.

For example, if you've migrated from one computer to another and in the process changed your username from "user" to "user1", the error pops up for "user1" saying "I can't find the download location for 'user'!"

It turns out that Safari no longer has this control over FF in 10.5.

Like I said; pretty obscure but I came across it three times in the last couple of weeks!