Mac OS X Lion command line mail with Gmail as SMTP
“I have been trying to get my command line mail working on my MacOS Lion today and I noticed that the normal postfix emails get treated as SPAM by Google and because I was sending emails to myself on my gmail account, that was an issue for me. So, I thought of using gmail as my outgoing SMTP server for this. Here are the steps I followed–via Using MacOSX Lion command line mail with Gmail as SMTP | Anuj Gakhar.
Generating DSA PEM key pairs
I needed a pair of DSA keys recently, not standard ssh DSA keys but PEM keys. Creating DSA PEM keys is something best suited to openssl but it can be a pain in the butt to get the params set up right. And othing creates key pairs quite as easily as ssh-keygen so I thought, what the heck, let’s combine the best of both worlds.
I figured I’d keep my new keys in ~/.ssh where my RSA keys already live:
$ cd ~/.ssh
The next step is to create an ssh DSA key pair with ssh-keygen. -t sets the type (dsa in this case) while -b sets the number of bits (dsa are limited to 1024):
$ ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024
You’ll be asked for a file name and location (default is fine), and ask you for a passphrase. Unless you want the client side to always be prompted for a passphrase, I’d leave this blank.
Then we’ll use openssl to convert the ssh private dsa to a PEM. The default dsa we just created would be called id_dsa. If you named it otherwise, then change this line accordingly after the -in option:
$ openssl dsa -in id_dsa -outform pem > dsa_priv.pem
Now we have a private DSA PEM that we can use to create our public PEM:
$ openssl dsa -in dsa_priv.pem -pubout -out dsa_pub.pem
In your ~/.ssh folder you’l now have dsa_priv.pem and dsa_pub.pem. Keep the private DSA PEM in a safe place and use the dsa_pub.pem as necessary for your client needs.
Cached Commons
“Cached Commons is a collection of user-contributed javascript libraries that have been cached, optimized, and hosted on Github’s fast CDN. If a library is missing from this collection, post a request on Github and we’ll add it immediately. The readme has all the details.”–via Cached Commons.
JSMIN, The JavaScript Minifier
“JSMin is a filter which removes comments and unnecessary whitespace from JavaScript files. It typically reduces filesize by half, resulting in faster downloads. It also encourages a more expressive programming style because it eliminates the download cost of clean, literate self-documentation.”–via JSMIN, The JavaScript Minifier.
Downloaded and installed this command line tool for use in my build processes.
PEAR – DreamHost
“Dreamhost includes only a bare set of PEAR modules on shared hosting accounts, and does not allow users to add more to the base install. To install your own set of PEAR modules on a Dreamhost shared hosting account, SSH into your account and issue the following command…” –via PEAR – DreamHost.
Quicksilver — LoveQuicksilver Blog
“Fixes up Triggers, puts advanced features on the mantelpiece, and drops ß62 off at the recycle centreUsers are appreciating the auto updates of Quicksilver and its plugins introduced recently. Unfortunately, a nasty bug in ß61 meant app updates failed to stick, leaving users with the false impression that they were running the latest version. In a few cases, QS ß62 crashing caused custom Catalogs to be deleted and mnemonics to be lost. Thanks to rapid user feedback, we were able to pull the release before many people were affected.”–via Quicksilver — LoveQuicksilver Blog.
Enable Debug Menu in Safari 5+
“Safari has a hidden “Debug” menu that offers some additional features for debugging the browser, including stress and load tests, sampling, javascript error logging, the ability to intentionally crash a page, and more. Intended for Safari developers, the Debug menu is different from the Developer menu, which is geared more at web developers, although there are a few options in the Debug menu that general web developers would find useful as well, notably advanced cache choices and CSS animation controls. If this sounds confusing, just enable both of them and poke around and you’ll quickly see the differences.”–via Enable Safari’s Hidden Debug Menu.
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1
Quietly raising Movember awareness
I was hoping to pull off the same big contest and hoopla I pulled off last year during the Movember movement. Unfortunately internal scheduling and some farily big staffing changes has made that impossible this year. So instead, on a personal level, I am telling you about my mospace page.
I wish I could have offered you prizes and such like I did last year but I’m afraid that just wasn’t in the cards this year. If you could find it in your heart to donate anyhow, that would be much appreciated.
Installing Pear on OS X 10.7 Lion
Nothing big, just need to document this stuff or else I forget…
$ sudo cp /private/etc/php.ini.default /private/etc/php.ini $ sudo php /usr/lib/php/install-pear-nozlib.phar $ sudo pear config-set php_ini /private/etc/php.ini $ sudo pecl config-set php_ini /private/etc/php.ini $ sudo pear upgrade-all
Prevent Spotlight from indexing external HD’s
“If you, like me, get annoyed by the index files Spotlight creates any time you create an external hard drive, you might want to try this hint. Were going to set up a launchd service which runs a script every time a hard drive is mounted. This script will touch the .metadata_never_index file which prevents Spotlight from creating the index; see this hint on the hard drive.”–via Mac OS X Hints.