Archives for the ‘OS X’ Category

Configuring Wanscam IP Cameras Without Wanscam’s Software

The Problem If you want to set up Wanscam cameras without using a Windows PC (eg. on a Mac, Linux machine, or in iOS or Android) or without using Wanscam software you might have some problems.  Their software may or may not be available for your platform (eg. currently the “OSX” software is actually their iOS […]

Mail.app On-The-Fly Account Switching in OS X 10.6+

Like most people, my wife and I have a number of email addresses for different purposes – work addresses (we each have several for different projects & businesses), personal addresses (Gmail, iCloud, etc), addresses for our various websites, etc.   Over the years we’ve both found that it’s very important for mental well-being to keep […]

Implementing an Apple Help Book in OS X Snow Leopard and Lion

The documentation at Apple regarding help book implementation leaves a lot to be desired. It seems that updates have been added here and there, and overall the documentation is fragmented. Add to that the fact that Apple is no longer providing sample code for it makes the process of creating a help book a royal […]

Using the Konica Minolta MC1600W under OS X

Want to use the (ostensibly) Windows-only Konica MC-1600W with OS X? Konica says no soup for you! You might think there’s some technical difficulty that keeps them from making the drivers available, but you’d be wrong… Konica would like to up-sell you to their 1680 or 1690 model, at nearly twice the price, which actually […]

Xcode 4 & Subversion over SSH With Custom Port

I run a SVN repo on a local server that I wanted to connect to via ssh on a custom port using shared key authentication. I use Xcode 3.2.6 for some legacy apps and Xcode 4 for new software.  Unfortunately Xcode is less than helpful with this setup, and though a few things seem to […]

Quick-and-Dirty CHM to PDF Conversion in OS X For Free

I recently had the need to convert a CHM (Compiled HTML Help) file to PDF. A quick search suggested that all of the conversion utilities for OS X available online were non-free, which didn’t make sense to me for a one-off situation. So here’s a free solution, which could be rolled into a simple app […]

Running a Command Over sftp With sudo Permissions in WinSCP (aka How To Script sudo Without Entering a Password)

WinSCP, as well as some other ftp/sftp clients, allow you to run commands while connected to the server. They don’t allow you the same flexibility as a true ssh session, but it’s not as intimidating to many newcomers either. Other times you may want to have a script execute without user intervention but which needs […]

Using Toyota Techstream TIS under OS X

BACKGROUND INFO After moving from VWs to Toyotas a couple of years ago I started to realize how spoiled I had been with respect to having access to a decent scan tool.  With Volkswagen I used Ross-Tech’s VCDS (previously called simply VAG-COM), which worked quite well.  But with Toyota at the time the options were […]