Murphy Mac

This post is a follow up to Murphy’s post on retrieving a remote file by email. The method described in that post requires you to know the path of the file you’re retrieving. You can use the information in this post to auto-generate a text file with the paths to all your files. Retrieve that file and you’ll have all the information you might need.For some people the best thing about this post will be this:

find . -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|____;g;s;____|; |;g'

Enter that line in Terminal, hit return on your keyboard, and you’re pretty close to the tree command you loved so much in Windows. (Thanks to the unix.com forums for help with the find and sed commands. ) You can copy and paste the command, or download a shell script containing it here. You’ll need to make it executable.

Murphy posted last week about how to retrieve a file by email. The catch was that you needed to know the path of the file. This screencast will show you how to generate a text file listing all your files in a tree format.If you prefer, you can use this command:

ls -R

That will also display files and folders, but the format is more conventional. Either command will accomplish our goal.

In the screencast Murphy has the find and sed command listed above inside a shell script. The output is redirected to a text file. You can retrieve that text file by email, just like you would any other file.

If you prefer, create a second Applescript like the one in this post. You could alter it to always send a hard-coded file: the file that lists all your files.

In the screencast, Murphy uses Lingon to configure launchd, which handles scheduling tasks you may have used cron for in the past.

For more information on creating a shell script and making the script executable visit this post. If you want to know more about sed (and awk) there’s a whole book to read.

Many PC users are familiar with the idea of a firmware password that needs to be entered before the computer will load the OS. For PC power-users the BIOS or CMOS interface is familiar territory - and it’s the place where they set such a password.

Murphy Mac commenter Brian posted information on something similar for your Mac. Here’s the rundown.

Using the Open Firmware Password utility you can set a password on your Mac that will stop someone from resetting a user account password using the method described in this previous post. Essentially, it prevents unauthorized users from using a disk other than the machine’s internal drive to boot. The utility comes on the install disk that ships with your Mac.

Keep in mind this isn’t much additional security. It might slow down a casual attacker, but a determined foe with physical access to your machine can bypass this security. Your best bet for security that lasts is to encrypt your sensitive files using one of the methods described previously.

I’ve been aware for a while now that I live in a strange neighborhood. Good strange. Walking up the street the other day something caught my eye. A monitor, planted in the ground. Not just any monitor…

Witty remarks? I’ve got nothing. Leave something in the comments.

Photo links below:

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Murphy found himself locked out of his Mac for the first time ever the other day. The Genius Bar had replaced his Macbook Pro with a new machine. They used Target Disk Mode to transfer Murphy’s data from the old machine - but when he got home his password wasn’t accepted.

Murphy called the Apple store thinking maybe they’d changed his password to some Genius Bar standard password. While he was on hold, he Googled the procedure for resetting a forgotten password. Before getting through to the Genius Bar the problem was solved. Here are the steps:

• Boot with your install disk, holding C as the machine starts up.
• Select your language
• The menu bar will appear where it usually does, though you might not notice it! Select the Utilities menu and click Reset Password.

That’s all there is to it. Now your account is accessible and you can get back to work. Apple has a support document on the topic or you can search the Help system for Reset Password.

Hopefully this post shows you how important physical security is when it comes to protecting your data. See the previous post for more information on securing sensitive files.

Here’s a link to a guide you should print out. Have it somewhere handy for that day your Mac won’t boot.

Murphy has been thinking about security after discussing the previous post all over the Internet. In case you missed them, here are some security posts you might have missed:

Encrypting files from the command line. This is a quick and easy way to lock up a file tight. Not so great if you’re sending it to a Windows user though. You’ll also get started with making an interactive shell script.

Encrypting files using a widget. This post built on the command line method mentioned above. The widget supports drag and drop, just drag the file and hold onto it before invoking Dashboard.

Create an encrypted DMG. A screencast detailing use of Disk Utility to make a password protected secure DMG file.

1Password. This is a utility for storing the usernames and passwords you use all over the Internet. If you use the same credentials on every site you visit you should probably stop. This tool integrates fully with the OS X keychain and is easy to transfer from Mac to Mac.

Here’s another little tidbit: You can unzip a password-protected zip file using Terminal on your Mac. Open Terminal, type unzip followed by a space. Then drag the zip file from Finder onto the Terminal window and hit return. You’ll be prompted for the password and your file will be unzipped.

Note to Murphy Mac regulars: Murphy needs your help! Visit this link on Digg and Digg the story. Murphy could use the traffic. Thanks !