Category: Mac

Link: DIY Time Capsule with a Raspberry Pi

As a Mac user I’ve always used Time Machine for local backups. The only issue is that it requires plugging a drive directly into your machine or buying an Apple Time Capsule. At $200 – $400 that’s not a cheap option for NAS backups.

So I set out to create my own DIY Time Capsule using a 3TB Hard Drive and a Raspberry Pi. Below are the steps I went through to get things setup.

Note: I always recommend having multiple backup sources and because this setup requires mimicking Apple protocol there is potential for data loss. Use at your own risk.

Full article here:
DIY Time Capsule with a Raspberry Pi (Caleb Woods)

Link: 7 Mac Startup Options Every OS X User Should Know

Apple has a reputation for making products that “just work,” but many Mac users may still need to occasionally troubleshoot their desktop or laptop. Thankfully, there are a number startup options that are available on recent Macs to aid in both troubleshooting and system management. Here’s a look at seven essential Mac startup options that every OS X user should know.

Full article here:
7 Mac Startup Options Every OS X User Should Know (TekRevue)

Link: Create an Apple ID without using a Credit Card

Some apps, Google Earth for example, are available as free downloads in the iTunes Apps store but you need a UK or US based Apple ID to install them on to your iPad or Phone. Similarly, some iBooks and podcasts have geo restrictions and may only be available to iTunes users who are logged in with an Apple ID for one of the available countries.

The workaround is simple…..

Full article here:
Create an Apple ID without using a Credit Card (Digital Inspiration)

Link: Hack Old USB Drives into a Mini RAID on a Mac

Most of us have a lot of old USB thumb drives lying around. Sometimes you just got a new larger capacity or less grubby looking one, but often you just accumulate them as they are the most popular storage medium and are used and discarded as needed because they are cheap.

Once they have served their purpose, the ones you don’t use just sit in a drawer or on a desk until you throw them away or lose them (and you don’t even remember it existed). But what if you could combine them and make a higher capacity drive to plug into a media player in a TV or back up your USB drives that are in use?

This article explains how to turn old USB drives into a mini RAID to give them new life.

Full article here:
Hack Old USB Drives into a Mini RAID on a Mac (Make Tech Easier)

Link: How to Easily Create Audiobooks From Text Files in OS X

The primary use of the Voiceover system on the Mac is accessibility for blind or partially sighted users. But it may have occurred to you that it would be a fine idea to use the Voiceover system to produce audiobooks and spoken word prompts for your media, videos, presentations and music.

The problem is the voice is generated in real-time and is not saveable, so if you want to use the voice in any other program, you have to rip it somehow. The good news is that this facility is built in. The bad news is that it’s hidden unless you know where it is.

In this article, we will be showing you how to capture voiceover speech and use it in your own projects.

Full article here:
How to Easily Create Audiobooks From Text Files in OS X (Make Tech Easier)

Link: How to Check the True Bitrate of Your Audio Files

Files are generally assessed on their bitrate. A 320kbps MP3 is obviously better than a 128kbps version, right? Ordinarily, yes. But it’s not hard to bluff the bitrate and mislead listeners through “upscaling.” In fact, upscaling can sometimes damage audio quality.

Audio encoding is a complex process, and Stack Overflow user “vaxquis” provides an intricate explanation of how it works. If you find the subject interesting, his explanation is one of the clearest available.

How do you sort the wheat from the chaff?

Full article here:
How to Check the True Bitrate of Your Audio Files (Make Tech Easier)

Link: Copy the Current Path from Terminal to the Clipboard in Mac OS X

While it’s fairly easy to copy a folder path from the Mac GUI and Finder, or even to copy the path into the Terminal with a drag & drop trick, going the other direction and getting the current path from the command line and then having it accessible to the broader OS X clipboard is a little trickier… well, at least until you know this handy little tip.

Full article here:
Copy the Current Path from Terminal to the Clipboard in Mac OS X (OS X Daily)

Link: Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it

For 12 years, the mDNSResponder service managed a surprisingly large part of our Mac’s networking, and it managed this task well. But as of OS X 10.10, the mDNSResponder has been replaced with discoveryd, which does the same thing. Mostly. Here are some strange networking problems we’ve observed since installing 10.10:

Full article here:
Why DNS in OS X 10.10 is broken, and what you can do to fix it (Ars Technica)

Link: Spider a Website with Wget – 20 Practical Examples

How do I download an entire website for offline viewing? How do I save all the MP3s from a website to a folder on my computer? How do I download files that are behind a login page? How do I build a mini-version of Google?

Wget is a free command line program – available for Mac, Windows and Linux (included) – that can help you accomplish all this and more. What makes it different from most download managers is that wget can follow the HTML links on a web page and recursively download the files.

Full article here:
Spider a Website with Wget – 20 Practical Examples (Digital Inspiration)

If your printer won’t work under OS X Yosemite, see this thread

If you have a printer that worked fine under OS X Mavericks, but stopped working when you upgraded to Yosemite, this thread may contain the answer:

Ricoh MP C2500 not printing after upgrading to Yosemite

Note that the fix included applies to several brands and models of printers, not just the Ricoh model mentioned in the thread title. The notes state, “This script should work on those that use the pxlmono/pxlcolor, hpijs, and samsung-gdi driver packages. It will not work for the m2300w driver at this point. I hope to be able to figure that one out too, but don’t count on it.”