The Fluid Site Specific Browser (SSB) is one of our favorite pieces of kit for Leopard. You can use Fluid to give web services you use constantly like Gmail, Facebook, Wikipedia, or Pandora their own icon and a browser tailored to that site's specific workflow. Fluid based on WebKit and has plugin support among many other features. Embedded above is [Eric Eggert] showing how to create a reasonable Twitter client using it. The initial setup is identical to any other Fluid app: point it at https://twitter.com/. The clever bit is leveraging Fluid's GreaseMonkey style userscripting support. He created a userscript to autorefresh. A second userscript is used to strip off all of the extraneous page elements leaving just the text field and the timeline. Every time you get a new message it generates a growl notification and you can even attach it to the status bar. Best of all: it avoids all API limitations since you're accessing through the web interface.
Build a Twitter client with Fluid
The Fluid Site Specific Browser (SSB) is one of our favorite pieces of kit for Leopard. You can use Fluid to give web services you use constantly like Gmail, Facebook, Wikipedia, or Pandora their own icon and a browser tailored to that site's specific workflow. Fluid based on WebKit and has plugin support among many other features. Embedded above is [Eric Eggert] showing how to create a reasonable Twitter client using it. The initial setup is identical to any other Fluid app: point it at https://twitter.com/. The clever bit is leveraging Fluid's GreaseMonkey style userscripting support. He created a userscript to autorefresh. A second userscript is used to strip off all of the extraneous page elements leaving just the text field and the timeline. Every time you get a new message it generates a growl notification and you can even attach it to the status bar. Best of all: it avoids all API limitations since you're accessing through the web interface.
Neutering the Apple Remote Desktop exploit
Yesterday, Slashdot reported a privilege escalation vulnerability in OSX. Using AppleScript you can tell the ARDAgent to execute arbitrary shell script. Since, ARDAgent is running as root, all child processes inherit root privleges. Intego points out that if the user has activated Apple Remote Desktop sharing the ARDAgent can't be exploited in this fashion. So, the short term solution is to turn on ARD, which you can do without giving any accounts access privileges. TUAW has an illustrated guide to doing this in 10.4 and 10.5.
EFiX boots Leopard retail DVDs on generic hardware
On June 23rd, EFiX is planning on releasing a USB dongle that will let any PC boot and install OSX from a retail DVD. The commercial device is supposed to take care of all patching and other woes OSX86 enthusiasts have had to deal with. Very little information is provided other than a statement that the development process took a lot of time and that they overcame "sabotage"... so, it's got that going for it. Major OSX86 contributor (and Psystar hater) [Netkas] received a device to test and was pleased with the results. We're just going to wait and see what happens. Not that it matters; they have no plans of releasing it in the US.
[via InsanelyMac]
[photo: Mario Seekr]
XBMC for your Mac
XBMC (formerly Xbox Media Center) has always been a popular choice for retiring an original Xbox. Maybe people install it for lack of something better to do or maybe it's the pride in having better media support than the 360. The XBMC team has found another device that has a pretty weak television experience, the Mac. Lifehacker took the latest XBMC for OSX beta build for a run now that it supports remote controls. It seems like a much more functional than Apple's built in Front Row. There are a few things that don't quite work yet, which you can find in the FAQ. We're definitely going to try this on our old Mac mini... once we upgrade it to Leopard, which is an unfortunate caveat that might prevent people from running XBMC on legacy hardware. There is no Apple TV support planned because of limited horsepower and the hacking hurdles that might be required. If you're interested in repurposing your old Xbox with XBMC, check out Lifehacker's install guide.
Apple IIGS laptop
I may hit my limit on DIY laptops soon, but [Ben Heck] has been extra quiet for a while. Now we know why. Just after the release of his PS3 laptop comes his Apple IIGS laptop. Thanks to [Ed] for the tip. It features original Apple hardware and even uses the original keyboard PC board. A CF drive adapter replaces the hard drive and a 15 inch screen shows off the true power of 8 bit computing.
DIY iMac Mini
[Phyro-Mane] sent in his home built iMac mini. He based it on an old laptop with an install of
24th Anniversary Macintosh
[Dave] sent in his retro Mac project. Putting new guts into an old mac isn't really unheard of, but I liked his solution to use the original Mac 512k keyboard and mouse. He used an Atmel AT90USB162 to create his own standard USB HID device. The keyboard and mouse appear as a standard USB device, so the mac (or any modern USB PC) can identify use the keyboard and mouse without any additional software.
Investigating the Leopard firewall
Our friend [Rich Mogull] has been flipping the switches on Leopard's new firewall and scanning it to see what's actually going on. There is some good and some bad. The new application signing is a mixed bag. It breaks Skype and a commenter pointed out that automatically trusting Apple installed apps like NetCat isn't a good idea either. You can roll your own firewall using user friendly tools like WaterRoof since ipfw is still included.
In bag USB cable
Ever had a USB cable sticking out of your laptop bag? I've done it many time while I've been traveling. James built a simple right angle USB cable so he could keep things tucked away and damage free. He epoxied a connector to some proto board, then soldered things back together.
Mac SE/30 audio visualizer
Sure, you could make it into a web server, but [markie] sent me his Mac SE/30 visualizer. It was inspired by another's mac mod, but he was kind enough to write up an entire how-to. The audio signal was run directly into the deflection coils on the macs tubes. The mod is so simple, I might have to pick one up just for CRT experimentation.
[The next regular podcast cometh, but It's delayed by my cold.]
Pre geek-o-ween mini extra
[Zodiac] sent in this pumpkin computer. Gutted laptop, dvd drive, need I say more?
[max] sent along this 'flaming' led modded pitchfork.
I ran across Woz lighting himself up.
[Jon] and [Shawn] sent along this freaky project. [Warning: Involves taxidermy] [Jon] suggests a bluetooth headset... Dude.
Newton Web Server
[Ian] sent in this Newton web server. [The page is served by the newton, I doubt it'll handle our load] Apparently there's still a good following for the handy message pads. (I really wanted a 120 when they came out) This one's running newton personal data sharing to deliver its web interface.
Mobile Mac Mini
Macmod released some of the first entries for their contest. James and Mick submitted their M3 Mobile Mac Mini. That's a touchscreen lcd mounted in the rear, Up front it's equipped with video halogen lights and IR range sensors. The chassis is interfaced through a PIC 16F877A controller. You might want to check out the rest of the mods here.
Xen on Intel Mac mini
The Scalable Computing Laboratory has posted instructions on how to get Xen running on a Intel Mac mini. Xen is an open source virtualization system that lets multiple guest operating systems run on the same processor. The Mac mini is small, relatively inexpensive, and because it supports VT instructions you can run WindowsXP without modification. This makes the mini a really good choice for a hardware virtualization box. The install does have some quirks. You need a distro that uses lilo to boot because of Mac mini's lack of an A20 gate. Once installed you switch to a patched version of grub because that's what Xen requires.
[thanks steve, the good steve]
Wireless eMate
Our friend [Markie] keeps insisting on dragging all of his old tech into the new millennium. In his recent article about cramming a non-airport WiFi card in his old iBook he hinted at another wireless project coming up. Well here it is: a wireless eMate. eMates were sold to the education sector as durable computers for classroom use. Markie had to build a serial cable to transfer the necessary software to the machine. With only 3MB of RAM and a 25MHz processor the machine isn't up for much, but it seems to work fairly well as a terminal.
