Re-imaging Windows 7 on Apple Macs

So, we are now trialing a newer system for deploying Windows 7 on to our Apple Macs. Previously we've used Deploystudio, but as our Apple Server is too old, it is no longer up to the task.

For the rest of the PC's we use the Microsoft Imaging technique (whatever this is), and we're trying it with our macs.

Here's a step by step of what to do with the installer disk:

1. insert disk
2. set the default boot disk to be Windows (assuming Windows was previously installed)
3. reboot and hold ALT
4. select the CD
5. Press ANY KEY
6. log in with own credentials
7. Select task sequence
1. to determine which volume to boot from you need to run DISKPART. Type:
1. SELECT DISK 0
2. LIST VOLUMES
3. SELECT VOLUME (type the volume number)
4. LIST PARTITIONS
8. Select to install BootCamp drivers
9. Put name, domain details in
10. Go!

Getting Mac Model Identifiers using Command Line and ARD

I remember a few years ago ARD used to tell me the Mac Model Indentifier e.g. iMac12 ,2

Apparently not any more. I found this forum where they've found a command line argument which prints it:

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Model Identifier" | awk '{ print $3; }'

This worked, although the machines needed to be switched on to find it. I wonder why Apple never kept this feature in ARD?

Google maps overlays

I'm going to start a project which involves overlaying different maps from past, present and future maps. My primary thoughts involved utilising Google maps API for this.

Looks like there's quite a bit of info. Here's some links:

• Getting Started
• Simple Overlay example
• Ground Overlays
• Info on Overlays
• Showing and hiding Overlays

Notes:

Some limitations

Stated in the beginning there are limits to the free use of the API. This is 25000 map initialisations per day, which I consider very high.

Not sure how many overlays you can have, and hopefully control which ones are on and off using sliders and buttons. - Yep, above. "Showing and hiding Overlays"

Half way down the page on Info on Overlays theres a nice example of Animating Symbols

Google Chrome downloads are invisible to Finder on OS X

For some reason whenever I download a file using Google Chrome on OS X I cannot see the file in the downloads folder. The only thing I've done is changed the default download folder to another location. I have noticed that the file is actually there using the 'ls' in terminal. Also, I can open the file from within Google Chrome.

Very odd, but I've had a look into it and found the hidden chflag which hides files from the finder. It's used so that people don't see and interfere with files they're not ment to.

A quick fix (but which I don't like) is to make all hidden files viewable from Finder. To do this open terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

It's very ugly because all I want to do is see the downloads which are hidden, not every file. They're made invisible for a reason.

Looking more into it, it turns out that files can be flagged up as 'hidden'. This makes them invisible. So to make files hidden or not hidden in terminal you type:

chflags nohidden afilethatishiddenforexample.txt

or to make it hidden again:

chflags nohidden afilethatisnothiddenforexample.txt

Think I'll just have to log out and back in again to fix Google Chrome properly.

watermarking photos in Aperture 2

Well, it could have been easier. Found a good tutorial here.

Simply put, you just have to make a picture file of the watermark you want on your images. Then, go to Aperture > Presets > Export and it's down the bottom.

Then when you export versions, it puts the watermark image on.

Joomla and google maps

Just adding a location page. Best thing is to put google maps in. Turns out there are lots of Joomla extensions for this.

I've just tried Googlemaps plugin. Worked brilliantly! Lots and lots of settings you can use as well. A nice tutorial here. Just use {mosmap} in an article!

Found this article with describes all the parameters you can put in.

I ended up using this:

{mosmap width='800px'|lat='53.264392'|lon='-1.440947'|zoom='15'|zoomType='Large'|zoomNew='1'|mapType='Hybrid'|showMaptype='1'|dir='5'|
overview='1'|text='

Chesterfield Panthers RUFC, 2012 Dunston Road, Chesterfield

'}

Events Calendar for Joomla

So I want to put a page up where you can see what events there are.

I found this very good plugin called Scheduler. Works beautifully but is limited in one specific way. You can't seem to put it along side an article. To view the calendar you have to click the specific menu for it. I found a couple of forums here but mentioned again here concludes its' very hard to do (if impossible).

JEvents isn't working too well and I might just give up on it after 10 mins (I"m too impatient).

Might just stick to making articles which expire after so long, and just have them in a list ordered by expiry date