transfering music from ipod to itunes on OS X

So you have your music on you iPod and now you want to transfer it to another iTunes library for free?

Solution:

1. Download iExplorer
2. Load it up and right click and "mount" iPod
3. load up terminal and type:
1. defaults write com.apple.finder ShowAllFiles YES
4. go to the apple at top left > Force Quit ...
5. Click on finder and "Relaunch"
6. Load up a new Finder window, go to the iPod > iPod_Control > Music
7. Copy the Music Folder to your desktop
8. load up "Terminal" again and type:
1. chflag nohidden ~/Desktop/Music
2. chflag nohidden ~/Desktop/Music/*
9. Now you can load up iTunes and copy the music folder onto it
10.  Sorted!
11. Oh, you probably want to not show hidden files anymore so type:
1.  defaults write com.apple.finder ShowAllFiles NO

Cheers

OS X Mavericks - No disk space on startup disk - files that can be deleted

After re-imaging a new Macbook Pro 13", I discovered that it only had a 120GB Hard Drive. The Disk Image I use takes up all of this space, so files have to be deleted. The applications that take the most disk space are:

Soundtrack Pro Loops
DVD Studio Pro Content
Motion Content
LiveType Content
Logic Content

so, after imaging these machines type this in to remove these things:

rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Audio/Apple\ Loops/Apple/Apple\ Loops\ for\ Soundtrack\ Pro/
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Application\ Support/Final\ Cut\ Studio/DVD\ Studio\ Pro/
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Application\ Support/Final\ Cut\ Studio/Motion/         
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Application\ Support/LiveType/
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Application\ Support/Logic/

Should make about 57.05GB

As the MacBook Pro is for a manager, these applications arent' needed.

Mavericks Black Screen with Cursor (mouse)

Just encountered two Mac Mini's which, when turned on, show a black screen with a cursor which moves when you move the mouse. cmd + alt + esc doesn't do anything.

Tried:

1. reset PRAM
2. SafeBoot (hold down shift)
3. hold down cmd + s and type "/sbin/fsck -yf"

I gave up and reimaged these macs.

Did a bit of research afterwards and found this apple discussions on it. There were two suggested fixes. One involved blindly logging in which isn't an ICT Technician friendly fix. However, Spiro.r suggested:

1. ssh 192.160.0.1 -l username
2. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
3. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
4. sudo rm /private/var/db/.AppleUpgrade
5. reboot


As ssh is by default turned off, you could also do this in single user mode (hold down cmd + s).

Apparently it is a problem with updates. It basically wants you to log in and OK an update, but seems to stop the login screen appearing. Not entirely sure anyone knows what's happening, but deleting these preference files and .AppleUpgrade fixes it. I shall try it next time I see it.

Apple Remote Desktop ARD preferences and presets transfer

It's always good to have a backup of all the preferences and tasks you have saved in ARD. I thought I had it sussed,  just need the file:

~/Library/Prefeences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

Turns out as of version 3.7 it's all been 'sandbox'ed. That means these prefences files have been moved to:
~/Library/Container/com.apple.remotedesktop/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

But not only this, it has to have the right ACL's (permissions)

What I tried to do is copy this file between accounts and it ended up replacing the copied file with a blank one every time. It wasn't until I read this post which mentioned resetting ACL's. THis is the command they suggested using:

{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
So first I copied the com.apple.remotedesktop.plist file to  

~/Library/Container/com.apple.remotedesktop/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

I then ran the command in terminal.

Then I logged out and back in again.

Crash bang wollop it worked.

Cheers

Inventory and job logging database

Over the years I have been working, I've realised a searchable database of jobs done and using which inventory items would be very useful for both large organisations, and also for individuals as well.

The important things to log are (in no particular order):
When: Time frame
Who: The person or persons involved
Where: the locations involved
What: The objects involved
How: The process that was performed (e.g. replace, fix, switch off and then on)

What the database would require are:
Time
People
Places
Objects
Processes

One other aspect of this database that would be useful is booking equipment. But this could be thought of as a process?

Time:
Start time
Predicted end time
End Time

People
Login Name
Contact Details

Places:
Geographical
Room Number

Objects:
Serial Number
Make
Model
Specifications

Processes:
Type of process


An few working examples to help design the database:

A new iMac has just been delivered to the college and is put in a computer suite:

1. The database is logged onto with Username and Password
2. A process is selected called: Add item to inventory
3. User adds:
1. Make
2. Model
3. Serial Number
4. Organisation made Serial Number
5. Specifications
6. Room

A student would like to borrow an iPad:

1. The database is logged onto with Username and Password
2. A process is selected called: book out item
3. User selects
1. type of item:
1. Make: Apple
2. Model: iPad 2
2. Time from: Today at 12:15
3. Time until: Today at 16:00
4. User is show whether any iPad 2's available for that time
5. User confirms booking
6. User sees instructions

Well, just having another look at the database and found this nice little helpful question and answer about querying a database to find 'free' items. Also describes the database very nicely using MySQL (need to learn this)

I'm thinking about making it in Access and then exporting it to MySQL? Or perhaps I should just delve straight in?



Ready made alternatives:

Here is a list of starting points for different systems:
Drupal - Merci module - this looks good!!
Drupal - Resource booking
Drupal - Resource conflict

Drying clothes = price + running costs (when will it pay off)

Running cost per year= price per kWH * kWH per cycle * 365 / 2 (i recon we'll run it once every other day)
price per kWH = 13.7p
362 / 2 * 13.7p /100 (convert to pounds) = 25

Tumble dryers:

A++ energy rating
Cost = £599
Running cost = £46

A+ Rating
Cost = £479
Running cost = £73.75

B Rating
Cost = £299
Running cost = £85

C Rating
Cost = £150
Running cost = £91

You could work out how many years the more economic will start paying off over the other by doing some algebra:

A++ energy rating cost + (running cost * years) = C energy rating cost + (running cost * years)

a + (b * x) = c + (d * x)

a - c = dx - bx
a - c = (d-b)x
(a-c)/(d-b) = x

A++ compared with C
(599-150)/(91-46) = 9.99 years

A+ compared with C
(479-150)/(91-73.75)= 20.1 years

B (other) compared with C
(299-150)/(91-85) = 24.8 years

A+ compared with B
(479-299)/(85-73.75) = 17.6 years

So, it looks like C rating is better then all of the above up until 9 years. How long will we have it for? I guess the washing machine has lasted 10 years so far and it's still going strong.

Of course if you double the amount of time you use it, you half the number of years. So after 5 years A++ will be paying off better.

Lets compare to some interesting inventions:

JML Dri Buddi
Cost = £45
running cost = (1.2kW * 3 hours = 3.6kwh) * 25 = £90

Lets compare with C rating:
(150-45)/(91-90) = 105 years

Compared with A++
(599-45)/(90-46) = 12.6 years

It's basically the same running costs as the C energy rating, but 1/4 the initial cost. Probably double up as a heater. Must be noted that it probably isn't as good as a tumble dryer though.

Because of the price difference, I think it doesn't hurt to try the Dri Buddi first. If it's rubbish, I've only really lost £70 inc running cost at most.

Another problem is the humidity problem, and we get very bad damp problems. With a dryer it gets dealt with by either vent or internally condenses it. An idea I've had is to put the JML Dri Buddi in the greenhouse. The humidity will escape through the many gaps in the greenhouse. The only problem is that it'll be colder in the winter, what will happen is the clothes will be warmer then the surroundings, and the main points are that the humidity will be low, and the surroundings will want to 'steal' the warmth via evaporating the water. Still worth giving it a go.

Final path should besites/all/libraries/infobubble/src/infobubble-compiled.js error in drupal 7

So I'm just looking through the logs and found this error in the status report:

You need to download the infobubble plugin and extract the entire contents of the archive into the sites/all/libraries directory on your server. Only the src folder is required. Final path should besites/all/libraries/infobubble/src/infobubble-compiled.js

the Link takes you to here. I'm basically going to do exactly what it says here. Sounds simple enough:

Create the file path

download infobubble-compiled.js

put in folder

Easy. Here's what happened.