Technology » Woodruff Research

Road Runner: Dial Access in OS X - How to

Posted at June 27, 2008 8:58 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

I’ve blogged twice before about my frustrations with Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner Dial Access (here and here).

Reading those posts I’ve found it’s not very clear on how exactly how to accomplish connecting to the Road Runner network via dial-up using an OS X system (namely 10.5 Leopard).

I decided that the best way to explain how to do this is with a video.

Video: Dial Access in OS X ZIP (25.6MB) [Compressed - Recommended] Video: Dial Access in OS X MP4 (30.2MB)

(more…)

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Tags: Research, Software, Technology

Lock the 1Password Keychain with a QuickSilver Trigger

Posted at June 4, 2008 12:58 pm | In Software | By: Ben Woodruff

Earlier today I was looking for a way to lock the 1Password keychain using a keyboard shortcut. The easiest way I could think of doing this is with QuickSilver (namely, a QuickSilver trigger). I found this forum post that describes a terminal command that can be used to lock keychains. I put together the attached script so that this can easily be setup as a QuickSilver trigger. It’s a really simple script, only one line of code:
security lock-keychain 1Password.keychain (more…)

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Tags: Apple/Mac, Research, Software, Technology

My Experience With Time Machine

Posted at May 28, 2008 3:56 pm | In Software | By: Ben Woodruff

Last night I ended up having to do a full restore of my MacBook Pro using Time Machine. I was trying to uninstall libusb, SANE, and some other utilities that do not have proper uninstallers. I wrote a shell script that got a list of all the files added by the installer (using the lsbom command line utility) and deleted them. Unfortunately it somehow also deleted my entire /Applications folder, and who knows what else. My bad.

Luckily for me, Time Machine had just finished a backup before I started. I didn’t have much confidence / hope that it would do a good job of doing the restore, but it did much better than I expected.

I booted from the OS X Leopard install DVD and chose Restore System from Time Machine Backup from the Utilities menu. It found my My Book hard drive that is attached to my AirPort Extreme (and has my Time Machine backup on it). Logging into the drive and starting the restore was very easy and straight forward.

The restore took about 3 - 4 hours (over 100Mb ethernet). Everything looked good when I started the laptop. I logged in as usual and everything seemed to be OK. I only ran into a couple of issues. (more…)

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Tags: Apple/Mac, Research, Software, Technology

Research Papers: Topic Summaries

Posted at March 17, 2008 2:35 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

I’ve attached some of the research that I’ve done for my Advanced Networking Security class. Included are topic summaries on NAT, OSPF, and RIP.

Topic Summary: Network Address Translation
Topic Summary: Open Shortest Path First Routing
Topic Summary: Routing Information Protocol

If you notice any errors (especially in citations - I want to give credit where credit is due) send me a message or leave a comment.

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Tags: NAT, Networking, OSPF, Research, RIP, Security, Technology

Western Digital My Book = Corrupt?

Posted at February 4, 2008 10:28 am | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

Last Saturday I wanted to take my My Book external hard drive (400GB) to work, to share some files with a co-worker. It was plugged into my AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn non-gig version) via the USB port. I normally have that and a printer plugged into a hub which then plugs into the base station.

So Saturday I did what I thought I was supposed to do in order to unplug the drive: hit eject on my machine, and then just to make sure, logged in using the AirPort Utility and clicked “Disconnect All Users” on the drive. So I unplugged it and drove it to Avon.

When I get there my co-worker plugs it in: it doesn’t mount. I didn’t think anything of it. He is running OS X on non-Mac hardware (hackintosh). I figured it was just his machine. So I plug it into my MacBook Pro: still doesn’t mount.
(more…)

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Tags: Annoyances, Apple/Mac, Backup, Data Recovery, Hard Drive, Research, Technology

I hate Vi

Posted at September 23, 2007 11:48 am | In Technology | By: Ben Woodruff

Seriously, who actually likes to use Vi? Having to “switch modes” just to save a file is stupid. The whole system is annoying. nano/pico are much much better alternatives imo. I know Vi is supposedly more “powerful,” but really… I don’t care. All I want to do is add a line to my crontab. I don’t need it to cook me breakfast too. Plus trying to get it to cook me breakfast, if I did want it to, would probably take a lot longer than just doing so myself, as I’d probably have to switch between command and insert mode 50 times.

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Tags: Annoyances, Outdated, Technology

Re: Bugzilla

Posted at August 29, 2007 10:03 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

Update: Had a meeting today with the powers that be and it was decided that I could use our “VM Box” (an XP machine that is running VMWare Server) to setup a Linux virtual machine and install Bugzilla. They seemed unconvinced that it would work for us.
Well… they’re right.

(more…)

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Tags: Annoyances, Research, Technology, Work

Vi or Emacs?

Posted at June 4, 2007 9:48 pm | In Technology | By: Ben Woodruff

Neither. TextMate.

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Tags: Annoyances, Outdated, Technology

09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0

Posted at May 5, 2007 5:11 pm | In Technology | By: Ben Woodruff

Stick it to the man, repost this random assortment of hex code.

http://www.09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.ws/

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Tags: Hacking, Screw the RIAA/MPAA, Technology

VoIP

Posted at March 29, 2007 11:09 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

I don’t see the point.
Does everything have to be digital?

Anyway, I’ve been trying to setup a softphone on my laptop to login to our allworx VoIP system at work. I tried iSoftPhone, with no luck. I finally found X-lite (free), which has both a Windows and Mac version. That works perfectly. Well, almost. It’s good for a softphone anyway. I may have to buy it’s big brother, eyeBeam though, as X-lite doesn’t allow you to transfer calls…. which is a problem.
I just wish they had an educational discount or something.

I’m also looking into getting a bluetooth headset to use with my MacBook. I have a Logitech USB headset which I love to death, but it is a pain to carry around (even though it’s their “notebook” version). I’m looking at the Plantronics Explorer 320, mainly because it’s cheap and still got pretty good reviews.

Comments (1)
Tags: Annoyances, Apple/Mac, Technology, Work

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