Technical notes and observations from Automatica — specialist Mac support for creative professionals.https://automatica.com.au/en-auhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/send-sms-from-3cx-with-alphanumeric-sender-id-via-twilio-sip-trunk-cloudflare-worker/https://automatica.com.au/blog/send-sms-from-3cx-with-alphanumeric-sender-id-via-twilio-sip-trunk-cloudflare-worker/Despite what you may be lead to believe after reading up on sending business text messages from 3CX , there is no inherent support for sending text messages...Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkingvoipwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-business-to-launch-in-april-2026/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-business-to-launch-in-april-2026/Apple Business Manager (ABM) is getting a new name and a facelift.  It’s being combined with Apple Business Essentials which is an apple-only mdm that t...Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-accept-microsoft-customer-agreement-mca-in-ingram-micro-xvantage-when-changing-microsoft-365-subscription/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-accept-microsoft-customer-agreement-mca-in-ingram-micro-xvantage-when-changing-microsoft-365-subscription/This is a very obscure thing, but I'm putting it here to remind future me how to fix this issue. When placing a change order for a customer's Microsoft 365 s...Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/adjust-brightness-on-macos-with-non-apple-external-displays/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adjust-brightness-on-macos-with-non-apple-external-displays/I've got an LG Ultrawide display on my Mac mini at home, and the keyboard brightness controls in macOS don't allow me to adjust the brightness of the display...Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/update-saml-certificate-for-microsoft-sso-with-google-workspace-as-idp-using-microsoft-graph-mggraph-powershell-commands/https://automatica.com.au/blog/update-saml-certificate-for-microsoft-sso-with-google-workspace-as-idp-using-microsoft-graph-mggraph-powershell-commands/I've got a client with Google Workspace as their IdP, and Microsoft 365 as the service provider, using the identity provided by Workspace. When setting it al...Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThow-togoogle-workspacemicrosoft-365powershellsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/convert-a-microsoft-365-ad-synced-user-to-a-shared-mailbox-in-exchange-online/https://automatica.com.au/blog/convert-a-microsoft-365-ad-synced-user-to-a-shared-mailbox-in-exchange-online/In general, it's very easy to convert a user mailbox into a Shared Mailbox in Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online. Except, if you have directory synchronisation...Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/remove-additional-platform-single-sign-on-credentials-saved-in-macos-when-using-psso-with-microsoft-365-entra-and-company-portal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/remove-additional-platform-single-sign-on-credentials-saved-in-macos-when-using-psso-with-microsoft-365-entra-and-company-portal/I'm working on a Mac that's configured with Platform Single Sign-On via Intune. I'm wanting to test it pretty thoroughly myself before widespread deployment...Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThow-tointunemacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/repair-psso-on-mac-enrolled-in-intune-via-ade-dep-after-signing-out-of-company-portal-app/https://automatica.com.au/blog/repair-psso-on-mac-enrolled-in-intune-via-ade-dep-after-signing-out-of-company-portal-app/I was trying to troubleshoot an issue on a Mac enrolled in Intune and using Platform Single Sign-on (PSSO). PSSO is really good, when it works. It gives Mac...Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThow-tointunemacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/replacing-jamf-with-microsoft-intune-munki-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/replacing-jamf-with-microsoft-intune-munki-on-macos/I've been talking to a few clients about migrating away from Jamf . In general, these clients are all in on Microsoft 365 , so a combined approach using Micr...Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTintunejamfmacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/intune-not-pushing-any-configuration-profiles-after-mac-enrolled-via-company-portal-app-for-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/intune-not-pushing-any-configuration-profiles-after-mac-enrolled-via-company-portal-app-for-macos/I was setting up Intune recently, and had an issue whereby after enrolling a Mac via the Company Portal all, I was only getting one single profile in Device...Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTintunemacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-outlook-as-the-default-email-app-mail2outlook-as-a-shell-script/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-outlook-as-the-default-email-app-mail2outlook-as-a-shell-script/If you are setting up new Macs, and would like (or require) the end users to use Outlook, it's time consuming to configure this manually for each new user ac...Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/download-macos-installers-via-terminal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/download-macos-installers-via-terminal/You can use Terminal to download the installer for macOS versions that are no older than the version that the Mac you're currently using shipped with, or the...Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/privacy-preferences-policy-control-application-bundle-identifiers-and-app-code-requirements/https://automatica.com.au/blog/privacy-preferences-policy-control-application-bundle-identifiers-and-app-code-requirements/So that I don't have to keep looking them up when I'm setting up profiles in a new MDM, here is a list of some common apps that I'll included in Privacy Pref...Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-with-sharepoint-online-were-sorry-sign-in-isnt-working-right-now-but-were-on-it-please-try-again-later/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-with-sharepoint-online-were-sorry-sign-in-isnt-working-right-now-but-were-on-it-please-try-again-later/I've been trying, and mostly failing, to do the simplest of things in SharePoint – that is, share a folder with an external guest. I was logged into a client...Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ensure-that-microsoft-365-resource-calendars-keep-event-details-from-email-invitations/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ensure-that-microsoft-365-resource-calendars-keep-event-details-from-email-invitations/By default, if you make a resource calendar in Microsoft 365 (e.g. a meeting room calendar) and add it to a meeting via a calendar invitation, the calendar i...Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-undeletable-calendar-spam-events-for-microsoft-365-renewals-in-calendar-app-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-undeletable-calendar-spam-events-for-microsoft-365-renewals-in-calendar-app-on-macos/The spammers and phishers are back at it again, sending out a heap of spam calendar invitations to people for bogus Microsoft 365 renewals. Whilst Microsoft...Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTemailmacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-a-new-terminal-window-on-macos-with-a-given-profile/https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-a-new-terminal-window-on-macos-with-a-given-profile/I went down a real rabbit hole today, trying to do something that seems quite simple – opening a new Terminal window with a given profile from a script. Why?...Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-touch-id-for-authentication-in-sudo/https://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-touch-id-for-authentication-in-sudo/In getting a new laptop recently, I'm reminded of all the small tweaks and quality-of-life improvements that I end up making. One of them is enabling Touch I...Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/find-your-external-ip-address-from-the-terminal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/find-your-external-ip-address-from-the-terminal/If you're using a Unix or Linux terminal and you need to know what your external IP address is (e.g. if you're behind NAT) then there's a quick one-liner tha...Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tolinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/disable-entra-id-domain-federation-in-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/disable-entra-id-domain-federation-in-powershell/I was recently setting up federation between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, using Google Workspace as the Identity Provider for Entra ID. Somewhere in t...Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTentra-idgoogle-workspacemicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/direct-download-links-for-microsoft-surface-drivers/https://automatica.com.au/blog/direct-download-links-for-microsoft-surface-drivers/Here are links to the driver packs for various Microsoft Surface devices, including Surface Laptop and Surface Pro. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/surface...Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/start-windows-defender-offline-scan-with-third-party-antivirus-installed/https://automatica.com.au/blog/start-windows-defender-offline-scan-with-third-party-antivirus-installed/If you're using Windows Defender as your primary antivirus, then it's pretty easy to start an offline scan – simply go to the Window Security app > Virus & t...Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tosecuritywindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-immutable-id-onpremisesimmutableid-in-entra-id-via-microsoft-graph-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-immutable-id-onpremisesimmutableid-in-entra-id-via-microsoft-graph-powershell/I've got a few clients who use Google Workspace as their main platform, but also need to use Microsoft Office or Teams, so have a Microsoft 365 tenancy as we...Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toentra-idgoogle-workspacemicrosoft-365powershellteamshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/it-support-technician-part-time-3-4-days-week/https://automatica.com.au/blog/it-support-technician-part-time-3-4-days-week/Automatica is a boutique consultancy that keeps creative small businesses humming. We tame Macs, wrangle the occasional Windows machine, and dive deep into M...Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/network-discovery-using-lldp-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/network-discovery-using-lldp-on-macos/In trying to find the IP address of a switch on the network, I first turned (without much hope) to performing a Bonjour discovery on the network, but as expe...Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/post-installation-script-for-dropbox-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/post-installation-script-for-dropbox-on-macos/If you're deploying Dropbox to multiple systems, there's now an Enterprise Installer available from Dropbox which has a postinstall script to properly initia...Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTdropboxmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/create-new-user-in-microsoft-365-entra-id-via-powershell-when-using-federation-with-google-workspace/https://automatica.com.au/blog/create-new-user-in-microsoft-365-entra-id-via-powershell-when-using-federation-with-google-workspace/I've got a client for whom I've set up federation between their Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID tenancies. Google Workspace is their primary platform...Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toentra-idgoogle-workspacemicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-windows-11-tpm-check-from-within-the-windows-11-installation-assistant/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-windows-11-tpm-check-from-within-the-windows-11-installation-assistant/Today I needed to install Windows 11 on a late-model Intel-based Mac mini. The Mac mini has an 8th gen Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD. It supports...Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacossecuritystoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/install-windows-11-on-apple-mac-mini-2018/https://automatica.com.au/blog/install-windows-11-on-apple-mac-mini-2018/I'm putting this up as a duplicate of my recent post detailing how to bypass TPM checks when installing Windows 11 on an Intel-based Mac mini with 8th-gen CP...Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacossecuritywindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-windows-11-tpm-check-from-within-the-windows-installer/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-windows-11-tpm-check-from-within-the-windows-installer/I recently needed to do a clean install of Windows onto some specialised hardware – a PC that was custom built as a controller for some industrial equipment...Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tosecuritywindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/getting-started/https://automatica.com.au/blog/getting-started/The first post — testing the setup and demonstrating the blog format.Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTnewshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-with-dns-on-macos-not-looking-up-hostnames-on-lan-from-internal-dns-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-with-dns-on-macos-not-looking-up-hostnames-on-lan-from-internal-dns-server/I had an issue recently with a client whereby they were unable to resolve servers on the local network via their hostnames. What was really odd is that using...Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/import-contacts-in-to-the-microsoft-365-global-address-list-using-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/import-contacts-in-to-the-microsoft-365-global-address-list-using-powershell/I'm working with a client who needs a few hundred contacts added to the GAL in Microsoft 365. Easy! Just upload a CSV and you're good to go! Shortest. Blog P...Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/prompt-user-on-macos-to-change-local-machine-password-on-first-login/https://automatica.com.au/blog/prompt-user-on-macos-to-change-local-machine-password-on-first-login/I frequently set up new laptops for clients, and as a part of this, I'll often set up their user account so I can sign in to all of their services for them....Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-log-in-to-windows-after-deleting-user-profile-folder-in-users/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-log-in-to-windows-after-deleting-user-profile-folder-in-users/I recently had a client who when they gave me the login details to set up a new user for them, they had a typo in that person's first name. As their email ad...Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-netgear-nf20mesh-wifi-modem-router-in-bridge-mode/https://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-netgear-nf20mesh-wifi-modem-router-in-bridge-mode/I was recently stuck with trying to set up a UniFi Dream Machine on an NBN FTTN connection, and being FTTN it was delivered over VDSL, not Ethernet. As such,...Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/download-older-intel-macos-installers-on-an-apple-silicon-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/download-older-intel-macos-installers-on-an-apple-silicon-mac/I recently picked up a bunch of older Intel Macs that a client was disposing of, and needed to wipe them and instal an older version of macOS, such as Catali...Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-broken-createinstallmedia-from-macos-catalina-to-run-on-modern-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-broken-createinstallmedia-from-macos-catalina-to-run-on-modern-macos/In my last post, described a way to download the macOS Catalina onto an Apple Silicon Mac . Once I had the installer in hand however, running the createinsta...Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/add-a-domain-to-the-tennant-allow-block-lists-in-microsoft-365-using-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/add-a-domain-to-the-tennant-allow-block-lists-in-microsoft-365-using-powershell/If you're using Defender for Office 365, then you have access to some pretty powerful anti-phishing and anti-spam capabilities. Sometimes however the anti-ph...Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365powershellsecuritywindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/force-spotlight-to-rebuild-search-indexes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/force-spotlight-to-rebuild-search-indexes/There's an excellent series of articles on Spotlight in recent versions of macOS over on the Eclectic Light website. I've recently had a couple of machines t...Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/automatica-corporate-id-refresh/https://automatica.com.au/blog/automatica-corporate-id-refresh/As we head into 2025, we are in the process of rolling out a new corporate ID for Automatica with the aim to freshen and simplify our visual imagery. We're k...Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/check-apc-ups-warranty-status-and-build-date/https://automatica.com.au/blog/check-apc-ups-warranty-status-and-build-date/I had a bit more trouble than I would have expected trying to find a page on APC's website to enter a serial number and check the warranty status of a UPS. O...Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-towebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-high-sierra-internet-recovery-error-the-recovery-server-could-not-be-contacted/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-high-sierra-internet-recovery-error-the-recovery-server-could-not-be-contacted/I had a Mac recently that had been wiped via Find My, so it had neither an OS nor the recovery environment on the internal drive. It also had the default fir...Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingbackupmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/automate-letsencrypt-certbot-ssl-certificate-renewal-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/automate-letsencrypt-certbot-ssl-certificate-renewal-on-macos/The instructions for certbot on the EFF website for macOS instruct you to schedule the automatic renewal using Cron. On recent versions of macOS, Cron has be...Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacossecuritywebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/display-most-recently-modified-files-in-a-folder-and-all-subfolders-using-terminal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/display-most-recently-modified-files-in-a-folder-and-all-subfolders-using-terminal/I recently needed to search through a fairly extensive list of files to find when the most recently modified files were last edited, and needed to search in...Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-wth-out-of-office-oof-rules-on-microsoft-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-wth-out-of-office-oof-rules-on-microsoft-365/Sometimes the Out of Office auto-responder can get confused and it won't send replies correctly, or even at all. Sometimes it sends an old reply instead of t...Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/universal-print-drivers-for-windows-11-arm64/https://automatica.com.au/blog/universal-print-drivers-for-windows-11-arm64/I've been deploying more and more Snapdragon powered PCs for clients lately and generally they're really good. They are fast, the battery life is great and t...Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTprintingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/create-a-bootable-windows-11-installer-usb-with-autopilot-configuration-for-zero-touch-enrolment-in-intune/https://automatica.com.au/blog/create-a-bootable-windows-11-installer-usb-with-autopilot-configuration-for-zero-touch-enrolment-in-intune/I've recently been building an SOE for a client using Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 with Autopilot and Intune. In order to streamline the whole process, I wan...Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-tointunemicrosoft-365windowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/print-to-fuji-xerox-fujifilm-printers-from-windows-11-on-arm64-snapdragon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/print-to-fuji-xerox-fujifilm-printers-from-windows-11-on-arm64-snapdragon/None of the existing 64-bit printer drivers for Windows 10 or Windows 11 will work with Windows 11 on ARM. Xerox can make it tricky to find a print driver th...Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-toprintingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/upgraded-from-windows-11-home-to-windows-11-pro-via-microsoft-store-ended-up-with-windows-11-enterprise-that-wouldnt-activate/https://automatica.com.au/blog/upgraded-from-windows-11-home-to-windows-11-pro-via-microsoft-store-ended-up-with-windows-11-enterprise-that-wouldnt-activate/I was setting up a new Surface Laptop (with a Snapdragon arm64 CPU in it – very nice) recently and as part of the setup procedure, I needed to upgrade it fro...Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/force-spotlight-to-rebuild-search-index-on-macos-sonoma-and-later/https://automatica.com.au/blog/force-spotlight-to-rebuild-search-index-on-macos-sonoma-and-later/I had a Mac recently that was really playing up with Spotlight. So much so that I couldn't even drag Macintosh HD into the Search Privacy window as it came u...Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-install-microsoft-print-to-pdf-printer-on-windows-11-24h2-error-0x800f0922/https://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-install-microsoft-print-to-pdf-printer-on-windows-11-24h2-error-0x800f0922/I had an issue recently where a fresh install of Windows 11 24H2 was unable to use the Microsoft Print to PDF printer. It was showing as installed in Optiona...Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingprintingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/recover-password-for-mac-saved-in-apple-remote-desktop/https://automatica.com.au/blog/recover-password-for-mac-saved-in-apple-remote-desktop/A client of mine has got a couple of servers that I haven't touched in years and somewhere along the line I've lost track of the login credentials for them....Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-3cx-system-owner-via-ssh-on-v20/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-3cx-system-owner-via-ssh-on-v20/I recently took on a new client and in the process migrated their 3CX instance onto a new host as part of their onboarding process. In doing this, I took a b...Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-tosshvoiphttps://automatica.com.au/blog/work-out-temporary-apple-id-after-enabling-federation-in-apple-business-manager-abm/https://automatica.com.au/blog/work-out-temporary-apple-id-after-enabling-federation-in-apple-business-manager-abm/I had a company-owned MacBook Pro that was locked to an Apple ID using a company email address. Whilst I had the Apple ID password, I only discovered that th...Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleemailmacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/unzip-multiple-zip-files-with-unicode-filenames-inside-the-archive/https://automatica.com.au/blog/unzip-multiple-zip-files-with-unicode-filenames-inside-the-archive/I had a bunch of zip files from a Google Takeout that I needed to extract on macOS and deal with the contents. As it turns out, a LOT of the files in the arc...Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/sort-firefox-containers-alphabetically/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sort-firefox-containers-alphabetically/I use Firefox containers a lot when I'm working for a number of different clients - e.g. I'll have a container in Firefox for each regular client so I can lo...Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-towebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/flatten-fillable-pdf-form-from-acrobat-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/flatten-fillable-pdf-form-from-acrobat-on-macos/I was recently dealing with needing to fill in a PDF form and then supply it to someone as a flattened PDF so that they couldn't (easily) edit it. I don't kn...Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-toadobemacosprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/synology-cloud-sync-cant-sync-to-dropbox-after-upgrade-to-dropbox-team-space/https://automatica.com.au/blog/synology-cloud-sync-cant-sync-to-dropbox-after-upgrade-to-dropbox-team-space/I've had a couple of clients with a Synology syncing to Dropbox via Cloud Sync and after Dropbox upgraded their tenancy to use the new Dropbox Team Space, sy...Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingbackupdropboxstoragesynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-create-pdfs-from-office-apps-on-windows-error-log-states-aptos-not-found-using-courier/https://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-create-pdfs-from-office-apps-on-windows-error-log-states-aptos-not-found-using-courier/Microsoft have recently changed the default font in Office to Aptos . Apart from the visual changes, this seems to cause problems with Acrobat Distiller and...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingadobedesignwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-synology-universal-search-synoelasticd-with-high-cpu-usage/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-synology-universal-search-synoelasticd-with-high-cpu-usage/I've got a few decently-specced Synology servers out there that seem to be constantly running with nearly 100% CPU usage caused by synoelasticd. This task is...Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingsynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/emails-in-microsoft-365-landing-in-inbox-and-then-going-to-deleted-items-after-a-few-seconds/https://automatica.com.au/blog/emails-in-microsoft-365-landing-in-inbox-and-then-going-to-deleted-items-after-a-few-seconds/I have a client with a strange, ongoing issue with their email. Particular emails – in this case invoices I send them from Xero, land in the Inbox and then a...Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-an-issue-with-an-apple-silicon-macbook-pro-with-incorrect-date-and-time/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-an-issue-with-an-apple-silicon-macbook-pro-with-incorrect-date-and-time/I've seen a couple of Apple Silicon MacBook Pros recently with an incorrect date and time set, even though "Set time and date automatically" is switched on a...Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/dropbox-is-finally-native-on-apple-silicon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dropbox-is-finally-native-on-apple-silicon/As of December 2023, Dropbox have finally updated their app to run natively on Apple Silicon. They say that you're supposed to be updated to it automatically...Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTappledropboxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/wireguard-macos-app-without-the-app-store/https://automatica.com.au/blog/wireguard-macos-app-without-the-app-store/WireGuard is an excellent, secure and fast VPN with full support for macOS. It is frustrating however that the official macOS app is only made available via...Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-non-admin-users-to-use-wireguard-on-windows/https://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-non-admin-users-to-use-wireguard-on-windows/It's frustrating that out of the box WireGuard only allows admin users to open the main WireGuard window. The error you receive says "WireGuard may only be u...Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-microsoft-forms-that-are-locked-as-being-identified-for-phishing/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-microsoft-forms-that-are-locked-as-being-identified-for-phishing/I've had a client creating quite a few forms on Microsoft Forms recently and quite inexplicably two of the forms were locked by Microsoft as being phishing....Thu, 14 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-for-the-sent-items-folder-contains-the-maximum-number-of-allowed-items-in-outlook/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-for-the-sent-items-folder-contains-the-maximum-number-of-allowed-items-in-outlook/If you've got a lot of email in Outlook on Windows, you'll sooner or later come across a rather cryptically worded error message that doesn't really clearly...Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365outlookwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/force-synology-drive-to-re-index-changes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/force-synology-drive-to-re-index-changes/Synology Drive occasionally gets out of sync when you're making changes at both ends of a synced folder. Fortunately, there's a command you can run, either o...Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMTstoragesynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/count-files/https://automatica.com.au/blog/count-files/This script will count the files in the current directory and all the subdirectories - it's useful for checking if you have sync issues with Dropbox as Dropb...Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-todropboxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/veggie-bolognaise-sauce/https://automatica.com.au/blog/veggie-bolognaise-sauce/Yes, I know this isn't tech related, but I need to write this down somewhere where I won't lose it. 3 medium/large carrots 2 large brown onions (or 3-4 small...Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 GMTpersonalrecipehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-word-for-mac-unable-to-open-files-in-recent-files/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-word-for-mac-unable-to-open-files-in-recent-files/I had a strange issue recently where Microsoft Word was unable to open files from the Recent Files screen. The files were there, e.g. sitting on the Desktop,...Sun, 14 May 2023 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-word-for-mac-making-files-hidden-when-saving-to-an-smb-shared-folder/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-word-for-mac-making-files-hidden-when-saving-to-an-smb-shared-folder/I had an issue recently where a client was editing Word documents on a server and when they went to save them, they would save but they were hidden. You coul...Sun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 GMTmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adding-a-caldav-calendar-account-on-macos-ventura/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adding-a-caldav-calendar-account-on-macos-ventura/I had a very annoying problem recently when setting up a couple of new iMacs for a client. Although their email and calendars are hosted on Office 365, they...Thu, 23 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMTemailmacosmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-teams-up-with-parallels-to-deliver-windows-11-on-apple-silicon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-teams-up-with-parallels-to-deliver-windows-11-on-apple-silicon/Microsoft and Parallels have teamed up to deliver an officially supported solution to run Windows 11 on Apple Silicon Macs. https://support.microsoft.com/en-...Thu, 16 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmicrosoft-365teamswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/assign-the-application-impersonation-role-in-microsoft-365-via-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/assign-the-application-impersonation-role-in-microsoft-365-via-powershell/I'm just putting a quick snippet here so I can find it later on. When you create a brand-new Microsoft 365 tenancy, it often takes a while before you can ass...Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-todesignmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/allowing-nginx-from-macports-to-run-on-macos-ventura-with-sip-active/https://automatica.com.au/blog/allowing-nginx-from-macports-to-run-on-macos-ventura-with-sip-active/I've set up a couple of servers recently to host Munki and generally prefer to use nginx now that macOS doesn't ship with a built-in web server. Allowing ngi...Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMTjamfmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-nginx-on-macos-ventura-to-host-munki-managed-software-centre/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-nginx-on-macos-ventura-to-host-munki-managed-software-centre/My web server of choice is nginx, so I've been using that to host on-premises Munki Managed Software Centre instances ever since macOS stopped shipping with...Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-tojamfmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/chatgpt-comes-through-with-dinner-for-me-vegetarian-chilli-with-eggplant/https://automatica.com.au/blog/chatgpt-comes-through-with-dinner-for-me-vegetarian-chilli-with-eggplant/I've been using ChatGPT for more and more random things lately, and tonight I asked it to help me out with dinner. I wanted a vegetarian chilli with eggplant...Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMTpersonalrecipeaihttps://automatica.com.au/blog/backup-self-hosted-hudu-instance-to-dropbox/https://automatica.com.au/blog/backup-self-hosted-hudu-instance-to-dropbox/I have recently switched over from IT Glue to Hudu for my documentation platform, and am running it as a self-hosted instance. As I have root access to my se...Sun, 15 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThow-tobackupdropboxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/bulk-add-guest-users-to-microsoft-365-group-microsoft-teams-group-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bulk-add-guest-users-to-microsoft-365-group-microsoft-teams-group-in-office-365/It's fairly straightforward to add guest users to a MS365 group one-by-one in Outlook on the Web, however adding them as an admin is apparently a lot more di...Sun, 18 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMTmicrosoft-365outlookteamshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/openai-chatbot-chatgpt/https://automatica.com.au/blog/openai-chatbot-chatgpt/ChatGPT is a cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) model developed by OpenAI. It is the next level in the evolution of NLP...Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMTaihttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-ownership-of-synology-cloud-sync-tasks/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-ownership-of-synology-cloud-sync-tasks/Synology have advised people for some time now to not use an administrator user called admin , as this account will be subject to password guessing attacks....Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThow-tobackupsecuritysynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/email-signatures-missing-in-outlook-for-mac-16-63/https://automatica.com.au/blog/email-signatures-missing-in-outlook-for-mac-16-63/If you're using the New Outlook on a Mac, and your Outlook has upgraded itself to version 16.63 (currently the latest version), then there may be an issue wh...Sun, 31 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmacosmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macs-unable-to-access-greyed-out-folders-on-a-windows-server-that-is-using-dfs-r/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macs-unable-to-access-greyed-out-folders-on-a-windows-server-that-is-using-dfs-r/I had an ongoing situation recently where some folders on a Windows server were inaccessible via the Finder - the folders were greyed out. This persisted aft...Sun, 17 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacoswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/flag-all-emails-from-external-senders-in-outlook-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/flag-all-emails-from-external-senders-in-outlook-office-365/This is a super quick one. To apply an External tag to all emails from external senders in Exchange Online, simply execute the following one-liner in PowerSh...Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMTexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-synology-out-of-band-management-via-ssh-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-synology-out-of-band-management-via-ssh-on-macos/Some high-end Synology units feature a separate Ethernet port, labelled MGMT which is the Out-of-band Management port. Once this port has been assigned a sta...Thu, 30 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkingsshsynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/who-has-access-to-your-files-in-google-drive/https://automatica.com.au/blog/who-has-access-to-your-files-in-google-drive/It seems strange to me that Google haven't implemented any way to produce a report of who has access to your shared files and folders in Google Drive. If you...Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMTgoogle-drivegoogle-workspacestoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/copy-sent-items-to-shared-mailbox-using-powershell-in-exchange-online/https://automatica.com.au/blog/copy-sent-items-to-shared-mailbox-using-powershell-in-exchange-online/When you set up a Shared Mailbox in Exchange Online, and then assign someone delegate access to it, for some reason the default settings copy the Sent Items...Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/use-high-impedance-headphones-with-new-macbook-pro-models/https://automatica.com.au/blog/use-high-impedance-headphones-with-new-macbook-pro-models/If you just read that, and you're asking yourself what high-impedance headphones are, then just skip this whole post, it won't be relevant to you. If, howeve...Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleaudio-videomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/sort-office-365-exchange-online-mailbox-folders-by-size-in-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sort-office-365-exchange-online-mailbox-folders-by-size-in-powershell/PowerShell is great, except when it isn't. One of the really good things about it is that it can pipe objects between commands, instead of plain text like a...Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchange-online-using-powershell-on-macos-now-100-native-arm64-apple-silicon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchange-online-using-powershell-on-macos-now-100-native-arm64-apple-silicon/I thought this update warranted a new post, instead of updating the previous one. https://automatica.com.au/2021/10/connect-to-exchangeonline-with-powershell...Sun, 12 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleexchange-onlinemacosmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/combine-legacy-split-dmg-files-on-modern-versions-of-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/combine-legacy-split-dmg-files-on-modern-versions-of-macos/I recently came across some old software that was provided as segmented DMG files, aka Split Disk Utility images. The files were names Disk_Image.001.dmg, Di...Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hp-hpe-procurve-switch-firmware-for-1810-48g/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hp-hpe-procurve-switch-firmware-for-1810-48g/I had all kinds of problems navigating HP and HPE's support site to find the firmware for an HPE ProCurve V1810-48G switch (HP SKU J9660A) I eventually found...Wed, 10 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/zoom-direct-downloads-for-intel-and-apple-silicon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/zoom-direct-downloads-for-intel-and-apple-silicon/https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoomusInstaller.pkg https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoomusInstaller.pkg?archType=arm64Thu, 04 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-mail-app-back-to-apple-mail-after-using-mailtooutlook-2-0-to-set-outlook-as-default-mail-handler/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-mail-app-back-to-apple-mail-after-using-mailtooutlook-2-0-to-set-outlook-as-default-mail-handler/I have a few clients who have an SOE pushed out with a heap of individual packages via Munki. One of these clients has decided to make Outlook their default...Sun, 10 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleemailjamfmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchangeonline-with-powershell-from-macos-updated-for-m1/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchangeonline-with-powershell-from-macos-updated-for-m1/** Edit. There is a new version of this post that works for me on both of my Apple Silicon Macs. Disregard the instructions below, unless you're on Intel, an...Thu, 07 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacospowershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ignore-ownership-keeps-turning-itself-on-for-drives-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ignore-ownership-keeps-turning-itself-on-for-drives-on-macos/This was a strange one - I have a server with an external Thunderbolt RAID. Like most servers, I have permissions set on certain folders to limit access. Whe...Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMTmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/office-365-cannot-send-as-shared-mailboxes-from-outlook/https://automatica.com.au/blog/office-365-cannot-send-as-shared-mailboxes-from-outlook/I'm stealing borrowing this information from a post on Sysadmin Tips : https://www.mysysadmintips.com/windows/clients/846-office-365-cannot-send-as-shared-ma...Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365outlookwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/scan-to-email-not-working-on-fuji-xerox-via-office-365-error-027-779/https://automatica.com.au/blog/scan-to-email-not-working-on-fuji-xerox-via-office-365-error-027-779/I have just set up a client with a new Office 365 tenancy and they were having problems scanning to email. The error they were getting was 027-227, which if...Mon, 21 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365printinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchangeonline-with-powershell-from-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-to-exchangeonline-with-powershell-from-macos/For quite some time, it has not been possible to connect to Office 365 / Exchange Online with PowerShell, if your tenancy is using Modern Authentication (i.e...Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-toexchange-onlinemacosmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/massdrop-x-sennheiser-hd6xx-reference-class-headphones/https://automatica.com.au/blog/massdrop-x-sennheiser-hd6xx-reference-class-headphones/I used to feature numerous product reviews on this blog, however that has really tapered off over the past few years. I'd like to get back onto letting peopl...Wed, 12 May 2021 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-fusion-drive-on-a-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-fusion-drive-on-a-mac/I don't like Fusion Drives. They are unreliable. There, now that I've got that out of the way, here's how to fix a Fusion Drive if it flips out. Do note that...Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacosstoragevmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/find-ppd-file-used-by-airprint-printers/https://automatica.com.au/blog/find-ppd-file-used-by-airprint-printers/I occasionally need to set up a printer manually (e.g. when pushing out a printer with Munki), however as the printer is AirPrint compatible, the manufacture...Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-tojamfprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-default-calendar-sharing-permissions-on-all-user-calendars-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-default-calendar-sharing-permissions-on-all-user-calendars-in-office-365/It's often handy to have all users in a Office 365 tenancy to be able to view all details in everyone else's calendars. While each user can set these permiss...Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/dtmf-dialling-via-speed-dial-or-blf-buttons-on-yealink-phones-with-3cx/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dtmf-dialling-via-speed-dial-or-blf-buttons-on-yealink-phones-with-3cx/I have a client and we have recently deployed a 3CX solution for them. One of the more tricky parts of their solution was integrating with an existing analog...Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkingvoiphttps://automatica.com.au/blog/use-an-analogue-intercom-with-a-voip-pbx-system-like-3cx/https://automatica.com.au/blog/use-an-analogue-intercom-with-a-voip-pbx-system-like-3cx/I have recently deployed a 3CX system to a customer's home, replacing an old NEC phone system that was installed some time in the 1990s. As much as I loved t...Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThow-tovoiphttps://automatica.com.au/blog/powershell-and-remote-sessions-to-office-365-microsoft-365-on-apple-silicon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/powershell-and-remote-sessions-to-office-365-microsoft-365-on-apple-silicon/I've recently switched over to an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro and overall it's a really good machine. I do miss not having Thunderbolt ports on both sides of t...Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/installing-powershell-on-macos-for-remote-administration-of-microsoft-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/installing-powershell-on-macos-for-remote-administration-of-microsoft-365/There are a couple of catches to install PowerShell on macOS and have it work for remote sessions to Microsoft 365 / Azure AD / Exchange Online. First, insta...Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMTentra-idexchange-onlinemacosmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/problems-with-php-5-6-on-ubuntu-20-04/https://automatica.com.au/blog/problems-with-php-5-6-on-ubuntu-20-04/I'm putting this here as I will probably need to refer to it again in the future. We've taken over the development for a web app that uses php 5.6 and I'm tr...Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootinglinuxwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/import-outlook-pst-into-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/import-outlook-pst-into-office-365/Microsoft now have a fairly straightforward way to import large Outlook PST files into Office 365. Using this process to upload large amounts of email should...Sun, 25 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-mtu-size-on-a-nic-on-windows/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-mtu-size-on-a-nic-on-windows/I had a really thorny problem recently where packets of a certain size were disappearing in action when being sent from Site A to Site B. After much troubles...Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-towindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-properly-automount-a-drive-in-ubuntu-linux/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-properly-automount-a-drive-in-ubuntu-linux/I've stolen this from TechRepublic , and am reproducing it here so I can find this info again when I need to. The original article is: How to properly automo...Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tolinuxstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/show-object-sizes-in-bytes-or-mb-in-powershell-with-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/show-object-sizes-in-bytes-or-mb-in-powershell-with-office-365/PowerShell can be a very powerful tool when applied correctly, however it has some quirks - one of which is formatting size numbers for remote PowerShell con...Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tomicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-usb-disk-numbers-on-synology-dsm/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-usb-disk-numbers-on-synology-dsm/When you connect a USB disk to a Synology NAS, the NAS assigns it a disk number, which forms part of the name of the mount point for the disk. The first disk...Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tostoragesynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/big-announcements-from-apple-macos-11-and-arm-based-macs/https://automatica.com.au/blog/big-announcements-from-apple-macos-11-and-arm-based-macs/Apple held their virtual WWDC2020 overnight and there were a raft of announcements . Two of the biggest however that will affect all Mac users were the annou...Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/clean-up-windows-10-winsxs-folder-to-free-up-disk-space/https://automatica.com.au/blog/clean-up-windows-10-winsxs-folder-to-free-up-disk-space/Windows 10 (and Windows Server) has a feature where it keeps older versions of shared libraries and other things like that in a Windows Side-by-Side folder (...Tue, 26 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tostoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/outlook-unable-to-sign-in-to-office-365-email-account-after-mfa-enabled/https://automatica.com.au/blog/outlook-unable-to-sign-in-to-office-365-email-account-after-mfa-enabled/I had a really thorny problem recently with a client who responded to a phishing email and their account was compromised. As part of reviewing their account...Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365outlooksecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/recover-a-ubiquiti-edgerouter-with-a-failed-usb-flash-or-ermk-redux/https://automatica.com.au/blog/recover-a-ubiquiti-edgerouter-with-a-failed-usb-flash-or-ermk-redux/In the past, I've had a number of the original Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite units fail - they were all the original plastic-case units, and in each case it was t...Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingnetworkingstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mysterious-case-of-catalina-and-the-missing-disk-space-or-private-var-vm-ate-my-disk/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mysterious-case-of-catalina-and-the-missing-disk-space-or-private-var-vm-ate-my-disk/I had a very unusual problem recently with a client - his MacBook Pro running Catalina was constantly running out of disk space. He let it slide for a while,...Sun, 19 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-clicks-in-system-preferences-to-permit-system-extensions-via-apple-remote-desktop-or-teamviewer/https://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-clicks-in-system-preferences-to-permit-system-extensions-via-apple-remote-desktop-or-teamviewer/I have a Mac mini as a server here at the Automatica World HQ, and it's downstairs, in a cabinet, running headless with no peripherals attached. I needed to...Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/l2tp-vpn-configuration-commands-for-an-edgerouter/https://automatica.com.au/blog/l2tp-vpn-configuration-commands-for-an-edgerouter/Further to Darren's post , here's the short and sweet how-to configure an L2TP VPN on an EdgeRouter. First edit the commands below. Next, log into the router...Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/setting-up-vpn-access-on-an-edgerouter-authenticate-via-radius-on-a-synology-nas-with-dsm/https://automatica.com.au/blog/setting-up-vpn-access-on-an-edgerouter-authenticate-via-radius-on-a-synology-nas-with-dsm/With the increased need to enable people to “Work From Home”, setting up VPN access is a vital step to ensure a secure connection to the work envir...Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMTnetworkingsynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/list-users-folders-in-office-365-via-powershell-when-get-mailboxfolder-does-not-work/https://automatica.com.au/blog/list-users-folders-in-office-365-via-powershell-when-get-mailboxfolder-does-not-work/Occasionally I need to list all the folder names in someone's mailbox in Office 365 via PowerShell. Microsoft have a cmdlet called Get-MailboxFolder however...Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-fast-are-your-disks-find-out-the-open-source-way-with-fio-ars-technica/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-fast-are-your-disks-find-out-the-open-source-way-with-fio-ars-technica/I'm posting this as a bookmark to this article on Ars Technica. I know I'll need this at some stage in the not too distant future, so present me is bookmarki...Fri, 07 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/error-invalid-base64-string-for-mime-content-in-apple-mail-on-catalina/https://automatica.com.au/blog/error-invalid-base64-string-for-mime-content-in-apple-mail-on-catalina/I had a client today who after every email they received in Apple Mail on Catalina, an error dialog box would pop up saying "The Message could not be moved t...Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingappleemailmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-lock-the-dock-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-lock-the-dock-on-macos/I've occasionally needed to fix certain aspects of the Dock on some people's computers - one particular case comes to mind was an elderly client who somehow...Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/create-empty-directories-and-symlinks-at-the-root-of-the-boot-volume-on-macos-catalina-10-15-synthetic-conf/https://automatica.com.au/blog/create-empty-directories-and-symlinks-at-the-root-of-the-boot-volume-on-macos-catalina-10-15-synthetic-conf/On macOS Catalina 10.15, the entire boot volume is mounted read-only. All user data, apps, configuration, preferences etc, exists on the data volume which is...Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/office-365-single-users-unable-to-send-email-access-denied-bad-outbound-sender-error/https://automatica.com.au/blog/office-365-single-users-unable-to-send-email-access-denied-bad-outbound-sender-error/This has popped up a couple of times recently and I can never remember where to go in Office 365 to fix it, so after spending some time on the phone to Micro...Sun, 05 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-mac-pro-2019/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-mac-pro-2019/Apple have finally opened their order books for the 2019 Mac Pro , and what a beast it is. Now that it's available for sale, we can see the pricing, not only...Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-sony-playstation-turns-25/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-sony-playstation-turns-25/The original PlayStation has turned 25. I spent many an hour with one of these units flying anti-gravity racers in wipEout, driving fancy sports cars in Gran...Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/caching-server-data-location-on-macos-mojave-without-server-app/https://automatica.com.au/blog/caching-server-data-location-on-macos-mojave-without-server-app/I was trying to track down the location of the Caching Server cache on macOS Mojave, this is with just the Caching service enabled in Sharing, not with the f...Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMTmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-catalina-supplemental-update/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-catalina-supplemental-update/Apple have just pushed out an update to Catalina - the macOS Catalina Supplemental Update. The description is pretty vague; "The macOS Catalina Supplemental...Tue, 15 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-catalina-file-system-layout/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-catalina-file-system-layout/Wow, Catalina really mixes things up with regard to the file system layout. It also introduces something called firm links, which are not symlinks nor hard l...Mon, 14 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMTmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-check-for-32-bit-apps-on-macos-before-upgrading-to-catalina/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-check-for-32-bit-apps-on-macos-before-upgrading-to-catalina/In my last post, outlining the release of Catalina , I covered the process to check for 32-bit apps on your system prior to upgrading. Here's the info as a s...Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-10-15-catalina-released/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-10-15-catalina-released/Apple have released macOS 10.15 Catalina overnight - this is a big update that is going to break a lot of old software, so please be very careful when instal...Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/update-all-of-your-adobe-creative-cloud-apps-before-upgrading-to-macos-catalina/https://automatica.com.au/blog/update-all-of-your-adobe-creative-cloud-apps-before-upgrading-to-macos-catalina/Adobe have published a list of apps that are 64-bit compatible for macOS. Fix Adobe app 64-bit compatibility errors on macOS Before you upgrade to macOS Cata...Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-toadobemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-the-macos-automounter-system/https://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-the-macos-automounter-system/macOS continues to maintain a fully-functional and highly reliable Unix automount system. This system allows us to keep network shared folders mounted on a M...Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-stop-firefox-zooming-the-page-when-you-scroll-with-the-command-key-held-down/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-stop-firefox-zooming-the-page-when-you-scroll-with-the-command-key-held-down/I will often open up a page with a lot of links, e.g. Feedly to read the news, and as I scroll down the page, I like to use ⌘+click to open the links in a ne...Sun, 08 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/public-service-announcement-confirm-when-changing-supplier-bank-details/https://automatica.com.au/blog/public-service-announcement-confirm-when-changing-supplier-bank-details/I received this notification from my bank recently, and it's very good advice that really needs to be passed around. It is critical when changing a BSB and A...Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTopinionsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-your-password-doesnt-matter/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-your-password-doesnt-matter/Microsoft have published an excellent article on the Azure Active Directory Identity Blog titled Your Pa$$word doesn't matter . Although it gets pretty techn...Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingsecurityactive-directoryhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-add-modify-or-delete-items-from-the-system-keychain-on-macos-unixoperation-not-permitted/https://automatica.com.au/blog/unable-to-add-modify-or-delete-items-from-the-system-keychain-on-macos-unixoperation-not-permitted/I was setting up a new user on a laptop recently and every time I rebooted the machine, I had to re-enter the wifi password. Aside from being really irritati...Sun, 18 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacosnetworkingsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-mini-2018-wont-power-on-or-how-to-restore-the-t2-bridgeos-from-dfu-mode-on-a-desktop-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-mini-2018-wont-power-on-or-how-to-restore-the-t2-bridgeos-from-dfu-mode-on-a-desktop-mac/It's Alive! I've got a Mac mini (2018), one of the new models in Space Grey with a T2 chip. It's a powerhouse, it replaced a Mac Pro (Late 2013) and on every...Mon, 12 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplebackupmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/rpc-error-2147220992-with-start-managedfolderassistant-on-office-365-mailboxes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/rpc-error-2147220992-with-start-managedfolderassistant-on-office-365-mailboxes/I've got a few users who have recently filled up their mailboxes (I thought 50 GB was a huge amount of email, apparently not), and I urgently needed to free...Wed, 17 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/acrobat-dc-on-mojave-crashing-when-dragging-a-pdf-to-another-monitor/https://automatica.com.au/blog/acrobat-dc-on-mojave-crashing-when-dragging-a-pdf-to-another-monitor/I had an issue at a client's site today where they have a MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave 10.14.5 and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. What would happen is that whe...Mon, 15 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingadobeapplemacosprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-the-time-zone-for-a-resource-calendar-or-shared-mailbox-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-the-time-zone-for-a-resource-calendar-or-shared-mailbox-in-office-365/I recently posted an article on how to publish a resource calendar in Office 365 as a live HTML feed . In testing this further with a client, it turns out th...Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/bose-sleepbuds-file-format-specifications/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bose-sleepbuds-file-format-specifications/Here's a quick companion post to the previous one with some raw technical information on the file formats for the Bose Sleepbuds. Each sound in the library n...Tue, 09 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hacking-the-bose-sleepbuds/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hacking-the-bose-sleepbuds/Edit: Bose have discontinued the SleepBuds and are offering everyone a full refund if they return them. As such, I'm not going to spend any more time trying...Tue, 09 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/clear-out-the-library-stageextensions-folder-on-macos-mojave/https://automatica.com.au/blog/clear-out-the-library-stageextensions-folder-on-macos-mojave/I installed some software that I wanted to quickly check out. As it turns out, it helpfully decided to install a couple of Extensions. These extensions were...Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/publish-an-office-365-resource-calendar-to-ical-or-the-web/https://automatica.com.au/blog/publish-an-office-365-resource-calendar-to-ical-or-the-web/With Office 365, it is very easy for an individual user to share their calendar out to external recipients, and those recipients get a URL that can be used t...Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMTemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-announces-new-hardware-at-wwdc-mac-pro-and-pro-display/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-announces-new-hardware-at-wwdc-mac-pro-and-pro-display/Apple have finally announced a new Mac Pro and matching Pro Display at WWDC. The Mac Pro returns to the beloved "cheese-grater" form factor of years gone pas...Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/managing-snapshots-on-apple-file-system-apfs-formatted-volumes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/managing-snapshots-on-apple-file-system-apfs-formatted-volumes/Over at Der Flounder there's a great article on how to manage filesystem snapshots on APFS volumes, using the Time Machine utility in Terminal - tmutil . Fil...Sun, 12 May 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplebackupmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/check-out-the-iina-video-player/https://automatica.com.au/blog/check-out-the-iina-video-player/Reading over an article on TidBITS today, I've now discovered a new media player that may take the place of the venerable VLC Media Player . I've simply lost...Tue, 07 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-toaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-will-deliver-a-full-linux-kernel-with-windows-10/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-will-deliver-a-full-linux-kernel-with-windows-10/Microsoft are really stepping things up with their Windows Subsystem for Linux ( WSL ). In the current release of Windows 10, the WSL layer has a custom-buil...Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00:00 GMTlinuxwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-finder-not-displaying-icon-previews/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-finder-not-displaying-icon-previews/Here's a quick fix for the Finder not displaying a thumbnail of an image for it's icon. Drop into the Terminal and type: qlmanage -r cache This resets the Qu...Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/secret-shortcut-keys-to-reinstall-macos-from-macos-recovery/https://automatica.com.au/blog/secret-shortcut-keys-to-reinstall-macos-from-macos-recovery/This is a good article to bookmark from Apple - I wasn't aware that there were different keyboard shortcuts to boot into the macOS Recovery system, and which...Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplebackupmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/what-does-apples-t2-security-chip-mean-for-you/https://automatica.com.au/blog/what-does-apples-t2-security-chip-mean-for-you/There's a really good article over on TidBITS - What Does the T2 Chip Mean for Mac Usage . If you've wondered what the T1 and T2 security processors do in th...Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplemacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-quietly-releases-new-imacs/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-quietly-releases-new-imacs/With no fanfare whatsoever, Apple overnight have released new iMacs . This is the first meaningful update to the lineup since June 2017 and brings them up-to...Tue, 19 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-check-and-remove-calendar-sharing-permissions-in-office-365-with-powershell/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-check-and-remove-calendar-sharing-permissions-in-office-365-with-powershell/Now that PowerShell works pretty well on macOS, including remote sessions to Office 365, I'm able to use it a lot more for administering client tenancies in...Sun, 03 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmacosmicrosoft-365powershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-a-stubbornly-un-deletable-user-on-macos-high-sierra/https://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-a-stubbornly-un-deletable-user-on-macos-high-sierra/I had a client with an unusual issue on a Mac mini that used to be a file server, but now is just sharing out some archived content and their Munki repositor...Sun, 17 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplejamfmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-wordpress-over-https-with-cloudflare-ssl/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-wordpress-over-https-with-cloudflare-ssl/I've had an issue with my site that prevented it from working fully over https - and as it turns out, it's due to CloudFlare's reverse proxy and the way it d...Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingwebwordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/what-to-do-if-you-cant-remember-the-password-for-your-iphone-backup-in-itunes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/what-to-do-if-you-cant-remember-the-password-for-your-iphone-backup-in-itunes/I've encountered a few cases where a client has forgotten the password for the iTunes backup they've made for their iPhone, and the password was either set u...Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplebackupiossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/zero-day-exploit-against-macos-keychain/https://automatica.com.au/blog/zero-day-exploit-against-macos-keychain/This is pretty serious - a researcher has discovered a zero-day exploit against the Keychain in macOS. As a protest against Apple not paying a bug bounty for...Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTapplemacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/beware-of-cheap-usb-to-lightning-cables/https://automatica.com.au/blog/beware-of-cheap-usb-to-lightning-cables/I needed a short USB to Lightning cable for my car stereo - there's a USB port in the centre console and I don't need a 1m cable tangling around the dashboar...Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/widespread-outage-on-office-365-30-jan-2019/https://automatica.com.au/blog/widespread-outage-on-office-365-30-jan-2019/Microsoft have widespread outage on the Office 365 login/authentication servers this morning and it's affecting multiple tenancies. The official report from...Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-releases-macos-10-14-3-and-ios-12-1-3/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-releases-macos-10-14-3-and-ios-12-1-3/Apple today pushed software updates for a range of its devices. They are all minor releases that simply offer a few bug fixes and security updates, with no n...Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsappleiosmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-office-365-price-increase-in-australia/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-office-365-price-increase-in-australia/From 1st Jan 2019, Microsoft are increasing the pricing of Office 365 subscriptions by up to 8% in order to bring them in-line with pricing in other regions....Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTnewsmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/distance-to-3rd-party-dns-resolvers-from-telstra-nbn-in-melbourne/https://automatica.com.au/blog/distance-to-3rd-party-dns-resolvers-from-telstra-nbn-in-melbourne/Further to my previous post, DNS Speed Testing on Telstra nbn in Melbourne , I've used the Traceroute command to measure how far away (or how many hops away)...Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/dns-speed-testing-on-telstra-nbn-in-melbourne/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dns-speed-testing-on-telstra-nbn-in-melbourne/I've recently seen a number of people recommending that I use various 3rd party DNS resolvers - CloudFlare, OpenDNS etc. One problem I've encountered with us...Sun, 11 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/xero-not-loading-in-safari-in-mojave/https://automatica.com.au/blog/xero-not-loading-in-safari-in-mojave/This is here just so I can remember what I did later when I need to undo it. I've got a problem where Xero is simply not loading in Safari 12 on macOS Mojave...Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-take-a-screenshot-on-your-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-take-a-screenshot-on-your-mac/This is new to me, as it's a new feature in macOS Mojave. On older systems, to capture a screenshot, you can use Shift+Cmd+4 and either select a rectangular...Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-installer-for-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-installer-for-macos/With the recent release of a new Mac operating system, macOS Mojave , it's worth digging out and rehashing the instructions to create a bootable installer. I...Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-open-directory-app/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-open-directory-app/Back in 2016 I posted some steps to repair Open Directory when the LDAP database has problems. On some servers this happens very rarely, on other servers it...Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-upcoming-office-for-mac-2019/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-upcoming-office-for-mac-2019/Microsoft will be releasing an update to Office for Mac next month. This update will change the branding from Office 2016 to Office 2019 and it will also req...Thu, 23 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTdesignmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-imac-at-20-years-old/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-imac-at-20-years-old/The iMac is getting on a bit. Old enough to vote in some areas (and almost old enough in others), it's been a staple of our computing landscape for two decad...Mon, 20 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-primary-email-address-without-changing-login-name-on-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-primary-email-address-without-changing-login-name-on-office-365/I have a client who is in the process of changing their email addresses over - from something like @examplecompany.com.au to @example.com.au. We have just mi...Sun, 12 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/what-apfs-does-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-with-apfs-tidbits/https://automatica.com.au/blog/what-apfs-does-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-with-apfs-tidbits/If you've been wondering what APFS is, and how it affects your use of your Mac, over on TidBits there's a good article by Jeff Carlson that covers the releva...Mon, 23 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/case-study-migration-to-dropbox-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/case-study-migration-to-dropbox-office-365/Introduction Established in 2005, Hamton are a forward-thinking and design-conscious developer who have set out to provide institutional investors with expos...Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTcase-studydropboxmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/solution-to-failed-firmware-updates-in-a-unifi-cloud-key/https://automatica.com.au/blog/solution-to-failed-firmware-updates-in-a-unifi-cloud-key/I've had a few UniFi Cloud Key wifi controllers with this issue - they seem to be stuck on a particular version of the firmware and can't be updated. Both ma...Mon, 18 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/rogue-amoeba-under-the-microscope-blog-archive-on-the-sad-state-of-macintosh-hardware/https://automatica.com.au/blog/rogue-amoeba-under-the-microscope-blog-archive-on-the-sad-state-of-macintosh-hardware/I could not agree more with this sentiment. There's nothing wrong with speed bumps, small and more frequent updates to the hardware rather than going for yea...Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/june-2018-wwdc-keynote/https://automatica.com.au/blog/june-2018-wwdc-keynote/Apple held their annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) overnight. This is where they generally announce all the new features in upcoming versions of...Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/daring-fireball-10-strikes-and-youre-out-the-ios-feature-youre-probably-not-using-but-should/https://automatica.com.au/blog/daring-fireball-10-strikes-and-youre-out-the-ios-feature-youre-probably-not-using-but-should/I was unaware that there was quite a safety net built into this feature. Like many other people, I haven't enabled the option to erase all data on my phone a...Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/tipbits-reveal-invisible-files-on-the-mac-with-a-keystroke-tidbits/https://automatica.com.au/blog/tipbits-reveal-invisible-files-on-the-mac-with-a-keystroke-tidbits/Here's a great tip over on TipBITS that I didn't know, but could come in handy some day. I usually have no need at all for seeing invisible files in the Find...Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-via-ssh-to-an-old-insecure-device/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connect-via-ssh-to-an-old-insecure-device/I recently needed to use ssh to connect to an old Cisco ASA5505 firewall. As it turns out, the Java interface doesn't work in any current version of Java and...Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-todesignnetworkingsshhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-apple-dethroned-intel-as-the-worlds-most-innovative-chipmaker/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-apple-dethroned-intel-as-the-worlds-most-innovative-chipmaker/There's a very interesting article over on The Motley Fool today comparing Apple and Intel in an area where people wouldn't usually think they compete - that...Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ios-11-4-brings-stereo-pairs-and-multi-room-audio-with-airplay-2-apple/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ios-11-4-brings-stereo-pairs-and-multi-room-audio-with-airplay-2-apple/Apple have released the iOS 11.4 update for iPhones and iPads. The main improvement is the addition of AirPlay 2 which allows HomePod speakers to play multi-...Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTappleaudio-videoioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/download-a-file-with-powershell-for-windows-server-core/https://automatica.com.au/blog/download-a-file-with-powershell-for-windows-server-core/If you've got a Windows Server without the Desktop Experience (which, in Windows Server 1709 is the default, and only option) then you're going to have to ge...Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-topowershellwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/archicad-munki/https://automatica.com.au/blog/archicad-munki/It's long been a source of frustration for me that CAD software usually doesn't use the OS vendor's provided installers and instead they roll their own. Vect...Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTjamfhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-service-with-pid-4-listening-on-tcp-port-443/https://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-service-with-pid-4-listening-on-tcp-port-443/I had an issue where I couldn't start a web server on a Windows Server as something was already listening on TCP Port 443. netstat -a -b just showed me that...Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTnetworkingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-ad-replication-error-2146893022-the-target-principal-name-is-incorrect/https://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-ad-replication-error-2146893022-the-target-principal-name-is-incorrect/I'm too tired to write up more background information on this, suffice to say I spent quite literally hours searching for this and I want to be able to easil...Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingsecurityactive-directoryhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-10-remove-active-directory-users/https://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-10-remove-active-directory-users/We've been using cloud-based Active Directory through Office 365 for our Windows-based clients. It simplifies adding user accounts to Windows workstations be...Mon, 02 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTmicrosoft-365windowsactive-directoryhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/force-exchange-online-archiving-to-start-archiving-email-on-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/force-exchange-online-archiving-to-start-archiving-email-on-office-365/When you enable Exchange Online Archiving for a user on Office 365, it can take 24 hours or more for the Managed Folder Assistant to start it's first run and...Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTemailexchange-onlinemicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-did-manufacturers-manage-to-make-space-storage-ssd-hdd-so-dense-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-did-manufacturers-manage-to-make-space-storage-ssd-hdd-so-dense-quora/By continually refining methods and technology, by constantly evolving and pushing and exploring new areas of technology. One of the earlier breakthroughs wa...Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTculturestoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/really-good-advice-on-passwords-from-microsoft/https://automatica.com.au/blog/really-good-advice-on-passwords-from-microsoft/Microsoft have published a white paper - Microsoft Password Guidance that contains some very good advice on what passwords need to be to be secure against mo...Wed, 07 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTopinionsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-image-a-new-windows-10-machine-with-clonezilla-ntfs-partition-shows-as-raw/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-image-a-new-windows-10-machine-with-clonezilla-ntfs-partition-shows-as-raw/I had an issue today with trying to create an image of a brand-new Windows 10 laptop (HP EliteBook x360 in case you were wondering). When running Clonezilla,...Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingbackupdesignstoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-invite-people-events-macos-calendar-app-via-kerio-connect/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-invite-people-events-macos-calendar-app-via-kerio-connect/I've got a client with Kerio Connect as their mail/contacts/calendars server. They were seeing an issue on some workstations where when the user created a ca...Wed, 28 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailkeriomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/get-powershell-remoting-working-macos-without-installing-homebrew/https://automatica.com.au/blog/get-powershell-remoting-working-macos-without-installing-homebrew/The PowerShell Team at Microsoft have put in a lot of work to port PowerShell to other (non-Windows) systems. As part of their porting efforts, they've also...Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacospowershellwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/stop-apache-web-services-macos-server-app/https://automatica.com.au/blog/stop-apache-web-services-macos-server-app/In recent versions of macOS with the Server.app, the Server software has been more and more persistent about having Apache running. Even if you're not using...Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosmacos-serverwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/is-there-a-way-i-can-tell-what-year-a-macbook-was-manufactured-without-asking-someone-at-apple-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/is-there-a-way-i-can-tell-what-year-a-macbook-was-manufactured-without-asking-someone-at-apple-quora/The only way to be sure is to look up the serial number against a 3rd party service. You can check in the Apple Menu > About this Mac, however the model name...Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMTappleculturemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/which-hard-drive-format-should-be-used-if-im-using-both-a-macintosh-and-a-windows-machine-and-i-am-working-with-large-files-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/which-hard-drive-format-should-be-used-if-im-using-both-a-macintosh-and-a-windows-machine-and-i-am-working-with-large-files-quora/If you want to do it without purchasing any additional software, format the disk as exFAT format. Windows and macOS can natively read and write ExFAT disks a...Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMTappleculturemacosstoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/split-large-ical-ics-file-years/https://automatica.com.au/blog/split-large-ical-ics-file-years/I've recently been dealing with a really large .ics file (10.5 MB of data, 17,364 events spanning 10 years) and it seems to be able to choke just about anyth...Sun, 28 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and-passwords-from-your-site-heres-how/https://automatica.com.au/blog/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and-passwords-from-your-site-heres-how/The following is a true story. Or maybe it’s just based on a true story. Perhaps it’s not true at all. https://hackernoon.com/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbe...Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMTsecuritywebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/meltdown-spectre-exploits-work-laymans-terms/https://automatica.com.au/blog/meltdown-spectre-exploits-work-laymans-terms/Thanks to Joe Fitz (Twitter: @securelyfitz ) who has written a relatively easy to understand overview about how the recent #meltdown and #spectre bugs work i...Sun, 07 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMTsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-did-the-apple-laserwriter-become-the-first-printer-to-ship-with-postscript-on-1985-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-did-the-apple-laserwriter-become-the-first-printer-to-ship-with-postscript-on-1985-quora/Because Apple believed in making the best desktop printer with available technology at the time and cost was a secondary consideration. The Apple LaserWriter...Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTapplecultureprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/new-imac-pro/https://automatica.com.au/blog/new-imac-pro/The new iMac Pro is getting closer. As well as announcing the availability date (15 December), Apple have seeded some review units to prominent individuals a...Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/precursor-systems-filesharing-assistant-macos-high-sierra-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/precursor-systems-filesharing-assistant-macos-high-sierra-server/In Apple's continued drive to simplify macOS Server, in High Sierra they have completely removed the File Sharing section from the Server.app and force you t...Mon, 11 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmacos-serverstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/check-apple-caching-service-availability-asset-cache-locator-util/https://automatica.com.au/blog/check-apple-caching-service-availability-asset-cache-locator-util/I've just discovered a handy command for macOS that will show you Apple Caching Service servers that are available to your Mac. It lives in: /usr/bin/AssetCa...Sun, 03 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-recommend-use-bash-profile-bashrc-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/macos-recommend-use-bash-profile-bashrc-quora/I think that .bashrc, is only used for interactive shells (i.e. when you open Terminal) and the other one is for all shell executions (e.g. background proces...Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTculturemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/questions-answers-quora/https://automatica.com.au/blog/questions-answers-quora/I've been moderately active on Quora for a while now. Quora is a site where people can ask questions and others can answer them. The blurb about the site say...Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/deep-dive-apples-recent-high-sierra-root-authentication-issue/https://automatica.com.au/blog/deep-dive-apples-recent-high-sierra-root-authentication-issue/Over on the highly-technical, and very informative, Objective-See blog, there is a great in-depth writeup on Apple's recent High Sierra root access bug . Why...Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/youre-running-macos-high-sierra-make-sure-update-installed-now/https://automatica.com.au/blog/youre-running-macos-high-sierra-make-sure-update-installed-now/If you're running macOS High Sierra 10.13.1, run, don't walk, to the App Store and install Apple Security Update 2017-001 right now. If you want to download...Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/download-older-versions-of-macos-server-app-from-the-apple-app-store/https://automatica.com.au/blog/download-older-versions-of-macos-server-app-from-the-apple-app-store/I recently set up a new Mac mini server for a client. macOS High Sierra was released 3 days ago, however the server shipped with macOS Sierra and I thought i...Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/create-windows-installation-media-to-boot-via-usb-in-uefi-mode/https://automatica.com.au/blog/create-windows-installation-media-to-boot-via-usb-in-uefi-mode/I'm setting up a HP Server and didn't configure it with an optical drive. No problem, I thought, just boot it off a USB. Easy. Not so much... This was consid...Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-tostoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/configuring-macos-server-app-v5-to-bind-to-a-particular-ip-address/https://automatica.com.au/blog/configuring-macos-server-app-v5-to-bind-to-a-particular-ip-address/It's long been a painful thing for me that macOS Server.app not only binds to all IP addresses on a system, but takes port 80 and 443, even if all web-relate...Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/install-filemaker-server-16-on-a-mac-with-macos-server-app-v5/https://automatica.com.au/blog/install-filemaker-server-16-on-a-mac-with-macos-server-app-v5/The installer for FileMaker Server 16 refuses to install on a Mac if Apache is running. It doesn't check what ports Apache has grabbed, just the fact that Ap...Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-retina-hidpi-modes-for-a-mac-mini-plugged-into-a-4k-hdtv/https://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-retina-hidpi-modes-for-a-mac-mini-plugged-into-a-4k-hdtv/This one is pretty short and simple once you get down to it. I recently set up a client's boardroom with a really sweet 75" Sony 4K Android TV , a Logitech G...Mon, 17 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleaudio-videomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/keyword-searches-for-email-discovery-in-kerio-connect-mailserver/https://automatica.com.au/blog/keyword-searches-for-email-discovery-in-kerio-connect-mailserver/I recently had a client with a huge amount of email stored in Kerio Connect and they needed to perform discovery against some mailboxes with a lot of email i...Wed, 12 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTemailkeriohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/firefox-for-mac-gets-stuck-on-installing-your-updates/https://automatica.com.au/blog/firefox-for-mac-gets-stuck-on-installing-your-updates/Firefox for Mac can get stuck in an update loop if you have been using an older version and it's downloaded a new version to install, but before it gets to i...Sun, 09 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-access-permissions-on-resource-calendars-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-access-permissions-on-resource-calendars-in-office-365/I've set up another client on Office 365 recently and they have a couple of resource calendars - one for the Boardroom and one for the Meeting Room. What the...Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-tomicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/apples-new-macbook-pro-cheaper-in-australia-than-the-usa/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apples-new-macbook-pro-cheaper-in-australia-than-the-usa/We've hit an unusual point with pricing on Apple's latest equipment that was announced at WWDC on 5th June (6th June Australian time). Looking at the price o...Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/disk-arbitrator-mount-disks-read-only-on-macos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/disk-arbitrator-mount-disks-read-only-on-macos/Disk Arbitrator is a Mac OS X forensic utility designed to help the user ensure correct forensic procedures are followed during imaging of a disk device. Dis...Tue, 06 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/possible-fix-for-no-video-in-skype-for-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/possible-fix-for-no-video-in-skype-for-mac/I don't use Skype very often, but when I went to use it recently, it couldn't see my FaceTime HD camera. I'd go into Skype > Preferences and in Audio/Video a...Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingaudio-videomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-fix-for-apple-remote-desktop-3-9-and-asking-for-keychain-password/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-fix-for-apple-remote-desktop-3-9-and-asking-for-keychain-password/After upgrading the Apple Remote Desktop client on a number of machines, and using the new 3.9 version of the Remote Desktop app, some machines have started...Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/error-with-the-user-profile-service-failing-the-logon-on-windows-7/https://automatica.com.au/blog/error-with-the-user-profile-service-failing-the-logon-on-windows-7/I recently had an issue where a domain-joined machine with Windows 7 was unable to have new users log in. Anyone who had an existing account on the machine c...Tue, 21 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cumulus-field-formulas/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cumulus-field-formulas/This is pretty obscure stuff - I'm putting it here so I can refer to it later down the track when I've completely forgotten what I did. In Canto Cumulus, you...Mon, 13 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-todesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-l2tp-vpn-server-on-ubiquity-edgerouter-lite/https://automatica.com.au/blog/configure-l2tp-vpn-server-on-ubiquity-edgerouter-lite/As Apple have removed PPTP VPN support from macOS Sierra (10.12 and iOS 10) I'm changing clients over to L2TP over IPSec VPNs instead. Once the VPN server is...Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleiosmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/get-system-specs-on-an-hp-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/get-system-specs-on-an-hp-server/Correct me if I'm wrong, but Windows doesn't really have anything quite like the System Information app on macOS. If you've got an HP server however, you can...Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/find-and-delete-duplicate-files/https://automatica.com.au/blog/find-and-delete-duplicate-files/I've had issues in the past where a Kerio Connect mail server talking to Apple Mail can somehow end up duplicating hundreds or even thousands of emails in ma...Sat, 03 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleemailkeriohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/easily-create-and-install-launch-daemons-on-macos-or-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/easily-create-and-install-launch-daemons-on-macos-or-os-x/I recently needed to have a script execute on a daily basis - previously this would have been a task for cron however it's been deprecated (yet still all the...Mon, 28 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTnewsmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/find-large-items-in-office-365-mailboxes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/find-large-items-in-office-365-mailboxes/$UserCredential = Get-Credential $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-livei...Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365outlookpowershellhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/recursively-propagate-permissions-on-a-synology-nas-with-synoacltool/https://automatica.com.au/blog/recursively-propagate-permissions-on-a-synology-nas-with-synoacltool/Synology DSM lets you do some pretty complex things with permissions on files and folders, however occasionally things can get a bit mixed up and it's diffic...Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTsynologyhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/higher-quality-options-to-reduce-pdf-file-size-in-preview-app-on-macos-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/higher-quality-options-to-reduce-pdf-file-size-in-preview-app-on-macos-os-x/Apple's built-in Preview app has long had a way that you can reduce the size of a PDF by recompressing and downsampling the images in the PDF. Simply open a...Sun, 23 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/disable-azure-ad-users-from-having-to-set-up-a-pin-on-windows-10/https://automatica.com.au/blog/disable-azure-ad-users-from-having-to-set-up-a-pin-on-windows-10/This information is condensed from Håvard Siegel Haukeberg's blog over at https://haukeberg.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/disable-pin-code-when-joining-azure-ad/...Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTentra-idmicrosoft-365windowswordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/give-an-azure-ad-user-local-administrator-user-privileges-on-windows-10/https://automatica.com.au/blog/give-an-azure-ad-user-local-administrator-user-privileges-on-windows-10/When you join a Windows 10 machine to Azure AD, the user account you use to join to the domain is automatically given local administrator permissions to the...Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTentra-idmicrosoft-365windowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-file-timestamps-with-dates-in-the-future-on-os-x-or-unixlinux/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-file-timestamps-with-dates-in-the-future-on-os-x-or-unixlinux/I recently needed to fix a heap of files with invalid timestamps for a client to sync between two sites. The issue was that some files had modification dates...Wed, 12 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootinglinuxmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-authenticating-windows-10-to-os-xmacos-with-server-app/https://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-authenticating-windows-10-to-os-xmacos-with-server-app/Ever since Apple were forced to ditch Samba due to their changing the licensing to GPL3, we've been stuck with a second-rate SMB implementation on OS X and S...Thu, 06 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacosmacos-servernetworkingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-bidsketch-easily-and-quickly-send-out-proposals-to-clients/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-bidsketch-easily-and-quickly-send-out-proposals-to-clients/I've been trialling Bidsketch as a more efficient way to get written proposals to my clients. I don't write a huge number of proposals, and am prone to reinv...Sun, 02 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-fetch-a-web-page-as-googlebot/https://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-fetch-a-web-page-as-googlebot/I've had a couple of clients come to me recently after their WordPress site was pwned. Sometimes you're able to use a tool like Wordfence to clean it up and...Sun, 02 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTwebwordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/reverse-ssh-to-a-server-behind-a-firewall/https://automatica.com.au/blog/reverse-ssh-to-a-server-behind-a-firewall/I recently needed to establish an ad-hoc ssh connection to a server behind a firewall. I didn't control the firewall and couldn't get a port mapped through i...Thu, 22 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkingsshhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-smb-permissions-on-os-x-server-for-newly-created-files-and-folders/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-smb-permissions-on-os-x-server-for-newly-created-files-and-folders/I don't know why it is, but SMB on OS X Server is slower and less reliable than the AFP that it replaces. Despite Apple making it the default for OS X to OS...Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingapplemacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-os-x-server-to-deny-smb-3-connections/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-os-x-server-to-deny-smb-3-connections/Sometimes an OS X Server will have very poor SMB file sharing performance - whilst I haven't been able to ascertain with 100% certainty what causes it, somet...Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mount-a-windows-partition-of-an-optical-disc-on-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mount-a-windows-partition-of-an-optical-disc-on-os-x/Today I needed to install some software on a Windows server - the software only came on an optical disc and the Windows server didn't have an optical drive....Mon, 05 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosstoragewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/change-a-open-directory-groups-generateduid-or-uuid/https://automatica.com.au/blog/change-a-open-directory-groups-generateduid-or-uuid/I occasionally see OS X Server's Open Directory flip out, sometimes a simple repair of the LDAP databases seems to fix it, sometimes you need to go deeper. I...Sun, 24 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/android-adb-on-mac-os-x-recognising-google-pixel-c/https://automatica.com.au/blog/android-adb-on-mac-os-x-recognising-google-pixel-c/I've had a bit of trouble getting a Google Pixel C to be recognised on my Mac - wasn't able to get it showing up in System Profiler and wasn't able to see it...Wed, 04 May 2016 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-sennheiser-orpheus-experience-or-the-day-i-went-to-a-holistic-health-clinic-to-listen-to-the-best-headphones-in-the-world/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-sennheiser-orpheus-experience-or-the-day-i-went-to-a-holistic-health-clinic-to-listen-to-the-best-headphones-in-the-world/Hurt. One song. Two definitive versions. Reznor's is painful, vivid, fresh and raw. Cash's is tempered by looking back from the vantage of time. https://soun...Sat, 06 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-microsoft-outlook-2016-as-default-mail-client-on-os-x-10-11-el-capitan/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-microsoft-outlook-2016-as-default-mail-client-on-os-x-10-11-el-capitan/I've had a few issues trying to change the default mail client on El Cap. In nearly every case, after changing it in Mail (seemingly the only place you can a...Thu, 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmacosmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-open-directory/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-a-broken-open-directory/Edit: November 2021 People seem to still be hitting this story, and by and large these steps usually work. If you are still relying on macOS Server however,...Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/re-running-a-unix-command-until-it-completes-successfully-e-g-imapsync/https://automatica.com.au/blog/re-running-a-unix-command-until-it-completes-successfully-e-g-imapsync/I'm doing an email migration for a client from an old 2008 SBS Server into Office 365. For some reason, there were two mailboxes that just wouldn't migrate u...Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMTemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/sonos-and-spotify/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sonos-and-spotify/I make no secret of it, I love Sonos gear and am thoroughly addicted to it. It started out quite innocently with just a single PLAY:1 that was soon joined by...Tue, 06 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-and-system-integrity-protection-sip/https://automatica.com.au/blog/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-and-system-integrity-protection-sip/This is shamelessly cut and pasted from TwoCanoes : System Integrity Protection (SIP) Apple has implemented a new security feature in OS X 10.11, System Inte...Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-overboard-waterproof-ebook-reader-kindle-case/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-overboard-waterproof-ebook-reader-kindle-case/This is a pretty simple case, it does one thing and it does that one thing quite well. Unlike just about all other kindle accessories , the Overboard Waterpr...Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-tcp-offloading-on-ubiquity-edgerouter-lite/https://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-tcp-offloading-on-ubiquity-edgerouter-lite/By default, TCP offload isn't enabled on the EdgeRouter Lite for PPPoE connections. Type in the following to enable it: ssh router.example.com configure set...Mon, 21 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMThow-tonetworkingsshhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-ntp-on-os-x-with-no-external-network-access/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-ntp-on-os-x-with-no-external-network-access/NTP is built into all recent versions of OS X and OS X Server (and OS X with Server.app) If you're running a server, the other clients on the network can rec...Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacosmacos-servernetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-spam-filtering-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bypass-spam-filtering-in-office-365/This one is quick and easy - how do you whitelist a domain to bypass spam filtering in Office 365? Log into the admin console at https://portal.office.com Go...Mon, 29 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmicrosoft-365https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-password-expiry-in-office-365/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-password-expiry-in-office-365/This one is quick and easy, but I always forget where it is. To configure thepassword expiration policy, in the Office 365 admin centre, go to Service Settin...Mon, 29 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMThow-tomicrosoft-365securityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/getting-a-fluke-cableiq-to-work-in-vmware-fusion-on-mac-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/getting-a-fluke-cableiq-to-work-in-vmware-fusion-on-mac-os-x/I just got a new Fluke CableIQ qualification tester and, of course, the software and all supporting materials are Windows only. I'm currently running Windows...Sun, 21 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTmacosvmwarewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-encase-folding-stand-case/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-encase-folding-stand-case/I'll keep this short and sweet - the Encase Folding Stand Case is a very nice case for an iPad . It's thin and lightweight and more versatile than Apple's Sm...Thu, 11 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-otter-box-symmetry-case-for-iphone-55s/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-otter-box-symmetry-case-for-iphone-55s/My mates over at Mobile Zap have sent me a new case for my phone - the Otter Box Symmetry case for iPhone 5/5s. I'm normally a nude-device type person, howev...Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/move-files-by-date-range-particularly-useful-for-filing-large-amounts-of-email/https://automatica.com.au/blog/move-files-by-date-range-particularly-useful-for-filing-large-amounts-of-email/I wanted to clean up my Sent Items folder in my email - I don't have time to go through and manually sort them, nor do I have time to delete some and keep ot...Sun, 21 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/filemaker-server-13-conflicts-with-web-services-ports/https://automatica.com.au/blog/filemaker-server-13-conflicts-with-web-services-ports/FileMaker Server 13 is a bit of a pain to install - it absolutely insists with no option to change it that it MUST listen to ports 80 and 443 on whatever it'...Fri, 19 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-enable-2-factor-authentication-on-your-icloud-account/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-enable-2-factor-authentication-on-your-icloud-account/Apple now have enabled 2 factor verification for iCloud - 2 factor means you need two things, such as a password and a code sent to your phone, to access you...Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplesecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-sysprep-a-windows-machine-more-than-3-times/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-sysprep-a-windows-machine-more-than-3-times/It seems my Windows-fu is lacking a bit in my sysprep knowledge. As it turns out, you can't sysprep a Windows machine more than three times. Unfortunately yo...Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-icalcalendar-app-issues-on-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/troubleshooting-icalcalendar-app-issues-on-os-x/Taken from https://github.com/trevor/calendarserver/blob/master/doc/Client-Server/calendar-client.rst and put here so I can find it later... Additional debug...Tue, 20 May 2014 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-installing-windows-8-on-a-new-retina-macbook-pro/https://automatica.com.au/blog/issues-installing-windows-8-on-a-new-retina-macbook-pro/I've spent too long this morning trying to install Windows 8 on a new Retina MacBook Pro. The first error I received was that "Windows can't be installed in...Sun, 18 May 2014 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacoswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-otterbox-ipad-defender-case/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-otterbox-ipad-defender-case/I have something to confess. This is the first Otterbox I've owned. I've long known about their cases for mobile devices and have always meant to check them...Tue, 13 May 2014 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleiossecuritywindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-with-downloading-apps-from-the-app-store/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-issues-with-downloading-apps-from-the-app-store/You'll occasionally get errors downloading apps or updates from the App Store that are rather vague and difficult to fix. Errors like Xcode failed to downloa...Mon, 12 May 2014 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-hiberfil-sys-on-windows-7/https://automatica.com.au/blog/delete-hiberfil-sys-on-windows-7/Quick tip to allow you to delete hiberfil.sys on a Windows system. Run CMD as Administrator and enter power cfg /hibernate off If this doesn't automatically...Sun, 11 May 2014 00:00:00 GMTwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-beamer-2-0/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-beamer-2-0/Beamer 2.0 is the long-awaited follow-up to an excellent video streaming app that I've been using for years. The first version of Beamer was a pretty simple...Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMTreviewaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-qi-wireless-charger/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-qi-wireless-charger/OK, let me say this up front - people we are living in the future. This is it, wireless power. What I have here in front of me is simply magic. It's an iPhon...Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-an-nfs-mount-and-connect-to-it-on-centosrhel-linux/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-an-nfs-mount-and-connect-to-it-on-centosrhel-linux/NFS mounts have two parts. The first part is the server that hosts the share point. The second part is the client that access the share point. You can have o...Sun, 06 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMThow-tolinuxnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/get-some-of-my-new-how-to-guides/https://automatica.com.au/blog/get-some-of-my-new-how-to-guides/I've started putting up some how-to guides that I can direct people to so I don't have to answer the same questions time and time again. Here they are: Autom...Sun, 09 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-logitech-casedrive/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-logitech-casedrive/Could this be it? The perfect car kit for the iPhone, or any device for that matter? The basic premise of the Logitech case+ range is simple. There's a case...Sun, 09 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleiosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-clingo-universal-in-car-holder/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-clingo-universal-in-car-holder/I'm on the hunt for the perfect car mount for my iPhone. Shouldn't be too difficult, no? Well, as it turns out, it's harder than it looks to find something t...Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-magnetic-battery-case-for-iphone-55s/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-magnetic-battery-case-for-iphone-55s/I was recently given this Magnetic Battery Case for an iPhone 5S to review and whilst it's generally a well made case that does exactly what it says, there a...Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMTreviewappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hide-recovery-hd-after-cloning-an-os-x-installation/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hide-recovery-hd-after-cloning-an-os-x-installation/Sometimes when you clone an OS X installation, for example using Carbon Copy Cloner , it will create a Recovery HD partition but not hide it for you. The "hi...Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMTbackupmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/reset-os-x-mountain-lion-web-server-settings/https://automatica.com.au/blog/reset-os-x-mountain-lion-web-server-settings/I've been doing a fair amount of non-standard tweaking to Mountain Lion's web services. It's not difficult to completely break the web server, and initially...Mon, 16 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMTmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/data-corruption-on-promise-pegasus-r4-thunderbolt-raid/https://automatica.com.au/blog/data-corruption-on-promise-pegasus-r4-thunderbolt-raid/I recently set up a Mac mini Server with a Promise Pegasus R4 RAID. I reinitialised the array a RAID6. I left the stripe size at the default of 128k, and cha...Thu, 27 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/recaptcha/https://automatica.com.au/blog/recaptcha/Sorry to anyone who's inconvenienced by the addition of reCAPTCHA to the comments, but even with Akismet I'm still getting an unacceptable amount of comment...Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMTsecuritywebwordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ssl-certs-on-sale-at-godaddy/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ssl-certs-on-sale-at-godaddy/Yes, if there's one thing that GoDaddy are good at, it's pimping their wares. Occasionally though their sales are useful. Like this one - if you're running y...Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMTwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-audioengine-d1-dac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-audioengine-d1-dac/First Impressions Audioengine D1 DAC. It's a pretty simple and minimal DAC with good sound quality. Product Details It's got a USB input on the rear, which a...Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/get-rid-of-items-stuck-in-the-outbox-of-outlook-2011/https://automatica.com.au/blog/get-rid-of-items-stuck-in-the-outbox-of-outlook-2011/Outlook 2011 for Mac has an annoying habit of getting items stuck in it's outbox and often it's not clear (or even possible) to see where these items are to...Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacosmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/thx-tune-up/https://automatica.com.au/blog/thx-tune-up/If you want to get the most out of your flatscreen TV, then it needs to be adjusted from the terrible default settings it probably ships with. Most TVs will...Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/color-scheme-designer-3-a-non-flash-alternative-to-kuler/https://automatica.com.au/blog/color-scheme-designer-3-a-non-flash-alternative-to-kuler/If you're looking to use tools to generate colour palettes for any purpose, and like kuler but don't like flash, then head on over and check out Color Scheme...Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMTdesignstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fixing-youtube-videos-in-safari-that-say-they-need-flash/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fixing-youtube-videos-in-safari-that-say-they-need-flash/YouTube have been rolling out html5 video playback for a few years now, and by this stage all of their newly uploaded videos are in H.264 . This allows them...Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturemacosstoragewebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/remove-duplicate-open-with-menu-items-in-the-os-x-finder/https://automatica.com.au/blog/remove-duplicate-open-with-menu-items-in-the-os-x-finder/The Finder in OS X often gets confused as to what's supposed to be in the "Open With" context menu, particularly if you mount and unmount other volumes that...Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/vote-for-my-idea-on-quirky-patchlight-the-light-up-network-patch-lead/https://automatica.com.au/blog/vote-for-my-idea-on-quirky-patchlight-the-light-up-network-patch-lead/Well, the title pretty much says it all - head over to Quirky and vote for my fantastic idea ! Quirky is a site where you can submit ideas, they get voted on...Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/grab-the-latest-version-of-safari-from-apple/https://automatica.com.au/blog/grab-the-latest-version-of-safari-from-apple/Over on the Apple Discussions , there's a quick hint to find and download the latest version of Safari. It seems that Apple are no longer offering standalone...Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-pkgbuild-tutorial-for-mountain-lion-installer-packages/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-pkgbuild-tutorial-for-mountain-lion-installer-packages/If you've not used pkgbuild before, it can be a bit daunting to go from the (admittedly rather confusing) GUI-based Package Maker to the command-line tool pk...Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/binding-dovecot-and-exim-to-a-specific-ip-on-whmcpanel/https://automatica.com.au/blog/binding-dovecot-and-exim-to-a-specific-ip-on-whmcpanel/If you've got a WHM/cPanel server, and you want to run an alternative mail server on one IP address and have Dovecot and Exim bound to another IP, it's not a...Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMTemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/an-infinite-maz/https://automatica.com.au/blog/an-infinite-maz/From a recent discussion at Slashdot perl -ne '{binmode STDOUT,"utf8";print chr(9585.5+rand);redo}'Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMTprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/itunes-11/https://automatica.com.au/blog/itunes-11/iTunes 11 arrived overnight, hitting Apple's promised November '12 deadline (in the USA at least) and they've finally fixed one of the long-standing interfac...Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fixing-windows-file-sharing-smb-permissions-on-os-x-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fixing-windows-file-sharing-smb-permissions-on-os-x-server/With Apple hiding a lot of the more useful and fine-grained controls over the services on OS X Server, the SMB Service is one area that has suffered. There i...Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosnetworkingwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-audioengine-a2-desktop-speakers/https://automatica.com.au/blog/product-review-audioengine-a2-desktop-speakers/I've had a pair of Audioengine A2 self-powered desktop speakers for a bit over a year now and they still continue to impress. Easily the best desktop speaker...Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/setting-internationalisation-preferences-for-os-x-in-a-script/https://automatica.com.au/blog/setting-internationalisation-preferences-for-os-x-in-a-script/One thing that is a lot harder than it needs to be is managing the internationalisation preferences in OS X from a script, via MCX or via a configuration pro...Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/revisiting-converting-videos-for-apple-tv/https://automatica.com.au/blog/revisiting-converting-videos-for-apple-tv/Further to my earlier post on converting videos to MP4 for Apple TV and easy playback from iTunes , I've recently been using another app for adding metadata,...Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-connect-and-kerberos-authentication-against-a-10-710-8-opendirectory-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-connect-and-kerberos-authentication-against-a-10-710-8-opendirectory-server/To cut a long story short, if you're trying to get Kerio Connect to authenticate against an OD server running on 10.7 or 10.8 (Lion or Mountain Lion) that's...Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMTkeriomacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-connect-to-smb-shares-on-mountain-lion-server-after-a-reboot/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-connect-to-smb-shares-on-mountain-lion-server-after-a-reboot/It seems that when starting up the SMB service on OS X Mountain Lion Server, there is a race condition and some of the prerequisites may not get started up i...Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacosmacos-servernetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/flying-with-a-jetpack/https://automatica.com.au/blog/flying-with-a-jetpack/I've just installed Jetpack by WordPress.com into this site, the main improvement you'll probably notice is that commenting is easier - you can now comment u...Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMTwordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ads-removed/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ads-removed/Seeing as I've made a grand total of about $7.55 running Google's ads on my site, and seeing as they're pretty ugly, I'm getting rid of them as of now.Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/dealing-with-the-hell-that-is-running-windows-update-on-a-freshly-installed-machine/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dealing-with-the-hell-that-is-running-windows-update-on-a-freshly-installed-machine/OK, it's no secret, I hate Windows Update. I think it's absolutely unbelievable how many updates it needs to run, and how many times it needs to reboot, befo...Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMTwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/convert-videos-for-watching-on-apple-tvitunes/https://automatica.com.au/blog/convert-videos-for-watching-on-apple-tvitunes/I've been converting videos in order to watch on the Apple TV. There are numerous advantages to having a movie collection in iTunes, some of which are the va...Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThow-toappleculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/watch-how-this-time-expanding-car-commercial-was-painstakingly-stitched-together/https://automatica.com.au/blog/watch-how-this-time-expanding-car-commercial-was-painstakingly-stitched-together/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader It turns out Phantom cameras are useful for more than just destroying household items and blowing stuff up. Thi...Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adding-incoming-and-outgoing-access-rules-on-a-cisco-asa/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adding-incoming-and-outgoing-access-rules-on-a-cisco-asa/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader To understand incoming and outgoing rules there are a couple of things to know before you can define your rules...Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/configuring-a-cisco-asa-5505-with-the-basics/https://automatica.com.au/blog/configuring-a-cisco-asa-5505-with-the-basics/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader The Cisco ASA 5505 is great for small to medium businesses. Below are the steps you will have to complete to co...Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-create-and-update-a-lion-recovery-partition/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-create-and-update-a-lion-recovery-partition/Good article on Mac OS X hints today with a shell script to create or update the Lion Recovery Partition http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120316...Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMThow-tobackupmacosstoragewebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/problems-with-installingusing-imapsync-on-mac-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/problems-with-installingusing-imapsync-on-mac-os-x/I have done a number of mail server migrations and imapsync has come through with shining colours for me in the past. I'm moving a client's email up to Telst...Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/10-7-a-look-at-etcauthorization-usage/https://automatica.com.au/blog/10-7-a-look-at-etcauthorization-usage/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader The /etc/authorization file in Mac OS X can be used to control access to the various panes of the System Prefer...Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hps-user-serviceable-all-in-one-workstation/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hps-user-serviceable-all-in-one-workstation/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader The 27" monitor opens to expose user-serviceable components designed for no-tools swapping. The Z1 isn’t even s...Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMTnewshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-for-mac-os-x-zevo/https://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-for-mac-os-x-zevo/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader As drives become huge , the risk of data corruption becomes an ever increasing concern. Corruption can be subtl...Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMTmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-give-a-mac-os-x-machine-a-new-kerberos-identity/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-give-a-mac-os-x-machine-a-new-kerberos-identity/If you're doing a quick-n-dirty deployment of a few Macs, and instead of building a real SOE, you just build one machine and image it to the others, you can...Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-for-january-15-2012/https://automatica.com.au/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-for-january-15-2012/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader from Calvin and Hobbes (Unofficial) http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/ http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandho...Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fever-dream-of-a-guilt-ridden-gadget-reporter/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fever-dream-of-a-guilt-ridden-gadget-reporter/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Mat Honan reports from CES. ? from Daring Fireball http://daringfireball.net/ http://gizmodo.com/5875243/Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fotoshop-by-adobe/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fotoshop-by-adobe/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Fauxtanical hydro-jargon microbead extraction for the win!! Behind the scenes: [Via Jim Geduldick & Serge Jespe...Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTadobeculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-builds-a-3d-hologram-that-you-can-touch-video/https://automatica.com.au/blog/microsoft-builds-a-3d-hologram-that-you-can-touch-video/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Once they've constructed an entire holodeck , perhaps the point will be moot, but Microsoft Research is present...Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/you-do-not-need-to-manually-manage-ios-multitasking/https://automatica.com.au/blog/you-do-not-need-to-manually-manage-ios-multitasking/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Fraser Speirs, “ Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking ”: There is one iOS “tip” that I keep hearing and it is...Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-fascinating-quantum-theory-of-pixels/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-fascinating-quantum-theory-of-pixels/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Did you think that quantum physics is complicated? Try the quantum theory of pixels , as explained by 8-bit Pro...Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/wp-ecommerce-downloads-and-bypassing-the-checkout-process/https://automatica.com.au/blog/wp-ecommerce-downloads-and-bypassing-the-checkout-process/I'm doing a site for a client using WP e-Commerce and they are using it as a catalogue site, not a e-commerce site. One thing they wanted to be able to do wa...Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-towebwordpresshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-use-photoshop-to-make-your-loved-ones-look-pretty/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-use-photoshop-to-make-your-loved-ones-look-pretty/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader This is a very simple, quick method to make everyone have beautiful skin in these holidays family photos. I’ve...Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-toadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/10-7-move-an-ard-3-x-installationinstall-ard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/10-7-move-an-ard-3-x-installationinstall-ard/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Aside from the fact that the current Apple Remote Desktop Installer requires 10.6 and doesn't want to run in 10...Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-users-can-now-install-leopard-snow-leopard-in-vms/https://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-users-can-now-install-leopard-snow-leopard-in-vms/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader When Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was first released to the public, it became the first client version of Mac OS X that...Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacosvmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-now-virtualizes-standard-builds-of-mac-os-x-10-5-leopard-and-10-6-snow-leopard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-now-virtualizes-standard-builds-of-mac-os-x-10-5-leopard-and-10-6-snow-leopard/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader VMware released the latest dot update to its flagship Mac virtualization product today. The free update, Fusion...Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacosvmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/old-skool-golf-defies-laws-of-physics/https://automatica.com.au/blog/old-skool-golf-defies-laws-of-physics/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader This just about the most awesome DIY drag car we’ve seen. Clearly, being an old skool Volkswagen Golf, it gets...Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-access-server-via-server-app-or-server-admin-on-lion-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cant-access-server-via-server-app-or-server-admin-on-lion-server/I was setting up a Lion Mac mini Server for a client and after changing the local administrator's password, I was unable to access any of the services via ei...Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacosmacos-serversecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/decades-old-calvin-and-hobbes-strip-succinctly-explains-occupy-wall-street-movement/https://automatica.com.au/blog/decades-old-calvin-and-hobbes-strip-succinctly-explains-occupy-wall-street-movement/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Remarkably apt. ? from Daring Fireball http://daringfireball.net/ http://slyoyster.hypervocal.com/cheap-thrills...Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-demos-photo-unblurring-at-max-2011/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-demos-photo-unblurring-at-max-2011/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader karthikmns writes with word of an amazing demo presented last week at Adobe's annual MAX convention. You'll hav...Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mtv-releases-the-insane-liquid-television-archives-to-the-masses-liquid-television/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mtv-releases-the-insane-liquid-television-archives-to-the-masses-liquid-television/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Liquid Television archives to the masses" href="http://io9.com/5848426/mtv-releases-the-insane-liquid-televisio...Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTnewsculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-definitive-graph-of-all-of-primers-intersecting-timelines-chart-porn/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-definitive-graph-of-all-of-primers-intersecting-timelines-chart-porn/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Primer 's Intersecting Timelines" href="http://io9.com/5847205/the-definitive-graph-of-all-of-primers-intersect...Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-boot-your-mac-in-64-bit-mode/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-boot-your-mac-in-64-bit-mode/I've been tuning Photoshop performance on some decently specced Mac Pro workstations. They're older machines than the current model and by default don't boot...Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTadobeapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/daily-mac-app-clean/https://automatica.com.au/blog/daily-mac-app-clean/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Let's face it, cleaning your desktop can be a right chore. Clean makes it easy by automating the process for th...Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/free-generator-of-barcode-tape-labels-for-ultrium-lto-backup-libraries/https://automatica.com.au/blog/free-generator-of-barcode-tape-labels-for-ultrium-lto-backup-libraries/Enter the specs, hit generate and you've got a PDF ready to print out. Free Generator of Barcode Tape Labels for Ultrium LTO Backup Libraries .Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTbackupprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/reminder-how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance/https://automatica.com.au/blog/reminder-how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader A customer asked me today for Photoshop performance-tuning guidance, so I took a minute to track down the lates...Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-server-v10-6-hosting-software-updates-for-os-x-lion-or-lion-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-server-v10-6-hosting-software-updates-for-os-x-lion-or-lion-server/Mac OS X Server v10.6: Hosting Software Updates for OS X Lion or Lion Server .Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/this-post-brought-to-you-with-the-help-of-free-range-100-organic-photons/https://automatica.com.au/blog/this-post-brought-to-you-with-the-help-of-free-range-100-organic-photons/I've just had a 3kW solar system installed at home, converting that sweet, sweet free-range organic sunlight into happy little electrons. I've got a Sunny Bo...Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/wikimedia-foundation-releases-their-server-config/https://automatica.com.au/blog/wikimedia-foundation-releases-their-server-config/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader An anonymous reader writes "The Wikimedia Foundation has released their Puppet configuration in a public git re...Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTnewshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/trialling-google-ads/https://automatica.com.au/blog/trialling-google-ads/I'm trialling Google Ads on the blog portion of this site. They are now appearing on the main blog page and on the individual posts pages. I'm not getting a...Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-4-levels-up-for-lion-virtualization/https://automatica.com.au/blog/vmware-fusion-4-levels-up-for-lion-virtualization/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Winter turns to spring, night to dawn... and the two 800 lb. gorillas of the Mac virtualization market trade up...Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacosvmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/updated-jamf-casper-tech-paper-jamf-conference/https://automatica.com.au/blog/updated-jamf-casper-tech-paper-jamf-conference/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Not sure how, but I failed to announce the recent release of JAMF’s newly updated tech paper “Simpl...Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTjamfhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/picocom-1-6-for-mac-osx-10-6/https://automatica.com.au/blog/picocom-1-6-for-mac-osx-10-6/I'm finding I need to do more stuff talking to a serial port, and picocom seems to be the best terminal emulator I've found for Mac OS X. I was previously us...Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-new-apple-advantage/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-new-apple-advantage/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Peter Bright wrote a good piece earlier this week at Ars Technica , documenting his attempt to buy a MacBook Ai...Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/wacom-inkling/https://automatica.com.au/blog/wacom-inkling/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Wacom's Inkling is a pen that draws both on paper and on-screen, tracking the artist's linework with 1024 level...Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTreviewdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/if-this-then-that/https://automatica.com.au/blog/if-this-then-that/This new-to-me website — officially known as “ifttt” (how do you pronounce that?) — is brilliant. I signed up yesterday (it looks like it’s currently in publ...Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-review-audioengine-a2-self-powered-speakers/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-review-audioengine-a2-self-powered-speakers/Two thumbs up. These tiny desktop speakers punch well above their weight. They are amazingly well built for the price, have a more than powerful enough stere...Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTreviewhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/test-websites-in-internet-explorer-9-8-and-7-under-linux-mac-osx/https://automatica.com.au/blog/test-websites-in-internet-explorer-9-8-and-7-under-linux-mac-osx/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Microsoft has created some customized Windows VHDs with the purpose of allowing web designers to test websites...Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTlinuxmacoswebwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/update-to-automated-installs-of-mac-os-x-lion/https://automatica.com.au/blog/update-to-automated-installs-of-mac-os-x-lion/I've just starred a new item in Google Reader Updated tools are here , or if you’ve cloned the Git repo, do a `git pull` to get the changes. When the &...Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-telnet-with-ssl/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-tip-telnet-with-ssl/I've often used telnet to connect to random ports to make sure a service is working (eg: telnet somehost.example.com smtp to see if it's accepting connection...Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTemailwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/its-a-girl/https://automatica.com.au/blog/its-a-girl/A new addition to the family arrived this morning at 00:17 weighing in at a respectable 4.33kg. Mum and bubby both doing very well.Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/putting-my-money-where-my-mouth-is/https://automatica.com.au/blog/putting-my-money-where-my-mouth-is/I've always thought that there is a place and a time to use the cloud, and to be honest, Automatica has been using Google Apps for the past two years to host...Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMTpersonalgoogle-workspacehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-consultants-network/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-consultants-network/Automatica is now a member of the Apple Consultants Network . This means that Kai has undertaken certification by Apple and has passed all of Apple's backgro...Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplenetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/list-all-users-in-users-folder/https://automatica.com.au/blog/list-all-users-in-users-folder/Quick one-liner for bash: for user in `ls /Users/`; do if [ $user == "Shared" ]; then continue; fi; echo $user; doneTue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-a-transparent-apple-software-update-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/set-up-a-transparent-apple-software-update-server/Update - Jan 2013 - this is quickly going to become obsolete, with Apple's release of Server.app version 2.2 for Mountain Lion , this enables a transparent c...Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-toapplemacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-get-a-real-ip-address-on-telstra-next-g/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-get-a-real-ip-address-on-telstra-next-g/The Telstra Next G 3G internet service is fast, works well in a lot of areas around Australia and can be sorted out fairly cheaply these days. One big downsi...Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/console-not-updating-or-asl-manager-taking-100-cpu/https://automatica.com.au/blog/console-not-updating-or-asl-manager-taking-100-cpu/Here's how to restart the Mac OS X 10.6 log managers after removing asl data. Corrupt asl data will either cause the logs in Console.app to not update or the...Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/bad-sectors-on-a-hard-drive/https://automatica.com.au/blog/bad-sectors-on-a-hard-drive/I was recently discussing hard drive errors with someone and they came up with the idea of zeroing out a hard drive to fix the bad sectors. Zeroing out the d...Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-seven-myths-of-the-nbn-newmatilda-com/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-seven-myths-of-the-nbn-newmatilda-com/This is essential reading. We really need the NBN. The Seven Myths Of The NBN | newmatilda.com .Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/where-have-you-been/https://automatica.com.au/blog/where-have-you-been/It seems that for some unknown reason, your iPhone keeps a record of every cell tower that it's ever talked to, and this data is marked with the current time...Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTpersonalappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/airport-expressairtunes-decoder-in-software/https://automatica.com.au/blog/airport-expressairtunes-decoder-in-software/I'm now on my 5th AirPort Express as the others have all just died on me (and even this one is a bit flakey). It's generally the power supplies that have gon...Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-printing-to-the-hp-laserjet-1022-series-under-10-6-snow-leopard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-printing-to-the-hp-laserjet-1022-series-under-10-6-snow-leopard/I've got a cheap and cheerful HP LaserJet 1022 attached via USB to my Mac Pro. Up until 10.6 came along, it worked perfectly. Then, once Snow Leopard arrived...Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-dark-side-of-the-loom/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-dark-side-of-the-loom/    The Dark Side of the Loom | Flickr - Photo Sharing! .Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ngvstudio-everfresh-graffiti-always-wins-on-vimeo-2/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ngvstudio-everfresh-graffiti-always-wins-on-vimeo-2/Check out the video of this wall being created for the NGV Studio at ACMI. "Everfresh was invited by the National Gallery of Victoria to be part of the new s...Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-chapel-hdr-video/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-chapel-hdr-video/Here's a short film on Vimeo - The Chapel paying tribute to an exceptional protestant temple in Zeliszów, Poland, designed by Karl Langhans and built in 1796...Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/automated-rainbow-machine-spreads-joy/https://automatica.com.au/blog/automated-rainbow-machine-spreads-joy/And on a similar note to the previous story, here's how to fill your neighbourhood with rainbows... Automated rainbow machine spreads joy, casual vandalism .Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/headless-install-of-mac-os-x-server-10-6/https://automatica.com.au/blog/headless-install-of-mac-os-x-server-10-6/I had to install a Mac mini Server today and couldn't get a spare monitor to plug it in to for the installer. In the past, I'm sure I've been able to use App...Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ngvstudio-everfresh-graffiti-always-wins-on-vimeo/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ngvstudio-everfresh-graffiti-always-wins-on-vimeo/Everfresh was invited by the National Gallery of Victoria to be part of the new space soon to open at Fed Square called the NGVSTUDIO. The space will be some...Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturestoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/unzip-mac-os-x-zip-in-terminal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/unzip-mac-os-x-zip-in-terminal/I was under the impression that most, if not all, OS X command-line utilities are resource-fork aware (where they need to be anyway) It seems that this isn't...Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-thomas-beale-cipher/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-thomas-beale-cipher/Based on a true legend of the famous unsolved code. The film contains 16 hidden messages that hold clues to the characters' secrets. Eight are fairly easy re...Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/setup-git-server-on-mac-osx-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/setup-git-server-on-mac-osx-server/Background I'm doing a bit of web development work, for myself and for my clients, and realised that having some form of source control will be quite useful....Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/skynet-meets-the-swarm/https://automatica.com.au/blog/skynet-meets-the-swarm/This is quite an interesting article about Artificial Intelligence researchers creating an AI (the Overmind) to play a realtime strategy game, StarCraft. The...Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTaihttps://automatica.com.au/blog/nightscapes-and-other-great-photos/https://automatica.com.au/blog/nightscapes-and-other-great-photos/Check out Chris' Greek Sky photos - including a selection of his Favorites . There's some beautiful imagery there, including a great 24-hour photo , the wint...Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/connected-to-twitter/https://automatica.com.au/blog/connected-to-twitter/If all goes well, this quick post will be automatically sent through to Twitter…Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/calvin-hobbes-search-engine/https://automatica.com.au/blog/calvin-hobbes-search-engine/Can't find that awesome comic strip you remember from Calvin and Hobbes? It's now just a search away. Calvin & Hobbes Search Engine . It seems to index the i...Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/www-visual6502-org/https://automatica.com.au/blog/www-visual6502-org/This is absolutely incredible. Check out this JavaScript simulation of an old-school MOS 6502 processor - the heart of the Commodore 64, among other computer...Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/itunes-store-terms-and-conditions/https://automatica.com.au/blog/itunes-store-terms-and-conditions/An interesting point to note with the recent opening of the Mac App Store is the terms and conditions for the iTunes Store (which powers the Mac App Store)....Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mac-app-store-is-live/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mac-app-store-is-live/If you're running Snow Leopard and check your Software Update, you'll notice an update for Mac OS X 10.6.6 Among other things, this update brings the Mac App...Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTnewsmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/f-lux-software-to-make-your-life-better/https://automatica.com.au/blog/f-lux-software-to-make-your-life-better/That's a pretty sweeping claim, I don't know that I'd go that far, but this is an interesting piece of software nevertheless... F.lux: software to make your...Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTreviewmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/gui-acl-editor-for-osx/https://automatica.com.au/blog/gui-acl-editor-for-osx/My good mate Reino pointed me to a great little GUI ACL editor for Mac OS X. More useful on non Server versions of OS X that lack any meaningful way to edit...Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ps3-root-keys-have-been-discovered/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ps3-root-keys-have-been-discovered/erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D pub...Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/import-your-images-from-aperture-into-lightroom/https://automatica.com.au/blog/import-your-images-from-aperture-into-lightroom/Following on from the first part in this write-up , here's what I did to get my images from Aperture into Lightroom . This is a fairly manual process, there'...Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMThow-toadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/migrating-from-aperture-to-lightroom/https://automatica.com.au/blog/migrating-from-aperture-to-lightroom/Aperture really isn't getting shown much love by Apple. It lags behind even iPhoto in some regards and with large image libraries, even on decent hardware, i...Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMTadobeapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/happy-christmas/https://automatica.com.au/blog/happy-christmas/Happy Christmas to everyone. Thank you for your support this year. Here's looking forward to 2011.Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/remote-root-in-retrospect/https://automatica.com.au/blog/remote-root-in-retrospect/So, you have to cut Retrospect a little slack, it's been passed around like a hot potato recently and has just found a home at Roxio now that EMC have washed...Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMTmacossecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/crazy-ridiculous-safety-saw-can-detect-fingers-and-shut-off-makezine-com-blog/https://automatica.com.au/blog/crazy-ridiculous-safety-saw-can-detect-fingers-and-shut-off-makezine-com-blog/This is some incredible engineering - stopping a circular saw blade spinning at 5k RPM quick enough that if you put your finger on the spinning blade, all yo...Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/automatica-v2/https://automatica.com.au/blog/automatica-v2/The redesign for this website is almost complete. The pages look similar to the old version however the entire site (rather than just the blog section) is no...Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMTpersonalwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ever-seen-a-pwned-home-router/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ever-seen-a-pwned-home-router/I had to go and sort out a client the other day as their router (a Bigpond branded Netcomm unit for a home NextG connection) had, somehow, been compromised a...Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-efi-fiery-e10-driver-on-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-efi-fiery-e10-driver-on-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/I've had all sorts of issues installing the Fiery E10 driver (installed in a KM Copier) to work under 10.6 - after installing it, the Printer preference pane...Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingmacosprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-kills-the-xserve/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-kills-the-xserve/Whisky Tango Foxtrot. Apple has announced that they are discontinuing the Xserve hardware platform . I know that they're selling a lot more Mac mini Servers...Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/blinking-light-on-brand-new-xserve/https://automatica.com.au/blog/blinking-light-on-brand-new-xserve/I've set up a few brand-new Xserves lately and two of them wouldn't stop blinking their System Identifier light. The System Identifier light would blink rapi...Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMTappledesignmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/cancel-your-white-and-yellow-pages-deliveries/https://automatica.com.au/blog/cancel-your-white-and-yellow-pages-deliveries/If you can read this, you have a computer and access to the Internet. You therefore have probably not opened a Yellow or White Pages directory in a number of...Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-spotlight-acls-on-share-points-for-os-x-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/enable-spotlight-acls-on-share-points-for-os-x-server/If you create a share point on OS X Server (10.5 or 10.6) and it doesn't have the magic Spotlight ACL, then Spotlight may not be able to index the content. T...Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/make-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-combo-updaters/https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-combo-updaters/Had I the bandwidth, I'd probably post the results here, but I don't so I'm going to tell you how you can easily make your own Creative Suite Combo Updater....Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-toadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-itunes-10-vertical-window-buttons/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-itunes-10-vertical-window-buttons/As if iTunes doesn't go off the rails enough with the rest of it's window controls, it now makes the Close/Maximise/Minimise buttons (AKA the traffic light b...Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-fix-the-growl-installer-for-an-instadmg-workflow/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-fix-the-growl-installer-for-an-instadmg-workflow/Growl's installer helpfully includes a postflight script that opens up the System Preferences app so that you can configure the Growl options. This is genera...Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-creative-suite-updates/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-creative-suite-updates/Adobe now have a blog (with atom and rss feeds) where you can quickly and easily see what the latest updates for Creative Suite 5 are. In addition to this fe...Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/funky-fresh-fonts/https://automatica.com.au/blog/funky-fresh-fonts/I've been using Myriad as the Automatica corporate font but until now there was no easy way to reflect the design of the printed page on the internet. TypeKi...Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/possible-fix-for-ichat-not-working-but-adium-ok/https://automatica.com.au/blog/possible-fix-for-ichat-not-working-but-adium-ok/I've got an Xserve running, among other things, iChat server. To tidy things up, I wanted to have all users with a login of something like user@example.com r...Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-control-on-an-appliance/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-control-on-an-appliance/I'm still testing this and aren't at a fully working solution just yet, but it's looking promising so far. I'm wanting to try out Kerio Control but don't wan...Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTkeriohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/interesting-bug-in-importing-to-apple-mail-from-entourage-2008/https://automatica.com.au/blog/interesting-bug-in-importing-to-apple-mail-from-entourage-2008/If you have a large number of items in a single mailbox in Entourage, when you import into Apple Mail it will import no more than 6000 items from one mailbox...Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTappleemailmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/remotely-rebooting-an-xserve-without-ssh-access/https://automatica.com.au/blog/remotely-rebooting-an-xserve-without-ssh-access/Read this carefully as it may save you a long drive on a cold night, as it did for me. So, I'm working on an Xserve somewhere over the other side of Melbourn...Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmacos-serversshstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/user-interface-design-framework/https://automatica.com.au/blog/user-interface-design-framework/Over on the Webalys blog, there's an excellent for user interface design and mockups. All free for commercial and non-commercial use and high quality - even...Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/safari-5-0-1-released/https://automatica.com.au/blog/safari-5-0-1-released/Apple have released Safari 5.0.1 today which, among other things, fixes a bug in WebKit that makes the body of a Mail message have a black background when th...Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMTnewsappleemailmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/solution-for-playing-media-on-the-ps3-from-your-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/solution-for-playing-media-on-the-ps3-from-your-mac/I've been looking into Playback recently as an option for playing back media files on the PS3. Playback is great in that it also allows you to stream media t...Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videomacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/graffiti-analysis/https://automatica.com.au/blog/graffiti-analysis/Love it or hate it, you have to admit that there is a style to graffiti - a modern calligraphy even. This project aims to preserve not only the look of graff...Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/once-in-a-blue-moon/https://automatica.com.au/blog/once-in-a-blue-moon/Apparently once in a blue moon = 1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz via Google Search .Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-new-apple-mac-mini/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-new-apple-mac-mini/With it's first major facelift since the Mac mini was introduced with a G4 processor in January 2005, the new Mac mini looks awesome. It's now more compact t...Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/screen-printing-at-home/https://automatica.com.au/blog/screen-printing-at-home/Over at Nathanael's One Tonne Graphic blog, there is an excellent guide to getting started with screen printing at home . It covers all the steps from start...Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/safari-extensions/https://automatica.com.au/blog/safari-extensions/Safari 5 is now out, and there are some great Safari Extensions already up to be downloaded. In the Preferences -> Advanced you will need to tick the box for...Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMTmacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-certified-partner-status/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kerio-certified-partner-status/Breaking News. Automatica is now a Kerio Certified Partner. Kai has passed the Kerio certification exams and will shortly be listed on the Kerio Resellers po...Mon, 17 May 2010 00:00:00 GMTkeriohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/video-ts-to-ps3-with-no-re-encoding/https://automatica.com.au/blog/video-ts-to-ps3-with-no-re-encoding/I've known that it somehow HAD to be possible to rip a DVD and play the ripped files directly on a PS3 without having to transcode anything. My reasoning was...Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/autonomous-handbrake-park/https://automatica.com.au/blog/autonomous-handbrake-park/And I, for one, welcome our new handbrake-parking robotic vehicle overlords. YouTube - Autonomous Sliding Parking (video only) .Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-for-pptp-vpn-access-via-telstra-next-g3g-wireless-internet/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fix-for-pptp-vpn-access-via-telstra-next-g3g-wireless-internet/Telstra have some of the fastest 3G wireless and some of the best coverage in Australia. Yes, you sure pay for the privilege, but it's there when you need it...Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-totroubleshootingnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-destroy-angels/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-destroy-angels/Trent comes out with his first new music release since NIИ: HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS . Debut single is nice, downtempo, quite haunting and very listenable...Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/thx-certification-for-hdtvs/https://automatica.com.au/blog/thx-certification-for-hdtvs/For once, THX certification may be something that I actively look for with my next display panel purchase. I'm not a huge fan of the current trend for glossi...Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/rudix/https://automatica.com.au/blog/rudix/Rudix is a package-based, user-friendly way to extend the Unix portion of Mac OS X with additional network utilities, computer languages, development librari...Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMTmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mobile-phone-market/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mobile-phone-market/How many models of mobile phones do Motorola sell? 117. http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ How many models...Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/guessing-game-edible-flags/https://automatica.com.au/blog/guessing-game-edible-flags/Match the food, and the flag, to the country... Yum. Flavorwire » Guessing Game: Edible Flags .Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-network-users-to-manage-printers/https://automatica.com.au/blog/allow-network-users-to-manage-printers/When rolling out a Mac OS X SOE, sometimes it will be advantageous to allow regular users, with mobile or network accounts, to be able to manage printers on...Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/over-half-your-news-is-spin-crikey/https://automatica.com.au/blog/over-half-your-news-is-spin-crikey/Today Crikey launches an investigation six months in the making. Spinning the Media is an investigation in conjunction with the University of Technology (UTS...Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMTopinionculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/solid-state-drives-are-the-new-black/https://automatica.com.au/blog/solid-state-drives-are-the-new-black/Solid State Drives (SSD) are one of the biggest performance increases to hit personal computers for quite some time. For many years, a solid rule of thumb wa...Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-get-juniper-network-connect-working-with-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-get-juniper-network-connect-working-with-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/I've had issues getting Juniper's Network Connect app to work on Snow Leopard. First up, it simply wouldn't install at all, which was a bit of a problem. Tur...Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-brads-a-comic-about-web-design-the-brads-why-drm-doesnt-work/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-brads-a-comic-about-web-design-the-brads-why-drm-doesnt-work/Why DRM Doesn’t Work via The Brads – a comic about web design .Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMTopinionculturedesignwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/allowing-all-users-to-access-files-uploaded-to-os-x-via-ftp/https://automatica.com.au/blog/allowing-all-users-to-access-files-uploaded-to-os-x-via-ftp/When creating a shared FTP folder on Mac OS X, the uploaded files are only accessible by the user who uploaded them. This isn't much help if there's a shared...Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/10-photo-manipulations-to-mess-up-your-mind-with/https://automatica.com.au/blog/10-photo-manipulations-to-mess-up-your-mind-with/Been too busy to post anything here lately, getting my BAS done and other stuff that's equally as exciting. Anyway, here's a bit of a change of pace: 10 phot...Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/toy-story-3/https://automatica.com.au/blog/toy-story-3/Toy Story was Pixar's first full-length film, and the first 100% computer-animated feature film. It was released in 1995. It was reportedly completed on a bu...Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/falling-into-maths/https://automatica.com.au/blog/falling-into-maths/The video below is a 10 minute trip, zooming into a Mandlebrot fractal to a zoom level of around 10e214 Regarding the zoom level achieved, if 1px in the fina...Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/flash-core-animation/https://automatica.com.au/blog/flash-core-animation/Flash 10.1 on Mac OS X is looking like it will suck less than it has in the past. Adobe appear to be making the considerable effort to leverage Core Animatio...Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTadobemacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/aperture-3/https://automatica.com.au/blog/aperture-3/Damn you Apple! It is now quite literally one week after I gave up on Aperture ever receiving any more loving and updates and I have begun the long and arduo...Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/interview-with-bill-watterson-of-calvin-and-hobbes-fame/https://automatica.com.au/blog/interview-with-bill-watterson-of-calvin-and-hobbes-fame/I vote for "Calvin and Hobbes, Eighth Wonder of the World." via Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets...Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/raid5-hotspare-on-the-promise-ds4600-raid-unit/https://automatica.com.au/blog/raid5-hotspare-on-the-promise-ds4600-raid-unit/I've recently had the opportunity to set up a Promise DS4600 connected to a Mac mini Server . Using the supplied admin utility, it's not immediately obvious...Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/xkcd-spirit/https://automatica.com.au/blog/xkcd-spirit/Spirit Mars Rover on xkcd .Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/john-nack-on-adobe-sympathy-for-the-devil/https://automatica.com.au/blog/john-nack-on-adobe-sympathy-for-the-devil/John Nack, at Adobe, posts a very well written and argued article on why flash isn't the best solution in the world, why open standards are a good thing, why...Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTadobestoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/on-the-playstation-3-heres-your-silver-platter/https://automatica.com.au/blog/on-the-playstation-3-heres-your-silver-platter/Some dude, geohot , has put in a LOT of work to get hypervisor level access to the PS3 hardware. He's been working on it for quite some time - Sony have put...Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mail-app-and-its-offline-cache/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mail-app-and-its-offline-cache/I had an issue recently where I started to send an email with a HUGE attachment, before realising I didn't really need to send that file, so I tried to cance...Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-using-open-standard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-using-open-standard/Youtube are now running a public beta for HTML5 open standards based video. Only works with Google Chrome, Safari and Chrome Frame in MSIE. Giddy-up! YouTube...Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturemacoswebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-was-granted-a-patent-for-esata-target-disk-mode/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-was-granted-a-patent-for-esata-target-disk-mode/This is a really good thing. One, it means that eSATA will be coming sooner rather than later to Macs. Apple even sell a RAID unit, the Promise SmartStor DS4...Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTnewsapplemacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/boot-camp-software-update-3-1-for-windows-32-64-bit/https://automatica.com.au/blog/boot-camp-software-update-3-1-for-windows-32-64-bit/OK, it's taken some time, but it's here. Apple have updated their Boot Camp drivers to support both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Downloads available...Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTapplewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/dispersion-of-sound-waves-in-ice-sheets-silent-listening/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dispersion-of-sound-waves-in-ice-sheets-silent-listening/The most striking thing about these recordings is the synthetic-sounding descending tones caused by the phenomenon of the dispersion of sound waves. The high...Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/playback-of-matroska-mkv-files-on-ps3-with-no-transcoding/https://automatica.com.au/blog/playback-of-matroska-mkv-files-on-ps3-with-no-transcoding/A previous post mentions some difficulties I've experienced trying to remux a Matroska MKV file to something that the PS3 can handle natively. I assumed that...Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/oink-founder-free-after-two-plus-years-of-legal-troubles/https://automatica.com.au/blog/oink-founder-free-after-two-plus-years-of-legal-troubles/OiNK founder free after two-plus years of legal troubles A UK jury has found OiNK admin Alan Ellis not guilty of conspiracy to defraud copyright owners more...Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/avatars-designers-speak-floating-mountains-amp-suits-and-the-dragon-avatar-io9/https://automatica.com.au/blog/avatars-designers-speak-floating-mountains-amp-suits-and-the-dragon-avatar-io9/You may think you've been living inside Pandora, James Cameron's imaginary world, for a while after seeing Avatar. But just think what it's like for the desi...Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/gallery-of-light-calligraphy/https://automatica.com.au/blog/gallery-of-light-calligraphy/Beautiful Arabic calligraphy, painted with light in long-exposure photographs... Gallery of Light calligraphy - No Photoshop :: Typography Served .Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTadobedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/robotagger-gml-abb4400-on-vimeo/https://automatica.com.au/blog/robotagger-gml-abb4400-on-vimeo/And I, for one, welcome our new Giant Robotic Graffiti-writing Overlords... via Robotagger: GML + ABB4400 on Vimeo .Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ad-contrarian-10-for-10/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ad-contrarian-10-for-10/The 10 Commandments of Advertising. Tell your clients the truth. Speak in plain English. Put your clients’ interests ahead of your own. Be guided by principl...Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-mkv-to-mp4-conversion-without-transcoding/https://automatica.com.au/blog/quick-mkv-to-mp4-conversion-without-transcoding/I've got a number of videos in Matroska MKV format that I want to play on my PS3. The video in the MKV container is MP4, so the PS3 can handle it, but it doe...Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-far-games-have-come-in-15-years/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-far-games-have-come-in-15-years/From the original Alien Breed on the Amiga, which was a 2D top-down shoot-everything-that-moves game, to the new Alien Breed Evolution - same genre, but with...Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kufatec-fiscon-basic-bluetooth-handsfree-for-vwaudi/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kufatec-fiscon-basic-bluetooth-handsfree-for-vwaudi/I have just installed a Fiscon bluetooth in the TDI, and for anyone else wanting an aftermarket bluetooth solution, it's pretty good. There was an Aussie dis...Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/sony-open-source-code-distribution-service/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sony-open-source-code-distribution-service/Sony use a large amount of open-source code in their products, and seem to be complying pretty well with the licensing model (mostly GPL) by releasing the so...Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/audis-unbox-the-box-commercial/https://automatica.com.au/blog/audis-unbox-the-box-commercial/I'm a sucker for a well executed ad - and this is one of them: KN | Kitsune Noir » Audi’s “Unbox The Box” Commercial .Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/credit-card-payments-are-g-o/https://automatica.com.au/blog/credit-card-payments-are-g-o/Automatica can now accept Credit Card payments. Due to the rates that the banks charge me for my merchant account, and the thin margins on tech these days, t...Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hell-has-just-frozen-over/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hell-has-just-frozen-over/I would have said that I'd need a whole squadron of pigs, fuelled and ready for takeoff before this would happen, but it seems that Telstra have given us som...Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/sony-come-through-with-a-decent-car-stereo/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sony-come-through-with-a-decent-car-stereo/Sony have come through with the goods with their new flagship car stereo - the MEXBT5750U . Whilst it's a great looking unit , with impressive specs, they ar...Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mr-speaker-presents-parcycle-a-html5-canvas-particle-system/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mr-speaker-presents-parcycle-a-html5-canvas-particle-system/Whilst I'd love to herald the death of Flash, it's simply not going to happen any time soon. There is hope that it's stranglehold will be released, if ever s...Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/a-color-perception-optical-illusion/https://automatica.com.au/blog/a-color-perception-optical-illusion/Should you encounter someone who doubts the importance of context in color perception, you might try whipping out this little demonstration: via John Nack on...Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/lotus-notes-8-5-mac-bypass-installation-checks/https://automatica.com.au/blog/lotus-notes-8-5-mac-bypass-installation-checks/Lotus Notes 8.5 on Mac has a wonderful little installation preflight check to prevent you from installing the software on a PPC machine. At least, that's the...Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-toemailmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/can-you-read-this-headline/https://automatica.com.au/blog/can-you-read-this-headline/If so, the Earth hasn't been swallowed up by a black hole... Atom-smasher sets energy-level record .Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/out-of-the-box-experience-mac-vs-pc/https://automatica.com.au/blog/out-of-the-box-experience-mac-vs-pc/I had to set up a couple of new Sony VAIO laptops for a client recently, and I was amazed at the difference in the Out of Box Experience between a premium PC...Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/using-a-27-inch-imac-as-an-external-display/https://automatica.com.au/blog/using-a-27-inch-imac-as-an-external-display/If you want a glorious desktop with two large monitors, it may make sense for you to use two 27" iMacs, with one configured in Target Display Mode. With Targ...Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/navy-trained-sea-lions-ready-to-arrest-enemy-divers-navy-sea-lions-io9/https://automatica.com.au/blog/navy-trained-sea-lions-ready-to-arrest-enemy-divers-navy-sea-lions-io9/And I, for one, welcome our new aquatic mammalian overlords... Navy-Trained Sea Lions Ready to Arrest Enemy Divers - Navy sea lions - io9 .Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/dr-grordborts-rayguns-from-weta/https://automatica.com.au/blog/dr-grordborts-rayguns-from-weta/Dr. Grordbort has made some beautiful rayguns in the past - hand made at Weta in Kiwiland, very desirable and quite expensive. They're now making some raygun...Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/google-wave-invites/https://automatica.com.au/blog/google-wave-invites/Email me if you want a Google Wave invite. No, I've still got no idea what on earth Wave is all about (or //ave as Google spell it) but maybe if I invite you...Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-ps3s-iview-gizmodo-australia/https://automatica.com.au/blog/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-ps3s-iview-gizmodo-australia/Looks like the v1.0 implementation of ABC's iView for the PS3 isn't fantastic, but improvements are already in the pipeline. Everything You Wanted To Know Ab...Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/does-snow-leopard-server-have-greylisting-enabled-by-default/https://automatica.com.au/blog/does-snow-leopard-server-have-greylisting-enabled-by-default/In trying to diagnose an issue with delayed receiving of emails on a fresh install of Snow Leopard Server, I noticed some error messages in the logs that loo...Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingappleemailmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mandelbulb-the-unravelling-of-the-real-3d-mandelbrot-fractal/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mandelbulb-the-unravelling-of-the-real-3d-mandelbrot-fractal/This guy has an obsession with finding a 3D version of the Mandlebrot fractal. He's given himself some very strict parameters that the resultant equation mus...Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-labs-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-3/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-labs-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-3/I've been using Aperture for a number of years now - it was relatively easy to get into it as it's vaguely similar to iPhoto in a lot of ways. I've been hear...Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/rupert-murdoch-vs-google/https://automatica.com.au/blog/rupert-murdoch-vs-google/I've been following the story that's appeared recently where Murdoch is saying that he will effectively use robots.txt to stop Google from crawling any of hi...Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/you-are-what-you-eat/https://automatica.com.au/blog/you-are-what-you-eat/Vegetables are all your body needs... International Vegetarian Union: Anatomy Model Woman | Ads of the World .Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/about-the-mac-os-x-server-v10-6-2-update/https://automatica.com.au/blog/about-the-mac-os-x-server-v10-6-2-update/About the Mac OS X Server v10.6.2 Update .Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/about-the-mac-os-x-v10-6-2-update/https://automatica.com.au/blog/about-the-mac-os-x-v10-6-2-update/About the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update .Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/making-web-pages-more-readable/https://automatica.com.au/blog/making-web-pages-more-readable/This is pure gold. Readability. Better than ad-block, better than click to flash. If you find a page that's worth reading, add the bookmarklet from Readabili...Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/notes-for-installing-solaris-10/https://automatica.com.au/blog/notes-for-installing-solaris-10/These notes won't be of too much use to anyone but me, I'm putting them here so that I can refer to them later on when I need to... Install a minimal system....Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-tolinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/google-knows-all/https://automatica.com.au/blog/google-knows-all/At least Google knows quite a hell of a lot of stuff about YOU . Log in at the following URL and you'll be able to see just how much Google has learned about...Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/lolcode/https://automatica.com.au/blog/lolcode/This code snippet below is a Hello World program written in LOLCODE. HAI CAN HAS STDIO? VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!" KTHXBYE For something slightly more advanced, he...Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/theyre-real/https://automatica.com.au/blog/theyre-real/You thought Space Invaders were simple, low-res cute faces? Well, it turns out that those iconic sprites were just their shadows... "They're Real" - Gaming,...Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/flash-on-the-iphone/https://automatica.com.au/blog/flash-on-the-iphone/I don't think so. While this is all over the internets, I wanted to preserve a copy of my own... Visiting http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer on the iPhone give...Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTadobeappleiosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/make-an-ati-radeon-for-pc-work-in-a-mac/https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-an-ati-radeon-for-pc-work-in-a-mac/With a relatively simple firmware reflash. Hardmac.com : Le "Macbidouille" in English - It Has Never Been so Easy to Flash an ATI PC Card with Mac OS X . It...Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/collective-nouns/https://automatica.com.au/blog/collective-nouns/Ever wondered what some of the more esoteric collective nouns might be? Need to refer to a group of spectres, demons, elves, humans, robots or just about any...Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-deduplication-jeff-bonwicks-blog/https://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-deduplication-jeff-bonwicks-blog/Thanks Sun, I know you were waiting to announce this once Apple oficially dropped support for ZFS like the proverbial hot potato. ZFS Deduplication You knew...Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplestoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kernel-panic-on-the-beagle-fixed/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kernel-panic-on-the-beagle-fixed/I had an issue where the beagleboard would kernel panic after a cold boot, yet if I hit the reset button it would boot up OK. Thanks to the helpful people ov...Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootinglinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/openssh-server-on-beagleboard-with-ubuntu/https://automatica.com.au/blog/openssh-server-on-beagleboard-with-ubuntu/Once USB Networking has been configured on the BeagleBoard, everything becomes a lot easier. As ARM is now a first-class citizen for Ubuntu builds, there's n...Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTlinuxnetworkingsshhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/usb-host-to-host-networking-on-the-beagle-board/https://automatica.com.au/blog/usb-host-to-host-networking-on-the-beagle-board/I was able to pretty easily get USB networking on the beagleboard, going between my Mac and the beagleboard without a USB to Ethernet adapter (of which I hav...Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTlinuxmacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/howto-ubuntu-on-the-beagleboard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/howto-ubuntu-on-the-beagleboard/This post is more to gather information that's spread over a few different pages all into one place, so if I need to do it again from scratch I've got an eas...Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTlinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ubuntu-on-arm-running-on-the-beagleboard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ubuntu-on-arm-running-on-the-beagleboard/I'll post up a HOWTO later, but for now here's where I'm at with it: ubuntu@beagleboard:~$ uname -a Linux beagleboard 2.6.29-oer44.1 #1 PREEMPT Thu Sep 3 15:...Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTlinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/devwhy-the-loss-of-zfs/https://automatica.com.au/blog/devwhy-the-loss-of-zfs/More information on the demise of ZFS within Mac OS X. /dev/why!?!: The loss of ZFS .Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-beagleboard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-beagleboard/I'm working on a project that's pretty scant on details at the moment, but it's going to be based around a small computer with an attached LCD. I haven't sel...Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTlinuxhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/a-peoples-history-of-the-internet/https://automatica.com.au/blog/a-peoples-history-of-the-internet/The Guardian have put together some history, as well as input from their readers and produced a great overview of the last 40 years of teh interwebs. On one...Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/hey-look-my-car-has-a-cd-player/https://automatica.com.au/blog/hey-look-my-car-has-a-cd-player/I installed it myself... There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs What? It Said CD On It « .Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-its-party-time/https://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-its-party-time/YouTube - It's Party Time! . This makes that terribly painful Microsoft Windows 7 Launch Party video actually worth watching. Just a couple of subtle edits...Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videoculturewindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-on-mac-os-x-not-so-much/https://automatica.com.au/blog/zfs-on-mac-os-x-not-so-much/The writing was on the wall when it wasn't shipped with Snow Leopard, in fact Snow Leopard had even worse zfs support than Leopard did, and that's saying som...Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/jeremy-clarkson-on-idiots-bbc-top-gear/https://automatica.com.au/blog/jeremy-clarkson-on-idiots-bbc-top-gear/I really can't say it any better than this: Now let me make one thing absolutely plain. Dress codes are for the terminally stupid. Telling your guests what t...Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/sbs-loses-top-gear-to-nine/https://automatica.com.au/blog/sbs-loses-top-gear-to-nine/What a great big salty bag-o-balls. Top Gear with even more ads (although if I see that Shannons ad one more time on SBS, I'm gonna scream), and the Aussie T...Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-best-kind-of-advertising/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-best-kind-of-advertising/I love advertising when I get something out of it. In this case, VW are advertising their new GTI. It will be an awesome car, but that's beside the point. VW...Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/trust-me/https://automatica.com.au/blog/trust-me/How can I not post this? Windows 7 is not going to have any of the problems that Windows Vista had, trust me! While I'm at it, there are another two over her...Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTpersonalwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/way-to-go-optus/https://automatica.com.au/blog/way-to-go-optus/What a great idea, release some pretty decent wireless broadband plans, with a decent amount of monthly data... for 12 months. Then, after 12 months, once yo...Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/anvil-shooting-using-explosives-to-fire-anvils-yes-anvils-into-the-air/https://automatica.com.au/blog/anvil-shooting-using-explosives-to-fire-anvils-yes-anvils-into-the-air/Comrades, I present to you the unheralded but noble sport of "anvil launching" in which a brave athlete puts a crapload of black powder between two anvils, l...Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-mac-mini-with-snow-leopard-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/apple-mac-mini-with-snow-leopard-server/Apple have finally acknowledged that the Xserve is rather overkill for a lot of environments where Apple computers are used. It's hard to see a 5-person desi...Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/date-orders-ddmmyyyy-yyymmdd-or-mmddyyyy/https://automatica.com.au/blog/date-orders-ddmmyyyy-yyymmdd-or-mmddyyyy/You'll get crazy Americans that say their middle-endian date order makes more sense because, as they claim, "That's the way you say it - October 21st, 2009"....Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/make-online-industrial-robots-showing-off/https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-online-industrial-robots-showing-off/And I, for one, welcome our new sub-millimetre precision robot overlords... Make: Online : Industrial robots showing off .Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-mark-watson-takes-on-the-red-bull-glorious-days-project/https://automatica.com.au/blog/youtube-mark-watson-takes-on-the-red-bull-glorious-days-project/Extreme sports photographer and Nikon Ambassador Mark Watson tells of the photographic adventure of a lifetime - capturing the spectacular Morning Glory clou...Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/broken-ldap-database-on-mac-os-x-server/https://automatica.com.au/blog/broken-ldap-database-on-mac-os-x-server/I had a client with a broken LDAP database on their OS X Server today. The power had failed and the UPS didn't do it's thing, so the power was yanked from th...Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingmacosmacos-serverhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ad-contrarian-the-perfect-client-brief/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-ad-contrarian-the-perfect-client-brief/Creative briefs from a client do not get any better than this... The Ad Contrarian: The Perfect Client Brief .Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinionhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/resume-a-tale-of-desire-intrigue-and-formatting/https://automatica.com.au/blog/resume-a-tale-of-desire-intrigue-and-formatting/Wow. A software developer with a strong preference for open-source tries and prefers commercial alternatives over open-source for page layout. There are some...Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/10gui-is-this-the-future-of-human-machine-interaction/https://automatica.com.au/blog/10gui-is-this-the-future-of-human-machine-interaction/Check this out: 10/GUI . The video gives a great overview of the concepts of 10/GUI - a new mutitouch GUI idea from R. Clayton Miller . He argues that multit...Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/so-you-think-you-can-tell-arial-from-helvetica-quiz/https://automatica.com.au/blog/so-you-think-you-can-tell-arial-from-helvetica-quiz/Helvetica really does look quite a bit better than Arial, it's a smoother and cleaner design that is more pleasing to the eye. I scored 19/20 - the Mattel lo...Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturedesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/csiro-earns-200m-wi-fi-windfall/https://automatica.com.au/blog/csiro-earns-200m-wi-fi-windfall/CSIRO, having invented and patented some of the key technologies for high-speed wi-fi networking, has had their case held up in court and is on the receiving...Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/10k-to-produce-an-itunes-lp/https://automatica.com.au/blog/10k-to-produce-an-itunes-lp/Apparently Apple are charging artists or labels $10k to produce an iTunes LP (Album download from iTunes Music Store with cover artwork, full graphical inter...Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/ive-tried-to-tech-the-tech-and-it-wont-work/https://automatica.com.au/blog/ive-tried-to-tech-the-tech-and-it-wont-work/Interesting opinion piece by British Sci Fi Author, Charlie Stross concerning the downhill slide in scriptwriting for big-budget sci-fi TV series. To resolve...Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/superduper/https://automatica.com.au/blog/superduper/There's a new version of the fantastic backup utility - SuperDuper! . SuperDuper is what you should be using if you're not using Time Machine, or if you're t...Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTbackuphttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-time-capsule-memorial-register/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-time-capsule-memorial-register/Got a dead Time Capsule, one that's dies before it's time? Register here | Time Capsule Memorial Register . I haven't bought a Time Capsule, but having had a...Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/iphone-os-3-1-2-may-cure-iphone-coma-ars-technica/https://automatica.com.au/blog/iphone-os-3-1-2-may-cure-iphone-coma-ars-technica/If you haven't seen it elsewhere, or haven't seen it in iTunes yet - there's iPhone software update 3.1.2 available now. iPhone OS 3.1.2 may cure iPhone "com...Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/trip-down-memory-lane-with-aqua/https://automatica.com.au/blog/trip-down-memory-lane-with-aqua/Here's a good look back on the not too distant past, with the first public release of Aqua - it's revolutionary transparency effects, that classy pinstripe a...Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTappleculturedesignmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/charlies-diary-jeff-bezos-eats-kittens/https://automatica.com.au/blog/charlies-diary-jeff-bezos-eats-kittens/A post on why the Kindle now being sold worldwide isn't to everyone's liking - this is from the sci-fi author Charlie Stross. Basically, Amazon are screwing...Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/john-nack-on-adobe-image-science-radness-o-the-day/https://automatica.com.au/blog/john-nack-on-adobe-image-science-radness-o-the-day/I missed this when it was originally posted, but it's worth checking out as it takes something like Content Aware Scaling to the next level: John Nack on Ado...Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMTadobehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/make-online-mechanical-reproduction-of-digitized-speech-on-a-piano/https://automatica.com.au/blog/make-online-mechanical-reproduction-of-digitized-speech-on-a-piano/This is very cool - using mechanical actuators to work a piano's keyboard (a proper piano, not an electronic one) they generate recognisable speech. Make: On...Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-tohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/user-interface-hall-of-shame/https://automatica.com.au/blog/user-interface-hall-of-shame/Here's the first entry in my very own User Interface HALL OF SHAME. (Yes, it's in all caps, as it's in a deep, booming voice with plenty of reverb.) This is...Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-creative-suite-3-known-issues-with-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-creative-suite-3-known-issues-with-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/Here is a list of known issues from Adobe for Creative Suite 3 on Snow Leopard: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Known Issues with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard . None of...Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingadobemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-mac-os-x-reports-drive-capacity/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-mac-os-x-reports-drive-capacity/Interesting technote to read from Apple - they are changing the way that Mac OS X 10.6 reports the size of a disk. In the past, they have used 1MB=1024kB and...Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplemacosstoragehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-snow-leopard-faq/https://automatica.com.au/blog/adobe-snow-leopard-faq/The sky isn't falling - Adobe clarify their position on the Creative Suite apps and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Essentially Adobe aren't going to divert deve...Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTadobemacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/tech-support-cheat-sheet-xkcd/https://automatica.com.au/blog/tech-support-cheat-sheet-xkcd/This is pretty well spot-on - print it out and keep it handy to save calling me. xkcd - A Webcomic - Tech Support Cheat Sheet .Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTopinioncultureprintinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/fast-wireless-data/https://automatica.com.au/blog/fast-wireless-data/This is simply incredible A 13-inch-long tube, called a Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier, is making it possible for scientists to receive massive amounts of ima...Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/weird-ical-server-issue/https://automatica.com.au/blog/weird-ical-server-issue/I had an issue today where a client's iCal Server logs would show lots of: "Unable to find any record with GUID..." events, constantly. iCal was slowing down...Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/outlook-for-mac-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/outlook-for-mac-os-x/Over on the Office for Mac Team Blog is a rather exiting announcement that Outlook is to make it's long awaited return to Mac OS X . Back in the day, there w...Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacosmicrosoft-365outlookhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/managing-ui-complexity/https://automatica.com.au/blog/managing-ui-complexity/A really good article for anyone interested in User Interface design on managing complexity. There are some great points raised that it's not overall complex...Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTdesignhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/final-cut-pro-glitches-when-importing-avchd-footage/https://automatica.com.au/blog/final-cut-pro-glitches-when-importing-avchd-footage/I encountered an issue recently where Final Cut Pro will jitter and glitch out every half a second or so when importing AVCHD footage from a Sony HD camcorde...Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videohttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-upgrades/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-upgrades/Spotted around the interwebs recently is a Windows 7 Upgrade Chart that details which versions of Windows can be upgraded to Windows 7 by upgrading in place,...Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacoswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mysterious-case-of-the-missing-ethernet-port/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-mysterious-case-of-the-missing-ethernet-port/I encountered a really strange issue with a Mac mini functioning as a small workgroup file server. The mini had dropped off the network and no-one could acce...Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingapplemacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/e-mail-download-issue-in-entourage-with-exchange-2007-on-windows-2008/https://automatica.com.au/blog/e-mail-download-issue-in-entourage-with-exchange-2007-on-windows-2008/I encountered an issue with a client today where there were emails missing from their inbox in Entourage, yet when the user viewed their inbox in either Outl...Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingemailmicrosoft-365outlookwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-10-5-8/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-10-5-8/The 10.5.8 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility...Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTmacoshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/online-typography-is-looking-better-with-webfont/https://automatica.com.au/blog/online-typography-is-looking-better-with-webfont/It is looking increasing like the proposed .webfont file format for embeddable/downloadable fonts will be the standard, and will be supported in CSS3 . Safar...Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTdesignwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-vmware-fusion-rocks/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-vmware-fusion-rocks/VMware Fusion is a great piece of software from one of the world leaders in virtualisation technology, VMware . There are other alternatives for virtualisati...Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTvmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/car-scheme-out-of-cash/https://automatica.com.au/blog/car-scheme-out-of-cash/Who would have thought that there were that many crap cars in the USA? Car scheme out of cash . The Government program to get old clunkers off the road, by o...Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTnewshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/impossible-pie/https://automatica.com.au/blog/impossible-pie/This dessert is so easy to make, you can throw it together in about 5 minutes and then in the oven it goes where it makes itself for you. Ingredients 4 Eggs...Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTpersonalrecipehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-anytime-upgrade-and-family-pack-pricing-windows-7-team-blog-the-windows-blog/https://automatica.com.au/blog/windows-anytime-upgrade-and-family-pack-pricing-windows-7-team-blog-the-windows-blog/Microsoft have announced the Anytime upgrade pricing for Windows 7. Essentially this allows you to upgrade your currently running copy of Windows 7 to a more...Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/crypto-flaws/https://automatica.com.au/blog/crypto-flaws/Over on Bruce Schneier's Blog , there's some interesting discussion about some attacks on AES encryption that have recently come to light. It's all highly th...Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTsecurityhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/the-homewrecker/https://automatica.com.au/blog/the-homewrecker/Spotted over at the Instructables site, the rather appropriately named: The Homewrecker .Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/warning-signs-for-tomorrow/https://automatica.com.au/blog/warning-signs-for-tomorrow/An old one, but a good one... Over at Andart , there are some well thought out, and quite humorous, Warning Signs for Tomorrow . They were posted some time a...Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/best-practices-for-vmware-fusion-and-time-machine/https://automatica.com.au/blog/best-practices-for-vmware-fusion-and-time-machine/There has been some confusion going around as to the best way to back up data in a VMware Fusion virtual machine. It is not practical to use Time Machine to...Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTbackupvmwarehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/kais-home-made-pesto-recipe/https://automatica.com.au/blog/kais-home-made-pesto-recipe/Take 1 bunch of Basil and pick off the leaves, leaving all the stems behind. Rinse the leaves well and pat dry with a tea towel. Gently roast a small handful...Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTpersonalrecipehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/rfc-1925-the-twelve-networking-truths/https://automatica.com.au/blog/rfc-1925-the-twelve-networking-truths/Here are the 12 networking truths. They apply to a whole heap more than just networking, most of them are good advice for pretty much any situation you could...Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/samsung-sne-50k-e-book-reader-announced-slashgear/https://automatica.com.au/blog/samsung-sne-50k-e-book-reader-announced-slashgear/eBooks are getting closer and closer to being completely usable. No longer the size of a (rather thin) trade paperback, this one is more the size of a regula...Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTnewshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/vlc-1-0-1/https://automatica.com.au/blog/vlc-1-0-1/The VLC Media Player has just been updated to 1.0.1 VLC is an outstanding project, providing a free and open source media player for Mac, Windows and Linux t...Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTaudio-videolinuxmacoswindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/diesel-power/https://automatica.com.au/blog/diesel-power/Automatica is on the road, and travelling in a Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI Pacific. Using an incredibly fuel-efficient turbo-diesel engine, this car is rated at...Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTculturehttps://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-find-your-dhcp-server-address-under-mac-os-x/https://automatica.com.au/blog/how-to-find-your-dhcp-server-address-under-mac-os-x/Here's how to find out the IP address of the DHCP Server your Mac is currently using to obtain it's IP address. ipconfig getoption en0 server_identifier You...Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMThow-tomacosnetworkinghttps://automatica.com.au/blog/tether-me/https://automatica.com.au/blog/tether-me/If your carrier doesn't support tethering your iPhone, to use it as a 3G wireless modem, help may be at hand Tether Me will generate a custom APN file that y...Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTappleioshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/howto-host-your-static-site-using-the-google-app-engine/https://automatica.com.au/blog/howto-host-your-static-site-using-the-google-app-engine/[This is a post from an old blog of mine that I'm reposting as the information in it is still quite useful] Google's App Engine is designed for hosting your...Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTwebhttps://automatica.com.au/blog/key-based-ssh-logins-with-putty/https://automatica.com.au/blog/key-based-ssh-logins-with-putty/Here's a quick writeup on how to set up key-based (passwordless) logins to SSH servers using PuTTY on Windows. I've seen mention of this ability before, and...Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTsshwindowshttps://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-mini-media-centre/https://automatica.com.au/blog/mac-mini-media-centre/[This is a post from an old blog of mine that I'm reposting as the information in it is still quite useful - obviously specs and pricing have changed somewha...Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMTapplemacos