How to capture a packet trace

1. 1. Open System Profiler either by locating it in the Utilities folder (choose Go > Utilities while in the Finder), or by Option-Clicking the Apple Menu > System Profiler.
2. 2. Once launched select the Network interface; here you will determine which connection (AirPort/Ethernet) you will need to capture the packet trace.
3. 3. Make note of the Berkeley Unix Device Name of the interface. For example the BSD Device Name for the AirPort interface could be “en1″, the BSD Device Name for Ethernet is “en0″, and so forth.

System Profiler

1. 1. Make sure your Mac is connected using a network interface. You can check this under the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network preferences), such as AirPort or Ethernet.
2. 2. Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).
3. 3. Copy or type the following Terminal command. Adjust the command based on your network interface; press Return to execute the command.
4. 4. You will be prompted for your admin password.
5. 5. Terminal should display “tcpdump: listening on…”. Access the network function you want to capture for, and let it run.
6. 6. Once the network function is completed, go back to Terminal and press Control-C to complete the packet trace capture.

AirPort Network Example:
sudo tcpdump -i en1 -s 0 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/AirportDump1.pcap

Ethernet Network Example:
sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/EthernetDump1.pcap

VPN Interface Example:
sudo tcpdump -i ppp0 -s 0 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/VPNDump1.pcap

Diagram of the tcpdump command options:
[-i] Sets a the interface from which you want to capture packets from. For example -i en0 = first Ethernet interface.
[-s] The number of data bytes to be sent; default is 56 or 64 ICMP data bytes. (This can be increased.)
[-B 524288] Increases the packet capture buffer size to 512 KB.
[-w] write a file
[.pcap] Packet Capture library

A file named “DumpFile01.dmp” containing your captured packet trace will appear on the desktop. If you want to display its contents, use this command in Terminal:

tcpdump -s 0 -n -e -x -vvv -r ~/Desktop/[Type]Dump1.pcap

Combining Two Garageband Projects

1. Launch GarageBand
2. Open the Media Browser located in the bottom right hand corner of your window.


GarageBand Media Browser

3. Select the Audio tab at the top of the Media Browser inspector.
4. Navigate to where you have your GarageBand files stored. NOTE: By default it is your user’s ~/Music/GarageBand folder.
5. Select and Double-click the project you want to import. NOTE: If you haven’t opened it from within the Media Browser before, GarageBand will most likely warn you that project was not saved with an iLife preview. You will get a dialog asking you to open it in GarageBand so that you can save it with an iLife preview.
6. Click ‘Yes’
7. Close the project you just opened and re-open the original song.
8. Re-open the Media Browser again and drag the song you just converted into the current project.

Drag-and-drop the song you just converted into the current project

1. Double-click the imported track in the timeline. This opens up the Track Editor.
2. Click ‘Open Original’ in the Track Editor.
3. Make the changes you want to the imported project, then save and close it.
4. GarageBand re-opens the project you started with and informs you that the imported project has been modified. A dialog will ask you if you want to update the imported region. Click ‘Update Region’ button.

That’s pretty much it. The process is a bit of a back-and-forth requiring you to make frequent changes to both projects. I found however that if the track you are importing is mostly complete and ready to go you are just focusing on the track you are importing to. In my case my intro is pretty standard what comes after that is what I tweak! Working this way this technique works pretty well.

Share, Present and Collaborate with iChat

Share, Present and Collaborate with Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 iChat

I am a big user of Apple’s iChat, a built in chat client that comes with Mac OS X. I was a early adopter of iChat and have tried other software and web based services like Facebook, Yahoo and Google. Mac OS X iChat remains my go to chat application since it has a lot of features that integrate with the Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6; most of which Mac users are not aware of.

Included with Mac OS X, iChat provides a comprehensive application that works with your AIM, Jabber, Mobile Me and Google Talk accounts. With Mac OS X iChat you can easily stay in touch, collaborate, show off your kids and share friends and family using text (SMS) sound or video. Even if the person you are trying to talk with doesn’t have a Mac you can still use iChat as long as they have an AIM or Google Voice account. Lets get started looking at all the cool features that are found in iChat.

Down to Basics
Start by setting up an account. When you launch iChat for the first time a dialogue will appear asking you to press ‘continue’. You can use iChat with your MobileMe, AIM or Google Talk accounts. In Account Settings you will need to:

1. Select Account Type
2. Enter Screen Name
3. Enter Password
4. Click ‘Get an iChat Account’

Facebook Connection Wizard

1. Go to the Menu Bar iChat > Preferences…
2. Click on Accounts Tab.
3. Click + to create a new Account.
4. Select Account Type: Jabber Account.
5. Account Name: (Facebook usersame)+@chat.facebook.com – find it in your profile.
   Enter your Facebook Password.
6. Click Done.

Once the account autheticates it will enter all the server information for you. Voila!




Show off Slideshows – Anywhere.
I have been in a lot of Skype interviews lately and and there is always a moment you wish the candidate could show a visual presentation. In most cases you need to be technically minded to get through a presentation; not to mention calm before giving a presentation online! With iChat you can give a Keynote presentation remotely using iChat Theater. To start select 1-4 buddies, next:

Using presentor tools in Mac OS X iChat!

1. Click and Drag your Keynote presentation to the iChat window.
2. Drop your file into the ‘Share with iChat Theater’ drop-box.

That’s it! Keynote will automatically launch your presentation and load up a presentation feed in the iChat window. You can also host a photo slideshow or play a movie this way. You control the slide show from keynote. When your done just quit Keynote and resume talking via video.

Screen Sharing: Get on the same page.
iChat also allows you to share your screen with your buddy. This way you and your buddy can observe and control a single desktop making it easy to collaborate, browse the web or look over documents. Sharing your desktop allows you and your Buddy access and control to each others desktops. To start up Screen Sharing all you have to do is:

1. Select the Buddy you want to share with.
2. From the Main Menu select Buddies > Share My Screen.
3. iChat initiates an audio chat to start the screen sharing session. You can talk while you make the connection and work.

That’s it! Hard to believe that you can manage to do all this with only a few clicks.

Multiway Video iChat – Connecting up to Four Buddies in a Conference.
Video iChat is the best way to quickly get to know who is on the other side of the screen. With iChat you can connect up to an unlimited number of people in one text conference, up to 10 total people in an audio conference, and up to four total people in a video conference. Here is how:

1. Select the buddies that you want to participate in your conference. (Tip: Hold down the Command key to select more than one buddy).
2. Click the movie camera button to start a video conference; If you want to start a text conference click the “A” or the phone button to start an audio conference.
3. Participants just need to accept your invitation and they will be able to interact with everyone who joins!

Having fun with iChat! – Video iChat Backgrounds
If you haven’t tried this your should! Try the video backdrops that are a part of iChat. After you start a video iChat you can make it look like you’re chatting from the Golden Gate Bridge or use your own custom backdrop. Here’s how:

1. Select the Buddy(s) you want to chat with.
2. Initiate the the video chat by clicking the movie camera button.
3. Select View > Set Chat Background…
4. Select the background you want to use. Tip: Make sure you are in front of a neutral background like a white or solid color wall.
5. To clear the background just select View > Clear Background.

You can also add cool effects by selecting Video > Show Video Effects (Shift+Command+E).

Share Your Photos Online with iPhoto '09

Share Your Photos Online with iPhoto ‘09

iPhoto has come a long way since its first version with the sole purpose of being used just to organize your photo library. In the the latest version ‘09 you can now easily share your photos online using iPhoto with Flickr, Facebook, MobileMe, iWeb or Email. In this how-to I will show you the easy it is to post your photos online and how you can add geotagging info to your iPhoto photos.

Selecting a Photo Sharing Service
What you will need. You will need a photo-sharing account with one of the following services Flickr, Facebook or MobileMe. You can also use various plug-ins available like Google Picassa Web Albums Exporter, AOL Pictures which includes an iPhoto plug-in, SmugMug iPhoto plug-in and Shutterfly iPhoto plug-in.



Upload Your Photos
Once you have your account set up and plug-ins installed you are ready to start uploading photos to one or all of you photo sharing services. To upload your photos start by:

1. Selecting a single photo, event, flagged, or album.
2. There are a series of icons in the lower right and section of the iPhoto windowor you can go to the main menu and select ‘Share’ and then select the service you want ot post your photos to.
3. Next a dialog appears asking if “you want to publish ‘[Name of your Gallery]‘ to [Service]?” and to whom the photos will be viewable to and at what size.
4. Finally Click the ‘Publish’ button and thats it.

Adding Geotagging Info in iPhoto
If you want to add geotagging info in iPhoto start by selecting the photo.

1. Click on the small ‘i’ icon in the lower right hand corner of the window.
2. A dialogue will appear where you can enter more Title, Date, Rating and Descriptive information.
3. Click the ‘photo place’ field. You can be as detailed as you want in the ‘photo place’ field entering address, city state, country.
4. Click Search (Magnifying Glass).
5. In the dialog that appears you can ‘Drop Pin’ additional places or ‘Assign to photo’ the location you searched for.

How to play AVCHD MTS video files in Mac OS X

Convert AVCHD MTS file to Quicktime .mov

I recently purchased a Panasonic GF1 Lumix four-thirds micro camera and it is truly one of the best camera’s I have owned. I could go on and on about all the great features and the quality but I rather focus on a technical challenge I faced after starting to use it. The Panasonic GF1 shoots excellent video and offers three compression levels for AVCHD Lite movies (17Mbps, 13Mbps, or 9Mbps), all of which are at the full 720p resolution. As an alternative to AVCHD Lite the Panasonic GF1 also shoots Motion JPEG recording 30 frames-per-second video at 1,280 x 720, 848 x 480, 640 x 480, or 320 x 240 pixel resolutions. There are a couple of things that I knew before purchasing this camera, that the RAW file would not work in Apple’s Aperture since it only supports the major manufactures like Sony, Canon and Nikon and that the AVCHD MTS would require conversion.

After shooting in the AVCHD MTS video mode I was hoping that I could convert the video using VLC Media Player as it supports h.264 video and AC3 audio. When trying to export it from VLC the video was not the same quality as I shot it. The following guide is my solution using iSkysoft Software.



Download and Install
You will need to download a trial copy of iSkySoft Video Converter for Mac OS X (Intel or PowerPC Version). Next your will need to drag the iSkySoft Video Converter to you Applications Folder. Once copied you are ready to go.

Launch and Use
Once you have iSkySoft Video Converter open you will need to do the following:

1. Click Add Files. (You can add more than one file at a time.)
2. Specify the output settings in the output settings area. If you plan on editing using iMovie, Final Cut Pro Express or Final Cut Pro select “HD QuickTime Move (*.mov)” under the HD menu. I found this gave me the most loss-less file for editing in Final Cut Pro.
3. Click on Settings. Set your Resolution for 720x 480 (if you are going full HD then set for 1280×720). Set the following if you plan on editing: Frame rate: 30 fps, Encoder: High Definition H.264, Bitrate: 200000 kbps. Set the Audio setting to: Sample rate: 48000 MHz, Encoder: AAC, Channle: 2 Channel Stereo, Bitrate: 192 kbps.
4. Specify your Output folder/location.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Convert

iSkysoft Video Converter

iCal not syncing with MobileMe

MobileMe <=> MacBook Pro [synced]
MobileMe <=> iPhone [synced]
MobileMe Mac Pro [failed]

Correcting this issue has a few possible fixes. I have ordered the solution based on a escalating troubleshooting path.



Reset your Sync Data

1. Open System Preferences > MobileMe
2. Click on the Sync Tab
3. Click Advanced…
4. From the Registered Computers select the computer with the problematic iCal.
5. Click Reset Sync Data…
6. Choose to replace all your sync info, or select an Application (iCal).
7. Choose to replace the info on your computer with that of MobileMe; assuming you MobileMe Data is the correct data. You can also replace what is on MobileMe with what is on your Mac. To do either click the arrow that describes what you want to replace.
8. Click Replace.
9. Click OK.

If you received the following message or it didn't work. Try the next step.

1. Open System Preferences > MobileMe
2. Click on the Account tab.
3. If you are already signed in, Click Sign Out…
4. Sign back in to MobileMe using a false username and password. Accept the rejection and Click OK.
5. Sign in again with your correct MobileMe username and password.
6. Click Sync in the MobileMe preference pane.
7. Click Synchronize with MobileMe. You may get a message: “A computer named “Mac Pro” is already registered with MobileMe synchronization server.”
8. Click on Enter another name.
9. Edit the name slightly of the Machine you are attempting to Sync. EX: “Mac Pro2″
10. Select the application data you would like to Sync.
11. Click Sync Now.
12. You will need to Select an Action: Merge all data / Replace Data on computer.
13. Click Sync.

If you receive the above message again more invasive measures need to be taken.

Trashing the iCal Cache

1. Go to: Volume/Users/[username]/Library/Calendars/
2. Locate the Calendar folder and drag it into the Trash.
3. Open System Preferences > MobileMe
4. Choose to replace all your sync info, or select an Application (iCal).
5. Choose to replace the info on your Mac with that of MobileMe.
6. Click Replace.
7. Click OK

Resetting MobileMe
If you continue to experience issues you have one final option. Turn off all your devices except the one that you believe to have the most current information in my case the MacBook Pro. Turning off the iPhone and Mac Pro keeps them from Syncing while you make this update. Have the primary device you selected Sync with MobileMe. Next do the following with your primary device.

1. Open your System Preferences > MobileMe
2. Click on Sync tab.
3. Click on Advanced…
4. Select and Unregister ALL listed devices.
5. Deselect Synchronize with MobileMe.
6. Click on Account tab.
7. Click on Sign Out..
8. Sign in again with your correct MobileMe username and password.
9. Click Sync in the MobileMe preference pane.
10. Click Synchronize with MobileMe.
11. Click on Advanced
12. Click on Reset Sync Data
13. Select All Sync Info.
14. Click Arrow to refect “On MobileMe with Sync info from this computer.”
15. Go to the other devices and turn back on. Check their Registration.
16. Re-Sync all devices.



]]> http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-troubleshooting-ical-ical-not-syncing-with-mobileme/feed/ 0 http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-imovie-09-compressing-movies-for-online-viewing/ http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-imovie-09-compressing-movies-for-online-viewing/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:15:24 +0000 cberkeley http://www.macusersguide.com/?p=2786

Compressing Movies for Online Viewing



Compressing movies for MobileMe, YouTube or Flickr doesn’t have to be a hassle. Lets say you have a large video file that you want to publish, something in the ball park of 2GBs. This can be a video you have edited in iMovie 2009 and is ready to present to friends and family! If you have a large video that is not in iMovie but you want share you simply have to import it as a project.


iMovie '09 Export Settings


Once imported do the following:

1. Choose Share > MobileMe Gallery. (You can also choose YouTube)
2. Complete the Log-in Fields
3. Give your video a Category
4. Provide Title and Description
5. Give it any relevant tags to make it searchable
6. Finally choose the size that would work best for streaming

Mobile: 480 x272
Medium: 640 x 360
Large: 960 x 540
HD: 1280 x 720 (in iMovie ‘08 these options are under MobileMe Export Options.)




The advantage of iMovie over any other Application is that you can take advantage of its one-stop nature. You can import, edit and export all within one application. When selecting a service like MobileMe, YouTube or Flickr you might have to deal with additional costs. For instance if you go with MobileMe ($99) you might need to consider how many people do you expect to view your video. If to many access it you could easily run over the monthly data transfer limit (200GB with standard account). With Flickr you might have to activate the Pro account ($24.95) to get features or storage you might need. YouTube is generally the cheapest (Free) but videos need to be less than 10 minutes. If video length is an issue you can also use Vimeo (Free). Vimeo limits your uploads to 500MB of data per month. A Vimeo Plus account costs about $60 and you can upload up to 5GB a week. There are privacy settings associated with all these services and you can invite just those viewers who you want to see you latest work!


]]> http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-imovie-09-compressing-movies-for-online-viewing/feed/ 0 http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-permission-errors-using-unix-terminal-sudo-chown-and-chgrp/ http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-permission-errors-using-unix-terminal-sudo-chown-and-chgrp/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:57:28 +0000 cberkeley http://www.macusersguide.com/?p=2665

Mac OS X Command Line




Using unix terminal ’sudo [chown] and [chgrp]‘


With a recent upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6 I was reminded of a problem that might happen if you migrate files from a previous system or if you have a second hard drive forcing you to correct OS X operating system by running with sudo [chown] and [chgrp] using Terminal. I have experienced this issue before when installing Mac OS X versions 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 10.4 and 10.5. Mine was related to my second hard drive that I use for backing up video and image files. After the update I wanted to sort some Desktop items on my primary drive to the second drive (Macintosh HD2). A dialog appeared asking me to Authenticate. Once you Authenticate you will have to keep doing this for every item you move to this drive. This is a common issue and occurs even through your primary user (you) might still have the same short name, password or user level assigned. There are two things you can do to repair this.

Ignore Ownership

If your second drive requires you to Authenticate and you are the primary user of the drive you can have the drive ignore the ownership the the volume. Simply:

1. 1. Select the drive.
2. 2. Type Apple+I or go the the Finder menu and Select > Get Info.
3. 3. At the bottom of the Info Inspector you will see a and check the check box for “Ignore ownership on this volume”.



Change Ownership with Command Line
If this doesn’t solve your issue you can also reassign permissions via command line. This works the best if you are the primary user of you Mac. To change Permission with Terminal you will have to Launch Terminal from the Applications > Utilities Folder. Next you will issue the following commands:

1. To change Owner

[ComputerName]:~ [username]$ sudo chown -R [username] /Volumes/[Hard Drive Name or Folder Path]

You will get the following response:

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type “man sudo” for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Enter your Password to Authenticate

2. To change Group

[ComputerName]:~ [username]$ sudo chgrp -R admin /Volumes/[Hard Drive Name or Folder Path]

You might be prompted for you password again but since you are doing this in the same session it might just approve and return you to your [ComputerName] and [username]. That’s it! Test it by dragging a file to the drive. If you have done this to a folder on your primary drive you might want to Repair Permissions using Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on Repair Permissions.


]]> http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/12/mac-os-x-permission-errors-using-unix-terminal-sudo-chown-and-chgrp/feed/ 0