So I’ve been looking for a stable, easy-to-use, CVS GUI for Mac OS X. Here are some I’ve ran across:

MacCVS – http://www.wincvs.org/
CVL – http://sente.epfl.ch/software/cvl/
MacCVSClient – http://www.heilancoo.net/MacCVSClient/

I downloaded all of these programs and the only one which I could get working was MacCVSClient. It turns out to have a nice interface as well. MacCVS required some python libraries that I had trouble installing. And CVL had a clumsy interface. I was able to specify my remote CVS repository, but it could never authenticate to it.

MacCVSClient was a breeze to configure for my remote repository. It effortlessly connected over SSH2. I had no problem checking out my project, and when I edited files in my local sandbox it was very easy to commit them to the repository. Overall, MacCVSClient seems to be what I was looking for. Oh yeah, it’s free. Nice.

I’ve recently been investigating digital signatures and encryption for my email. I use Apple Mail, or mail.app, for my email client. After much searching, I think that this is the best instruction page yet:

http://help.riseup.net/mail/mail-clients/apple-mail/

Now, if I can just get Kerberos authentication to my imap and smtp server working!

UPDATE: Possible fix to the 5 different users each day limitation.

If I were you, I would think twice before upgrading to iTunes 4.7.1.30. After I upgraded to this version, playlists I try to connect to over our LAN report that:

The shared music library “foo” accepts only five different users each day. Please try again later.

iTunes has, in the past, limited sharing to 5 users at a time, but not 5 users per day. Now, all my favorite playlists that folks share are virtually unaccessible. They all are displaying this error (and I checked them at 7:15am this morning!).

I re-read the click through EULA that accompanied the iTunes upgrade and I couldn’t find any mention of this new limitation. Is this legal? Perhaps there is wording in the EULA that allows these types of changes without the need to notify the end-user?

Is the RIAA worried that their sales will decrease if iTunes users can easily listen to music over iTunes shares instead of buying it? Maybe. If so, this hurts folks like me who are sharing out my own music. Music that I own. Music that I have performed and recorded myself.

I am thinking that this new restriction in iTunes would be like allowing only 5 unique folks to use a photocopier per day, because it can be used to duplicate copyrighted material. That doesn’t sound like it would go over too well at the office. iTunes sharing is very similar. It can be used to distribute copyrighted material, but it can also be used to copy and distribute non-copyrighted material, like my songs.

Interesting. I’ll have to think more about this.

I ran across this story this evening. It claims that North Carolina taxpayers would be outraged if they knew how many hours are wasted by state employees playing solitaire on state computers.

But don’t worry about me. Although I am a North Carolina state employee, I use a Mac. The Mac doesn’t come with these types of distractions. Well, it does come with Chess installed by default.

The article says that legislators want to have games similar to and including solitaire removed from state owned computers. While this might fix the problem of employees playing solitaire, this solution fails to address the real issue. As I see it, the problem is not that employees are wasting time. The problem is that they have no work to do in the first place.

Perhaps the state legislature already knows this. This might explain the lack of state employee raises in the past few years. Could the state legislature be trying to trim down the excess positions within the state? This method would seem to be more effective than uninstalling solitaire on state computers. Not only could state employees turn to online game sites, which offer a plethora of games – including solitaire, but they may just find other unique ways to pass the hours away.

If the goal of the state legislature is to weed out lazy employees in an effort to give the state tax payers “more for their money”, the best solution, as I see it, is to reduce the budgets of state agencies.

Instead, by choosing to emphasize the uninstallation of solitaire on state computers, I must conclude that their goal is something else. Perhaps their goal is to raise public awareness of this particular issue? It’s all speculation.

One goal, however, is certain: To be re-elected. Perhaps in some way, they see this as a way to obtain that goal.

I’ve noticed this odd behavior when closing 2 tabs in Firefox. It occurs, to my knowledge, only under Mac OS X, as I’ve tested it under Microsoft Windows and Fedora Core 2 Linux as well.

You can replicate the problem as follows:

1-Start Firefox
2-Open 2 new tabs (so you’ll have a total of 3 tabs open)
3-Locate the “X” that closes the current tab in Firefox
4-Quickly close two tabs by clicking the “X” twice, quickly
5-You’ll notice that you will close 2 tabs, but one new one will be created
6-Now, to understand more of why this is happening, double-click in the “grey” tab area, where there is no existing tab. You’ll notice that is creates a new tab.

Firefox should ignore clicks on the “X” as they apply to creating a new tab. As it stands, it seems as though Firefox counts a click on the “X” as a click towards creating a new tab.

I checked the Firefox bugzilla page and found that someone has already filed this bug.

Nice.

Recently, I’ve been helping folks with their computing problems at home. I realized that one of the first things I do is download and install Firefox and Thunderbird.

Firefox is a web browser and I recommend it over Internet Explorer. From my experience as a support specialist, I’ve found that Internet Explorer is how the majority of spyware is installed on one’s computer. Firefox doesn’t allow spyware to enter your computer in the same way that Internet Explorer does. Firefox will import your Internet Explorer preferences and favorites for you. The installation takes only 3 minutes and can drastically improve the security and performance of your personal computer.

Thunderbird is an email client (like Outlook Express). In fact, I frequently migrate users from Outlook Express to Thunderbird. Like Firefox, Thunderbird will import your mail messages, addressbook, and preferences from Outlook Express. The switch from Outlook Express to Thunderbird is quick and fun. It’s nice knowing that Thunderbird is less susceptible than Outlook Express is to viruses, meaning you’ll be safer when sending and recieving emails.

Two more “must-have” free software applications include GIMP (an Adobe Photoshop replacement) and OpenOffice (an alternative to Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, Powerpoint). When I meet someone who wants to edit an image, type a MS Word document, analyze data in Excel, or create a Powerpoint slide show, I recommend they install one, or both, of these applications.

These 4 free programs give the user the same functionality as their commercial counterparts. And in the case of Firefox and Thunderbird, a user is much more secure when using them instead of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.