automation - Jacob Salmela (Page 2)

Reduce And Resize Dropbox Camera Uploads Automatically With Hazel

I usually use my iPhone to take pictures for my Website and then upload them via the Dropbox app so they appear on my computer. This is a nice feature, but the photos are way too large to use on a Website. Instead of opening each one in Preview [https:

tccutil

OS X: Scripting "Needs Access To Assistive Devices" Accessibility

“Some appneeds access to assistive devices.” This message appears on a lot of software starting in Mavericks and Yosemite and is slow to fix without scripting it. If you are a systems administrator and have thousands of computers to deploy this app to, do you really want to manually walk

shell-scripts

OS X: Bulk Rename Computers That Are Being Repurposed

Whenever I get a bunch of new computers and phase out some old ones, I typically want them to have the same name. Since I do not want duplicates, I just prepend (or append) “Repurpose-” to the computer name. Then, I can name the new computer with the same without

shell-scripts

Use TextExpander To Run Shell Scripts

TextExpander [http://smile.7eer.net/c/125098/155222/2936] is great for saving time writing repetitive text. However, I recently discovered that you can also run scripts via a TextExpander keystroke. To do this, create a new snippet and choose Shell Script as the Content type. Then type your script

python

TestNav Workflows - OS X and Windows

OS X Pre-requisites * Install click [http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2008051406323031] (direct download [http://www.macosxhints.com/dlfiles/click_binary.zip]) Create an ARD workflow to prepare machines for testing Save each script as a template. 00.Enable Accessibility Run this once per computer and then reboot. 01.

shell-scripts

More Minnesota Testing Woes: Scripting MN ACT Compass Test

While not nearly as awful as Pearson’s [https://jacobsalmela.com/scripting-pearsons-testnav-windows-using-python/] TestNav [https://jacobsalmela.com/scripting-pearsons-testnav-safari-java-exception-lists/], the Web-based MN ACT Compass Test still requires manual intervention before students are able to test–enough that some scripting is warranted. The technical requirement [http://www.act.org/compass/migrate/techinfo.html]

python

Scripting Pearson's TestNav on Windows Using Python

Getting Pearson’s Web-based TestNav to work on OS X was challenging enough [https://jacobsalmela.com/scripting-pearsons-testnav-safari-java-exception-lists/], but getting it to work on Windows is also difficult. Fortunately, Windows can run Python–even though it isn’t installed by default like OS X. And Python is great for scripting [https:

shell-scripts

Detecting Wirelurker Malware

[UPDATE] It appears the command and control infrastructure has been neutralized [http://threatpost.com/wirelurker-mac-os-x-malware-shut-down/109204]. Palo Alto has already written a script that will detect [https://github.com/PaloAltoNetworks-BD/WireLurkerDetector/blob/master/WireLurkerDetectorOSX.py] the Wirelurker malware. [http://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2014/11/wirelurker-new-era-os-x-ios-malware/] It basically scans for the

shell-scripts

Managing GarageBand Loops At the Command Line

GarageBand has a lot of royalty-free loops and additional content that’s not installed by default. If you are a Mac admin and need to deploy GarageBand and/or Logic, you don’t want every client to have to download the additional content when it is first opened. It is

shell-scripts

Scripting Pearson's TestNav: Safari and Java Exception Lists

[UPDATE 2015-05-13]: Pearson is getting DDoS’d again. > Pearson experienced intermittent issues with PearsonAccess and TestNav beginning at 7:13 a.m. this morning. These issues continue to occur.Pearson has confirmed that a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack to Pearson?s firewall is causing degraded performance issues. Pearson is actively

shell-scripts

Roll-you-own Ventir Trojan Detector for OS X

Get Alerted If Your Computer Gets Infected With The Ventir Trojan With this trick, you can get alerted if your system gets infected and then take steps to manually neutralize it. The Ventir Trojan [http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/ventir-trojan-intercepts-keystrokes-from-mac-os-x-computers/] is a keylogger, which means all of your keystrokes are

tccutil

OS X Yosemite: Enable Access for Assistive Devices Command Line

There are apps that require access to assistive devices in Yosemite. A perfect example of this is TextExpander 4. It needs the ability to type text on the user’s behalf. The easiest way to enable access for these items is to drag-and-drop them into the Accessibility section under the

automation

Folder Actions On Yosemite Broken? Use launchd Instead

My roll-your-own malware detection [https://jacobsalmela.com/roll-your-own-malware-detection/] has been having troubles in OS X Yosemite [http://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/2jlbik/yosemite_high_cpu_usage_by_folder_actions/] . It appears that it increases CPU usage to abnormal amounts. I have come up with two alternative solutions that

tccutil Featured

tccutil.py: Command Line Utility for Modifying the Accessibility Database in OS X

I love working in the command line, but one part of OS X that thus far has been difficult to script is modifying the accessibility database in OS X 10.9. There are many examples out there of people needing to do something like this: * https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.

tccutil

Bash Script: Enable Access to Assistive Devices Programmatically in OS X Mavericks 10.9.x - Simulate Keystrokes

Using a bash script to enable access to assistive devices is possible in Mavericks (and also Yosemite [https://jacobsalmela.com/os-x-yosemite-osascript-enabling-access-assistive-devices/]) despite the move to a per-app database. This is useful for entering keystrokes or clicking GUI buttons via a bash script. Prior to OS X Mavericks, enabling access to

hacks

Save Installer From Mac App Store (Updates and New Apps)

If you are an OS X administrator and deploy apps or updates, having a .pkg format is very useful. Wouldn’t it be nice to save the installer from the App Store? By default, any new apps or updates magically appear in the /Applications folder. In the background, however, there

roll-your-own

OS X: Roll-your-own Malware Detection

[UPDATE 2014-10-20]: This tricks seems to cause high CPU usage in Yosemite, try using launchd instead [https://jacobsalmela.com/folder-actions-yosemite-broken-use-launchd-instead/]. [UPDATE 2014-10-02]: defend yourself from becoming a zombie [https://jacobsalmela.com/roll-defense-mac-backdoor-iworm/] courtesy of Mac.BackDoor.iWorm [UPDATE]: Use this trick to fend off the new malware XLSCmd [https://jacobsalmela.

automator

Automator: Scale Down Large Images From the Contextual-menu

Automator seems to be one of those unknown or ignored Apple-made apps. But it is very powerful and can save you a lot of time. It has also been part of OS X for a long time. Purpose To save time by automatically scaling down images (while keeping the original

shell-scripts

OS X Scripting: How-to Script A Mouse Click At X-Y Coordinate

Automate annoying and repetitive mouse clicks with this great trick! Requirements For This Walkthrough Materials 1. Internet Access (if downloading the file) 2. Mac running OS X 3. Xcode (if compiling on your own) Downloads 1. Click [http://www.macosxhints.com/dlfiles/click_binary.zip] click [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/