hacks

A collection of 41 posts

hacks

Dynamic Profile And Badge Switching Without Shell Integrations In iTerm2

I use iTerm2 for all my terminal work.  One very nice feature it has is dynamic profiles.  But I usually don’t want to install shell integrations on every server.  Instead, I use my dotfiles and an SSH config to change profiles.  While working across different local, development, and production

dropbox

Using Dropbox For An Easy Restore Of All Your Computer's Settings

Just to be clear, Dropbox isn’t backup software; it’s a syncing service.  If you delete a file and that change is synced, and your file no longer exists. I really love the things you can do with Dropbox.  And since I’m stingy, I wanted to use Dropbox

hacks

Roll-your-own Anonymizing Email Server

This post isn’t about a specific security breach, but rather a post to educate you on how to better protect your online identity.  The term “anonymize” is used loosely for lack of a better word.TL;DRCreate a unique email address that forwards to your real email for every

hacks

Use Wired Ethernet On Your iPad or iPhone

iPads and iPhones do not have an Ethernet port, but there are cases where you might want to use a hardwired connection.  You can actually run your iOS device over Ethernet with some adapters.  This is useful for quickly downloading large iOS updates or if your wireless is slow or

dropbox

Customize The Dropbox Syncing Icon To Whatever You Want

You can create your own icons to replace the Dropbox badges that appear that the bottom-right of folders in your Dropbox.  All you need is an image editor and an app to convert images to icons. Creating A Custom Dropbox Syncing BadgeIn the image above, I changed the “sync complete”

hacks

Turn Your Useless GameStick Into A Powerful Emulator

The GameStickI had high hopes when I backed the GameStick Kickstarter project.  After finally receiving mine, it was underwhelming.  The UI was slow and sluggish, there were not many games, and the controller had considerable lag. Many of the issues were fixed, but you can turn your LGameStick into an

hacks

Give Your Work Phone A Custom Ringtone

This may work for other devices, but the one I used was a NEC DT700 (original PDF instructions).  I have seen these models in several different workplaces.  The process can probably be adapted for other phones, too. Download Or Create/Convert A .wav Ringtone FileDownloadYou can find some pre-formatted tones

hacks

Custom El Capitan Login Window (No Longer Blurred)

I have shown you how to modify the login window for Mavericks and Yosemite.  The Yosemite trick still works in El Capitan with one added benefit: there is no longer a blurred overlaid on your image. Just save your image as (it needs to a .png file): /Library/Caches/com.

hacks

Reduce Your Mobile Data Usage By Blocking Hidden Ads

There have recently been posts about how apps are actually downloading tons of ads in the background.  Every time your device downloads an ad, it is using up your limited data as well as making your device slower.  These apps are basically committing ad fraud. You can prevent this from

hacks

Let GLaDOS Throw Your Files Into The Incinerator By Changing A System Sound

If the default sound OS X makes when you put a file in the trash doesn’t do it for you, you might enjoy having GLaDOS tell you “file deleted.”  This is a relatively simple trick to do, and will work with other system sound effects as well.  You simply

ncutil

Hide "Free Yosemite Upgrade" Notification With NCutil.py

Don’t want to update to OS X Yosemite?  Tired of dismissing this notification every few days? You can hide/suppress this notification with a simple command using NCutil.py, although it’s not fully-supported by Apple, so you can try this at your own risk. NCutil.py --remove-system-centerThe above

hacks

17 Unique Pranks For OS X: April Fool's Day 2015

Here are some fun things you can do on your Mac for April Fool’s day 2015. Make Siri Endlessly Speak Nonsensical Sentencescurl -s horseebooksipsum.com/api/v1/ | say -v "Samantha" Make The Mouse Move To (Or Click) Random Areas Throughout The DayRun this script (as a background job) on

ncutil

OS X Yosemite Notification Center Command Line Utility For Scripting And More

DownloadNCutil.py – Mavericks and Yosemite Use CaseOS X administrators can appreciate a good command line utility.  In enterprise environments, it is useful to be able to send out settings to multiple computers at once.  This is part of the reason I started NCutil.py.  I wanted to be able to

windows

Find Your Windows Product Key Without Any Software

One thing I have always found frustrating about buying a PC with windows re-installed (among many things) is you don’t always have easy access to the product code.  Sometimes it is posted on a sticker, but often it is not.  How To Geek shows how to get the product

hacks

Customize The OS X Yosemite Login Screen

Give the OS X Yosemite login window a personalized look using your own image.  This is a simple trick to do.  Just save your desired image as: /Library/Caches/com.apple.desktop.admin.pngThen, just log out to apply the change.  You should immediately see your new image.  If you

hacks

Freak Out Your Friends By Changing The "Ready" Message On HP Printers

How The Trick WorksYou create a file or enter some Terminal commands, which get sent to the printer.  Instead of printing out what you typed, the printer recognizes that the text is actually a set of instructions, known as the Printer Job Language (PJL), which are then carried out by

python

Scripting Pearson's TestNav on Windows Using Python

Getting Pearson’s Web-based TestNav to work on OS X was challenging enough, 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 and automating mundane tasks.  Pair

pihole

Attempting to Block Hulu Plus Video Ads Using A Raspberry Pi

[UPDATE 2015-03-28] I have some more information about blocking video ads.  I just need to make some time to write it up… The keyword here is attempting.  What is strange is that I actually had this working at one point.  The Hulu video ads would be completely skipped (not

ncutil

Suppress Apple Update Notifications In Mavericks Without Disabling Notification Center

[UPDATE]: Yosemite support has been added. I can’t guarantee results, but this has seemed to work for me.  The following commands disable the Apple App Store notifications that appear in OS X: NCutil.py --remove com.apple.maspushagent NCutil.py --remove _SYSTEM_CENTER_:com.apple.storeagentI believe removing the

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

tips

OS X's Native 5-finger, 5-minute System Diagnosis

Quickly gather a ton of system information on any Mac with a five-key keyboard shortcut! Control-Option-Command-Shift-Period After triggering the keyboard shortcut, it may look like nothing happened (on Yosemite, the screen briefly flashes white), but if you open up /var/tmp , you will see a sysdiagnose folder (it won’t

hacks

Roll-your-own LastPass Premium

Use your LastPass usernames and passwords in Safari on your iOS device without paying for a LastPass Premium subscription.  Using a bit of scripting, you can roll-your-own Last Pass freemium without paying a dime! That said, it is far from perfect (see caveats below), but it is a great way

pihole

Pi-hole: Raspberry Pi Ad-Blocker [Advanced Setup]

Automated InstallRun this command only on a clean install of the Raspberry Pi running Raspbian. curl -s "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jacobsalmela/pi-hole/master/automated%20install/basic-install.sh" | bashPoint your devices to use the Raspberry Pi as their DNS server and you are all set! Advanced SetupThis guide assumes you

dropbox

Backup OpenEmu Save States to Dropbox

OpenEmu is one of the best ways to play your favorite retro games.  A long-time feature of emulators is the “save state,” which acts like a long-term Pause button.  It will save your game in the exact spot you decide (not just at a checkpoint in the game).  You could

shell-scripts

The Infamous OS X execution error: An error of type -10810 has occurred. (-10810)

This error seems to appear often when I am using osascript for automating things.  This error is a bit of a mystery as hundreds of users will say.  In addition, it is not even listed in the MacErrors.h file found at: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/