One of my fellow OS X blogger’s has recently published a new blog post you may want to check out. In this post Rob details how to go about changing OS X Lion’s default SSHD port number. You may want to do this for a number of reasons, both for security and to avoid clashes in port usage. Rob’s blog is just starting out, but please bookmark it and check back frequently for more informative posts.
In your traditional *nix OS you can simply edit one file in your /etc or /etc/ssh directory, generally called sshd_conf or something similar, and change your sshd port. Simply bust out your trusty text editor and change the line “Port 22? to list whatever port you wish to use, save the file and restart your sshd daemon. Sshd will now be running on the port of your choosing.
Good work Rob, I look forward to reading future posts.
I could never understand why apple chose to remove Front Row from it’s OS when Lion was released. Don’t get me wrong – I never really used it, but it seems all OS’s now come with their own built in media viewer. Front Row has always been capable of holding it’s own with it’s slick, intuitive interface.
If you would rather live with, then without front row on your Lion install thanks to Ralph Perdomo over at Mad Hatter Consultanting you can get it back by downloading and installing the Front Row Enabler package.
The package reintroduces the missing files required for Front Row to function:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BackRow.framework
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework
/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.RemoteUI.plist
/Applications/Front Row.app
All of the files have been taken from a Snow Leopard image, and should work flawlessly with your Lion install. If however you are after something a little more ‘advanced’ why not check out Plex?
Firstly, unless you already have one your going to need a Google Reader account so if you don’t already have one head over there and sign up for one. Once you have one, add the feeds your interested in.
Select your ‘All Items’ feed from the menu on the right hand side. Now if you check out your address bar you should find the ‘Safari’ default ‘RSS’ icon. If you click that it will take you to an RSS feed of your…… rss feeds!
This in turn can be fed into OS X’s screensaver setup dialogue box to enable the RSS Visualizer to display RSS feeds from all your favourite sources! Gone is the boredom of sitting with your feet up watching your screensaver!
When Apple announced the release of it’s latest OS X variant (OS X Lion) one it’s flag ship features was the ‘launchpad’. Providing mac users with a ‘pad’ similar to the screens found on their other iOS devices, where all installed applications can be organised into ‘pages’ and folders, much like the iPhone and iPad interfaces.
Well this new feature clearly was enough for the avid developers over at Infinite Loop, as the launchpad also hides a little secret/easter egg. With the launchpad … erm … launched, press and hold the apple\cmd key on your keyboard and press the ‘b’ button to cycle through various variations on your desktop wallpaper..
The standard ‘hazy’ effect wallpaper
The greyscale effect wallpaper
The greyscale ‘hazy’ effect wallpaper
The un-hazy effect wallpaper
What will be your choice?
TimeMachine has saved my ‘bacon’ on many an occasion. However, when trying to stream movies over wireless in can sometimes get in the way, and cause the film to stutter whilst it backs up.
Now, the easy way around this is to disable TimeMachine before you start your film, and then start it again afterwards. However, if like me you forget to do so – and you Mac is set up for SSH access, you can do this easily via your phone.
SSH into your Mac, logon with your credentials and run the following command:
Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean NO
Entering your password when prompted. This should ensure no further interruptions whilst you watch your film.
Once you’ve done, turning it back on again is just as simple:
Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -boolean YES
All that without having to get up out of your comfy chair! Perfect!
