tinyapps.org / blog

A scattering of dried figs and nuts #

Free from hindrance are those things which lie in the sphere of the moral purpose, and subject to hindrance are those which lie outside the sphere of the moral purpose. And so, if he regards his own good and advantage as residing in these things alone, in those, namely, which are free from hindrance and under his control, he will be free, serene, happy, unharmed, high-minded, reverent, giving thanks for all things ta God, under no circumstances finding fault with anything that has happened, nor blaming anything; if, however, he regards his good and advantage as residing in externals and things outside the sphere of his moral purpose, he must needs be hindered and restrained, be a slave to those who have control over these things which he has admired and fears; he must needs be irreverent, forasmuch as he thinks that God is injuring him, and be unfair, always trying to secure for himself more than his share, and must needs be of an abject and mean spirit.

When a man has once grasped all this, what is there to prevent him from living with a light heart and an obedient disposition; with a gentle spirit awaiting anything that may yet befall, and enduring that which has already befallen? "Would you have me bear poverty?" Bring it on and you shall see what poverty is when it finds a good actor to play the part. "Would you have me hold office?" Bring it on. "Would you have me suffer deprivation of office?" Bring it on. "Well, and would you have me bear troubles?" Bring them on too. "Well, and exile?" Wherever I go it will be well with me, for here where I am it was well with me, not because of my location, but because of my judgements, and these I shall carry away with me; nor, indeed, can any man take these away from me, but they are the only things that are mine, and they cannot be taken away, and with the possession of them I am content, wherever I be and whatever I do. "But it is now time to die." Why say "die"? Make no tragic parade of the matter, but speak of it as it is: "It is now tune for the material of which you are constituted to be restored to those elements from which it came." And what is there terrible about that? What one of the things that make up the universe will be lost, what novel or unreasonable thing will have taken place? Is it for this that the tyrant inspires fear? Is it because of this that his guards seem to have long and sharp swords? Let others see to that; I have considered all this, no one has authority over me. I have been set free by God, I know His commands, no one has power any longer to make a slave of me, I have the right kind of emancipator, and the right kind of judges. "Am I not master of your body?" Very well, what is that to me? "Am I not master of your paltry property?" Very well, what is that to me? "Am I not master of exile or bonds?" Again I yield up to you all these things and my whole paltry body itself, whenever you will. Do make trial of your power, and you will find out how far it extends.

Who is there, then, that I can any longer be afraid of? Shall I be afraid of the chamberlains? For fear they do what? Lock the door in my face? If they find me wanting to enter, let them lock the door in my face!—Why, then, do you go to the gate of the palace?—Because I think it fitting for me to join in the game while the game lasts.—How, then, is it that you are not locked out?—Because, if anyone will not receive me, I do not care to go in, but always I wish rather the thing which takes place. For I regard God's will as better than my will. I shall attach myself to Him as a servant and follower, my choice is one with His, my desire one with His, in a word, my will is one with His will. No door is locked in my face, but rather in the face of those who would force themselves in. Why, then, do I not force myself in? Why, because I know that within nothing good is distributed among those who have entered. But when I hear someone called blessed, because he is being honoured by Caesar, I say, "What is his portion? Does he, then, get also a judgement such as he ought to have for governing a province? Does he, then, get also the ability to administer a procuratorship? Why should I any longer push my way in? Somebody is scattering dried figs and nuts; the children snatch them up and fight with one another, the men do not, for they count this a small matter. But if somebody throws potsherds around, not even the children snatch them up. Governorships are being passed around. The children shall see to that. Money. The children shall see to that. A praetorship, a consulship. Let the children snatch them up; let the children have the door locked in their faces, take a beating, kiss the hands of the giver, and the hands of his slaves. As for me, it's a mere scattering of dried figs and nuts." But what, then, if, when the man is throwing them about, a dried fig chances to fall into my lap? I take it up and eat it. For I may properly value even a dried fig as much as that. But neither a dried fig, nor any other of the things not good, which the philosophers have persuaded me not to think good, is of sufficient value to warrant my grovelling and upsetting someone else, or being upset by him, or flattering those who have flung the dried figs among us.

Excerpt from Chapter VII, Of freedom from fear, in Book IV of Epictetus' Discourses.

/misc | Dec 11, 2017

whois terminal command not returning registrant contact info #

At some point in recent history, whois stopped returning registrant contact info for a number of TLDs, including .com^*. In Why is 'whois' showing no registrant information?, bu11etpr00f explains that the specific registrar whois server must now be queried directly in order to get registrant contact information, i.e.,

$ whois reddit.com
...
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com
...

$ whois -h whois.markmonitor.com reddit.com
...
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization: Reddit Inc.
Registrant Street: 548 Market St.,
...

Rather than running two commands, I cobbled together this oneliner:

$ whois -h $(whois reddit.com | grep 'Registrar WHOIS Server:' | cut -f2- -d:) reddit.com

but quickly realized that I use whois often enough to create a bash function for it.

So I saved this in ~/.bash_profile:

function w2 {
  whois -h $(whois $1 | grep 'Registrar WHOIS Server:' | cut -f2- -d:) $1
}

then ran source ~/.bash_profile to reload.

Much easier now:

$ w2 reddit.com
...
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization: Reddit Inc.
Registrant Street: 548 Market St.,
...

^* Thanks to Guy at easyDNS for kindly informing me of the difference between thick and thin WHOIS registries. See also Anthony Geoghegan's reply to Why do some domain names have extremely truncated whois information? for more information.

/nix | Nov 14, 2017

Demi-decennial coworking update #

(Yes, this installment is running slightly behind schedule.)

WeWork "transforms buildings into beautiful, collaborative workspaces." 237 buildings in 56 cities, for teams of 1 to 500+.

Previously: 2005, 2010

/misc | Oct 26, 2017

Windows 10: Restore classic blue solid color Desktop background #

In Windows 2000 and XP, the default solid color Desktop background was a serene shade of blue:

The "Windows Classic" theme in Windows 7 used the same color, but there was a slightly darker blue default color available in the Solid Colors menu, which was still available in Windows 8.1:

Inexplicably, Windows 10 not only removed these calming blue tones and replaced them with 24 largely garish colors, but also failed to provide any option for customizing colors in the main Settings menu (right click Desktop > Personalize > Background: Solid Color). UPDATE: The day after this post, Microsoft released Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which includes a "Custom color" option in the main Background settings window. Click "More" to enter RGB, HSV, or hex values.

Happily, the classic Desktop Background applet is accessible via Run > control /name Microsoft.Personalization /page pageWallpaper. Not only can you select the Windows 7 darker blue, but you can also create custom colors by clicking "More...".

/windows | Oct 16, 2017

macOS: Export Contacts to CSV #

0. highlighting desired contacts,
1. dragging them into a new Numbers spreadsheet, and
2. exporting the spreadsheet to CSV

/mac | Oct 16, 2017

Taking screenshots in macOS Recovery Mode or within a bootable installer #

0. Boot into Recovery Mode (Cmd+R) or via a USB bootable install disk

1. Utilities > Terminal

2. If you have access to the existing macOS install, you can use the copy of screencapture located at /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/sbin/screencapture for the following. Otherwise, copy /usr/sbin/screencapture from another macOS install to a USB flash drive (e.g., SANDISK) and run from there.

3. Open desired application(s) from the Terminal, e.g.,

   • Disk Utility: /Applications/Utilities/Disk\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk\ Utility

   • Safari: /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari

4. Open another tab in Terminal and run /Volumes/SANDISK/screencapture /Volumes/SANDISK/screenshot.png

References:

• How to multitask in OS X Lion's recovery partition

• Donny Hornstein's reply to Is it possible to take a screenshot in Recovery Mode?

/mac | Oct 01, 2017

High Sierra's Disk Utility does not recognize unformatted disks #

unless you click View > Show All Devices, quit Disk Utility, then relaunch it (thanks to xenadu02 for the workaround!)

Update: This issue appears to be resolved in macOS 10.13.3 / Disk Utility 17.0 (1635)

macOS 10.13's Disk Utility 17.0 (1626) does not recognize raw drives. Here is an example while booted from the installer, attempting to prepare a new internal drive:

However, as seen in the blue Terminal window, diskutil does recognize the drive. We'll use it to perform a quick, cursory format (e.g., diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ NewDisk GPT disk0) to make the disk appear in Disk Utility, where further modifications can more easily be made:

Plugging in an unformatted external drive produces the usual alert, "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Initialize... | Ignore | Eject", but clicking Initialize just opens Disk Utility without the disk appearing:

As shown above, clicking View > Show All Devices does not cause the raw disk to appear.

UPDATE: Fans of Disk Utility's last classic version (13 (606) from OS X 10.10 Yosemite) have got it running in El Capitan and Sierra:

• Restore old Disk Utility in OS X El Capitan
• diskUtilityPatch
• Disk Utility (patched_v2) 10.10.5
• Disk Utility v13 for macOS Sierra.zip

Disk Utility version 13 was the last to support:

• Repairing permissions
• Verifying disks
• Software RAID
• Burning optical discs (CDs and DVDs)
• Dragging and dropping of disk images

However, in light of APFS and other changes, it may be wiser to simply use diskutil and hdiutil instead.

/mac | Oct 01, 2017

Breathing new life into a 2006 MacBook #

See also Best Linux distro for a 2009 MacBook Pro? and Install Haiku on a Core Duo 2006 MacBook Pro (17-inch)

• Background (why isn't this easier?)
  • Chris W. Rea's answer to Unsupported hack or workaround to get 64-bit OS X to install on a MacBook Pro having only 32-bit EFI?
  • Which Intel Macs have 64-bit processors? Which have a 64-bit EFI? Which are capable of booting MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" in 64-bit mode?
• CloudReady, based on ChromiumOS (even booting via USB works right out of the box)
  • install 32-bits or 64-bits on old macbook
  • Create the USB installer
  • Install to hard drive
  • ChromeOS: Share Network Message Confusing
  • Integrated webcam not working: 2006 Macbook
• Linux (heaps of rabbit holes)
  • Linux DVD images (and how-to) for 32-bit EFI Macs (late 2006 models)
  • UBUNTU + MAC: PURE EFI BOOT
  • MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation
  • Debian EFI mode boot on a Macbook Pro, without rEFIt
  • Installing elementary OS on my late 2006 MacBook 2,1
  • Installing Debian on MacBook2,1
  • Linux-only installation on a 2006 Macbook using rEFInd
  • Modernizing the 2006 and 2007 Mac Pro to Go Beyond OS X Lion
• Remix OS, based on Android (sloooooooow)
  • Ultimate Guide on Remix OS Installation – USB or HDD Based

/mac | Sep 17, 2017

Menu bar firewall status indicator #

BitBar (open source) can be used to display an emoji of choice in the menubar depending on the built-in Application Firewall's state: off (0), on for specific services (1), or on for essential services (aka stealth mode) (2):

0. Install and launch BitBar
1. Create a new directory (e.g., ~/bitbar/) to store plugins when prompted
2. Save the following Bash script as ~/bitbar/firewall_status_indicator.10s.sh and make it executable (chmod +x firewall_status_indicator.10s.sh):

   #!/bin/bash
   
   state=$(defaults read "/Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf" globalstate);
   
   if [ "$state" -eq 2 ]; then
     echo "🔒"
   elif [ "$state" -eq 1 ]; then
     echo "❗️"
   else
     echo "‼️"
   fi
   
   echo "---"
   echo "Open Firewall preference pane| href='x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Firewall'"
   

GeekTool (free) can display a tiny red or green status LED on the desktop or in the menubar to indicate the firewall status:

• Steps:
  0. Install and launch GeekTool
  1. Check "Enable" and "Automatically launch at login"
  2. Drag "Shell" to the desktop
  3. Position: 1007 | 4 (change as needed)
  4. Size: 95 | 45
  5. Check "Keep on Top"
  6. Command: if [ `defaults read "/Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf" globalstate` -eq 2 ];then EX=0;else EX=1;fi;exit $EX
  7. Refresh every: 60s (change as desired)
  8. Check "Display status feedback image"
• Notes:
  • To check for (1), change "-eq 2" to "-eq 1" and to check for either (1) or (2), change to "-ge 1"
  • If your geeklet causes GeekTool to freeze, delete ~/Library/Preferences/org.tynsoe.geeklet.shell.plist to start over.
• Props:
  • klktrk's comment on View firewall status via the Scripts menu
  • cxd101's comment on 10.5: Control the firewall from the command line
  • How to remove troublesome GeekTool geeklets

TextBar ($2.99) can be used to display a shield icon and the firewall state (0, 1, or 2 as explained above) in the menu bar:

0. Install and launch TextBar
1. Disable the default items
2. Click the plus symbol to add a new item
3. Replace echo 'Hello' with defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate
4. Check the far left box to enable and select the shield image

/mac | Sep 10, 2017

Particulars: BgInfo for OS X / macOS #

/mac | Sep 10, 2017

Recovering saved macOS user passwords #

Users who have (inadvisedly) enabled automatic login often forget the password. It is merely encoded with an XOR cipher and stored in /etc/kcpassword.

A number of sites suggest this Ruby one-liner to recover it:

sudo ruby -e'key=[125,137,82,35,210,188,221,234,163,185,31];IO.read("/etc/kcpassword").bytes.each_with_index{|b,i|break if key.include?(b);print [b^key[i%key.size]].pack("U*")}'

However, only the first four characters were returned in my limited testing.

Joaquin Moreno Garijo's Python script, kcpass.py, did the trick (see update below):

0. Copy /etc/kcpassword via target disk mode, single-user mode, etc.
1. curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jjarava/mac-osx-forensics/master/kcpass.py
2. chmod +x kcpass.py
3. # ./kcpass.py $(xxd -p /path/to/kcpassword)

       Kcpasswd: 0x09e03c5ab3ccad998dd66d1a89b165ae7e8912b851f8f0ff.
       Magic Xor: 0x7d895223d2bcddeaa3b91f.
       Used Magic Xor: 0x7d895223d2bcddeaa3b91f7d895223d2bcddeaa3b91f7d895223d2bcddeaa3b91f.
   
       The password is: "tinyapps.org".

See also:

• Gavin Brock's Encoding and Decoding OS-X Auto-Login Password (/etc/kcpassword) from 2007. Includes Perl script.
• Inside the Core's Decoding the KCPaswword [sic], which includes a detailed explanation of manually encoding and decoding.
• Recover passwords from current user's Login Keychain
• Crack Mac user password
• Cracking FileVault 2 (HFS+ or APFS)

kcpass.py:

Updates

1. Had to tweak kcpass.py slightly to make it compatible with Python 3, resolving "SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'. Did you mean print(...)?", etc.:

   #!/usr/bin/env python3 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. """ KCPassword Xor """ # This code has been updated to work with Python 3 from the original version by: __author__ = 'Joaquin Moreno Garijo (bastionado@gmail.com)' # MSc Project in Royal Holloway, University of London. import sys magic_static = '7d895223d2bcddeaa3b91f' pwd = '' if len(sys.argv) != 2: print('Please write as a first argv the hexadecimal kcpassword value:') print('Example: python {} 1ceb3147d2172f1140ff63bf'.format(sys.argv[0])) exit(1) kcpasswd = sys.argv[1] print(f'\n\tKcpasswd: 0x{kcpasswd}.') print(f'\tMagic Xor: 0x{magic_static}.') tam_xor = len(magic_static) tam = len(kcpasswd) - tam_xor magic = magic_static while tam > 0: tam -= tam_xor magic += magic_static print(f'\tUsed Magic Xor: 0x{magic}.') i = 0 while i < len(kcpasswd): charkc = kcpasswd[i:i+2] charkch = int(charkc, 16) charm = magic[i:i+2] charmh = int(charm, 16) r = charkch ^ charmh pwd += chr(r) if r == 0: print(f'\n\tThe password is: "{pwd}".\n') break i += 2

2. Clément Caumes' decode-kcpassword offers another approach to decoding the stored macOS user auto-login password in Python 3:

   #!/usr/bin/python3 import struct import sys # Function to decrypt the kcpassword def decrypt_kcpassword(): key = [125, 137, 82, 35, 210, 188, 221, 234, 163, 185, 31] length = len(key) f = open(sys.argv[1], "rb") byte = list(f.read()) f.close() end = False kcpassword = [] for i in range(len(byte)): if byte[i]^key[i%length] == 0 : end = True if end == False : kcpassword.append(str(chr(byte[i]^key[i%length]))) print(''.join(map(str,kcpassword))) # Function main def main(): if len(sys.argv) < 2 : print('usage : ./decode-kcpassword.py KCPASSWORD_PATH') exit() decrypt_kcpassword() # Call to main if __name__ == '__main__': main()

/mac | Sep 07, 2017

Veganism in a nutshell #

If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others... why wouldn't we?

-- Pam Ahern of Edgar's Mission

/misc | Sep 03, 2017

Cracking Microsoft Office password protection #

/nix | Aug 22, 2017

Proving the existence and content of a webpage #

It uses a "remote controlled browser to create screenshots with extended logging of user actions and data transfer to create a timestamped and digitally signed document to give a very reliable proof of the website contents while allowing to selectively exclude sensitive information and transparently decoding ssl (https) sessions".

Would the generated files hold up in court? No idea. I am not a lawyer (thank heavens), this is not legal advice, etc, etc. It may be prudent to have an actual notary (or twelve) verify and notarize instead (after conferring with a phalanx of attorneys, of course).

Related:

• PageSigner
• How to Carbon-Date a Web Page
• Proving creation time/date of a screenshot
• How to prove the authenticity of a screenshot?
• How to prove that a web page that's there now, was really there, once it's not there anymore.

/misc | Aug 16, 2017

OS X: Undelete iMessage messages #

• Find deleted or missing iMessage messages (.ichat files) in ~/Library/Messages/Archive.

• Attachments can be found in ~/Library/Messages/Attachments (view them all at ludicrous speed with Kenny Carruthers' Fileloupe).

• Since .ichat files are in binary property list format, some text search tools may not work, but grep does just fine:
  $ grep -R somekeyword ~/Library/Messages/Archive/*

• Convert .ichat files to JSON with matrix-hacks' ichat2json. To handle multiple files, use a simple for loop like so:
  $ for i in *; do ichat2json "$i" > "$i.txt"; done

• .ichat files can be converted to XML via plutil as explained by Sean Moubry:
  $ plutil -convert xml1 message.ichat.
  plutil reportedly supports conversion to JSON as well, but not in my brief testing:
  $ plutil -convert json message.ichat
  invalid object in plist for destination format

• UPDATES:

  • imessage-exporter: "Export macOS iMessage data + run iMessage Diagnostics"

  • How to delete all conversations all at once in iMessage?

/mac | Jul 17, 2017

Download Windows and Office ISOs from Microsoft #

"This tool allows an easy and comfortable way to download genuine Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 disk images (ISO) directly from Microsoft's servers, as well as Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2016, and Office 2011 for Mac.^*

"In the past Microsoft provided disk images for many of their products through their subcontractor "Digital River". These downloads were pulled in early 2014. Afterwards, Microsoft made a limited selection of downloads available on their TechBench site. Our tool accesses that TechBench site, and unlocks a large number of hidden download files on it."

^*In my testing, only Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Insider Preview, Office 2013, Office 2016, and Office 2016 for Mac were available. However, there is this promising note on Jan's website:

"Removal of Windows 7 and Office in Version 5.00: These downloads have been blocked by Microsoft. We're working on an update."

UPDATE: See also Michael Niehaus' open source MediaTool, which he outlined in Another Windows media creation tool? Sure, why not. and The inner workings of a media creation tool.

/windows | Jun 03, 2017

Incremental disk image backups with auto-pruning, encryption, and more #

Backup

• Full (disk), volume, and file level backups
• For full and volume backups, only blocks changed since the last backup are copied
• Email notifications
• Backup file encryption
• BitLocker support
• Backup to multiple targets / rotated drives^*
• Flexible scheduling by day/time or trigger (when a backup drive is connected, a user logs off, etc.)
• Automatic pruning of old backups (keep backups for the past x days when the computer was running)
• Automatic ejecting of USB storage targets post backup to protect against malware

Restore

• Bare metal, volume, and file restore options
• Restore to dissimilar hardware or smaller/larger disks
• Restore computer disks as VMDK, VHD or VHDX files.
• Instant Recovery to Microsoft Hyper-V VM

Recovery Media

• Collect drivers from source OS
• Quick and easy WinPE-based boot/recovery disc builder (does not require downloading Windows Automated Installation Kit (aka WAIK or AIK))
• Built-in recovery tools include: Reset Password (resets the hidden-by-default Administrator account password (Administrator will appear at the login screen on reboot)), Startup Repair (fixes problems that are preventing Windows from starting), Memory Diagnostic (runs Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic), and Command Prompt (cmd.exe).

More

• Support for Windows 7 through 2016 (yes, Server editions are supported!)
• Tons of great documentation:
  • FAQ
  • User Guide (PDF)
  • Editions Comparison (PDF)
  • Free Product Overview (PDF)
  and a very active support forum.

Notes

• ^* To setup multiple targets / rotated drives:
  1. Assign static, unique letters to each drive that will be used (This isn't in the documentation, and may not be required, but I had trouble restoring files when testing two rotated drives which were dynamically assigned the same letter.)
  2. If you have already setup a backup routine to the first target, skip to step 3. Otherwise, head to Start > Veeam > Tools > Configure Backup and configure and run a backup job to the first target normally.
  3. Disconnect the first target drive and connect the second target drive
  4. Start > Veeam > Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows > Settings > Manage registered storage devices > click "Register" to the right of the second target drive
  5. Run the backup routine normally
• Alternatively, you can manually backup to another location by right clicking the Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows icon in the system tray then clicking Backup > Backup to another location...
• The keyboard and mouse may hang on the green Veeam Recovery Media screen for a minute or two - just hang tight.
• If after a bare metal restore the PC fails to boot, reboot from the recovery media, click Tools > Load Driver and uncheck "Inject these drivers into operating system while performing bare metal recovery" before reperforming the bare metal restore.
• See also Paul Braren's comprehensive Superguide: Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE

/windows | May 31, 2017

Encrypt and decrypt files in GPG without keys; #

Create an encrypted copy of foo, saving it as foo.gpg in the current directory:

$ gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 foo
Enter passphrase:
Repeat passphrase:

Create a decrypted copy of foo.gpg, saving it as foo in the current directory:

$ gpg --output foo --decrypt foo.gpg
gpg: AES256 encrypted data
Enter passphrase:
gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase

Create an encrypted copy of foo, saving it as foo.asc in the current directory in ASCII-armored format (suitable for pasting into email, etc):

$ gpg --symmetric --armor --cipher-algo AES256 foo
Enter passphrase:
Repeat passphrase:

Same as above, but send output to stdout instead of saving as foo.asc:

$ gpg --symmetric --armor --cipher-algo AES256 --output - foo
Enter passphrase:
Repeat passphrase:
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v1

jA0ECQMCpjdNrpTC689g0kYBkyRd+aGyQwt8sZu+OvEilyCnXd6RiYMXM75MlSb+
OCZnMy6hBhGxvJ7R23HCkNPg76X8dH4O8k5kYtuQwL9fZL8akSY0
=uWsn
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Decrypt foo.asc, sending output to stdout:

$ gpg --decrypt foo.asc
gpg: AES256 encrypted data
Enter passphrase:
gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase
hello, world!

Notes:

• By default, --symmetric uses AES128. Find supported ciphers with --version:
  $ gpg --version
  ...
  Cipher: IDEA, 3DES, CAST5, BLOWFISH, AES, AES192, AES256, TWOFISH,
  CAMELLIA128, CAMELLIA192, CAMELLIA256
  ...

• To disable gpg-agent, change use-agent to no-use-agent in ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf.

• Why gpg rather than openssl enc?

  • openssl: recover key and IV by passphrase
  • PGP or GPG vs OpenSSL for encrypting files
  • OpenSSL vs GPG for encrypting off-site backups?

• More from The GNU Privacy Handbook: Documents may also be encrypted without using public-key cryptography. Instead, only a symmetric cipher is used to encrypt the document. The key used to drive the symmetric cipher is derived from a passphrase supplied when the document is encrypted, and for good security, it should not be the same passphrase that you use to protect your private key. Symmetric encryption is useful for securing documents when the passphrase does not need to be communicated to others. A document can be encrypted with a symmetric cipher by using the --symmetric option.

/nix | May 30, 2017

Renaming files in OS X for Windows or Unix compatibility #

Free

• Remove All Illegal Characters from All Filenames in a Given Folder - Several regex approaches using bash, Name Mangler, and Automator
• Find files with illegal windows characters in the name on Linux - Several bash oneliners

While the above approaches should cover most use case scenarios, none of them address all of the possible naming issues in Windows.

Fee

• NameCleaner is specially designed to help move files to and from Windows and Unix [...] Preconfigured settings for MS-DOS, Unix and Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP.
• A Better Finder Rename includes conversion to Windows NTFS/SMB compatible names.

/mac | May 16, 2017

Apple Keyboard (A1243) - Function Keys Not Working #

The Apple Keyboard (A1243) was introduced in 2007 and rechristened Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad in 2009. Almost a decade later, it is still sold under the same name and model number.

However, there have been two different order numbers for this keyboard with separate system requirements:

• MB110LL/A - compatible with OS X 10.4.10 and up
• MB110LL/B - compatible with OS X 10.6.8 and up (The function keys will not work as expected if you are running an earlier version of OS X)

The only cosmetic difference between the MB110LL/A and MB110LL/B is the icons on the F3 and F4 keys:

MB110LL/A	MB110LL/B

/mac | Apr 29, 2017

OS X: Rich text editor with regex #

UPDATE: TextEdit has limited, predefined regexes available for finding (but not replacing); access via Cmd+F followed by Control+Option+Command+P (or just click the tiny magnifying glass icon in the Find field):

Available patterns:

• Tab
• Paragraph Break
• Line Break
• Page Break
• Any Characters
• Any Word Characters
• Word Break
• White Space
• Digits
• Email Address
• Web Address
• Phone Number

/mac | Apr 27, 2017

Saving colorized output from Bash #

Text-based output:

1. Install aha: $ sudo apt install aha
2. $ sudo testdisk | tee >(aha --black>output.html)
3. After quiting testdisk, type exit on the command line. Find output.html in the current directory.

Graphic-based output:

1. $ sudo apt install imagemagick ttyrec gcc x11-apps
2. $ git clone https://github.com/icholy/ttygif.git
3. $ cd ttygif
4. $ make && sudo make install
5. $ ttyrec
6. Run desired command(s), e.g., $ sudo testdisk
7. Type exit when finished
8. Convert ttyrec's output file (ttyrecord by default) to tty.gif in the current directory: $ ttygif ttyrecord

Sources & More

• Sylvain Pineau's answer to Saving output of a grep into a file with colors
• it_tyyppi's answer to Preserve colors when copy/pasting from terminal
• ttyrec: a tty recorder
• ttygif - Convert terminal recordings to animated gifs
• Comparison of terminal session recorders
• Had trouble with previously-mentioned TermRecord's playback, hence this update.

/nix | Mar 05, 2017

Resetting an HP OfficeJet 5740 #

• Basic method:

  • Tap Setup > Printer Maintenance > Restore > Restore Factory Defaults > Restore

  • The dialog box warns:

    All configured settings in the printer will be deleted and the original factory settings will be restored. This includes the administrator password for the embedded web server (EWS), Address Book entries for scan, and Phone Book entries for fax.

    Also, Web Services account information will be removed, you will need to setup Web Services again on this printer. Until Web Services is set up again, HP Instant Ink will not work properly.

    Do you want to continue?

    Cancel | Restore

• Undocumented methods:

  • Press Back/Return arrow 4 times > Support Menu > Resets Menu > Country & Language reset, Partial reset, and Semi-full reset

  • Press Home, Back/Return arrow, Home, Home > Engineering Menu > Services Menu > Resets Menu > Country & Language reset, Partial reset, Semi-full reset, and OOBE reset (Out Of Box Experience)

  • Press Home, Back/Return arrow, Home, Home > Engineering Menu > Underwear Menu > system menu > clear nvm, clear firms, clear scan list, and clear derivative

Notes

• According to Three Types of Resets for your HP Officejet 6110,

  Partially resetting it will return the printer to a responsive state without erasing the settings that you may have set on the printer.

  The semi-full reset is applicable on issues where the printer has gone haywire and does not perform as expected. This process requires all settings and data saved in the printer to be erased.

  [Full Reset] is rarely used. Usually the semi-full reset will do the job. . . . [T]here have been instances in the past where doing this reset procedure has cause permanent damage to the printer. Proceed at your own risk.

• A post by Jay4096 states that none of these worked to reset the administrator password on a HP Photosmart 7510 e-All-in-One:

  1. Partial Reset
  2. Semi-Full Reset
  3. OOBE Reset
  4. Full Reset
  5. Clear derivatives

  However, he was able to reset the administrator password by resetting the network settings (Wi-Fi icon on LCD > settings icon > Restore Network Settings). On the OfficeJet 5740, the prompt states: Network settings (including proxy settings), and the administrator password for the embedded web server (EWS), will be reset.

• The clear nmv option returned It is not default serial number Failed to reset NVM. Changed the serial number to all zeros on a whim to no avail. However, angerion explained how to dump and overwrite the NVM on an HP Photosmart C4480; the options are located under Engineering Menu > Underwear Menu > photo menu: dump nvm=>file and dump file=>nvm.

  • While I was able to dump the NVM to an SD card, attempting to write back a zero-filled NVM2_RAW.DMP returned error 0: unsupported. Renaming to any other filename (including NVM_RAW.DMP, which angerion used) would return error: bad file /fs/sda1/NVM2/NVM2_RAW.DMP.

Support and Engineering main menu entries

Support Menu (Press Back/Return 4 times)

• Support (Displays current firmware version)
• Information Menu
• Resets Menu
• System Configuration Menu
• Fax Diagnostic Menu
• Print Diagnostic Menu
• Connectivity Diagnostics Menu
• Reports Menu
• Scan Diagnostics Menu
• Enable/Disable Menu

Some potentially useful/interesting options:

• System Configuration Menu > Hardware failure status > OK to clear hardware failure status
• Enable/Disable Menu > disable Fax, Fax reprint, Color fax (incoming), or Webscan features

Engineering Menu (Press Home, Back, Home, Home)

• Manufacturing Menu
• Underwear Menu
• Services Menu
• Fax Regulatory Menu
• Extended Self Test
• Country & Language

Some potentially useful/interesting options:

• Manufacturing Menu > product usage menu > page counters
• Underwear Menu > boot code menu > set to mfg_mode and set to user_mode (Booting into mfg_mode displays a grid pattern on the LCD. Pressing the power button returns the printer to user mode.)
• Services Menu > System Configuration > Change serial number, Ethernet MAC address, and wireless MAC address
• Services Menu > Service Tests > De-activate door sensor

Links

• Reset und verstecktes Service-Menü beim HP Officejet Pro 8500
• KNOW-HOW: HP OFFICEJET PRO 8500'S HIDDEN SERVICE MENU - When nothing works anymore - Officejet reset
• KNOW-HOW: HP OFFICEJET PRO 8500'S HIDDEN SERVICE MENU - Menu structures
• How to Reset the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Premium All-in-One Printer
• HP OfficeJet 6700 All-in-one Printer
• HP Deskjet 3050A engineering and support menu
• HP Officejet J4500 J4600 4500 Cartridge Error Bypass -- HP901, HP901XL Cartridge Errors

/misc | Mar 04, 2017

Windows keeps reverting to high contrast mode #

/windows | Mar 01, 2017

Preparing a Mac for resale or donation (Sierra edition) #

Moved to the docs section for posterity.

/mac | Feb 18, 2017

Reset Safari 10 in OS X 10.11 El Capitan #

Turn this:

into this:

#!/bin/bash

# Reset Safari 10 for current user. Developed and tested under OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.

# Backup bookmarks to Desktop, exiting if unsuccessful
cp -v ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist ~/Desktop/Bookmarks-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`.plist
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then exit 1; fi

# Delete main Safari data directory
rm -rfv ~/Library/Safari

# Delete caches
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari.SearchHelper
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.safaridavclient
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/SafariNotificationAgent
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.commerce.safari/SafariLibrary

# Delete cookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.safari.cookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.CaptiveNetworkAssistant.binarycookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing.binarycookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.Safari.SearchHelper.binarycookies

# Delete preferences
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.Extensions.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.commerce.safari.plist

# Delete saved state
rm -rfv ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState

# Delete RSS feeds subscribed in Safari or Mail
# More info on PubSub database and command:
# http://krypted.com/mac-os-x/managing-mail-and-safari-rss-subscriptions-from-the-command-line/
rm -rfv ~/Library/PubSub/Database

# Delete yet more Safari data (cannot find any definitive documentation on this directory)
rm -rfv ~/Library/WebKit/com.apple.Safari

# Delete SharedFileList
rm -rfv ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments/com.apple.safari.sfl

# Delete LSOs / Flash cookies
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash\ Player

# Clear file quarantine database (i.e., list of downloaded files)
# More info: http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/12/list-download-history-mac-os-x/
sqlite3 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV* 'delete from LSQuarantineEvent'

# Delete QuickTime cache
rm -rfv ~/Library/Caches/QuickTime

printf "\n\n\033[1;32mSafari cleanup complete.\n\n\033[1;31mThe contents of /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins\nwill appear below after pressing Enter. Check output for unwated plugins.\nPreserve Quartz Composer.webplugin & Default Browser.plugin at a minimum.\033[0m\n\n"

read -p "Press Enter to continue."

# List contents of /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
ls -A /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins ~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins

Sources:

1. Testing with fs_usage and File Buddy in a clean VM.
2. completely reset Safari 9
3. How to reset safari 9.0.3
4. Reset Safari from command line
5. Reset Safari doesn't really clean all the cookies of Safari web browser
6. History in Safari
7. Aborting a shell script if any command returns a non-zero value?
8. In a bash script, how can I exit the entire script if a certain condition occurs?
9. guapolo's answer to How to get osx shell script to show colors in echo

/mac | Feb 11, 2017

Still using Yahoo Mail? #

• June 29, 2012
  Spam Surge For Some Suggests Something Odd May Be Happening To Yahoo! Mail

• January 8, 2013
  Yahoo patches XSS flaw affecting mail users

• January 10, 2013
  That Yahoo Mail Vulnerability? Not Really Fixed.

• January 31, 2013
  Email attack exploits vulnerability in Yahoo site to hijack accounts

• February 12, 2013
  Spammers stole Yahoo Xtra contact lists

• December 12, 2013
  Yahoo forced to acknowledge Yahoo Mail problems in worst failure yet

• February 26, 2014
  Vulnerability in Yahoo allowed me to delete more than 1 million and half records from Yahoo database

• April 8, 2014
  'Heartbleed' bug undoes Web encryption, reveals Yahoo passwords

• October 8, 2014
  Yahoo told to "pull your pants up" after Shellshock hack claims

• August 3, 2015
  Hackers Exploit 'Flash' Vulnerability in Yahoo Ads

• December 2, 2015
  Persistent XSS – Yahoo Mail Inbox

• January 19, 2016
  Yahoo Just Fixed Another Scary XSS Bug

• September 22, 2016
  Yahoo hit in worst hack ever, 500 million accounts swiped

• December 9, 2016
  Yahoo Mail XSS Bug Worth Another $10K to Researcher

• December 15, 2016
  One Billion Accounts Hacked: Worst Data Security at Yahoo Leads to Biggest Data Breach Ever!

UPDATES:

• February 15, 2017
  Yahoo Warns Users Their Email Accounts May Have Been Hacked – Yes, Again

• February 17, 2017
  Deleting your Yahoo email account? Yeah, good luck with that

• October 3, 2017
  Yahoo Triples Estimate of Breached Accounts to 3 Billion

• October 3, 2017
  Your Yahoo account info was definitely hacked -- here's what to do

• November 8, 2017
  Four years later, Yahoo still doesn’t know how 3 billion accounts were hacked

• April 26, 2018
  SEC Penalizes Yahoo $35 Million For Massive, Undisclosed Cyber Theft

• October 23, 2018
  Yahoo agrees $50M settlement package for users hit by massive security breach

• September 30, 2019
  Former Yahoo Software Engineer Pleads Guilty To Using Work Access To Hack Into Yahoo Users’ Personal Accounts

• July 6, 2020
  Ex-Yahoo employee avoids jail, despite hacking 6000 accounts, and stealing explicit photos and videos

• March 3, 2021
  Verizon sells AOL and Yahoo for about half of what it paid

• March 8, 2023
  Yahoo Mail users bombarded with spam or junk emails in primary inbox, here's what support suggests

/misc | Feb 10, 2017

List all files on disk #

Even as root, ls and find produced too many errors ("Permission denied", "Not a directory", "directory causes a cycle", "Input/output error", etc) when attempting to list all files on disk. Tree worked a treat:

$ tree -a -i -f / > filesystemlist.txt

 -a All files are listed.
 -i Don't print indentation lines.
 -f Print the full path prefix for each file.

/nix | Feb 06, 2017

Migrating from Mail.app to Thunderbird #

• Mail Exporter Pro - Easiest way^* to batch/bulk export Mail.app mailboxes/folders (including subfolders) into an easy-to-import format for Thunderbird via:

• ImportExportTools^† "adds some tools to import and export folders and messages". Also allows exporting folder indexes to compare contents, etc: ImportExportTools > Export all messages in the folder > just index (CSV).

• Another handy add-on is Theme Font & Size Changer^‡ which "lets you change the global font size and font family used for the user interface". Or go manual with userChrome.css.

• You can grant Thunderbird access to your Mac contacts if desired.

• Remove the splash screen/pane: Thunderbird > Preferences > General > uncheck "When Thunderbird launches, show the Start Page in the message area".

• Apply a custom set of columns to all folders by clicking the tiny icon at the far right of the column list and then "Apply columns to..."

^* In Mail.app, you can highlight multiple mailboxes > "Export Mailbox..." > Options > Export all subfolders > Choose, but the resulting mbox files are all named "mbox".

^† For Thunderbird versions above 60.*, use Christopher Leidigh's fork, ImportExportTools NG. Import options differ between right clicking "Local Folders" and its subfolders: the former offers only "Import mbox Files" (or no option for Maildir-based message stores), while the latter provides both "Import mbox Files" (or "Import Maildir Folder") and "Import EML Messages".

^‡ No longer compatible as of TB 68; try this instead:

1. Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor...
2. Search for "layout.css.devPixelsPerPx" and change default value of -1.0 to 1.5

/mac | Feb 05, 2017

Batch remove all tiles from Windows 10 Start Menu #

Well, almost all tiles; the few that remain after running the script below (save as unpin.ps1 then right click and "Run with PowerShell") can be removed manually (right click tile > "Unpin from Start").

• Original script in German by colinardo. Above English version by jackized.
• Change "-unpin" to "-pin" in the script to replace the tiles.
• If a blank "Name group" prevents the Start Menu from shrinking after deleting the tiles, pin a tile back and then manually remove it to resolve.

UPDATE: A smaller and more efficacious PowerShell script by max630:

(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).
    NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').
    Items() |
  %{ $_.Verbs() } |
  ?{$_.Name -match 'Un.*pin from Start'} |
  %{$_.DoIt()}

/windows | Feb 04, 2017

Convert asciidoc to markdown #

1. Install pandoc and asciidoc

   sudo apt install pandoc asciidoc

2. Convert asciidoc to docbook

   asciidoc -b docbook foo.adoc

   foo.xml will be output into the same directory as foo.adoc

3. Convert docbook to markdown

   pandoc -f docbook -t markdown_strict foo.xml -o foo.md

4. Unicode symbols were mangled in foo.md. Quick workaround:

   iconv -t utf-8 foo.xml | pandoc -f docbook -t markdown_strict | iconv -f utf-8 > foo.md

5. Pandoc inserted hard line breaks at 80 characters. Removed like so:

   iconv -t utf-8 foo.xml | pandoc -f docbook -t markdown_strict --wrap=none | iconv -f utf-8 > foo.md

/nix | Jan 24, 2017

3 Mac file-related apps #

• Little Flocker - Restrict "any application from accessing your files without explicit permission ... prevent silent exfiltration, encryption, or destruction of your data..." $14.99. Think Little Snitch for your filesystem.
• Suspicious Package - Inspect PKG installer packages. Free. Compare with the venerable Pacifist.
• UninstallPKG - "Remove unwanted packages from your system." $9.99. The uninstaller for PKG files that Apple forgot.

/mac | Jan 23, 2017

Objections to veganism #

/misc | Jan 23, 2017

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