macBlogger - Apple Mac Blog

What better way to open your first macBlogger post than with an awkward attempt at a pun?

Parallels Desktop version 3.0 has just been officially released. The desktop virtualisation solution that allows you to run OS X and Windows (or some other operating system) side-by-side on your mac, has been under the spotlight quite a lot recently - not least because there have been free copies attached to Mac sales at a number of retail outlets in Ireland and elsewhere.

For anyone who has found themselves with a shiny new copy, or is considering forking out for the privilege of experiencing the best of “both” worlds, Web Worker Daily has written this comprehensive outline of the new version. There is a free 15-day trial available when you download the software here.

JSM is an open source application developed by an Irish Mac user which allows you send SMS text messages from the comfort of your desktop. Their page on Source Forge explains all you need to know..

JSMS is a FREE open source program which lets you send text messages to any Irish mobile phone using your mobile operator webtext account. Now supports Meteor.ie Vodafone.ie & O2.ie! You can leave the program open all the time on your PC.

You must have a valid Meteor, O2 or Vodafone Ireland phone number and password to use this sms tool.

I’m going to setup my Meteor account later this evening to test out this neat little application.  JSM also works on Windows and Linux. It is developed in Java.

Download JSM

Recently a lot of Dutch ISP’s deceided (without warning) that they wanted to close port 25 connections other then to their own mailservers. By doing that they hope to reduce the spamload on the servers and lower the abuse complaints, and even worse ending up on a blacklist because one of their users fucked up.

But on the downside a lot of business clients who run their own SMTP server couldn’t send out mail anymore. A lot of clients had issues. Most of them solved this on my advice by changing their smtp port to a port above 1024, say 1025. Most of those ports aren’t blocked.

I had a problem, since i travel a lot with my mac i actually wanted the same but easy to install and easy to setup. I googled around and found what i was looking for, best of all it was free aswell: Rapido SMTP

What is Rapido SMTP?
This free utility helps Mac users set up a full SMTP mail server in less than a minute. In fact, RapidoSMTP allows you to turn on the Postfix SMTP server built into Mac OS X, which will allow you to send mail out the command line, from PHP, or from Mac OS X applications like Apple Mail, Eudora or Microsoft Entourage.

Installation
Installation is easy, just download the dmg file, and execute it. Be sure, if your isp blocks port 25, to change the post to a different number.

Is it possible with RapidoSMTP to setup an open relay?
NO. By default, we put the SMTP Open Relay as OFF. Like that, nobody can take control of your Mac and use it as a spam server.

Why RapidoSMTP is useful?
RapidoSMTP is useful for example when you move often with a laptop. You will no longer have to setup a different smtp server to send emails. But this product is also a great tool for developers. For PHP programmers, web designers, and other software developers, it’s often useful to set up a local SMTP server on the development machine and communicate with it through “localhost”. This is because you can let the local SMTP server do the job of communicating with a Smart Host, or set up the SSL connections, if required, or work with the DNS System, without your having to figure out what to do to effect these in your code. In your code, you simply talk to “localhost” and leave it to the Postfix Enabled-SMTP server to do the rest.

Testing your installation after installing and activating the SMTP server.
You can test this using Terminal. First, type in this command:

telnet localhost 25 (or if you set a different port telnet to that port)

If you see a :

Connected to localhost.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 iMac.local ESMTP Postfix

it means RapidoSMTP has successfully set up your Mac to send mail. You can type ‘quit’ at this point to get out of the telnet session. The in your mail.app set the outgoing smtp to 127.0.0.1 or localhost and you are done.

Questions ? Just ask me ! Robbert

A quick tip: Keep your download windows tidy. That will improve load time on both mac and windows.

Robbert

I’ve come across another nice program, X Resource Graph by Gaucho Software.

X Resource Graph (XRG) is a nice freeware utility that presents system monitoring data in a self-contained bar. The graphs provide quick and easy summaries of the various operations of your system, from CPU usage to memory consumption to network traffic. It even has a temperature monitor. In case you get bored or still feel understimulated with information, there are even graphs for monitoring stocks and local weather.

XRG’s user interface is configurable; you can choose what data you want to see. If you don’t want to see what’s happening on your ethernet interface, you don’t have to see it. The interface also supports skins. It’s pretty easy to configure the look to match your favorite background. On my machine, XRG is configured with transparent borders and background, only showing labels and graphs, so it doesn’t clutter up my desktop.

XRG is not a widget. I’ve seen a few other system monitoring widgets out there like iStat nano, but I use widgets so infrequently lately that something like iStat would annoy me.

Overall, X Resource Graph is a great, free system monitoring app. Everyone should give it a try at least once. Maybe twice.

Robbert

If you are on the road as much as I am you are not always able to get to the internet in a comfortable way. On a mac you are even more limited because the airport card doesnt scan that much. Now with coconut WIFI things get easier.

CoconutWiFi displays you a small aqua-bubble at the top of your screen which indicates whether you’re in range of a wireless network or not.The app also tells you if the wireless networks in your range are encrypted or open, so you won’t miss the next open wireless network any more.

There are some more nice apps. Those i will try to cover that in the upcoming posts.
Btw suggestions for nice software (preferable Open Source) are welcome.

Robbert