Camping on Mt. Palomar (A vacation within a vacation.)

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Camping on Mt. Palomar

(A vacation within a vacation)

  How long has it been since I have been camping?  Not since I came to Korea, so about 8 years! So one of the things I wanted while back in the states would be to go out and do some sleeping under the stars!  What better place to do that than Mt. Palomar?  Home of the world famous Hale telescope. 

  The first problem is that I have never been able to reserve a camp site in the past, every time I have tried the campgrounds have been booked solid.  I was in luck this year, as there were plenty of spots available at the Observatory campground.  The other problem was that all my gear is in Korea.  No worries!  I just ordered a new tent, stove, and lantern from Amazon about 2 weeks prior to departure. I can either have the new equipment shipped later or donate it to a family member.  Being that Mt. Palomar is known for its stars, the main road from Interstate 15 to Palomar Mountain SR-76 is known as “Highway to the stars” I bought the brand new Rokinon 14mm f2.8 AF just for star photography, but more on that later!

  The big day finally arrived, and of course I ended up waking up late, than dragging my feet getting my gear ready and packed.  I had intended to leave early, take my time on the drive up taking photos along the way, I did not get on the road until about 1pm, which means I got up to Mt. Palomar aroundt 2:30 in the afternoon.  This wasn’t really a big real since the checkin time for the camp site was 2pm,  I decided to drive up to the Palomar Observatory and have a look at what was once the world’s largest terrestrial telescope.  The observatory was designed by George Ellery Hale in 1928, and was operational in 1948, it contains a 200 In. Pyrex mirror that at the time was the largest in the world and held that record for the next 45 years.

 

  

  After checking out the observatory, it was time to check in at the camp site and setup camp.  I made reservations online for site number 6 at the Observatory Campground. 

  The campground far exceeded my expectations!  The site was set back from the vehicle parking space, had plenty of privacy and the picnic table area, and the spot where I setup my tent offered plenty of shade by oak trees.  There was even a stream running behind the picnic table that offered some relaxing white noise during the night.  Though it also meant the ground was saturated.  So be sure to bring a ground cloth for your tent, as the bottom was quite damp and had to later be dried and cleaned at home. 

  It took about an hour to get everything setup, then it was time to cook dinner.  I BBQ’d a nice thick cut of steak marinated in a premade Jack Daniels sauce, served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.

  After dinner it was time to start the camp fire and get ready to look at some stars.  I did say I was here for the stars, right?  Well I was not to be disappointed, at least not by the stars, because out they came!

  I was disappointed with the performance of the new Rokinon lens for star photography, which I will do an in-depth review on later, let’s just say for the purpose of this blog that I was very frustrated just getting what I got here, and if you are looking for a lens to do star photography stick with the manual focus offering by Rokinon.

    I should also note, that one of biggest things to get used to was the amount of quiet!  Coming from Korea, where there is always so much going on around you 24 /7. When you suddenly find yourself in a place where the only thing you hear is the chirping of birds, the occasional scurrying of animals, and the creek running behind your campsite, it is both wonderful, and disconcerting all at the same time!

  I had intended to get up at 6am, and make breakfast, but for the first time on the trip my body decided to sleep in until 10am.  No Time for breakfast!  It was time to hit the trails.  So off I drove to the actual Palomar Mountain State Park.  Since I stayed in a Federal Campground, and Palomar is a state park, I was not sure if my camping fee’s also covered the park entrance.  It was only an additional $10 so I decided to pay just to be safe.  The plan was to hike out and get pictures at the weir Site. The weir was built to measure the waterflow on Doane creek as there were thoughts of building a hydro electic dam to power the mountain. 

  Even with a park map it was confusing at first to find the trail head, I ended up on a sketchy 1 lane dirt grade and took me out of the park. The side trip did have one upside! I was able to pull over at one place and get some selfies next to a fallen log.

I was eventually able to find a place to turn around and get re-oriented and found the trail head at the Doane Pond parking (Just follow the signs to the School Camp.).  The start of the weir trail is to the right of the parking lot. It is a little hard to see. You then cross the road you drove in on and are once more on the trail.  It was a very relaxing high that keeps you in the shade of the most part.  There are quite a few fallen timbers on the trail, but only one that the rangers have not sawed through to make a passage through.  When your just about to the weir you will have to cross Doane creek on this narrow blank (In Asia we would call this a monkey bridge!), It is very stable and I had no problem crossing it (Several times in fact for selfies!), though the first time was a bit unnerving with all the camera equipment on my back! 

  Finally here I am at the weir site,

  I had seen a picture on someone’s blog where they were framed in the upper story window that I was trying to duplicate.  I was never able to scramble up there fast enough!  The best I could do was get a picture of Doane creek using the window as a frame. 

  The joke turned out to be on my however, as when I climbed onto the little rock wall to the left of the weir.  I am almost level with the second floor window, and there is an opening on the side.  I could have avoided all of this however if I had just brought my iPhone and used the remote trigger feature via Wifi.  The trail continued behind the wier, but was completely choked with poison oak, so I turned around and hiked out the way I came in.  So if you wish to hike beyond this point, I recommend bringing a pair of gardening glove and a long sleeve shirt!

  The hike was awesome!  I really appreciated that it was not a very strenuous hike, and how shady it was , except the small stretch where you parallel lower Doane Valley and are exposed to the sun you stay relatively cool!   It was time to head back to the camp site, take a shower and relax before dinner and the final camp fire! 

  I really enjoyed camping at Mt Palomar, and I highly recommend the Observatory Campground!  If site 6 is available go ahead and reserve it.  If you do come back here and tell me if you agree with my recommendation.  It is close to one of the pit toilets (Which are well maintained and do not smell.), but far away from the main flush toilets and showers that you don’t have constant traffic coming by your site. It is also on the other side of the campground from the Observatory trail that you don’t have stray foot traffic either.  The site is set back from the road with plenty of foliage for privacy and the picnic table area is shaded by tall oak trees.  Please remember to walk your campsite on the day of departure and pick up any trash, even if it is not yours!  Leave the site better than you found it! 

How to get to Mt. Palomar

From San Diego. 

Take I-15 North to East – 76, Then turn left on South Grade Road (County S6).  You will follow S6 up the mountain then turn left to continue on S6/Canfield Road).  Keep a look out for the campground ahead ¼ signs.  They come up quickly.  The observatory campground is the first one you will come to on your right.

GPS Coordinates

33°20’30.856″ N
116°52’41.748″ W

Closest Mappable Address (Within 2 miles)

35899Canfield Road, Palomar Mountain, California

RESERVATIONS:

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/observatory-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=7231

Something Different – The Enigmatic Hipstamatic.

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Something Different – The Enigmatic Hipstamatic.

  If you have been following my blog on a regular basic you may have noticed something a bit odd about my last blog, https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/going-home-again-day-1-the-long-haul/. Most if not all of the photos on my blogs have been shot with a DSLR, very rarely have I used pictures taken with my iPhone.  I wanted to document my travel experience on the flight  over but did not want to keep taking out and putting away my 5DMKIV.  So I thought what the heck!  I’ll use my iPhone exclusively, but to be really different I will use an app that I have had for a number of years called Hipstamatic. It couldn’t possibly hurt and will add some creativity to the blog.

  What is Hipstamatic?  Hipstamatic is a iOS or Windows Phone created by Hipstamtic LLC <Click here for website>.  Which allows it’s users to take old fashioned square style photographs with carious software filters applied.  Various effects can be closen by selecting a style of camera, film, and flash.  Or you can choose to select a random selection which is what I used.

  Here is a sample of a photo taken with the “Enigmatic” Hipstamatic.

 Pictured here is the ‘back of the hipstamatic, showing the flash lever (When pressed you will hear the sound of the flash charging, ISO selection wheel, view finder, and shutter button.  There is also a photo timer. 

Clicking on the arrow, will display the front of the camera, which will allow you to change lenses, film, flash, or camera body. 

 

Each of these items will provide a different retro look to the pictures taken with the Hipstamatic.  Clicking on the arrow again, returns you to the camera back.

Hipstamatic saves 2 versions of the file, the one seen here with the filter applied and the original photo with no filter applied.

Which is nice if you decide you like the photo better with no filter applied.

  Hipstamatic is available for free from the App Store, and works with either the iPhone or iPad.  The free app comes with a base back of several camera bodies, film, and flashes, and additional “accessories” are available as in-app purchases. Hipstamatic is also available for the Windows Phone.  Their website can be found here.  http://hipstamatic.com/camera/

   I have rarely used my iPhone for the photos for my blog.  Though that may change.  I certainly liked the concienence, and do feel they have a unique look.  If you use your phone to take photos perhaps give the Hipstamtic a chance!  After all the app and base back are free, and you can always decide to use the picture without the effects applied.

  Thank you for visiting Brent’s World.  Please come back next week for more great content!  If you wish to be notified by email when new content is posted you may register by clicking here!

San Diego Restaurant Review – Sunnies Ocean Beach Mexican Food

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Sunnies Mexican Cuisine & Coffee

Ocean Beaches Mexican Cuisine & Coffee

  One of the traditions in my family seems that we all at one time or another have worked at Sea World.  Either in Park Operations or Food services.  My niece has been carrying on that tradition, however with a new twist. She also works as a waitress at a cozy little Mexican restaurant on Point Loma Ave in Ocean Beach called Sunnies. She is the first teenager in the family to hold down two jobs at the same time.  So of course during my visit I had to run down and blog about it.

  Once you walk in the door, take a moment to peruse the large menu on the wall to the left then step up to the counter and place your order, then take a seat either inside or at one of the tables directly out front or around the corner at “Java Beach”.  Once your food is ready it will be brought out to you by one of the servers.

  I ordered a side of Chips, Cheese, Salsa, and Guac, and a #2 combination plate, which consisted of 2 beef enchiladas (You also had a choice of chicken), beans, and rice.

Here is a fish tacos, on a corn torilla.

  The food was tasty and filling, the environment was nice and it was great to sit down and talk over Mexican food and soda.  The restaurant offers coffee, tea, soda, and bottled water.

  If you are down in the Ocean Beach area and are looking for a quick bite of Mexican food, morning, noon, or night (Breakfast is served all day), give Sunnies a try!  Tell them you heard about them from catracing.org.  Below is their to go menu, however you can also order from the fulfl menu posted above.

ADDRESS:

4723 Point Loma Ave
San Diego, CA 2107
Phone #: (619)693-5298

Website:

www.sunniesoceanbeach.com

Hours:

Mon – Sun 8am – 8pm.

Directions:

            From 5 South:

Exit Sea World Drive head towards the beaches (Cross the Nimitz Bridge), keep right onto Sunset Cliffs BLVD.  Continue on Sunset Cliff BLVD until Point Loma AVE and make a right.

            From 8 West:

Continue to the end of the freeway, and stay in the right lane.  Keep right onto Sunset Cliffs BLVD.  Continue on Sunset Cliff BLVD until Point Loma AVE and make a right.

Technical: macOS X Security – Part 1 – Boot Security

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Technical: macOS X Security

Part 1 – Boot Security

 

  Technical blogs, oh how I loathe thee.  While one hand they are fun to research, and I do enjoy delving more and more into the inner workings of macOS X, To me these posts feel the most like actual work.  I do not get the enjoyment of taking photographs like I do for travel articles.  Or put myself in a well deserved food coma after reviewing a resturant.  It’s just mostly research, typing, and the screen shots that go with the article

 

They do provide a service to my readers and remain in the top viewed list continuously, so in there in itself is my reward!  Now that I have my belly aching out of the way, let’s start a new technical series on Brent’s World, macOS X Security, which will be a multi part blog on keeping your Mac, and your data safe!  We will begin with the boot loader, utilities available on the recovery partition and the vulnerabilities they impose and how to protect your system from these vulnerabilities.  Subsequent posts will deal with user accounts (Local, and network), file system permissions and access control lists (ACLs), drive and folder encryption, and ending with the sharing options offered with macOS X what they do, and how to lock them down.

So after that long winded preamble, lets dive into the heart of the matter.

Security, security threats, vulnerabilities, hackers, and bad actors.  This is something we hear about daily but as Mac users, especially standalone (devices not part of an enterprise environment.) is something we really take no notice of, these happen to other people, people who own PCs.  If we do anything at all we install an antivirus package such as Sophos and call it a day!  What if I told you there are many more threats out there then just viruses, worms, or ransomware?  Those risks raise exponentially if you are a Macbook or Macbook Pro user, simply because if you lose physical control of the device the thief can attempt to gain access at his leisure.  “So, my device is password protected!”  What if I told you, it is possible to get access to all your data and I don’t even need to enter your password, or that I could change your password from the recovery partition built into your Mac? Let’s take a look at some scenarios, starting from the simple and moving into the more complex.

 

  • The boot loader.

Rebooting or starting a Mac with the option key depressed will invoke the Apple Boot Loader. This will allow me to boot off an external drive such as a thumb drive or external hard drive.  Great for troubleshooting, imaging the operating system, or installing the OS if you have completely replaced the system drive.  It also opens up your system to several vulnerabilities such as allowing an unauthorized individual the ability to take an image of the system drive, or simply copy the data to an external drive

  • The recovery partition.
               Holding down Command – R after the startup chime will invoke loading the recovery partition, this is a hidden partition that contains a limited, bootable version of mac OS X that will allow you to set an OpenFirmware password (More about this later), access a shell via the terminal.app, Reinstall Mac OS X from a Time Machine backup, Reinstall Mac OS X, and Disk Utility. The recovery partition utilities are very useful when used for their intended purposes, but if left unsecured, by not setting an OpenFirmware password allow several holes into your system.  Let me demonstrate.

 

  • Single User Mode (SUM)

Holding down Command – S after the startup chime will place the macOS X computer in “Single User Mode” as the root level account (Even if root is not enabled.). The system volume is loaded as read only, but this can be changed by unmounting and remounting it as read/right.  This allows the person who booted the Mac into single user mode full access to any unencrypted data on the drive, the ability to mount removable media to copy this data off the drive.  The possibility of installing malicious code, as well as being able to change system preferences from the command line.   You may also change any user’s password on the system using Single User Mode.

So we have demonstrated 3 vulnerabilities present at the Mac boot loader, what can be done to harden your computer so bad actors will have a more difficult time exploiting these vulnerabilities?  You can set an OpenFirmware password that you will be prompted to anytime you hold down the Command Key during startup.  In order to enter the Recovery Partition, or Single User Mode you must enter the OpenFirmware password correctly.

CAUTION: If you lose your OpenFirmware password, you will need to take your Mac to either an authorized service center, or to the Genius Bar at an apple store to have the password cleared.  While older Macs (Pre-Intel), did have a reset button on the motherboard.  Newer Macs do not.  Zapping the PRAM will not clear the OpenFirmware password.

Let me now demonstrate how to set the open firmware password.

NOTE: If you sell your Mac, make sure you either include the OpenFirware password, or clear if before you deliver the Mac to its new owner.

These are the vulnerabilities that exist on your Mac during the boot process, while these might not have much impact if you are using a desktop Mac, it might be something to think about for mobile users. 

Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, please come back frequently for more great content.  If you wish to be notified by email when new content is posted, please register, by clicking here!

Book Review – The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead

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Book Review – The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead

  I was feeling a little guilty pushing back the normally scheduled technical blog by a couple of weeks, (which I promise will be worth the wait!) until I realized that is has been almost a year since I published my last review on 2 books The Devil Dragon Pilot, and Defector -Click Here To View-. 

  Let’s face it!  I read, I read a lot!  When I am not working, eating, or sleeping you will find me with my nose buried in the Kindle app on my iPad!  It is not often that I come across a book that is so captivating that no matter what I do I cannot put it down, or will stand out in my mind forever.  Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, (Which is the first book I read of his), Blindsight, and Godplayer by Robin Cook, and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien to name a few titles.

  The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead is just such a book!  Like Larry Bonds Red Phoenix (Which coincidently follows the same general format and prose of Red Storm Rising). Takes place in present day Korea, Kim Jon Un has died in a plane crash and the new North Korean leader has a plan to reunite the Korean Peninsula by force and replacing their government and using a political/economic system similar to China’s one country two systems policies of Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions. 

  How can North Korea hope to succeed? By threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb under the heart of Seoul itself, and to keep the US Military from coming to their allies aid a nuclear device has also been smuggled into a large US city and will be detonated if the United States interferes. 

  The only fly in the ointment is that an honest and hard working Vladivostok police detective has stumbled onto the loose ends left by the arms dealer who sold North Korea an old and forgotten about man portable nuclear weapon (Suitcase bomb).  With the help of an FSB agent they track down the device in the United States.  Will they be in time?  Will the North Koreans be successful in detonating the device in Seoul? 

  The book was well written, and did not bog the reader down with technical details or drone on about military strategy, or political details like Clancy’s books tend to.  While the editing needs a bit of work as there are spelling and grammatical errors, the book is still very enjoyable.  I pulled an all nighter in a coffee shop unable to put the book down while I was supposed to be out practicing nighttime photography in Seoul!

  If you are looking for a good entertaining military thriller, based loosely around current events, I highly recommend picking up The Second Korean War.  When finished you may also want to read Red Phoenix by Larry Bond (Though somewhat dated, still remains a good read, and hypothesis of what a second war on the Korean peninsula would look like.

  The Second Korean War can be purchased in book or Kindle form by clicking HERE.  Please note, Brent’s World is not monetized in any way!  I do not receive money or credit from Amazon.com if you purchase from this link.

  Be sure to come back next weekend for our regularly scheduled blog article on OS macOS X security, Securing the boot loader.  If you want to ensure that you do not miss any great new content from Brent’s World, be sure to register by CLICKING HERE.  You will receive an email whenever new content is posted.

Technical – My Top 5 macOS X utilities

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Technical – Top 5 Utilities You Should Have For Your Mac.

   I cannot believe I’m doing this!  I loathe the internet’s fascination with creating top 5 lists for anything!  Next, I will be reporting that dogs and cats are in fact living together.  In our last article, I recommended buying a bigger USB thumb drive than needed for your rescue USB stick where you could create a second bootable partition containing useful troubleshooting utilities. What utilities do I actually recommend you putting on this partition or on your Mac for normal use? In this week’s quickie article, I will rate, and briefly describe my top 5 macOS X utilities.  All the utilities listed here are 3rd party utilities, so they must be purchased separately.  So let’s get started!

Paragon NTFS – While mac OS X gives us the ability to read NTFS formatted drives and partitions, it does not allow us to write to them. There is a way of enabling writing to an NTFS partition, but it is slow, buggy, and you may lose data.  Neither APPLE nor myself would recommend that method for anything other than an emergency solution.  This is where Paragon NTFS comes in.  Paragon NTFS allows reading, writing, and formatting/partitioning NTFS drives.  You may download and try Paragon NTFS for 10 days, after the 10 day trial you must pay $19.95 to continue using it.  Paragon’s website is found here: https://www.paragon-software.com/ufsdhome/ntfs-mac/

Carbon Copy Cloner – This next utility in my arsenal also highlights an annoyance I have right now with Apple. Did you know that Apple’s own Disk Utility does not like you image devices that are formatted with the new Apple File System (APFS)? Seems hard to believe. Right?  So what are we to do if you need to image a disk that has been formatted or converted to APFS?  This is where Carbon Copy Cloner ‘CCC’ comes in and why I recommend that you put this on your rescue utility disk.  Carbon Copy Cloner has full APFS support for disk images. Great for transferring or making backup copies of your system disks!  Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich Software is available with a 30-Day trial license, and costs $39.99 for a full license.  You can download directly from Bombichs’ web site here: https://bombich.com/.

 

Stuffit Expander – If you have been a Mac user for a long time, you would know that Stuffit Expander is the Mac equivalent to Winzip. Stuffit ‘.sit’ archives was the predominant file compression standard before .dmg.  Stuffit could also uncompress .zip archives before mac OS X had the ability built in.  So if the most common format of compressed files in the wild today are now .dmg or .zip files, why would I need to concern myself with Stuffit Expander?  Stuffit Expander has the ability to decompress a wider range of formats than mac OS X can by default, one of those archive types is .rar files.  Which I have a time or 2 had the need to uncompress.  Since Stuffit Expander is free, why not add it to your tool bin? Stuffit Expander can be downloaded from SmithMicro at http://my.smithmicro.com/stuffit-expander-mac.html, or the Mac App Store

Sophos Anti Virus – I would include Sophos Anti Virus to protect yourself from malware, and to run a virus scan on drives without Sophos installed that you may not want to boot off of.

While not exactly a utility I highly recommend installing the Homebrew repository, which will allow you to add additional functionality to your shell environment, such as htop shown below. Additionally you might want to think about installing telnet which was removed from macOS X 10.13 due to security reasons (telnet is a non-encrypted protocol and sends everything in clear text, including passwords.  However it can be very useful for testing ports and protocols, as I am demonstrating below connecting to Google.com’s SMTP server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit Brent’s World, Please come back next week for another great article about Korea.  I visit the Mr. Toilet House Toilet Museum in Suwon!

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macOS X – Creating a High Sierra 10.13 USB Install Disk

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MacOS X – Creating Bootable Install Media For High Sierra

 We all know how to get to the OS X recovery partition, in the event we  need to reinstall Mac OS X High Sierra.  In case you don’t know or have forgotten, you simply power up or restart your Mac and hold down the Command and the R keys at the same time.  This tells the operating system to boot into a special hidden recovery partitions giving you access to a limited (And powerful set of utilities). What do you do if your recovery partition has become corrupted, or you have replaced your existing hard drive with a new hard drive?  Such would be the case if your hard drive failed, or you found it necessary to upgrade your existing drive.

  Today I am going to show you how to create a bootable USB installer for OS X 10.13 (High Sierra), as well as “useful utility” partition.  The only thing you will need is a USB thumb drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB of storage, however I would recommend getting one with 32 or even 64 GB, so you can have a bootable partition with your favorite utilities for emergencies.

   So, let’s get crackin!

  The first thing we want to do, Erase the USB thumb drive, and reformat it with the “GUID” partition scheme, 9 times out of 10 your thumb drive will come either formatted with the “Master Boot Record” scheme with a single “ExFAT or “NTFS” to work on Windows computers.  We will want to reformat the device to be used and bootable from your macOS computer.

  Open your utilities folder by selecting Go > Utilities, or pressing SHIFT – COMMAND – U.

           

           

 

 

 

 

 

Open Disk Utility

 

NOTE: By default Disk Utility will only show disk volumes.

I find it much more useful to display them in a hierarchical fashion, displaying the Volume and Partitions.  It provides additional visual references that make it easier to know exactly which device I am manipulating.  Very important when we may potentially lose data.  It would be a very bad day if I accidently erased my hard drive containing over 2GB of photo’s.

First we want to Erase the USB stick, and format it with the GUID Partition Scheme.

Select your USB Device, in this case it is named ‘General USB Flash Disk Media’

Click Erase

When Erase “<Disk Name>” dialog box appears.

                        Name the disk whatever you want, I will name it “OS X Rescue Disk”
                        Click the Format selection arrows and select “Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
                        Click the Scheme: selection arrows and select GUID Partition Map

Click Erase

When the formatting is completed, click Done.

Next, we will split the disk into 2 partitions., The Mac OS X install disk needs at least 8GB, as this is a 16GB drive we will create a new partition of equal size.  One will contain the Mac OS X High Sierra install media, the other will contain a bootable partition that we will keep useful utilities and documentation.

 

            Click on the drive, again this is the “General USB Flash Disk Media”

 

            Click on the Partition Icon.

            Click the + Icon.

  You will now see the drive broken into 2 equal partitions of 7.89 GB.  You can increase or decrease the size, but for this demonstration we will leave things as is.  Only changing the name of the new partition.

 

            Change the name of the new partition to “Rescue Utilities”
            Leave everything else unchanged, and click the ‘Apply’ button.

\You will now see a dialog box outlining the changes to be made to the drives structure, and are informed that No partitions will be erased.  This should NOT erase any data already present on your device.

DISCLAIMER!   This demonstration assumes you are using new media, or media that has already been erased.  As a precaution if you are performing these steps on a device that already has data on it, I HIGHLY recommend that you stop and take the time to back up the partition that has data.  I will NOT be held legally responsible for ANY data loss from you following these instructions.  By pressing the ‘Partition’ button as outlined in the demonstration you assume all risks of intended, or unintended loss of that data!

             Click on the ‘Partition’ button.
             Click the ‘Done’ button.

  You should now see the two newly created partitions.

   Quit Disk Utility.

  Now we must download the Mac OS 10.3 (High Sierra) installation utility.  This is done through the App Store.

           Launch the App Store.
           Click on the macOS High Sierra icon.
           Click on the ‘Download’ button.

  Depending on your internet connection speed, go grab a cup of coffee, or get lunch, or use the time to read some of the other great articles on Brent’s World.

  Once the installer has downloaded, we can now create the install media.  Verify that the installer has been downloaded it will be located in your /Applications directory.

Note: You need to be using an account the has permissions to administer the macOS X computer, or has been added to the sudoers file.  Open terminal.app by going to to /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app or Command-Shift-U then double clicking terminal.app

Type the following at your shell $ prompt.

 $ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High \Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/OS\ X\ Rescue\ Disk

The \ is used in Unix/Linux paths when you need to add a space.  You may also surround the entire path in quotes.  Like this.

 $ sudo “/Applicatons/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resouces/createinstallmedia” --volume “/Volumes/OS X Rescue Disk”

Press Enter.

You will now be prompted to re-enter your password to run the installer with elevated privileges.

WARNING: Creating an install disk will erase the volume you are using the create the install disk, answer Y to the next prompt ONLY if you are sure there is no data you wish to save on this volume.

Type ‘Y’ then ‘Return’ to continue.

The install disk is now being created on the OS X Rescue Disk partition.

Once the process is complete, we can now test our newly created install disk.

Restart your Mac, and after the startup chime, hold down the option key (Alt – If you are using a standard PC Keyboard).

You will now see the following screen where you may select a bootable device.

Click on ‘Install macOS High Sierra’ and click the up-arrow icon below it.  You should now be booting off your OS X Install partition.  Once the installer loads you will see a screen similar to the one below.

Once verified the disk is working, you can quit the installer, and your Mac will reboot.

Keep the USB stick in a safe place where you may use when needed.  In a later article we will install a fully working OS X High Sierra insall on the second partition ‘Rescue Utilities’ with some useful utitilites to Image, Restore, or repair a broken macOS X volume. 

Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, and please stop by again for more great articles!

You may also join our forums and discuss macOS X and other topics at www.catracing.org/hendrb/forum.
Never miss a new post, register today at, https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/wp-login.php

ALERT!! – Major Security Flaw Discovered in Mac OS X High Sierra (10.13.x)

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ALERT!! – Major Security Flaw Discovered in Mac OS X High Sierra (10.13.x)

 

 

 

  I was originally going to blog with instructions on creating a macOS X High Sierra boot USB with utility partition but decided to blog instead of the MAJOR security flaw that was discovered in Mac OSX High Sierra (10.13.x).  If you have not enabled and set a password to your root account, someone may authenticate as the root user without providing a password. 

 Additionally If you have the Login Option ‘Display login window as: Name and password’ selected an unauthorized person may be able to bypass the lock screen, logging into your system as the ‘root’ user!  To make this even more scary, once the exploit has been sued, it leaves the root user enabled (If it was previously disabled), with no password assigned.  Leavening the system open to future attacks both at the computer and possibly remotely.

  Apple released an update November 30th, that should have already installed with no user intervention required.   If for whatever reason you are not able to install the patch for this security flaw, you may temporarily secure your system by enabling the root account and assigning a strong password (See below for instructions.)

  There is a caveat you should be ware of.

  As the security patch affects ALL versions of High Sierra, the security patch will be installed even if you are still running macOS X 10.13, when you update to 10.13.1, the patch will be removed and your system will be vulnerable again.

To verify you have the patch installed.

Open your terminal.app
At your shell prompt type

$ what /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd

If you see the following output you have the security patch installed.PROGRAM:opendirectoryd

PROJECT:opendirectoryd-483.20.7 <FOR OSX 10.13.2>
PROJECT:opendirectoryd-483.1.5 <FOR OSX 10.13>

  Another thing to be aware of, the security patch will disable the root user account, if it was enabled prior to the patch you will need to re-enable it.  I find it to be ironic that one of the things the patch does is disable the one thing that prevented this flaw to begin with, having the root account enabled with a password set.

 

To Enable/Re-Enable Root User

  • System Preferences > Users & Groups.
  • Click the lock icon and authenticate as a privileged user.
  • Click the ‘Login Options’ button.
  • Click the ‘Edit…’ button to the right of Network Account Server:
  • Click Open Directory Utility.
  • Click the lock icon and authenticate as a privileged user.
  • Click Edit > Enable Root User.
  • Enter a strong password.
    1. 8-15 Characters
    2. Containing at least 1 capital letter.
    3. Containing at least 1 numeric character.
    4. Containing at least 1 special character.
    5. Do not use names, birthdays, or dates/places of special events.
  • Close the windows that were opened.

 

 

Hopefully this patch will be included in the 10.13.2 update whenever it comes out!

If you have any comments or questions about this blog or macOS X in general please stop by our forums at www.catracing.org/forum.

Thanks for following Brent’s World!

Movie Review – Cars 3

Brent's World Posted on by

Movie Review : Cars 3

Cars 3 proves the franchise still has some tread left in those tires!

 

  It’s great to have a three-day weekend, but not so nice when you can’t really get out because of inclement weather.  Though it does present a great opportunity to get a chance to work on the blog, and then sit down to watch a new release.  Sadly, it has been 4 months since I have last posted a movie review.  Sorry to have kept you all waiting!

   This month I have chosen to review Disney/Pixar’s latest addition to the popular Cars franchise, Cars 3.  I enjoyed the original film, as well as the lighter comedy of Cars 2, even though it received mixed reviews from critics. 

  Cars 3 promised a return to the more serious in-depth story, more similar to the darker tones set in the original, introducing new characters while bringing back our favorite characters, played by the same voice actors.  The movie focuses on Lightening McQueen’s (Voiced by Owen Wilson) struggle and failure to remain competitive in the ever-changing technology in competitive auto racing.  After a stunning loss to a rookie race car by the name of Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), using cutting edge technology and science to win.  Lightening McQueen pushes himself harder the next race but continues to lose to the newer, faster, and more agile rookies.  Resulting in an accident that takes him out of the race due to pushing himself beyond his limits.

  While recovering from his accident, and fearing he will be forced into retirement, his owners Rusty and Dusty (Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi) send him to a state of the art training facility run by Sterling, to be trained to beat the newer technology by personal trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo).

  I really enjoyed the movie!  Brian Fee delivered as promise a feature animation that felt more like the original, while intruding us to new characters.  The storyline also felt like a very natural progression in the franchise touching on something that isn’t often talked about during a sports hero’s time in the limelight, the knowledge at the back of their head that just like their rise to glory and taking someone else’s spot in the winner’s circle.  Someday someone, a rookie will come up from below and take their place.  It is the nature of being competitive.  I think both children and adults will enjoy Pixar/Disney’s latest release.  I give it 4 stars!  It currently holds a critic rating of 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 4 ½ stars at the iTunes music store.

  Will Lightning McQueen be able to regain his edge against the rookies, or will be be forced into retirement only so spend out his last days doing product endorsements for Sterling?  I highly recommend renting Cars 3, from the iTunes music store or Amazon today and find out!  The DVD and Blu-Ray will be available to purchase from Amazon November 14th, 44.00 for the Blu-Ray and $34.99 for the DVD. https://www.amazon.com/Cars-3-Blu-ray-Owen-Wilson/dp/B071Z1D23B/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1510329871&sr=8-7&keywords=cars+3

  NOTE: Brent’s World is not monetized!  I make no money from your purchases at either the iTunes music store, or Amazon!

EVENT NOTICE!

The anual Seoul international Lantern festival is taking place right now until November 19th 2017.  I had an opportunity to blog the festival back in 2015 https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/repost-seoul-lantern-festival/ If you are going to be in Seoul I highly recommend attending.

OS X – Random Quote Generator v1.1m

Brent's World Posted on by

MacOS X – BASH Scripting

Random Quote Generator v1.1m

 

I know it has been a while since I have posted a new blog! I deeply apologize, I have been suffering from a severe case of writers block, and have been struggling to come up with a new technical article that is up to the standards I have set for myself!  Looking back at some of the old articles, I realized that one of my favorites is woefully out of date!

For those of you who may be visiting Brent’s World for the first time, I converted a C-Net Amiga BBS Arexx script to BASH v4 back in February 2015 ( https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/fun-with-bash-scripts-random-quote-generator/ ), then followed it up with displaying the output through cowsay for some extra fun, https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/fun-with-bash-scripts-randquote-v1-1/.  For an encore I provided instructions on installing BASH v4 and GNUsed on MacOS X  so Mac users could also enjoy a random quote every time they launched their terminal.app.

So let’s bring the OS X version of randquote.sh up to date, since the previous instructions only covered Linux users.  Please make sure you already have Randquote v1.0, BASHv4 and GNUsed already installed and working.  If you do not please follow the steps outlined here, https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/os-x-installing-gnu-sed/.

We will need to install and test cowsay ( I am installing via homebrew, if using another method, you may skip this step.). 

Launch your terminal.app, and using a privileged account, Home brew does not work from root, or using sudo.

# brew install cowsay

Once this is finished we can test cowsay, use either of the 2 methods (I think method 2 is more fun.)

 $ man cowsay

If cowsay is successfully installed, you should now see the man page displayed.

Let’s now go ahead and throw something at cowsay, and see what happens

$ cowsay “For more GREAT blog articles, go to Brent’s World www.catracing.org”

If cowsay is successfully installed, you should now see the following displayed.

Now that we know cowsay is installed and working, can go make modifications to bring randquote.sh up to v1.1 on your Mac.

Add the following under the original copyright message, and above the note for MacOS X, <CR> denotes a carriage return, if you are cheating by using copy and paste, you will need to remove them.  If you are hand typing the script, simple skip over them.

#
# RandQuote v1.1 (C)22NOV2015 by Brent Hendricks
# Added the ability to display quotes through cowsay.
# cowsay is written by Tomy Monroe (tomy@nog.net)
<CR>

Below the MacOS X note, and above the ## Get Terminal Width comment add the following.  Functions must be written before the main routine of your script.

COWSAY=0
<CR>
## Get Options
<CR>
while getopts “c” OPTION
do
          case $OPTION in
          c)
          COWSAY=1
          ;;
          esac
done
<CR>

Next we will cursor down to the ## Read Quote from Quote file, and add the following.

After gsed -n “${RECORD},+5p” $QUOTATIONS > $TEMP_QUOTATION

Highlight and copy the following, gsed -e :a -e “s/^.\{1,${TERMWIDE}\}$/ &/;ta” -e ‘s/\( *\)\1/\1/’ $TEMP_$

Delete  the line and add the following.

<CR>
if [ $COWSAY -eq 0 ]
then
Paste the line you cut from above. ‘gsed -e :a -e “s/^.\{1,${TERMWIDE}\}$/ &/;ta” -e ‘s/\( *\)\1/\1/’ $TEMP_$’
else
cat ${TEMP_QUOTATION} | cowsay
fi

The rest of the file remains untouched.  The entire listing should look like this.

1 #!/bin/bash4
2
3 # BASH script to display RANDOM QUOTE and center text depending on terminal width.
4 # BASH script and quotation taken from CNET Amiga 2 AREXX PFILE
5 # AMIGA Version Copyright 1992 Jim Selleck and Beverly James Products
6
7 # BASH Script and blog article (C)24MAY2015 By Brent Hendricks
8 # Scirpt and Quotes are public domain, the accompanying BLOG may only be used with permission.
9 # Contact brent.hendricks@catracing.org if you wish to republish the article.
10 # Please visit Brent’s World @ www.catracing.org\hendrb
11 #
12 # RandQuote v1.1 (C)22NOV2015 by Brent Hendricks
13 # Added the ability to display quotes through cowsay.
14 # cowsay is writen by Tomy Monroe (tomy@nog.net)
15
16 # NOTE: In order to make this script function properly with LINUX a compatibility
17 # checking routine was added. If you are using OSX you MUST download and install GNUsed
18 # The easiest way to do this is to install HOMEBREW.
19 # HOMEBREW can be installed by going to www.brew.sh
20 # Once installed use $brew install gnu-sed
21 # This script will automatically use GNU-sed (gsed)
22 # if using OSX.
23
24 COWSAY=0
25
26 ## Get Options
27
28 while getopts “c” OPTION
29 do
30 case $OPTION in
31 c)
32 COWSAY=1
33 ;;
34 esac
35 done
36
37 ## Get Terminal Width
38 TERMWIDE=”$(tput cols)”
39 ((TERMWIDE = TERMWIDE -3 ))
40
41 ## Set file path
42 QUOTATIONS=~/shell_scripts/logon/randquote/quotations
43 TEMP_QUOTATION=~/shell_scripts/logon/randquote/temp_quotation
44
45 ## get number of quoatations
46 QUOTES=”$(cat $QUOTATIONS | wc -l)”
47 ((QUOTES = QUOTES / 5))
48
49 ## Pick A Record
50 RECORD=$((RANDOM % $QUOTES *5))
51
52 ## Read Quote from QUOTATIONS file
53 gsed -n “${RECORD},+5p” $QUOTATIONS > $TEMP_QUOTATION
54
55 if [ $COWSAY -eq 0 ]
56 then
57 gsed -e :a -e “s/^.\{1,${TERMWIDE}\}$/ &/;ta” -e ‘s/\( *\)\1/\1/’ $TEMP_QUOTATION
58 else
59 cat ${TEMP_QUOTATION} | cowsay
60 fi
61 ## Remove $TEMP_QUOTATION scractch file
62 # rm -f “${TEMP_QUOTATION}”
63 exit 0

Save the file, and let’s go ahead and test our modifications to make sure everything works.

 

First let’s see if we can output the quotation through cowsay.  At your shell prompt, type.

$ ./randquote.sh –c

If everything is working as advertised, you should see the following output.

Just to be on the safe side, let us also test the nomal output without the –c option. At your shell prompt enter the following.

$ ./randquote.sh

If everything is working correctly, we will now replace randquote 1.0 with v1.1.  At your shell prompt type.

$ cp ./randquote.sh ~/shell_scripts/logon/randquote

That is all there is to it!  I hope you enjoyed this weeks MacOS X Technical Blog, and come back next week for more great articles!  If you wish to be notified when new content is posted, you may become a registered user by clicking here.