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

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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.

Movie Review – The Miracle In Cell No. 7

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Movie Review
The Miracle In Cell No. 7

OK Cinephiles, it is time to review another film!  This month I have chosen an older Korean film that was released in 2013.  Directed by Lee Hwan-kyun and staring Seung-ryong Ryu (War Of The Arrows), who plays Yong-Goo a developmentally challenged adult who is found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder and rape of the young daughter of the commissioner of the Korean National Police while trying to find a highly coveted Sailor Moon backpack for his 6 year old daughter Ye-Seung (Played by So Won Kal).. 

Upon arriving in prission he is hated and abused by his cell mates, but after observing  Yong-Goo’s gentle and innocently helpful personality. which  includes saving the life of a fellow cellmate, and the prison warden, they begin to see that he is most likely innocent.  

As payback for for saving the life of his cellmate, His fellow prisoners sneak Ye-Seung into the cell to cheer up Yong-Goo, however there is a problem getting her out on time, and they eventually get caught and Ye-Seung is sent away, and becomes so depressed at being separated from her father she refuses to eat and must be hospitalized

The warden begins to questions whether Yong-Goo (who has the intelligence of a 6 year old) could have written the confession he signed during police interrogation, and tries to have the investigation reopened.  He meanwhile visits Ye-Seung in the hospital, and she asks the warden if he can arrest her too.  Also indebted to Yong-Goo for saving his life, he risks his career and those of his fellow guards by bringing her to the prison.  Over the following months Ye-Seung helps the other cellmates by teaching one to read, and stealing a fellow students cell phone so another cellmate may call his pregnant wife.  

Despite the wardens continued efforts to prove Yong-Goos innocence it is soon apparent that; due to the fact the victim was the daughter of the police commissioner the verdict and death sentence will stand.  It isn’t until Ye-Seung is grown and has become a lawyer many years later that she is able to get the Korean courts to overturn the conviction.

I really enjoyed the The Miracle In Cell No 7, and while the premise of the movie is implausible, it helps make the films message that much more emotionally jarring and disorienting.  Adding to the disorientation is that the film was billed as a comedy, and you are repeatly slapped in the face when presented with the fact that behind the childish antics of Yong-Gu and Ye-Seung, you are really watching an indictment of the Korean criminal justice system, the media for trying a suspect on TV for ratings, and of the class structure in modern day Korea.   It makes you ask yourself if an advanced society with a modern and supposedly fair and impartial judicial system can handle the responsibility necessary to carry out the ultimate punishment of death.  The film had more of impact on me then Dead Man Walking, or The Green Mile. 

I also thought it interesting that Hwan-kyung Lee decided to disguise the film as a comedy, it had the feeling of being more in the style of a Chinese film, in the sense that it uses metaphors to indirectly criticism the government, which I find a little odd for a country that openly flaunts it’s democracy and freedom of speech.

I highly recommend The Miracle In Cell No 7!  Just be sure to sit down with a box of Kleenex in addition to your pop corn!  I would also recommend screening the film before allowing young children to watch it,  as the movies more serious scenes may be inappropriate.

TRAILER:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAsBlmSIksk

The Miracle In Cell No. 7 can be purchased from Amazon by clicking on the link below. (NOTE:  Brent’s World in NOT Monetized.) I do not make any money from the links posted on this site.

https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Cell-No-Ryoo-Seung-Ryong/dp/B079NCNKD1/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Miracle+in+Cell+no+7&qid=1558538731&s=gateway&sr=8-1

It is also available in DVD and Blu-Ray

Unfortunately this film is NOT available on the Apple Music Store.

You may also pay to watch the full movie on youtube. For w1,200 (Can someone please comment if the content is also available in the US?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXptQR2ml8

Quickie – Mac OSX – Securing sshd_config

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Mac OS X Quickie
Securing sshd_config

 

Overview – While transferring the configuration files from my Late 2012 Mac Mini to my new Mac Pro, I noticed a pretty glaring security issue with the configuration file for the SSH daemon.  SSH, or secure shell, is a means of remotely accessing your server or workstations shell, through a terminal. It is similar to telnet, with the added benefit of being encrypted.  Telnet sends all traffic including username and passwords over the network in clear text. 

 

By default the configuration file is readable by all users.  So anyone who gains access to the system, can look at this configuration file to determine if there are any vulnerabilities caused by misconfiguration of the ssh daemon. While this is easily rectified, it is a glaring security hole that left me a little surprised.. Here are the POSIX permissions from a Centos 7.0 server.

Do you see the difference?

Mac OS X by default gives the read permission to the <other> group, allowing any user the ability to view the /etc/ssh/ssd_config.  We are going to fix this, and I advise you to do the same on any Mac server or desktop computer with SSH enabled.

Launch your terminal application, either from Go > Utilities > Terminal.app, or Shift-Command U > Terminal App. With a privileged account, type the following.

$ sudo chmod o-r /etc/ssh/sshd_config

If successful, you will be returned to the terminal prompt and you can verify the changes by performing a long directory listing.

$ ls –l

You should now see the following.

 

You can further test by switching to a non privileged account and trying to read the file.

$ cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config

You should see the following message.
cat: /etc/ssh/sshd_config: Permission denied

Thank you for your continued patronage of Brent’s World (An American Expat Living And Working In Korea!).  Please continue to visit for more exiting travel and technical blogs!

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Technical – 2013 6-Core Mac Pro

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macOS Technical

Upgrade to 2016 Tech Bumped Mac Pro

 

  If you read the Op-Ed piece I wrote back in November of 2016, after deciding not to repair my late 2008 model Mac Pro and switch to a Windows 7 desktop “Is The Mac The Amiga Of Today – Part II”  You might have thought I had left the Apple ecosystem for good.  

The reasons that I had decided to try a PC.

  • Apples poor decision to abandon Aperture, my photo management application of choice and it’s poor replacement ‘Photos’.
  • Slow updates to the Macintosh hardware line.
  • UI Changes within OS X that I found needless and cumbersome.
  • Needlessly removing support for Late 2008 Mac Pro in OS X Sierra.
  • Replacing ports on Macbook Pro with all USB-C, and removing MAG SAFE power connector.

 

I “upgraded” to a Dell Optiplex 9020 running Windows 7 Ultimate, and even tried a couple of tablets, the Dell Venue running Windows 8.1, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10.  I had issues with both products.  I will not get into why Windows 8 sucked, as this still born Microsoft product has been beaten to death over the years. 

The Dell Venue was just a terrible cheaply made product!  The hardware never worked properly, and the power adapter would only actually charge the tablets when the planets were properly aligned.  The Surface Pro 3 did fare better, though I also thad problems with the adaptor and had to replace it. Updating Windows 10 also caused the built in web cam to stop working twice!  Requiring complete reinstalls of the OS.  It does not say great things about your products, if your drivers do not work with your own hardware.

Now I had planned on eventually upgrading  to Windows 10, but kept putting it off due to security concerns, I really did not relish the thought of Microsoft collecting usage data, including keystroke logging being collected. Apple collects telemetry and error log reporting as well, but at least I can opt out!  So I decided to give OS X Sierra a “fair” shot for a couple of months, and then possibly choose to go back to the Mac. 

Actually I lie!,  the comparison would not really be fair, as the Mac I was going to base my decision on, was the Mac Mini!  While the processor and RAM specs were similar, the Optiplex had the benefit of a discrete video card, which allowed Lightroom to take advantage of hardware acceleration.  Even with these performance caveats stacked against the Mini I was really impressed with how the Mini performed for my blog work, and other daily tasks.

Except for a slight lag loading photo’s in Lightroom, the system was very usable and for the majority of people out there the system would be more than adequate for day to day use.  Certainly within the realm of intended purpose of the Mac Mini. 

The other issues I had with OS X Sierra I discovered work arounds after abit of research.  Issues such as being able to minimize of maximize windows (without toggling full screen) by double clicking on the windows title, disabling gatekeeper, and other little odds and ends.  I also discovered the wonders of the Homebrew repository, and was able to install BASH v4, an updated version of Nano, and my favorite top utility ‘htop’.  I was having too much fun using a Mac again!

The only problem I had with the Mac mini when working with  multiple virtual machines, the 16GB RAM limite and the slower disk performance of FW800.  Due to the fact I was running dual displays and the only Thuderbolt port was taken up by the second display, there was no room to update.  I realized what I was going to need a new Mac.  The only problem was that Apple definitely limited my choices. 

After owning a Tangerine iMac back in 98 (Which at the time was a great computer), until the analog board went out after a couple of years, and the replacement boards never worked right.  I swore I would never again own an all in one computer again!  Not from any manufacture!  That left only one choice, a new Mac Pro.  I waited to see what Apple was going to do with the Mac line after the 2017 WWDC. 

I am excited that it looks like they will be continuing the Mac Pro line.  It is a GREAT workstation.  I also knew I could not wait a year for the new modular Mac Pro to be delivered.  So I decided to plunk the cash down on a new Tech Bumped 2016 Trashcan Mac Pro instead.  Thinking when the new Mac Pro is released I can always sell it.

Here are the specs of my Mac Pro

Mac Pro (Late 2013)
3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5
32GB 1866 MHz DDR3 Ram
512GB SSD
Dual AMD FirePro D700 6GB Video RAM
After using the Mac Pro for a month, what do I think about it?

It is blazing fast, where the Mac Mini took a minute and 4 second to boot, the Pro spring to life in 19 seconds!  Lightroom smokes along with virtualy no lag in loading photos and rendering slide shows is noticeably faster.  As I have mentioned in the past I do not do allot of work with video, so I will have to come up with a reason to try out Final Cut Pro!

Where the Pro really shines for me right now is when running virtual machines.  As I can now run 3 fully featured VMs with 8 GBs of RAM allocated to them and still have 8 GBs free on the host OS, so there is very little performance degradation.  So be expecting more Windows and OS X tutorials in the future!

What additions or upgrades do I have planned?

Once the dust settles, and the hole in my wallet gets alittle smaller, I do have a couple of upgrades already planned for the Pro.

  • Thunderbolt RAID2 chassis
  • External Blu-Ray Burner
  • Upgrade the internal SSD from 512GB to 1TB

 

Mac Pro (From The Front)

Mac Pro (From The Back)

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Inside joke started on Facebook with my 2008 Mac Pro.

Is the current MacPro for everyone?  NO!  Especially since Apple has announced the new iMac Pro.  There are serious form factor issues as I have already openly stated on my blog.. However currently The Mac Pro is the most powerful offering from Apple, and it is doing what I need it to do until the new Pro desktop is released.

Hard at work on the blog using my new Mac Pro.

Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, and American Expat Living and Working In Korea!  I hope you enjoyed this weeks technical blog, and will continue to return for more exciting articles!  If you with to be notified by email when new content is posted, please register by clicking HERE!

Movie Review – Miss Granny (Korean)

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Movie Review –  Miss Granny (Korean)

It is a little sad that out of the 10 movie reviews on my blog only 4 of them are on Korean films, The Train To Busan, The Man From Nowhere (Ajusshi), an independent short titled Selfish People, and The Devils Game.  I have lived here for 8 years and have only seen a handful of Korean Titles.  While Korea mostly stands out for its television drama, and action films such as Old Boy, and Ajusshi.  Korean does some very good Comedy.  With hits such as the 2003 hit Please Teach Me English, and the2014 film we will review today Miss Granny.

Miss Granny or it’s Korean name 수상한 그녀 “Suspicious Girl is a comedy directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk who is well known for his serious dramas such as My Father, and The Crucible (Silenced).  Miss Granny is a fun and lighthearted film about Ms. Oh, Mal-soon (Played by both Eun-Kyung Shim, and Man-hee Na), who is a stubborn and irreverent grandmother who has a hard time getting along with the almost everyone around her, including her family.  Constantly clashing with her mother in law and grandchildren.  It is this constant friction that leads  the mother to collapse due to stress, and the family’s physician warns that it may killer if she has a similar episode.  It is suggested that Ms. Oh be placed in a nursing home.

Depressed from overhearing the family discussing her placement in such a facility we see Ms. Oh  wanders  the streets of Seoul and stumbles upon and enters a photo studio to have her funeral picture taken.  The photographer then promises he will make her look 50 years younger. On the way home after having her photo taken, Ms. Oh is shocked to see a reflection of herself in a mirror that she looks to be in her 20s.

Afraid to go home she takes a room at the house of one of the members of her senior center while her family and those who care about her frantically search for her, thinking she may have committed suicide.  Making the best of the situation Ms. Oh decides to help out her grandsons heavy metal band while also using the opportunity to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a performer.  Something she gave up to get married and have a family.

Through flashbacks we discover that shortly after marrying her husband, he  is sent away to Germany to work in the coal mines to gain experience to bring back to Korea to aid in its rapid industrialization.  She is also pregnant at the time of his departure.   She soon receives notice that her husband is killed and she must now struggle and sacrifice to raise her son to be the best!

The song she writes for her grandsons band turns out to be a huge hit, but on the day of the bands big public performance, Ji-ha is involved in an accident, and is rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.  As the band is struggling with the news and is about to cancel the performance, Ms. Oh convinces the band to go through with the performance so they can tell Ji-Ha that they performed his song.  Ms. Oh then rushes off to the hospital to be with her family. Ms. Oh must then choose between enjoying the life she always wanted but had to give up for her son, or saving Ji-ha and her family. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and found it humorous and easy to laugh throughout.  The film continued its fun and fast pace throughout, and never strayed into the childish teen humor that too many American comedies seem to these days.  It was a refreshing to look at the often overplayed “What if life gave you a second chance” genre.  The acting, directing, and cinematography was well done, and as always with a locally filmed movie if was fun picking out recognizable landmarks.

If you are looking for a different kind of comedy, or looking for a well done foreign film, I definitely would give Miss Granny a look.

My Rating *****
Apple Store Rating – ***** (2 Reviews)
Rotten Tomatoes – 80%

You can find Miss Granny available for purchase on Amazon, Formats and prices below.

Region Free DVD – 49.99

Amazon Prime – FREE

Non-Amazon Prime
Rent – $3.99
Buy – $14,99

It is also available at the iTunes music store
Rent – $3.99
Buy – $14.99

Did you enjoy this movie and want to discuss it?  Please head on over to our forums, create an account a reply to the topic linked below! Thanks for stopping by Brent’s World, Please take a moment to view some of our other articles, and come back soon!

https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27399

Mac OS X – Compiling CG Term To Connect To Commodore BBSs via Telnet Using Commodore Color Graphics

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MAC OS X

Compiling CG Term To Connect To Commodore BBSs via Telnet using Commodore Color Graphics.

  UPDATE!! – I am keeping this blog for instructional purposes on compiling source code in Mac OSX.  There is a pre-compiled version 1.9 in an app package available at the following link https://roxburysoftware.com/Blog/cgterm-for-os-x-10-9/ that supersedes the need for these instructions.

Time sure does fly!  Getting the inspiration to write this month’s technical blog I reflected on the exclusive article I wrong back in November of 2014.  It seems like only yesterday that I put that article together.  If you have not had a chance to read NO CARRIER!  The Lost World Of The BBS, you may do so by clicking here. The terminal program that I recommended, CG Term 1.7 unfortunately no longer works on Mac OS X versions later then 10.10 (Yosemite).  You may download and try SyncTerm, but I have found that it does not properly decode the PETSCII (C/G) graphics correctly.

  So what are us Mac users to do?  We could either use a Windows virtual machine, or boot into boot camp.  However that kind of rubs the wrong way, especially since CGTerm worked in previous versions of Mac OS.   There is a third option, and that is to take the freely available source code and compile it in a later version of the OS.  I have compiled it on my OS X Sierra desktop and 2010 MacBook Pro running Yosemite.

This is a 4 step process.
  1. If you are not already using the Homebrew repositiory and installed brew, follow the instructions by  Clicking Here.
  2. Download and extract the source code for CGTerm 1.7b2 beta (Version 1.6 also has C/G translation errors.) Click here to download.
      1. If you do no not already have one, I would create a dev directory in your home directory.
        1. $ cd ~
        2. $ mkdir dev
      2. Move the downloaded files to the directory you just created.
        1. $ mv ~/Downloads/cgterm-1.7b2.tar ~/dev
      3. Extract the files 
        1. $ cd ~/dev
        2. $ tar -xvf cgterm-1.7b2.tar 

 

 3. Install sdl headers (SDL.h) from the brew repository if not already installed.
            a. $ brew install sdl4. Compile the software.

 
Normally we need to run 3 commands to compile source code, however I only had to do two for CGTerm.  These commands are

1) ./configure (Not needed for this install.)
2) make
3) make install

There is no configure script for this source code, so if you try and execute it you will receive an error, so let’s move on to step 2.

Make sure you are in your ~/dev/cgterm-1.7b2 directory by typing at the shell prompt
$ pwd   

If you are not, type.
$ cd ~/dev/cgterm-1.7b2

Now we will create the make file. Type
$ make

If all goes well, you will see a screen that looks like this.  Ignore any warnings.

now lets compile the .app files.
$ make install

You will see the following output if successful.

Lets now perform a directory listing specifically to check if we now have the 3 CGTerm executable files. (NOTE: Without configuring your shell to colorize the output, it can be difficult to find the executables in the listing.  I recommend following the link at the bottom of this blog, which will walk you through how to get colorized directory listings like Linux.)

ls -l cgchat cgedit cgterm testkbd

Finally let’s perform some housekeeping tasks, since we do not need to keep the source files around.

First lets create a new directory in the /Applications folder, then we will copy the newly compiled executables to that directory

$ sudo mkdir Applications/CGTerm-1.7
$ sudo mv cgchat cgedit cgterm testkbd /Applications/CGTerm-1.7

It is up to you if you want to keep the source files around, in this example I do not, however I will keep the compressed .tar file

$ rm –r ~/dev/cgterm-1.7b2

Perform a final test by either changing working directories in the terminal to /Applications and launching CGTerm, or launch from the finder.

$ cd /Applications
$ cgterm

 

Once your newly compiled CGTerm opens and you see this screen let’s connect to a BBS.

Type ESC
Type D

When you get the Connect to host [port]: box, type

cib.dyns.org 6400 <ENTER>

You should now be connected to the Commodore Image BBS

When launching from the finder, Mac OS will launch a terminal session, this is normal.

I hope you have enjoyed another Mac OS tutorial, and compiling your first application from source code!  Please try connecting to the following BBS’s running on a Commodore 64 using your newly compiled app.

Commodore Image – cib.dyndns.org:6400
Lowdown BBS – lowdown.servebbs dot net:6401

** I highly recommend coloring your directory output, it makes differentiating between Directories, Text files, and applications allot simpler.  To enable colorized directory output in Mac OS X, please CLICK HERE.

*** PLEASE NOTE!  All traffic sent via TELNET is sent in plain text, when connecting to BBSs using CGTerm or other telnet applications, DO NOT use passwords that you use for any other services.  Such as financial institutions or online shopping!

Wednesday Quickie – Installing Home Brew Repository

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Wednesday Quickie

Installing Home Brew Repository On Mac OS X

  This is an odd quickie for me, since I have already done 2 blogs on updating components of the Unix side of Mac OS X operating system using the Home Brew repository.  While writing this weeks technical blog I found that once again I was having to use Home Brew to install a key library in order to compile the application.  Instead of duplicating my work for the third time, I decided to make a ‘stub’ article of the installation instructions  that can be used as sort of a module for any future articles that may require the use of Homebrew. 

   If you use Linux, you are already familiar with a software repository, and package management software.  Red Hat and CentOS uses yum and rpm, while Unbunto Linux uses apt-get or Synaptic.  For us OS X users, the only software repository most of us are familiar with is the App store, which allows us to purchase, install software and manage their updates.  Homebrew is basically an App Store for software packages created, compiled, and maintained by the community and are free of charge. 

To install, open your web browser and go to brew.sh, verify the install link has not changed.

Open a terminal window by launching the terminal.app, which is located in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app.  You can use the Shift – Command – U key shortcut as well. 

Once your terminal window opens download and run the installer as user with administrative access.

$  /usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”

If the script needs to elevate privledges, it will ask for your password.The installer will also install XCode Command Line Tools, if not already installed.

Once completed, you can test the install by performing the following command.

$ man brew

If you can list the man pages the homebrew repository is now successfully installed.  You may now use your browsers back button and continue with the rest of the installation instructions.

  We hope you enjoyed this weeks quickie and will come back Sunday for this weeks feature technical article “Using Xcode Command Line Tools To Compile CGTerm for Mac OS X”