Create custom keyboard layouts with Ukelele | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

MacFixIt has a writeup on using Ukelele utility to create your own keyboard layouts for the Mac: Create custom keyboard layouts with Ukelele | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

Configure built-in VPN client in Snow Leopard

MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard comes with built-in VPN client. Snow Leopard did break my Cisco VPN client, so learning how to set up the native client makes me very happy. Steps are:

• System Preferences > Network
• Click "+" and pick "VPN" under Interface
• Choose "Cisco IPSec" as VPN Type
• Enter a name of your choosing as Service Name
• Click "Create"
• Server Address - value of Host from your .pcf file
• Account name - your user name
• Password - leave blank and you will be prompted upon establishing a connection
• click Authentication Settings
• Shared Secret - either value of GroupPwd from .pcf file; if blank, take value of enc_GroupPwd and decrypt it at http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode
• Group Name - value of GroupName from .pcf file

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

Despite the warning of incompatibilities with software I use at work (see below), I went ahead with Snow Leopard upgrade. Picked up the install disk at Harvard Technology Services, hoping to save on sales tax. No such luck, but even at a bit over $30, I was a happy camper and looking forward to playing with the new OS.

The install went very smoothly and took under 1 hour. I recommend looking under "Customize" and at the very least choosing to add Rosetta - I understand Apple's desire to forget the PowerPC legacy as soon as possible, but chances are, you still have some old apps that require Rosetta. If you don't install it, you can always add it later.

First order of business - Juniper's VPN over SSL issues. As others described, I did the following:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/juniper/nc/[version number]/

sudo mkdir /Applications/Network\ Connect.app/Contents/Frameworks

and that did the trick - my VPN over SSL is functional and I can connect to a PC in my office using RDC any time I want.

Growl - as expected, not compatible. Got the beta - it is indispensable. Of course, it still does not work with Mail (so I am back to my AppleScript-based hack) nor does it work with growliChat (replaced that with Chax alpha). Growl's system-wide notifications are brilliant and once you start using them, you'll be hooked.

iStat menus failed to load - turned out I had an old version. I love how tasteful and unobtrusive theythose menus are, and came to rely on CPU load and temperature and network load indicators. New version is compatible and runs great.

Highly anticipated feature - automatic text replacement. I type "THanks" and it magically converts to "Thanks" - in my opinion, that is what computers are for!!! I know that Microsoft products already do that, and there are commercial programs, but having such feature be a part of the OS makes all the sense in the world. So add your desired replacements in System Preferences > Language and Text > Text and then go to Mail (or other apps, I guess), right-click in the body of a new message and choose Substitutions > Text Replacement. You are good to go!

Major issue of the day - freezing Address Book and Mail applications. Very disturbing, as you can imagine. Lots of Force Quits, restarts, etc. to no avail. More Googling and - bingo! - the problem is with a Smart Group I had in my Address Book which used a negation in one antecedents. Solution was inspired by this post - sort your /Users/user_name/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Metadata folder by Kind and look for "Smart" something or other. I then used QuickLook to figure out which Smart Group the file was for and trashed the offending ones. Problem was solved!!! Belatedly, saw a mention of it in more visible places... Apple definitely needs to fix this one soon.

And now - the pièce de résistance - enabling Exchange 2007 integration. I was very pleasantly surprised by how easy it was - even easier then iPhone! I put in my e-mail address and a password and my Mac figured that it was an Exchange account, set up Mail and downloaded all my mail, set up iCal and populated a new calendar, and set up Address Book. Everything happened extremely fast and with no hiccups. I immediately proceeded to drag Entourage off my Dock and hope not to have to use it ever again. Looking forward to trying Mail/iCal/Address Book combo as the only destination for all my "personal information managment" needs.

To wrap up, Snow Leopard looks good and my Mac feels pretty snappy running it. Clearly not without issues, but worth the upgrade anyway, in my opinion.

Is your network fast enough? | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld

This is something I am certainly going to try: Is your network fast enough?

My Photo in Schmap Boston Guide

A picture I took with my iPhone and uploaded to Flickr was chosen to be included in a 2009 edition of "Schmap Boston Guide." The picture was taken in Boston Common and shows the gilded dome of the state capitol - the Massachusetts State House - over the green foliage of the park. Here it is on the pages of the Schmap Guide: Boston - Historical Background.

Acton is great

Acton, MA is #16 on Money Magazine's "Best Places to Live" in 2009:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2009/snapshots/CS2500380.html

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/news/x540127961/Acton-16th-in-country-on-Best-Places-to-Live-list

Cool!

Safari Microformats plugin | Download

New version of Safari Microformats plugin is compatible with latest release of Safari version 4.