Category: musings

Posted on

Sync iCloud Contacts and Calendars with Thunderbird

There are only two add-ons needed to sync iCloud contacts and Calendars with Thunderbird: Provider for CalDAV & CardDAV and TbSync. Together, both of these add-ons provide everything necessary to enable iCloud Contact and Calendar syncing for Thunderbird.

Setup of both these add-ons is straightforward. In Thunderbird, navigate to Tools -> Add-on Preferences -> TbSync. In the TbSync Account Manager, click Account Actions -> Add Account -> CalDAV & CardDAV. Select iCloud for the account type and follow the wizard to completion.

Once finished, enable the account, and select which calendars and contacts to sync. Be sure to set a synchronization time as well.

Another useful add-on is CardBook. CardBook’s iCloud sync is independent from TbSync. TbSync puts iCloud contacts in the Thunderbird address book, while CardBook uses its own address book which opens in its own tab.

Posted on

Setting up TRIM under Manjaro Linux

Manjaro Linux is based on Arch Linux, and Arch includes a package "util-linux" which provides two services for TRIM, "fstrim.service" and "fstrim.timer".

From my brief research I found that it is reccomended by the Linux community to run "fstrim" no more than once per week. This is to prevent excessive wear and tear on the SSD.

To enable automatic Trimming, run the following commands in a terminal.

systemctl enable fstrim.timer
systemctl start fstrim.timer

To check the status of "fstrim.timer", run the following command.

systemctl status fstrim.timer

The status output should show:

Active: active (waiting)

That’s it! TRIM is now enabled and will run once per week with the fstrim.timer service.

Source: Arch Wiki – Solid state drive

Posted on

TextEdit and Blank Documents

From Mountain Lion and beyond, launching TextEdit results in being confronted with the Document Picker. Fortunately, the old behavior can be restored by running a simple defaults write command in Terminal.

defaults write -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false

The post-Lion behavior can be re-enabled by running a defaults delete command in Terminal.

defaults delete -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile

Posted on

Valid DVD Drive could not be found -70012

Long story made short, I use my SuperDrive in an external USB enclosure.

When opening DVD Player.app, it will present an error stating: Valid DVD Drive could not be found [70012]

A little web search turns up a thread with a great solution on tonymacx86.com.

Step one is making a backup copy of DVDPlayback.framework with this command in Terminal.

sudo cp /System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback /System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback.bak

Step two is to patch the DVDPlayback.framework file with this command in Terminal.

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x49\x6E\x74\x65\x72\x6E\x61\x6C|\x45\x78\x74\x65\x72\x6E\x61\x6C|g' /System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback

The thread on tonymacx86.com didn’t explain what the above command does exactly, so being the curious type, I wanted to find out what operations the command performs. The simple explanation is that the command uses Perl to add a line of text to the DVDPlayback.framework file.

The more detailed explanation of the flags used with the perl command are below, found on StackOverflow.

  • -p: Places a printing loop around your command so that it acts on each
    line of standard input. Used mostly so Perl can beat the
    pants off awk in terms of power AND simplicity.
  • -i: Modifies your input file in-place (making a backup of the
    original). Handy to modify files without the {copy,
    delete-original, rename} process.
  • -e: Allows you to provide the program as an argument rather
    than in a file. You don’t want to have to create a script
    file for every little Perl one-liner.

If for some reason the DVDPlayback.framework file needs to be restored from the backup that was created in step one, just reverse the command. The restoration command is below for easy copypasta into Terminal.

sudo cp /System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback.bak /System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A/DVDPlayback

This issue occurs and is resolved for myself on macOS High Sierra.

Posted on

Issue with Deluge not seeing all torrent data

I have ran into this issue a couple of times, and each time it happens, I forget the solution.

On occaision, when I create a new .torrrent file and open it in Deluge, not all of the data will be seen or accounted for. This happens in spite of knowing that all of the correct .torrent data is in the proper location.

After much head scratching, I realized that Deluge does not like accents in any file name in the torrent. After removing any accents and creating a new .torrent file, Deluge will now see all of the .torrent data.

This issue occured for me with Deluge version 1.3.13 running as a service on Debian Stretch.

Posted on

Cameras And Cases And Straps, Oh My!

I have recently become the proud owner of a Micro Four-Thirds, mirrorless digital camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II. Like with any new hobby of mine, I tend to go overboard with searching for and purchasing accessories.

Straight away I had realized that I don’t care for the mediocre neck strap that was included with my camera. I wore it for a day or two while shooting, but I quickly found that I could not continue utilizing the strap.

Minimalism is usually my preference when traveling, and I had intended to do a fair bit of traveling with my camera. At first, I was considering the Op/Tech camera sling. This sling is an exceptional price and offered almost everything I was looking for to carry my camera. However, the more I considered the alternatives, the more I recognized that I wanted a minimal camera pouch.

After some more web and Amazon searching, I stumbled upon the National Geographic vertical camera pouch. What initially drew me to the NatGeo pouch was the uncomplicated design and modest size. Since I prefer to have my camera covered when not in use, I felt that this pouch would be the ideal compromise between a neck sling and a larger camera bag. The pouch’s strap is long enough to be comfortable across the chest of my 6’2” frame with additional adjustment length to spare. The EM-10 II fits quite snug in the pouch with the 14-42 EZ pancake lens attached. If the lens was much longer, the camera wouldn’t fit.

Now that I had found a suitable pouch for carrying my camera, it was time to find a wrist strap. I had never honestly considered buying a wrist strap; the idea never crossed my mind. I would rather make a strap of my own, so I did. Below is what I have created.

I used approximately 10 feet of blue 550 paracord that I had leftover from previous projects. For the bracelet, I utilized a snake knot weave, and a cobra knot to attach the strap to a small Nite Ize s-biner that I had around the house. I am quite satisfied with the way my wrist strap turned out, and in the future, I plan to explore other color options and clip hardware.

Posted on

The Erosion of the Web

While going through my bookmarks, it amazed me how many of them are dead. Once thriving communities are now gone, niche Mac apps are gone as well. Everyone knows that once something is on the internet, it is there forever, but pieces of the web are eroding.