The Other Wax Drum

Monkey's Audio is a lossless audio compression algorithm. The codec uses the ".APE" file extension, so if you come across them, you'll know what to do.

I've found that xAct is the best GUI app for these files. But if you're looking for command-line tools, your best bet is at Sourceforge.

I had been using version 3.97 successfully until I received an "Error: 1002" while attempting to decompress an ape file. Googling turned up the following on the Monkey's Audio forum:

I thought I was doing myself and everyone else a favor when I decided to migrate all the web sites I manage from table-based layout to CSS. In the end that might be the case, but the process was far from smooth. Part of the problem stems from the fact that HTML and CSS are moving targets, with new and sometimes conflicting standards (XHTML vs. HTML5) being proposed, adopted, and implmented to varying degrees by different browsers.

Sure, the green-on-green look a timeless classic. But sometimes, it's nice to have more than one color. This tutorial describes how to get colors in your terminal environment.

Terminal Type

The first requirement is that your terminal supports colors. I'm assuming that you're not running an ACTUAL vt100, but a software terminal application like Apple's built-in terminal, or perhaps iTerm (my personal favorite).

The openssl utility offers an interface to a vast range of encryption on Mac OS X. This article will provide a brief introduction to the use of openssl for password generation and data encryption. As always, "man openssl" is your friend.

The Nitty Gritty

A basic knowledge of openssl is useful for two reasons. First, password files utilized by the Apache web server and often named .htpasswd implement a basic password hashing with salts. By using openssl, you can manually generate passwords and add them to an Apache password file.

Just because a product is abandonware doesn't mean your completely SOL. There are some great grass-roots resources online helping support users of older Macintosh systems and software.

I recently had a client who needed to import all of their Outlook Express contacts from an OS 9 machine into Address Book on their new Mac OS X machine. I found several methods and procedures, but the following sounded the most straightforward, so I tried it. It worked like a charm for me, so I'm posting it here.

The Sonos Digital Music System

Now, I'm not sure what the greatest thing was before sliced bread, but I know this: Today, Sonos is the greatest thing ever. As soon as I heard about the Sonos Digital Music System, I realized three things:

1. This is what I have been trying to do for two years on my Mac.
2. I have to have one.
3. Everyone should have one!

The Sonos CR200 Controller

The Geeky Side of Mac OS X

Here is my personal collection of Mac OS X technical odds & ends. For more specific tech tips under Mac OS X, refer to the following pages.

• Apache
• Audio
• Perl
• NetJuke

Make Hidden Apps Look Hidden

The LAN in my house is connected to the internet via broadband. Like most home users, I don't want (or need) to pay for a static IP address. I was looking for a roll-your-own alternative to dyndns.com, and I found this perl script... somewhere. This script allows me to keep a server on my LAN and make it accessible from the internet by opening up the appropriate ports on my router. I retained the original author's comments so you can track him down if you want.