macOS 🍏

All my posts about various macOS technologies

Day To Day Tools

I am currently using most of these tools day to day … Desktop Apps SublimeText↗ — Still the best text editor around Dashline↗ — Cross device password manager Desk↗ — Great editor for writting blog posts Photoshop↗ — For ermmmmm Photos OmniGraffle↗ — For diagrams and stuff Reeder 2↗ — For reading all the feeds GitHub Mac Client↗ — The Mac GitHub client Commandline Apps Home Brew↗ — Install “missing” stuff on macs Cask↗ — Install Mac Apps using the command line using Brew StormSSH↗ — Key & hosts management known_hosts↗ — A simple cli known hosts manager Packer↗ — Build machine images Z↗ — Jump around the CLI Vagrant↗ — Run machines built with Packer Services Digital Ocean↗ — Server Hosting AWS↗ — Server Hosting CloudFlare↗ — CDN & Stuff Github↗ — Code Hosting Pinboard↗ — Bookmarks Evernote↗ — Note taking RememberTheMilk↗ — Task management Feedly↗ — For managing all the newsfeeds Pocket↗ — For reading articles later Toggl↗ — Time tracking Authy↗ — A nice Two Factor Authentication tool Plex↗ — An impressive cross device media centre … so not much in the way of changes since I last wrote about the tools I use. ...

Backups

In my line of work one of the things you learn quickly is that there is no such thing as too many backups. Call me paranoid, but I would rather be spoilt for choice should the worst happen. So what backups do I have in place? Website While this website is nothing more than a place for me to dump my thoughts and various tech ramblings it does generate a small amount of traffic. I hate to think how much time I spent messing about with it over the last year and half, so while it is not the end of the world if it was to disappear it would be hours of work gone. ...

Solved a perplexing issue where static files weren't updating in Vagrant due to a long-standing VirtualBox bug with 'sendfile'.

Annoying Virtual Box bug

I am in the process of building a Vagrant↗ Box for work↗ . All was going great until I ended up having to spend the best part of two days trying to figure out why static files (css, javascript etc) were not being served after being updated on the host file system. Turns out that VirtualBox↗ has had a “bug” for around three years where if “sendfile↗ ” is enabled in the web server you are running it won’t serve a file after it has been changed on the file system mounted from the host machine. ...

Reflecting on my smoothest MacOS upgrade experience with Yosemite: a journey from backup to clean installation and setting up my essentials.

Yosemite Installation

This could be the most straight forward MacOS update I have ever performed (I have been doing them since System 7.5↗ ). This time all three machines (iMac, MBP and MBA) worked first time with no dramas. As always the first thing I did was a full TimeMachine back-up (I have been burnt before) and then downloaded a copy of the Yosemite install from the AppStore. Rather than do an in-place upgrade I always do a clean installation, for the last three releases I have used the excellent DiskMaker X (or Lion Disk Maker as it used to be known)↗ . Once I have a USB installer I rebooted into the USB disk and then erased my primary hard drive using the disk utility, which is always a fun moment. ...

Dotfiles

For the last few years I have been grabbing some we documented dotfiles from GitHub↗ but most of them have either ended up reconfigured my Mac to the point of it being unrecognisable or they have just been a collection of useful aliases. The I came across Bashstrap↗ , it was close enough to what I wanted so I forked it↗ …. You can install them using the following commands; ...

Catch up on my recent absence from blogging and learn about the highlights, including the release of Docker 1.0, CentOS 7, updates to the site's theme, and new music releases. Plus, explore my blog post on multi-factor authentication in AWS.

What’s in the toolbox?

It’s been a while since I listed what I am using day-to-day so I thought I would do a quick update; Desktop Apps SublimeText↗ — Text Editor GitHub Mac Client↗ — The Mac GitHub client Marked2↗ — Preview Markdown in real-time Photoshop↗ — For ermmmmm Photos OmniGraffle↗ — For diagrams and stuff 1Password↗ — Locking all my passwords away Reeder 2↗ — For reading all my newsfeeds Commandline Apps Home Brew↗ — Install “missing” stuff on macs Cask↗ — Install Mac Apps using the command line using Brew StormSSH↗ — Key & hosts management known_hosts↗ — A simple cli known hosts manager Packer↗ — Build machine images Z↗ — Jump around the CLI Jekyll↗ — What this blog is published with Server Stack CentOS 7↗ — The Base OS Puppet↗ — Configuration Management SaltStack↗ — Infrastructure management Docker↗ — Run Linux containers New Relic↗ — Server Monitoring Services Digital Ocean↗ — Server Hosting AWS↗ — Server Hosting CloudFlare↗ — CDN & Stuff Github↗ — Code Hosting Pinboard↗ — Bookmarks EverNote↗ — Note taking RememberTheMilk↗ — Task management Feedly↗ — For managing all the newsfeeds Pocket↗ — For reading articles later The biggest change since the last update is ….. ...

Cask

I did a clean installation of my laptop this weekend, rather than go through the list of apps I had installed and do a manual installation of each one using the “Download and drag” method I decided to use Cask↗ . Cask is a Homebrew↗ package which automates to the download and install part. Here is pretty much my entire installation process …. Cask 1/1 ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)" brew doctor brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask brew cask install google-chrome brew cask install dropbox brew cask install google-drive brew cask install sublime-text brew cask install github brew cask install spotify brew cask install libreoffice brew cask install virtualbox brew cask install skype The only downside is that it installs the packages into the users Application directory which set my OCD off, it was quickly remedied though by simply moving the link once I had installed everything I needed. ...

Explore the essential tools and services that enhance my efficiency as a developer and sysadmin, from code editors and version control to server hosting.

Stuff I use

I am trying to streamline my workflow at the moment. Currently on the Mac these are; StormSSH↗ — Key Managment Vagrant↗ — Local Server testing Packer↗ — Build Machine Images SublimeText↗ — Text Editor Z↗ — Jump around the CLI Le-git↗ — Adds some GIT features Git Tower↗ — GUI for GIT Home Brew↗ — Install “missing” stuff and on my servers; ...