Bacon, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives

When trying to delete some files on a network resource (read: TimeCapsule), I kept running into this error:

The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

There is no obvious override in the UI. The issue is you have a locked file; if you try to delete a locked file on a local hard drive, you’ll get an escalation prompt and be able to do so. OS X doesn’t do this for network resources, sadly. If you have developer tools installed, the fix is simple; in a terminal window, type:

find *the_root_dir* -exec SetFile -a l {} \;

Obviously replacing *the_root_dir* with something more useful, like the root directory of your troubles. Data, in this example, is a mounted share from the Time Capsule in /Volumes/Data.

mini:Data ry$ rm -rf SpamSpamSpam
rm: SpamSpamSpam/dammit: Operation not permitted
rm: SpamSpamSpam: Read-only file system
mini:Data ry$ SetFile -a l SpamSpamSpam SpamSpamSpam/dammit
mini:Data ry$ rm -rf SpamSpamSpam
mini:Data ry$

Here is the page I stole this tip from.

Pardon the keyword-laden title. I’m going to reproduce the contents of this wonderful page with a dash of this page against deletion.

What you need to do is:

Become root:

sudo su -

Create the file:

touch /etc/auto_smb

Close non-root access to the file:

chmod 600 /etc/auto_smb

Using your favorite editor, add this line to /etc/auto_smb; obviously replacing [user], [password], [machine] and [share] with the right bits:

/Volumes/[share] -fstype=smbfs,rw ://[user]:[password]@[machine]/[share]

Using your favorite editor, add this line to /etc/auto_master:

/- auto_smb -nosuid

Reboot (or automount -vc) and it should mount the share at reboot.

This was for a build server that is never logged in to, thus the need for boot time instead of login time mounting.

ETA: you also need to add a line to the crontab of the user that needs the share to be mounted; I did something like @reboot /bin/bash -l -c ‘cd /Volumes/Share’ and it works for me.

part bejeweled, part dungeon crawl. A hell of a lot of fun for $1.

Since I got the Mac Mini, I’ve been feeling exposed – I didn’t have a good way to back it up. Home Server will support it after some hackery, but I want to migrate away from WHS, not increase my reliance on it. Net net, I picked up a Time Capsule; I replaced the wifi/gigabit switch pairing that’s always been a little goofy and turned up the 5GHz networking to get away from the saturated 2.4GHz band. It’s nice to pull out a bunch of power supplies and network hairballs to replace it with a little white box.

I did some side-by-side tests with the Cisco and the Time Capsule, and it looks like I got just about the same coverage on 2.4GHz, a little more coverage out front with the Cisco, a little more out back with the Apple. I didn’t make any effort to try all orientations, but my apartment and back yard still has coverage, and that’s all I care about.

It wasn’t entirely smooth, though; I found a 100% repro bug in the configuration tool that causes it to lose port forwarding settings. To reproduce, create a port forward with a name that has a colon, like “MACHINE:PROTOCOL” (or HABU:BT in my case). Input your ports as usual, save, edit, they’re there, apply. Once the device reboots, go to the same place and see your ports are missing; you can check that they aren’t actually forwarded, either, or you can trust me when I say they aren’t. Very annoying. The reboot to change any configuration setting is annoying, too; hopefully now that I’ve done whatever fuckery was needed to get my shit set up, I’m done with that.

The smart case is not worth the extra money for my uses. It stands up poorly compared to the cover, and you can’t just pop it off when you want to; I also find it hard to close correctly (the right edge catches, so the whole thing is folded a little bit). Both the cover and the case seem to concentrate all of the grease into little bars from one end of the screen to the other, but that’s advantage nobody. That said, I’m not going to throw it away, but if you’re happy with your cover, keep it.

Also, I learned a trick from Arden: use the microfiber liner as a wipe to clean the screen.

iPad number 2 was suffering from inconsistent home button functionality; I thought I had it nailed down to a certain app, but once the home button started failing with Arden’s software installed (none of which is enterprise anything), I knew it wasn’t as I suspected. Apple replaced it with a refurb, which works fine; I really would like to know what was wrong with it, though. Probably a dodgy trace that broke connectivity when the stars aligned. Thank goodness the Apple store in Bellevue Square is so close by.

It appears iCloud is somehow groveling the iTunes metadata for Apple IDs; I have a track purchased by Brian in my collection. I don’t store any music in the cloud, but there it is.

Also, removing the Tangoe MDM malware fixed my home button problems. Holy crap, first you nuke my iPod, now you break the home button on an iPad? What are you, wizards? I guess syncing email for work is off the table.

Went to restore Arden’s iPad yesterday after the wipedown; after the restore, the home button doesn’t work again, so I’ll spend some time finding the exact application that’s owning me. I suspect it’s malware supplied by work to enable email syncing.

Regardless, after I had authenticated with my Apple ID, I selected restore from cloud, and was presented with an authentication prompt.

Please note, this is not only not my Apple ID, it isn’t even close. Clearly there is some fuckup in the iCloud. But wait – things get more strange. Who is this bmazz@umich.edu? A quick Google shows: Brian Mazzaferri. Now where do I know that name from? Right, the lead singer of a band my sister used to work with. How the fuck? Nothing about this makes sense, which is why I took a screen shot. Maybe I’ll wipe the iPad down again and see who it tries to authenticate me as.

The home button on Arden’s iPad stopped working, so I made an appointment at the Apple store to get it replaced; the guy asked if I’d saved everything, I said no, let me reset it. As it turns out, it’s about 50/50 that home button failures are software; after the reset, the home button works fine. Waste of a trip to Bellevue.

I got home to two package notices; office closes at 1800, I got there at 1755, office was closed. Dammit. Second time in two weeks they’ve closed early.