• the encrypted file(s)–on your computer
• the private key needed to decrypt the files–on your thumbdrive
• the password required in combination with the private key to decrypt files–in your head

The process is simple and affords a great degree of security to your encrypted files, because all three components must be assembled to decrypt the data–a difficult task for a laptop thief or even a nosey coworker to accomplish, especially if you remove your thumb drive from your computer when you are not using it.

Mounting a USB device in Linux is slightly trickier than on a Mac. For a good discussion of the issues, see this post. Once you have the device mounted, copy your .gnupg directory to the device (e.g. cp -r .gnupg /Volumes/cryptkey). Then, once you have verified the directory exists and the files look good, remove the .gnupg from your home directory and set up a symbolic link to the directory on the USB device (e.g. ln -s /Volumes/cryptkey/.gnupg .gnupg). Now you can only use gnupg when the device is mounted. Always remember to properly unmount the USB device (i.e. drag the icon to the trash on a Mac) before physically removing it, or you could damage the contents. This approach is particularly useful when combined with a GPG email plugin. For Thunderbird, for example, I use enigmail.

tell application "iTunes"
	next track
end tell

compiled them as an application called ‘skip’, and popped them in my Applications folder. After a catalog refresh, I can now invoke Quicksilver, type ‘sk’ (it auto-completes to ‘skip’), hit enter, and move to the next song. All without having to leave the application I live most of my life in … vi.

In fact, I used this framework to remedy something that was bothering me once I became better acquainted with Quicksilver: lack of browser-independent web searches. If you have been frustrated by not being able to use a browser other than Safari, OmniWeb, or Internet Explorer to display the results of Quicksilver Google searches, check out the AppleScript at the end of this article.
Quicksilver recommends creating a special bookmark to use as your method of displaying web searches. While Firefox users can download an additional plugin to catalog their Firefox bookmarks, using browser bookmarks to launch searches is still just a bit clunky, requiring three columns in Quicksilver to perform a search.

I decided it would be more elegant to let the user specify which browser to use at the operating system level, and found that in doing so I could simplify the process so that I only type four additional keystrokes (besides the invocation of Quicksilver and the search term itself) to get my search results displayed in the browser of my choice.

The resulting AppleScript should be placed in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions/ . If the “Actions” folder does not exist, create it. Then refresh the catalog using command-; then command-r (then command-w to close the preferences window).

From here, the sequence to get a Google search done is period (to enter static text mode), then the text to search, then tab, then ‘g’, then enter. Quick, painless Googling thanks to the flexible architecture of Quicksilver.

download qs_action_google.tar.gz

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

For awhile now, I have been using the open source libgaim-based Adium alongside Defaultware’s shareware Proteus. While both offer connectivity to all the major instant messaging services, it is clear that Adium has won out on my desktop–and not just because it is free. In fact, there are a number of instances where freeware outstripped commercial/shareware offerings and open source has outstripped proprietary systems, and not for ideological reasons–but because the features, functionality and, yes, robustness has proved superior in my book to commercial alternatives. Perhaps this is a microcosm of how the “revolution” will look: a slow, steady progression, desktop by desktop, with programs like Firefox and Audacity leading the snail’s pace “charge”.

It’s true. I did a dumb thing. I used apt-get to install Apache 2.0, then tried to load up PHP5 compiled for Apache 2.0 using the recommended installers from PHP.net. I should have known that Apache was still at 1.3 (which I later discovered after the fact with httpd -v), that mixing and matching between the Debian-bound apt-get and the Darwin package manager was a bad idea. I spent hours scraping and reinstalling my system when dependencies failed for just about every command line app I use–including the app I live my life in–ssh.

This brings up a couple points. The first is that Darwin should have been called DINQU–Darwin Is Not Quite UNIX. Because it’s true. Maybe the Mach kernel is still there, but just about every other piece seems to have been heavily modded by the troops in Cupertino. So, the more you start doing things the UNIX way, and not the Apple way, the more you take your life in your hands.

The second point will probably shock you: I found something that Windows does better!
More shock: I’m not just talking about Darwin. I’m talking about better than UNIX. What could it be? Pray tell? The Uninstaller.

My system went insane due to failed dependencies–shared libraries that had been overwritten which I could not roll back to a previous state. While it is sometimes questionable how good a job they do, Windows installers (for the most part) do include an uninstall script that will roll back shared libraries (in this case DLLs) so that your system does not go insane. There are even deeper rollback features now in XP. No such luck in the UNIX world. Not even the RPM architecture does this right.

Apple has taken a huge step forward for UNIX-based systems. Indeed, they are at the very forefront of injecting UNIX systems into the mainstream (sorry, Gimp). So, naturally these issues of useability are falling firmly in their court. Fink and apt-get are sorely lacking here. Time for Apple to step up and address this sore point.

The day I see an OS X package installer for a complex UNIX app with shared libraries, and an Uninstaller right next to it–I will know that UNIX has indeed become safe for public consumption. Until then, I’ll just keep hacking around, knowing more than I should have to, relishing the power and sometimes regretting that I know enough to be dangerous at the command line–to myself!