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Nintendo Game Boy at 30: As fun as it ever was
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Game Boy's release in Japan. Three decades ago, the portable gaming landscape would change forever. Whether you owned a Game Boy or not, it's likely something you're familiar with. The legacy reaches far beyond a retro gaming handheld. Three Engadget editors share their personal favorite version, and why it matters to them.
Daily Mac App: FlashMount quickly mounts disk images
DMG files are often used when distributing Mac software outside the Mac App Store. While DMGs can be confusing to new users, I like them because they allow me to keep an original, unmodified version of whatever program I have downloaded. About the only drawback for me is that some DMGs come with an EULA which has to be accepted before the DMG will be mounted. If the EULA window gets covered up, it can be frustrating to try to figure out why it has not mounted. EULAs can also make DMGs unreliable to mount in shell scripts. While looking for a solution, I came across references to an application called "FlashMount" which was designed to do exactly what its name implies: mounts disk images (dmg, iso, etc) in a "flash." It also automatically accepts any EULA which is presented. OK, sure, we all know we are supposed to read them first. If you do, feel free to skip this app. FlashMount also skips the verification of disk images before mounting. That sounds bad, but in reality, if the disk image is corrupted or incomplete, it probably won't mount anyway. The only time I have ever seen a corrupted DMG, it was an incomplete download. Some disk images don't even have a checksum to verify against, but depending on the size of the DMG, verification can take a long time. On a 1.2 GB DMG, verification takes almost 3 minutes on my MacBook Air. Without verification, I can mount that same disk image in two seconds. Still, if that's not a risk you're comfortable with, this probably isn't the app for you. Otherwise, FlashMount is fast, handy, and free. Download After reading about FlashMount, I was sold on the potential usefulness of this app, but there was one problem: all the download links I found were broken. The articles which talked about FlashMount linked to "www.liquidnexus.com" which was the original site where the app was hosted by its developer. However, sometime in the past few years, the domain registration must have lapsed and been re-registered by a domain squatter (which is why I have not actually linked to it here). Eventually I found a site which had mirrored the download on their own server. Warning: linked website is fairly awful. If you'd rather avoid that, you can download FlashMount 1.5.2 (188K, MD5 sum = 43522f417ae5ccf4f883fc049c8fd0c1) from my personal website. A one page PDF overview is also available. The good news is that the app seems to work perfectly under Lion. I've made FlashMount the default app for opening DMG and ISO files on my Mac, and if I run into any trouble with a particular file, then I open it with DiskImageMounter. However, I found an even better solution if your goal (like mine) is mounting DMGs in Terminal, even if the DMG has a EULA and needs to be mounted by a non-interactive script. Here's where things get nerdy While I was investigating the app, I realized that the whole thing was basically a wrapper around a simple shell script: #!/bin/sh -f echo "Y" | /usr/bin/hdid "$1" #if ($status != 0) exit% I was not familiar with hdid (I had always used hdiutil for mounting DMGs on the command line) but it worked. Sending echo "Y" tells hdid to accept the EULA. (It's important to note that you are not subverting, bypassing, or avoiding the EULA, you are doing on the command line what most people do with the mouse: accepting it without reading it.) I started building on that and made my own script, which I called flashmount.sh. It uses the same echo "Y" trick as the original, but it adds some extra error checking. It also adds an option to verify disk images if you use the '-v' flag, like this: flashmount.sh -v foo.dmg which is handy for those times when you do want to verify an image before you mount it. If the disk image successfully mounts, the script will output the mounted path, which will be something like "/Volumes/Flashmount/" or similar. You can download my flashmount.sh if you want. You could even wrap it up as an app with Platypus if you don't trust the FlashMount.app. FlashMount isn't going to change your life, but it can make one part a little easier and a little faster.
Mac 101: 7 tips for Data Privacy Day 2009
Today is Data Privacy Day, a global initiative to highlight information security rights and practices, especially among teens, professionals, corporations, and the government. As part of the celebration, TUAW (along with our sister blog Download Squad) has seven good ideas for you about how to keep your data safe and away from prying eyes with Mac OS X Leopard. Also, be sure to browse TUAW articles filed under Security for other tips and alerts about keeping your data safe. 1: Turn on your firewall Leopard, as we all know, comes with a built in firewall to prevent other computers from connecting to internet-facing ports on your computer. But: Did you know it's turned off by default? To turn on your firewall, open System Preferences, and click the Security icon. Then, click the Firewall tab. Make sure either "Allow only essential services" is selected, or you can choose to "set access for specific services and applications" yourself. You can also use "Stealth Mode": when enabled, computers that send data to blocked ports won't even get acknowledgement that the data was received. To enable Stealth Mode, click the Advanced button on the Firewall tab of the Security preference pane, and click the check box next to "Enable Stealth Mode." 2: Set a screen saver password A feature popular with Windows users, Mac OS X can also lock your screen when your computer sleeps or when the screen saver comes on. Simply open System Preferences, select Security, and choose the General tab. Click the check box next to "require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver," and you're all set. If you have automatic login enabled and click the "require password" check box, Mac OS X will recommend that you disable automatic login. This means you'll have to enter your password to turn your computer on, too; nefarious nogoodniks won't be able to restart your Mac while the screen saver is on to circumvent the need for a password. Good thinking.
iDMG
If you have ever created a DMG image using Disk Utility, you know how hard it can be. iDMG hopes to make this process easier. This application allows you to easily drag and drop files, applications, or whatever you choose onto iDMG, select a few options and hit the "Create button." The only downside to the application is the many times you encounter the slow "I am working" message. Other than that, this application offers a bunch of options like encryption, custom icons, and multiple file systems. In addition, iDMG uses the Sparkle update framework and Growl notifications. This application is available for download as freeware (donations accepted) from the developer's website.
Tutorial: Customize your disk images
MurphyMac has posted a video tutorial showing how to customize your dmg containers to make them look more professional. The tutorial walks you through the steps of creating a disk image, adding a background graphic, and saving the result for production and distribution. A fully customized dmg file offers a polished presentation so you can really impress the people you're distributing your material to.
The best DMG design
Here's a clever idea. I'll admit that I'm superficial enough to think more of a given application if its installer is on a well-designed disk image. AppZapper and Delicious Library immediately come to mind. While I simply admire them from afar, blogger Roustem Karimov is on a mission to find the best one. He has posted snapshots of several images to his blog, and he rates each in terms of appearance, how clearly information is presented and so on. Check it out, it's rather interesting.[Via The Apple Blog]
Make a Delivery Automator app
I haven't tested this yet, but Make a Delivery sounds like a handy little Automator action that will create a .dmg file from the Finder items you have selected, then attach that .dmg to an email. One quirky thing, however, is that you have to move a resource folder into your Applications directory; it isn't just an action that you can use or turn into a right-click Finder plugin.In any case, if you prefer an easy way to create .dmg's for emailing (instead of zip archives), Make a Delivery might be just what you need.
