Hello.World

I just had to login to a windows server using VNC, and I was required to "Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to log on". Not as easy as it sounds on a Mac laptop which has no "Alt" or "Delete" key. And a quick Google pointed to remapping keys on the keyboard which did not appeal to me.

After a bit of playing around I found the equivalent keystrokes that will work:

"control" + "option" + "fn" + "delete"

No keyboard remapping required.

Hopefully that saves you some time if you ever have the need.

If you have moved to Mac OS X from Windows you may be like me and miss the convenience of the saved server settings in PuTTY. These settings allowed you to telnet/ssh into your servers without having to remember the IP of each one. There are numerous ways around this of course, but here is a tip that may come in handy…

Use Alias Shortcuts

The 'alias' command allows you to create an alias, or shortcut, to a longer command. For example you could create a shortcut to open TextEdit from the command line like so:

• Open the Terminal app
• Type  the following: 
  
alias te='open /Applications/TextEdit.app/'

• Press Enter
• Now type "te". TextEdit should open

So how can we use the alias command to replace the convenience of PuTTY and log into servers easily?

We can create shortcuts for servers that we frequently log into. For example in the Terminal type the following:

Where:

• myserver = the name of your alias/shortcut
• username = a valid user on the server
• xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx = the server IP address

Now you can ssh to that server by simply typing "myserver". This should prompt you for your password – enter that and you're in!

Use .bash_profile to save aliases

At the moment if you close your Terminal, and then re-open it, your aliases will have been forgotten. So how do we tell Terminal to remember them permanently? The trick is to create a .bash_profile file for your Mac user. This file should exist in your Mac home directory. To create this file follow these steps:

• Open the Terminal app
• Type the following:
  
vi ~/.bash_profile

• This will open a new blank file in the "vi" editor
• Press "i" once – this puts the editor into "insert" mode
• Put your alias command into the file (same as above) – paste using Ctrl+V, or type it
• Press the Esc key once
• Type ":wq" to finish editing the file and save it to disk
• Now close your Terminal app, and reopen it. Your alias should now be working.

Note: If you have TextMate installed (which I highly recommend) then at the command line just type "mate ~/.bash_profile" (instead of using "vi"). This will open a blank file in TextMate. Then type in the alias command as above and save the file. Then close and reopen the Terminal app.

This was just a quick overview for those who can work out the details from the clues above. Even if you do not use aliases to shortcut logging in to servers they are handy to know about.

Happy aliasing!

By default Xcode (the Apple Developer IDE) puts opening braces at the end of the current line like so:

However I have been working on projects for years with a different convention:

Of course developers have different preferences here. One is not right and the other wrong – that is dictated by a company or by a project, or by the consensus of the developers starting a new project. Once a convention is in place then it must be adhered to for the life of the project. And of course a decent IDE will work with developers preferences.

So – how do we get Xcode to support this alternate convention? The problem being that there is no UI preference to set this.

To change this preference the quick way:

Open the Terminal App and paste the following code:

Then restart Xcode. Thats it.

What does this do? It places a new entry in a plist file that is located in your user Home Directory. Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.Xcode.plist.

Next time you start coding in Xcode it will autocomplete with opening braces on a new line.

This morning Apple officially released the much-rumoured Tablet they have been working on called the "iPad".

Some specific details:

• 9.7 inch IPS Display
• 1024 x 768 resolution at 132 ppi
• 1.5 pounds
• 1/2 inch thin
• Onscreen Virtual Keyboard
• Custom Apple 1Ghz CPU – the "A4″
• Comes in 3 sizes: 16Gb, 32Gb, 64Gb
• WiFi / Bluetooth
• Optional 3G
• Assisted GPS on 3G models
• Appcelerometer / Compass
• 10 hours battery life
• 30 days standby
• Case that doubles as a stand (optional extra)
• External keyboard dock (optional extra)

The iPad runs all existing iPhone Apps in 2 modes – actual size in center of screen, or full screen using pixel doubling. Developers can also officially support the iPad display natively by developing apps using the new iPhone SDK which will be released later today.

Apple is now moving into the e-book space as predicted. You will be able to purchase "iBooks" via iTunes and read them on the iPad. Apple has made deals with several major book and magazine publishers. Can they do for electronic books and magazines what the iPod and iTunes did for music? Time will tell.

Apple is also releasing a completely new version of iWorks (Keynote, Pages, Numbers), with iPad versions at USD $9.99 each app to be purchased via the App Store.

Initial pricing in USD is $499: 16GB/WiFi, $599: 32GB/WiFi, $699: 64GB/WiFi. Add $130 for 3G.

Apple is expecting the iPads to be available for purchase in 2 months, and 3 months for the 3G models.

You can view a YouTube video of the iPad launch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEiUlf9BAYU

Update: You can now view full details of the iPad on the Apple website.

I just recently wrote a detailed review of online budgeting software targeted at New Zealanders. And this morning I discovered moneyStrands.

I have not had a chance to play with this much in detail as yet but I have been impressed with every single part of my exposure to this tool so far. The website is fantastic, the software looks intuitive, and the features look very impressive. Comprehensive budgeting, alerts, and reports. Compare your budgets and spending behaviour to the wider community. Budgeting and spending recommendations targeted to you based on your activity history. So new things in here not found in any of the software I have reviewed in the past.

And yes it does offer automatic bank feeds for ANZ, Westpac, ASB, TSB – and maybe others.

Oh wait – and there is a native iPhone app for moneyStrands that at first glance is one of the nicest looking iPhone apps I have seen.

Looks like Mint.com for New Zealand may have arrived. In fact one reviewer said:

When put head to head with its competitor, mint.com, we believe that moneyStrands is a more complete personal finance app and much more user-friendly.

Stay tuned for a more detailed review in the future – I am off to have a play…

UPDATE: I have now spent some time in moneyStrands. It is a nice start, but a few key features are missing such as recurring budget items, being able to see upcoming bill payments, and any type of forecasting. It is basically a ASB "Track My Spending" on steroids. If you want to be able to categorise your spending and compare your budget to a wider community then moneyStrands is for you. If you need more functionality (as I do) then you should be looking at tools such as Buxfer, PocketSmith and others that I reviewed in my last post.

A friend just pointed me to an interesting blog entry from CampaignMonitor. It makes the following conclusions based on analyzing the email client usage of more than 300 million people from January to June 2009:

It continues to blow us away just how quickly the iPhone is moving mobile email forward. The iPhone now caters for 5.78% of the email client market, breezing past Gmail to become the 5th most popular email client in the world.

Put another way, iPhone now has more of the email client market than AOL, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird and Entourage combined. That's pretty incredible considering it's a mobile device and a relative newcomer compared to the rest of the market.

Thanks to their software update approach within iTunes, iPhone users are also prolific updaters. iPhone OS 1.0 and 2.0 are amongst the fastest shrinking email clients, while iPhone OS 3.0 is by far the fastest growing email client version on the market.

The new iPhone OS 3.0 was released worldwide this morning and I have just installed it on my iPod Touch. It cost me a total of $13.99 to purchase. The download and installation took around 30 minutes, including iTunes making backups of my 16GB device before and after the installation.

Was the upgrade worth it? Absolutely.

The new OS takes the device to another level. It finally supports Cut/Copy/Paste, optimised for a finger-based interface. It now includes Spotlight to search the entire device from a single location. In fact there are over 100 new features which are well designed and implemented, in true Apple style, and vastly improve the experience of using the device. You can view a quick summary of the "Top 40″ features over on the iSmashPhone article: How To Use The Best 40 Features of iPhone 3.0.

Do you want to know what the killer feature is however? The one that makes the $13.99 upgrade seem very reasonable indeed? Every iPod Touch (2nd Gen onwards) has a Broadcom BCM4325 chip inside, which in addition to supporting WiFi also supports Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. However the Bluetooth in the iPod Touch was disabled – until iPhone 0S 3.0. The upgrade has unlocked and enabled Bluetooth on the device. The hardware unlocking combined with the new API's made available to programmers in OS 3.0 allows the iPod Touch to talk to other iPods/iPhones for peer-to-peer gaming, exchanging data, and connectivity with 3rd party peripherals such as headsets, computers, speakers, car accessories, A2DP laptops/watches and more.

iPhone OS 3.0 is a free upgrade for existing owners of iPhones.

This image was sourced from the Stuff.co.nz Cartoon Gallery.

And it was not a very good attempt at that. This was a truly bad interview from Vodafone's perspective. Some clear and relevant answers to the questions might have been a good place to start!

Watch Vodafone's Mark Rushworth on the 3 News website trying to justify their prices.

Vodafone NZ set 10am Tuesday 8 July (today) as the time they would release the official iPhone pricing and plans – and their website was then inaccessible between 10am and 10:45am.

I wonder how many NZ's are interested in the iPhone? Especially now that the pricing has been released.

To view the Vodafone pricing details click here.