Josh’s Stream of Consciousness

Use rsync to keep your music collection in sync with your Android device:

rsync --delete --force -azrpogtP /<PATH TO MUSIC> /<DROID MOUNT POINT>

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Click here to download:

macminifan.mov (2026 KB)

I accidentally reset the PMU instead of the SMC on my Intel Mac Mini and how the fan constantly runs at full throttle. From what I've read, this permanently damages the logic board so I'm pretty much screwed.

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Prerequisites:

sudo aa-complain cupsd
sudo mkdir /usr/share/cups/model

Download drivers:

wget http://solutions.brother.com/.../mfc490cwlpr-1.1.2-2.i386.deb
wget http://solutions.brother.com/.../mfc490cwcupswrapper-1.1.2-2.i386.deb

Install drivers:

sudo dpkg -i --force-all ./mfc490cwlpr-1.1.2-2.i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-all ./mfc490cwcupswrapper-1.1.2-2.i386.deb

Now we need to configure the printer. Open your browser, go to http://localhost:631/printers and then cllick Modify Printer. Set the following:

Device: LPD/LPR Host or Printer

Device URI: lpd:///binary_p1

Make/Manufacturer Selection: Brother

Model/Driver Selection: Your printer's name

The printer is configured. You may now print a test page.

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Pairing my Bluetooth headset to the laptop was easy, but it took a bit of digging to get it working with Skype. The steps I followed are below.

Find the MAC address of the headset:

hcitool scan

Paste the following into ~/.asoundrc:

pcm.headset {
        type bluetooth
        device 00:00:00:00:00:00
        profile “auto”
}

Enable the sound drivers:

sudo hciconfig hci0 voice 0x0060

Tell PulseAudio that the Bluetooth headset exists:

pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=headset
pactl load-module module-alsa-source device=headset

*Note that the above commands will have to be executed after every reboot. I suggest throwing them in a shell script for easy access.

Once paired, you may open Skype and set the sound device settings to use the Bluetooth headset.

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I installed Plex Media Center for OS X on my Intel Mac Mini and hooked it up to the HDTV. This is a perfect alternative to my classic Xbox running Xbox Media Center since the older hardware simply lacks the capability to play HD content. To control the Mini, I use Rowmote Pro on my iPhone.

Originally I was running Windows 7 in a VM and steaming media to the Xbox 360, but it didn't take long to realize how horrible of an idea that was. It's a huge relief not having to deal with that mess anymore.

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Don't feel like shelling out the cash for a Time Capsule? Use Time Machine to backup your data on a local Samba share instead.

Create the sparsebundle image

hdiutil create -size $SIZEg -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname \
"Backup of $HOSTNAME" $HOSTNAME_$MACADDRESS.sparsebundle

Copy to share

cp -r ./$HOSTNAME_$MACADDRESS.sparsebundle /Volumes/share

Enable unsupported volumes

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Ensure that the backup location is mounted after running the above command. Open the Time Machine preferences and you can now choose the network share as a backup point.

Snow Leopard

If you are running OS X 10.6, the following steps must be completed before this will work.

cd /Volumes/share/$hostname.sparsebundle
vim com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist

Paste the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>com.apple.backupd.HostUUID</key>
	<string>$UUID</string>
</dict>
</plist>

$UUID can be found in System Profiler.

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