iDefrag your Mac

There is an urban myth that Macs don't need to be defragged because OS X "takes care of it for you" -- well, that's true for FILE fragmentation but not for FREE SPACE fragmentation. I have an iMac G5 (PowerPC) with a 160GB hard drive that I've filled up then freed up some space on several times over the years, so I figured it must be rather fragmented. So I bought iDefrag from Coriolis Systems (on faith and good reviews alone) and sure enough it consolidated my 37,000 fragments of free space into just 4 -- one of which was 48GB of contiguous free space at the end of the drive plus 3 other tiny ones near the front (not sure why).

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER screen shots (literally pictures of the screen taken with my Blackberry, since iDefrag only offer full optimization functionality when run from another drive or their boot disc -- which is what I used):


This process took several hours (I should have timed it), including a little break where iDefrag gives the hard drive a chance to cool down since it monitors the drive's temperature sensor. I also should have timed my boot time before and after but I forgot to do that. I'll see whether it saves me any time on my whole-disk backup (using SuperDuper!) too.

Remote control and screen sharing

When you need to see what's happening on a another computer's screen, it can be hard to decide which technology to use. Here are some recommended software and services to consider.

NOTE: Logos are the trademarks of the respective companies mentioned below.

Working with a computer that you own or control (e.g. your server or desktop)

1. Within an internal network (inside the firewall including on a VPN):
   
   
   1. to control a Windows computer, use RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) on port 3389 (or 4125 for Windows Small Business Server 2003): Microsoft's Terminal Services works with the client software known as Remote Assistance or Remote Desktop Connection -- the server is built into Windows XP Professional, Media Center Edition and Windows Server 2003/2008. Client software includes:
      
      
      1. Windows XP Home, Pro, Media Center Edition; Windows Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate - included (under the 'Accessories' menu). If missing, get from install CD or re-download Terminal Services Client 6.0 from Microsoft.
         
      2. Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000 download from Microsoft
         
      3. Remote Desktop Connection for Mac download from Microsoft. Sometimes I also use Cocoa Remote Desktop (CoRD).
         
      4. UNIX/Linux (rdesktop) using the X Window system.
         
      
      
   2. to control a Mac computer, use Screen Sharing (a.k.a. Remote Management in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard) or Apple Remote Desktop (in Mac OS 10.4 Tiger) by configuring the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) feature on a port in the range of 5900-5906. Or you can run the free 3rd party Vine Server (formerly known as OSXvnc) from Redstone Software. Client software includes:
      
      
      1. Vine Viewer - commercial
         
      2. Chicken of the VNC - freeware
         
      3. many other providers of VNC software, some commercial, some with encryption, so you may find other combinations that work for your situations (e.g. UltraVNC, RealVNC, etc.).
      
      
   
   NOTE: Do not "poke holes" in your firewall to expose your computers to the Internet just because you find it convenient to use a free software-based remote management solution. There are numerous well-documented security vulnerabilities in many RDP and VNC implementations. Don't find out the hard way by exposing such a powerful service to the legions of hackers out there! You have been warned!
   
   
2. Over the Internet (using a 3rd party service provider to get through the firewall):
   
   
   1. LogMeIn Free (for both Windows and Mac computers) allows you to control all of your computers at no cost! If you want the advanced features (like sound, remote printing, drag & drop, etc.) you can subscribe to their LogMeIn Pro service.
      
      
   2. GoToMyPC from Citrix Online may be the market leader, but it isn't free after the trial period ends.
      
   
   NOTE: Some companies have policies against using 3rd party services to remotely control your work computers. If your firm has an IT Department, check with them first, since they may require you to use a VPN and then allow the use of an RDP or encrypted VNC solution.
   

   Sharing your screen with one other person (e.g. collaborating, coaching)

   1. For individual one-on-one collaboration on Windows, AIM Pro is free with no banner ads because it's branded by WebEx as a way to promote their paid online meeting services. Once you start chatting, either of you can initiate voice and/or screen sharing. It's only for Windows and it doesn't do group meetings, but it's free and convenient for doing remote work with one person at a time who already has an AOL screen name.
      
      
   2. On the Mac, apparently iChat on OS X 10.5 Leopard has a screen sharing feature -- I haven't upgraded yet to be able to try that. iChat interoperates with AIM at least for text chat and with the right firewall settings for video/audio too, but I haven't tried connecting AIM Pro to iChat on Leopard yet for screen sharing. Any comments?
      
      
   3. I haven't tried GoToAssist or LogMeIn IT Reach yet but if I had more clients I would probably consider one of those solutions.
      
   
   

Squarified treemaps show what's taking up so much space on your hard drive

I've found it very helpful to use "squarified treemaps" to get a quick visual sense of what the big space-wasting files are on my hard drive. Even large groups of small files stand out in highlighted boxes (e.g. the yellow frame in this screenshot is around my 7.3GB C:\WINDOWS directory). Thanks go to Edward Ianuzi for suggesting this helpful utility!

• In Windows I first tried SequoiaView 1.3 but now I use WinDirStat (a Windows port of KDirStat).


• On the Mac I first tried GrandPerspective but now I use Disk Inventory X which is a Mac-native adaptation of KDirStat.


• For X11 (UNIX/Linux, etc.) there is KDirStat which has a 3-pane display of summarized/browsable folder sizes, summary by file types, and the squarified treemap.

My favourite Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger) Dashboard Widgets

Here is what's on my Dashboard:

• 3 World Clock widgets (yes the analog one that comes with the OS, because they're the best at handling DST in foreign cities like Asuncion)
  
• 3 Weather widgets (yes the one that comes with the OS, because they show everything I care about with no clutter)
  
• 2 Countdown Calendars (yes the one that comes with the OS, because it's a quick way to keep track of how long until I fly out and in on business trips)
  
• Dash Clipping (this is the best widget, IMHO since I can monitor portions of important web pages by cropping to the relative subset that is most useful to me; an equivalent is built into Mac OS 10.5 Leopard)
  
• Fidelity Market Monitor Widget (because of the color-coded change indicator and quick access to good graphs)
  
• iStat Pro (most detail of things like fan speed, temperature guages, battery cycles, etc.)
  
• 4 Webcams is a compact way to show images from URLs and you can click on one to exapand it to take up the full frame of the widget (covering the other 3 images)
  
• Widget Update is a compact way to check for new versions of your existing installed widgets
  
• Application Update is a compact way to check for new versions of your existing installed applications
  
• 3-2-1 is a countdown timer
  

Portable Apps are like SCUBA gear for Internauts

There are fewer reasons now than ever to gamble with certain kinds of freeware and risk accidentally agreeing to some kind of malware that may be bundled with the installer. Softpedia has a badging system where they guarantee that {product X version y} is 100% FREE, which means it is free for both personal & commercial use (otherwise some are only free for personal use) and that it doesn't contain any malware (e.g. spyware, viruses, trojans or backdoors). They test and retest periodically so that the award can be withdrawn if necessary.

One of my favourite sources of free software is PortableApps.com created by John Haller. His collection of open-source applications contains no spyware, ads, trial version limitations, or need to sacrifice of your e-mail address.

In the same way that SCUBA equipment is self-contained, portable applications keep their preferences, profiles and data together in folders under a "PortableApps" directory, making them ideal for use on USB thumb drives (unlike standard Windows applications which may scatter such data around your hard drive (e.g. some in the Windows registry, others under "Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data", others under "{username}\Local Settings", etc.).

But you don't have to limit yourself to running PortableApps from a removable drive; it's just as convenient to install PortableApps at the top of your C: drive and know that you can always take a copy of that directory onto any backup media and easily restore it to another computer or USB thumb drive in case of emergency.

FYI, you can get a list of all of the Softpedia-approved programs written (or in this case packaged for portable use) by John T. Haller and try them for yourself! There is an FTP client (FileZilla), Mozilla's web browser (Firefox), the productivity suite (OpenOffice), a universal audio/video player (VLC), a telnet/SSH client (PuTTY) and more!

Virtual Vista, a quick how-to guide

Let's say that you want to try out Microsoft® Windows Vista™ on one of your current PCs but you don't want to use dual-boot method. The alternative is to use virtualization. Here are the 8 steps (notice I didn't say "8 simple steps" ;-) that I've come up with based on my recent experience. There is a lot to learn about Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Vista individually, so below is just a quick to-do list (not exhaustive instructions). You'll need to set aside a couple of hours to go through this (you've been warned).

1. Install the free Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007, "a solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system."
   
   NOTE: Don't gloss over the system requirements -- make sure that you well exceed the minimums! You'll want to use a powerful workstation (I tested using a 3 GHz CPU with 2GB RAM). No matter how loaded your computer is, it will barely be fast enough ;-).
   


2. If you're not ready to buy Windows Vista™ yet, you can download the free Microsoft Windows Vista 30-day Evaluation VHD (Virtual Hard Drive), "evaluate them for free in your own environment without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations".
   
   NOTE: You will need a Microsoft Windows Live ID (Passport, Hotmail, or MSN e-mail address) to log in and get the 1.5GB download (in 3 parts: Vista.part1.exe, Vista.part2.rar and Vista.part3.rar). Microsoft requires you to provide your contact and company information in order to register for the VHD Test Drive evaluation program.
   


3. Run "Vista.part1.exe" -- it will extract the necessary files: Vista.vmc, Vista.vhd, etc.
   
   
4. Double-click the "Vista.vmc" file. It will launch Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and boot Vista for the first time. This will take a while. Then you'll create a user account and pick a country & time zone. Soon after that you'll be able to log in and it will prepare your desktop.
   
   
5. To improve security, turn off some features such as "Remote Assistance" and "Password protected sharing". I'm sure that there are many other things that can be done to improve security in Vista, but that's beyond the scope of this how-to guide. Now shut down Vista.
   


6. From the menu of the 'Virtual PC Console' pick "Settings" then click the 'Networking' line. For Adapter 1, choose an adapter from the pop-up list (e.g. Broadcom ... Gigabit).
   
   
7. Start Vista from the 'Virtual PC Console' window, and once you log in you should find that you have working Internet connection (e.g. the virtual networking adapter uses DHCP to get you connected). Pretty soon, Windows Update will figure out that you have Internet access and will start downloading lots of updates. This will take a while. The Vista.vhd file will start out at about 5GB but will grow as you install more software into your virtual Vista.
   
   NOTE: I had some trouble with Windows Update failing to install 2 updates (KB933566 and KB931213 published 6/11/07) even after I followed the Help instructions. Please add a comment to this blog entry if you found a way to solve that problem.
   
   
8. From the 'Virtual PC 2007' menu (use the right-Alt key to get your mouse pointer out of the Vista window and back to your PC's desktop) pick "Action > Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions". This will mount a virtual CD, so agree to autorun the setup.exe and follow the prompts, resulting in a reboot of course. Now you should have better drivers for sound and graphics the next time you start up.
   

If you have any questions, start at the Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk FAQ. Now that you're on the tip of the iceberg, enjoy the view!

Welcome to the Gastown Webspace blog!

This is the beginning of a technology blog edited by Kevin Hiebert, CA·IT. Topics will include things like backup advice, software reviews, and links to important security news.