Recently my uncle received the following email (I’ve redacted some things and highlighted some) :

this is the classic phishing email with some truths, but ultimately lots of conflicting information.

couple things to look at:

  1. Originating email – du@totas.org.cn – at first glance it seems pretty legit, but when doing a google search on it, or even attempting to go there, it goes no where
  2. Content – written in broken english, the email attempts to play good cop by telling the user that another party has been attempting to register a domain name that is similar to the current one we have. As you know, must domain registrations are unrestricted and allows for anyone to register whatever they want, so this sort of ploy is counter to what we know.
  3. Footer – in order to look more authentic the phisher decided to include a real company, or on further investigation a company that seems to do domain name registrations. couple issues with this one. so the originating email and footer have different domain names, flag 1. they use a .org to have a semblance of authenticity, but most orgs usually dont try to outright sell services. if there was some sort of governing body over domain names, i would have expected a .gov.

Sometimes the Mac will have weird internet behavior,
this usually happens after you travel and connect to other wifis or gateways

The commands to attempt to fix this are:

we assume usage of Mac OS X 10.10.x (Yosemite), if you are on an older system, the commands are different

//clear arp cache
$ sudo arp -a -d

//clear dns cache
$ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) handles the low-level exchanges in order to map an IP address to a link layer address on demand. Sometimes if the connection has cached bad link layer addresses, clearing the cache can help.

DNS (Domain Name System) handles the conversion of domain names to IPs. for example facebook.com translates to 69.171.230.5 and this is how a computer decides how to reach facebook. In some cases, there is an attack called dns poisoning, basically what happens is that when your computer goes to the DNS master, to resolve facebook.com, the master (in this case the attacker, most likely using a man-in-the-middle attack) will return a different IP, this basically makes it so that you are unable to goto facebook or redirected to a facebook-looking site. This attack is commonly used in China to block access to certain sites. Clearing the cache sometimes helps because it forces the system to go resolve the domain name/IP addresses mapping again.

Gatekeeper

there are times when your organization/company locks down your computer and you have to install software. Here is how to gain access to install software.

Obviously you will need to have root access. Most of the time, if you are configured as an administrator on the Mac, you will be able to gain root.

1. Open up Terminal
2. Run this command $ sudo spctl –master-disable

spctl is the Mac’s SecAssessment System Policy Security.

What we are doing is Disabling the assessment subsystem altogether. Operations that would be denied by system policy will be allowed to proceed; assessment APIs always report success. Requires root access.

see:

SC-REMOTE-RF
I bought the MustangAV SC-E106D169 (a motorized 16:9 106″ screen) a while back, and when I moved I forgot to pack my remote, So I had to buy a new one.

the model number is SC-REMOTE-RF and can be found at Newegg.com for around $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824992112

Once I received the product, there was no instructions on how to sync the remote, as well as calling support on the mustangav.com site usually resulted in an answering machine.

Couple things I learned:
1. MustangAV is sold by Stampede which is located in Amherst, NY (which means they work EST hours)
Stampede Headquarters
55 Woodridge Drive Amherst, NY 14228
Tel: +1 800.398.5652 (Toll free)

2. MustangAV’s support number 866-395-0370 probably gets redirected to Stampede
3. Email and voice mail messages don’t seem effective, best to get a hold of Tom (MustangAV support guy), if possible.

Syncing instructions
After many calls and emails, I was finally able to reach Tom. He was able to send me the syncing instructions, which I will include here, because I could not find them on Google either. Hopefully Google indexes this site and will pick it up.

I’ve included the text here:
1. PRESS and HOLD the upper and center buttons of the RECEIVER together simultaneously until the green LED
indicator light begins to flash.
2. When the green LED indicator light flashes, press the upper button located on the SC-REMOTE-RF (transmitter) and hold until the signal is recognized.
3. The SC-REMOTE-RF has now been reset and synchronized with the receiver. You should now be able to control the operation of the projection screen.

download SC-REMOTE-RF REMOTE MANUAL

creating a USB install disk is super easy now.

1. Download the Mavericks installer
2. it should be located /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app
3. Open up terminal and navigate into the Resources section of the app
/Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources
4. Run the following command:
sudo ./createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/ToFormat --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

* notice that we named our volume “ToFormat”, you must insert the name of the volume you want to reformat.
** there are some other instructions on the internet, which require you to search for the base system.dmg, but the issue with that method is that it does not automatically create a recovery hd partition, so that features like file vault are not available.

The other day I spilled naked juice on my macbook pro, I immediately shut it off, and dried it out. I quickly wiped it off with some isopropyl alcohol and let it dry overnight upside down. I waited about 2 days.

I took the laptop apart, looking for any signs of liquid damage, luckily there was none. It did smell fruity tho. I even checked the logic board to see if there were any issues. None.

So I put the laptop back together and pressed the power button. NOTHING. I did a quick search online, found iFixIt…I’ve known about them for a long time, and usually use their site as a way to see the basic steps of how to disassemble. Looked around and found that its possible that only the keyboard shorts, and if that happens then the power button wont work.

There is a way to jump the keyboard so that the laptop will turn on. On the keyboard connector, near the middle there are 2 pins that you just have to jump together, I used my screwdriver to do it. And miraculously my laptop turned on. Awesome. My trackpad was still working also.

kb_shortjump

I looked further on the iFixIt site, and they only sell the full upper assembly for $299, and not the individual keyboard, I don’t need the full upper assembly because only the keyboard is shorted, not the trackpad. So I looked online and found some keyboard replacements for $30. I went with PT Supermarket, the website looks kinda sketch, but we’ll see how it goes.

Another site that I found pretty useful was:
EveryMac – you can search for your computer model by serial number. This is how I verified that the keyboard model would work in my laptop.

My macbook pro was a MacBook Pro “Core 2 Duo” 2.26 13″ (SD/FW) 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo (P8400)
and the Keyboard (A1278) matches.

After the upgrade to iOS 6.1.3, I experienced massive degradation on the battery performance; to a point where the phone was unusable. I’ve tried many things, from turning off gps locations, turning off wifi, setting it in airplane mode, removing access to calendars, turning off iCloud related functionality, and closing out all the apps.

Temporarily Fixed.

I think I found a decent solution. It seems that iOS 6.1.3 somehow breaks the push and exchange process, by turning off push on exchange accounts, my phone seems to work normally again. the only drawback is now when getting email, you have to load up mail for it to go fetch.

I was building stuff for production when I noticed that Coda, screws up javascript. Especially when typing things such as (c) it replaces it with a ©, which makes it difficult to troubleshoot. I’m switching over to TextMate.

so lately Apple has been blocking the java plugin, this is due to some of those crazy java exploits out there. but for those that NEED to have Safari work with the java plugin, here is a little hack that fixes that.

Apple writes out to a file in:
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.plist

to block minimum java plugin versions. I attempted to use the one provided by Oracle, but still had issues, so to temporary hack is to change the version.

here is a script that does that (must run as sudo):

#!/bin/bash

echo "default is java version: 1.7.11.22"

JPLUGIN_VERSION="1.7.11.22"
JPLUGIN_NEW_VERSION="1.7.11.1"

if [ -n "$1" ]; then
JPLUGIN_VERSION="$1"
fi

echo "search for: $JPLUGIN_VERSION"

#cd /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources
cp XProtect.meta.plist XProtect.meta.plist.bak
sed 's/$JPLUGIN_VERSION/$JPLUGIN_NEW_VERSION/g' XProtect.meta.plist.bak > XProtect.meta.plist

echo "modified to: $JPLUGIN_NEW_VERSION"

download here:
java_version.sh

usage:

$ sudo ./java_version.sh


$ sudo ./java_version.sh 1.7.11.22