When do I get crazy-assed bikini models with sexual addiction issues lurking in the bushes? I think I could handle that. Instead, I get this tripe.

Hilarious mailing list exchange in which John C. Welch, who suffers no fools, goes from being helper to stalker in just four moves. Keep reading into the comments to see the inevitable appearance of a lawyer-wannabe (and his subsequent about-face). A must read.

In OS X any file or folder whose name is prefixed with a period is automatically invisible to the Finder and Terminal unless specifically requested.

Sometimes though, one might want to hide a file (or folder) without changing its name. Fortunately OS X provides a means to do this too. In the Terminal the command:

chflags hidden /path/to/my_secrets.txt


will hide my_secrets.txt from the Finder (but not the Terminal). The following command will reverse the action:

chflags nohidden /path/to/my_secrets.txt


Note that while the file is hidden from the Finder it is still accessible to the OS.

Using SSH as a proxy server (to avoid your company’s/country’s [firewall]): SSH has a built in SOCKS proxy that you can use in any program that can run over a SOCKS proxy. This includes Firefox (really, all browsers), Thunderbird, Pidgin/Adium (as well as almost all other IM clients like Google Talk, AIM, etc) and a ton of other networking programs we all use. Using SSH with the -D flag lets you create a dynamic ssh tunnel that acts as a SOCKS proxy, and sends all your traffic from the endpoint of your SSH connection.

And a small collection of other SSH secrets that are [fun][useful][illegal] (delete as appropriate).

Photo Credit: “Hide the Graffiti!” by incurable_hippie

Here’s a small but incredibly useful snippet of code I’d like to share. When I’m developing WordPress websites, I often find myself in a situation where I need to code on a site that’s actually live. Naturally I want to keep my prototyping invisible to the visitors of that site. After all, I don’t want anyone seeing all my mistakes now do I?

The following wrapper can be applied to a block of code and the results will only be visible on the live site to users who are logged in with admin privileges.

Continue Reading…

For the average person, knowing their approximate home and work locations — to a block level — identifies them uniquely. Now that’s scary. [via]

Some days it seems the entire world is waiting with bated breath for the eventual fall from grace of the long-vaunted Macintosh security.

Learn how to create an encrypted sparse disk image that mounts and unmounts on login/logout. With symbolic links in the proper places, Mail, Address Book, and iCal are none the wiser, and you can be reasonably assured that your private data will stay secure.

There is some confusion about whether Gears allows an offline mode of WordPress and also about the privacy of using this Google browser add-on. This informative post answers the most pertinent questions.