My house sits in the overlap between this new AT&T tower, and tower 310410-16030-62227 which is still EDGE (located near Central Baptist Church on 127s). Because of this when I am traveling from town home, my phone stays locked on the older tower. However, when coming from the south, or from Tansi, I stay on the newer tower.

Speed test on tower 16920 is very good, a full 2.5 mbps down and 1.8 mbps up. Netflix will stream, but it’s a bit choppy. I think that has more to do with my phone than the network. Pandora was just as fast on the new tower as it is over wifi.

Let’s how AT&T gets the lead out and turns on the 3G radios in the other towers in Cumberland County. I know that tower 310410-61737 (near wal-mart on 127n) had 3G on Sunday evening for about an hour.

I discovered quite quickly that switching between Landscape/Horizontal and Portrait/Vertical posed some interesting changes for creating custom wallpapers. This is especially true given the parallax scrolling ICS does with wallpapers.

After some research along with some trial and error, I created this Photoshop template. First off the “base” resolution to make everything work is documented at 1920 by 1408. However I found that when selecting a wallpaper from the Gallery, the cropping losses some of hight and it turns out less than 1920 by 1292 pixels are actually used. My template is 1920 by 1292, with a small marge at the top and bottom showing the cut off points.

In the template there is a group folder called “Guides”. This group and it’s subgroups contain opaque overlays to assist in image positioning. The opaque Red areas show the Landscape/Horizontal with two steps of diminishing fill to the right and left representing the additional desktops. The opaque Green shows the same for the Portrait/Vertical orientation. Black boxes in the corners and along the top and bottom edge indicate areas that are not shown in any orientation. There is also a sub Group called “Each Desktop” where the individual desktops in both the Landscape/Horizontal and Portrait/Vertical can be overlaid to test your image. Finally there is a black line on a layer named “Center Line”. This line will help in getting your wall paper centered.

In the template I’ve also included two of my own wallpaper creations, Bike Girl and Cafe Girl, to show how to use the opaque overlays. Cafe Girl is interesting because to shows how the change from Landscape/Horizontal to Portrait/Vertical can dramatically alter the composition of an image.

Enjoy!

Download

The United States already has laws which protect Copyright and other forms of Intellectual Property. While convoluted and imperfect, these laws already have a steep baises in favor of established and wealthy companies. However big media companies feel that they need more legal power to enforce their copyright and intellectual property. The problem is that at it’s core, copyright and intellectual property laws in the United States have no ability to handle, in the correct framework, questions that arrise when information is not tied to a physical medium. Giving additional powers to enforce laws that are unable to envision reality is dangerous and open for abuse.

Unlike 10 years ago, media no longer is tired to anything physical. The act of watching a Netfix film, listing to a Pandora song, or reading an eBook, posses questions of “copying” that the current Copyright law simply cannot address. Before any question of additional enforcement powers can be raised, we must first undertake a serious reworking on our existing Copyright and Intellectual Property laws.

The current media industry has steadfastly refused to accept that in the digital age, methods of media consumption and distribution are very different. More over, because the traditional big media companies have not innovated, more and more people are forgoing their products in favor of perfectly legal digital content found only on the Internet. Faced with the realization that their unwillingness to change has now endangered their industry, big media companies have resorted to contributing millions and millions of dollars to finance the political campaigns of members of congress and the President. These two bills are the anti-consumer payoff for their investment. In the minds of Big Media, much like Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and dozens of other multinational corporations, they believe that with sufficient money, they can legislate a business model.

The irony is that the Internet was built to route around censorship and attempts to block information. EVERY method for censoring the Internet in these bills is easily defeated. So the only effect these bills will have is give tools to Big Media to stifle their competitors, and to criminalize things that should rightly be handled in a civil court.

“Piracy” is not what you think it is. Big Media’s Public Relations machine wants us to believe that “Piracy” is massive online file share sites where people can get free movies. While there is no doubt that such sites exist, Big Media defines “Piracy” as any use of their content without paying them. This includes thinks like playing a song while on hold, a radio in a mom-and-pop dinner, or Girl Scouts singing songs around a campfire.

But most damaging is this. Because of the proliferation of digal media, we as a society have moved from being content consumers, to content creators. Art builds on ar and millions of artest remix music and movies to create new art and share that art with the world, never wanting or expecting payment for it. This is not a new, almost everyone of us can remember a family member playing a musical instrument, or seeing a local band cover a popular song. But rather than playing for the high school dance, small bands are posting their cover songs online. This too is defined as “Piracy” by Big Media.

The Internet gives Artests today have a platform where they can share their work with the world instantly and practically for free. This is what Big Media fears. The are annoyed by File Sharing websites, but they a terrified that in the digital age, they are no longer relevant or needed.

Many new artests such as Justin Bieber got their start singing on Youtube. If these bills become law, the next Justin Bieber could be charged with a felony rather than becoming a pop icon. When we talk about “legislating a business model” this is at the heart of that statement. Big Media has enjoyed a century of both being the path to fame for artests and a primary source of culture for the world. They built an empire on the ability to disseminate media and a monopoly on deciding what was “popular”. The Internet has usurped both their dissemination infrastructure and their ability to dictate popularity. Now, rather than innovating, they want congress stifle the free speech of every aspring artest. Art builds on art. Every song, every movie, every book, has elements of pervious works. For verification of this fact, one need only look at the Disney Empire. Walt Disney created the worlds larget media conglomerate based on re-imaging the tails of the Grimms Brothers. What Big Media wants now is to have congress pass laws that forbid anyone doing to Disney, what Disney did to the Grimms. In essence Big Media views itself as the owners of our culture, and wants to demand that we pay them to use it.

But Big Media is not all powerful. They may have financed political campaigns, but We the voters are the ones who put congress and the President in office, and only We the voters who can keep them in office. If enough of us raise our voices, no amount of millions spent on political campaigns will matter.

Below is a widget created by http://americancensorship.org/. It’s very simple to use, all you need do is fill out the form. You will then receive and phone call with a recording outlining the “talking points”, which are basically ”one-liners” and “themes” you can use, then your call will be connected to YOUR congressional representative’s office, automatically. You can then tell your senator’s office that you DO NOT want him or her to vote for these atrocious bills.

Together WE can defeat this and save the Internet.

In getting geared up for this, we have opened up our first game server!

Right now we are hosting an Urban Terror server at: games.taborcg.com (207.144.150.60)

If you are interested in trying it out Urban Terror is a free first person shooter based off the Quake III engine and can be download at: http://www.urbanterror.info/downloads/

Our in game server is call ”TCG Game Server” and can be found in the “Internet Servers” list.

Have Fun!!

For years, the “solution” given to us by Apple for data security was “FileVault”. Starting in OSX 10.3 Panther, users could “encrypt” their home directories. Home directory encryption is better than nothing, but there are still some very real problems. If your system is physically compromised (i.e., taken from you), the opposition will not have access to all the data in your home directory; however they can still make inferences by looking at all the other unencrypted data on your system. Worse yet, if you are foolish enough to use Sleep or Hibernate, it is theoretically possible for a skilled opposition to recover your encryption keys from the unencrypted temporary space on the drive.

The REAL solution has been, and always will be, Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) at boot time based on a strong user provided key. This combined with good security practices will render a system almost impervious to any opposition, whether that opposition is a nosy co-worker, professional hacker, or government agency. In an ideal world, the BEST WDE would also offer “plausible deniability”. Plausible deniability would render encrypted hard drives that were mathematically and legally indistinguishable from random data and boot from an easily discarded SD card or thumb-drive. Plausible deniability would also allow the user to “boot” into a completely different environment from the one they normally work in which would be hidden within the encrypted disk and indistinguishable.

Starting with OSX 10.7 Lion Apple has FINALLY woken up to the concept of WDE, albeit not the ideal kind with plausible deniability.  Still, it is better than only home directory encryption, and WAY better than being naked on the battlefield. The new system is just an extension of FileVault, called in some cases “FileVault 2″ and in other cases just “FileVault” where the pervious system is call “Legacy FileVault”.

By design, OSX 10.7 Lion is supposed to be installed as an “Upgrade” to an existing OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard system, however there are several methods for installing OSX 10.7 Lion on a clean hard-drive. In the upgrade situations, if the user had a FileVault encrypted home directory, the encryption system is carried forward into the New OSX 10.7 Lion install and named “Legacy FileVault”. It behaves exactly like OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard in every respect. The one area that differs is that new users on the system are unable to activate “Legacy FileVault” for their home directories. Any attempt to use the FileVault format from the Security and Privacy System Preference Plane will result in the user being required to “upgrade” to the new WDE FileVault.

Having said that WDE is better than home directory encryption, why does this guide exist?  Apple’s new WDE FileVault does provide better security than its previous iteration, however that added security comes with a price. WDE FileVault is not 100% compatible with various configurations and installs of Apple Bootcamp software, which allows Mac owners to run multiple operating systems on the same computer. WDE FileVault is also not compatible with users running OSX 10.7 Lion on non-Apple-approved hardware such as being done in the active Hackintosh OSX86 communities. Finally, because there is only 1 encryption key to unlock the disk in WDE, there are situations were multiple users of the same computer need to be blocked from each other with strong encryption, but not share the same encryption key.

What you need to have to complete this guide:

1. A fulling working OSX 10.7 Lion system

2. (optional) Access to a OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard system running FileVault.

3. Some method to move files between the two aforementioned computers (thumb drive, network, email, etc)

4. Be semi-comfortable with the Terminal and some UNIX commands

5. An understanding that modern computers have different users and user permissions.

6. About 30 minutes of time.

Disclaimer

Your data is WAY more important than your hardware. READ THROUGH THIS GUIDE COMPLETELY before trying it. If you are not comfortable or don’t understand what is going on, don’t do it.  If you do this wrong, it could break your computer, burn down your home/office, cause your spouse to leave you, and/or piss off Apple. I am in no way responsible for anything you do. Having said THAT, unless you do something REALLY foolish like “sudo rm -rf /” you should be fine. This guide is very benign and messing up the steps would only affect the user you are trying to create and shouldn’t spill over into other users or the system.

Of course, the best of all words would have you performing this guide on a fresh install of OSX 10.7 Lion on a clean system with no user data, but I guess that’s unrealistic for most people.

A Note about users

This guide can be done on a single user system. However, you might find that it will be easier on some steps to preform the guide logged in as a secondary user NOT as the primary user. Conversely, I strongly recommend that if you are working with a “production” system (i.e. the computer you do “work” from, or your primary home computer) you take the time to setup a second user and try preforming this guide on THAT SECOND USER BEFORE TRYING IT ON THE PRIMARY. One can perform all the steps to the second account while logged into the primary account. I would advise you to log into the second account before following the guide just to make sure the account works. This way if you totally mess up, you are not endangering your primary user account. After you have performed this a couple of times, and feel confident in the procedure, you can then log into the second account and preform the steps on the primary.

How to read this guide:

Commands that you need to execute will be BOLD

Messages back from the system will be in Italics

Because this guide deals with the creation of a user, these commands are very specific to the USERNAME and PASSWORD of the user you are trying to create. Apple, like all modern *nix systems, has a “Full Name”, “Short Name”, and “Password” for each user. My Full Name is McKinley H. Tabor, the Short Name I typically use is mckinleytabor, and my Password is none of your business . In this guide I will use “McKinley H. Tabor”, “mckinleytabor”, and “mckinleyspassword” in places where that data is needed. You will of-course need to replace these with your own corresponding information, unless of course your name is McKinley Tabor, in which case please contact me!

This guide is written for and tested by people who have a working knowledge of computers. There are some high level concepts here, but I will try and break them down into byte-size chunks. In some cases where there is a lack of uniformity and specific instructions are not feasible, I will give high level direction such as “copy files from here to there”. In cases where there is uniformity I will give the entire commands in sequence, thus making “copy and paste” easier. While you are NEVER supposed to Copy and Paste commands into the terminal from some strange guy’s website, we all do it and I guess I’m as trustworthy as anyone.

Step 1: The Chicken and the Egg.

NOTE: If you do not have a working OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard computer, it is possible to still create a working Legacy FileVault on OSX 10.7 Lion, however you will LOSE the ability to recover from a forgotten password by using the “Master Password” recovery option. In practice this may not be a big deal for you. If you wish to proceed without the Master Password recovery option, skip to step 3.

FileVault on OSX 10.7 Lion requires the system to generate a Certificate and Keychain for it to work. The only means by which you can generate a Certificate and Keychain for FileVault on OSX 10.7 Lion is to enable FileVault. Of course, doing so will encrypt your entire drive, and possibly break BootCamp and most definitely will break your Hackintosh. The trick is to get a Certificate and Keychain into OSX Lion WITHOUT enabling FileVault. As it turns out, FileVault’s Certificate and Keychain did not change much between OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard and OSX 10.7 Lion. Therefor it is possible to copy the FileVault Certificate and Keychain from the older system and use it on the newer one.

On both systems the FileVault Certificate and Keychain are located in:

/Library/Keychains/

You will need to copy two files from this directory on the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard to the same directory on OSX 10.7 Lion. Of course, if you have not been using FileVault on OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard then these two files WILL NOT BE THERE.

The two files are:

FileVaultMaster.cer

FileVaultMaster.keychain

One of these files (FileVaultMaster.cer) is only readable by the “root” user, so you will need to copy them via elevated permission in the terminal.

On the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard system Open Terminal (Hard Drive -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)

From the Prompt:

sudo cp /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.* ~/Desktop

You will be prompted for your password, enter it to continue.

You will see your two files now on your desktop.

Depending on your configuration, you may may need to run this next command in the Terminal in order to work with the files you just copied.

sudo chmod a+rw ~/Desktop/FileVaultMaster.*

If prompted for your password, please enter it.

At this point you will need to copy these two files from this OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard computer to your new OSX 10.7 Lion computer. You can do this via any method. Place these two files on the desktop of the OSX 10.7 Lion computer.

Step 2: Installing the FileVault Certificate and Keychain into OSX 10.7 Lion.

On the OSX 10.7 Lion machine open up terminal, we are going to copy the FileVaultMaster files into place and set their permissions properly.

sudo cp ~/Desktop/FileVaultMaster.* /Library/Keychains

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.*

sudo chmod 600 /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.cer

sudo chmod 644 /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.keychain

You have now “installed” the FileVaultMaster files on the OSX 10.7 Lion system.

Step 3: Confirm User Information and set Variables

Our netx steps will confirm that we are working with the right user and setup some BASH global variables to make life easier for us. These will be SBUSERNAME, SBUID, and SBGID. From here on out these steps

umask 077

export SBUSERNAME=”mckinleytabor”

export SBUID=$(id -u $SBUSERNAME)

export SBGID=$(id -g $SBUSERNAME)

echo Username $SBUSERNAME – UserID $SBUID GroupID $SBGID

If all goes well you should get back something like:

Username mckinleytabor – UserID 501 GroupID 20

Note on UserID: Each user on the system as their own UserID number. On OSX 10.7 Lion (an other versions os OSX) the first user of the system, you one you created at install, has a UserID of 501. If you are running this procedure on a second user as a test, that user will have a UserID of 502, 503, 504, etc depending on how many users you have created over time. This guide will work to create a LegacyFileVault for ANY user regardless if it’s the first user or the three-hundredth. Because these commands are being done as the “Super User”, it will also work to create a LegacyFileVault for the user you have currently logged in.

Step 4: Go into the Users Directory

In most cases you may be already in the correct directory, but it never hurts to make sure

cd /Users/”$SBUSERNAME”

pwd

The “pwd” command will show the directory you are currently in, if all goes well you should see:

/User/mckinleytabor

Step 5: Create the sparsebundle

These are the commands to generate the encrypted sparsebundle that will be the FileVault. The “sparsebundle” is a type of disk image used by Apple for various things.  If you’re interested in more information on them, it can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_image

There are three considerations here: size, password, and the Master Password Recovery.

Size. The size of your sparsebudle determines the maximum amount of data you can store in it. The actual size of the sparsebundle on the disk will change based on the data contained within. There have been some discussions about the use of the “autostretch” switch when creating the sparsebundle so as to avoid a maximum data top end. We have not tested the use of autostretch and for the time being recommend you stick with a hard cap, albeit a large one. Pick a size based on the overall capacity of your disk. In a single user computer, it would not hurt to have the sparsebundle be 90% of the total disk capacity. Undersizing the sparsebundle is far more detrimental than oversizing it. The sizes will be noted as Gigabytes so 300g is 300 gigabytes, 1000g is a terabyte. In the examples below I have used “300g” to denote the creation of a three hundred gigabyte sparsebundle. Please change this number to the size that best suits you.

One more note about size. If this is new system install, or setting up Legacy FileVault on a new user, there should be no problem with disk size. However, if you are setting up Legacy FileVault for an established user with LOTS of data, the overall disk size might be an issue. During the data “Population” in step 9, you will be doubling the data for the user on the disk for a short time. Therefore, if you have a 300 Gigabyte hard drive, and the user has 200 Gigabytes of data, it will be impossible to do the data population in step 9, because in doing so you will run out of space on the disk. There are two ways around this. First is to create the Legacy FileVault for a new user and move the data over from the old user once you have established that everything is working.  Second is to backup the data off the machine to an external source, delete the data off the machine, and then copy it back once Legacy FileVault is working.

Password. You MUST use the same password as the one you have for the User you are setting up FileVault for. If these passwords are different, you will get an error when logging in.

Master Password Recovery. The Master Password Recovery is based on the transfer of the FileVaultMaster files from steps 1 and 2. Your Master Recovery Password will be different from the password you use for the sparsebundle and will have been set on the OLD OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard Machine. Ergo, you will never be asked to set a master password on this OSX 10.7 Lion. The Master Password is used in two scenarios. First, if you forget your normal password that unlocks the sparsebundle and logs you into the system. Second, if there have been too many bad password attempts.

THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you had to skip steps 1 and 2 because you did not have a OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard machine running FileVault so you could copy FileVaultMaster files, you will need to create a sparsebundle without referencing the FileVaultMaster files. This will impair your system only slightly, and it will still work in normal day-to-day operations.

Because the sparsebundle creation command is different depending on whether or not you have copied the FileVaultMaster files, I have listed both. In both cases I am still creating a 300g sparsebundle, so edit the command as necessary for your own size. Also the “” characters allow for a single command to have multiple lines. These characters can be omitted if you are typing them out on a single line.

Command if you HAVE the FileVaultMaster files.

hdiutil create -size 300g

-encryption -agentpass

-certificate /Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.cer

-uid $SBUID -gid $SBGID

-mode 0700 -fs “HFS+J” -type SPARSEBUNDLE -layout SPUD

-volname “$SBUSERNAME” “$SBUSERNAME”.sparsebundle

Command if you DO NOT have the FileVaultMaster files.

hdiutil create -size 300g

-encryption -agentpass

-uid $SBUID -gid $SBGID

-mode 0700 -fs “HFS+J” -type SPARSEBUNDLE -layout SPUD

-volname “$SBUSERNAME” “$SBUSERNAME”.sparsebundle

(The only difference is the removal of the third line)

When asked for a password, USE THE SAME PASSWORD you used when the account was created.

If it all works you should get back:

created: /Users/mckinleytabor/mckinleytabor.sparsebundle

Step 7: Set FileVault Permissions

This will set the sparsebundle to have the correct permissions for the user you are creating it for.

chown -R “$SBUSERNAME”:staff “$SBUSERNAME”.sparsebundle

Step 8:  Mount sparsebundle in a temporary place to check it.

Now that the sparsebundle has been created, we will want to mount it up and test it to make sure it works before populating it and attaching it to a user. We will create a temporary directory in the user’s home folder and mount the sparsebundle to that directory. This temporary directory will be removed in a later step.

mkdir sbdest

hdiutil attach -owners on -mountpoint sbdest

-stdinpass “$SBUSERNAME”.sparsebundle

You will be prompted for the sparsebundle password and if all goes well you should see something like:

/dev/disk2          Apple_partition_scheme

/dev/disk2s1        Apple_partition_map

/dev/disk2s2        Apple_HFS                      /Users/mckinleytabor/sbdest

Step 9: Populate the sparsebundle

This next command will move all the data you need into the sparsebundle for the user to use it as their home directory. It is important, however, before we do the step that you reflect on just how much data you are going to copy. In doing this we will effectively DOUBLE the size on the user’s home folder until we can confirm the sparsebundle login and delete all the unencrypted data. If this is LESS than the total size of the disk, then go head with the next command. If it is more STOP NOW and consider making a second user to create the Legacy FileVault for or backing up all of your data off this machine, deleting the data once it has been backed up, then copying it back after we can confirm Legacy FileVault is working.

rsync -avxHE ./ sbdest/

–exclude=”$SBUSERNAME”.sparsebundle/ –exclude=”sbdest/”

This step will take ether a few moments or several hours depending on the size of your data and the speed of your machine. If you followed the directions properly and took time to reflect on the data size, you’ll know if you need to wait at the machine, or come back later. There will be lots of messages flying access the screen, these are just telling you what files are being copied.

Step 10: Unmount sparsebundle and remove temporary directory

After all the data has been moved it’s time to unmount our now populated sparsebundle and remove the temporary directory we created in step 8.

hdiutil detach sbdest

rmdir sbdest

Step 11: Modify User’s Profile to use sparsebundle

Heretofore everything in the guide has been nondestructive from a system standpoint. (unless you have been moving and deleting data to get it to fit in the sparsebundle, in which case God help you) This means that up until now everything that has been done should NOT affect the way our system boots or the way you log into it. At this point, you could stop and simply delete the sparsebundle from the directly in which you created it, and it would be like you never tried doing any of this.

These next steps WILL affect how your system logs into a user space, and doing them wrong WILL fubar your user account. We will be be making backups along the way so you can recover. But just remember that from here on out, there be dragons. One last time, please reference my notes above about creating second users and about how I’m not responsible for what you do.

Apple keeps profile login information separate from the normal places users go. We are going to dive deep into the directories and alter a user profile to use the sparsebundle as the home folder.

First change the directory to the location where user profile data is kept by the system.

cd /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/

Next BACKUP the user profile we have been working with just in case you mess up.

cp “$SBUSERNAME”.plist “$SBUSERNAME”.plist.backup

Apple stores the user profile information in a binary format, we will need to convert this into text so we can edit it. We will later convert the edited file back into the binary format.

sudo plutil -convert xml1 “$SBUSERNAME”.plist

There is an old civil war about UNIX editors. There are a couple of good ones ones on OSX, but for this we are going to use nano.

Edit the file:

sudo nano “$SBUSERNAME”.plist

This file will contain lots of data about the user.

Look for the “home” key, it should look like this:

<key>home</key>

<array>

<string>/Users/mckinleytabor</string>

</array>

You are going to add a couple of lines to the end of this “home” key.  In essence you will make it look like:

<key>home</key>

<array>

<string>/Users/mckinleytabor</string>

</array>

<key>home_loc</key>

<array>

<string>&lt;home_dir&gt;&lt;url&gt;file://localhost/Users/mckinleytabor/mckinleytabor.sparsebundle&lt;/url&gt;&lt;/home_dir&gt;</string>

</array>

Under the The “home_loc” and “array” keys, the “string” key is all on one line. Here, like in the rest of the guide, you will need to swap out “mckinleytabor” for the real short name of user you are setting up the Legacy FileVault for.

After you have edited the file, you can save the file in nano by Ctrl-O (O as in Oscar), then Ctrl-X to exit.

Finally you will need to convert the plist file back to binary format

plutil -convert binary1 “$SBUSERNAME”.plist

If anything goes wrong on the login, you need only to copy the “$SBUSERNAME”.plist.backup file back to “$SBUSERNAME”.plist overrating edited file.

Step 11: (option) Clean up Unused folder in Home Directory

This is another Chicken and Egg issue. After populating the sparsebundle, there will be lots of files left over in the unencrypted home folder. You can at this point delete those files, however that is not recommend because you have not, as of yet, established that your sparsebundle login works, and its much more difficult “go back” if all your files are locked up in the sparsebundle and nowhere else. If you are working on a second user however, you can go head and delete everything but sparsebundle folder.

The problem comes in when you have “successfully” logged into the user account with the Legacy FileVault. At that point OSX mounts the sparsebundle as the users home folder, obscuring any and all data it once contained. It’s still on the disk taking up space, but however you are unable to get access to it logged in as the Legacy FileVault user. The best option for a “post login” clean up is to do the cleaning from the terminal while logged into another account. You will also need to be the “Super User” when doing this because OSX locks away users home folders from each other.

Step 12: Login and Enjoy

Logout and Log Back in as the Legacy File Vault User. If all went well you should see your Desktop and Documents just as they were. You might have a warm feeling around your backside knowing that your ass is covered should someone take your system. Enjoy that feeling along with the power and the civil liberties encryption gives us all.

Step 13: After-thoughts

You may get a message about “Updating” to the new FileVault. You will of course NOT want to do this. Just click no, and go about your business.

A good way to test your Legacy FileVault is to open the System Preferences and look under Security & Privacy. You should now see “Legacy FileVault”.  If you did not have access to a OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard system and had to skip steps 1 and 2, there will be an option to Set a Master Password in this Legacy FileVault tab. However because the sparsebundle you created did not reference this, setting a Master Password will have no effect your system.

Encryption is sort of a religious requirement in my line of work. But encryption alone is not good enough to protect you. You need to combine strong encryption with good security procedures in order to maximize your protection. I would encourage you to take the time to read up on how to protect your data and your identity.

Acknowledgements :

The idea and some of the sequencing for this article came from Fabio Maione. <http://lab.maiux.com/en/os-x/criptare-la-home-directory-di-un-utente-usando-legacy-filevault-in-os-x-lion>

A “Living” version of the document can be found on my website at: http://www.taborcg.com

The creations of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak inspired me when I was very young, the Apple ][ and the first Macintosh. These amazing machines gave me my love of the possibilities of Computer and Technology that pushed me into my life in IT.

Sadly in the world of corporate IT, I lost contact with Apple for many years, and the wonder of my childhood faded into a distance memory.

But several ago Apple and Steve Job exploded back into my life with the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iTunes, and with them came all that wonder and magic that inspired my childhood.

Twice this man has give me a special gift. Not the hardware or gadgetry that are the products of Apple, but he gave me sure knowledge that the world could be transformed.

I know that Mr. Jobs was more than just the CEO of Apple. To his family, he was a loved father and husband, and these things are far more important. To his family, thank you for sharing this wonderful man with the world, and with me.

When comparing the two units, I have taken time to understand that some of the strengths and weakness of each are based on things that neither Apple nor Google can control, such as third party apps and accessories. There is also the “ecosystem” to consider; these devices are not used in a vacuum. They are meant to compliment existing hardware and software. In Apple’s case, the iPhone works best in an environment where the user also has an iMac and Apple TV, and also uses software such as iWork and Mobile Me. Android Phones compliment Google’s Online Services like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Apps, etc. While there can be crossover, ease of use in greatly affected when you try to use one phone in the other’s ecosystem.

One of the frustrations when comparing iOS and Android came from the simple fact that there were third party apps that did things well on one platform, but that same app did not exist on the other platform. For example, Podcasting. The native podcast app on iOS is pretty much useless without synching to a computer four times a day. Likewise the Google app for Podcasting (call Google Listen) has some serious shortcomings. On iOS I use a third party app called “Instacast”, but sadly this app is not available on Android. My preferred third party podcast app on Android is Dogcatcher, but when compared to Instacast, Dogcatcher is sorely lacking. It’s not really fair to ding Android in the Podcasting category because my preferred app is not there.

By the same token however, the third party app system is a valid point of comparison between the platforms. This is both in the number of apps as well as the “quality” of those apps. Popular software titles like Angry Birds, Pandora, and Evernote are on both platforms. It’s when it comes to smaller specialty titles that the cohesion breaks down. There’s also the curious case of titles like Skype and Netflix, which work on some Android devices but not others.

iPhone strengths

Single hardware design.

While some have criticized Apple for having a “one size fits all” mentality when it comes to hardware design, there is a MASSIVE advantage to it. The universal size, shape, and connector of the iPhone has given rise to a rich third party market. Nice handmade cases from Pad and Quill, BookBook, and Dodo can give the iPhone a classic 19th century look. Screen protectors from Zagg offer the ability to scratch guard your device from Ninjas. Companies like JBL, iHome and Sony make “iDock” products to charge your phone and play media on home theater systems and nightstands. There is even a company, Oxygen, that makes the O-Car head unit, which is a Single-Din Automotive radio replacement that uses the iPhone as your car’s primary entreatment computer.

…and there isn’t a gas station in the world that doesn’t carry crappy and over priced cases for the iPhone 4 and 3/3gs.

This is all because third party vendors have easy access to a market that does not require them to manufacture a dozen different versions of the same accessory.

Media.

iOS and iPhone are the Media King. It’s not just because the iPhone can carry XX gigabytes of MP3 music and MP4 video, but because Apple gives users convenient ways to play media from the device. This is a bit ironic, since getting media “into” an iPhone is a pain. Apple has a pretty much “universal” interface for media. While I am sure this stems in part to API calls to the operating system to play media, even truly third party solutions like Netflix have the same “look and feel” when controlling playing media.

The speakers on the iPhone 4 deliver a richer and deeper sound than any I have used on Android devices, and far better than the Nexus S. In my youth I wasn’t such an audio snob, but then again sound on any portable device back then was tinny. It really makes a difference switching back and forth between the two devices when playing podcasts and audiobooks.

While third party media apps on iPhone and Android deliver better experiences than their native counterparts, iOS does offer a system level function that puts it ahead of Android. iOS has the ability to change the all the audio and some of the video output on the fly from the device. This means that you can go from listening to an audiobook on the iPhones speakers to a bluetooth headset with a simple software switch. Apple calls the system “Airplay”. While “Airplay” describes a method of pushing audio and video content to wifi devices like the Apple TV or Airport Express, the same method of switching Airplay is also used to switch between headphones, internal speakers, the dock connector, and an A2DP bluetooth headset.

Because of this, the user can have a bluetooth headset in his or her ear waiting to take a call, while the audio for music could be playing through the headphone port to their car’s aux-in jack. When the phone rings, the audio is paused and the call is routed to the bluetooth headset. I personally use the feature when playing a podcast or audiobook in my car. My head unit has a dock connector which charges my iPhone and plays audio. But when I stop and get out to do something mundane (such as checking the mail), I can seamlessly switch the audio from the Dock to my Bluetooth headset.

In contrast, Android does have DLNA, which is supposed to do the same “pushing” of audio and video to DLNA equipped devices. However, despite several attempts to figure out the system, I have yet to figure out DLNA. Also, Android’s bluetooth is very clunky. My Jawbone headset is connected whenever it’s turned on. This means that because it’s A2DP, ALL audio from the phone is sent to my headset. This has caused me to miss calls because I don’t always wear my headset when it’s on my person.

While this is supposed to be a commentary on the “strengths” of each platform, I would be remiss if I did not point out that Android’s handling of A2DP, DLNA, and media in general is a serious and almost deal breaking weakness.

Look and Feel

Almost every iOS app has the same basic controls. Apple has done a fantastic job in getting developers to sing from the same hymnal in regards to user interface. This means that when I install a new app, even if I’m not sure of all of the apps functions, there are some basic conventions that will help me navigate. For example, swiping down while at the top of a list will refresh the list. Swiping left or right over a list item will bring up more functions. The “back” button is generally located in the top left corner. Preferences for an app are in the “Settings” on the phone. While there are some conventions on Android (for example a long touch will bring up a context menu), it seems like every app is different in how the user is presented and navigates data.

While I count this as an iPhone strength, there is a fairly compelling argument that this is also a weakness of the platform. If there really is an iron hand in the Apple App approval process that mandates uniform functionality, then this does not leave much room for innovation. However, I like think that Apple just publishes good guidelines, and leaves developers room to innovate a bit. An example here would be games. While most of my iOS business apps have the same look and feel, no two games function in the same way.

Android Strengths

OPEN OPEN OPEN

Android has always touted itself as the “open” platform and it really is. Third party apps can do “core” functions such as SMS and Calling that iOS would never consider allowing. For example, Skype has an option to “dial” a number via Skype over 3G rather than using cell minutes to make the call. In the iOS world, if you wanted to make a call over Skype, you would have to open the Skype app, enter the number, and then realize that Apple kowtows to cell companies and doesn’t allow Skype to use 3G to make call.

Android also allows third party apps that do not come from the Google Market App Store. This means that if I want to install an app that does something that AT&T might not like, such as tethering, no one can stop me.

…Side note on tethering… AT&T has “come down hard” on tethering without a “tethering data plan”. I have one of the “unlimited” data plans from AT&T and I will give that up only when they pry it from my cold death hands and even then I’ll sue the bastards for breach of contract. “Unlimited” means “without limits” and while I know there were some weasel words in the actual agreement for service, I take offense that AT&T wanted to offer “unlimited” data plans for marketing purposes without investing in their network to handle it. Here in rural Tennessee we still only have 2G “Edge” speeds, and that is a source of contact consternation to me as I have been paying for 3G data for 3 years now. A BIG BIG strength of Android is that someone can use their “tethered” computer via an encrypted VPN on the phone. This means that AT&T has NO WAY of knowing if the data be used by your handset is for streaming Netflix, torrenting the entire Metallica Discography, or providing internet access to a 20 PC office network.  …end side note..

Security

Part of being open also allows Android to be more secure.

There is a high value market for lost cell phones in large cities all over the world. It’s well known and documented that unscrupulous persons can get $100 for a lost phone by simply driving up to a known street corner, handing out the phone, and getting back five twenty dollar bills. Like a reverse drug deal. The buyer of the phone is looking for two things: first the resale value of the phone unlocked, and second all the information on the phone that can be used for identity theft. Of the two, ID theft is far more profitable and less risky.

To combat this problem, third party developers like Whisper Systems, make boot-time, whole-device, encryption systems for Android. This means that when the device is powered off, no person, hacker, or tyrannical  government, could read the data without your encryption key… forever… period. This makes me feel a little safer carrying around my Nexus S. While this is third party software, it’s the openness of Android that allows for these advantages over iOS.

Voice

Data entry on any hand held device is miserable. In days of old this was compensated for by the use of a “hardware keyboard”, and to this day the 5 or 6 hardcore Blackberry users that are left swear that physical keyboards are the only way to compose mobile email. Sadly, physical keyboards take up a lot valuable space on the front of a devices for the purpose of composing epic prose like: “b home @ 6, nd mlk?” As a result, serious smart phones all now have on-screen keyboards. iOS keyboard and text predicting system is nice, while Android’s is less so. But Android has something that iOS does not, speech-to-text. Using Google servers, almost ANY data field on the phone can be entered by tapping the microphone and saying “Honey, I will be be home at 6. I know you have been busy, do you need me to get milk? I both love and cherish you every waking moment of my life,” (fyi, both messages cost the same to send, but the second might help you score tonight). In practice the system works at about 90% accuracy, which is quite frankly phenomenal, given that human transcription of a random voice is between 85% and 90% accurate. The one drawback is that the system requires that your voice be sent to Google for the process, which means that if you are out of 3G or wifi coverage the system is impractical.

In addition to transcription, the system also has a wide set of commands. Using Google’s business database, you can tell your phone, “call the chatterbox in stites idaho” and sure enough your phone will dial 208-926-7190 even if you’ve never heard of Stites Idaho or have “The Chatterbox” in your contact list.

Even here, Google’s open architecture rides high. Adding a service like Rdio means that you can say “Listen to send me an angel by real life” and google will pass the “listen” command to Rdio, pandora, or any one of dozens of great music apps.

This voice feature more than overcomes the deficiencies in the Android’s on-screen keyboard. But of course being open, you can replace the default keyboard with something like Swipe.

Navigation

This is another one of those “third party” software comparisons, except in this case what iOS needs a third party for, Android does natively. Google maps is the de-facto mapping and navigation system on the Internet, so it seems that Android would have the best maps available. One can get Tomtom for iOS, but it’s a $50+ software title, and while it does have its advantages (like not needing 3G to work), Tomtom is still limited by iOS’s refusal to allow close integration between software and the operating system. Google’s navigation also integrates with voice, so one can simple say “navigate to Harr’s Grocery in Big Cove Tannery Pennsylvania” and you have an instant road trip planed.

So what would it take?

Finally it begs the question: what would it take for me to pick a platform and not look back? This is not an easy question, obviously. I’ve spent the last few years building a Mac and Apple centric environment, I use Mac OSX as my primary computer, and I have iTunes and Apple TVs as my home and office media systems. But I also use Google Apps for my email, calendar and contacts. Google Apps are not as smooth as MobileMe for synching on Macs, but they do have more features and better support. (I have a linux server that automatically schedules maintenance via a command line script to my Google Calendar; beat that Mobile Me). I have been using an iPhone for three years, so my point of view is “what would it take to switch?” when it comes to my infrastructure. Much of my attachment to the iPhone still comes from media; I have iDevice chargers all over my home and office. My clock radio charges my iPhone, I have a nice dock at my office desk, my car radio is built around an iPhone. But chargers and docks can be replaced if there is a compelling enough reason.

My media collection, however, is a stumbling block. 2TB of music, movies, TV, audiobooks, podcasts, images, eBooks, writings, PDFs, etc, etc, all contained in a nice organized iTunes Library which is streamable and sharable throughout my empire. There is NOTHING on Android that can approach this level of integration, and no corresponding third party system that can address maintaining, let-alone converting, a library like this. My media computers play video on TVs and even have a low power FM transmitter hooked up so I can play music and audiobooks around my house on a dozen or more regular FM radios. I’ve written scripts to scream NPR in the morning and Twit podcasts on the weekends. From my iPhone I can use my iTunes remote app to manage the playing of media throughout my domain. VNC and SSH programs allow to to log in and take finer level control or execute scripts. Without iOS, control over all of this would have to be done via a computer, and that’s just not practical when I’m getting into the shower.

Here’s what I would want in order to make the Nexus S and Android my primary phone.

1. A nice Moleskin case. I know it’s silly, but I have one for my iPhone and the classic book look is a big part on how I self-identify. Moreover, having something this specific would mean that there is a healthy third party accessory ecosystem.

2. Better and system level control over audio output. It is just silly that an OS as advanced at Android Gingerbread does not have the ability to pick the output location of audio. While a system like Airplay would be nice for sending audio and video to my home media infrastructure, I know that there are third party apps that will already do this in part, so if you give developers a away to do it, it will be done.

3. More polished apps for SSH, VNC, and iTunes Remote control.

Here’s what I would want to have to make iOS and the iPhone 4 my primary phone.

1. AT BOOT SYSTEM WIDE ENCRYPTION BASED ON A USER PROVIDED KEY!!!! – After just a week on the Nexus S and switching back to the iPhone I found myself fearing that the phone would be lost and my life compromised by identity thieves. It’s the same kind of gross feeling I get when I sit down to use a computer without antivirus software. I know that it will work, but I’m taking an unnecessary risk doing it. Apple swears that the iPhone 4 has “hardware level encryption” but it’s not based on user provided entropy and has already been cracked. Apple’s official lost phone security position is that you can “remote wipe” an iPhone 4. But that only works if the phone has access to a data network (not always a given) and if the user realizes that the phone has been lost BEFORE the data is compromised. While there is no such thing as a “hacker proof” system, true security can only be boot time encryption based on a user supplied key, “locking” the system to prevent access until the user unlocks the phone (with something better than a 4 number pin), and a dead-man switch.

2. Voice Commands. Right now the Apple voice system is restricted to dialing only and is less functional than my Microsoft phone was 6 years ago.

3. Better link between the OS and third party software. This is not to say “open” per-say, because I honestly believe that if you suggested making the iPhone more “open” inside Apple HQ, Steve Jobs would beat you senseless with his old liver and wipe the blood up with his stock options. Apple has made an empire on a closed system, and there is no way that  Stalin is going to suddenly allow free elections, but surely allowing shared storage on the file system and approved third party software to assist core phone functions wouldn’t topple the Kremlin.

In Conclusion…

When I moved from the Windows Mobile 6 platform to the iPhone, it changed my life. There was indeed a “Halo effect” on me because at that time I switched over to an all Mac computer environment and haven’t regretted it. In attempting to move from iPhone to Android, there just isn’t that “revolutionary” feel.

I want very much to Love my Google Nexus S. As a computing platform for doing things like mobile communication, casual gaming, and in my case Mobile IT support and Management, Android and the Nexus S are a cut above the iPhone 4. However, without strong media integration, whenever I carry just my Nexus S, I strongly feel the media gap in my life.

The next versions of these Phones OSes (iOS 5 and Android “Ice Cream Sandwich”) are set to debut in 2011. One of the rumors in iOS 5 is better voice control. Sadly, I’ve not been able to confirm is there if going to be better DLNA or Bluetooth audio support in “Ice Cream Sandwich”.

Our Time was limited so we decided to map north of the Interstate. We did indeed get 3G single in Baxter and along 70N from Baxter east to Cookeville. Inside of Cookeville we received strong stigmal all the way north on 135 (Willow/Dodson Branch) till Bob Lynn Rd. We tacked east over to 136 (JeffersonHilham) and then further east on Paran. We lost 3G by 111, but picked it up again within a quart mile heading south. Algood is completely covered in strong 3G signal, as it 111 south to i40. We lost 3G heading east at Mile marker 295.

Here’s a little speed test showing the data rates I was getting north of Algood on 111.

These speeds are faster than some DSL services I’ve worked with.

I decided to reach out my contacts at AT&T about plans for Crossville.

They are in the process of completing two NEW towers in the Crossville area. One in Tansi and the other north of Crossville on 127. These towers are slated to come on-line in June. Of course all NEW towers will be 3G, so there is speculation that AT&T will light up the other 7 towers with 3G at that time.

I can confirm that the coverage along i40 stretched between mile marker 277 west of the city to 290 east of the city.

There is also coverage in Downtown Cookeville, the Tennessee Tech Campus, and the business and residential areas south of downtown to i40. There is a strong indication that Baxter is also covered, but this is unconfirmed.

The AT&T coverage maps do not as of yet show this, however a resent coverage update now shows 3G in the extreme east of Cumberland County, a fact reported here some weeks ago.

In this case the “….” is an Amazon Kindle. My wife is quite the Bibliophile. She not only works in a Library, she also binds books as a hobby, and in currently continuing her education for a masters degree in Library Science. It is the last endeavor that prompted me to investigate getting her a Kindle.

Many of her required textbooks are available from Amazon in a digital form. While the cost of this digital texts is still outrageously high, they are still less than the cost of the physical edition. I rationalized that the cost savings between the physical and digital edition would justify getting her a Kindle. Before handing the device of to my wife (which would assure me never seeing it again) I had an opportunity to play with it and evaluate it’s features.

There have been many comparison between the Kindle and the iPad, and after using both, I think these comparisons are unfair. While they are summarily shaped devices and there is some function overlap, the Kindle and the iPad occupy two distinct use cases. It’s not entirely out of the question that a person could own both and not feel that they are duplicating themselves.

The iPad is a full tablet computer, capable of video, audio, text, content creation, communication and gaming. The Kindle does one thing, display digital books, and it does that one thing exceptionally well. It is light in the hands, lighter in fact than most paperback books, and the positioning of the page turning buttons makes holding it with ether the right or left hand vey easy.

Best feature of the Kindle however is it’s screen. It’s difficult to describe the screen, and image of it online do not do it justice.

When I first opened the box that the Kindle was shipped in, and started to take the protective plastic wrapping off, I was puzzled for a few moments at how to remove what I thought was the protective “demo” screen protector. Having unboxed hundreds of new gadgets, it is quite common for me to have to remove plastic protective coverings from their screens. More often than not, manufactures will print dummy or demo screen shots on these protective coverings just to provide some flare when the user opens the box. All to often however the marketing departments get over zealous, and these protective covering screens look better than the real thing once it’s powered on. So when I saw the screen on the Kindle, it to me just looked like another case of this.

I was wrong. The eInk display was crisp to the point of fooling me. While the screen is indeed grayscale (i.e. black and white). The images and text that render on that screen are just as well defined as ink on paper. Because there is no backlight, touch screen layer, or LED fade, looking at the Kindle is oddly wonderful. The eInk technology also does not use power when it is not “transitioning”, so there is never a need to turn the device off, you simply set it down. There is a “screen saver” of sorts that will come on after a while, displaying images of famous authors, I this is purely for esthetics as there is no need to “save the screen” as with LEDs. Even after several days of having the unit around the house, I still get the odd impression that some has left an ink and paper drawing on top of the Kindle if I happen to see it laying on a table.

This amazing display has but a single draw back. It takes a noticeable fraction of a second to “redraw” the screen between page turns. However this time is considerably shorter than a physical page turn in a book, so the tradeoff is acceptable. This of course means that eInk, in it’s current form will never be a “video” display.

While I said that the Kindle is only an eBook reader, there is another feature of the Kindle that by itself would justify me buying one. The Kindle has one of the best “text-to-speech” options I have ever seen in a mobile device. This feature was the source of some controversy when the Kindle launched, with publishers claiming that “text-to-speech” somehow infringed on their “audiobook” rights/sales. However as someone who lives with a developmental reading disorder (dyslexia), I found this feature in the Kindle to be profoundly helpful. I had the Kindle “read” to me an entire periodical magazine on a short car trip. While “audiobooks” have allowed me to consume vastly more knowledge and information than my disorder would normally allow, there are to my knowledge no “audio-magazinesmagazines” widely available in the subjects I have interests. I feel it is rather offensive for publishers to take issue with “text-to-speech”, but sadly this “rights” question wasn’t the only “copyright foolishness” to crop up on the Kindle as I will cover in a moment.

There are “Kindle Apps” for my iPhone and iPad, and I have these loaded, however these do not include the “text-to-speech” features.  I suspect this has to do with licensing issues regarding Nuance Technologies, who provide the vocalization and the “Tom” voice used on the Kindle. (As an interesting side note, Nuance Technologies also provides the vocalization for Microsofts in-car control system known as “sync”, as well as voices for “xtranormal”, a website that has been used to make several meme videos from chat logs. It basically means that your Kindle and your Ford have the same voice.) I think I will hold out a bit longer and hope that the text-to-speech feature will be added to the iPad, but if it is not, it is worth the $140 for a Kindle just for that one feature.

My finale thoughts on the Kindle are less about the Kindle itself and more about Digital Rights Management. With books quickly moving from physical paper to digital downloads, the publishing industry is trying very hard not to become the music industry.

15 years ago, people started “ripping” there digital CDs to MP3s and as the Internet bandwidth increased, people found that they could pass copies of these MP3s around the net. It took the music industry 5 years to even acknowledge that this was happening, then they spent 10 useless years, and untold billions of dollars, trying to make world “forget” about digital music before finally accepting reality and offering a legitimate easy to use method for people to buy music online. However, in those 15 years, the worlds music industry faltered, and was forever stripped of any control it ever had. The publish world does not want to end up the same way.

Up until now there has not been an easy way to convert physical books to into digital form like we had in the dates of the CDs for Music and currently with DVDs for video. But when most books are going to be sold digitally (we have already hit the high water mark for physical books sales, sales will only decline in the future) there is now a large collection of digital books in the publics hands, and that public is going to want to share and trade those books. However, if the publishing industry does not create some easy and unobtrusive method for allowing people to use their digital books in the same way they used their physical books, then the power of public desire will simply overwhelm the demands of the publishing companies, and this has already started to happen.

Case in point: My wife, in her capacity with the local Library, started a project to allow library patrons to “check out” digital books from our Libraries website and put those digital books on a portable e-reader such as the Kindle. Like most governmental insinuations, our local library did not create their own  digital book library website, but rather contracted with an outside company. This company claimed to allow these digital books to be placed on a Kindle. However after 6 hours of wrestling with this website, Adobe, desktop software, and the Kindle, my wife was unable to “check out” a single book from her own library’s website. Just as a test however, she Googled the name of the book she was trying to check out, and within 4 minutes had a “pirated” copy on her Kindle.

This is in no way meant to condone depriving authors of their right to make a living from their work. It is however meant to be an indictment of the publishing industry for falling into the same trap as the music industry did back in 2001. Digital goods are not the same as analog goods, they flow differently and people treat them differently. Trying to artificially place restrictions on digital goods so as to make them behave like analog goods will only result in people bypassing these restrictions. While the vast majority of the people bypassing the resections will not engage in behavior with will violate copyright, the fact that these restrictions have been bypassed will enable piracy on the part of less ethical people. When you have a critical mass of people who see nothing wrong with piracy, your industry collapses. When that happens no law, lobbyist, lawsuit, or international treaty will put the gene back in his bottle.