• Apple OS X WebDAV doesn’t work right (or “How To Redirect Carefully”)

    I have a WebDAV server that I store all of my personal documents on, and after upgrading to Tiger awhile back I had problems with folders disappearing in the directory listing, and things just not working quite right.

    It turns out that the Apple WebDAVFS (and some other WebDAV client implementations) have problems with the Apache WebDAV.  Just a minor incompatibility, but annoying nonetheless.  There is a configuration change that needs to be made in the httpd.conf to fix this problem:

    BrowserMatch "^WebDAVFS/1.+" redirect-carefully

    This should work for all future 1.x versions of WebDAVFS on OS X. I limited it to 1.x assuming that maybe, just maybe, they might fix this “problem” in version 2.0.

    It’s a simple change, and will make Apache “redirect carefully”. For those interested, Apache says:

    This forces the server to be more careful when sending a redirect to the client. This is typically used when a client has a known problem handling redirects. This was originally implemented as a result of a problem with Microsoft’s WebFolders software which has a problem handling redirects on directory resources via DAV methods.

    If course, I would think it should always be “careful” about redirecting, but that’s just me. Maybe redirecting carelessly is the best default.

    Posted on Jul 08.08 to Apple, Computers, Programming    Comment!

  • An Idea to Change Driving Habits (or “Hardware we will never see”)

    I had an idea. Some cars come with a feature that allows the user to see the current MPG (or KPL if you’re across the pond). I think this hardware should be enhanced, so that when you put gas in your tank, you also put let the car know how much you just paid per gallon (or Liter). Rather than showing you how many miles you get per gallon, it would show you how much money per mile your current driving habits are costing you.

    I bet people wouldn’t slam the gas pedal down when the light turns green if they had something telling them that it was costing them $2.00/mile to drive like that.

    Posted on Jun 24.08 to Ideas    Comment!

  • Contents May Settle During Shipping (or “Why Apple Updates are Different Sizes on Different Computers”)

    Updating a MacBook and a Mac Mini to 10.5.3.  One is downloading over 400MB, the other is about 198MB.  So I was obviously wondering why the difference.  Apple has an article about it.  Apparently the smaller one is just a patch, the larger is the full thing.  What’s curious is that the MacBook has next to nothing on it, and the Mac Mini is loaded with stuff.  Seems to me that the Mini should have downloaded the large one, not the path, and the MacBook should have downloaded the patch.  So there you have it.

    Posted on May 29.08 to Apple    Comment!

  • Proximity (or “So Close, But So Far Away”)

    I recently had a problem with my Mac.  A sector on the hard drive went bad, and killed one of the files for Salling Clicker.  It’s a great program that allows you to run scripts when you go away from your computer and return, using bluetooth to determine if you’re in rance of your computer.  It also allows you to control applications on your computer via your mobile phone.  Quite a cool app, but the only part I used was the proximity part.

    So after reinstalling OSX (which seemed to be my only recourse to get the abd sector problem resolved), I decided to look and see if there is something like Salling Clicker that only does the proximity part (which is all that I used).  I found the aptly named Proximity and it perfectly fits the bill.

    Unfortunately the Proximity website doesn’t have any applescripts for you to use, so I had to write my own, and I thought I’d write them down here for you lovely readers to use.  I found some part of these at the Technocrat blog.

    In Range Script:
    -- iTunes
    --
    tell application "iTunes"
    play
    end tell
    -- Adium
    --
    tell application "Adium"
    go available with message ""
    end tell
    -- Sync the phone (if not synced in the last 60 minutes)
    --
    tell application "iSync"
    if last sync is less than ((current date) - 3600) then synchronize
    end if
    end tell
    tell application "System Events" to set visible of process "iSync" to false

    Out of Range Script:
    -- iTunes
    --

    tell application “iTunes”
    if player state is playing then
    pause
    end if
    end tell

    – Adium
    –
    tell application “Adium”
    go away with message “I’m not near my computer”
    end tell

    Posted on Apr 23.08 to Apple, Software    Comment!

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