Two simple tricks for your audiobooks

If you are used to listed audiobooks on your iPhone or iPod, you may encounter a couple of annoying issues with some of them.

If your audiobook comes as a set of mp3 files and not in m4b files, sometimes files restart from the beginning. There is also 15 seconds skip option missing, as well as possibility to change speed to x2 or to x0.5.

You can actually fix all these problems easily.

First, right click on your book in iTunes and choose "show info". Then go to Options tab and mark your media type as audiobook (default is music). Then also mark "Remember playback position" checkbox.

Sync your device again, and there you go.

Mind, books will no longer be shown as albums. You have to go to audiobooks menu on your iPhone/iPod. Same for iTunes, they will be listed under Books menu.

How to spoof MAC address on WiFi (airport) interface

I was stuck between the planes this weekend, for a long time.

In airports there are some free WiFi networks that allow you to surf Internet for free half an hour (hello Munich airport) or a bit more (hello Frankfurt airport). Once you have used all your free time, if you try to register again, you will be kicked out. That is because the system remembers your MAC address and does not let you in for free anymore. Luckily, with Apple computers, there is a way around this issue.

First, you need to check which interface is used for WiFi. Run ifconfig on terminal window to see which one is connected. Usually it is en0 or en1.

Once you know, thank, you need to do the following:

1. disassociate airport with the following command:

sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z

On this step you will be disconnected from WiFI

2. spoof the MAC address:

sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:11:22:33:44:55

Now you are ready to re-connect to WiFi again, with a new MAC address. Remember, this does not survive reboot.

Happy surfing

Mavericks - old tricks are still working

Every time I upgrade OSX there is a concern about something stop working on the new version. Fortunately, it is not the case with Mavericks.

Both FTP server and iMovie + NAS workarounds are fine with 10.9.

So if you guys were concerned about that, move forward and upgrade. 

VMware Fusion 6.0 installation crash - how to fix

I have got my VMware Fusion updated to 6.0 today. Unfortunately, Fusion was crashing every time I was trying to start it. If you have the same, the solution is not so hard:

sudo rm /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/license.fusion.site.6.0.200*

Official reference from VMware is here

Enabling use of NAS with iMovie

Once one starts playing with iMovie, the main problem is about free space. It runs out very quickly. Too quickly, I would say. And the main issue is that you cannot put your projects on NAS. iMovie by default only allows you to use directly attached storage devices or your local drive.

Luckily there is a way. To enable NAS with iMovie, open Terminal application and run defaults write -app iMovie allowNV -bool true command.

Restart iMovie, now you are able to store and work with your project using NAS.

Tested with OSX 10.8.4 and bellow.

Changing hibernate mode

When you switch close your laptop or just leave it for a long time, it may go to hibernation mode. That usually means your memory space is copied to HDD/SSD for safe-keeping. RAM is also suspended, so it should keep its content, but not for too long.

When you start it again after a long pause, it may take some time to read RAM data from your drive. Some people are always in a hurry, so they may want to change the default settings to keep RAM suspended but not to write/read on the disk.

If you one of these people, please be advised it is not safe to run hibernation with RAM only, because you may run out of battery and memory status will be gone. Said that, this is how to deal with hibernation mode.

To check the current settings, run pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

The output usually 3, if you have a laptop. That means "suspend to disk + RAM (default on laptops)"

If you have a desktop, the default is 0: "suspend to RAM only"

To change from one mode to another, use the following command:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode <0 or 3>

Cisco MeetingPlace does not like retina screens

I was preparing a remote demo for a customer today.

Our company is using Cisco MeetingPlace for such things.

During some trials I have realised that if one shares retina screen through MeetingPlace tool, it is not properly shown to other participants. In fact, it does not matter which resolution you set, as far as it is retina, remote users can only see 1/4 of your shared screen, application or window.