Japheth Cleaver - Software

Call it "Japheth Cleaver, Inc."
So hey -- If you're in California and need an AppleScript programmer, Macintosh consultant/administrator, Unix sys-admin, Perl coder, or help desk/desktop support manager, drop me a line =). (Yes, I'm looking for a job; here's my Resume)

Big Brother is an open-source UNIX-based distributed network monitoring tool beloved by sys-admins the world over. Part of it's design is in small clients that run on each machine which report back some vital statistics about it (such as open applications and disk space). This is (afaik) the first port of the BB client to the Mac OS

Note: This program requires several freeware scripting additions or programs to function. Of these, you must download Unix Date and NetEvents yourself.

Unix Date should be available from PA Software's website. If you're having trouble it's mirrored here or here (along with a mirror NetEvents 1.2.1 whose original page seems to have moved here).

BB Extensions
  • bb-pageinfo.pl - cgi to print out current paging rules on a BBDISPLAY
  • caiso.sh - bbext that returns current alert status of the California Power ISO
Mac OS 9's File Encryption utilitites are pretty cool, but you can't encrypt more than one file at once without compressing them. This program doesn't change that, but it does make it easier to deal with by taking any number of files, placing them into a folder, stuffing them, and encrypting them. A great time saver!

Note: To use this program you'll need the StuffIt Commands OSAX, available for free from Leonard Rosenthol's webpage.

Are you having problems creating internet location "clipping" files through the Finder? According to the Help files, dragging any string in the form "protocol://host.domain.com/" to the desktop should create a location file. In practice, however, the Finder's URL recognition routines are very finicky. In particular, URL's with spaces or with non-web, ftp, mail, or news protocols almost never get recognized.

Internet Location Maker gets around this problem by creating clipping files directly. Quick, simple, and fast... this program will let you make clipping files however you'd like. This works great with Finger or IPNetMonitor.

AFP is the protocol used by AppleShare IP servers to communicate over TCP/IP. Unfortunately, there are some errors in the parsing of these URL's by the Apple Network Browser, which is the default handler of these URLs. According to the standards, afp://user:password@host.domain.com/volume should be valid. However, when the Network Browser encounters an URL like this it fails... AFP Bridge parses this URL and others like it and sends the data directly to the Finder (which can handle them fine). To install, use the Internet control panel to select AFP Bridge as the helper app for the AFP protocol.


I've also written a Sherlock plug-in for the SDSU search page.


Japheth Cleaver
July 5, 2001
 Fait avec Macintosh
views since 6/16/2000