Tech

OSX Startup Shortcuts

Startup Shortcuts

  • Hold the ‘x’ key during startup. This will force the Mac to boot from OS X, no matter which disk is specified as the startup disk.
  • Hold the ‘c’ key during startup to boot from a bootable CD or DVD.
  • Hold the ‘n’ key during startup to boot from a networked computer that has a NetBoot volume.
  • Hold the ‘t’ key during startup to boot in FireWire Target Disk Mode. This mode lets you use any Mac with a FireWire port as the source for your bootup system.
  • Hold the ‘d’ key during startup. If the Apple Hardware Test DVD is in the optical drive, the Apple Hardware Test will begin.
  • Hold the option key during startup. The OS X startup manager will appear, allowing you to select a disk to boot from.
  • Hold the shift key during startup. This will boot your computer in Safe Mode. Safe Mode disables login items and non-essential kernel extensions from starting up.
  • Hold Command + ‘v’ during startup The command key is the key with the cloverleaf symbol. This shortcut will boot your Mac in Verbose Mode, with descriptive text sent to the display during the startup process.
  • Hold Command + ‘s’ during startup. This shortcut will boot your Mac in Single-User Mode, a special mode used for troubleshooting and repairing complex hard drive issues.
  • Hold down the mouse’s primary key during startup. On a two- or three-button mouse, the primary key is usually the left button. This shortcut will eject a CD or DVD from the optical drive.
  • Hold Command + Option + ‘p’ + ‘r’ during startup. This zaps the PRAM (Parameter RAM), an option that long-time Mac users will remember. Press and hold the key combination until you hear the second set of chimes. Zapping the PRAM returns it to its default configuration for display and video settings, time and date settings, speaker volume, and DVD region settings.

In all cases, you should use the keyboard shortcut combinations immediately after pressing the Mac’s power switch, or, if you used the Restart command, after the Mac’s power light goes out.

 

JUnit4 Annotations and Ant Workaround

I usually use Maven for Java based projects, so my ant skills are a little rusty. Recently It was whipping up some JUnit negative test cases for someone else’s project that was a mess of ant build files (ugh). I decided to use some of the nifty annotation features found in JUnit 4.8.2 ( for rules and expected exception behavior). Annotations are great for addressing defects in the Java language, and help encapsulation by associating behavior directly with a class. But I digress… Anyway All the tests to check exceptions were thrown under negative test conditions looked good inside of Eclipse, but when I ran the ant test script from the command line, none of tests were being run encfprcomg the annotations, even though the JUnit jar was in the ant classpath! A little research showed that ant’s JUnit test runner doesn’t support annotations. The solution was to modify the suite() method of the AllTests class to wrap the classes under test in a JUnit4TestAdapter, i.e. something like this:

@RunWith(JUnit4.class)
public class AllTests extends TestSuite {
	
	public static junit.framework.Test suite() {
	        return new JUnit4TestAdapter(TestSomething.class);
	}
}

Review of ThinkGeek iPad Bluetooth Keyboard Case

case in use
case in use

Don’t get me wrong… I love my iPad. However, there are times when the onscreen keyboard just doesn’t cut it, like when writing/editing a particularly long document. These are the times I find my self reaching for my tabletpc Netbook (an Asus EEPC T101MT, a great little tablet netbook with a multitouch display which I will review later).

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Fix for ipad activation error, updating from expired 4.2 beta to newest beta

Shan's iPad
Shan\’s iPad

Yesterday I turned on my iPad and got the connect to itunes logo…I was a little freaked, but plugged her in to my workstation. I got a message that the ios 4.2 beta was expired and I need to update (yes, I AM a member of the Apple Developer Program).

I download the latest ios sdk, and tried to update via iTunes 10 using the iPad1,1_4.2_8C5101c ipsw . The update failed and I went into restore mode. Forgetting that downgrades are not supported, I tried to the default restore (3.2. something). Now I got an error 1015 on update… So next I restored the same ispw using iTunes again. Next I got an activation error stating the device was not registered in the developer program and to register the deviceid via the developers provision portal. I tried to go back to restore/DFU mode using the normal means (home & sleep button,etc), but it would not re-enter restore mode….it would go straight to the connect to iTunes screen. Once I connected back to iTunes, I got the same activation error again, with no way to get my deviceid from iTunes!

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AT-AT Pet Video

This as a cute little video of an AT-AT as a dog-like pet…makes me want to get out the robotic AT-AT I built and tinker with its behavioral programming… darn my arms for being broken! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVYOCMpJRY[/youtube]