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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Sun 16 Mar 2014

Luca at the Mac App Store

Category : Technology/LucaAppStore.txt

We’ve released Luca for the Mac App Store, for only US$9.99.

Screen Shot 2014-03-16 at 11.22.51 am.png

But this is a stand-alone version of Luca (with no access to MySQL or Postgres databases, relying only on the built-in SQLite database to store its accounting data) and since it's in Apple's curated wall-garden, it may lack features or innovations that the non-Apple Store version may sprout, going forward.

But we hope that offers a great low-cost way to try out Luca, for a start. Do check it out if it fits your needs.

I’ve also released a new Sandboxed version of Liya for the Mac App Store (version 3.0). Now that we’ve learnt how to work with the app Sandbox, it’s time to learn how to work with iCloud.

Posted at 3:39AM UTC | permalink

Mon 10 Mar 2014

Liya 3.0

Category : Technology/Liya3dot0.txt

I’ve released a new version of Liya, which makes Liya conformant to Apple’s App Sandbox guidelines for the first time. I had a problem working with SQLite files under the App Sandbox because SQLite creates a new file when the database is updated and saved (but the Sandbox only allows updates to the same file a user has opened and won’t allow an app to create new files in most folders outside designated user folders like the Home directory).

I couldn’t move ahead until my friend, Hai Hwee, solved the problem with the Sandbox, for the accounting app she is working on, called Luca, which we’re getting ready to sell on the App Store. That definitely had to be sandboxed and, necessity being the mother of invention, she found a way through and, since Liya and Luca share the same database access code, Liya is the beneficiary.

With this settled, I can now move on to making Liya work with iCloud and, hopefully even DropBox.

But for now, Liya 3.0 is ready for download (though the App Store version is held up by Apple’s interminable approval process).

With this version, Liya is also able to read SQLite dates created by Core Data (that are stored as a certain number of seconds from January 1st, 2001). Plus there are some bug fixes and minor interface improvements.

Posted at 11:03AM UTC | permalink

Wed 26 Feb 2014

Controlling Web and Mail Servers from the iPhone or iPad

Category : Technology/libshh2.txt

I’m trying out the libssh2 library for iOS. It allows me to do something like this, connect back to my web server from my iPhone (or iPad) and run some shell commands on that server and return the results to my iPhone. For example, I can grab a few lines from my Apache log file and see who has been hitting my server, in real time. In effect, this allows me to build a version of WebMon on the iPhone.

It looks like an interesting thing to do. Will see how far I can go with this.

Again, feedback is welcome. Let me know if this is something that will be useful to you, too. I work harder on things that people want to use :)

Other things we’re (i.e., my friend and co-programmer, Hai Hwee, and me) working on now:

One. Liya and Luca. OS X and iOS Sandbox compatibility. Specifically, we are trying to see if we can open and save SQLite files from anywhere on the file system, without restriction, and still maintain compatibility with the Sandbox. Not so easy to do because dealing with the Sandbox is a real pain.

Two. Liya. How to handle SQLite dates saved by Core Data, which uses a different reference date from that used by Unix systems. So, I can now handle dates saved as a certain number of seconds from a certain reference date but I’ve yet to find a way to handle the conflicting start dates used by the two systems, Unix and Core Data, smoothly and transparently to an end user.

Three. We’re getting a version of Luca ready for sale on both the Mac and iOS app stores.

Four. Lots of people downloading LDAP Enabler for Mavericks, but I’m still not able to make Postfix and Dovecot authenticate with the LDAP Server, so enabled by my enabler on Mavericks systems. It used to work on versions of OS X prior to Mavericks, so how come it doesn’t work now? I’m still looking for a solution.

Five. Lots of things to improve on all my “enabler” apps. "So much to do and so little time in a day” ® ™ :).

Posted at 7:39AM UTC | permalink

Tue 25 Feb 2014

VPN Enabler for Mavericks

Category : Technology/VPNEnablerForMavericksWebpage.txt

I have a new documentation page for VPN Enabler for Mavericks. The current version is 1.0.1. Enjoy !

As far as I can tell, the VPN Server that I’ve set up using this enabler app continues to be used by my friends in China. So, yes, Let a Thousand VPN Servers Bloom.

Posted at 4:14AM UTC | permalink

Fri 20 Dec 2013

WebMon for Mavericks 7.0.2

Category : Technology/WebMon7dot0dot2.txt

I finally found the time to update WebMon for Mavericks. The scrolling performance of WebMon’s (Apache Web Server) Log Window in Mavericks was rather weird, and sometimes it doesn’t refresh itself until you try to scroll the table view.

Version 7.0.2 fixes it and scrolling is much smoother now.

If you can look at the log records for my “live" web server, above, you will see that the most downloaded pieces of software from my site are for Liya (a data management tool for SQL databases) and for the MariaDB installer. Both are free software, of course, but I’m surprised by the popularity of MariaDB on Mac OS X, which is a “drop-in” replacement for MySQL — for those of us who are kinda concerned about the future of MySQL under Oracle.

I have a MySQL installer, too, but the downloads for MariaDB far exceed that of MySQL, from my site. Ok, it could be that there are other sites that provide one-click installer downloads for MySQL. But I think my installer provides a Preference Pane that works much better than even the one you could get from the official MySQL site. And then it plays nice with MariaDB, if you have both database systems running on the same Mac. So, what I can tell is, there are a lot of people running MariaDB on Mac OS X.

And, one more thing, I’m surprised, but then again not, that Sendmail Enabler (remember this?) is still being downloaded. There is one way in which software, as a merchandise, is quite unlike fish or meat or newspapers or most other produce – it doesn’t get stale. Because of this thing called “The Long Tail”, there is always someone, somewhere in the whole wide Internet who needs something that you think would have run its course by now, if you didn’t know better. I still get money from Postfix Enabler — in each of the last three months. So I never take things off my “shelf”. I’m happy to keep them on my virtual shop window, as long as I’m physically alive and kicking in the real world, or even hereonafter :)

Posted at 10:52AM UTC | permalink

Wed 18 Dec 2013

VPN Enabler 1.0.1

Category : Technology/VPNEnabler1dot0dot1.txt

I’ve updated VPN Enabler to make it more helpful. I’ve added a “Suggest IP Addresses” button. (Download VPN Enabler 1.0.1)

If you’re running VPN Enabler on the single machine, on the local network behind the router, that has all the Internet services loaded on it (e.g., web, mail, and dns server, all on one machine, which is quite a reasonable assumption for the user base that is running all my “enabler” apps), then when you click on that “Suggest IP Addresses” button, it’ll try to provide you with reasonable values that you can use.

These values are provided to an incoming VPN client, which is joining your private local network, so it’ll firstly be assigned an IP address within the range you provided, and then it’s told where to go for DNS services. Basically, the VPN Server acts like a DHCP Server for the incoming VPN clients.

If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added a Step 4. It reminds the user to set up the router to forward three known UDP ports (500, 1701, and 4500, used by VPNs) to the VPN Server’s IP address. If you had clicked the “Suggest IP Addresses” button, it’ll helpfully tell you the exact IP address of your VPN server machine. Enjoy! Really.

Posted at 11:21PM UTC | permalink

Let a Thousand VPN Servers Bloom

Category : Technology/VPNEnabler.txt

I’m releasing Version 1.0 of VPN Enabler (this is the download link). I used this to set up a VPN Server on OS X Mavericks before I went to China, so I can access Facebook, etc, while I was on wifi networks in Chengdu, Sichuan. As far as I can test myself, the VPN Server works (wonderfully, if I may add :)

Only three steps and one click. That’s all it takes to get your own VPN Server running. Of course, your Mac server must be accessible from the Internet. If you’re on a dynamic IP address, sign up with DNS providers like dyndns.org, and use my app, DNS Agent (for Mavericks), to keep your IP address in sync with your domain name, no matter how often that changes.

On the Mac client, set up your VPN configuration like this, in Network Preferences :

Click the Authentication Settings… button:

And click the Advanced… button to set the “Send all traffic over VPN connection” option:

For iOS clients, look for Settings > General > VPN. Add a VPN Configuration:

and, in the Add Configuration panel, do this:

And that’s all there is to it. Enjoy!

You can download VPN Enabler for Mavericks, here.

Important Tech Note :

If you’re running the VPN Server on a local network behind a router, you need to set up your router to forward UDP (not TCP) ports 500, 1701, and 4500 to the IP address of your VPN Server.

This is not as difficult as it sounds. Your router (which might be bundled with a wifi base station) would have a setup page that you can access using a web browser. Look for the Port Forwarding setup page, which is probably lumped with the Firewall settings. Then use that setup page to create three port forwarding records to associate UDP ports 500, 1701, and 4500 with the local IP address of the Mac that is running your VPN Server. This way, when network traffic comes in from a VPN client, the router will know which machine to route them to for processing.

Posted at 1:37AM UTC | permalink

Wed 13 Nov 2013

VPN Server

Category : Technology/VPN.txt

I’ve got a VPN Server running on the plain client version of Mavericks. As usual with these installations, I did so many things to get this to work. I’ll need to figure out what I did that actually worked, and then put them all into a “VPN Enabler” app.

There are many uses for a VPN server. I’ll be going to Chengdu in China in a little less than three weeks’ time. I’ll be able to see if this helps me get past that Great Firewall of China, so I’ll still be able to get through to Facebook, etc, while I’m surfing the public WiFi over there.

I’m going to start work putting together this VPN Enabler app. If there is anyone interested in trying it out when I’m done, just drop me a note.

It felt great to get this working. I couldn’t get LDAP working properly on Mavericks (it doesn’t authenticate for Postfix or Dovecot anymore), so I was worried I was on a losing streak :)

I’m like a junk man poking inside Mavericks, to see what’s there and what I can do with it. That’s why I hate the “iOSification” of Mac OS X. Lock up iOS all you want (though I could argue even against that). The Mac’s got all the power of Unix on tap. Don’t emasculate it.

Posted at 1:08PM UTC | permalink

Thu 31 Oct 2013

LDAP and slapd Version

Category : Technology/LDAPErrorOnMavericks.txt

I’m still trying to figure out why LDAP authentication for Dovecot and Postfix will work on Mountain Lion but not on Mavericks.

I’m baffled because the slapd server’s version is the same on both systems - version 2.4.28. So I’m going through every single configuration parameter - on LDAP, Dovecot and Postfix, and the configuration directories they use on the system, like /usr/lib/pam and /etc/pam.d.

I keep getting this error - "pam_ldap: error trying to bind as user (Insufficient access)”. Lots of leads on Google but no real breakthrough.

I’m hoping to find a solution and get this out of the way, so I can work on two things next - IPv6 support for DNS Enabler and a VPN Server Enabler - things I should have started work on for a long time already.

Posted at 8:44AM UTC | permalink

Wed 30 Oct 2013

Broken LDAP on Mavericks

Category : Technology/LDAPMavericks.txt

I’ve released a new version of MailServe for Mavericks with the LDAP authentication feature hidden because this broke on Mavericks and I’m struggling to find a solution for the time being.

This new version of MailServe (7.0.2) comes with one tiny new feature, though. There is now an option to inhibit the sending of the job completion report whenever the SpamBayes training job completes. I guess having that message clog up the in-tray gets tiresome after a while.

I’ve also updated LDAP Enabler for Mavericks (3.0.1) to fix a bug with its De-Install process. I’ll continue to work on LDAP on Mavericks. If you’re interested in its progress, just let me know and I will send you any new updates I make. If I can solve it, that is.

Posted at 2:15PM UTC | permalink

Mon 28 Oct 2013

LDAP Enabler for Mavericks

Category : Technology/LDAPEnablerForMavericks.txt

I’ve finally time to make and test a version of LDAP Enabler that will work with Mavericks.

Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 4.41.37 pm.png

Version 3.0 is available here.

Posted at 8:44AM UTC | permalink

Thu 24 Oct 2013

BookNapper for iOS 7

Category : Technology/BookNapperiOS7.txt

I’ve released a slew of updates the last few days, including BookNapper for iOS 7, which reminds me—I haven’t updated its screen shots on the App Store.

BookNapper is an app I wrote to allow me to keep a list of books that I’ve chanced upon in book stores, that I might like to read later on, if I can find it in our local library.

This is how it looks like in iOS 7 :

The point is, I’ve come to think that it looks better now in iOS 7 than in iOS 6. Here’s the screen shot from iOS 6.

Which comes to the point I really want to make—Jony Ive’s remake of the iOS interface seems to have worked. There’s a vibrancy that’s apparent in spite of the “flatness”, or maybe because of the flatness. Now, looking at Mavericks, I believe we’re due a similar make-over for the Mac. It really needs a clean up.

Posted at 9:11AM UTC | permalink