Starting Java app from Applescript

Suppose you have a Java Swing application which you can start by typing the following on the command line:

java -jar myTerrificSwingApp.jar

If you want to make that application start from the Finder in OSX, there are a lot of options which range from ugly to convoluted. If you need a quick fix, here’s how to do it.

Migrate from Password Gorilla to KeePass

I used to use Password Gorilla to store my passwords, because it can run on both Mac and Windows. Because my password database keeps growing, Password Gorilla is becomming a very slow starter, even on my new solid state disk. A few weeks ago I learned that KeePass is a much more modern application, and is available for both Mac and Windows. Here’s what I did to get all my passwords into KeePass:

How to put DVD’s on your iPhone (for free)

A lot of companies like to sell you applications to put DVD’s on your iPhone. Usually these apps are just wrappers around existing tools, and are pretty expensive if you consider you can do it for free. And you don’t need to be a computer wizard either! The steps are simple:

1. Use Handbrake to rip the DVD to iPhone format
2. Drag the generated mp4 file into iTunes
3. Sync it to your iPhone like all other content

To show you exactly how this is done, I’ve  written up this “babystep-by-babystep” tutorial. Let me show you how I ripped “For A Few Dollars More” and put it on my iPhone:

Disclaimer: The DVD I ripped is bought and payed for. This article does not relief you of your responsibility to obey the law, so please be careful. And be nice, don’t pirate.

Remote Desktop Connection updated

“Remote Desktop Connection.app” allows you to see the desktop of a remote Windows machine on your mac. This application will not update itself automatically, unless you have it installed as part of the Microsoft Office for Mac suite. If you’ve downloaded the 1.0.3 version you probably did not notice that ”Remote Desktop Connection.app” was updated somewhere last year by microsoft.

You can find the latest version of Remote Desktop Connection on the Microsoft Mactopia site. Version 2 is an improvement over 1.0.3 (which I had). Notable differences are:

• Nicer configuration screens, makes configuring your resolution and shares easier.
• Now a Universal Binary, which should improve performance on Intel Macs. I have not noticed improvement, but that’s probably because the network is the bottleneck.
• Supports the new RDC 6.0 protocol used by Vista.
• Can do authentication of the remote machine (if it’s a Vista machine).
• Your Mac printer can be exposed to the Windows machine so you can print documents on your local printer.

I played with it for a while, and apart form the new looks I can not say it’s very different from the 1.0.x version. It could load my old RDC 1.0.3 configuration files. If you need to connect to a Windows desktop from your Mac, this does the job just fine.

Automount network shares

There is a nice and clean way to automatically mount network shares each time you log into your Mac. It’s called the “Bonjour Mounter”, a simple application which runs on login, and mounts the drives you configured it to mount. No more, no less.