Evidently there has been something lurking in the depths of HFS+ all this time and this meta-data fiend never knew! Page 7 of the “article”:http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/ I mentioned in my previous post (all of 5 minutes ago) has an example command line “tool”:http://dev.bignerdranch.com/public/bnr/xattr.dmg that lets you assign meta-data tags to files!

The example given speaks for itself (and if it doesn’t then you don’t get the meta-data geek merit badge):

% xattr –set name John file
% xattr –set color red file

% xattr –list file
file
color red
name John

I repeat for /emphasis/

*OMFG*

Now that I’ve become a full fledged Mac-head ;) I can admit to having been eagerly anticipating the new version: Tiger.

Not that I will be installing it on my powerbook anytime soon, after all I’m a card carrying member of the “wait for .1 release” club. My powerbook sees a lot of daily use so I couldn’t be without it for the amount of time I think Tiger will require.

So, with that in mind, I was very glad to find a great “review of Tiger”:http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/ at ArsTechnica. The review goes into the detail that I’ve come to expect from an ArsTechnica article and you can tell by the depth of “back story” that the author has been following OS X for years.

One of the people who attended the “OSAF”:http://osafoundation.org sprint pointed out a very useful program he uses to manage the multiple keyboards and mice you invariably collect if you deal with many computers on your desk: “Synergy”:http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ This is something which I’ve been dealing with by using a combination of VNC and a KVM and wireless keyboards.

My work setup now consists of two computers, a laptop, two LCD and one CRT monitor. At the center is my 17″ powerbook and directly behind it are the two desktop boxes. To the right of the powerbook is a 19″ LCD and to the left is a 21″ CRT. The LCD is attached to a KVM to allow it to switch between the XP server (the right side desktop box) and the powerbook. The CRT is attached to the Ubuntu server (the left side desktop box) and behind it all, sitting on top of one of the desktop boxes, is the little 15″ LCD that is attached to the Ubuntu server that I keep all of my status apps on.

Needless to say it’s one crowded desk – and that’s without considering keyboards and mice.

What Synergy allows me to do is to use the wireless keyboard (linked to the powerbook) to control all three computers. I keep the Ubuntu keyboard on the desk right in front of the powerbook and actually, it sits right on top of the trackpad since I loathe using it and love using my USB trackball.

Another trick I use is to run VNC on my powerbook and have it attached to the XP server so I can quickly switch desktops on the powerbook to see the XP desktop. I also run multiple VNC sessions on the Ubuntu server to be able to monitor the servers in the basement.

Anywho, now you see why an application like “Synergy”:http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ is very useful to me :)