Awesome App – Mediathek for Mac

This application is awesome – downloading stuff from several mediatheks can easily be done. If you for instance like the german “Tatort”, you can download the series by just clicking one button. Searching is also possible …

Printer Driver University

A small note for myself: Instead of using a specific Dell driver which does apparently not exist for Mac OS X (great Dell!), you can also use the Lexmark T630 driver for the M5200. Works fine!

FileVault suxx – so what to use instead?

It’s no secret that FileVault is not the best file encryption option ever. First of all, it is proprietary which is definitively the best argument against using it. Other arguments against FileVault can be viewed on this page which also proposes an alternative: EncFs

You should keep in mind that it’s only an alternative with pros and cons … but you should take it into consideration.

And what do others think about Mac OS X security?

This is really interesting – a lot of different opinions on the old Mac security issue.

Mac OS X vs. MS Windows

Mac OS X is like living in a farmhouse in the country with no locks, and Windows is living in a house with bars on the windows in the bad part of town.

Apple prepares for Security War

Obviously, Apple realizes that they have to get some things done concerning Mac OS X security. I really hope it’s not too late for them.

Howto work with R, textmate and Mac OS X

To install R for Mac OS X is quite easy: Chose one of the mirrors of the R-Project, download the Mac OS X version and install it.

After the successful installation, you want probably edit the first file. For this purpose, you chose the editor Textmate which can handle a lot of languages, unfortunately not R by default. This means, you have to install an additional bundle for that reason. On this blog, a small and fast explanation shows how to do this. It’s really only a question of 1-2 minutes.

Afterwards, you can enjoy the real power of Textmate with this small R sample.

DisSev <- c(0,12,15,34,23,28)
RelYield <- c(12,23,34,24,16,17)
plot(x=DisSev, y=RelYield, xlab=’Disease Severity (%)’,
ylab=’Relative Yield (%)’)

If you’re curious about the result, here it is after pressing CMD-R:

Awesome! Nice visualizations within a couple of minutes work.

PS: Sweave is the name of the dynamic interface between LaTeX and R.