As promised in Chapter 6, Page 560, Footnote 8, here is a discussion of extending the Mac OS X kernel to provide the functionality of the missing /dev/kmem device on the x86 version of Mac OS X. Note that I’m categorizing it here as bonus material for Chapter 8 (Memory) because even though it is [...]
I will be there at the July 13 meeting of the CocoaHeads Silicon Valley Cocoa Programmer’s Group. From what I read on their web page, the meeting takes place at the Apple campus in Cupertino. Developers of all levels are welcome and there are no fees.
This source code is an example of programmatically receiving keyboard events, with the option of filtering and modifying them, on Mac OS X 10.4 and up.
The book’s status is officially “published”—as stated on Addison-Wesley’s page for the book. Note also that it is listed as shipping. Amazon’s page usually takes some time to sync. If I understand things correctly, stores should have it soon enough—after whatever time it takes to ship, etc. Happy reading… PS: No, I don’t have a [...]
Since I keep receiving queries on accessing the light-related data associated with the ambient light sensor and the backlit keyboard on Apple notebook computers, here is a more detailed discussion, along with source code, on performing the following operations. Retrieving readings from the ambient light sensor Retrieving and setting the LED brightness value of the [...]
Besides the sudden motion sensor, Apple notebook computers contain other sensors (depending on the specific model). These other sensors can also be queried by user programs. This is a crude example that periodically retrieves readings from the ambient light sensors.
Since someone asked: this source code is an example of programmatically receiving mouse events, with the option of filtering and modifying them, on Mac OS X 10.4 and up.
I have released a new version (2.5) of hfsdebug. The new version fixes a bug in the calculation of free space blocks on a volume, and now all features are supported on both the PowerPC and x86 versions of Mac OS X. In particular, hfsdebug no longer uses the /dev/kmem device for displaying kernel-memory-resident mount [...]
Mac OS X Internals: A Presentation is a Flash rendition of a presentation I recently gave.
EFI Programming on Mac OS X is a note on jumpstarting EFI development on Mac OS X. Prebuilt compiler toolchains for the PowerPC and x86 versions of Mac OS X are also available.
The book’s back cover contents are available for viewing.
The book’s cover and preface are now available for viewing. For those who will know what this means: yes, the book’s production is back on track.
Yes, it works. In fact, it works really, really well (performance-wise). Please go here for the initial announcement and a customary screenshot of Windows XP running under the Linux version of VMware. The hardware in question is a 17-inch iMac.
I reported a few days ago that we (my friends Mark A. Smith and Benjamin Reed, and myself) had Linux booting on the Intel-based Macintosh. We also released a test-drive mini-distribution that can be trivially booted by anybody interested. The subject says it all regarding this update. Pictures and some details are available here. Please [...]
Trivially Running Front Row on a Macintosh without an Infrared Controller describes how you can trivially (without any programming or binary patching) tag an existing HID device (such as a mouse or a keyboard) to be considered as remote-control-capable. One side effect of doing so is that Apple’s Front Row will run on such a [...]
I do have strange friends. Take Mark Smith, for example. Mark is essentially a Windows Internals guy — I would call him OS-agnostic at best. In particular, he is certainly not a “Macintosh person”. However, he recently purchased an Intel-based Macintosh because he felt like running Linux (an operating system that he does not normally [...]