After the release of the latest update to the Macintosh operating system (10.5.3), some users were reporting a “login loop” to MacFixIt.com. I followed the always helpful advice on MacFixIt for updating the operating system, and after the first reboot everything came back fine on my PowerBook G4 I thought I was in the clear. With the second reboot, though, I started seeing the login loop: the machine boots fine, but when you put the username and password in, the system hangs for about 20 seconds before displaying the login window again. Clearly something is hosed, and fortunately I was able to fix it.

I tried the suggested solutions — booting in safe mode and logging in (still had the same problem); running a file system check in single user mode (no errors reported); deleting the login window plists; and changing the password — but they had no effect. I could log into the temporary admin account I give to Apple when the machine is sent in for service, so I knew it was something specific to my day-to-day account. I was able to get into single user mode (hold down Command-S right after the startup twang) and examine the /var/log/system.log file. This is part of the underlying UNIX nature of MacOSX, and was the only place I found that gave clues to what was going on. Here is a portion of the log file that occurs right after hitting return at the login screen:

loginwindow[23]: USER_PROCESS: 23 console
com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow[86]): Exited: Terminated
ReportCrash[106]: Formulating crash report for process lsregister[104]
ReportCrash[106]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/lsregister_timestamp.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
kernel[0]: SetCryptoKey R: len 32, idx 1
ReportCrash[111]: Formulating crash report for process ReportCrash[105]
ReportCrash[111]: Saved crashreport to /Users/userid/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ReportCrash_timestamp.crash using uid: uid gid: gid, euid: uid egid: gid
com.apple.launchd[92] (com.apple.ReportCrash[105]): Exited abnormally: Bus error
ReportCrash[112]: Too many crashes in rapid succession! No crash report being written for pid 113
com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserNotificationCenter[113]): Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserNotificationCenter): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
ReportCrash[112]: Too many crashes in rapid succession! No crash report being written for pid 114

The key clue is bolded — the lsregister process is crashing. I found a clue to the fix in a 2003 blog posting by a guy named Rick when he said After a couple hours of snooping, and some luck (I was able to ssh in from another machine and watch the system log report the crashes), I discovered that Launch Services’ cache was corrupted, and was causing lsregister to seg fault. His posting was related to MacOSX 10.2.6, and since then the name of the Launch Services cache file has morphed. I found it in the same place (the /Library/Caches directory), but now there is more than one and they take the form of “com.apple.LaunchServices-023uid.csstore” where uid varies depending on the appropriate userid number. I removed all of the Launch Services files from /Library/Caches, restarted, and was able to log in fine. The only side effect was that the applications-to-launch-at-login list was gone (the “Login Items” tab of the Account Preference Pane) and had to be reconstructed.

So I’m productive again, and I didn’t have to reinstall the operating system or transfer all my old files and settings to a newly-generated account. I hope this message helps someone else, too.

I’ve been a fan of Getting Things Done as a technique for managing projects, but it was only recently that I settled on OmniFocus as the “trusted system” collecting all of my next actions. One of the things I like about OmniFocus — as a rich, Mac-only application — is its ability to hold links to messages from Mail.app as notes for each action. This occurs, for instance, when you use the “Clippings” function of OmniFocus to create a new action based on the message that you are currently viewing in Mail.app. (There are other ways to do it, such as the method described by Adam Sneller.)

One of the things I find myself doing is creating actions in a “Waiting” context based on e-mail messages I’ve just sent. Initially, I’d just create the action via the OmniFocus Quick Entry window. But I found myself needing to refer back to the message I sent when the person I’m waiting on doesn’t come through. So I started clicking and dragging the message from the Sent mailbox to the action. But to do that I’d have to click into the Sent mailbox and have the Mail.app and the OmniFocus windows set up just right. Or I’d have to follow a select-sent-mailbox, select-message, OmniFocus-quick-entry-with-clipping, select-Inbox, select-next-message workflow. And that took time and effort. So I’ve created an AppleScript ditty that does the work of creating a hyperlink on the clipboard of the last sent message. The results can then be pasted into any RTF-aware application, including OmniFocus.

The script is based heavily on Speedy creation of rich text links to Mail messages by Brett Terpstra. In particular, he had the missing link about creating RTF hyperlinks on the clipboard using a bash shell script. The meat of the AppleScript is:

tell application "Mail"
 
	-- Ask the user which account to use
	set _accts to get accounts
	set _enabledAccounts to {}
	repeat with eachAccount in _accts
		-- Only offer the enabled accounts for the user to choose
		if enabled of eachAccount then
			set the end of _enabledAccounts to name of eachAccount as string
		end if
	end repeat
	set _selectedAccount to (choose from list _enabledAccounts with title "Select Account" with prompt "Select the account from which to copy a link of the last sent message..." default items (item 1 of _enabledAccounts))
 
	-- Quit script if the user selected "cancel"
	if _selectedAccount is false then
		return
	end if
	set _selectedAccountName to _selectedAccount as string
 
	-- Get the "last" message of the Sent mailbox of the selected account
	set _msg to first message of mailbox "Sent" of account _selectedAccountName
 
	-- Get various properties of the message
	set _date to _msg's date sent
 
	try
		set _recipient to name of first recipient of _msg
		set _test to _recipient
	on error
		-- if the Recipient's name property was blank, use the e-mail address instead
		set _recipient to address of first recipient of _msg
	end try
 
	set _sub to _msg's subject
	if _sub starts with "Re:" then
		-- Remove the "Re:" prefix from messages
		set _sub to text 5 through (length of _sub) of _sub
	end if
 
	set _msgid to _msg's message id
 
	-- Create the URL to the message
	set _msglnk to "message://%3C" & my urlencode(_msgid) & "%3E"
 
	-- Create the anchor text for the link
	set _anchorText to "Message sent " & _date & " to " & _recipient & " regarding '" & _sub & "'"
 
	-- Execute the external script to generate the RTF hyperlink on the clipboard
	do shell script "/bin/bash -c \"" & _script & " \\\"" & _anchorText & "\\\" \\\"" & _msglnk & "\\\"\""
end tell

It first prompts the user for which account to use based on the list of active accounts. Then it gets the last message in the Sent mailbox of that account, gets various metadata properties, and sends the results to the bash shell script. The shell script comes from Brett; it creates the RTF snippet and pipes it into ‘pbcopy‘ to put it on the clipboard:

#!/bin/bash
# Places a rich text link on the clipboard
# usage: rtflink.sh "Title of link" "URL to link to"
#
# This will paste *nothing* into applications that don't recognize rich text
 
echo "{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf270
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
\margl1440\margr1440\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0
\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural
{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK \"$2\"}}{\fldrslt 
\f0\fs24 \cf0 $1}}}" | pbcopy -Prefer rtf

The end result is a hyperlink with an anchor that looks something like:

    Message sent Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:36:33 AM to Jane Partner regarding 'Can you pick up milk?'

…waiting on the clipboard to be pasted into an action note. With that bound to a keyboard trigger via QuickSilver, copying a link to a message is now a simple matter of keystrokes.

If you are interested, you can download the “Copy last sent message as RTF link” AppleScript bundle and try it yourself. Let me know what you think.

Update 20080516T1219 : I had to modify the part of the code that gets the recipient name or (for recipients without name parts) the e-mail address. The downloaded version has been updated.

Update 20110405T1946 : The script has been improved! See this thread on the Omni Group forums for the update. Thanks to whpalmer4 for the modifications.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/triggers on January 28th, 2011.

This one goes out to all of the MacOS X users out there. (For the rest of you, why aren’t you switching?) Perhaps you have seen PocketMod — the origami-like manipulation of an 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of paper into an 8-page booklet.

Example PocketMod, courtesy of the Boston Globe.

Touted as a way to “get back to the basics” using analog media over digital media, it is a scheme by which you can transform pages of text into a pocket-sized form for carrying around. Many use it as a way to synchronize their digital to-do lists with the analog world, while others use it document shortcuts and cheat-sheets in a convenient form.

I’m migrating from Thinking Rock to iGTD as my Getting Things Done tool-of-choice. One of the things I’m missing about Thinking Rock is its built-in ability to create PocketMods for the actions in the GTD system. The only real easy way to create the PocketMod format was via a Flash applet or a Windows application. Some have set up shell scripts or worked with other programs, but I was looking for something as simple as the MacOS X print dialog box. And with a little bit of Automator, Java, and shell scripting, it is possible!

Step 1: Get the “Multivalent” PDF Manipulation Toolkit

Step 2: Create the Automator Action

In the ‘Run Shell Script’ action, change “Pass input” to “as arguments” then replace “cat” in the command box with this (ignoring any line breaks that may appear here — this text should be entered without line breaks):

cat "$1" > /tmp/temp$$.pdf && java -classpath [location]/Multivalent20060102.jar tool.pdf.Impose -dim 2x4 -layout "1l,2r,8l,3r,7l,4r,6l,5r" -paper letter -verbose /tmp/temp$$.pdf 2> /tmp/temp$$.err && open /tmp/temp$$-up.pdf

Replace [location] with the complete file path where you downloaded the Multivalent20060102.jar file. The final results should look something like this:

Now save this as “PocketModMac” in either the “/Library/PDF Services” directory (to make it available to all users of your machine) or to “Library/PDF Services” in your home directory for just you.

Step 3: Using PocketModMac

After a few seconds, the Preview application will open up with the PocketMod-ed document. Print this document as you would to any printer, then follow the directions for folding and cutting the page to create your booklet.

Troubleshooting and Known Issues

This isn’t necessarily a very nice solution because it leaves files laying around in the /private/tmp directory after it is done. The /etc/periodic/daily/500.daily maintenance script will clean them out automatically after three days, but still — it is somewhat sloppy to leave them around.