devnulled: A stream for software developers and engineers

At the request of a reader, I went ahead and researched what .DS_Store Files are, and how prevent MacOS X from creating them. In a nutshell, .DS_Store files are created by Finder to store preferences:

.DS_Store (Desktop Services Store) is a hidden file created by Apple Inc’s Mac OS X operating system to store custom attributes of a folder such as the position of icons or the choice of a background image. By default, Mac OS X will create a .DS_Store file in every folder that it accesses, even folders on remote systems (for example, folders shared over a SMB or AFP connection) and even if the user has only customized the appearance of the folder by moving its Finder window. This is in contrast to the preexisting system for the same purpose used in previous versions of the Macintosh Finder, which would merely place a number of invisible files at the root of the volume being accessed (even on alien filesystems), always storing the settings and metadata for all of the folders in the entire volume within this single set of files.

Unfortunately it seems that you can only prevent Finder from creating these files on network shares and not on your local machine. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open the Terminal application (though I highly recommend using iTerm instead)
2. Type in the following command:

   defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

   and press enter

3. Reboot your machine so that the changes will take effect

I haven’t found a good way to prevent OS X from creating them on local file systems, but perhaps someone out there has some suggestions? Other than creating a script to delete them and adding it to cron, I’m not sure of a way to at least clean them up in an automated fashion. I did run across an application called DS_Store Cleaner which helps clean-up said files, though.

One great thing about the blogowebs is that you never know what sorts of posts you might run across, and this post about self-modifying code and the Space Shuttle OS is a prime example of that:

And it reminded me of my days during the early 1990s working as a software engineer on the Space Shuttle operating system (FCOS). Many people don’t know that the Space Shuttle OS implements self-modifying code for the purpose of “fault-tolerance”. The Shuttle computer systems consist of four primary computers running the same software, and a fifth backup computer running different software that is equal in functionality. The goal is to be Fail Operational if one or more computers fail, and Fail Safe if all primary computers fail; this is called a Fail Operational/Fail Safe system.

An interesting read, especially if you’re a software developer who doesn’t work in embedded systems but likes to read about them.

One of my few complaints about MacOS X is that at times I feel like it treats you with kids gloves– many options for power users either require some sort of hacking, or simply don’t exist. One such thing which is fixable is getting Finder to show hidden files. It’s a quick and easy process via the command line to fix this:

tobin:~ brandon$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
tobin:~ brandon$ killall Finder

Now you can actually see all of the directories which start with periods, etc. Enjoy!

My blog postings have been fairly sparse since starting a new position earlier this year, but it’s nice to finally be able to show some of the things happening at my not-so-new job. My employer, Me.dium, just announced today the availability of an IE 7 Version of the Me.dium Sidebar, as well as a new Widget.

I’ll try to update this post a few times later today with news and blog coverage, but here’s what I’ve seen so far:

• Microsoft IE7 Featured Add-On
• Mashable
• Profy
• Download.com (was on front page)
• Tucows
• Spyware Sucks
• Social Enterprise TV

In terms of my contributions to what you see, my primary focus had been working a couple of scalability items on the Java front, but I’m currently working on something new which you’ll be able to see sometime this Fall.

I just added the new Me.dium Widget to my site which you can see below my bio– check it out. In summary, it allows you to see the real-time activity of Me.dium users on my site and related sites.

Not a Me.dium user yet? What are you waiting for?