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There are a couple of ways to make your Mac require a password when you leave it. The easiest way is to set “Require password after sleep or screen saver begins” in the Security section of System Preferences. Here, you can also set a time limit so a password isn’t required right away, but only after 15 minutes for example.

If you would prefer a keyboard shortcut to lock the screen, you can create this yourself. Open up Automator (in the Applications folder) and choose a Service template. From the library choose “Run Shell Script” and drag it across to the workflow area. In the text box paste the following command:

‘/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession’ -suspend

Finally, change the “text” drop-down menu above the workflow to “no input” and then save you workflow as “Lock Screen”. To add the keyboard shortcut, go to the Keyboard section of System Preferences and click the Keyboard shortcuts tab. Select Services from the list on the left, then scroll down to the bottom of the list on the right to find “Lock Screen”. Double-click on the area to the right “Lock Screen”, then press the keyboard shortcut you want. I used Command-Control-L.

My normal OS X account is not the “Administrator” account. For daily use, I want as much protection as possible so that I don’t screw up the system. However, there are times when I need Admin privileges or even root privileges. In the past, I used to logout of my user account and login to my Admin account to perform these tasks.

I’ve discovered an easier way for simple jobs. Since OS X is a true multiuser system I can be logged in more than once at the same time! I open a terminal window and from my user prompt, I type login admin_name where admin_name is the name of my Admin account. I then enter my Admin password when prompted and voila, I’m logged in as the Administrator.

From there, I can do anything I want with all of the privileges of my Admin account. And if I need temporary root privileges, I can use sudo. All the while, of course, I am still logged into the GUI with my normal user account.

When you are done in the terminal, type ‘exit’ or ‘logout’ to sequentially log out of each account that was logged in.

There is a cool utility for allowing you to enter any password protected profile without any knowledge of the password. I have posted about Ophcrack (click here) that enables you to crack windows password. Well this method is even more simpler. Check it out at here.

I was looking to build a mini itx server with the purpose to be a file server, mail server and to run a few virtual machines. It had to be powerful enough to do all these and to cost around £500.

Motherboard

I opted for the ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi motherboard due to having a good on board graphics, obviously not planning on playing games on it, but it had enough grunt to play back 1080p video just in case i decide to turn it into a home theatre PC later on. It has HDMI out with audio if i did decided to use as a HTPC. It is able to accept socket LGA775 intel CPU’s with support for Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad up to 1333 MHz front-side bus. Also has PCI Express 2.0 if i later wanted to decided to use it as a gaming PC. It can accept up to 8GB DDR2 800MHz which will be needed if i plan to run VM’s on the server.

CPU

My choice of CPU was to be between a dual core or a quad core CPU. The CPU had to have a low wattage, a FSB speed of 1333MHz, intel virtualization technology, good cache memory and around the 3GHz mark. I had narrowed it down to two CPU’s, Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 or the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400S. Ended up buying the E8400 due to being cheaper, faster processor, better cache memory. Though the extra two cores on the Q8400S will have come in handy when doing virtualization.

Manufacturer: Intel

CPU Type: Core 2 Duo

Clock Speed: 3 GHz

FSB Speed: 1333 MHz

Socket: 775

L2 Cache (Total): 6MB

CPU Model: E8400

Core Name: Wolfdale

Wattage: 65W

Core Size: 45 nm

CPU Features:

Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology

Execute Disable Bit

Intel EM64T

Intel® Thermal Monitor 2

Intel® Virtualization Technology

RAM

I went for 4GB of RAM, DDR2 800MHz. The only reason i did not go for 8GB is because i could not find anywhere that was doing it in 2 pairs. If i did find an online retailer that was selling two 4GB sticks i would have probably still not have gone for it as it would have been to expensive. For now 4GB is more than enough and i can always upgrade later.

Manufacturer: Corsair

Size: 4GB (2x2GB)

CAS Latency: 5-5-5-18

Memory Model: XMS2

Case

The case was a key component in this build, it had to be small, quiet, have a built in power supply, have enough power for all the components and most importantly it had to look good. Surprisingly i could not find a single mini itx case which meet all these requirements. The only one that meet all the requirements except the good looks was the Compucase 8K01. The other choice was the Silverstone LC12S-120, which looked really good but it was to tall and did not come with a cover for the CD drive which would have made it look ugly. I ended up looking at micro atx cases as there was a better selection. The one i choose in the end was the Silverstone LC19B-R. This case is gorgeous, its unbelievable slim, only 68mm tall, it is quite wide but if i was going to use it as a HTPC then it would not look out of place under my TV. It has a 120 watt power supply which is more than enough to power all the components, has 1 x 50mm fan included, card reader and it is constructed out of aluminium. A couple of things to note is that if you are going to use this case with a mini itx board then you will need a 4 pin atx extension cable as the one included is not long enough, not to sure about other motherboards but it was about 2 cm short on the zotac board. The other thing is the retail CPU heatsink and fan that came with the CPU will not fit in this case. I had to get Akasa AK-CC044 low profile heatsink and fan.

Total Cost

The total cost of the Mini ITX server was under £500.

Case = £136.84
CPU = £125.17
RAM = £38.99
MOBO = £113.84
FAN = £17.23
Delivery = £11.50

Total = £443.57

Intel has just released Moblin v2.0 Beta for netbooks. You can download it here.

I’m going to install it on my Dell Mini 12 and test it. Hopefully it is fast and has good battery life.