UNDERSTANDING AND HACKING YOUR USER ACCOUNT

The Mac OS X  file system is a blend of powerful, ancient Unix  underpinings and the candy-coated shell known as a Macintosh Finder.  To make thisd a reality, Mac OS X pulled off quite a switcheroo! It yanked the filesystem of Mac OS 9 and earlier out from underneath the Finder’s feet, replacing it with the utterly foreign world of the Unix filesystem and all that goes with it.

While all but invisible to the casual user, there are some cracks in the facade, visible upon closer inspection.  Some are useful, others a liitle irritating, and still others simply fascinating and quite hack-worthy.

The hacks in this section poke and prod at the seams, revealing some usefu; techniques for backing up your system, tweaking files and folders, bending aliases to to your wilol, understanding how it all fits together- even dumpster divingin the Trash a little.

1.    UNDERSTANDING AND HACKING YOUR USER ACCOUNT  

Before Mac OS X was released, there wasn’t really a concept of a user or account in the Macintosh environment.  This hack introduxces you to what it means to have an account and what this business of a Home directory is all about.  We’ll also show you to how rename an account- a nonobvious task indeed.

When Mac OS X  first appeared, a lot of people were aghast at the concept odf user accounts, especially when they were the only ones usnig their computer “ Why go through all the hassle when only i Exist?” they asked.  The comnplaints only intensified as users were asked to enter an administrator password [Hack #50] for access to certain files,  sometimes even denied access to settings and files on their own computers—the gall of it!

The reasoning is two – fold: to protect you from yourself and to support Mac Os X’s multiuser environment.

The concept of protecting you from yourself may at first blush appear intrusiv, but we’ve all had an instance where we’ve deleted an innocent file from our OS 9 System Folder, only to discover our idiocy when our system didn’t  reboot, our printer didn’t print, or ourmodem didn’t sizzle.  In this regards OS X has your back; crucial files necessary for everyday operation are protected from overzealous removal.

The multiuser environment of OS X  is based on technology that’s been around for a while in the Unix worl: a system of checks and balances that stop your kid sister from gleefully deleting that Photoshop file you’ve beem working on all weekend.  The whether you’re the only user isn’t a concern; protection from the inside (yourself, your kid sister) and protection from the outside (malicious crackers, viruses, and trojans) becomes paramount.

While a determined user can delete any file on their OS X machine with enough effort (the easiest way being to boot into OS 9), Apple has wisely made it difficult to do so through Mac OS X