Mac OS X: How to create an encrypted Zip archive of a folder

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Macintosh
March 31st, 2010 • 10:08 am

Mac OS X’s user interface comes with a built-in facility for creating Zip archives, in the form of a command called “Compress…” in the Finder’s “File” menu or in the contextual action menu. (I believe the command used to be called “Archive…” in versions of Mac OS X prior to Mac OS X 10.5, also known as Snow Leopard.)

It works fine for creating simple Zip archives that can then be shared with other Mac or PC users.

But this facility provides no option to create a password-protected or encrypted Zip archive.

I know that you can purchase a third-party tool such as StuffIt Deluxe that provides such an option. But this third-party product is too expensive and feature-rich for my tastes. In addition, the StuffIt product family does not have a very good history under Mac OS X. Its interface is very lousy (especially for decompressing password-protected Zip archives, among other things) and there have been pretty significant bugs in the past.

The truth is that Mac OS X comes with its own feature for creating password-protected or encrypted Zip archives. It’s just that it’s not accessible in the graphical user interface (GUI). You have to use the command line interface.

As per usual in the CLI world, the most simple things are not obvious and if you bring up the man page in Terminal for the zip command, you will spend a fair bit of time figuring out exactly which options you need.

Since I went through this myself two days ago, I thought I would share the result of my investigations. As far as I can tell, in order to create a password-protected and encrypted archive of a folder, you need to type this in Terminal:

zip -ejr [name] [path to folder]

[name] is the name you want to give to the resulting archive file (without the “.zip” extension, which the zip command will add automatically).

And [path to folder] is the complete name of the folder with its full path. Instead of typing it, you can just type zip -ejr [name] followed by a space and then drag-and-drop the target folder onto the command line. Terminal will automatically insert the full path with escape characters if required.

For your information, the “e” option stands for “encryption,” the “j” for “junk the path” (otherwise the zip command will archive the complete folder hierarchy leading to your target folder, which you probably don’t want), and “r” stands for “recursive,” which will force the zip command to include the entire contents of the folder in the archive. (Otherwise it will only archive the folder itself without its contents, which is not exactly useful.)

Once you execute this command, Mac OS X will ask for the desired password (twice, for confirmation), and then create a Zip archive of your folder with your chosen name at the root level of your home folder. (If you want to specify a different location, you need to provide the full path instead of just the name.)

Et voilà.

It’s not fantastically user-friendly, but it’s far cheaper than StuffIt Deluxe, and at least it does not have a lousy GUI.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a CLI expert and there might be a better/more efficient way to do this. But this works for me.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 10:08 am and is filed under Macintosh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Very useful for creating a secure password ZIP file in the cloud (like saving to DropBox - even if they break into DropBox, they gotta get through the encrypted ZIP file).

BTW - the default expander for MAC doesn't work for expanding this file, you need Stuffit Expander to get to it.

More really useful crap for this Apple noobie!

Check out the whole article.

Toggling audio devices in Mac OS X

I frequently switch between my external computer speakers and my headphones. Repeatedly plugging and unplugging my headphones started wearing out my headphone jack, so I hooked up an iMic to a USB port to give myself a second headphone jack. This allows switching between them in software through the Sound preference pane, which is more convenient, but still takes too long. So the next step is automating the switch. This thread on Mac OS X Hints has people discussing various ways to do it. The easiest GUI way to do the switch on Snow Leopard is just option-clicking the menu bar volume control and selecting the new output device (on Leopard, you can do effectively the same by installing SoundSource).

Sounds stupid but I'm a Mac noobie so just putting this up there. I constantly switch between headphones and speakers and this was annoying the shit out of me.

its Mac simple (which makes me feel dumber!): Option+ then select new output. Duh!

The iPad App Store is open! Here are the best of the apps so far—the ones you'll actually want when you finally get your iPad.

This guide will be updated multiple times this weekend, since apps are still flowing in by the hundred. Also, check up on our app review marathon liveblog, running all day today.

You might notice a few things about these apps: A lot of them are iPhone carryovers, and a lot of them cost more than you might be used to in the App Store economy. Both are valid observations! But for a first batch, these apps do look rather spectacular.

Also, check out our Essential iPhone Apps Directory.

Entertainment and Video

Netflix: Netflix streaming, over Wi-Fi. That's thousands of movies and shows, if you have an Netflix account. (Which costs, what, like 9 bucks a month nowadays? Brilliant.) Free.

ABC Player: One of the first TV apps in the store, and a promising start. It's essentially a slick interface for the ABC video content you can already stream on their website, and it's free.

Marvel Comics: The iPad is like something out of a sci-fi movie. Or a comic book. Also, it is a comic book. Excelsior! Free reader, paid comics.

iBooks: Apple's ebook store, which we saw in the keynote. It's the best thing going for iPad ebooks for now; we'll have to wait and see how if anyone else (Amazon, B&N) can do better.

NBA Game Time Courtside: Imagine having a full, interactive dashboard for every basketball game you watch. It's like that. Free

MLB At Bat: Lets you watch games live, just like the iPhone version, but for games you can't watch for licensing/blackout reasons, it'll basically simulate them. Also: Stats overload. $15.

ESPN ScoreCenter: If game-specific apps aren't your bag, ESPN ScoreCenter provides a sickeningly constant feed of sports information. Drilling down for specific game scores on your iPhone was one thing, but the columns, panes and frames here are almost too much. $5

Yahoo Entertainment: A TV listings guide/entertainment news/video hub, which pulls from Yahoo's vast network of sites. Free, and worth the download if just to see the sheer level of design.

SoundHound: IDs any music that's playing with a seriously fast recognition engine, but doesn't stop there: It does lyrics, music discovery, charts (based on what people are IDing, not buying) and full playlist playback. $5.

Shazam: Song recognition, but it won't recognize your own singing or humming like SoundHound, nor is its song recognition quite as good. But! It's free. So...

Pandora: Pandora's free music discovery app isn't overly ambitious in its transition to the iPad, sticking to its basic customized radio feature, while presenting artist info along your playlists. Still though, the music is free and unlimited, and exceedingly well chosen. (Algorithmed?)

Games

Flight Control: The objective: make sure your planes don't hit one another before they land, by tracing their paths with your finger. A natural fit for the iPhone, and an even more natural fit for the larger iPad. $5

Plants vs. Zombies: A simple tower defense game, in which you plant a variety of monstrous foliage to stop a horde of zombies from invading your house. Conceptual weirdness aside, the extra space granted by the iPad opens this game up. $10

Fieldrunners: The classic iPhone tower defense game, except bigger. $8

Scrabble for iPad: This is one of the apps early reviewers really flipped out about. Basically, it's a very pretty, very animated version of Scrabble. And if you have an iPhone, you can use it as a letter tray. $10

Mirror's Edge: An adaptation of that awesome jumping/sliding/shooting game that made a bunch of people motion sick when it came out on PS3 and Xbox. $13

Civilization Revolution: We sent around an email a few weeks ago about which kind of apps we really wanted for the iPad, and RTSes and turn-based strategy games were in everyone's top 5. Civilization is a classic in the genre. $13

Labyrinth 2: The iPhone's best marble rolling game was enjoyable precisely because of how complicated it had become—you weren't just dodging holes, you were dodging lasers, cannons, winds and security cameras. Plus, the subtle 3D graphics were always beautiful. $8

Uno: Little kids don't care about Flash, or multitasking, or whatever nerdy technical hangup you've got about the iPad. All kids care about is Uno. Uno! $7

Geometry Wars: Super-popular space shooter/puzzler makes more sense with touch controls than it ever did on a console, where it was fantastic anyway. $10

Smule Magic Piano: Piano apps for the iPad were inevitable. Contorted, bizarre, gamelike piano apps? Even better. $3

News/Social

NYT Editor's Choice: This is what the New York Times looks like on the iPad. Free.

USA Today: USA Today, too, decided to go with a faux-newspaper look. Free.

WSJ: The Wall Street Journal's paper-chic app is conservative, so to speak. (Also, notice the three biggest newspapers in the country released free apps on day one? Or really, day -2? Though there may be hidden subscription fees.)

AP: Gotta respect this news wire for going with an unorthodox design, and for making their app—which includes video as well as text and image content—free.

NPR for iPad: This is NPR, reimagined as a digital magazine. You can browse text and photo news while listening to audio. Free

Popular Science: It's tough to tell how the layout really works here, but the App Store tease suggests it's more than a simple magazine scan—and we're told it's influenced by the stunning concept we saw back in December. And hey, it's PopSci! $5

BBC: There's something serene and reassuring about the BBC's news coverage, whether it be video, print, or radio—all of which are here.

Bloomberg: Well hey, you iPad is now a hardcore finance terminal. Extra points for the All Business aesthetic. Free

StumbleUpon: Simple link sharing and discovery, via your StumbleUpon account. The service's wandering appeal makes more sense with two hands than a pair of thumbs. Free

Instapaper: Save just about anything you've come across online in a cleaned-up format for later perusal. $5

NewsRack: Every iPad needs an RSS reader. NewsRack is my personal favorite for the iPhone, and carries over well to the iPad. Special bonus: If you've already ponied up the $5 for the iPhone version, the iPad download is free.

Feeddler: If you don't want to spend another $10 just for a feed reader, Feeddler covers the basics (read: news leeching) for free.

Fluent News: If RSS readers aren't your style, and you want your daily news mashup to be a little more guided, fluent consolidates major new sources into a single interface. Free.

Accuweather Cirrus: YOU ARE NOW THE MASTER OF WEATHER! (PREDICTION! [READING!]) Free.

Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck for iPhone takes the app's column-based desktop app, and adapts it to the iPhone's screen, in either two column (portrait) or three column (landscape) modes.

AIM: AOL's instant messaging app looks pretty great, especially for the price. Free.

IM+: If you're looking for serious multi-protocol messaging—Live, Facebook, Yahoo, whatever—you'll have to shell out for IM+. $10

Loopt Pulse: Localism! Figure out what's going on around your sofa, from your sofa. Free

Dash Four: $2. Foursquare on the iPad might sound like a strange idea now, but it won't seem so strange next time you're in Starbucks, checking in on your iPad.

Craigsphone: Craiglist, the website, looks like shit. Craigslist, the iPad app, looks kind of great! I gotcher' free bikes and old couches and casual encounters, right here. Free

Productivity/Utilities

iWork: Again, expect some competition in the word processor/presentation app/spreadsheet arena, but not for a while. Until then, Pages, Numbers and Keynote make for a fairly impressive productivity suite for $30, or $10 each.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration: Sounds a bit pricey for a periodic table, but the vividly animated illustrations of every substance our world is made of more than make up for it. $14

Dragon Dictation: You speak, it writes. Free.

Wolfram Alpha: Remember when this was $50, available for the iPhone, and slightly less useful than Wolfram's website? Well, now the megasmart mathematical search engine/calculator is $2, available for the iPad, and looks wonderful.

National Geographic World Atlas HD: The earth, annotated by the people who've been obsessed with documenting it since before your grandparents were born. $2.

Dictionary.com: You need a dictionary on your iPad. Here is a free dictionary for your iPad. (And even a thesaurus!)

Epicurious: Expect a slew of iPad cookbooks to show up in the App Store, and expect a lot of them to be less useful than Epicurious' tremendous database of recipes. Free.

Kayak: A travel planner, writ large. It always felt weird dropping hundreds of dollars on airline tickets on your phone, anyway. Free.

Wikipanion: Again, an app that presents the data of its source in a better way than its source ever could—this one for Wikipedia. Free

IMDB: The ender-of-all-movie-arguments app will now sit dormant on your iPad, on your coffee table, waiting to distract you from that movie, with that guy. (What's his name?) Free.

Brushes: Scribbling/drawing/painting apps are such an obvious use for the iPad's touchscreen. This one's full-featured, but garish and toylike. $10

Sketchbook Pro: Sketchbook, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated, and a bit more powerful. This one's for the serious artists, while Brushes will probably appeal more to the kids. $8

Ebay: You got your iPad early, congrats! Now turn around, mark it up, and sell it to some dude in London, stat. Free.

Desktop Connect: Want to know what the iPad would be like running Windows? OS X? Linux? Download this VNC client, and control any computer in your house, wirelessly. $12

Bento: A life organizer, portfolio, scrapbook, and general information receptacle. $5

Voice Memos: The iPad doesn't come with a voice recorder app, for some reason. Here's a free one that looks like it records sounds just fine. Free

iDisplay: Want to use your iPad as a second monitor when it's docked, without messing with complicated manual VNC setups? That's what iDisplay does. It's pretty buggy now, but the developer (the same firm that does IM+) says fixes are coming. $5.

Special thanks to Rosa and David

Apple iPad Review — Click here for the main story

This is a really useful article and I'm actually posting this so I can remember the whole list. :-)

AUGUST 23, 2011

3 Characteristics of a Real Team

The word "team" is so commonly used in today's organizations, most managers are oblivious to its true meaning. Here are three characteristics a group must have to be considered a real team, and to maximize its potential: A meaningful and common purpose. This is more than an outside mandate from the top of the organization. To be successful, the team must develop and own its purpose. Adaptable skills. Diverse capabilities are important. Effective teams rarely have all the skills they need at the outset. They develop them as they learn what their challenge requires. Mutual accountability. You can't force trust and commitment. Agreeing on the team's goals is the first moment at which team members forge their accountability to one another.

Nice, concise, simple, and very true!

Gonna give this a whirl. I'll let ya know how it goes.